Four of Swords: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Four of Swords upright means: Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the design. Reversed: Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.

The picture

“The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the design.

Waite's additional meanings: A bad card, but if reversed a qualified success may be expected by wise administration of affairs.

Reversed

Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: A certain success following wise administration.

In one line

Retreat and solitude: a hermit’s repose. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Four of Swords is the fourth card of the suit of Swords, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Fours: Four of Wands, Four of Cups, Four of Pentacles.

In Esbat

Esbat deals a card of the day, face down until you turn it, and holds all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. The Four of Swords can be shared as a picture. All 78 tarot card meanings.

Sources

Meanings and picture descriptions: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), public domain, checked against the Wikisource transcription. Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, 1910, public domain. Like the app, this page records what the book says; it does not promise outcomes.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

Esbat: Tarot & Book of Shadows, on Google Play

A card of the day, face down until you turn it, and all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. For Android.

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