In the evolutionary journey of tarot numerology, from Numbers 1 through 3, Spirit is in a state of expansion and growth. When arrives at 4, it pauses. It stabilizes. It becomes form itself. The nature metaphor usually employed for the 4 of Cups is that of water damming up. The river of spirit, after springing up from One, welling up in Two, and coursing through the expanding waters of Three, arrives in Four at a place in which it is contained.

Normally the 4 of Cups is said to relate to bor...