Tarot Tuesday 11-10-15

Today's card drawn is the Four of Pentacles.

Pentacles represent financial matters and material possessions.  As you can see from the picture on this card, the man is holding onto his possessions very tightly.  In other versions of the Four of Pentacles, he even holds some of the pentacles down with his feet so that he can't even move.  The basic message here is that perhaps your material possessions or money are keeping you from moving you ahead and trapping you in a certain lifestyle.

This card can indicate that you are in a financially stable and secure position in your life.  You might be fairly conservative about money and might not want to gamble or take risks with financial matters.  You might be very protective of what you have accomplished and what you have accumulated over time.  You are self-sufficient both financially and emotionally, as you are a person who often equates money with emotional security.

While financial stability is a positive thing, this card also indicates possessiveness, greed and perhaps an overly cautious approach to life.  You might be afraid to take risks for fear of losing everything that you have attained so far. Because of this, you might find yourself feeling a little bit unhappy and unsatisfied with life.  Deep within you might be realizing that you have sold out for a conservative and too safe approach to life.

You need to be careful that you don't place too much importance on money and material wealth.  Just like Scrooge, if you become obsessed with those things it can lead to a miserly or penny-pinching attitude.  Your money has a whole lot less meaning if you keep it all to yourself.  Also, if you become so accustomed to this lifestyle of material possessions, you will find yourself  having to continually work hard to sustain this standard of living and obsession with material possessions.

In addition to referring to material possessions, this card can also indicate an inflexible attitude that is resistant to change.  Sometimes change can seem to be a threat to your security and stability.  You might feel like you could lose everything if things were to change.  You might find yourself favoring tradition and a traditional way of doing things rather than risking losing it all with a change.

The Four of Pentacles can also indicate a need to control the world around you.  You are a person who wants to be in charge to make sure that your world doesn't get altered or changed.  If this describes you, you need to be careful that you are not being too controlling.  You must realize that you cannot always have things your way and that by being stubborn and insistent, resistant to change and new ideas, you could isolate yourself from friends or family.

As I reflect on the meaning of this card, I think of people in my life who have been so resistant to change.  I can think of two very important people in my life who have and perhaps continue to be this way.  I find this to be interesting because I am just the opposite.  In fact, I'm a person who craves change and I do find myself becoming bored with sameness.  As it is, I have been in a certain "sameness" in my life for awhile now.  I love my career, love teaching music to children, love my home, my family and my life and while I wouldn't change it for the world, I do what I can to keep it interesting within the sameness.  If you've been reading my blog, you know that I am starting to branch out with new things.  I want to start telling fortunes at expo's, fairs, for parties, etc.  I also have this big dream of opening a witch themed coffeehouse and used book store with my dear friends. It's a big dream and while we have a great location picked out with a very lucky address and great dreams of what it will look and seem like, that's about as far as we've gotten.  It's a dream right now and a very cool one.  So, do we take the risks and make it come true?  Do we just hold onto the dream?  It's something to think about as we go through this beautiful Fall Tuesday.

Something else I think about while reflecting on the meaning of this card is the importance of generosity.  We are coming into the season of advent, which for me, is a season of random acts of kindness.  It is ironic that there is such a big deal going on about Starbucks and their red cups right now as one of my big random acts of kindness I love to practice during the Christmas season (and other times of the year) is to pay for the car behind me in the Starbucks drive through.  Whenever I'm feeling down and unsure about my life, I can usually make myself feel better simply by performing one random act of kindness.  I think quite often people get so busy holding onto what they have that they forget the importance of giving for their souls.  I have been fortunate enough to experience wonderful acts of kindness and generosity performed by others.  And I've been fortune enough to practice them myself.  Nothing makes me happier.  I have also noticed that it's the people with the least who tend to give the most.  And I wonder why that is.  So, during the rest of November and December (and going into the new year as well), I believe everyone should pledge to do at least one random act of kindness, maybe more. It is a wonderful feeling.  And the more anonymous you can be with that, the better.  Keep it inside and enjoy the warm feeling it will give you.