The image on the True Black X of Swords shows a large Sword, point down and grounded, surrounded by nine other Swords with points up. Impaled on six of those Swords is a dead bird. Sitting on the hilt of the large center Sword is a live bird; behind the bird is an orange sun in a dark sky. The keywords for this card are crisis, breakdown, perseverance, and closure.
The Moon of the True Black Major Arcana shows a large crescent Moon acting like a conduit for a strong flow of water. Below and in front of the water flowing from the crescent is a woman, seated with her left leg crossed over her right and lit dramatically from above. One hand holds back her long hair so she can gaze downward unimpeded and the other hand reaches down toward a glass bowl on a three-legged stand at her feet. The glass bowl contains still water in which we can see a reflection of her hand. Above the large crescent is a large hand ominously gesturing over the whole image. The keywords for this card are intuition, psychic, fear, and illusion.
There is a common thread between these two cards: illusion. The X of Swords gives the illusion that we are doomed, but in actuality it represents the darkness that comes before the dawn. This is the number X card of the suit of Swords, so it tells of the completeness or ending of this cycle of the suit's manifestation. Just like the dark before the dawn, an ending is followed by a new beginning. All is not lost nor is it as bad as it seems, and since one bird still lives, while there is life, there is hope.
The Moon and the element of Water it is connected to both represent illusions and visions. This card image reminds us that things are not as they seem to be, for if we examine that oppressive hand gesturing over the image, we find that hand actually belongs to the woman in the image; it is her hand as she reaches down toward the bowl of water at her feet. Suddenly that conduit now hints at being that bowl, and the vantage point of the observer is changed and thus the message of the image is changed. The Moon tells us to remember that our perception of a situation is entirely based on our own vantage point. If we move our vantage point, everything seems to change, but it is not our surroundings that change but rather our perception of them.
Both of these cards are telling me that things are not as bad as they seem at this moment. I need to shift my vantage point; doing so just might allow me to see that the current cycle is over and a new cycle is about to begin.
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