Just a few days until Samhein.
For me, this time of year is about introspection. Samhein is the beginning of a new year for witches, and the days leading up to Samhein are a time to pause and consider what I've accomplished over the past year and what I failed to accomplish. And the "why" behind the things that I wanted to accomplish and, yet, didn't accomplish is an important question for me.
It seems to me that when I want to do something but "just can't" quite "get around to it," a Shadow is often involved. (Assuming, of course that I really do want to achieve that goal and didn't just adopt it because I thought that I "should" or because others wanted it for me.) And my Shadows will, if approached gently, respectfully, in a light trance, talk to me. Those are important conversations for me, not easy or fun, but important to the process of becoming who I want to become, to the process of stripping off the layers and revealing/becoming my Better Self. I sometimes ask a Shadow for its name, ask if we can do a joint Tarot reading, ask what I can do to help the Shadow feel safe enough to let me make desired changes.
The Shadow that I worked with this weekend showed me her picture: the Two of Pentacles. How do you read that card?
Art found here.
7 comments:
If your soul is longing for introspection, the Two of Pents seems to say: Multitasking is not all it's cracked up to be. Juggling projects and commitments while walking a tightwire leaves little time to just be in the present moment. Can you leave your multitasking behind, at least for a little while, in order to feed your soul? It seems to me you are already doing that. Perhaps it's just a reminder.
As the Two of Pentacles is your guide to soul introspection, I sense you are being asked to look at the juggling you are doing?
Are you doing too much of one and not enough of another? Do you need to take a time-out to reassess?
Perhaps, it speaks of reassessing your schedule - how you spend your time.
Yet... most of all I sense what your soul introspection calls for is a desire for a balance - a more even spaced timing on life.
I'm not going to read this card specifically for you, but just comment that in most cases, I interpret the 2 of Pents, to be about balance. This would apply to the both the card you show and in the more familiar Smith-Waite (aka Rider) deck (as well as many other decks). In the more familiar (to most people) Smith-Waite, as well as in the card you show, the human figure appears to me to be a juggler. The Waite-Smith shows the human (juggler) balancing two pentacles within the framework of an infinity sign; one of the juggler's feet is lifted, also implying the ability or need for balance. In the background are ships on what I see as a somewhat rocky sea. So usually I interpret this card as the ability to(or need for) balance in what is likely to be at least a somewhat rocky or unbalanced situation. BTW, this card can, at time, be a literal referral to balancing money (pentacles).
I agree with the other comments that this card is about balance, but would point out also that it is a Minor Arcana card, which most likely indicates that the soul work needed is in the physical, day-to-day world immediately at hand, rather than in some karmic or other realm, indicated usually by the Major Arcana.
Nairn
Interesting consideration of shadow work as related to 2P. In reading on physics and Buddhism, I came across some space-time metaphors, including the complexity that it is "never just the tree and its shadow; rather, it is the positioning of the sun in relation to the tree which determines the direction in which the shadow is cast."
In looking at 2P, the 'juggler' only holds two pentacles, which is odd, since juggling usually becomes more of a challenge with the introduction of three or more items. The looping infinity sign reminds me of the idea that it is folly to draw a function (for example, a simple correlation) using only two points. Indeed, with only two positive data points, any myriad of functions can describe the relationship (exs., inverse, tangent, exponential). Though only a minor card, the implication is that even in the positivist world, infinite possibilities can and do exist. We are all jugglers, juggling, and intermittently "in touch with" the infinite. Reading deeply into physics, the idea of matter popping in and out of our awareness (as a function of our observational capabilities) is awe-inspiring.
An example of shadow and duality: (found at http://www.magickalmind.com/pentacle.htm
see second section, second para (nice :)
"One example of a real-life duality, a two of pentacles situation, might be a factory which gives work to a lot of people but which pollutes the environment."
Perhaps productive shadow work is done by overturning many stones and looking beneath the surface. Often we allow simplistic, dualistic answers to suffice. It's convenient, expedient, easily assimilated into our belief systems. Yet paradoxes lurk. Also, for anyone with a dual-natured sun sign, cards of duality usually point to consideration of possibilities, exceptions, unpopular or not well known truths that are not obvious. The Balancing Act requires practice in delaying premature foreclosure in decision making; fully aware that there are three other elements, seven directions and a sea of possibilities.
Thanks again for your thoughtful blog, Hecate.
UUgal
I concur with the balance issue and the very real juggling of everything you do...of what all women do. Balancing your career and your family life and your spiritual practice and....
My immediate reaction is that there is a part of you that would like to spend even more time with your cherished loved ones (grandson? yourself--and I mean that in the most positive way! your covenmates? your garden?) but that your well-established career stands in the way of that to a certain degree. (The only reason I pinpoint your career is that pentacles are being juggled...it could be some other money/security/root issue.)
You already have an established spiritual practice of grounding and centering and listening to your soul. Allow yourself the luxury of asking "what makes me happy?"
Your Shadow may be asking for you to make room for more of whatever it is that nurtures you at your very core. Which may, as indicated by the card, involve trade-offs. Give yourself the time to mull over the ways this balance might manifest in your life.
Bright Blessings to you and yours!
A-C
Add me to the consensus that the card speaks of some kind of conflict between what you do for money and something you would rather be doing. I'd also agree that it's an earthly conflict rather than a spiritual one.
I'm wondering if you're involved in a court case where you aren't feeling connected to the client or the merits of the case for some reason.
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