Tarot - Four of Swords (First Posted Oct. 6, 2010)

To know mercy in the suit of swords – which is the “realm of air” and, by another name, the “world of thought” – is to know how to relax with your thoughts.

Thoughts can be sharp. Thoughts can have an edge.  Thoughts can be compelling.  Thoughts can drive you up the wall and back down the other side.  Thoughts can cause you to do wonderful things and diabolical things.  Thoughts are energy.

But, if you can learn to relax with, and around, your thoughts - to simply entertain them without having them push you or pull you one way or the other – then you have made peace with them and they with you.

And, now that you are at ease with your thoughts, you are free to let them flow smoothly and, in their flowing, become more and more polished and refined.

The more polished and refined they become the easier they are for you to follow.  They become a silken path which you can glide along to reach new realms for you to consider and contemplate.

Being relaxed with, and around, your thoughts means you realize thoughts can be just thoughts, nothing more.  They don’t have to rouse you to action or lead you to emotional despair.

Lie down.  Give your thoughts room to unfold in a peaceful inner environment and see where you go.  And, when you get there, continue to stay relaxed with your thoughts so you can entertain the new vistas being revealed to you within a clear mind.  You don’t have to pay a price for this privilege – it is through knowing mercy in the world of thought that brings you here.

PLEASE NOTE:  This interpretation is based purely on the feelings I experience when I  focus on, and merge with, the images in the card combined with how I understand the Minor Arcana of the Rider-Waite deck dovetails with the Tree of Life in the Qabalah (as taught by Wald and Ruth Ann Amberstone, co-founders of The Tarot School in New York City, NY).