Today I switched from my Pagan and Mystical Cats to my White and Marseilles Cats. Not sure how this is going to go. Two different systems though the Marseilles Cats deck has superimposed the RWS on their Minors. So for the card seen below, for example, the LWB uses the RSW lens and calls this 'distraction/withdrawal/contemplation but the Marseille system views this card as one of community, belonging, family and integration into a larger whole. And with the cat placed right in the center of things I'm inclined to see this through the Marseille lens.
Ana Cortez talks about the Fours as being about how we orient ourselves in time and space, how we, as a collective, locate ourself within the cosmos--direction, seasons and the Suits themselves. These guide us and tell us where we are in the finite world of time. Further she correlates the four winds with this number and suggests the influence of the Suit will dictate the nature of the windy energy.
The Four of Hearts (Cups) is associated with the West Wind, a gentle, warm and compassionate wind. It lifts the spirits and invites us to put worry and conflict aside. The mood here is understanding. Under the influence of this card, opposing sides discover common ground, and lovers find comfort in each others' arms.
There certainly is something very comforting in the stability of the four Cups. And that they are receptacles furthers this idea of compassion, a container for, in this case, the worry of the Nine of Swords. The fours are also associated with the Emperor, a ruler, a man of order and authority and the marriage between those two. There is certainly a sense of order or symmetry seen here, of harmonious inter-working within a framework. And the two shoots--the one above, closed, the one below, open--furthers the sense of give and take, ebb and flow, associated with this suit.
Combining this with the Nine of Swords, the insomnia/nightmare/drama queen card, has a palliative effect. One has the sense of the poor creature in the Nine being encouraged to turn to family, to community, to connection as a way of laying aside all the fears that are tormenting her mind. She's being asked to reach out to those she feels a connection with instead of focusing within. And with the Swords hanging there like that I have the image of them vanishing into thin air once she does look up and out. Their presence makes me think of Shakespeare's lines from The Tempest...
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
I do like the way this deck has remained faithful to the RWS imagery. It makes for a fun read even when the Nine of Sword shows up
