I am being stalked by the four of Wands - of course it isn't literally hanging out outside my house waiting for me and making phone calls in which it only heavily breathes without speaking - this is the jargon for a card which keeps reappearing in readings in a particular time.
Normally it wouldn't really be my sort of card, at least as far as it looks in the rider Waite deck. I'm obviously not really a party sort of person! This is that's all probably an example a card in which Pam's illustration may not perfectly match the meaning, and I am beginning to see why the Marseille fanatics I so critical of this deck.
One of these days I am going to memorize the titles given to the cards by the Golden Dawn if it kills me, and
I see that they called this card the Lord of Perfected Work. So it looks as if the party depicted in the card is actually a party celebrating something finished or brought completion in some way.
Another way of understanding tarot cards is a comparison between different decks, and strangely pam perfectly depicts Etteilla's meaning for this card rather than that of the golden dawn: Upright or reversed, prosperity and society are pretty much what she is describing. Of course it is possible that she is intending to unite the two meanings, depicting a celebration of something completed, but unless you know the Golden Dawn's title for this card you would not be able to get it from the illustration, and it is strange that for a deck which supposedly draws so much on the Golden Dawn tradition it's meaning is not that close.
So what have I completed? My idiot colleague at work has left, so that's good, but in typical Hound Style it has revealed a number of other things which have never been dealt with by management and which reinforce my impression that for that and a few other reasons it is time to move on. I am in fact applying for other jobs as I have written, and perhaps the Work completed title signifies that it it's time to move on rather than celebrate. This is also not the end of the work really, card is only number three of the suit so it isn't really the end but maybe perhaps a comma.
Yet another way of understanding the cards is one which is genuinely traditional and certainly predates the golden dawn, also I am not completely sure whether it would also predate Etteilla also it is certainly French. I have written about it before here and it is a way of understanding the minor cards as manifestations of the relevance major card in their suit. So this card for example manifests the energy of the emperor (order, stability, organisation) in the areas of Life detected in Wands (actions, decisions, creativity). It is interesting that this way of understanding gives a much more subtle interpretation to the card, inviting planning, clear thinking, and decisive actions. This interpretation would also be supported by the astrological corresponces in which the Emperor, and the 2, 3, and 4 of Wands are all assigned to Aries. Which is very me, because I am an Aries!
Ok, I get the message. Now will you stop stalking me please?
