Earth Mother - Margarete Petersen’s Mother of Coins

Margarete Petersen’s Mother of Coins reminds me of the Mother of Earth in the Haindl deck. She’s enclosed by the square frame, bathed in gentle golden light. She too nourishes, like the other Mothers, but her nourishing comes from nature and from the body. She “gathers, heals, and enjoys”. 

Mother of Coins (trimmed):© Margarete Petersen Tarot

Mother of Stones in the West: ©Haindl Tarot

In the accompanying LWB, Petersen writes of the coiled serpent, taking us back to the Ace and Two of Coins. Here she says the serpent is coiled at the base of the spine, unseen in the image but implicit, I think, in the use of the boundary, the square frame. 

This Queen/Mother knows “the power of coins”: “when the serpent uncoils, the grass trembles”. She also knows both “wealth and poverty, abundance and scarcity” – and has the wisdom to know how to use them to manifest.

There’s definitely an earth-mother feel to this card, I think: a reminder to look after our bodies, possessions, finances – all the things that constitute ‘personal resources’. Generous, patient and pragmatic. I’d add innate talents and abilities to that list.

Mother of the earth,
Guardian of health, home, wealth
Practical, kind, calm.

 

Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-URANIA/Deep Books. 2004. 

Haindl Tarot, created by Hermann Haindl, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.