Sabbats, Seasons, and Tarot Spreads

I drew today’s card then closed my eyes and let out a slow breath. I’m still sitting her quietly, contemplating this card and wondering how I’m going to approach it. I have so many thoughts about this card.

I’ve drawn the 9 of Winter Pentacles, a card whose traditional meanings generally relate to success, wealth, and a feeling of “having arrived”. Other words often associated with the card are “freedom, luxury, abundance.”

Before I go on, let’s take a look at the card — from Rockpool’s “Winter Tarot”. We see a young woman, and from the guidebook we learn that she’s successfully opened a little store. She has achieved a goal; she is living her dream. The deck creators are emphasizing the “success” and “independence” aspects of this card. That’s what it means to most people.

Now, let me mention here that I did draw the card “in reverse”, even though I’m showing it upright. The traditional meanings for a reversal are “instability, false success, overspending.” There are others, of course, but the general idea for this card is that upright it’s a sign of success. but when reversed… well, not so much.

Tarot is an art. More to the point, it’s a highly subjective art. What this means is that as our experience with reading tarot grows, we begin to see the cards in a unique way. We know and respect their traditional meanings, but those meanings take on a personal “flavor” based upon our experiences. It is this “personalization” of the cards that makes our readings powerful. We’re not falling back on standard ideas we’ve read about; we’re responding to the cards at a very deep, intuitive level. What I see in the 9 of Pentacles — or any other card — will not be exactly the same as what you see.

I say all of this as preface to today’s message. We began the week by reviewing our life’s experiences, then were gently reminded to “be the light” and bring our magick into the world. Yesterday we were handed a seed to plant for the future; today’s “position” in the spread deals with challenges we’re likely to face.

A strict interpretation for this reversed 9 of Pentacles would tell us to guard against instability, to watch our spending, and, if we want to be really pessimistic, to expect failure. According to most textbook meanings, the appearance of the reversed 9 of Pentacles would feel like a slap in the face.

Those standard interpretations do offer some good advice — especially the note about watching our expenses — but there’s a lot more to this card. For me, this card has taken on a lot of “pretense”. In readings I’ve done over the years, it’s come to represent situations where “trade-offs” are involved, where we give up something of personal value in order to achieve material success. To others around us, it appears that we have everything. Life may seem ideal! Yet if others could see into our hearts and souls, they would find that we’ve paid a very dear price for our “success”.

I could go on at great length about this card and my personal understanding of it, but I won’t. I will, instead, invite you to study this card, to look at the familiar Rider-Waite-Smith illustration and note the symbolism very carefully. I ask you, too, to always develop your own meanings for the cards, basing them upon your personal experiences.

So, why then should my interpretations matter here? They matter because I’m the one doing this collective reading. This is how tarot works. It gives us the cards we need based upon our understanding. Here, tarot is wanting to give me a certain message to share, and using this card was the way to do it.

That message is to be very true to yourself as your move forward this year. As you pursue your dreams, don’t “sell yourself short”, don’t make “Faustian bargains” for quick gains. Don’t try to “take the easy way” to success. Your dreams deserve your best efforts. You deserve the best life has to offer. Don’t settle for anything less.