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The Four of Swords – Times of Rest & Retreat


The Four of Swords is a card of rest, rejuvenation, and inner-retreat; a card of centering, meditation, and solitude. By ebbing into ourselves, we are able to observe our interior landscapes clearly, to regenerate the resources we need to reconnect to the realms around us that require the dolling out of our energy. Allow yourself to practice whatever repose looks like to you. Times of quiet and times of listening are essential—fresh ideas and clarified motivations bloom from them. … close your eyes just for a moment let your lids fall heavy slip into the thin membrane realm of floating specks raining light streaks color bulbs blending budding brain stars

here you are suspended cradled by a vastness space so open it may feel like a swallow


openness so wide your breath grows shallow this is natural here try to relax into it

your solitude can still hold you your solitude can still hold you your solitude

hallowed be it also needs intentional attention it also needs individual invention


far below your belly there is a well and it is full of a substance that you must spill a substance that you also need to weave yourself into this world it is rejuvenating it is

regenerating perpetually replenishing even when the world winds you tight then sends you spinning even when the days demand from your body an outpour of energy

the wide well goes on drinking and thirsting the wide well goes on dripping and bursting


remember how the water’s pulled to the surface of the soil when the moon is vanished

from the sky the moon is vanished from your eyes but is not dead just resting you are not dead just resting the next gleam of your spurt pointed toward the sky’s seam

in this thin membrane you are a witness a dream in which you watch yourself unfolding introspection which spreads itself before you spreads itself before you like

this sprawling space again and again is asking you to …

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