“The security that arises from needs being met.”

This observation was presented in The Grand Etteilla regarding the nature of the 4 of Clubs (Wands). It equates the card with the process of “digestion” that succeeds the “generation” of the 3 of Clubs, but there is no mention of the “elimination” that must inevitably follow. Alliette’s cartomantic heirs also noted that, in this context, what is consumed is precisely equal in volume to that which has been produced, resulting in no surplus or shortfall. The 4 of Clubs is likened to a perfect cube that exhibits no imperfection. “Four-square” is another useful analogy.

The number Four in all its Minor Arcana iterations could thus be seen as representing a self-sustaining “closed loop” system that experiences no influx or outflow of energy. The only downside is that this sequestered cycle can eventually choke on its own waste. Then the hermetically sealed container must await the “can-opener” or “nutcracker” of the Five to relieve it. While Four is stable, secure and economical in its expression it can also become stagnant through banal repetition of the same old moves. (It echoes the lamentation in the Pink Floyd song Time about endlessly “kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown.”)

In the RWS deck this is adequately depicted in the 4 of Cups (Ennui), 4 of Swords (Idleness) and 4 of Pentacles (Self-Indulgence); the 4 of Wands takes a little more digging to uncover the same significance. In a previous essay I made the point that:

“The 4 of Wands is sometimes characterized as a “celebration,” but on closer inspection it looks like the people in the image are just idly promenading and making no attempt to leave the comfort of the castle grounds even though there is an open portal beckoning them.” (They are perpetually “making the loop,” so to speak, with no ambition to get off the treadmill.)

This suggests that a better “closed loop” keyword for the 4 of Wands might be “Negligence.” (More Pink Floyd: “Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.”) Aleister Crowley was characteristically wary of overblown optimism, saying only that “there is no intention to increase the original Will. But this limitation bears in itself the seeds of disorder.” (We could add “staying in-bounds” to this observation.) In other words, the 4 of Wands keeps to the script and doesn’t ad lib, but that colorless fidelity may in fact be self-defeating.

This post from early 2018 merits bumping:

The Fours, Fives and Sixes