TAROT ~ the 4's

 

The 4s ~ challenges

To hang on, to recover, to celebrate, to step up

 

Pentacles ~ It’s all about the balance of hanging on to what you have and at the same time being perceptive enough to know when you’re hanging on too tightly.

Miser, penny-pincher, frigidity, stoicism, reluctance

4/Pentacles ~

This card is all about holding on, whether it’s a relationship, or our money, or something else in our life we’re afraid of losing.  But sometimes we hold on too tightly, and that’s the whole point.  The lesson here is that sometimes holding on too tight can actually cause us to loose the very thing we’re trying so desperately to keep.  True wisdom comes from knowing when to let go… or at least when to loosen the grip.

Reversed:

This aspect of this card flings us into a maelstrom of self-doubt, paranoia, and sometimes other mental issues.  This card on it’s head leads us through slow motion nightmares with frightening possibilities and several shadows to pass through.  It wreaks of suffocating energy and the sense of stagnation.  It is also drowning in the emotions of anxiety, stress, and sometimes depression.  When this card shows up, it can also be warning us not to make rash decisions about our money, finances in general, business options, or job changes.

My Personal Connection:

There’s some things in life you do try desperately to cling to, to claim, to own, to keep… forever, or at least in the human conception of forever.  Is that a bad thing?  I don’t know, I’m still thinking on this one.  Sometimes this card represents someone around you, not you, and that’s what the four of pentacles has more often represented to me.  But it’s so much more.

It is the ex-spouse who placed money above all else; it is the individual with the mental choke hold; it is the parent figure that, subconsciously I suppose, wanted to freeze time and my childhood.  But it is also me holding on to what’s familiar because change seemed so very scary; it is all of us holding on to memories we can’t or won’t let go; people in our life that may be struggling to break free; patterns in our life that we are afraid, or unable, to change.

The bottom line, the main lesson from this card, is that if you have to put that much constant effort into holding on to something, you need to let it go.  Whatever it is, if it were meant to stay with you, it wouldn’t require so much effort to keep.

Swords ~ It’s all about knowing when its time to retreat for recuperation. It’s all about knowing when to recharge your batteries, physically and emotionally.

Recuperation, respite, withdraw, suspension, diversion, cancellation

4/Swords ~

It’s all about reaching a point in life where you don’t admit defeat, but you do acknowledge an immediate need for a time out.  This card feels like a new-age yoga session, or a religious retreat to some isolated monastery.  It coaxes us to shut down, only to recharge.  Sometimes, however, this card has pointed out an individual who is way off base in an opinion, or an assumption.  Let’s calm the roaring wind, says the four of swords, so we can hear the whispers of truth.

Reversed:

Someone is dangerously close to a melt down, either physically or emotionally.  Someone is in need of medical care.  Someone is in need of silence, peace, and sometimes separation from an individual or set of circumstances.

My Personal Connection:

The Libra in me is always looking for the quiet retreat, the solitary peaceful  beautiful space to create, to focus on my writing, my ideas, my own “stuff”.  I was always a very quiet solitary person, so how I wound up to be the mother of a large brood immersed in the daily lives, care, and education of a group of children, I have no idea.  I loved it all, don’ get me wrong, and I wouldn’t change a nano-second with any of it.  I’m just amazed is all.

Anne Lindbergh wrote in one of her books, something to the affect, that women so often go through life in the exact opposite direction they planned or wanted to go, or assumed they would go, grabbed by the hand and drug through life by people and circumstances, kicking and screaming all the way… well, not all of us are kicking and screaming, some of us just seem to be dazed by it all, hanging on for the ride.

The main message of the four of swords for me is a reminder that I don’t have to abandon my peace and quiet for the life that turned out to be mine.  This card reminds me, and reassures me, that it is okay and acceptable to step back every once in a while to catch my breath and reconnect with that magical still inner voice that is my center.

Wands ~ It’s all about celebrating life’s special moments and milestones and being aware of it, while it’s happening.

Celebration, foundation, goals, achievements, happiness, positive energy

4/Wands ~

Something awesome and highly celebratory is coming up, and there’s going to be much ado about it.  Sometimes with this energy comes the feeling of connecting, or reconnecting, on an intimate ancestral level.  And why not, so many of life’s important milestones supply a magical moment for families and generations to come together.  There is also the sense of firm foundations being established.  If there’s any question of, “Will this last?”, the answer is a resounding “Yes!”.

Reversed:

Plans have fallen through.  There’s either a complete turn around, or something has been postponed, or at least down-sized.  Foundations are shaken.  Something that you believed was incredibly solid and strong is riddled with weak spots and question marks.

My Personal Connection:

Oh, my gosh, who wouldn’t, or couldn’t, connect with this card on some personal level?  This card rings loud and clear with every milestone that I’ve ever reached, from turning that magickal number “13”, to a college degree, to every baby born, to all the important events and celebrations that came after. 

But this card does not only mark and highlight the happy bright positive milestones in a life, it also stamps for us indelibly in our conscious mind the darker aspects of life’s pivotal moments.  It rings with endings as well as beginnings… the end of a marriage, the death of a loved one, the transitions that come with every stage and circumstance of life experienced.

And this is all good.  Every celebration, every important milestone, both light and dark, builds our life path one brick at a time and assists us on this miraculous amazing journey.

Cups ~ It’s all about knowing when you can no longer procrastinate, knowing when it’s time to face an issue.

Procrastination, hesitation, ambiguity, irresponsibility, lassitude, stubbornness     

4/Cups ~

Some of us go through life stubbornly planting our feet, refusing to face certain issues or responsibilities.  Some of us shirk things, those things that life drops before us, like the family cat who deposits a dead mouse at our feet.  This card is all about having to face up to those things, its all about having the moxie to turn around and stand up to everything we’ve been avoiding.  This card says, “You must be an adult now.”  It’s a matter of making a mature decision to step up to the plate. It’s the stuff that heroes are made of, even reluctant heroes surprised at their own reactions.

Reversed:

This card on it’s head is all about jumping the gun, acting rashly, speaking before thinking.  There’s no game plan, no thought here, it’s glorified spontaneity at it’s worst.  It’s also a card of disappointment, whether someone is disappointed in us, or we’re disappointed in ourselves.

My Personal Connection:

This card is so universal, as the last card was, in that all of us, from the rich and powerful to the most meek and modest individual, faces certain unpleasant or overwhelming issues at some point in life.  There will be something we dread, something we avoid, something that we will choose to ignore.  Procrastination is a human condition.

All of us have pivotal pointed moments and experiences in life that we had to force ourselves to face and deal with, and some of these events would have befallen us, whether we chose to pick up that fourth cup or not.  For me it was the birth of a child (as wonderful as the final outcome, the event itself is nerve-wracking, painful, and daunting); the legalities of divorce (facing the strange and alien world of attorneys and the judicial system); and the disruption that a death causes on all levels and aspects of life. 

And with each circumstance or event that we go through, know that once it’s passed, you can breathe a sigh of relief and move forward.  Normalcy will return with the four of cups, but that doesn’t mean you get to skip the experience itself. 

Source:

The Ultimate Tarot Guide:
for Your Personal Tarot Journey

@Amazon, in Print & Kindle