Lost in Archetypes

4 of Pentacles

Yesterday's card was the 4 of Pentacles, much to my amusement as I'd just spent a lot of time wondering if I ought to be a little more stingy with my money. Pentacles represent the manifestation of the things we desire (that is, in accordance with perfect will); the way we choose our reality; and, on a less abstract plane, money. The three keywords learntarot.com have for this card are "possessiveness, control, and blocked change." I like to refer to it as "the Ebenezer Scrooge card."

We see a squinty little man who sits on a big sturdy chair, surrounded by bags of money and with what is presumably his property looming in the background. He seems to be very wealthy, very powerful, and very selfish. He has four pentacles on his person: one under each foot, one at the crown of his head, and one clutched tightly between both hands. He seems to be somewhat of a hoarder. Here's a paraphrase of what my dad said once about this card:

"He has literally cut himself off from the ground, the earth. He has actually insulated himself from the earth, and he's done it with money."

Not a particularly admirable thing. But where's the good in this card? It teaches us thrift, I imagine. But it also does warn us to be careful. I have a tendency to be rather free about lending money to people, now that I have it. Growing up I often didn't have any pocket money and usually had to borrow from people if we were going out, and now I think I'm constantly trying to make up for all the money I borrowed over the years. People have warned me to be careful, but I know that if I became thrifty and budgety I'd go too far the other way. That's the kind of personality I have. So I need to keep an eye out for the middle ground.

All right, blocked change. Refusing to see the possibilities for a new and possibly better way of doing things. Not just financially speaking, but in terms of manifesting reality. I've been studying Wicca and witchcraft for a while now, and one of the things holding me back is that I feel completely powerless. Perhaps there's just a better way I'm not seeing? I will definitely try to be open-minded.

And that's about it for that card. No big opportunities to use its energy yesterday. I promise I'll try to post an entry about today's card today.