Unorthodox Intuitive Flash - 9 of Pents as a "Kept Woman"

Tryska

So I was working with a RWS Clone last night, and this came to me.

The woman in the 9 of pents struck me as Kept. Not against her will, maybe like a courtesan that finally got the guy to give her everything she wants and she doesn't have to hustle anymore. Or the Manor lady, who gets to stay at home, and enjoys being able to do whatever she wants without a care in the world.

I think it's the fence that keeps throwing me - because it seems like it's there to keep her on property more than to keep the outside from coming in. She has no need to leave. But at the same time she's like a treasured possession - a peacock on the grounds.

I don't know that I feel this is a negative thing - sometimes people don't want the freedom to roam, or have gotten tired of roaming and want to jsut relax inside the gates. I just get the feeling she's not wholly solitary - there's an unseen benefactor of some sort keeping her in style. What do y'all think of this idea? Way off base?
 

Grizabella

I posted about the 9 of Pentacles woman being a kept woman a month or so ago here on the forum. I guess it's true that "great minds think alike", huh? :D

I do think the card can mean that, although the more common meaning is that she's secure in her own right and if she were a kept woman, she really wouldn't be, would she? She'd be dependent on the man who was keeping her and that's not independence and security in her own right in the most technical sense. I read the cards by what comes to me, though, rather than just relying on the numerical system and traditional meanings, so I did get that meaning a time or two.
 

ana luisa

I agree with you up to a point. I guess it really depends on the deck you´re using. If you take the original RW, then, you may have this feel but if you look at the 9 of pentacles in the Victorian Romantic and the Tarot of Dreams, the "feel" changes a lot. The Victorian lady looks very bored almost unhappy with life although she does seem to have everything money can buy. The one in the tarot of Dreams looks like a girl who hasn´t become a woman yet, who is "protected" from attacks from the outside world ( a touch of virginity, here). What they all seem to share is a sense of being contained or held back be it by themselves or someone else. Back, at you, what do you think?

P.S.- If you don´t have these decks, have a look at the victorian in its site

http://www.victorianromantic.com/

and the Tarot of Dreams

http://169.34.198.122/Packs/ (click on the deck and look for number 72 )

Sorry, I´m not allowed to post.
 

Tryska

*lol* Solitaire I totally should have done a search before I posted. I'm going to go do one now.

ana luisa - i agree with the feeling of containment. the theme of being kept safe and protected - and i guess the intent and pleasure of that depends on the deck.

Also maybe this intuitive flash came because I was reading on my own sitaution trying to puzzle out a lovers words and intent - and this was the outcome card. It seemed at the time to connote safety and possessiveness, altho not necessarily in a harmful way.

But i've always thought of this card as sort of caged. sometimes she's caging herself, soemtimes she's just enjoying the cage.
 

Satori

this card came up for my two little girls the other night. They both asked what would they be like in the future...and well I don't think the cards are saying they will be kept, but that they are now being kept...by me! ;) I don't even think the cards were saying they'd be single...I think it was more of a gentle tsk tsk...because they are little wee ones and home with me, with all of their needs being taken care of...so yes, kept!
 

Alissa

We say "kept woman" as if that were a bad thing.... })

I've definitely read this card as the "kept woman" in some readings.

Whether or not she's happy about that is usually as dynamic and changing as any other Tarot card. In some readings, it is ideal. In others, it stifles her to the point of strangulation.

But being "kept" doesn't have to connote sadness or... dysfunction.
 

Tryska

Alissa said:
We say "kept woman" as if that were a bad thing.... })

I've definitely read this card as the "kept woman" in some readings.

Whether or not she's happy about that is usually as dynamic and changing as any other Tarot card. In some readings, it is ideal. In others, it stifles her to the point of strangulation.

But being "kept" doesn't have to connote sadness or... dysfunction.
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i wholeheartedly agree. my inner feminist struggles with this, but sometimes i think being kept is exactly what one needs.
 

Tryska

Solitaire* said:
I posted about the 9 of Pentacles woman being a kept woman a month or so ago here on the forum. I guess it's true that "great minds think alike", huh? :D
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Solitaire - try as I might I can't seem to find this thread of yours. :( Could you lead me in the right direction please?
 

Lewen

I agree that in some cases the card could mean being a "kept" woman (and not always in the bad way, great point!)

For a while the nine of pentacles kept showing up while I was trying to get on my feet. I always felt that the card meant "self-imposed" solitude. At that time, I had all I needed and enjoyed my self-imposed solitude. It almost made it hard for me to want to "get out there and get back into the swing of things" so to speak.

My take sometimes (depending on the other cards) is that the woman in the Nine of Pents has all that she needs (either hard-earned by herself and she's enjoying the fruits of her labor or given to her). It would seem to me that she knows there's a world out there (fence, hedge whatever is on the card that presents a barrier) but she's content to piddle around in her garden. The Robin Wood deck has her picking berries and basically, to me, she looks like she's just enjoying the solitude, knowing that she can be "out there" if she wanted to.

Interesting. I look forward to everyone's responses.

Lewen
 

Tryska

Lewen said:
I agree that in some cases the card could mean being a "kept" woman (and not always in the bad way, great point!)

For a while the nine of pentacles kept showing up while I was trying to get on my feet. I always felt that the card meant "self-imposed" solitude. At that time, I had all I needed and enjoyed my self-imposed solitude. It almost made it hard for me to want to "get out there and get back into the swing of things" so to speak.

My take sometimes (depending on the other cards) is that the woman in the Nine of Pents has all that she needs (either hard-earned by herself and she's enjoying the fruits of her labor or given to her). It would seem to me that she knows there's a world out there (fence, hedge whatever is on the card that presents a barrier) but she's content to piddle around in her garden. The Robin Wood deck has her picking berries and basically, to me, she looks like she's just enjoying the solitude, knowing that she can be "out there" if she wanted to.

Interesting. I look forward to everyone's responses.

Lewen
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so let me ask you - if you were to see this as the outcome card for what your lover really wants from you - how would you read it? (presuming the other cards, don't support a "leave her alone" understanding)
 
Still struggling with EDs ..... sigh Devil as shadow - getting the job?