Four of Wands § Six of Swords (Reversed) § Death (Reversed)
The Four of Wands represents the happy home: a dynamic yet stable place that allows for growth, experiment, and disagreement. Wands symbolize the element of fire, and like all elements, fire can easily destroy. Fire is unpredictable but we can build a campfire tall and slender so the flames reach for the sky in a clearing among the pines, or one that clings low to the Earth so we can see each other around the circle of light it casts. The fires of our passions are unpredictable too, but we can apply the same thought to how we approach those excited feelings. The Four of Wands is a grounded, well-kept fire—it is the warmth of the hearth and it is the light that leads you to where you belong. The message the Four of Wands delivers is a reminder that every time the best possible world gets smaller in our minds, we lose more than a future, we lose the present. Visualize your ideal home—really see it in your mind’s eye, feel it, and hold onto it.
The Six of Swords represents a liminal zone between an older version of home and the promise of a fresh start. In its reversed position this card indicates the threshold we are crossing is one of realization rather than physical movement. When our consciousness grows we will feel discomfort, but also a sense of competence because we gain courage when we face ourselves. Where the need to be perceived as more ideal than others exists, a barrier of defensiveness must necessarily rise. This will be difficult for those with a strong need for control, but procrastination will only, of course, make it worse. The Six of Swords is a process of moving through uncomfortable realizations that filter into our awareness once a relationship or an era of our lives comes to a close. What we believed or expected in the past no longer applies. It makes perfect sense if you feel unmoored. When what once seemed certain has dissolved or revealed itself to have been an illusion all along, the ground beneath us can feel like it has turned to liquid. The Six of Swords strongly advises us against trying to hold onto something that is writing itself into our history rather than our future. Be active in how you form your thoughts around what comes next.
Death arrives in her reversed position to offer us guidance across a terrain that will transform our identity. If you close your eyes, you might see her in your mind’s-eye—a silhouette on horseback, backlit against a horizon toward which you must travel. What Death knows keenly is that those who try to carry their superiority, their fundamental rightness, or their grievances across that inevitable line will meet with great resistance and create ripples of suffering. Death will support those afflicted with a need to exert small but fierce acts of control. She is your strength when you feel the pain you think you cannot bear. Death encourages us to come to terms with what is objectively true no matter how we feel about it, because reality is all there is. Be wary of whom you deceive because those persons will never be able to see you through the fog you have created. Death says: Let other people know you, because where and when you and I shall meet in the flesh is unknown, but meet we will. May we welcome a full transformation.
reading by Michelle Embree | michelleembree.com
illustration by Gurleen Rai | zimteemo.com
