Fairy Lights: Five of Pentacles

This is one of the cards in this deck that clearly deviates from the traditional RWS meaning where this is usually the Card of Hard Times.
The LWB says : Help the less fortunate as an act of gratefulness for your own blessings. This does not seem to suit the picture very well either unless that one merman is going somewhere to help someone and give away some of his treasures. But I doubt that.

The merpeople are playing in shallow water by the shore and admiring their jewels and golden dishes. They all look happy, the day looks warm and there are no clouds in the sky. There seems to be four of them, one man, one woman and two others who are barely visible. They are half reptiles, so at least partly cold blooded.


* Remember to count your blessings!
* Are you being cold or unfeeling in some way?
* Are you being too greedy and possessive about something?
* Remember to look at the bigger picture and not just in front of you!

Hemera, I think that the meaning is connected with the RWS through a lack of giving. In the RWS pents there are people who are poor and who won't or can't ask for help (or who aren't given it). In this card there are people who could give help, but who are keeping everything for themselves.

So you could be on hard times looking at this lot as they enjoy their own wealth.

Good point! I always just associate the Six of Pents with giving and being given to but you are right. This card is also about possessions and here we have people (well, merpeople) showing off their wealth and probably not wanting to give it to anyone.

It just occurred to me that their wealth could also be imaginary, a sort of a mirage that will vanish into thin air if someone should get too close?

Could be. Lure the needy and the greedy in with the appearance of wealth and then eat them instead (or whatever).

I tend to completely avoid trying to stuff these cards into traditional RWS meanings. It just doesn't work sometimes. TBH, though I do love the LWB for this, I also don't really see the connection there. For me, when this card comes up, I read it as ... Definitely more similar to a traditional 4 of Cups, but with more action. Dissatisfaction with where you're at, but a drive to explore other options. The Mer-man is moving out of his element, but I get the feeling he does this sort of thing all the time. A boundry pusher, one of those who gets himself into scrapes but always seems to come out on top with a fabulous story for it. An attention-seeker. That's what I take from this card, at least...

ETA: OOHHHHH I won't say it here, but if you check out the pairing card, the LWB suddenly makes sense. That's all I'll say here...