Tarot Card of the Week: Seven of Pentacles

All human wisdom is summed up in two words – wait and hope.
Alexandre Dumas

What a lovely card to receive for the upcoming magical holiday this week! Welcome back to our frequent visitor, the Seven of Pentacles.

This coming Sunday, many thousands will be celebrating Lughnasadh (pronounced “Loo-nahs-ah”), also known as the Anglo-Saxon “Lammas.” This is one of the Greater Sabbats and honors the First Harvest. The Seven of Pentacles seems an especially apropos omen for this time.

Seven is a number of magic, spirituality, and initiation into a deeper level of Mystery. There are seven main chakras, the human body is said to renew itself on a cellular level every seven years, each quarter phase of the Moon is seven days long, there are seven colors in the visible spectrum, and seven notes in our musical scale. No wonder it is considered a number of harmony and good luck.

And with the Pentacles suit being focused upon the Earthy, material-world matters in our lives, this fortune comes in ways that are quite tangible to us. If we have been as diligent as the young man in this card, good results can be expected in the areas of work, money, home, and health.

We see the young man as he pauses, and gazes at the ripening disks on the vine. He seems thoughtful, evaluating what he has already worked to achieve, considering what may come next.

As we all know, what he reaps will depend upon what he has sown. Like him, we may dream of prosperity and success. But how do we ensure that our labors are bearing the fruit that we desire? And are we willing to toil as steadily for the results we seek?

Welcoming Lughnasadh

In agricultural traditions throughout the Northern Hemisphere, this marks the start of the harvest cycle, when Summer’s burgeoning, fresh growth transitions to the time of maturity. Now the grains of the fields are beginning to ripen. We give thanks for these early, life-giving crops, as well as the fruits and vegetables that are now filling our pantries. Now is when we are reminded to save, preserve, and store our bounty for the dark, cold days that will be coming.

This week’s card directs us to take a moment to count our blessings. Maybe we need a breather, during which we can pause and look at the big picture. Do we know what we want and where we want to go?  Now that we are in this time of the first harvest, is what we are seeing before us what we actually intended, back in our “planting time” – the Springtime of potential and possibilities?

If so, now we can prepare for whatever final work and follow-through may be required. This card suggests that we take our time and exercise patience. If we wish to progress to the abundance we have envisioned, this is a chance to take stock and align ourselves with Nature’s flow of growth and change.

For those who have chosen their intentions and laid their groundwork wisely, these natural rhythms are friends, not problems.

If we are not happy with the end now in sight, there may still be time for fine-tuning and minor adjustments. But the fundamental nature of the outcome is already set. Whatever we have started is nearing its completion, for better or worse.

In either case, now is the time to give thanks and appreciate the divine co-creation we are a part of.

A Fruitful Harvest, Setting Seed for a New Beginning

I was very curious (and a bit nervous) as to what our card might be this week. As usual, the Tarot offers a nearly perfect snapshot of my own inner landscape.

This coming Tuesday morning, July 27, I will be retiring my old website in all its beautiful, labyrinthine, Tarot-centric complexity.

As I have labored behind the scenes on this project, I have spent quite a lot of time surveying the many years of work my site has yielded. I have been blogging on various incarnations of it since June of 2003, including a 15 or so year run of posting a new essay every single day.

My decades of service as a Tarot consultant murmur like wind-swept golden fields of grain, or the young man’s heavy-laden vines.

This is a poignant moment, as I prepare for the transition from working in this field, to my new career as a full-time writer. (There will be lots more about this on my new blog).

But while we’re here right now, I want to take this moment to thank you for being my inspiration, my cherished audience, and hopefully, my ongoing companions as I begin this next chapter – one that I have longed to write my whole life.

For you are the ones who have demonstrated the joys and rewards of being faithful to your true calling. Like the young man in the Seven of Pentacles, such dedication is needed in order to bear the fruit that we came here to share.

That is exactly what I hope to accomplish in the time still left to me.

Preparing for the Turning

We honor this time of the harvest by setting aside a portion of our bounty in preparation. Although Summer’s heat may seem never-ending, the daylight has waned noticeably since Summer Solstice, and darker, leaner times surely lie ahead.

Let us step back and observe with gratitude what we have grown in our garden. Let this be a reminder that when our labors and intentions are in harmony with the cycles of Nature and the great wisdom of the seasons, good fortune and a bountiful harvest can be ours.

And sometimes, our most important work is to simply wait, hope, and trust in the fullness of time.

Thank you, my beloveds.

– Beth