LS Secret Tarot - Five of Pentacles (is torturing me!)

hyatt

oh, you guys have been so helpful! Thanks I love the emotionally bankrupt. that's going in my journal too!
 

Jypsie

*much enlightened*

I feel I have not much to add to this right now, because everything I wanted to say and then some has already been added. I always looked at it as the man wanting the woman but not being able to have her, but realizing there are many more layers to the image, have found this to be the single most difficult card in the Secret deck. Not so much anymore.
 

lunakasha

Well.....I don't really have much to add this time, but I certainly did enjoy reading everyone's interpretations of this card....

The 5 of Pentacles did *jump out* at me when I first went through the deck....it struck me as being VERY distinct from the traditional RWS version (already mentioned here as poverty).

I like the idea of "emotionally bankrupt" (thx to whoever used that term!)....vanity, egotism....superficiality maybe??? They all seem to fit with the woman on the card. Not sure about the photographer, what his role is here....unless maybe he is capturing these aspects of her personality on film, so that by viewing the photograph, she will finally be able to *see* what others see in her....

:))Luna
 

genie

Secret Tarot--Five of Pentacles

Does it bother anybody else that there's the appearance of a camera at all in this deck?? I'm having such a difficult time grasping the meaning of the Five of Coins in this deck, and the camera just seems so anachronistic compared to the rest of the cards. It's the most difficult card I've had since beginning the tarot--which wasn't long ago at all. I'm a novice. I suppose this will be one of those decks that I just can't quite make fit my standby interpretations of cards. I guess that's good, I can't be too rigid. I need to be more flexible when using different decks. I just try to find common threads between the decks, but this card is the only one that I just can't quite make work in my current system. Maybe for that very reason I NEED this card--perhaps to open another door in my head.
 

DarkElectric

Wow, I see this card from a completely different perspective.
I was an aspiring model once, and this is what I see in this card: A young, possibly starstruck, and maybe a little bit desperate ingenue, trying to break into a rough business that is rife with competition, and pretty sparse in the ethics department. The threadbare photog might just be trying one last time to hitch his wagon to a star. If she breaks big, it might be his photo that makes it so. Then he'll get to share in the profit, finally making "the big break" too.

I see one person (the photog) who looks as if he has spent his whole life struggling. Maybe he's not that great a photog, or conversely, maybe he's an underrated but brilliant, and peniless artiste. The girl may or may not have talent, but it looks as if she's staking everything on this. Possibly, the photog, being down on his luck too, will accept what little money she can offer to have her photo taken. The ratty apartment is no high quality studio, and even the camera looks as if it's seen better days. I see these people as taking a big chance, possibly risking everything on a desperate gamble for fame and fortune that may, or may not, pan out. But they're going for it anyway. Each has their own reason for being there. And that reason is at the root of their secret hopes, dreams, wishes, and fears.

Being sold the illusion of fame, part and parcel can take it's toll on one's reality sensors. I know that from experience. It may or may not happen. But there are enough success stories out there to keep people trying anyway. And desperate people do just about anything. They even keep on dreaming in spite of the harsh reality of the situation, and overwhelming odds.

I gave up modeling, and went into a career in which I'll be GUARANTEED fame, fortune, all that stuff. Music. Yeah right! Some people never learn. Hahahahahahaha!
 

Sanctum_Priest

I see this is an extension of the traditional meaning of financial ruin -- when all is about to be lost she is trying to make herself immortal through having her photograph taken before things go really badly. It's a last fling with glamour.
 

Elendil

I can see this card as a representation of desperation. The young woman looks unhappy...and resigns herself to taking off her clothes in this tacky 'photographer's studio' to make a last dollar or two... How low has she been brought by circumstance?
 

Pam O

Anyone want to post a scan of this LS Secret Tarot 5 of pents?
(I don't have it personally since I foolishly let go of this deck a couple of years ago... duhh)

This thread caught my eye because I was just exploring more depth of the 5s today in search of more positive references to the 5s since so many RWS write ups neglect the positive angles of this cards messages...

Here are some interesting sites I was pondering earlier:
http://www.tarotteachings.com/meaning-of-five.html

http://supertarot.co.uk/minor-pentacles/five.htm
(note the tabs for different decks right under the line: "Five of Pentacles definitions"
SuperTarot, Rider-Waite, Thoth, etc)

http://www.tarotteachings.com/five-of-pentacles.html
 

Thirteen

Partnership?

Thanks to everyone in this thread. You allowed me to have a real breakthrough on this card, which has mystified me for years. I couldn't reconcile how it related to the usual 5/Pents. Neither person in the image seems to be in dire straits. And the idea that the photographer was an outsider looking in (as in the usual 5/Pents), didn't jive either. He is a photographer doing what he wants to do--take photos. Even if that's his only want of getting close to beautiful people, it's still a step up from the 5/Pents. He's in the same room with the woman, and he gets a picture out of it. The usual 5/Pents people can't even get in the same room as those with the wealth.

But then, thanks to this thread, it occurred to me to stop looking at the photographer and the woman as separate (she's the desperate one! No he is!...). Because in a photo session, model and photographer are on the same page--a pair. They need each other, right? Just like the two people out in the snow in the usual 5/Pents need each other.

So. She gets a photograph that she can use to gain "jobs" (In days of old, beautiful women made money just selling their pictures--gaining celebrity--everyone knew who they were--and rich men--like Lillie Langtry). And the photographer gains a picture that might get people into his studio, wanting their own photos taken ("He took that famous picture of Madame X!")

That is part of the 5/Pents--the two outside may not be getting help from those inside, but they are helping each other. Maybe this mis-matched pair in the photo studio is an example of that kind of partnership. If those in dire situations stick together, lean and rely on each other, they can survive.
 

gustavobernardes

Lost and fell like you don't diserve

Sorry to start a new thread so soon but I am being stalked by the 5 of Pentacles. I do not understand the card and I keep on choosing it in my daily draw. I teach photography so it fits that it is on my mind especially as I am preparing my students' final exam - but I know that there is more to it.
I am quite fond of the RW's version. I like the fact the miserable people are outside resting on a church. So close to comfort yet there is no door for them. I do not understand how it correlates to the traditional meaning. I guess it doesn't have to. I see a conceited woman who is surrounded by green (money,jealously of other's belongings). I also see a guy doing his job. He must do Ok because he is portly. The LWB says unreliable wishes, excessive ambitions. So what do you guys think about this card?

Hey, I guesse that if you are draw this card with some frequenci it's about your fear to lost you exam or being not sucessuful. This card is forcing you a see a other site about this situation because you are puttin yourself in a negative site. Fell like you dissrve to be a sucessful person.