Four of Wands definitions
The Four or Wands means building up and establishing one's actions.
Rider-Waite: Four of Wands
From the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great garland suspended; two female figures uplift nosegays; at their side is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house.
They are for once almost on the surface — country life, haven of refuge, a species of domestic harvest-home, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected work of these.
Additional Meanings: Unexpected good fortune.
Reversed Four of Wands
The meaning remains unaltered; it is prosperity, increase, felicity, beauty, embellishment.
Additional Meanings: A married woman will have beautiful children.
Book of Thoth - Completion - Four of Wands
In the Wand suit, the card is called Completion. The manifestation promised by Binah has now taken place. This number must be very solid, because it is the actual dominating influence on all the following cards. Chesed, Jupiter-Ammon, the Father, the first below the Abyss, is the highest idea which can be understood in an intellectual way, and that is why the Sephira is attributed to Jupiter, who is the Demiurge.
Building a solid system of law, order and government. The work is completed, but limited.
Golden Dawn - Four of Wands
Lord of Perfected Work
Union of opposites, which may express itself as a marriage; the quiet before the storm; the unexpected (as in fire and water giving rise to air); shifting emotions; unexpected shifts, safe haven constructed with much labour.
Mathers: Four of Wands
Society, Union, Association, Concord, Harmony.
Reversed Four of Wands
Prosperity, Success, Happiness, Advantage.
Etteilla: 4 of Wands
Society, Association, Assembly, Connection, Federation, Union, Assembling, Reunion, Circle, Community, Gathering, The Masses, Crowd, Throng, Group, Band, Company, Cohort, Army. Convening, Accompaniment, Blending, Mixing, Alloy, Mixture. Contract, Convention, Pact, Treaty.
Reversed Four of Wands
Prosperity, Increase, Growth, Advancement, Success, Attainment, Happiness, Flourishing, Felicity. Beauty, Embellishment.
Thierens: Four of Wands
- TRADITION
- Society, association, alliance, multitude and all that implies a gathering of men, even armies; mixture; country life, felicity, augmentation, prosperity, happiness, peace and concord, etc., convocation; advance.
- THEORY
- It is Air on the Fourth house and the mixing of mercurial and lunar influence will of course explain the idea of gathering. We cannot quite see some of the definitions (contract, pact, treaty), but generally we find the idea of that which binds together by memory and common motives, thoughts, mottos common to a certain group of people, be it family or nation, clan or army. So this leads us to see in the card the expression of the common motive, of that which binds people together. It is not the contract, but the motive which afterwards leads to contracts, or from which the contract will result. A common mistake, in astrological descriptions as well, is this mixing up of definitions relating to the cause and to the effect respectively. Mercury brooding over the house of the family and the moon, engenders homely feelings, memories, thoughts of internal service, household matters, and tends more or less to a profane and familiar or descriptive language, to joke, fun and the theatrical art, to inviting people to come together and have their share in weal and woe. It represents also common sense, which, however, remains in many cases 'common' enough. And it contains the motives, which actually govern the facts and actions in this world.
- CONCLUSION
- Family-spirit, clan, home, the ideas and motives which rule us, consequently that which is familiar to us; memory, reminiscences, brooding and scheming, fantasy, theatrical arts, fancy, imagination. It can be augmentation as well as decrease, it generally means change and unstable conditions, popularity and vaccillation, profanation. It may denote some group of people, a gathering or meeting, family-council. A convocation. a call and a vote. Cosiness.
