All in One, to the Four
I've been through this deck lots of times and have cards I like, but I'm always startled when doing individual study, by certain cards that seem to have passed my vision. The fours collectively were like that, I find the images stunning and such a pleasure to tell a story with.
4 of Disks
The glacial summit, guarded with icy emanations of energy. The "suit," stark, enduring, frozen in his chair. The four disks like molten lead sliding away and underneath an even harder centre.
Rohrig also has the word "integrity" in the card. Integrity comes from the Latin integer = untouched. in = not + root "tag" of tangere = to touch. Oh yes, we mustn't touch those with power. Power can also alienate, can drain you of colour, isolation of command.
The colours going up the mountain--some are striped/checked, they remind me of the bars over hurdles in track and field competition. The effort, the hurdles to overcome getting to the summit. They also remind me of the gate that comes down at a railroad crossing. Halt, stop, do not cross, danger. They radiate out like many paths converging upward, or many tears flowing down from the summit, tears or sweat! See how they fade at the top? Emotions in check, literally, more of Rohrig's checkerboard imagery.
I find it remarkably interesting how some artists seem to have a harsh, forbidding message for this card and others not. One of the reasons I don't use reversals is because I like to see both the positive and negative in cards at all times. Here is one of my favourite threads on this card (although not related to Rohrig):
The Four of Lemons thread that Indigo Lady started:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?threadid=15276&highlight=lemons
4 of Wands
I love the designs on the orb. They are like etched glass and also a reflection of clouds. More spirals, sacred geometry. Mountains and the water is dark as at night, with moon reflected, the orb in this case, even though it is day.
The four crystal wands in upright symmetry, glowing, warmed by colour, enclosed, circled, protected but not covered. Light penetrates everywhere.
The four wands also remind me of our idealized cultural concept of the family: Mom and Dad, taller on the left and right, and the two children in the centre. Obviously a boy and a girl, and the boy just blew a bubble with his shocking pink bubble gum and got it all over his shirt when it popped (boys always do stuff like that at the photographers.)
A beautiful card, etched in mind and memory.
4 of Cups
I always think of this as the "ennui" card. Rohrig calls it "Luxury."
Oh, that langorous spiral in the middle, like thick paint. The richly patterned fabrics woven and printed with real gold. The blobs in the lower right like blue blood clotting, immoveable, stagnating in the vein and at the top left they are colourless, they've lost their oxygen. He has the words emotional wealth, love, and tenderness on the card.
If you have everything you ever wanted materially and emotionally, I'm sure it feels pretty good, but does it keep you spiralling and circling in one place, surrounded by your floating fortune? The mountains beckon, the river flows, the grass greens, and you are so sated you cannot move.
Nice for a time though, to sip from the gold-encrusted chalice, and realize what you have.
4 of Swords
The stone in the centre looks like a human figure sitting on a bench or fallen pillar. Weary, craggy, arm resting on knee, turned away from the action, the light. Behind, the rolling green hills and line of trees with a borealis aflame, lighting the dark planet.
Quitness, clarity are the words on the card. The word "truce" makes me think of battle and rage--perhaps the energy behind the trees comes from that?
The cold of stone, the layers of centuries lie still beneath the seated figure. Perhaps merely the truce with the Self, the parlay with your own soul amidst the fury of the Universe. A truce between you and the world so you can think clearly. Truce means faith or a promise, a promise to trust your own ideas among the barrage of the world.