Analysing a card a day - Five of Pentacles

[Mind]

I've tried hard not to pull another sword card, but felt drawn to another 5... it's my psyche trying to balance all the negative images I think!

So, following on from the fact that 5's bring change and conflict especially through communication and intellect, I'm finding it hard again to see the intellectual of message in this card.

Wouldn't these people have preferred to stay in the safety/possible stagnation (as was mentioned yesterday) instead of this desperate scene. 5's can be seen as necessary change, that with hindsight would be worth having gone through... again not seeing that message in this card (yet!)

In the Universal Waite card, I see downright despair and possible abandonment... snow, walking in barefeet, hobbling with a broken leg (is this necessary!). I also see the pentacles in a tree position, which I don't know enough/anything about to comment on.

It is clearly a church window. Are they so down, they are walking right past, or are they going to the door for refuge. The man is looking up and the woman is looking down...

Do these people need to be helped or help themselves? Is it about finances or a state of mind?

 

[nisaba]

<grin> All my previous preliminary comments about fives and elements from teh previous thread stand. Feelings of loss would be more a Cups card, thoughts of loss would be more a Swords card. Pentacles are very solid cards, dealing with solid stuff. This is about a person's resources.

And being a Five, it's about change again.

Are you used to living with plenty? Then get worried.

Are you used to just scraping by, having to make do, not having enough of some kind of resource? Then take heart, change is on its way!

 

[Mind]

Hi Rachel!

So one wouldn't want this card to pop up if everything is currently rosey?! Is it totally up to the individual to use all resources to get out? I understand the basis of the meaning you are giving, which is really useful.

I wondering if that reflects in this particular image?

Is the church or their faith perhaps, a resource for them to get back on their feet. Is the snow, representing Winter (as pentacles are associated with) or does it just indicate harshness?

Why the barefeet/broken leg etc? Is the 5 the worst of it, in the middle of the deck... or is there another number that brings more significant change?

 

[nisaba]

(Rachel?)

Well ... I don't know how you can *stop* the card popping up if it is appropriate. Sometimes periods of reduced resources are entirely appropriate. A billionaire child of millionaire parents, for example, could learn a lot having to live on unemployment for six months, but that's a pretty extreme example to demonstrate what I mean.

Twenty-five years ago, I was earning a bomb - in a job that I hated and loathed. I eventually stopped, and took up a lesser-paid job where I was a lot more happy. More realistic example.

 

[Mind]

sorry, thought it was you I called Rachel yesterday (in honour of the knowledge and wisdom of Rachel Pollack)... never mind

And being a Five, it's about change again.

Are you used to living with plenty? Then get worried.

Are you used to just scraping by, having to make do, not having enough of some kind of resource? Then take heart, change is on its way!

Wasn't suggesting we can stop the card popping up, just suggested it might be unwelcome if it did, as per your comment above.

I was trying to understand more so I could draw additional meanings from this card other than the painful image of poverty and harsh conditions, if I was reading for someone else. How to put it into perspective ie. how one comes out of that? I'm assuming one just needs to be as resourceful as possible I guess the people on the Universal Waite card did go into the church and seek refuge afterall!

 

[nisaba]

Oh - grin - yes it was me, I just didn't think of that, thought it was a genuine mistaken identity.

Or perhaps base one's self-image and self-esteem on something other than material goods.

 

[Mind]

I like that... that's gone in the notebook.

How do you know if a card turns up as a warning or as a truth/fact. Or is there no fact, due to free will?

 

[nisaba]

<smile> There is no fact, due not only to free will but also to perceptual differences.

Tarot readings and Tarot cards show you tendencies, trends, probabilities. they are a bit like a river: you can jump in the water and just drift downstream (with the probabilities) and get to the end with relatively little effort. But if you don't like what you see downstream, you will never drift upstream. You need to swim as hard as you can against the flow.

 

[Mind]

lovely analogies again!