Tarot card meanings · Swords
What does Four of Swords mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Four of Swords upright means “Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the design”, and reversed “Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament”.
Upright
Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the design.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Where does the Four of Swords fall in a reading?
Four of Swords belongs to the suit of Swords. On this site you draw three cards, which take three of the places in the ten-card method Waite describes: “This covers him”, “This crosses him”, “This is before him”. The same card reads differently in each place, and the I Ching cast beside it may agree or disagree.
Ask one question. Draw three cards, and cast an I Ching hexagram beside them to see where East and West agree. Free.
Draw three cardsWaite's words are quoted as printed, and left out where they speak of money, law, illness or disaster. The pictures are the 1909 deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. For entertainment and self-reflection.