General Book of the Tarot: Wands: Four of Wands

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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