Dancing with the Queen of Pentacles

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For this Tarot Blog Hop, our wrangler, Joanna Ash of Sun Goddess Tarot, has asked us to answer this question.

“How do you Channel your Inner Queen of Pentacles?”

The Queen of Pentacles is the Earth Queen, much like the Empress.

The Queen of Pentacles is about hearth and home, or work and money.

I see her through a larger lens, too.

So often the suit of Pentacles in tarot gets short shrift. We think of it only as “the money.” But the element of Earth is about so much more than money. The element of Earth is about resources, and groundedness and stability.

I honor the Queen of Pentacles as a representation of Gaia, our Mother Earth, who supports and sustains us.

So often in life we don’t feel supported or sustained. Instead, we feel anxious and insecure.

I place my trust in the abundance of our Mother Earth. I surrender to the cycles of the seasons, and to the cycles of life.

My inner Queen of Pentacles is that spark of divinity within me that connects me to the Earth and sustains me.

My inner Queen of Pentacles is that in which I place my trust.

I don’t work a “normal” job. (I’m a full-time tarot professional.)

I don’t live in a “normal” home. (I live full-time in a resort.)

For most people, the Queen of Pentacles is about keeping home and making money. I do those things, but not the way most people do.

I dance through life, and the Queen of Pentacles dances with me, making sure I have exactly what I need.

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Lammas Tarot Blog Hop: My Harvest Table

Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop. This time around we have twenty writers all blogging on the same topic. Perhaps you are visiting me from Alison Coals' blog. When you finish here, hop over to Chloe's Celtic Lenormand blog. If you find a break in the chain, visit the Master List.

Today is Lammas, also known as Lughnassad. It is the cross-quarter day between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox. It time for the Tarot Blog Hop once again.

At this turn of the Wheel we celebrate the first harvest. Our wrangler, Arwen, has given us our topic. We are all to answer this question in whatever way we see fit.

What can I share from my table to enrich my community?

I thought it would be fun to do a tarot spread to answer that question.

I divided the tarot deck into its suits. I decided to draw one card from each suit to provide the reading. The card I drew from the Major Arcana would represent my table. The Cups card would be the beverage. The veggies would be represented by the Wands. The Pentacles would supply the grains and the Swords would be the proteins.

I am a member of many communities. Since this is the Tarot Blog Hop I wanted to focus this question specifically on my tarot community of peers, mentors, students, clients and friends.

My table is the platform on which my work is based. The card I pulled to represent that table is the Hierophant.

To me this says that my work, and my sharing in my community, is based on the expertise and spiritual wisdom gleaned from two decades of professional tarot, as well as from the wisdom of my own teachers and mentors. The Hierophant is often about written teachings. When I first started learning tarot the books by Eden Gray and Mary K. Greer were invaluable to my journey. Now I write tarot books that offer lessons to assist the journeys of others. I also offer webinars, many of them free, to my community. Within the community, my table is teaching - the teaching I have received and the teaching I now offer.

On the table we have beverages. What libation can I pour for my community? From the suit of Cups I drew the Page of Cups.

I love this card. There are so many references that are appropriate here. On one hand I see this card as simply “A message of love.” It reminds me that the ultimate purpose of the work I do is to put people in touch with Spirit, which we experience as love. The Page is also a student. While the Hierophant reminds me that I am a teacher, the Page of Cups reminds me that I am also eternally a student.

For our meal we have a generous helping of fresh vegetables, as symbolized by the Wands. The Wands card that I drew is the Four of Wands.

The Four of Wands can often represent community gatherings and events. Over the years I have organized and participated in many community events. The Four of Wands is a reminder to continue to gather with my community by holidng and attending events. The Four of Wands is also a card that discusses marriage. As an ordained minister I often have the privilege of solemnizing sacred unions. Weddings can be some of the happiest community gatherings.

The term “Lammas” was originally "Loaf-mass". Sprung from the Pagan holiday of Lughnassad, Loaf-mass was a time of Christian charity. People would gather grain and bake bread to give to the poor. Lughnassad is specifically a holiday of reaping the grains.

In this spread grains are represented by the suit of Pentacles. The card I drew is the Three of Pentacles.

To me this card is about professionalism – being a master of my craft. The Three of Wands blends creativity with hard work to achieve a great finished product. Because tarot is somewhat maligned and misrepresented in the mainstream I do think it is extra important to be a good example of tarot professionalism, as do many of my peers. It is from this grain that we are able to create something new in the world. We create respect for who we are and what we do, just as the craftsman in the Three of Pentacles has earn respect for his work.

The suit of Swords represents the proteins of our harvest meal. From that suit I drew the Ten of Swords.

The Ten of Swords can be a very painful card. It is here that I do what all good tarot readers and mentors do. I try to use my skills to offer comfort - to alleviate pain and fear for my clients, my students and in support of my peers.
So often in spiritual communities there is sadly more competition than cooperation. The Wiccans even have a name for it – “witch wars.” Our ability to work together and support each other as a community celebrating each other’s successes and sharing the lessons of our experience with each other is what makes our community strong as a good meal makes the body strong.

These, then, are the offerings of my harvest table - the Hierophant, the Page of Cups, the Four of Wands, the Three of Pentacles and the Ten of Swords, which I interpret as teaching, learning, love, community gathering, professionalism, comfort and cooperation.

A blessed harvest to you all!

The illustration for this post is a picture of the four tools, or four suit icons, baked in bread. This was a tradition of the Pocono Tarot Picnic, a harvest celebration held by our tarot community in Northeastern Pennsyvania - a wonderful community gathering indeed.

Now it is time to visit the next post in the Blog Hop, Chloe's Celtic Lenormand.
If you are working backward, visit Alison Coals' blog.
If you find a break in the chain, visit the Master List.

Pentacles: The Fruits of Harvest

Welcome to the Lammas Tarot Blog Hop.

Perhaps you are joining me from Koneta's New Paths Tarot site.

After you finish here, please hop over to Melanie Howard's Wayward Tarot.

If you find breaks in the links, please visit the master list.

If you are joining me directly, you may be wondering what the Tarot Bog Hop is! Eight times a year, tarot bloggers agree to post at the same time on the same topic. This time we have thirty-seven tarot bloggers all blogging on the topic of the tarot suit of Pentacles, in honor of the harvest theme of Lammas. Thanks to our wrangler, Kareena Narwani, for coming up with such a great topic, and for doing all the work it takes to make this happen!

On the Pagan Wheel of the Year, August First is celebrated as Lughnassad, or Lammas. This is the cross-quarter day between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox. Many people celebrate it as the first of three harvest festivals. The second harvest is Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox, and the final harvest is Samhain, known secularly as Halloween.

Especially exciting this year is that on August First the moon is coming into its fullness. And, this August brings us a blue moon on the 31^st. My fellow Grateful Dead devotees know August 1 as the beginning of “Jerry Week.” August First is Jerry Garcia’s birthday. This year would have been his seventieth. This Lughnassad there is a great deal to celebrate and commemorate. Normally, I would want to conduct a very special ritual today.

Instead, what I am doing is finishing up the move that takes us from a condo in a city into a tiny home in a South Florida campground. The home was in serious disrepair when we bought it. We have spent the past few months repairing and replacing, putting up walls and ceilings, choosing colors and treatments and imagining what our home will be like when it’s finished. It is a harvest of a different sort; not of food but of home.

Campground living was why we moved to Florida in the first place. Finding the right campground turned out to be a bit tricky. Nonetheless, here we are, on Full-Moon-Lughnassad-Lammas, moving into a home that we have practically crafted with our own hands. What could be more fitting for a full moon harvest celebration than this?

The assignment for the Lammas Tarot Blog Hop is for each of us to consider the suit of Pentacles, and find the card that we connect with most as this time.

I love to think about the suit of Pentacles in terms of its Earth energy. I am often dismayed when tarotists describe the “Earth” tarot suit as simply being all about the money. For me, the suit of Pentacles is about resources of all kinds, and about our sacred connection to the Earth that sustains us.

Within the suit of Pentacles, we see lessons about sharing resources in cards four, five and six. We see career lessons of hard work, study and creativity in cards two, three, seven and eight. We honor our ancestry in cards nine and ten. The suit of Pentacles contains everything we need to wisely manage our resources.

The Pentacles card I am focusing on today is the Ten of Pentacles. This is the card that speaks to me most clearly of “home.”  Traditionally, this is the “castle” card. In modern times we see it as the card of real estate.

It’s funny how one person’s castle is another person’s shack. Many people would prefer a luxury condo, or a large house in a gated community. We are happier living in a more sustainable way, using fewer of the Earth’s resources and spending more time in nature. For me, sustainability is one of the essential lessons of the suit of Pentacles.

In the RWS depiction, the ten pentacles are arranged to form the Kabalistic Tree of Life. In that, we see our spiritual heritage, and perhaps, the spiritual heritage of tarot.

The Ten of Pentacles is about ancestry, heritage and legacy. It is about the security of home and family. The Ten of Pentacles teaches us to honor what has come before, and to consider what we will leave to the next generation. It assures us we will have all the resources we need.

Today, I will use the Ten of Pentacles to perform some tarot magick for our new home.

May the energy of the Ten of Pentacles bestow to our home a welcoming environment for our grown-up children, beckoning them to visit for family gatherings. May it be a place for us to nurture our health, our business and our creativity. May we have all the resources we need to maintain this home. May it provide us a sense of security. May we dwell here in peace, happiness, health and prosperity.

Happy Lammas, Lughnassad, Jerry Week and full moon to all. May the blessings of the Ten of Pentacles be yours, now and always.

Now follow the blog hop over to Melanie Howard's site, and see what she has to say about Pentacles: The Fruits of Harvest!