Thursday, August 21, 2008

Earthly Treasures - Pentacles

The suit we will discuss first is the suit, Pentacles. This suit can be seen in different decks represented as coins, pentacles, disks, etc. It's equivalent in a playing card deck is the suit of Diamonds. Colors associated with this suit are green and brown, earthly colors, as the element of this suit is Earth. The animal associated with Earth is the Bull, however, the Gnome is the elemental of earth. Astrological signs attributed to Pentacles are Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn.
Pentacles are associated with the North, the feminine, the months December, January, and Februrary (making is season winter), and the time of day between midnight and 6am.

The general meanings of this suit are money, tangible possessions, material values, income, home, real estate and other things physical possessed. If occupation is a part of the question, these cards usually indicate merchants, bankers, business men, sales and trades people, mathemeticians, financial advisors and technicians.

The temperment attributed to this suit follow along the traits associated with the astrological signs it represents, stubborness, practicality, business-like, methodical, analytical, cautious, dependable, accurate, frugal, and at the worst knit-picky, greedy, materialistic, extravagant, insecure and possessive.

We won't discuss the meanings of individual cards just yet but looking at the number of each suit in a reading will give you a general idea of where the querents question is coming from. It can also give you an indication that maybe their subconcious is asking something else. For instance if you are asked, "Will I meet a man?" and all pentacles come up, it might be love is not their question. But we'll discuss that later as well.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Major vs. Minor

Hello again! Our first step along the tarot path will be to learn about how the deck is seperated into the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana is further divided into suits but that will come in a few moments. Remember, I am discussing the traditional tarot deck, there are many other kinds of divinatory cards with different symbolism and meanings.

Twenty-Two cards make up the Major Arcana, all with a name along with their number, such as The Fool, The Magician and The Tower to name a few. When these cards come up in a reading they are pointing to, as their name implies, major points or spiritual issues. We will discuss later these cards and their significant meanings.

The Minor Arcana deal with everyday, mundane life happenings and are divided into four suits of fourteen cards each. The suits are Swords, Wands, Pentacles (sometimes called Coins), and Cups. Each suit has its own element, meaning, quality, etc associated with it, which will be discussed in turn. Starting next week with Pentacles.

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