Mythic Tarot - Four Pentacles

rwcarter

Standing behind his young nephew Talos, Daedelus clutches four pentacles to himself as he stares angrily at the boy. Talos is completing a golden ornament that he has created.

Overview
  • being too consciously/anxiously attached to one’s money or worldly possessions
  • the flow of one’s energy to develop material success gets dammed up and begins to stagnate
  • a blow to one’s self-worth or self-value
  • when one’s self-worth is embedded in what one can achieve or how successful one can be, any threat to the latter is a threat to the former
  • money is not the root of all evil, but the value that men place on money causes them to do evil
  • a challenge from another should spur one on to further develop their own talents
  • there’s usually enough room for more than one person to be successful in the same field
  • clinging too tightly to one’s resources, leading to stagnation of energy and the inability to make future gains
  • lack of confidence and a fear of letting go that can result in both material and emotional stagnation
  • holding onto what one has at the expense of embracing that which is new and fresh
  • lack of emotional generosity
Random Thoughts
  • jealousy
  • unwillingness to give of self
  • finding one’s position usurped by one who is younger and more talented
  • not being able to share the wealth, accomplishment, success, etc.
  • lack of confidence in one’s abilities to face competition
  • feeling inadequate
  • when faced with competition, one must work on what they can bring to the table that the other can’t
  • Metaphors/Proverbs:
    • “a good reputation is worth more than money” means that a good reputation is worth more than anything else
    • “the love of money is the root of all evil” means that greed and avarice are the cause of many ills in the world
    • “money isn’t everything” means that money isn’t all that matters

Interestingly enough when I was trying to decide what image should grace the cover of the box I was going to make for the deck, I decided to let the deck tell me which image it wanted on the box. This is the card that came up. And this was long before I got around to studying the card. I ended up making the box way too big for the cards (I was trying to leave enough room for the spreadcloth too) so abandoned the idea that it would be for the deck but still completed the box without any image. Still gotta get around to making the replacement though....

Keyword/phrase from my workbook on 14Mar92 was "stagnation/envy".

Rodney