THE ACE OF PENTACLES
TODAY'S CARD IS The Ace of Pentacles. This intriguing doll version -- DEMETER -- is by Lynn Dewart; be sure to check out some of her other art work on her site.
For comparison, here's The Ace of Pentacles in the Rider/ Waite/ Smith deck:
THE ACE OF PENTACLES: This is a card I have frequently seen to represent pregnancy and birth. At one point, years ago when I was still reading Tarot professionally, it showed up so frequently in this capacity that I found myself hesitating to mention this to the querant. I had begun to think it just could not mean another pregnancy. In years past, The Ace of Pentacles has also appeared a great deal in readings for myself. I almost always read it as advising me to eat more healthfully. Specifically, to introduce more whole grains* into my diet.** This never worked out; I always found my appetite increased when I did (something I do not ever welcome :-D), and other digestive and related mood problems ensued. Even so, it was quite some time, including many appearances of The Ace of Pentacles, before I recognized that my body cannot handle grains, especially wheat. This is one of the few times I have thought that maybe reading with reversals*** might have been helpful. That is, might The Ace of Pentacles have shown up consistently reversed, and might I have read that as advising against whole grains? Maybe. But it's more likely that my love of pastas and breads would still have blocked any negative perception of grains, whole or otherwise. I clearly was not ready to give up grains and would not have seen the warning even if writ large in sky writing. :-) By the way, the vast majority of the time I have found The Tarot "gets around" these sorts of personal resistances which is why I find it such an incredible support system, especially when exploring my dreams.
DIFFERENT OR LESS COMMON, EVEN QUIRKY MEANINGS FOR THE ACE OF PENTACLES (i.e. the below is not intended to be an exhaustive exploration of this card; a quick google will produce a wider variety of takes should you not be familiar with this card):
Feeling secure. Or, this security is about to be disrupted.
What appears to have begun may not materialize.
It may be necessary to "go back to the drawing board," to start from scratch on this.
A stalement, or a sudden suspension of activity.
It has begun, there is nothing to be done to stop it. Accept it and it will go easier for you, and you'll be able to be more creative about your responses/actions.
A need to eat more healthfully; to take better care of one's body.
A strong foundation; a really good beginning.
Aces in General: Can mean one needs to go back to the beginning to "pick up lost stitches," or start again from scratch. Can also simply suggest taking stock or a second look before taking any new action.
* Whole grains are on The Ace of Pentacles in The Herbal Tarot, which I have worked with a great deal over the years.
** I did not usually advise clients on health issue specifics such as these. On the rare occasion when I did I'd always recommend checking with one's doctor.
*** Many readers, such as myself, keep all the cards upright -- finding enough richness in the upright orientation -- and rely on surrounding cards, position in the layout, and intuition to indicate further variations in card meanings.
Resource: Tarot, a jam-packed, easy to read article "about the structure, card imagery, and history and origin of tarot decks..." It also has many links.
Please see the top of the sidebar for my background with the Tarot and a recommendation to beginners.
‘til next time, keep healthfully nourishing yourself, and enjoying The Tarot,
Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)**** SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm for some articles about Tarot.****
DEMETER
For comparison, here's The Ace of Pentacles in the Rider/ Waite/ Smith deck:
THE ACE OF PENTACLES: This is a card I have frequently seen to represent pregnancy and birth. At one point, years ago when I was still reading Tarot professionally, it showed up so frequently in this capacity that I found myself hesitating to mention this to the querant. I had begun to think it just could not mean another pregnancy. In years past, The Ace of Pentacles has also appeared a great deal in readings for myself. I almost always read it as advising me to eat more healthfully. Specifically, to introduce more whole grains* into my diet.** This never worked out; I always found my appetite increased when I did (something I do not ever welcome :-D), and other digestive and related mood problems ensued. Even so, it was quite some time, including many appearances of The Ace of Pentacles, before I recognized that my body cannot handle grains, especially wheat. This is one of the few times I have thought that maybe reading with reversals*** might have been helpful. That is, might The Ace of Pentacles have shown up consistently reversed, and might I have read that as advising against whole grains? Maybe. But it's more likely that my love of pastas and breads would still have blocked any negative perception of grains, whole or otherwise. I clearly was not ready to give up grains and would not have seen the warning even if writ large in sky writing. :-) By the way, the vast majority of the time I have found The Tarot "gets around" these sorts of personal resistances which is why I find it such an incredible support system, especially when exploring my dreams.
DIFFERENT OR LESS COMMON, EVEN QUIRKY MEANINGS FOR THE ACE OF PENTACLES (i.e. the below is not intended to be an exhaustive exploration of this card; a quick google will produce a wider variety of takes should you not be familiar with this card):
Feeling secure. Or, this security is about to be disrupted.
What appears to have begun may not materialize.
It may be necessary to "go back to the drawing board," to start from scratch on this.
A stalement, or a sudden suspension of activity.
It has begun, there is nothing to be done to stop it. Accept it and it will go easier for you, and you'll be able to be more creative about your responses/actions.
A need to eat more healthfully; to take better care of one's body.
A strong foundation; a really good beginning.
Aces in General: Can mean one needs to go back to the beginning to "pick up lost stitches," or start again from scratch. Can also simply suggest taking stock or a second look before taking any new action.
* * * *
* Whole grains are on The Ace of Pentacles in The Herbal Tarot, which I have worked with a great deal over the years.
** I did not usually advise clients on health issue specifics such as these. On the rare occasion when I did I'd always recommend checking with one's doctor.
*** Many readers, such as myself, keep all the cards upright -- finding enough richness in the upright orientation -- and rely on surrounding cards, position in the layout, and intuition to indicate further variations in card meanings.
Resource: Tarot, a jam-packed, easy to read article "about the structure, card imagery, and history and origin of tarot decks..." It also has many links.
Please see the top of the sidebar for my background with the Tarot and a recommendation to beginners.
‘til next time, keep healthfully nourishing yourself, and enjoying The Tarot,
Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)**** SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm for some articles about Tarot.****
Labels: The Ace of Pentacles
posted by Roswila at 3:37 PM
2 Comments:
It's interesting to me that the Ace, which I would regard as a great card to have, seems to be mostly a warning. Especially warning against thinking that things are going well :-)
Am I reading too much negativity into this card?
Love the Demeter image, BTW, and thanks to the explanation of pentacles=earth I understand that figure a lot better than I would have!
oino
Good questions, Oino.
No, actually, Aces as a whole are good cards to have turn up. As I say in my sidebar and before the meanings in each post, the meanings I offer for the cards are not intended to be exhaustive; they are only those I find to be uncommon or unusual, even quirky.
So in the case of the Aces all the usual meanings, which are largely positive, are not posted. Although in my defense (:-D) I did talk about its relationship to pregnancy. (Well, that could be related to negatively also, unfortunately, but certainly not always. :-D)
As to why the meanings I've collected over the years tend to the negative -- I can only attribute that to my Capricornian nature. We can be somewhat depressive in nature, being ruled by Saturn.
BTW, when I say "collected" I mean I did not read these meanings someplace, but "saw" them in readings I did. I.e., they occured to me and seemed to be new, or a new slant on the old.
So please keep in mind as you read what I say about these cards that mine are but a very slim band in the wide and constantly expanding spectrum of possible meanings for each card. And that this very slim band is also decidedly psychological.
This all raises the question of why I chose to focus this blog on the unusual and uncommon (as I understand it). Because there are gazillions of sites out there with the common and traditional meanings for the cards. And there are folk out there doing wonderful, creative jobs teaching these meanings, along with a lot of other aspects of Tarot. Just see 78notestomyself, a Tarot blog I greatly admire (link in my sidebar) for a prime example of this wealth.
I also did not want to focus on images for the cards that are also out there a great deal already.
In essence, I wanted to focus this blog as much on the edge of Tarot studies as I could. I hasten to add that by that I mean my own growing edge. As far as I'm concerned each Tarot devotee has his/her own edge.
Maybe I'm taking a bit from The Fool's book -- that Tarot card where an oblivious jester-like character is about to walk off a cliff. OK, yeah, I could be about to tread air, but the air is so fresh out here at the edge and the sky is so blue! LOL!
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