Fear and losing in … - Margarete Petersen’s Five of Coins

Traditionally, we tend to think of this card as representing loss – loss of faith, loss of material wealth or possessions.  It’s associated, astrologically, with Mercury in Taurus: Mercury representing the anxiety and worry, through its ‘Air-iness’ – the thoughts and beliefs that we carry in our minds – and Taurus the earthy concerns around comfort and security. But it’s not just about the money; the loss of faith or self-esteem or self-worth can also lead us into a ‘black hole’ of feeling hopeless; it may be time to address more ‘spiritual’ issues too.

Five of Coins (trimmed): © Margarete Petersen Tarot

The image on Margarete Petersen’s Five of Coins shows a dark oval face set in a gold-bronze-green rectangle. I can make out another face etched into the paint, and what looks like a ‘P’ painted at the top, but no other obvious (to me) symbols.  In the LWB, Petersen writes of the ‘blind woman who stays on the track of fear and loss regains her sight’; the face on the card, perhaps?  I see the Five as a reminder that movement is necessary to avoid getting stuck in the potential rut that the Four presents, with all its solidity.

Stuck in routine, fear

of losing security -

Movement is required.

Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-URANIA, 2004