IV of swords - “dead”, not resting
Offering for the Full Moon occurring this week - Sunday 21 July 2024 (AEST)
A figure is lying down on a stone table with a pillow under their head. Their hands are resting in a prayerful position, in front of their chest, fingers upward. Armour can be seen under their tunic. Both them and the stone table are completely yellow. 4 swords are arranged, with 3 hanging on a wall above-behind the person, pointed downward toward the head, heart and belly, and one sword is horizontal on the side of the table. In the left corner is a portion of a stained glass window with a scene of 2 people and a building in the background. The larger figure has a halo with PAX above their head.
IV of Swords from the Rider Waite Smith tarot
Is the prone, prayerful figure alive or dead? This is my immediate curiosity, and noting some confusion about it. The complete lack of human colouring doesn’t suggest ‘alive’ but then yellow isn't typically associated with lifelessness or death.
They look like a tomb effigy to me - a sculpted image of a deceased person as they looked upon their death or just before dying.
Meanwhile my gaze also keeps getting pulled up to the stained glass in the corner. Curious.
Traditional meanings for IV of Swords suggest a need to rest and have respite after a battle or a difficult time. And because we're in the suit of swords, this battle is in the realm of thoughts, beliefs and intellect.
Where have you been mentally fighting or pushing hard on?
Taking time out from mental pressure and a blustery mind can help to shift perspectives and make room for creative ideas to come through.
What would it be like to lay yourself, and at least 1 sword down, to rest?
But still, resting is not dead.
I feel like I'm harping on about this a little. I know the tarot is symbolic and I'm being a little literal. But I feel there’s more to it than just “taking a rest to clear your mind”.
When my daughter was maybe 7 or 8 years old, she asked to join me in my evening meditation. We sat together for 5 minutes and held each other's hands as I guided us through a simple sit. It was very sweet. When we'd finished, she said to me that the experience “felt like I was dead”.
WoW!- it seemed like an extraordinary thing for a little person to say. I was struck by how easily she’d experienced a gift of meditation, of emptying the mind and resting in a deep ‘death-like’ peace, when so many, myself included, would love to contact that transcendent experience so easily.
There’s a term from the yoga tradition - Ishvara pranidhana* - surrender to God. Westerners who are drawn to yoga, often bypass some of these more loaded spiritual aspects of the practice. New-age spirituality and God don’t mix. But lately, I’ve been dabbling in prayer, and find these are just hitting differently to my usual meditations. I feel more in contact with ‘being dead’ aka transcendent peace, through turning toward ‘God’. This turn is surprising to me - as I’d once vehemently rejected the idea of being “religious” but now find being “spiritual” lacks depth. I’m on a bridge.
What is it to you to pray? What is your relationship to “God”
The churchy Christian vibes in the card are obvious - in the gesture, and the stained glass, with a haloed figure.
Side enquiry - What do you think is going on in the stained glass scene?
We can gloss over the card to say, just rest and you’ll feel rejuvenated and mentally clear. But I feel the scene is challenging us to go beyond the superficial and temporary rejuvenating qualities of resting. Fours in the tarot signal stability so I feel it’s encouraging us to surrender - deeply - into the experience of something bigger - the great Mystery, to find deep and lasting stability in peace.
Surrender your mind, heart and body - the whole 3 sword package to Greater - and lay down on your sword and stop fighting, to receive the light pouring through the multicoloured glass, bringing peace (PAX). Place your hands in a gesture that divines, and make room for grace to fill you and transform your experience. Perhaps that's the Mysterious yellow colouring - it’s light and grace and peace filling the space and streaming down on the figure to heal and nourish.
Mendy x
*I’ve used Pandit Rajmani Tigunait’s commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras “The Secret of the Yoga Sutra - Samadhi Pada” when referring to Ishvara Pranidam, Sutra 1:23