Four of Cups

Element: Water

Imagery: A seated figure beneath a tree, focused on three cups while a fourth is offered by a divine hand.

General Themes: Emotional withdrawal, dissatisfaction, introspection, and gratitude.

Four of Cups Upright

Upright, this card asks—no, BEGS—you to re-enchant your life! It’s easy to get stuck and feel like your life is going nowhere fast. What’s needed is a change in perspective. Instead of fixating on what you don’t have, take a breath, look around you, and notice what you do have.

Look at the figure in the card. His arms are crossed and he’s looking away from three golden cups right in front of him. He doesn’t even notice the fourth cup, a divine offering, practically falling into his lap. He’s miserable!

And to think, if only he’d look up. Take a deep breath. Uncross his arms and look around. He’d see that the world is conspiring in his favor. If this isn’t an invitation to practice the art of joy and curiosity, I don’t know what is.

Consider where you put your time and energy. Also consider where your mind goes most often. Are these thoughts generative and life-affirming? Or do they restrict flow?

Take a moment. Look up. And be open to everyday magic and synchronic happenings. Seems like a better way of going about life than always looking for what you lack.

Four of Cups Reversed

Reversed, this card offers an opportunity to clear through stagnation and old perspectives. Step back and look at your life. Really look. Don’t just look for what’s missing. Notice what’s there, especially the things that enhance the quality of your life. Make a list if you need to. You’ll find you have rather a lot more than you realized.

New opportunities and energetic shifts will come from this pause.

At its most magical, this card is about shifting out of scarcity into an abundance mentality. Pure gratitude floods your heart and you’ve learned not to take your life and healthy relationships for granted. This shift is everything. Suddenly, you can enjoy the bounty of the three golden cups before you and trust that the fourth one will find you when you’re ready.

You’ll be surprised how magnetic gratitude can be. It’s revitalizing. It’s contagious. It’s an invitation for good things to come into your life.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Four of Wands

Element: Fire

Imagery: A garlanded archway supported by four wands; figures celebrate beneath it.

General Themes: Stability, homecoming, communal harmony, a safe container for joy.

Four of Wands Upright

Like the Three of Cups, the Four of Wands is a celebration card. It’s time to appreciate the good things in life. Honor even the little things and take time out of your life to celebrate the really big stuff. Have some fun!

You have reached a state of stability and sustainable abundance. It’s safe to let down and relax now. Center yourself—think of your body as hearth and home, the root of your abundant spirit. The more you ground yourself in what matters, the more you will flourish.

Four of Wands Reversed

The Four of Wands reversed still carries the joyous energy of its upright form. Here, though, it’s more about inner harmony, something we don’t celebrate enough. It is no small thing to find your way back to yourself. Some people never do. So take this time to honor this pivotal moment.

Now is the time to release worry and negative self-talk. Just because things don’t seem to be moving forward in the outer world doesn’t mean you aren’t growing. The deepest work is quiet, almost imperceptible—and the longest lasting. So enjoy the process and release the need to control the outcome, a temptation which is often at the root of worry and negativity.

In its most alarming form, it can reflect a time of instability and upheaval, particularly in your personal life. Your life feels like it’s turned upside down! But, as with the Hanged Man, this card offers a new perspective. Look at things from a new vantage point and see what this topsy-turvy energy can teach you. Maybe you’ve needed to loosen up or let go of things you can’t control to restore harmony. Maybe this friction shows you what you need to remove from your life in order to thrive. Pause and take in the scene. The answers will come. And when they do—celebrate.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Four of Swords

Element: Air

Imagery: A figure lies in repose within a church; three swords hang above, one rests below.

General Themes: Rest, recovery, mental stillness, sanctuary.

Four of Swords Upright

I call this the radical self-care card of the deck. It’s an invitation to enjoy guilt-free self-care and self-love. It’s okay to take time for yourself. We live in a world that values extroversion and external markers of growth, so it can feel strange to turn inward and focus on healing—two things which are hard to quantify or explain in the context of the status quo.

This is a time to examine your life and release anything that is causing undue stress, or to find a way to not let a stressful situation hijack your nervous system. The card indicates that the only solution right now is to slow down and tend your inner life.

Remember: sometimes the best thing you can do is practice self-care. All healthy changes come from within first. As that old witchy saying goes: as within, so without.

Four of Swords Reversed

This card is a major caution sign! Similar to its upright form, the reversal asks you to practice self-care. Only here, it is BEGGING you to slow down and take care of yourself OR ELSE. Seriously. If you don’t slow down now, life will make you stop—and never in the way you want it to.

Reversed, this isn’t just a card about radical self-care but intensive rest. Think of your soul as a hospital patient or someone who is on enforced bedrest. You need to recharge and allow your system to heal. Period. Everything else comes after that.

Your soul will thank you.

Don’t be afraid to protect your solitude and interiority here. In fact, doing so is a necessary part of healing. Take your self-care as seriously as you do everything else. OR ELSE.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Four of Pentacles

Element: Earth

Imagery: A figure clutches coins to their chest, head, and feet, guarding material resources.

General Themes: Security, conservation, control of resources, scarcity mindset.

Four of Pentacles Upright

This card appears when a scarcity mindset creeps in. You don’t need to hold on so tightly to your resources. In fact, the more you try to hold onto your wealth—both literal and metaphorical—the more it leaks out of you. It seems counterintuitive, but if you loosen up, you don’t lose that hard-earned wealth; you’ll add to it.

The Four of Pentacles invites us to cultivate an abundance mindset. It’s a reminder that you are a capable, empowered being who has the ability to nurture and maintain wealth in all things. So loosen up!

This card can also signal that you are being stingy with yourself energetically, not just monetarily. When it appears, ask yourself where you feel restricted in your life. Often, we tighten our energy when we want to feel safe or in control. Examine the situation and allow yourself to breathe into the discomfort. Notice how flowing allows for more abundance and insight than restriction.

Four of Pentacles Reversed

Reversed, the message is much the same: cultivate an abundance spirit. There is a greater sense of safety in this card’s reversal, however, as if the figure no longer needs to hold on so tightly to their resources.

Release your need for control and security. Again, it seems counterintuitive, but the harder you hold on to your assets, the more you restrict growth—if you let go, the more abundance you create naturally through the return of flow. In other words, prosperity comes from living in harmony with your true nature and nurturing energies that feed your interests.

This card in reverse can also appear when you’ve successfully outgrown your scarcity mentality. Keep staying open, keep flowing, keep nourishing that which feeds your soul.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!