Welcome to Alison’s Alembic! You may have arrived here as a stop on the Tarot Blog Hop from either Elinor Predota's blog or Mary Caelsto's blog. Or you may have found this through TABI’s Facebook page, or though one of the many wonderful tarot bloggers in the ether... It doesn’t matter – what does matter is that you’re here!
The topic for today – Lammas – is “Pentacles: the Fruits of
Harvest”. For those of you unfamiliar
with Lammas, it’s the festival of the harvest.
Also known as Lughnasahd, the cross-quarter fire festival, it’s
celebrated on the evening of the 31 July and on the first three days of August.
Lammas is the first harvest, when farmers reap the rewards of their hard work.
With this in mind, the Tarot Blog Hoppers have been asked to
write about any card from the Pentacles suit – the one we relate to most, at
the moment. This has been a tough
decision for me, but I’ve plumped for the Nine of Pentacles from the
Sharman-Caselli deck. This was the first deck I ever worked with, so it feels
like ‘going home’ to come back to it today. And in a sense, that’s part of what
the Nine of Pentacles represents – being at home, a place of comfort, to enjoy
the fruits of the harvest.
 | |
| Sharman-Caselli (Connections) |
In the image in this deck, we see a well-dressed woman
standing in the midst of her garden. The
garden is full of fruit, with nine pentacles entwined in the vines and foliage
around her. On her right hand sits a hunting bird of some kind – a falcon
perhaps, while a rabbit nestles into the grass-covered earth. Behind her, in the distance, we see a castle
on top of a hill. The woman appears to be very content – indeed, ‘success and
enjoyment’ are the keywords for the Nine of Pentacles in this deck.
Astrologically, the Nine of Pentacles is linked to Venus in
Virgo. Virgo is the sign associated with the harvest, while Venus symbolizes
harmony – that sense of well-being that I feel whenever I look at this
card. There’s a real feeling of
abundance, and the enjoyment of it. I’m
also reminded of the Empress here – this land is certainly fertile! (see that rabbit?!) But it’s taken a lot of
hard work on the part of the woman for the earth to have yielded such verdancy
and richness, symbolized by the vines.
I’m always struck by a sense of self-sufficiency in this
card. There’s no one else in sight.
She’s alone (but not lonely), and is happy in that state. She doesn’t need more, but she’s
content with what she’s achieved, and with the promise of what’s ahead (in this
deck, the hunting bird symbolizes her far-sightedness and imagination). The
actual harvest is still to come, of course - this is only the Nine; the
culmination, the Ten, is still to come.
In some other decks the falcon represents discipline – the ability
to give attention to the job at hand. That’s a very Virgoan quality. The
discipline here is not imposed from an outward source; it’s about having the self-discipline
required to devote time and energy to something that you really want to
achieve. And when you do achieve it, you – like this woman - can luxuriate
peacefully in the fruits of your harvest!
I hope that you have enjoyed your time here at Alison's Alembic. Please come back and visit me again!
Next stop on the tarot blog hop trail is Mary Caelsto...
http://harmonicspirit.net/2012/07/tbh_fruit_of_harvest/
Or, if you're working your way through the hop backwards, here's the link to Elinor Predota's blog...
http://elinor.dreamwidth.org/355666.html
Or just use these handy doo-dads!
I hope that you have enjoyed your time here at Alison's Alembic. Please come back and visit me again!
Next stop on the tarot blog hop trail is Mary Caelsto...
http://harmonicspirit.net/2012/07/tbh_fruit_of_harvest/
Or, if you're working your way through the hop backwards, here's the link to Elinor Predota's blog...
http://elinor.dreamwidth.org/355666.html
Or just use these handy doo-dads!
If any of the links are broken, please visit the Blog Wrangler's master list:
