Five of Pentacles (Rider Waite Tarot)
First Impressions
I have a reluctant fascination for this card. Perhaps it’s a little perverse that I tend to look for the card that so identifies with material troubles, with poverty and misery and being out in the cold, given some of my own experiences. If I were superstitious I might think that my draw to this card has drawn these factors to me! But that may be putting the cart before the horse. Whenever I would do a reading in my earliest Tarot days, it was quite frequently regarding material matters, especially employment and finances. Will I get the job? Can we afford X? That kind of thing. So whenever the Five of Pentacles came up in a reading I was grimly amused. Ha ha, I guess the answer is no! And it got to be a recurring theme, something I came to look for.
There’s something very melodramatic about this card. Bad enough that the weather is bad and it’s snowing. But the people are poorly clothed and shod, and sick, and sad, and one of them is crippled and on crutches, and they’re out forlorn and lost after dark and every door seems to be shut to them. A little over-the-top, the pathos and wretchedness. And over it all, the beautiful stained glass window shining out as if to really rub it in with its hint of light and warmth.
I really like the Universal Waite recolouring of this card, showing better the glow of the window and better delineating the people against the backdrop. But in the original (rather than Original!) Rider Waite, the effect of the snow against the black walls has an almost sketchy effect that I think shows the figures not to their best effect. At first I didn’t like that effect, thinking it due to poor printing. But now I like it; it seems to underline the self-centred unhappiness, the desperation, the feeling of unreality (“this can’t be happening to me”) that the couple in the card must be feeling.
The woman is leading the way. She’s taller than the man, although she walks slightly bent over as if walking into the wind. She wears an orange shawl that is patched and torn in places; it’s over her head as well, and she clutches it tighter around her at the throat. Beneath it she wears blue and green rags, and her feet are bare. There is what seems to be a bandage partially wrapped around one foot, although it’s partially obscured by the snow that reaches her bare ankle bones. Head down, she seems sunk in her own misery.
The man at her heels is in even worse shape. He is shorter or at least further bent over due to the necessity of the crutches on which he leans. One foot is heavily bandaged, the other is wrapped in a rag. He also has a bandage wrapped around his head, and I wonder in some colourings of this deck if he is blind in one eye. His clothing is, if anything, even more ragged than the woman’s, and is primarily in blue and yellow. The most eccentric aspect of this guy is that he wears a bell around his neck on a cord or chain, like a cat who’s prone to chasing birds at the feeders in the yard. It’s odd. As he hobbles along he raises his head; I’m not sure whether it’s toward the window above them, or just raising his gaze heavenward in exasperation at the whole situation.
The window is brilliantly coloured, especially in constrast against the bleak black and snowy wall. It’s deep-set into the wall in a gray frame like a picture, and is in bright colours. Five large golden yellow pentacles grown on a stalk of the same colour (reminds me of the Eight of Disks in the Thoth deck, really). It’s surrounded by green leaves or grass, some blue that seems to hint at water, and the uppermost pentacle is flanked by two gray structures that recall the blocky towers on the Moon. The whole window is framed by alternating bars of red, blue and yellow colour. Other than this window, there is no apparent break or opening in the black wall behind the people.
Creator’s Notes
Waite says of this card:
Waite said:
Two mendicants in a snow-storm pass a lighted casement.
Well, whoopee. Not too illuminating, is it? But a couple of things are interesting about this very terse description. First is Waite’s use of the word “mendicants”. Because that does have a somewhat different connotation than “beggar”. Wikipedia says:
wikipedia said:
The term mendicant (from Latin: mendicans, "begging") refers to begging or relying on charitable donations, and is most widely used for religious followers or ascetics who rely exclusively on charity to survive.
In principle, mendicant orders or followers do not own property, either individually or collectively, and have taken a vow of poverty, in order that all their time and energy could be expended on practising or preaching their religion or way of life and serving the poor.
So if I take this correctly, Waite is saying that these miserable people
choose to be beggars? Poor, cold, likely hungry? It’s an interesting nuance to this card, and one that bears looking into later. The second interesting point is his use of the word “casement”, which I take to mean just any old window, and not that of a stained glass window in a church. We have always assumed, it seems, that this is a church the beggars are passing without hope of shelter or assistance. But is it?
Others’ Interpretations
Waite defines the card as:
Waite said:
Divinatory Meanings: The card foretells material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated--that is, destitution--or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers-wife, husband, friend, mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonized. Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.
I don’t know if I agree with the assessment of “some cartomancists”, although I have heard this before as well, that it’s a card of marriage. But in so many interpretations of this card, note how the afflicted parties are a
couple, not a lone person. I guess this is the
poorer of “for richer, for poorer”. I see the Rider Waite version as a couple who are stuck in it together, but each sunk in their own private misery. Not like the Morgan Greer card, wherein one poor and cold person is physically comforting the other. More on that later.
Under “Five of Coins” on Wikipedia, this card is interpreted as:
wikipedia said:
This card suggests a grim and hard situation, a quagmire which the subjects won't soon be out of. You may be ambivalent, trapped in indecision, and feeling left out or shut off, but determined.
The church windows imply charities and hopes, difficult to satisfy, but still worth fighting for. The right figure pictured isn't obviously friend or foe to the man on crutches, suggesting an uncertain relation. Obviously someone is in need of help, and you will be either drawn or repelled by someone or something in slow degrees. The bell around the crippled man's neck means the issue is insistent, and though you may want to ignore it, you should not, cannot, because ignoring only worsens a problem of severity.
This card foretells of material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated, that is, destitution, or otherwise; it is also a card of love and for lovers — wife, husband, friend, mistress — showing a state of concordance and affinity between the two figures.
Symbols and Attributes
From an astrological standpoint, the Five of Pentacles is ruled by Mercury in Taurus. Taurus the Bull is a stolid, stubborn Earth sign ruled by Venus, and is also associated with the Hierophant in the Tarot‘s Major Arcana. Mercury, however, is a planet of fast action and communication. Astrology really isn’t my strong point, so I went Googling to find out what this combination might mean.
astrology.about.com said:
When Mercury is in Taurus, the mind slows down to take in sensory perceptions. Those with this fixed earth Mercury in the natal chart build up impressions carefully. They speak slowly, often choosing each word like a mason chooses bricks for a foundation. What this Mercury loses in speed, is made up for in thoroughness. They want a solid grounding in what they're experiencing -- often in a hands-on way -- as they shape perceptions.
[…]
Mercury loses its restless edge, and becomes mesmerizingly grounded in Taurus. They speak with the authority of earthy wisdom, a knowing that comes from leaving no stone unturned. Their words come out full-bodied, rich, and rooted in the real world. They can be no-nonsense, which saves them time in the long run. They're not fantasizing about what could be, because they're enmeshed in what is. Sometimes this locks them into safe boxes, where the unproven or new is treated as suspect. […]
The bolded emphasis above is mine. Because before that point I had trouble relating the commendably cautious and weighted approach of Mercury in Taurus to the miserable scene in the Five of Pentacles. But I wonder now about the unproven or new that is treated as suspect; does that encompass the possible shelter they pass by? Is their suspicion of the new or unproven the cause of their current situation? Pentacles, as ever, are Earthbound and so relate to physical, material and financial matters. Fives introduce an upset to the stability of the Fours. Putting this all together I infer that this stubborn inflexibility, this suspicion of that which is novel or untried has left them ill-prepared to deal with this recent upset in their fortunes. And so now they’re out in the cold. Literally. No wonder the Golden Dawn titled this card the
Lord of Material Trouble.
The pair of miserable, sick, cold and likely hungry people are beggars, or as Waite has it, mendicants. Now mendicants has a different connotation, but if we look at them as mere beggars, we are basically referring to people who have hit rock bottom from a socio-economic standpoint. In earlier Tarot decks such as the Tarot de Marseille, le Mat was depicted as a beggar. In his case it was somehow liberating: “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”. But I get the feeling that these poor tattered wretches don’t see it that way. Sandra A. Thomson likened them to the myth of the gods Jupiter and Mercury coming to earth disguised as poor travellers and finding all doors but one closed to them. Waite refers to them as mendicants, as spiritual individuals who deliberately humble themselves as a way to forsake the material world and humble the spirit. But if that’s the case, I don’t see these two as achieving much in the way of spiritual enlightenment from the experience. Their faces are sad and helpless instead. They wear shades of orange (creativity, authority) blue (emotion, spirituality) and yellow (intellect) and green (growth; also the colour of Venus and Mercury). But I see precious little evidence of any of these. Maybe that’s why the colours and the clothes themselves are drab and tattered. Their misery and poverty eclipses all chances to expand and grow spiritually and intellectually. What was it Frank McCourt said in
‘Tis that his father had taught him as a child? “After a full belly, all is poetry.” The couple’s poverty, their unmet physical needs, pushes everything else to the background.
The woman seems more unhappy than physically uncomfortable. She makes me think of someone so sunk in her own private miseries that she is unconscious of the world around her. She is wallowing in her problems, and is focusing on them rather than on actually improving her situation. She doesn’t seem to be aware of her traveling companion, or the light from the window behind her. Her head is covered as if to shield herself from the elements and indeed the world.
The man bringing up the rear hobbles along on crutches and a heavily bandaged foot. We can liken this to shaky footing, a precarious grasp on the situation. The man is physically and emotionally crippled, so hindered by the present state of affairs that his forward motion is impeded. Because as slow and laborious as their movement is, it is still a valid point to note that they are moving forward. Sunk deep in misery though they are, they are seemingly looking for a way out of it, a way forward. Because the upset of the balance that is Five is only temporary - an unhappy interlude between the stability of the Four and the harmony of the Six.
He does seem marginally more aware of what’s going on than the woman; his head is raised as if he’s hesitating, about to say, “Hey, look, a window. Do you think we could knock on the door, get out of the cold … ?” But he doesn’t. Or at least his words are being disregarded. It’s as if his confidence, his assertiveness is also crippled. His head is bandaged, perhaps indicating harm or muffling to his mental faculties. I wonder if the intellect is subjugated to the current situation, that he is not using his mind to its greatest potential and this is contributing to or exacerbating the situation.
The man wears a bell around his neck, as if he were a cat. In medieval times this was apparently a common device of beggars, who would ring these bells to attract attention to themselves and their plight. Makes me think of street buskers playing their guitars on busy corners, or Salvation Army Santas at Christmas. It’s also been pointed out that lepers would ring bells to warn healthy passersby of their approach, and even criminals were sometimes required to do the same. Of course, bells are also rung in some rituals, to banish unfavorable influences, so it may be an attempt on the part of the man wearing it to change their ill fortune.
Overall it’s as if the man is aware of the situation, and would change it if he could. He looks for a way out, he notices the possibility of succour from the window, he girds himself with a bell to attract attention or change his luck. But the woman, she’s so sunk in her misery she doesn’t see any of this, or try to make things better. It’s as if she is clinging to her situation, embracing it, not allowing anything or anyone to help her or make it better.
The window itself is interesting. The way it’s set in the wall is as if it is a picture in a frame. The five pentacles grow on a stalk like ears of corn, branching out on either side. It’s easy to assume that once again Waite is sneaking a Tree of Life schematic in there. The pentacles on either side of the stalk represent the pillars of Mercy and Severity, the central stalk the middle path of equilibrium or balance. Now, I know next to nothing (yet) about Qabalah and the Tree of Life, but it’s a little interesting that the central stalk is bare yet culminates in a crowning pentacle. LRichard made an interesting observation about this earlier this year:
[…]I think it is significant that the Pentacles are arranged in the configuration of the first five Sephirot in the Tree of Life (rather than in the usual multiply symmetric pattern of the Five of Pentacles). This will be the Tree of Life in Asiah, the world of action, since the Sephirot are Pentacles . The top Sephirah, the Crown, would then probably be represented as visible light, as in the Sun-Crown in the Temperance card, on either side of which are the two mountains (instead of towers) between which the path of balance passes.
But it’s also as if the bulk of the growth, the plant, is underground; it’s hemmed in by greenery and it isn’t until the topmost part of the window that light and the towers that flank it are visible. So it’s growing toward the light. The topmost pentacle, the Crown as LRichard puts it, breaks the surface and emerges into the brilliant light of an Eastern sunrise framed by the towers. The towers, with the light in between, reminds me of those on Death, and the Moon as well. It underlines the duality and hence the pillars on the Tree of Life, but also kind of frames the way “into the light”. Into the rising sun, into rebirth and new chances. They just have to look up to see it, to traverse the ominous path between the two towers, to walk that fine line between Mercy and Severity. They’re already moving forward, so that’s half the battle.
There’s been much debate as to what the window itself, as a window, actually represents. It illuminates without actually warming, and may or may not be a church window, that said church may or may not be shut to the paupers … they point out that if it’s a church then there’s no door. No way for the people to find the warmth or comfort they need. But is it even a church? Waite never says so, one way or the other. He just calls the window a “casement”, which could be a church window or a fancy window in a home. And of course there must be a door; if not in that expanse of wall, then around the corner. But the couple don’t see it. We aren’t even sure if they are looking for it. The window shines over the couple, it casts light if not warmth or comfort. But they are blind to its beauty, to its possible comfort. So focused are they on their misery, their own needs, that beauty, illumination, faith are lost on them. If they did find the door, if they did knock to seek entrance and shelter, would they get it? We don’t know. This card is a snapshot of an instant in time, we don’t know what has happened before or what happens next.
This is listed as one of Pamela Colman Smith’s stage cards. But it’s the subtlest one of the lot; I’d never have picked up on it without it being pointed out to me! The way the snow drifts against the black wall of the building behind the couple seems to suggest the drape of theatre curtains. So whatever is the backdrop for this scene is yet to be revealed. Would it show what is really behind the stained glass window? Would it show that the window is in fact just a prop, a picture in a frame? Or would it indicate that the pair’s problems are of their own devising? Who knows? We will have to raise the curtain and find out. But past experience with stage cards might lead me to conclude that much of their misery is for show; that it’s in their own heads or of their own making.
My Interpretations
First and foremost, this is a card of material woes. Of being poor, hungry, cold. And when this card appears, it seems that these troubles eclipse all else. No chance of deriving comfort from one another, from faith or beauty. The whole world focuses on the cold feet, the empty belly. The unpaid bills or the empty fridge. When it appears, this card advises to keep on going, slog through it. There are brighter days ahead, you just have to get through this one. But don’t be a martyr: you don’t have to go it alone. Beware of clutching your miseries to you too tightly and making them worse than they actually are, be prepared to look for help and to
ask for help.
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