Page of Pentacles (Rider Waite Tarot)
First Impressions
I’ve always liked the Page of Pentacles. The offspring, a Taurus and still a small child, is represented by this card (astrologically, at least, being an Earth sign; personality wise she’s a Page of Wands all the way), and it’s how I was as a child, for all that I’m a Fire sign. Not that this is my favourite rendition, because I’ve always much preferred the Robin Wood Tarot’s rendition. But I like it nonetheless.
Against a yellow sky (again), a slender and dark-haired youth stands on the edge of a grassy meadow that overlooks a grove of trees, a plowed field and distant mountain range. Small red and yellow flowers grow near his booted feet. He wears tan shirt and leggings underneath a green tunic belted by a tan sash. He’s also got a red hat on his head that drapes elaborately and hangs down to his shoulder.
There’s a large gold pentacle in his hands, bigger than his head. Or is it in his hands? It seems to be just at the edge of his fingertips as if it’s flying, just leaving his hands. And it’s on this pentacle that his whole focus is directed. He smiles as he looks at it, as though it interests him or pleases him to see it fly.
What do I make of this card when I see it? Well, children, obviously, and childlike fascination. The way he looks at the pentacle and holds it makes me think of a baby bird, like he’s setting it free to fly for the first time. So a love of and interest in nature as well.
Creator’s Notes
In
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot Waite says:
Waite said:
A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, insensible of that which is about him.
I don’t know if it
hovers really, but it could be. As for the second sentence, I agree wholeheartedly. He does move slowly, if he moves at all. How speedy is Earth, anyway, with respect to the rest of the elements? Not at all. And he is definitely insensible of his surroundings, of anything other than that pentacle. A daydreamer? Most likely.
Others’ Interpretations
As far as divination goes, Waite says that this card means:
Waite said:
Divinatory Meanings: Application, study, scholarship, reflection another reading says news, messages and the bringer thereof; also rule, management. Reversed: Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury; unfavourable news.
In her
Learning the Tarot course, Joan Bunning says:
Bunning said:
The Page of Pentacles is a messenger bringing you opportunities for prosperity. He delivers real chances to experience wealth, abundance, security and solid achievement - the wonders of the Pentacles suit. In your readings, this Page suggests that an opening may appear that promises enrichment, comfort, trust or the chance to make your dreams real. When you see such a chance, act on it!
The Page of Pentacles can also stand for a child or young-at-heart adult whose interactions with you involve stability, trust, commitment, safety and material needs. Sometimes the Page of Pentacles implies that your entire situation is suffused with the spirit of physical enjoyment. At such times, feel free to have fun with your body, skills and possessions in a lighthearted way. Revel in the delights of being alive on Earth at this time.
Symbols and Attributes
Astrologically, Pages are not assigned to a particular sign. But they embody their suit element; in this case, Earth. The Golden Dawn must have been thinking of this when they titled the card “Princess of the Echoing Hills, Rose of the Palace of Earth”. Of course, it’s a very feminine title, but Pamela Colman Smith was always fond of androgynous figures in her cards, and many other decks (Robin Wood, World Spirit, Thoth) do show Pages as young girls, as Princesses.
Elementally the Page of Pentacles is in fact the Earth of Earth. It makes me think of a seed or fertilizer (as unromantic as that sounds). Of the great potential for growth. There’s so much potential here! Almost anything that is planted here would germinate and come to fruition. Ideas, dreams, plans. But as the Earthiest of the court cards in this respect, it embodies practicality. So much for the dreamer aspect, you’d think.
In the Tarot, at least in the Rider Waite tradition, Pages are youths and novices, and they are also students; what I took to be dreaminess may simply be intent study. Rachel Pollack said that the practicality of the Pentacles manifests here as the actual work of the student. Considering my own university studies, I think of studying, writing exams, lab work, menial grunt work on unpaid internships, late nights with the textbooks and the coffee pot … no lofty Ivory Tower for this student!
The Page shown here wears boots, rather than soft shoes. All the better for tramping the fields and emphasizing his work ethic and connection to nature. Boots, shirt and leggings are all brown. Brown represents not only this Page’s double connection to Earth, but also groundedness. His tunic is the green of new growth, further underlining the Page connection and the fertile growth of Earth. The tunic is belted tightly about the waist with a brown sash wrapped around. At least, it looks like a sash rather than a belt or girdle, but its ends are tucked in neatly. No dangling ends, nothing left hanging for this Page, who pays great attention to detail. Sandra A. Thomson suggests that a belt represents a separation between the higher (the body) and the lower (the mind). But the earthy brown of the sash here softens that somewhat. I think mind and body, the emotional/intellectual/spiritual and the physical/mundane, work together quite well, the connection is well grounded.
His cap is an unusual shape, with a long drape that falls over one shoulder. Fire Cat has referred to it as the “hood of a scholar”; I wonder if it’s a reference to the same liripipe or academic hood worn by the boy in the Six of Cups. It does remind me, shape wise, of the hat worn by those receiving PhDs or honorary doctorates. So another reference to his status as a student. The choice of red is interesting. Normally I associate red with passion, confidence and action. Strange in this card, though. I always thought of this Page as shy. But all the red is in his hat, so refers to his head. Perhaps he has a great deal of confidence in his own intelligence and abilities. Or if not, he should.
His expression, as he gazes at the pentacle, is contented and focused. Some have likened it to an oracle, a crystal ball in which he sees his future. I don’t know if I see that. But just as the innocent Fool is totally engrossed in the sensations of the day to the exclusion of the danger he’s in at the edge of the cliff, so is the Page of Pentacles oblivious to anything other than that pentacle.
Why is it seeming to float like that? If it’s an idea, then it’s intangible. Of the intellect and therefore associated with Air, it would float like a balloon. I wonder if that was what this is trying to illustrate. It makes as much sense to me as anything. Airy and elusive ideas that dance just beyond reach of the fingertips, it might require considerable focus and attention to bring it within reach, to the practical realm.
With his boots on the grass, the Page of Pentacles is one with nature and well grounded. But does he pay attention? No, his focus is entirely on the pentacle. The flowers at his feet are unnoticed and soon to be stepped on unless he notices them. He might have his feet on the ground, but is he truly attuned to it? Not really. He is blind to the beauty around him. Again, oblivious like the Fool. But as was pointed out on the forum before, at least the Fool must have noticed the flowers; he stopped to pick one on his way to the edge of the cliff. Not this Page, though. It’s as if nothing exists in the world other than that pentacle.
Behind him, and unnoticed, stands a small copse of trees. Quite singular, as it is not a forest or random, but a quite singular round knot of trees standing alone. Groves of trees represent not just order and so-called civilization (clearly this didn’t happen by accident; the trees would have had to be planted like that or deliberately spared when the rest of the trees were cleared away), but also sanctuary. They are sometimes found planted to give shelter from the wind around a home. I’m also reminded somehow of the sacred groves of the Druids. Whichever theory you prefer, it would certainly represent the hand of man rather than nature, and so the manifestation of ideas and the application of physical work over the natural world.
The same might be said for the plowed fields on the other side of the middle distance in this card. They speak not only of the labour required to ready the fields for planting, the attention and care, but also the need for patience. As we saw in the Seven of Pentacles, it doesn’t take overnight to go from planting to harvest. Things have to run their natural course, instant gratification is not to be found in the suit of Pentacles. The field is receptive, ready to receive the seed just as the Page of Pentacles, as any Page, really, is a thirsty little sponge soaking up knowledge and experience. Another thought: when the field is plowed and ready for planting, there is great potential. Anything could grow there. A humble little subsistence lot of a few potatoes and beets, or a cash crop. Like the Page himself, in these early stages anything is possible; there’s endless potential.
Mountains, particularly those in the distance, represent challenges and goals. Further off, they represent quests (usually of a spiritual nature). They indicate how far one has to go to reach them. In this Page’s case, I see their presence in the distance as representing the goal of his education or degree or even the job that is the end prize result of that education. The Page of Pentacles is just starting out; the goal is a long way off. But he can see it, he knows that it’s there.
And the yellow sky? I’ve seen it said that yellow is a sign of intelligence, intellect. Also with contentment. So it may be a positive sign for the Page, that he is content in his own little world of daydreams or studies, happy with his work and his studies, secure in his own intelligence without being conceited or cocky about it.
My Interpretations
I’m puzzled. I’d always considered the Page of Pentacles to be a shy character. But in the course of my analysis of Waite’s and Colman Smith’s symbolism in this card, I’m not getting that so much. Granted, I’m not getting that he’s
not shy, either. But, well, I’m not sure anymore where the whole idea even came from in the first place!
Because the figure is a Page, I’m still inclined to see it in a reading as a child or youth, a student or one just starting out on a particular path. I also see childlike innocence, perhaps naïveté. And in the abstract, messages. Because after all, that’s what a Page did in medieval times: ran messages for the royal family. Given the Earthy nature of the Pentacle suit, I naturally gravitate toward messages being of a practical or material nature. About money, about property, about work.
But what’s specific to this Page? More than any other, a student or novice in his field. A dreamer, or at least one who becomes lost in his thoughts and ideas. The Page of Pentacles is well grounded, a sensible sort, but tends to block out the rest of the world when considering something. But there’s great potential there. Vast, really. And still a sense of childlike wonder.
