Tarot for the New Moon in Libra, October 4, 2013: Five of Pentacles


I drew the Five of Pentacles for the New Moon in Libra from the Legacy of the Divine deck. This card has been popping up for me quite often in readings. What I find as the general underlying theme is Lack.

I think it is appropriate for a Pentacle card to show up for a question regarding Libra. Libra is Venus ruled and encompasses our relationships. These can be your relationship with your significant other, the relationships you have with your enemies, your bosses, your job, your money...anything. It is that 3rd type of energy that is created when you bring your energy to the table and mix it up with an energy outside yourself.

I may be biased (as I do have quite a lot of Libra), but relationships are the coloring of life. No man or woman is an island. Although, the Hermit (Virgo) will tell you it is ok to withdrawal inward from time to time. Libra will tell you that insight is largely wasted if you hoard it for yourself and do not share it in some way. This brings the second more Taurus-y notion of Venus to mind—Value.

This side of Venus can be value in the way of money, self-value or moral value. With Libra involved, I'd say the value can be found in the “other” and the “other” can appreciate and grow from the value found in you. It is reciprocal for good or ill.
 
 

Our lady in the 5 of Pentacles is haggered, dirty and looks quite road weary. Her eyes are tired as she stares directly into you extending her cup to be filled. Behind her is a glowing window with five golden pentacles. She looks as if she could have just emerged from the coal mine with the miners as indicated by the Sabian of the New Moon (12 Libra), “Miners emerging from a mine.”

Will this downtrodden beggar be you? Or, will you meet her? Will you be feeling the lack of hunger, loneliness, poverty, exhaustion? Or will you meet someone else who is?

If you find yourself in this impoverished state, it may be time to drop what is left of your pride and reach out asking for help. If you meet her, help if you can. This interaction or budding “relationship” will lead us to the scene found in the 6 of Pentacles which depicts a charitable exchange and all the possible scenarios that accompany that type of thing.

I attended relationship counseling at one time and the focus of the particular meeting I'm thinking of was interdependent relationships. The therapist indicated that we need one another. When one person leans on the other too much and becomes dependent upon them, this makes the relationship itself lopsided. However, when two people stand on equal ground both giving and receiving at the same rate the weight of the relationship is distributed evenly and both find themselves on more solid ground.

The traditional versions of this card show a debilitated couple walking in the snow past a warm and inviting church. Are they too proud to ask for help? Have they asked for help and been rejected? Are they fostering their current state of lack unconsciously because this is the life they know? There are many possibilities.
 

I think we have all felt “lack” in one way or form. And, in that lack we have a choice. We can perpetuate the state with feeling sorry for ourselves. We can ask for assistance. But, what I've found the most fulfilling is offering assistance. If I can walk around looking for the resources I don't have, I can also bend down to assist someone who cannot get to their feet on their own.

Neither the travelers in the traditional deck nor the begging woman in the Legacy deck are naked. They have the immediate tools they need to move from place to place and do have some protection on their bodies from the elements. Each can remain in their down trodden state or they can realize that even in that state they have something to offer. They each have resources even if they may currently see them as meager.

The days leading up to the New Moon have the potential to be rocky. We may be tired and feel as if we've just crawled through a dark and desolate place by the time we reach the opening of that mine. It may seem as if we are alone in our need. The key will be to recognize that we are not. Each of us will have traveled our own road by then and our lack may seem less than that of someone else's and I'm sure we will observe others who seem to come through this time unscathed. That is not ours to judge. What does belong to us is the ability to change our minds and thus change our world. Ask for assistance. Don't sneer at the downtrodden woman. Often angels appear to us disguised in such a way. If you are the downtrodden, reach out find the blessing that is there because if you are able to feel a lack then there was a time when you were blessed with more. And, there are hidden blessings that remain.

Foster those interdependent relationships that create true value. We need one another. Otherwise, we'd been placed on the planet alone—which obviously is not the case.
 
 
 
 






Comments