Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (tarot reading)

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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse I always found intriguing.

And I personally believe they invoke the scariest aspects of the four "knights" in tarot perfectly! In fact this is what I see each one equaling to.

From left to right:

Knight of Cups/Hearts: Theocracy
Knight of Coins/Diamonds: Capitalism
Knight of Wands/Clubs: Communism
Knight of Swords/Spades: Imperialism

Now for my card reading! I want the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse to show me a glimpse into how our world will truly end.



First row of four cards examining what each horseman will bring to the "War to End All Wars".

Under The Knight of Cups (folly of The Clergy).

"The Hierophant": Aspiration, life, power of the keys; spiritual authority developed on the external side; temporal power of official religion; on the evil side, sacredotal tyranny and interference.

Under the Knight of Coins (folly of The Merchants)

"Death": Contains naturally the meaning implied by its name and illustrated by its pictorial symbol, but not only and not at all of necessity; transforming force, independent of human will; may signify destruction; power behind the world which alters the face of the world, but it is this power in one if its respects only.

Under the Knight of Wands (folly of The Peasants)

"The Devil": Fatality, evil, the false spirit; can also indicate good working through evil.

Under the Knight of Swords (folly of The Military)

"The High Priestess": Nature generally and particularly also as regards her operations, including therefore the material side of generation and reproduction; fertility, change.

Now the three cards in the center

"The Star": Light descending, hope; the symbol of immortality.

"The World": The glory thereof under the powers of the higher providence, the sum of manifest things, conclusion on any subject.

"Strength": Courage, vitality, tenacity of things, high endurance.

Last two cards: What will ultimately destroy our world and what can we expect afterwards?

"The Sun": Full light, intellectual and material; the card of earthly happiness, but not attained individually.

"Wheel of Fortune": Mutation, circunstances; revolution of things, vicissitude, time and its variable development; all that is understood by the external side of things.



I think the sun will definetly destroy what's left of the Earth billions of years from now.

https://www.livescience.com/solar-storm-destroy-earth

That is certainly one take-away from that reading. Sure, the sun will expand into a red giant into the orbit of Earth, one day. However, none of the cards above that have any influence whatsoever on this outcome.

So what happens in between now and the dying throes of our closest star?

I see the Hierophant under Cups to be representative of religion being used, not as a spiritual tool, but a political one. This has been going on for quite some centuries, but as this is a Horsemen reading, I expect that implies it will be getting worse.

Death on Coins seems a bit self explanatory, there will be a radical change in the way the global economy is handled. This can be anything from new agreements, hefty embargoes, breaking up of old trade alliances, etc. We can all see that starting to happen already.

Devil on Wands is an interesting one. These are the common people, the masses. It is easy to see how the media has become very polarized, and the invasion of social media itself dilutes any message which might be objective. So we have people who are "educated" by whatever propaganda comes their way, and this becomes gospel. One can say that the media has been weaponized, in a way, by overwhelming people with too many views, too many unsubstantiated claims, and too many frivolous lawsuits. The devil has, indeed, control of the masses.

On the other hand, the Devil is also a rebel. Cast to Hell because he dared say "no". Among the masses, there are those who will always rebel, try to find the truth, try to reclaim what has been lost.

Priestess on Swords. I'm really not sure what to make of this one. Something mysterious, intuitive, and fertile coming from conflict, I suppose?

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I need to take a break for now, I haven't thought about tarot in a while. But I'd like to come back and do the rest of the cards as well.

Thanks, glad you like my take.

I'm still a little stuck on the Priestess. I like your idea that a "shadowy world war" could be a part of it, but I get something more. Even if a new world war is actually between different opponents than we believe, for different reasons than we believe, and using different methods than we believe (cyber, etc) it is still not all that mysterious to me. I'm expecting it.

So maybe it doesn't have to do with war at all. I'm not saying there won't be war, that would be absurd. But perhaps the Priestess is not a sword in the hand, but a sword in the heart. It may be that the hidden, intuitive war is to be fought without shots or explosions (there will be no shortage of those). When the dust settles, the world will not end. Ideas are awfully hard to kill.

Part of what makes me think this is the next row of cards. It is almost as hopeful as the first row was depressing.

The Star I see significant as being beneath the choke of theocratic government (which may cloak as fanatical nationalism) being broken by the breakdown of communications and supply routes (Hierophant / Death). As the controlling government becomes less sustainable, those who have lost hope can begin to regain it. Those who have held on to hope can become inspired to build something new.

Which leads to the World. I see this as a shift from globalization to localization. Once governments, commerce, and communications break down and people are no longer oppressed, local groups will start to form, and experiment with new (and old) forms of governing.

And some of these groups will be successful. Strength as the ability to overcome obstacles, find courage, and stay calm in the face of conflict. In the aftermath of the breakdown of global society, human culture will survive.

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Still two more to go, time for a break.

I also want to add that seeing both "The Hierophant" (which is also known as The Pope or High Priest in other tarot decks) and "The Devil" within the same vicinity reminds me of this clip from the Castlevania anime.

https://youtu.be/BC1kke-WgLo?si=qYXx5VH3Ni-CObB2

I'll have to finish up tomorrow. I was hoping to get this all interpreted today (two more cards which I already have the feelings about) but it has been very busy day today.

Two more things I noticed about the 3 card row I pulled (Star, World, & Strength)

The stars they often draw on "The Star" card are actually the religous symbol of Inanna aka Ishtar, the ancient Mesopotamian Goddess of Love & War (the "Evening Star" symbol linked to her worship is actually the planet Venus.)

The Strength Card on the other hand, depicts a maiden goddess gently taming a lion. Lions were actually the sacred animals of Inanna.

As a powerful Goddess linked to the concept of both love AND war, I wonder what that means for "The World" in the center?

Maybe there's something to those symbols aswell?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_Ishtar

Interesting - the star being Ishtar and linking war to love actually fits in with the High Priestess (as I interpreted it) - the hidden war, the war of ideals. It could certainly be an interpretation that the 3rd row describes this concept in more detail, but I really got sort of an ... excuse the wordplay ... "epic epoch" for humanity.

The last row is what gave me that feeling. The Sun and the Wheel give the feeling of coming full circle. The Sun implies a sort of golden time. The societies which rebuilt start to develop into larger cities and towns. And the human population spreads and grows once more.

And the Wheel is full circle. I do see it as a cyclic reading, here. I interpret this as a re-establishment of a global economy and all it encompasses. After all, if humans survive, they will still be human

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Those last two cards really tinted my whole reading. I'm sure there are a lot of other ways to interpret these cards.

And I'm certain that any reading I give will be somewhat biased (after all, I'm still breathing). But that was fun