Four of Swords

Keywords: Recovery, rest, meditation, contemplation, healing

Yes/No: Undecided

Upright: Now is the time for rest and recovery. You may have been going hard because you are very driven and always have stuff to get done. But this card is telling you that it’s not always good to be going at 100%. You need to take a break before the stress breaks you. Maybe you have been going so hard because you’ve had a lot on your mind and have been going through a rough time, so staying busy is your way of not dealing with the pain you’re in. The three swords hanging over your head show the trauma that you are going through, and the one below you indicates that it is coming to an end soon, but rest and reflection are needed. If you are laid up because of health problems, then the stained glass in this picture should bring you comfort. In the picture Jesus is healing someone by laying his hand on them, and in his halo is the word PAX which is short for ‘pax vobis’, which is Latin for ‘Peace to you.’ Although this looks like a tomb effigy, or sculpture of a dead person over its tomb, in tarot, death indicates that it is time to rest, not an actual death.

Reversed: Go, go, go. You have absolutely no time to rest. You have so much on your plate, and you are so busy. This is that feeling when you get back from a vacation and now you have a week’s worth of work to catch up on. You have been through a recovery, and now you need to catch up on all the progress you lost. But be careful, if you go too hard, you’ll just end up putting yourself out again.