What Number Four Can Tell Us

As April is the fourth month of the year, I thought it woud be timely to take a look at the number four in all its permutations.

If someone has a Destiny or Expressive number which corresponds to '4' this is what you can pretty much expect.  That person will be a worker bee who applies themselves with great diligence to whatever task they are working on.  '4s' are practical and apprciate detail -oriented work.  Economists, accountants or even surgeons would make a good fit as an occupation for a '4'.  On the other hand, their negative traits include an inflexibility, a stodginess or an narrow-mindedness. '4s' have a hard time letting their hair down, so to speak. This is also the number of tradition and conventionality.

In China, the number '4' is reviled as it is a homophone for their word for 'death' and is shunned. As a consequence, many of their numbered products lines skip the '4' all together. And in East Asia, some buildings omit the fourth floor just as many buildings in Western cultures omit the number thirteen which, by the way, is composed of one plus three which equals four. Hence, our aversion to the number thirteen!

The number four corresponds to the Emperor in the Major Arcana and his meaning is obvious. He symbolizes the Father, authority and structure. In a reading,  the Emperor may evoke a line of questioning which explores a person's relationship to their own father and to authority in general. What was their father like?  Are they a father?  How are they different or the same to their own father?  What emotional legacy did their father leave to them? And so on.

Lastly, we encounter the number four in our language on a daily basis e.g.,  four square meals, four winds, four cornors of the earth, four directions, the four quarters to a football game,  and the four seasons.  There is something uniquely satisfying about the number four. It's a self-contained and contented number.