RW Pentacles 7

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 18 Mar 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

joya250	18 Mar 2003
hi everyone. here goes: in the 7 of Pentacles, the guy's boots are mismatched colors. I hadn't paid this much attention, chalking it up to shading and shadowing... but in the book I'm currently reading the author suggests that the reason the gardener doesn't look too thrilled ( other than the the lack of immediate visable results) is that he hasn't been pursuing his "passion". He may have worked hard to produce his harvest... but still cannot find satisfaction in his job. Perhaps he is dissatisfied, but doesn't even know it. Maybe he thinks that's the way it is... you know, be a farmer, plant your crops... maybe he dreams of being a ballerina! You know what I'm getting at. This whole boot thing has given this card a whole new twist for me. As the author writes "A man who wears boots that don't match must be considered a nonconformist..." and that even in his successs "does not express his values, gifts and desires." hmmmph. makes sense. but wait, there's more! .... it just occured to me the comparasion between the 7 of Pents and the 7 of Wands. In the wands, as you know, this guy has one boot and one shoe. Again, the difference in footwear. so... what's the deal? Perhaps it relates to numerology... the number 7 sometimes representing illusion / deception. Who is he decieving? Himself? Is he sticking up for values that aren't grounded ... like the farmer who is perhaps in the illusion that his job is all there is. yes, I'm rambling. sorry! thoughts??? :) joy

Butterfly	18 Mar 2003
Hi, Joya, long time no see :-) I can remember having a fantastic discussion about this a long time ago on this board- you could try a search. From memory the discussion centred around brain dominance and also about how each side of the body represents male and female. I just realised that info is tantalisingly useless..... try a search lol

joya250	18 Mar 2003
hey butterfly. yah, been away for a while... but I'm back to tarot with a vengence! :D thanks for the suggestion. I do remember a discussion about the 7 of wands... let me try and dig up the 7 of pents. I'm not too skilled at the search function yet. hmmmm, left brain / right brain... didn't think of that...

Trogon	19 Mar 2003
Hi Joya and Butterfly, I think the previous thread y'all are looking for is this one; http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2113&highlight=shoe+AND+wands However, when I looked at the Seven of Pentacles in my Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, I don't really see a difference between the boots he's wearing. There might be a slight difference in shading, but not anything I would call significant enough to be symbolic - at least not to my mind. There are many, many things that are very symbolic in the RWS, but nothing that I've ever seen was that subtle. Pamela Smith seems to have put many somewhat obscure symbols in this Tarot deck but very few of them were were, to my way of thinking, very subtle. The most subtle things I usually pick out are things like the difference in the footwear on the 7 of Wands, or the difference between the robes of the priests on the Heirophant. However, these things are about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Well... there is the shaded skull on the one cup in the Seven of Cups... But I digress... My personal opinion is that the footwear on the gardner in the Seven of Pentacles appears different just because of shading for depth or texture. This can be seen in several other cards such as on the gown and mattress in the 9 of Swords, the clouds in The Tower, the angel's robe in Temperance, the woman's dress in the 2 of Swords, even the leaves in the 7 of Pentacles and many other things in many other cards. While there are symbolisms in this Tarot deck (the RWS) which are somewhat obscure and relatively subtle, when a difference in color or style of something was meant to be there... it is rather obvious. To my way of thinking. Those are my thoughts on the question... of course, actual mileage may differ.

joya250	20 Mar 2003
........ you know, I just got the Universal RW deck and looked at this card (7 pents)... and I don't notice the change of coloring at all.... haha. oh well. at least it made me look deeper and consider a deeper meaning from the card. :)

Rusty Neon	20 Mar 2003
In PKT on the subject of the 7 of Pentacles, Waite writes: "A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there." The man's mismatched boots might suggest that he is so focussed on his big projects that he fails to care about the little 'unimportant' things. Makes me think of the proverbial absent-minded professor. However, depending upon the circumstances, these little things could still end up being important, and so he neglects them at his peril.

Shower	21 Mar 2003
One boot on, one off I just came accross a picture on MSN and thought of this thread. The picture showed the feet of a few recruits all dripping wet from training. One of these recruits had one boot on and one off. Here's the caption under the pic. "A female Marine recruit stands dripping wet wearing only one boot Jan. 15 after swim lessons at the combat pool on Parris Island. Normally, recruits are required to swim in full gear, but a few lessons require them to swim with just one boot on." I would guess this could make swimming a little difficult, or a little awkard putting the swimmer off balance. I wonder if this could show that the struggle in the 7 of wands could be a bit more challenging, putting him at a disadvantage. As with the 7 of Pents, he looks as though one boot is dirty and one clean. He's got one foot in what he's doing and one out. So he's not completelty into what he's doing. Shower

The RW Pentacles 7 thread was originally posted on 18 Mar 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.