78 Weeks of Tarot: 4 of Swords

[Trogon]

For information on what these threads refer to, see this thread;

 

78 Weeks of Tarot - Informational Thread

 

The above linked thread gives suggested dates for the cards as well as links to the individual topics.

 

Some of us may be working through the study in a different order and using different decks. If you have general questions or comments regarding the 78 Weeks of Tarot study group, please post in the topic in the above link.

 

Have fun.

[Bookworm]

Deck: Fairytale Tarot

 

Card name: Four of Swords

 

First impressions:

 

A beautiful, elegant young woman in a long blue and gold dress, sits in a chair beside a spindle, asleep, with a gray and black striped cat, also asleep, in her lap. They are in a stone room with an arched window. A beautiful plant with white flowers grows in the window, and outside is a blue sky with a white fluffy cloud.

 

After reading the story:

 

I can see why this story was chosen for the card. As I think of it, the 4 of Swords represents an interlude of rest in a dangerous situation. In the story, the bad fairy wants Sleeping Beauty to die when she pierces her finger with the spindle. A good fairy is able to intervene and lessen this punishment to be a 100-year sleep. I was unaware that the story continues after Sleeping Beauty weds the prince. His mother, an Ogress, wants to eat the children of Sleeping Beauty and Sleeping Beauty herself. So the 100-year sleep really was a rest between two very dangerous situations. Nothing bad happens to Sleeping Beauty while she is asleep, and the good fairy even makes sure that everything (except for her parents) will be exactly the same when she wakes up.

 

From the companion book:

 

Keywords: Time out, forced or voluntary; rest and recuperation; mental silence and stillness; a pause to retreat and reflect; putting life on hold for a while.

 

As in so many tarot cards, the question to ask is how voluntary is the situation indicated? If the period of stasis is imposed – recovery from illness or by a desperate need to withdrawal from difficulties – then the reading of this card may be complex.

 

It can be helpful to pause in a reading and think about the double-edged nature of the Swords suit and look beyond the peaceful scene to question what went before. Are there thorns among the roses, and is there a little blood on the innocent looking spindle?

The original story:

“The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” from The Blue Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang

 

Traditional meanings:

 

Truce, rest, recuperation, retreat, escape, dormancy, contemplation, inaction.

 

From 78 Degrees of Wisdom, by Rachel Pollack:

 

Isolating oneself, literally hiding in one’s house or flattening one’s emotional reactions to hide within. There is a suggestion of The Fisher King, whose physical wound mirrored the spiritual sickness of the kingdom. The King lay ill until Galahad brought the Grail’s blessing.

 

Sleeping Beauty is a symbol of a neurotic fear of life.

 

Withdrawal, even for the purpose of recovery, can shut a person off from the world, creating a kind of spell only outside energy can break.

 

My impressions of the card/story combination:

 

I like this interpretation of the Four of Swords and Karen’s idea about the double-edged nature of the swords and questioning how voluntary the retreat was. In this case, not at all, which does seem more swordsy than the idea of a purely voluntary retreat. The image on the card includes all the important elements: Sleeping Beauty, the spindle, the sleeping cat (to show that everything stopped), and the vines covering the windows, hiding Sleeping Beauty from the rest of the world. 

 

I also like the idea that outside intervention may be required to free the person who has withdrawn.

 

My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it):

 

I think I would now ask myself the question about the voluntariness of the withdrawal and whether or not outside intervention is needed to free the person in the card.