Four of Swords

The Four of Swords is a card about resting. It’s following that … yikes Three of Swords, so the message is to rest and recover after that painful thing. Traditionally, the Four of Swords is more of a quiet, rest, but I love the more playful connection to the song that I associate with this card.

Yes, The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars.

This song is all about taking time and taking a day for yourself. Doing whatever you feel like doing. What better way to rest and recharge than to spend a day doing whatever the fuck you want, or nothing at all.

“Oh Yes! I said it, I said it, I said it ’cause I can

Today I don’t feel like doing anything
I just wanna lay in my bed
Don’t feel like picking up my phone, so leave a message at the tone
‘Cause today I swear I’m not doing anything”

The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars

What I love about this song for this card is that it’s unapologetic about being “lazy”. Being lazy isn’t a bad thing – sometimes you need to give yourself a break.

Finally, this song is so happy and upbeat. It makes me want to dance around and enjoy my time of and my resting. Yeah, taking a break with the Four of Swords can be about sleeping more and getting more literal rest. But I much prefer the idea of tuning into yourself and doing whatever feels like fun. We don’t do that enough!

What do you think? Do you agree with my song association? Do you have another song that you associate with this card? Let me know!

IX – The Hermit

Musical Tarot Associations

The Hermit card is about taking time on your own to connect with yourself and do some self-reflection, away from the influence and distraction of others. The Hermit’s knowledge is an inner wisdom that comes from solitude.

What better place to be alone with your thoughts than the desert. The song that I associate with the Hermit is A Horse with No Name by America. It tells the story of a man going through the desert all by himself on a horse with no name.

Horse With No Name by America

What a Hermit card thing to say, “In the desert you can remember your name because there ain’t no one for to give you no pain.”

Then, as he spends day after day alone in the desert, observing and learning along the way. He connects with nature and starts to be more receptive to the subtleties of nature,

“The heat was hot and the ground was dry

But the air was full of sound”

Horse With No Name by America

Eventually he lets his horse go and realizes some of the bigger impacts that humans have on nature.

‘Under the cities lies a heart made of ground

But the humans will give no love”

Horse With No Name by America

So, in his desire to get away from other humans, he connected with himself, and gained wisdom about the world as well.

What do you think? What song do you associate with the Hermit card? What do you associate with the song Horse With No Name? Let me know.

Here’s a link to the Youtube playlist with all of the songs.

Learning Tarot through Associations – The Devil – Hotel California

Musical Tarot Associations

Rider-Waite Smith

The Devil. Scary Card right? Well… yes. Let’s get into it.

What is the Devil card about?

Earthly pleasures at best, and addiction at worst. The Devil card is about bad habits, addictions, and feeling like we’re trapped or being trapped by our addictions and bad habits. So, yes, you can get out, but it may take a lot of will and even outside help.

One of those addictions may be substance, materialism, obsession with someone or something, or just every day self-sabotage.

Let’s talk about “The Devil” (Baphomet in this card) another day. Today we’ll focus on the couple in the card. The woman has the grapes on her tail and the man has the fire on his tail – representing materialism and power. They have loose chains around their necks, so they’re free to go, sure, but the longer they stay, the harder it is to leave.

This brings us to my musical association of this card – Hotel California by the Eagles, released in 1977.

Why do I associated Hotel California with the Devil card?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwKMzoprvE

“You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.” This lyric is the best example of the card. Like the Devil in the card, the Night man in the song says that you can leave, but can you really?

Let’s go through the song

The song starts out as the main character is driving through the desert with the “Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air.” Apparently, colitas is a term for weed – which links us to addiction. Then the character stops at the Hotel California because he’s tired. He meets the woman of the story, and shows her vices of materialism, and hedonism.

And finally, we have this part of the song the cements the idea of the Devil and the association of the card for me. Between the “We are all just prisoners here, of our own device,” (those loose chains), and the people trying to kill the “beast” with their steely knives.

Anyway, what do you think? What song do you associate with the Devil card? Do you have other interpretations?

You can find a Youtube playlist with all of my Musical Tarot Associations here