The person on the card is under a great burden. It looks like his life is not too easy, he is probably a serf required to work for the Lord of the Manor. We can even see a manor house in the background. Very unusual ending of the Wand suit. But if we understand that the wands represent the fire, the element that is often destructive and out of control, than we can see that the mastery of the fire is indeed to tame the fire. There are many ways to  interpret this card; maybe you try too hard, with no results; maybe the burden is some old project that will never bring any results; sometimes the burden signifies the expectations other people have from you when you are successful. Although it is never easy, sometimes one must accept a defeat. The fire element is especially involved in ego based dreams about glory and riches that are not based in the reality. This card explains how it feels to be faced with the consequences of ego mentality for too long. People experience frustration, saddness, oppresssion though their real situation is not so bad, but their disappointment is.

Positive: commitment, perseverance; resolution is near, but not necessary the positive one.

Negative: exhausted, misuse of the talents, overworking, no results, difficulties, deception, ill health, struggle.

  A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying. Divinatory Meanings: A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss. Reversed: Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.

— The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A.E. Waite