jmd
Stable plodding work.
78 Weeks: Four Batons
Sulis
Four of Wands - Week starting 7th February 2011
Four of Wands - Hoi Polloi Tarot
Four leafy wands have been planted in the ground and between them hangs a grape vine. In the background we see a couple crowned with what looks like laurel leaves. Their hands are linked and above their heads and they're both holding what looks like either floral bouquets or grape vines. Behind them is a castle and what could be a bridge. They look as if they're in celebratory mood and are making their way towards the 4 wands in the foreground.
The whole mood of this card is celebratory. It has a May Day type of feel to me.
Fours are related to The Emperor. They're about solidity, pause, security, stability, boundaries, consolidation etc..
When I think of the number 4 I think of the points on the compass, weeks in a lunar month, walls in a building, sides of a square... These things are secure and stable... 4 means comfort to me.
The fours come after the threes and I think they show the first harvest, a natural resting point when we can look back at what we've done and the successes we've had and start to make some plans for the future.
With an element like Fire (as with Wands), the pause and preparation in the four is definitely a temporary thing. Fire does not like to be contained for long...
Four of Wands - Hoi Polloi Tarot
Four leafy wands have been planted in the ground and between them hangs a grape vine. In the background we see a couple crowned with what looks like laurel leaves. Their hands are linked and above their heads and they're both holding what looks like either floral bouquets or grape vines. Behind them is a castle and what could be a bridge. They look as if they're in celebratory mood and are making their way towards the 4 wands in the foreground.
The whole mood of this card is celebratory. It has a May Day type of feel to me.
Fours are related to The Emperor. They're about solidity, pause, security, stability, boundaries, consolidation etc..
When I think of the number 4 I think of the points on the compass, weeks in a lunar month, walls in a building, sides of a square... These things are secure and stable... 4 means comfort to me.
The fours come after the threes and I think they show the first harvest, a natural resting point when we can look back at what we've done and the successes we've had and start to make some plans for the future.
With an element like Fire (as with Wands), the pause and preparation in the four is definitely a temporary thing. Fire does not like to be contained for long...
Attachments
Judith D
Four of Wands - Tarot of the 78 doors
I always have to look twice at this card - it is so like the RW five of Pentacles but with a good feel.
The observer stands outside the house, just short of the steps up to a closed front door. It is snowing outside. A light shines through a small window at the top of the door, but on the left of the door is a big window, curtainless, through which we see a happy, contented family. Mom and dad lean into each other, touching lovingly, reaching out to the two happy smiling children who hug them. The 'ideal family'. A big fire burns in the background, and on the wall is a painting of a serene landscape.
It is calmness, stability, contentment, protection from the cold snow outside, an interregnum. A break in the work routine when you can relax and feel the contentment surrounding you, feel protected and secure with those you love. It is a moment to stop, enjoy the good and appreciate your inner successes.
There is, however, the ever-present cold and snow outside! And the door is shut, indicating some sort of negativity, so for me it's a reminder that while you enjoy the fruits of labour and the joy of family stability, and you are in fact protected from the world outside, that harsh world is still out there, just on the other side of the walls.
4 is stability, security and all those contented but stolid feelings. Wands are action, passion, so for me I get the feeling that this momentary contentment is the result of hard work - it is merited and earned rather than just the security of inherited riches.
The RW based cards seem to have more of an emphasis on celebration, but although this card is indeed a celebration of a happy family, it is more still, calm and has a very personal feel - the family enjoying itself and its closeness.
I always have to look twice at this card - it is so like the RW five of Pentacles but with a good feel.
The observer stands outside the house, just short of the steps up to a closed front door. It is snowing outside. A light shines through a small window at the top of the door, but on the left of the door is a big window, curtainless, through which we see a happy, contented family. Mom and dad lean into each other, touching lovingly, reaching out to the two happy smiling children who hug them. The 'ideal family'. A big fire burns in the background, and on the wall is a painting of a serene landscape.
It is calmness, stability, contentment, protection from the cold snow outside, an interregnum. A break in the work routine when you can relax and feel the contentment surrounding you, feel protected and secure with those you love. It is a moment to stop, enjoy the good and appreciate your inner successes.
There is, however, the ever-present cold and snow outside! And the door is shut, indicating some sort of negativity, so for me it's a reminder that while you enjoy the fruits of labour and the joy of family stability, and you are in fact protected from the world outside, that harsh world is still out there, just on the other side of the walls.
4 is stability, security and all those contented but stolid feelings. Wands are action, passion, so for me I get the feeling that this momentary contentment is the result of hard work - it is merited and earned rather than just the security of inherited riches.
The RW based cards seem to have more of an emphasis on celebration, but although this card is indeed a celebration of a happy family, it is more still, calm and has a very personal feel - the family enjoying itself and its closeness.
gregory
Card name: Four of Wands: Completion
First impressions
Four wands set up in a circle, intersecting at the centre, with eight flames from behind. Their ends are set on a yellow circle, like a wheel. The wands have ram heads at one end and a dove like the Holy Spirit at the other. Behind a watercolour green background with the symbols for Aries and Venus/female.
From the Book of Thoth
Images and Symbolism
Frieda Harris says in her essays:
Snuffin says that the key idea here is “Love is the Law, Love under Will.”
The circle is closed, giving the idea of cosmic order and the completion of the cycle.
Meaning (cribbed from Wasserman)
Perfected work, settlement, completion after much labor, rest, subtlety, cleverness, conclusions from previous knowledge. Badly dignified, unreliable through overanxiousness and hurriedness of action.
DuQuette
Settlement, arrangement, completion.
Perfection or completion of a thing built up with trouble and labour. Rest after labour, subtlety, cleverness, beauty, mirth, success in completion. Reasoning faculty, conclusions drawn from previous knowledge, Unreadiness, unreliable and unsteady through over-anxiety and hurriedness of action. Graceful in manner, at times insincere, etc.
(You’d swear he copied Wasserman too !)
Traditional meanings –
From Thirteen’s book of meanings:
My impressions (appearance of the card):
It is very wheel of Fortune-y, to look at. No four horsemen, but even so. VERY regular, very sterile and constrained, in a way. And I’d live to know why the wands are arranged as they are – I’d have “expected” then to be alternate heads and tails round the circle.
My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)
I’d rather see it as suggesting being hemmed in. Something done and dusted, maybe, but with no freedom to manoeuvre. Maybe convention pitting a brake on life ? That circle closes things inside. Which fits with Thirteen saying re-energising would be good. It looks like the exhausted way you feel when you finished digging that enormous hole – now you have to fill it with whatever you dug it for – so it’s not over yet, even though there is a degree of completion !
First impressions
Four wands set up in a circle, intersecting at the centre, with eight flames from behind. Their ends are set on a yellow circle, like a wheel. The wands have ram heads at one end and a dove like the Holy Spirit at the other. Behind a watercolour green background with the symbols for Aries and Venus/female.
From the Book of Thoth
Images and Symbolism
Frieda Harris says in her essays:
Also:
Like me, Banzhaf sees this card as showing completion as well as the limitation of the creative deed. The flames, he says, underline this/the eight-rayed figure represents the connection between the earthly quadrant and the divine circle. The two ends of the wants show the balance between the two sexes – dove/ram. Aries suggests energy of will, the dove/Venus love.
Snuffin says that the key idea here is “Love is the Law, Love under Will.”
The circle is closed, giving the idea of cosmic order and the completion of the cycle.
Meaning (cribbed from Wasserman)
Perfected work, settlement, completion after much labor, rest, subtlety, cleverness, conclusions from previous knowledge. Badly dignified, unreliable through overanxiousness and hurriedness of action.
DuQuette
Settlement, arrangement, completion.
Perfection or completion of a thing built up with trouble and labour. Rest after labour, subtlety, cleverness, beauty, mirth, success in completion. Reasoning faculty, conclusions drawn from previous knowledge, Unreadiness, unreliable and unsteady through over-anxiety and hurriedness of action. Graceful in manner, at times insincere, etc.
(You’d swear he copied Wasserman too !)
Traditional meanings –
From Thirteen’s book of meanings:
The last is interesting, as the keyword on the card is completion, and Thirteen refers to more to do ! (Of course, she does refer primarily to RWS but still…)
My impressions (appearance of the card):
It is very wheel of Fortune-y, to look at. No four horsemen, but even so. VERY regular, very sterile and constrained, in a way. And I’d live to know why the wands are arranged as they are – I’d have “expected” then to be alternate heads and tails round the circle.
My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)
I’d rather see it as suggesting being hemmed in. Something done and dusted, maybe, but with no freedom to manoeuvre. Maybe convention pitting a brake on life ? That circle closes things inside. Which fits with Thirteen saying re-energising would be good. It looks like the exhausted way you feel when you finished digging that enormous hole – now you have to fill it with whatever you dug it for – so it’s not over yet, even though there is a degree of completion !
