Pamela Colman Smith · RWS deck
The Minor Arcana
Four of Swords
Chesed in Yetzirah
- Suit
- swords
- Rank
- Four
- World
- Yetzirah
- Station
- Chesed
- Verb
- I connect
Chesed, what is given
Chesed is mercy: the faculty of expansion, and of being given to. The Four asks whether what has been formed can now receive something more.
Upright
Flowing. Mercy between minds: a pause given, space for thought to settle. In the world of mental formation, the gift is permission to stop arguing with oneself or with anyone else, for long enough that something can settle.
Misdirected. A truce that is only avoidance, or rest that becomes withdrawal.
Reversed
Blocked. No pause is allowed and the mind will not rest.
Flooded. Rest as collapse, a retreat that goes on too long.
The image
A knight lies on a stone tomb with his hands joined in prayer. Three swords hang on the wall above him and a fourth lies beneath the tomb, and a stained-glass window glows at his head. The picture fits the station only partly. It shows the rest clearly, and the mercy that gave it far less so.
Learn how to read Four of Swords in a spread
This page shows you what Four of Swords means. Knowing how to read it — how it shifts next to the other cards, what the reversal is really telling you, and how to turn a spread into a clear answer — is what the RWS Decoded course and book teach, card by card.
