Tarot Card meaning for the Four of Swords
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In the Four of Swords, we see a man lying down on a bench amidst four Swords next to a colourful window. He is able to spend time thinking and focusing on his dreams, wishes and visions, however sometimes this is hard to do in today’s world. |
The Four of Swords as a day card
Today, are you able to take a step back, to think? You can let the world pass by and have the opportunity to mentally rest, recharge and to then be clear-headed when you move on? What does this card relate to, for you? What would you like to process in this manner (resting and thinking)?
Negative or Reversed meaning for this card
This card could hint at a level of procrastination as we prefer to stay resting and thinking about an issue for an extensive amount of time. It could on the flip side also mean that we never allow ourselves the time to stop, think, reflect and contemplate.
How this card could present itself in real life
I really like this card as for me, it shows a time of creativity. The time before action takes place and you can do some thinking within a safe environment, before testing our ideas out in the real world. This could relate to the time before I really started my website or the times that I work on new pages, new ideas to expand and elaborate on this big endeavour of a Tarot website.
This card in other tarot decks
The number four has a very strong structure to it, we can see this in the Celtic Dragon Tarot where a dragon is placed high up in a castle like structure. It gives a sense of authority and stability. In the Crowley Tarot the card indicates that the situation is checkmate for the time being. Things are stable and the Swords are where they are. The Osho Zen deck really hones in on the idea of postponement and wasting your time waiting to take action. You can see in these examples, how different interpretations in different decks could lead you onto different paths when doing readings.
Note: Especially with the Air element in the Tarot which is represented as a Sword card in the Rider Waite deck, there is a lot of ‘argument’ and there are several different ideas about weather Swords should represent Air and what else could be used. This leads us into a fairly advanced Tarot conversation - at this stage remember that Swords in the Rider Waite deck does not necessarily mean swords in another deck. Tarot creators could have changed Swords with Wands or replaced Swords with rainbows or crystals to name a few. This is not wrong or right it is another way of thinking about the different elements used in the Minor Arcana of the Tarot cards.
If you have multiple decks, it might be interesting to have a look at how the Swords are represented.
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