Taurus in the Minor Arcana: The Five of Pentacles

Today I’m looking at the role of Taurus in the Minor Arcana.  In the astrological correspondence system that I follow, Taurus is linked to the Five, Six and Seven of Pentacles – or Disks, or Coins, or Stones...depending on the deck.  Today I’m going to look at the Five of Pentacles, which corresponds to Mercury in Taurus – and the first ten days of Taurus.

Taurus is the fixed Earth sign, so we’re looking at maintaining our resources in a practical, down-to-earth way. Those resources include anything that gives us a sense of security or stability – so this covers financial matters, material concerns, issues around health and well-being...whatever it takes to make us feel safe and comfortable.

Mercury is about sharing and trading information and ideas. Normally when we think of Mercury, we might envisage the fleet-footed messenger of the gods, but in Taurus it’s much harder for him to get off the ground, let alone fly!  Instead, he finds himself having to take care with his words, having to speak more slowly and with more consideration.  Having to slow down and be more deliberate and down-to-earth is a challenge to Mercury!  Rather than communicating through words and ideas, he may express himself in a more physical way.

Five of Pentacles (trimmed):©Sharman-Caselli Tarot

So how might this play out in the Five of Pentacles?  Let start with a relatively ‘traditional’ depiction, for example, the Sharman-Caselli deck. Here we see two beggars shivering in the cold, unaware of the warmth and shelter and help on the other side of the window.   They are aware of physical sensation, in this case the cold, but they are so lost in the physicality that they can’t see beyond that.  The assumption here is that they’ve also lost all their material possessions – a source of concern to the Taurean archetype. If they were to look up at the window though, not only would they see the promise of light and warmth, but also the fruit and flowers carved in the stone around the window, reminding them of the bounty of the earth – which they haven’t lost.

Five of Pentacles ((trimmed):©Shadowscapes Tarot

Juliet Sharman-Burke talks about ‘the loss of wealth and faith’ for this card. The loss of wealth – financial or material - is perhaps easier to see.  The loss of faith comes through the loss of self-worth that can accompany loss of status in the material world.  Mercury brings the anxiety and worry, through its ‘Air-iness’ – the thoughts and beliefs that we carry in our minds – to the earthy concerns around Taurean 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.

The Shadowscapes deck also has this sense of being cut off or lost, but this (for me) is more to do with the pose of the figure, and with the way it’s been squeezed into a small space in the bottom right corner of the card.  The pentacles in the top left corner seem huge – so there is a sense of imbalance or destabilization. 

Five of Pentacles ((trimmed):©DruidCraft tarot

The DruidCraft, though, shows us this sense of loss in a woman, obviously in distress, leaning against a tree.  Her eyes are covered by her hands, so she can’t ‘see’ – she only feels what’s within.  On the horizon, a greyhound chases a hare – part of the story of Taliesin, who is trying to escape Ceridwen. In the first part of the chase, he takes the form of a hare, while Ceridwen assumes the shape of a greyhound. The chase – shown in the Fives of all suits in the deck – symbolizes the need to transform, to find a way forward from the crisis, the loss, that the Five of Pentacles represents.

Five of Disks ((trimmed):©Thoth Tarot

In the Thoth deck, the emphasis is similar, the focus here being ‘worry’ (Mercurical) over the state of our personal resources. It’s a reminder not to let worry and anxiety over such matters prevail to the point that we find ourselves stuck in a rut.  The pentagram in the image is upside-down, suggesting that things are out of balance.  Communication will be a key, thanks again to Mercury, in finding a way out of the ‘black hole’ or rut that we find ourselves in.

DruidCraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Shadowscapes Tarot created by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and Barbara Moore, published by Llewellyn

Sharman-Caselli Tarot created by Juliet Sharman-Burke, illustrated by Giovanni Caselli, published by Connections

Thoth Tarot created by Aleister Crowley, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Scorpio in the Druidcraft Minor Arcana: The Five of Cups

Just for a change, let’s start our exploration of Scorpio in the tarot in the Minor Arcana.  In the astrological correspondence system that I follow, Scorpio is linked to the Five, Six and Seven of Cups. Today I’m going to look at the Five of Cups, which corresponds to the first ten days of Scorpio (this year, the 23^rd October to 2^nd November) – and to Mars in Scorpio.

Scorpio is the fixed Water sign, so we’re looking at maintaining our emotional resources, delving into the depths to get at the heart or root of what’s going on. 

Mars, the traditional ruler of Scorpio, is associated with the element of Fire.  Mars is the warrior, the Roman god of war – powerful, passionate, driven by strong desires, and very likely to take the initiative.  Mars is decisive, and needs to express himself freely – which could come into conflict with the Scorpio preference for keeping things hidden, buried away in the depths.  Mars likes to be in control but when combined with Scorpio’s energy, this is likely to manifest through an intense transformation of emotional power at a very deep level, often experienced as a loss of some kind.

So how might this play out in the Five of Cups?  We’ve come to associate this card with loss and disappointment.  Often we feel things aren’t going our way, and we experience disappointment. Mars is often linked to anger, that very strong emotion, so it could also be that we’re now forced to face the consequences of our (or someone else’s) anger. 

I think the image in the Druidcraft’s Five of Cups captures this beautifully.  

 

Five of Cups: Druidcraft Tarot
©Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, Will Worthington

Here we see a figure facing away from us, looking down into the water – or is he watching the otter chase the salmon?  Three overturned cups lie on the grass beside him - the losses, the emotions that have been spilled. Behind him, unseen, two upright cups, full of possibility and potential, sit on the rock.   Juliet Sharman-Burke uses the words ‘regret’ and ‘sorrow’ for this card. So we have someone who feels deep sorrow at what’s happened (the three cups emptying), but who’s ignoring or overlooking at what still exists (the two full cups).  The decisiveness and freedom of expression that Mars would usually exert is being held back by the compulsion to look only at the loss and the emotions that accompany it – to become lost in the emotion itself perhaps?

The otter and salmon come from the story of Taliesin, representing the element of water in the shape-shifting chase of Gwion by Ceridwen. It’s a story of transformation – the theme of Scorpio.  The card warns against allowing the potentially aggressive, potentially destructive Martian energy to spill over.  That energy can be used usefully though, by transforming it – by shifting the emphasis from what’s lost to what’s still available to us. We can learn from disappointment – nothing is ever wasted. Remember that Scorpio represents cycles, endings and beginnings – and is the ultimate recycler!

Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Virgo in the Druidcraft Major Arcana – part 2: The Magician

Mercury has been mentioned in more than one of these explorations of Virgo in the Druidcraft, as ruler of the sign, so I thought perhaps it would be a good time to look the card associated with Mercury in the tarot – The Magician - and to see if we can see any links to Virgo in it.

Druidcraft Tarot (trimmed)

The Druidcraft’s image of The Magician is relatively traditional – he stands with one arm raised to the sky, the other one reaching downwards to the earth. The four ‘tools of the trade’ are set before him on a stone altar. The setting is different – it looks like he’s at Stonehenge at either sunrise or sunset . A black hen stands by one of the stones, a reference to the Taliesin story that forms the backbone of learning in Druidry, where Ceridwen shape shifts into a hen in the fourth stage of her pursuit of Gwion. 

This Magician looks very grounded – in touch with the Earth beneath him as well as the stones around him.  The stones and lintels symbolize the idea of a gateway to the Otherworld, from where he can bring back knowledge and healing – two things that Mercury, and hence Virgo, is linked with.

 

He wears a cloak of raven’s feathers – Mercury/Hermes, the winged messenger, has wings on his ankles – symbolising the ability, and perhaps desire, to return to the wild, to walk between worlds, to bring back ancestral memory. He uses his everyday tools – a link to practical, 6^th house everyday service of Virgo, perhaps - to do extraordinary things, linking the inner and outer worlds. As we’ve said before, Virgo is the sixth sign in the zodiac, the last to focus on the individual and our inner world; after her, the emphasis turns to the outer, public domain.  

Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections,2004  

Taurus in the Druidcraft court cards

Our final foray into Taurus in the tarot – Taurus in the court cards. Again, we have the question – which court card?  Many decks follow the Book-T system, where the fixed signs are assigned to the Kings.  This gives us the King of Pentacles – with the bull being represented quite clearly on the throne in the Universal Rider-Waite deck, for example. 

Druidcraft: Queen of Pentacles (trimmed)

Having looked through the Pentacles court cards in the Druidcraft, it seems to me that the creators have followed a different tradition, one which assigns the Queens to the fixed signs – can you see the bulls carved into her throne in this image? So here we have the Queen of Pentacles maintaining what the Kings have set in motion.

The Queen of Pentacles in this deck is very connected to the earthy reality of Taurus – her foot resting on the stone symbolizes her link to the earth.  The Druidcraft, like many other tarot decks, associates the Pentacles with winter, and with night.  In this image, the trees are bare – but clumps of snowdrops surround her throne, the first signs of the earth awakening and the promise of the spring.  Taurus, in the northern hemisphere, is one of those spring months – the one in which we start to see the blossoms appear on the trees...

Behind her, the night sky is giving way to dawn – another indication of the light returning after a long winter.

Behind her we see a hare, a symbol of fertility and of the Goddess – representing promise and fulfilment. It’s one of the first animals we look for in the spring – the boxing March hares!  In the legend of Taliesin, the hare is the first creature that Gwion shape-shifts into to escape Ceridwen, in the form of a greyhound (both animals of the Earth) – and in some parts of Britain, hare-hunting was allowed on the day of Beltane.

I like to think of this Queen of Pentacles maintaining and supporting what’s been started by the cardinal energy of Aries through the slow and steady beat of her drum, waking the earth from its winter slumber, delighting in the promise of the abundance to come.  She’s the guardian of the land, of hearth and home, of work and well-being. She will find a way to make things grow.

Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections