5 and 10 pentacles

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 31 May 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

samantha	31 May 2005
Am I right in thinking that these two cards are just what they appear to be ? Opposite ends of the spectrum ( eg: not having ....and having : tho' this sounds like the 6 ?) or is there something else ? The qualities that one embodies seem to be the inverse of the other ( insecurity / security .......failure / success.......ostracised / accepted ). Can you think of anything that goes againsty this pattern ? The 10 (RWS) has the tree of life pattern and the 5 ? It looks like one of those jewish candleabres ? Is it symbolic in the same way that the 10 is ? I had these cards recently as representing " How you feel about the situation " , and I thought : But !! They are opposites . Still , I guess we are all contradictions.

Fulgour	31 May 2005
Every cloud has a silver lining? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Kiama	31 May 2005
It struck me recently how the suit of Pentacles fits quite nicely into the cycle that most stories, myths, legends, fairytales, and films go through... You start of with the Ace, with lots of potential. At the 2, the character is gradually learning who they are, what resources they've got, and starting to balance them. Inevitably, they discover what their resources are (like Luke Skywalker finds out he has Jedi blood from Obi Wan Kenobi) and they set out to use it in the 3 of Pentacles, where they start working hard. But then at the 4 of Pentacles, they start losing sight of things a bit, maybe getting too greedy, too arrogant, too selfish, etc, and they make one wrong move and bam! They're at the 5 of Pentacles: some calamity has befallen them. They are lost, alone, isolated/imprisoned, penniless. Without this calamity, all our films and fairytales would be very boring. And from here on, they spend the rest of the film desperately clambering back up, into some semblence of normality. At the 6 they try to balance things out, or get what they deserve/a morality lesson. At seven they start their hard work again, having learned their lesson, and at 8 they really apply themselves, working tirelessly. At 9 they've finally integrated what they've learned, are able to 'go it alone' and succeed in whatever task they set out to do, and because they succeed in this task they reach the 'happy ending' - the 10 of Pentacles. Of course, with new ideas on storytelling in recent decades, this doesn't always apply to stories, but in most traditional tales you'll find it. And I am using a RWS-based system here too, not the Thoth based. So for me, the 5 and 10 of Pentacles are often two sides of the same coin. Sometimes the 10 of Pentacles is what is lost when you reach the 5 of Pentacles, and what you seek to regain. Kiama

light2000	31 May 2005
I had these cards recently as representing " How you feel about the situation " , and I thought : But !! They are opposites . Still , I guess we are all contradictions. i cant help whith the simbolism of the 5 and 10 of pentacles because i dont have the right words at english to explain my point of view. i dont know your situation but this 2 cards together doenst mean that your family have money problems at the moment? when i say family i say house too. so there´s no money at the house, and the house need a help from the family. and so can say a lot more things like this. i dont know the spread that you use so i cant say what this cards are talking about. if is about money i already sait. if is at one point of love on the spread it´s talking about a poor relashionship that you have at the family, you have someone at the family that you are always shocking. if the cards came out first the 10 then the 5 is different. it means ( love) that your family is always united for better and for worst. if is money is talking about an inheritance or present that isnt so good like you expected. i cant help whith simbolism but i can tell some of the meaning of the cards ( at my point of view). the 10 talks about prizes, family, inheritance, the house, money... the 5 talks about poverty ( money, spiritual...), an illeness, but a help of one friend, this person isnt alone. i cant say more it lacks vocabulary to me.

Thirteen	31 May 2005
samantha wrote: I had these cards recently as representing " How you feel about the situation " , and I thought : But !! They are opposites . Still , I guess we are all contradictions. They aren't necessarily opposites. 5/pents and 9/pents would be more opposite, as 5/pents is uncomfortable poverty and 9/pents is comfortable wealth. 10/Pents, however, is often about legacies, about money sunk into other valuable things like (and I think this is what Light2000 was trying to say) a family house or antiques. Or it belongs to a parent or grandparent and will come down to you eventually. It's richness BEYOND mere money, valuable on more than just a physical level. With each generation, it becomes more priceless. A perfect example would be noblity in England who have no spending money and are in debt--but live in a magnificent, priceless ancestral home on valuable land. They can't sell the home; they can only pass onto the next generation--or open it up to the public for a price. Regarding the situation: I would say that you feel about the situation a kind of mixed frustration. On the one hand, it isn't giving you what you need right now. Something physical that will satisfy. Right now, you feel impoverished, deprived. At the same time, you don't feel you can "sell" what's valuable to you in order to alieviate this situation. What you DO have in hand is of inestimable value and you know you'd regret it later if you sell it to solve the current problem. This could, by the way, relate to physical relations as well--a person who feels lonely and desperate for a physical encounter...but knows that selling themselves out for a brief one-night-stand would devaluate themselves in the end.

The 5 and 10 pentacles thread was originally posted on 31 May 2005 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.