Seeing these two cards together in a reading, my first thought is that life has been a slog and you may be feeling close to burn out. But take heart. The energy of the Nine of Wands is determination and resilience. The querant has been working hard towards a goal that they are very close to accomplishing. Yes, it may very well have been a struggle, but they have the inner resources to follow through.
The Four of Swords reversed reinforces the continuing effort of the Nine of Wands. It’s time to keep the action going, keep forging ahead. However, the Four of Swords reversed can also indicate that this struggle might be wearing them down mentally. When you’ve been getting on with a project relentlessly, it can take a toll. Perhaps the querant hasn’t been taking care of themselves as well as they should be, putting all their energy into their mission and not so much on their own self-care. Now I’m thinking of Jack Nicholson typing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” endlessly in The Shining, although there were extenuating circumstances there with a haunted hotel and all. Hopefully things haven’t got to such a dire point for your querant, but there is an indication that they haven’t taken the time to recharge their batteries, so to speak. It may feel like there is no time to focus on their own needs, but time needs to be made to keep an inner balance that will enable to maintain their ability to persevere without getting run down.
Aside from self-care concerns, the overall outlook is good with this pair, though not particularly easy to achieve. Now I’m thinking of Bruce Willis in all those Die Hard movies, the state of his T-shirt inevitably reflecting the progress he’s made in a given film. The Nine of Wands probably has the same T-shirt underneath the tunic. It’s worth noting that the Nine of Wands can sometimes indicate a feeling that progress is not being made. It can be hard to appreciate small, incremental changes when you are in the thick of it. Perhaps you don’t want to tell the querant to check their T-shirt for signs of progress, but maybe there is something more significant to them that can reflect the milestones they’ve passed.
Remember that these are both minor arcana cards, which means that this is a temporary energy that will pass. Whatever the specific implications of these cards for the querant, it seems that their efforts will be successful.
Reiki Flow 