Revelations/4 of Wands & 2 of Swords Help

[CircuitsOpen]

Hi all,

I need help understanding visually these two cards. I'm a HUGE fan of this deck -- I really wanted to use reversals and finally it makes more intuitive sense to me when I do when using this deck. Thank you Zach Wong! =)

I just have an issue with two cards really. If anyone else is using this deck and can comment, I would appreciate it.

The first card, on of my usual favorites, is the 4 of Wands. I usually love this because it's all about celebration for a job well done, contentment, etc. I read in Zach's accompanying book about this card but I still can't seem to make sense of any jubilant or celebratory nature going on here visually. I know there are supposed to be metaphors for planes of life but boy, this card really doesn't work for me at all.

I would love someone to open up my intuition for this one. If there's any card that might want to be re-thought visually for the second edition, it's this one.

For the second card, the 2 of Swords, I guess it's really an issue on meaning here. In all of the other decks I own, the two of swords is usually a woman brandishing two swords with a blindfold, unclear and unable to make a decision. Here we have a guy doing a high-wire act balancing a sword. This reminds me more of the 2 of Pentacles instead of the 2 of Swords. I really think it is stunning visually but really thought the 2 of swords was about indecision and stasis, not balancing. Can someone help me here?

Thanks! For me, this is easily my favorite and most responsive deck so far. I just really hate (cry) the 4 of Wands visually. And the usually 2 of Swords meaning doesn't fit this version of the card for me.

Can someone help?

Thanks!

KUDOS ZACH! Amazing deck! I hope to see more "reversible" decks from you and others in the future!

-Circuits

 

[sunflowr]

Maybe Zach Wong himself will come here and explain. I too would like to know.

I just got the deck tonight (been raining tarot decks lately! ), so can't really comment too much yet. But in the Gill, (which I also just got, a few days ago!), the 4 of wands (funny, this is my card of the day!) is about "completion". I see it as things fitting together, coming together as it should, like it neat square. And, if that's about something you're working on, it would be cause to celebrate, right? Well, thats how I would tie in the celebratory nature of the card.

2 of swords.. well, maybe think of it as decisions being weighed and "balanced". He'll probably eventually lose one of his swords while retaining the other one, so thats the one he will use.

 

[MercyMe]

Balance is the key to all 2's. They are related directly to Justice who is herself is the Great Balancing Act. So a person on a high wire balancing a sword does relate very well to that balance aspect of the 2 of swords. The sword, I see swords as "air" and having to do with thought and conflict and communication, represents the thought or thoughts, the sticky situation brought about by the opposing forces -- suspension and gravity -- that the man is trying to keep suspended. It's difficult to reconcile two opposing positions or thoughts so the picture represents that suspension -- keeping it "in the air" so to speak rather than reconciling it one way or the other.

In my new Durer deck the two of swords shows a fox behind a short wall looking over spying a hen and an egg with two swords in front of the hen. At first the image seemed confusing to me, it seemed to represent temptation more than anything else. The fox obviously wants the hen...or the egg...or both...but the swords represent that the hen is protected and there is danger inherent in either choice, so what will the fox do? Will the fox go after the hen? The egg? Or will he decide to find his next meal in a less dangerous context where the meal is not protected by those dangerous swords? He has a decision to make and we don't know what he will choose. For the moment, his decision is suspended as he tries to figure it out.

In contrast the two of pentacles, while also about balance because it is a 2, also represents a kind of suspension, but by keeping things status quo by careful attending to the priorities and shifting the weight of the two pentacles equally in order to keep things going smoothly. The pentacles represent tangible material things while the swords represent thoughts, so with the pentacles there is actual physical results and while the mind may be engaged, it's more about holding things in your life in balance, putting things in their place, paying attention to the material aspect of life. For example, it may represent attending to one's physical needs and achieving balance in one's diet, exercise, sleep, work, play. The 2 swords tries to achieve balance of mind through allowing two (or more) opposing thoughts hold the situation in suspension until one can be decided to "weigh" more. It's the epitome of ambivilance -- which means to simultaneously hold two opposing thoughts.

~Mercy

 

[Thirteen]

Balanced Between

What a lovely deck! I especially like the way he's incorporated the "reverse" imagine into each card so that if it's reversed, you don't see it "upside-down" but rather, quite literally the reversed or opposite image. Very clever!

I can't help you with the 4/Wands as I don't have the deck and you don't describe the image. HOWEVER, the 2/Swords I can help you with. Remember that 2/Swords often means "compromise." It's not being "unable to make a decision"--it's making a decision that is a temporary fix, a censation of hostilities, a way that kinda satifies both sides...for the moment. The woman takes the sword away from the combantants, puts on the blindfold as a promise of impartiality, and keeps the swords, temporarily, apart, uncrossed.

This is rather like a battle between little kids screaming for Mom: "Mom! He started it!" one screams, "I wouldn't have done it if he hadn't--!" screams the other. And what does Mom do? She tries not to take sides. She tries to get both kids to SHARE, or at least to go to their corners and stop fighting. Problem is, the fight isn't resolved; the kids are still mad at each other and they want Mom to take sides--to say who's right and who's wrong. They're not going to let Mom stay in the middle. They will fight again over this.

This is the tight-rope walker. He's not on one side or the other, but trying, desperately, to stay balanced between--and for now, that's fine. But sooner or later he's going to have to go to one end of that rope or the other. He can't stay balanced between forever. It's a temporary fix.

2/Pents, by compare, is about *juggling* jobs or money. It's keeping finances in the air. As with 2/Swords, it's temporary--you can't juggle forever. But for now, it gets the bills paid.

 

[GoldenWolf]

Similar 2 of Swords in Spiral Tarot

Actually there is a similar 2 of Swords image in Kay Steventon's Spiral Tarot where a bindfolded young woman is walking a tightrope and balancing a pole horizonally as I recall. So it's another fairly recent deck that brings in the concept of balancing with making decisions and being in stasis. When my boyfriend saw this card, he remarked that the "high wire act" aspect gives an element of tension to this card that isn't present in more traditional depictions. Since indecision leads to tension and anxiety by not making a decision, this card as well as the 2 of Swords in the Revelations Tarot both work for me.

GW

 

[Mesara]

Hi Cirucuits Open

I was just contemplating the Revelation's 4 of Wands last night. It is different, isn't it? I will quote Zach's description.. (for those who do not have the deck but would like to weigh in on the discussion)

"Your life will be a calm pool with stillness covering it's surface. The fires that burn around you will be steady and steadfast, bringing fruition to your life. Here creativity and love will blossom in a gentle cradle of life" -Wong

Though eloquently said, Zach's description of the card still left me feeling lost when I tried to apply it to the image of the card itself.. but I kept thinking about it, trying to imagine this in a different way..

I started to see the 'planes of life' as pages taken from a book..imagine if our lives up to this point were recorded and illustrated in a great book..and each page tells a story, and through careful placement of the pages, we can see the meaning of our life unfold before us..and see that every moment has it's place in the construction of a greater moment.. and so on.. and all these moments together have brought us to where we stand now, in the present.. and seeing the tapestry laid out before us brings us an understanding and an appreciation of all that we have endured, enjoyed, loved, lost..and we realize that all happens for a reason, and that reason is represented by the four wands, a burning force that illuminates the pages of our life.. and makes the present sacred. The wands also keep watch over our sacred moment.. keeping the darkness at bay..right now no one is allowed to steal our joy, or disrupt our perfect arrangement.. time is suspended.. today we shall love and enjoy.. let the darkness come another day.

But even as we enjoy this sacred moment..'suspended in time', life is carrying on... notice on the righthand side of the card there are pages that seem to be drifting down, falling like feathers.. outside our sacred moment time is still working against us..nothing can last forever..even as we speak more pages are being scribed and placed in the great book- changing the tapestry and the layout of things.. the new pages will continue to fall, displacing some of the old ones..a new arrangement will ensue...and become dismantled again (reversed).. and then another arrangement will display itself..only to be taken apart again to make room for the new pages..that are forever being scribed.. as long as we shall live..

Enjoy the moment.. Nothing lasts forever.

 

[OwlShadow]

That's an interesting interpretatation, Mesara. I like it. The four of wands in the Revelations deck was giving me a hard time too.

 

[Thirteen]

I read in Zach's accompanying book about this card but I still can't seem to make sense of any jubilant or celebratory nature going on here visually. I know there are supposed to be metaphors for planes of life but boy, this card really doesn't work for me at all.

I just got this deck and can now see what you mean. Unfortunately, Tarot decks are always a gamble. The all the images may work for the artist/creator, but that doesn't mean that the all the images will work for you. I've yet to find a deck that didn't have a few cards that I couldn't quite get behind--however much I might like the deck as a whole. Given what you want from this card, I don't think it can be made to work for you in the way you want it to work.

That said, I don't think that Zach's image or interpetation or image is adverse or opposed to the traditional, 4/wands card. It's just very, very, very stylized. The profusion of squares that comprise the background of this card are emblematic of building blocks or flagstones--of foundations being laid down and the four wands rising up out of them. These "stones" aren't set, aren't connected--which allows for the reversed meaning: that they are at risk of flying apart. But the plans have been made, the materials gathered and ground has been broken.

Which is the essence of the 4/wands. The couple is married (sic), it's been witnessed, and they're on their way to cementing the relationship. The four posts that they can build the house on are in place. One can toast and celebrate that that step has been taken.