King of Pentacles

Weekly Creativity Prompt – King of Pentacles

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Prompt: “Pull the King of Pentacles card from your deck(s). Compare the imagery between the card provided below and the card(s) from your own deck(s). How would you read them differently and why?“

King of Pentacles - Tarot of the Hidden RealmTarot of the Hidden Realm – The man in this card reminds me of Santa, which isn’t really at all out of character for the King of Pentacles. The imagery says to me that it’s okay to take comfort in those that make you feel safe and stable. Security is important, and spending time with those that help you in feeling secure is a valuable thing. It’s something to savor and cherish and enjoy while you can.

King of Pentacles in the Storybook Christmas Tarot, Christmas Cheer Tarot, and Xmas Elf Tarot

Storybook Christmas Tarot – You know that saying “Come to the Dark Side, we have Cookies”?  That’s where this card takes me, although it isn’t so much the “dark side” as it is a recommendation to follow in the footsteps of those that have shown they have the skill and acumen to build a stable foundation and surround themselves in wealth.

Christmas Cheer Tarot – You know what is of value, how to obtain it and how to enjoy it. You know it’s worth, and will neither squander it, nor hoard it to yourself. Instead, share it with others, allow them to see the fruits of your labors, and use this to inspire them to follow your lead.

Xmas Elf Tarot – This elf seems just a bit cranky with his tight fist grip and upturned nose. The card appears to me to be a reminder that there’s a difference between stability and hoarding, and that can sometimes be a very fine line.  This card reminds us to turn over a new leaf in how we see wealth (the snow drops in the foreground), and asks us to examine more closely what we perceive as stability and security.

DECKS USED:  TAROT OF THE HIDDEN REALM, STORYBOOK CHRISTMAS TAROT, CHRISTMAS CHEER TAROT, XMAS ELF TAROT

Weekly Creativity Prompt – The Kings

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Prompt: Pull the Kings out of a deck of your choice. Consider… Do you have someone in your life, or is there a real or fictional character you know of that fits with one of these cards? Do you have people in mind that would fit with each of them? Then share that here and tell us about the connection you see between each King card and the person or character it represents for you.

Zombie TarotKing of Wands – A man with a plan, this man has lots of plans but sometimes his enthusiasm gets in the way of good sense. Lots of knowledge and experience under his belt, he seems to think he can do anything, then is surprised when things don’t always turn out as planned. That doesn’t keep him from going after the next project on his list though, or the one after that, and bringing his buddies with him in on the job makes everything that much better. His friends come over and have a blast, while the wives curse him for stirring their husbands up… and bless him in the same breath for seeming to give their husbands an extra spark of life.

King of Cups – A gentle touch and a core of steel, this man knows how to make you feel heard and understood. He sees what you’re hiding… or at least that you’re hiding it, and will gently pick at it until you give him that burden you hold so that it can be shared.  He’s easy to trust and draws you in, but make sure you don’t push against his boundaries too hard, or you might find yourself out in the cold again.  He loves hard and deep, but despite the magnetism to draw others in, he’s picky about those that he allows to get in deep.

King of Swords – She stands behind a podium five days out of seven, a large auditorium of young minds hanging on her every word.  The board behind her is filled with evidence of her intelligence and expertise, and she will lead these minds to become the newest generation to change the world.  She’s a hard taskmaster and has a sharp tongue, and god forbid you disappoint her high expectations.  The thing is though? Something about her and those expectations means that if you do disappoint? You’ll be harder on yourself than she has need to be.

King of Hazards (Pentacles) – She exudes a sense of duty and a grounded energy that makes her easy to trust and goes to work each day where that trust is used to lead others. She knows each worker by name. With precision blueprints in her hands, she directs others on bringing her creation to life and with each day that passes, what was only a dream in her mind slowly becomes a reality on the corner of Fifth and Fircrest. Some day her family will live in this building, a structure she’d dreamed of since a child and now is entrusted with bringing to life.

DECK USED:  ZOMBIE TAROT

Enjoying the Journey

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Today’s meditation was skipped this morning because the girls would just not leave me the fuck alone.  Between that and the running of the vacuum, I just couldn’t make it happen.  I will be doing it before bed, though.  Absolutely.   I won’t skip it entirely.

Tarot of Haunted House - King of PentaclesToday’s draw is the King of Pentacles, which is traditionally a representation of a projective alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s finances, resources, home and hearth, health, and manifestations. This often translates into themes that have to do with business acumen, a strong sense of responsibility, and financial growth and stability.

What stands out to me the strongest in the imagery of this card is that the king is surrounded in all of this wealth, but his sword is down and he looks bored as hell.

We all have goals to aim for, dreams to reach for.  We all have those things that we strive for in our day to day lives.  The thing is?  We spend all of this time striving… and then once we get there?  We’re bored.

The message in today’s card is about enjoying the journey.  It’s not about the end zone.  It’s about the game.  It’s about each step you take along the way and living in the moment instead of being so focused on the future that you miss all the good stuff in the now.

DECK USED:  TAROT OF HAUNTED HOUSE

LionHart’s #TheOctoberTarot #SeasonOfTheWitchChallenge Prompt
Question: I now call in my ancestors, how do you respond?

Ritual Abuse Tarot

Reading Summary: My ancestors respond with a hopeful outlook for this new connection (The Star), and an eagerness to play a more open role (The Sun) in helping me find balance (Justice).

Take Away: I wasn’t really sure how this reading would go, but it went really well and the answers came through loud and smoothly.  My ancestors are eager to have a more conscious role in my life just as my guides are, and hope to help me on my journey to make good choices, enjoy life more, and have a better sense of balance in my life. 

DECK USED:  RITUAL ABUSE TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsOct2020 Challenge Prompt
Question: What healing lesson is waiting for me to realize and accept it?

Halloween TarotReading Summary: That you can carry forward and reap the benefits of the lessons you’ve learned (Page of Pumpkins) in the past (Six of Ghosts), while still letting go of the bad stuff and leaving it behind (Death).

Take Away:  Although I know that this is possible and have been able to do it in some cases, there are other cases where the crap that taught me the lesson still clings to the lesson itself. In these instances, I struggle to pry my emotions about the incident away from the lessons learned.  Although I realize this struggle is ongoing for me, I haven’t yet gotten to a point where I’ve been able to accept it in all cases yet.  Its something I’m working on, though.

DECK USED:  HALLOWEEN TAROT

#MysticStarChallenge October Challenge Prompt
Question: What in myself do I need to strengthen to understand my Guides better?

The Gothic Tarot

Reading Summary: The stronger your intuition is the more you’ll understand (The High Priestess rising up from beneath the Eight of Swords). Use the spark of passion that you have in your soul (Ace of Wands) to search for ways to develop this slowly… a bit at a time (Death).

Take Away: This is a message about taking things slow and steady while continuing to develop my intuitive abilities. The interior cards here are all about my intuition, and allowing it to emerge and slowly bring clear sight to murky moments and the things I’m not yet ready to see.  The outer cards are then about taking my time and allowing my curiosity to lead the way forward into this change and through it’s slow development.

DECK USED:  THE GOTHIC TAROT

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question: What beautiful aspect of my life am I ready to embrace?

Dead Waite Tarot

Reading Summary: Gideon is helping me in making better choices (The Lovers) that don’t involve retreating into myself (The Hermit Rx). As this help continues,  I’m learning to lean into that response as my go-to reaction less and less (Eight of Wands).

Take Away:  Each time situations arise that I would have previously retreated from the world and curled into myself, I more quickly jump to use the tools and methods that Gideon has been helping me with learning.  Healthier methods that allow for me to connect with others instead of close myself off from the world.  The beautiful aspect of my life that I am ready to embrace is two-fold in this reading.  First, is Gideon’s help.   Second is the healthier methods he has helped to teach me.

DECK USED:  DEAD WAITE TAROT

Hyunta… Yeah, You Heard Me

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Today’s meditation was ten minutes long and one of the harp strings meditations.  I had a bit of a problem getting still and staying that way.  I’m not sure why I was all fidgety today, but I just really struggled with staying still.  Not just in meditation either, but through my card drawing time, as well as the first hour or so once I finally sat down at the computer.

Next World TarotToday’s draw is the King of Pentacles, which is traditionally a representation of a projective alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s finances and resources, home life, health, and manifestations.

This card screams hyunta to me. You’ve worked hard and  finally gotten what you so dearly have strive for and wanted, and now you’re stuck wondering… That was it? Is this it?  That’s all?  It’s a blend of both satisfaction, and keen disappointment.  (Actually, the term originates from that post masturbation glow of having stroked one out and achieved your pleasure but then being on the other side of it you find yourself feeling like something’s missing…. but the sense of accomplishment and disappointment is very similar.)

The message here in this card for today is that goals are something to aim for, but not something to kill yourself over as you try to get hit them. Because once you get there, then you have nowhere further to go.

This is why it is so often said that life is about the journey, and not a destination.

DECK USED:  NEXT WORLD TAROT

#TarotForGrowthAugust Challenge Prompt
Topic: I’m struggling with boundaries in my relationships.
Question: How does devaluing my needs harm myself?

Gypsy Palace Tarot

Reading Summary:  It’s self limiting (Eight of Swords) to my ability to get a fresh start in going after my dreams (Page of Wands), taking control out of my hands  so that I lose my way (The Chariot) along life’s path (The World).

Take Away:  Devaluing my needs creates a cycle of destruction that is directed at my autonomy. It influences both my ability to see clearly and make good decisions concerning the direction I want to go in, as well as my ability to actually control my trajectory as a whole on my life’s path. 

DECK USED:  GYPSY PALACE TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsAug2020 Challenge Prompt
Question: Weed Out / Replace With

Tabula Mundi in Minima TarotWeed Out – Six of Cups Rx – I need to let go of my fear that continuing in the path of allowing myself to have more rest and less burden is going to fuck up everything I’ve worked towards.  This fear is irrational and is not based in reality, yet my fear of shifting away from that mentality of being overburdened equals accomplishment and getting things done is holding me back from fully embracing my new path.

Replace With – Princess of Disks Rx – Continue to work at embracing a releasing of “industry”.  It’s okay to take some time for yourself, and it’s okay to enjoy that time.  Own your ability to relax and acknowledge that the world isn’t going to fall apart if you’re a bit selfish with your time and attention by directing it towards the self and self care rather than the business or the greater good.

DECK USED:  TABULA MUNDI IN MINIMA TAROT

Lionharts #TheAugustTarot#ElementalChallenge
Question: What am I asked to create for myself starting this week?

Big Things In Small Packages Tarot

Reading Summary:  Get your shit together (Nine of Cups) and put your thinking hat on (The High Priestess) so that you can seize the reigns (The Chariot) and get moving at going after that new vision of the same dream (Knight of Wands).

Take Away:  The new vision of the same dream mentioned here is about my business, and about how I have been trying to restructure how I do things so that I’m not so overwhelmed and overburdened all the time. In order to accomplish this new version of the same dream, though, there’s still some work that needs to be done.  Especially as we now head toward the end of summer and slip into the time to prep for the holiday rush.

This prepping process requires planning, but it also requires a lot of doing… and it’s that dynamic that needs to be picked up and run with this week.

DECK USED:  BIG THINGS IN SMALL PACKAGES TAROT

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question: What is working for me right now?

Tarot del Fuego

Reading Summary: Taking things slow (Eight of Wands Rx) and letting my new emotional growth (Ace of Cups) have the time and space it needs to reconcile with my past and find the value in what has happened in my history (Ten of Swords).

Side Note: This is really interesting imagery for the Eight of Wands.  I understand the representation in the imagery, though.  The fact that sometimes?  Things just move too fast.

Take Away:  Although I fully accept the experiences I have been through, the new emotional depth I’m experiencing due to the growth I’ve been exploring this spring and summer has needed a bit of a reconciliation with those experiences. Because I closed all of these emotions off during those events in my past, I did not really emotionally process these things.  I understand that and the cards indicating that this process is both healthy and ongoing.

DECK USED:  TAROT DEL FUEGO

Patience Can Be Progress

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Today’s meditation was fifteen minutes long and was tagged on to the end of my yoga session.  I needed a little extra time stretching today, so instead of taking time aside from my yoga, I extended my yoga practice and incorporated the meditation into it with the addition of some breathing and focusing exercises.

Japaridze TarotToday’s draw is the King of Gardens (King of Pentacles) which is traditionally interpreted as a representation of measured authority, abundance earned through self discipline, business acumen, and financial/resource security.

What stood out to me the strongest in the imagery of this card this morning is the blue/black hue of the figure’s face and that the folds on the back of the head looked like a different face to me… and I am left confused. Honestly, the imagery in this card is much like the imagery in the Hermit card in this deck.  Confusing and a bit too random and abstract.  Even in the aspect that I picked out of this card, I really am at a loss.

So, going by the traditional meaning of the card rather than off of the imagery, what I see as the  message in today’s card is a reassurance of sorts.   It is a reassurance that I am doing all I can at this time to provide stability and security in my home to those that depend on me, as well as for myself.

No, my mortgage is definitely not getting paid off at the rate I would prefer it to be, but at the same time?  I am still managing to keep up on it.  I’m still managing to keep everyone safe, and put food on the table, and keep us all in the resources we need to be healthy and happy.  Today’s card is a reminder to acknowledge for myself that I’m doing a good job.

DECK USED:  JAPARIDZE TAROT

#TarotForGrowthJune Challenge Prompt
Question: How can I better cope with ambiguity?

Tarot of the Animal Lords

Reading Summary: By not getting frustrated (the cage in the Three of Swords), but instead treating it with understanding (Queen of Chalices) and patience (Knight of Pentacles).

Take Away:  Usually, ambiguity frustrates me, and that creates a divide between me and the source of that ambiguity.  Instead, if I confront this behavior with understanding, it will create a deeper connection with the source of that ambiguity which will facilitate the potential for progress, while patience will help in getting where I want to go regardless of the wishy-washy bullshit. 

DECK USED:  TAROT OF THE ANIMAL LORDS

#DiscordTarotholicsJun2020 Challenge Prompt
Question: How can I better connect with my inner adolescent?

Bleu Cat TarotReading Summary: I am not really all that connected at all with my inner adolescent, which is where the Death card comes into this spread, as it is an indication that I will have to enact change in order to find that connection.

The Queen of Fishes with the Magician indicates that I need to take the emotional growth and lessons I’ve learned lately and use them as tools to apply to the cause (Eight of Balls).

Stalker note… the Queen of Cups seems to be getting very friendly with me this week.

Take Away:  I never really had much of an adolescence.  I was too busy being an adult.  Because of the suppression of this part of my development, I’ve never had much of a connection to this highly underdeveloped side of myself.  The cards here indicate that if I want to have a connection there, it will require long term commitment to the changes needed and using my emotional skills to build that bridge.  

Honestly?  I don’t think that I am yet at the stability phase of my current emotional growth to where I’m prepared to try and make that connection.  Not yet anyway.

DECK USED:  BLEU CAT TAROT

#TheJuneTarot Challenge by Lionhart
Question: Draw a card for someone who taught you a lesson.

Tarot SireneReading Summary:  I didn’t specify the person, but rather used the cards to tell me who the person is.   The person in these cards is my meth-head ex. His very selfish Knight of Cups pursuit of me landed him in the Justice system (thank the fuck).

Take Away:  So anyway, yeah.  This is him.  And the lesson here?  Listen to your inner compass when it tells you to step back.  I stuck around far too long and paid for it deeply. If I had listened to my instincts and inner compass?  I’d have dumped his ass a lot sooner and probably been able to circumvent the whole obsessive bullshit that followed.  Moral of the story?  Listen to your gut… don’t hesitate or procrastinate.  Just do it.

DECK USED:  SIRENE TAROT

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question: What have I let go of?

Tarot Mood

Reading Summary: Using going to bars (Three of Cups) and alcohol (vodka reference in Temperance) to avoid crash-and-burn emotions (The Tower)

Take Away:  It used to be that when I was super upset, instead of grounding and spend time with my plants… I would drink. At those times vodka was my friend, and yet never really solved anything and the feel better was only temporary. After making the promise to you not to do anymore drinking (because I clearly only drink for the wrong reasons), I began using my balcony and the plants there as a refuge and for grounding during times of high distress.

DECK USED:  TAROT MOOD

 

Take It Slow

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Today’s meditation was ten minutes long and focused on going with the flow and learning from what comes.

The story along with this guided meditation was about a man that lived in a hut with no door, and that one day while he was trying to meditate, a cat wandered in and laid down in his lap. He got up and picked the cat up and tossed it back outside, then returned to meditating, but the cat came back again. This went on for some time before he finally gives in and allows the cat to stay. The cat settles in his lap for a whole thirty seconds, and then wanders out on its own.

Sometimes? You just have to go with the flow. A lesson that this man learned from the random appearance of a cat.

Today’s draw is a double without a jumper, which is the Ace of Brine and the King of Oak.

What I see today when I look at these cards is when your heart speaks, sometimes it is a good idea to center yourself before you act and take your time with where it leads.

New ideas, new projects, creative inspirations, and budding feelings often cause us to run towards whatever has struck our interest rather than walk. The snail and the octopus in the Ace of Brine speak of a slower, more dexterous approach. Overlaying that is the King of Oak. He is regal and serene, grounded and steady. He speaks of an earthy abundance that, to me, represents an energy of strength and restraint. Not restraint as in saying “no”, but rather restraint as in taking your time and practicing moderation.

And again we come to moderation. Today’s cards are yet another perspective on moderation, which is an ongoing theme of late. This is not surprising, as it is something that I need to work on.

The traditional meanings for these cards include…

The Ace of Brine (which is the Ace of Cups) is a representation of beginnings, new starts, potential, and opportunities in the area of the emotions, relationships, creativity, and intuition.

The King of Oak (which is the King of Pentacles) is a representation of a projective alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of resources, finances, manifestation, and the physical world. This leads to themes that include authority, stability, wealth, and abundance.

Deck Used: Stolen Child Tarot