Gay Tarot - Sage of Coins

telcontar

from http://www.tarotpassages.com/gay-kh.htm
What better way to portray the caring, down-to-earth, fatherly figure that is the Sage of Coins, than a gardener watering his plants and weeding? He is down on his knees in the soil, toiling, working hard, and getting his hands dirty. This man is not afraid to work hard to get where he wants.

You can see the card here: http://www.tarotpassages.com/gayrd.htm

This is one of my favourite cards of the deck for sure! I can't say better why this is so than the reviewer at tarotpassages. I think this gardener is a perfect metaphor for the King of Coins. I like the serenity, the complete inner peace on his face. He's perfectly concentrated on watering the plants.

Something else: with his left hand, he grabs some weeds. You don't know if he holds them for support, just for the joy of touching them or if he wants to pull them out. I think either of them fits quite well ("for support" meaning even MORE stable than only kneeling) and hinting at all of them I can assume them all, which I like even more.
 

Lee

Sorry it takes so long for me to post replies sometimes. I like to try to take a few days to think about the card. The process of commenting on the cards in a rational manner is quite different than was the process of creating them, which was more intuitive rather than rational. Also, I try to give others the chance to respond first, so as not to monopolize the conversation.

This is one of my favorite cards as well! One of my core tarot beliefs is that magic is rooted in the ordinariness. Astraea captured this in her comment in the "Ecstatic" thread in the Tarot Decks forum: "apparent ordinariness is transformed, such that magic can happen -- or be found -- in each moment, even the difficult times."

I was probably influenced here by Rachel Pollack's text for the 10 of Pentacles in her 78DW book.

It was only after the fact that I realized that this card captures some important things about my lover (although he's a lot younger than the Sage!). He loves gardening and being outdoors. Landscaping is a very creative act for him, and he really does seem to draw sustenance from actually touching and working with plants and soil.

I like a lot what telcontar writes about pulling weeds, that it could also be seen as grasping the plants for support. Here's something else we can thank Antonella for; I had merely specified that he's pulling weeds.

As I mentioned in the reading which telcontar links to (and again, this is something I thought of at the time of the reading, therefore much later than when I created the card), the fence could indicate how important working with the earth is to this Sage, how it helps him keep the stresses and difficulties of the world at bay.

Just as a note of aesthetic appreciation, I think it's really cool that the overalls and knee patches are quite stylish! :) Or at least I think so. I'm no fashion maven.

-- Lee
 

Little Baron

Lee said:

Just as a note of aesthetic appreciation, I think it's really cool that the overalls and knee patches are quite stylish! :) Or at least I think so. I'm no fashion maven.

-- Lee

Hi Lee,

Even though I don't have the market totally cornered on style, I am a menswear fashion designer and yep, those patches are stylish. Like them alot. Also like the trousers on the '6 of Coins' guy. These guys obviously have the cash (or coins, should I say) to step out in style.

Yabs
 

tarotbear

I like this sage because he is an older man with a beard and hairy arms. O.K. - so I like Daddy bear types ~ so there! LOL! :p I have enough cubs calling me daddy ~ I'm not old enough to be Daddy! So many cubs, so little time ....

Anyway~

This is a wonderful depiction for the King of Pentacles. And I'm glad he's a bear!
 

iceclone

I pulled this card today. He looks like a very nice and down to earth guy. Just minding his own business, working peacefully, concentrating on the job at hand. His hobby=gardening is his form of meditation, a grounding activity for him that separates his other activities outside his home (the fence).

I wish I had been into tarot when this deck came out. Now, it seems everybody has moved on and all the posts here are one or two years old ago...