Our February tarot circle focused on the Magician, a card I’d been hoping to talk about more because of its relationship to the planet Mercury. I figured it would be timely given that Mercury had recently gone retrograde.

During the more active part of the circle we did single-card draws to bring up themes with our individual Magician/Mercury power. A lot of big major arcana themes came up around the table. Given my Mercury-ruled chart (I’m a Virgo rising) I was a little surprised to draw the rather demure Four of swords for mine.

I don’t know what card I expected to pull, but it wasn’t that one. My first thought was that the theme related to meditation, and indeed I’d had a somewhat surprising emotional experience during one of my recent meditation sessions. Plenty to dig into there.

The very next day, though, I then saw this from the always-on Jessica Dore.

So that resonated!

When the card once again popped up during a daily draw the day after that, I decided to take the advice I’d given earlier during tarot circle and draw a few more associations from my astrological mandala deck.

I don’t often use this deck for readings because the square-shaped cards are difficult to shuffle, but I’ve found it to be a fantastic resource over the years. I don’t fully understand all the elements at play on each card, but what I often do when I’m trying to pull more information out of a minor arcana card is pull the Majors that are indicated. The Four of swords here is specifically tied to Mercury (!) and Libra, which gives us the Magician and Justice.

The idea of balance suddenly became quite clear to me on seeing this. Libra doesn’t always speak to me as a Pisces Mercury/Sun. Ask anyone who’s watched me cook: I rarely measure anything (or follow directions). I look at what’s around and pull things together from there.

The same is true for information processing, and this is where that internally-focused Four becomes so interesting. Pisces Mercury (which, you may recall, is what we’re all collectively retrograding through right now) is super-sensitive to the mood in the room, so much so that they can easily muddle the different signals. If others are stressed or anxious, it’s common to then take on that energy and react in a similar manner.

The Four is a reminder to find your center amid the noise. Being highly sensitive is a gift of sorts, but it will quickly diminish your power if you let it scatter. Turn off the receiver once in a while and tune in to what’s happening internally. That’s where the balance comes in; it’s important to do justice to that inner voice and give it a fair shot at being heard and processed, instead of being swayed by everything you hear around you and jumping into a reactive mode.