This series is intended to help folks recognize the Minor Arcana in their day-to-day lives and the lives of the people around them. I’ll generally base my interpretations off Pamela Colman Smith’s illustrations in the Smith-Waite or Rider-Waite deck, as well as other illustrated decks.
As we progress through Spring, as we roll through Taurus season, we get an opportunity to work with the 5, 6, and 7 of Pentacles. Many groups have associated Tarot and Astrology. One school of thinking connects the Minor Arcana with the decans of the signs. The Decans are 3 divisions within each astrological sign based on the degrees; Decan 1 is 1º-10º, Decan 2 is 11º-20º, and Decan 3 is 21º-30º (For more information, check out Austin Coppock.)
In Tarot, the suit of Pentacles is often considered to be the suit of Earth. This suit is where we take a look at issues around our money, our homes, and our physical worlds. This is where we deal with what it takes to physically survive, live, prosper, and/or produce things in the real world. This is food in the fridge, gas in the car, money in the bank. It is also where we encounter issues and work around our self-worth.
The Aces of the suits are thought to represent the elemental powers themselves. From Ace through 10, we ask ourselves, “What do I need to do to keep myself alive today, this week, this month?” And we wrangle with what it is like to desire things and what we will do to get those things. But from Page to King, we ask ourselves, “What am I really creating through all this effort? What am I producing with all that I take in?”
As we move through the Pentacles, we will encounter Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn, the three Earth signs of the zodiac. Taurus is a fixed Earth sign, and its decans are assigned to 5, 6, and 7, the three cards “fixed” in the middle of the suit.
Taurus itself is connected to The Hierophant card (for more on that card check out The Hierophant and The Empress,) an archetype who represents the leader in us who wants to (and sometimes needs to) control things from above, like the Eye of God. The Minor Arcana connected to it are some of the real world elements of how we will begin to “create our dominion” in the physical world…
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