Remember To Play In The Dirt
The King of Pentacles comes around to tell us a few things today. One of which is that both playing and working hard in the dirt are essential character building blocks. Especially for becoming the best leaders we can be, both within our own selves and our communities, the overlapping space of both joy and humility cannot be understated. We use the Many Queens Tarot for our readings, and in her succinct distillation of the essence of this card, Lettie Jane Rennenkamp reminds us: “Solid like a bull, think it through, act from the point of deeply grounded abundance...Remember to play i the dirt, don’t take yourself so seriously, and pay attention to detail.”
While the King of Pentacles is most often correlated with the sign of Taurus, my own Tarot teacher from many moons ago always read it as indicative of any of messages from three earth signs, Capricorn, Taurus or Virgo. So today, along with checking in with a thorough understanding of the card as a pinnacle and channel of Earth element, we will also talk a bit about today’s New Moon in Capricorn as well as the recent transit of Mars into Taurus.
The King of Pentacles - The Magic of Ordinary Creation
The Kings of each suit embody the combined power of Air along with their specific suit, in this case Earth. Thus we can see the King of Pentacles as playing the essential role of pulling us back down to reality when we float off into thinking that magic, mysticism, purity, spirituality or even success and worthiness must be separate from the soil. When we begin thinking that certain work is below us or that doing such work indicates that one embodies inherent lesser value, we sadly leave behind an essential aspect of the leadership archetype. Like the traditional Smith-Rider-Waite imagery noting that our King sits in his garden rather than in his castle (though that is pictured in the background), our Rennenkamp King is really just chillin with her bull, humbly slouched in a daydream with her familiar.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a “leader,” I ask you to gently tune in to the deeper and more subtle meanings of this card as they may pertain to both yourself and others. Remembering that everyone is a guide or leader to someone. There is some person in your life who looks up to you as an example or a steward in life. Also, our personalities are made up of an archetypal collage. This involves an inevitable internal hierarchy which is the reason we have to do things like learn how to “talk nice” to ourselves, love our bodies, believe in the value of our ideas, projects and goals. Even if you consider your life mundane, I implore you to drop into the spiritual richness of that normalcy as the most grounded and true gift from the All-There-Is.
I also find it interesting that we receive this card, often considered the “final” card of the minor arcana, just as we close up a moon cycle in the cardinal Earth sign of Capricorn.
New Moon in Capricorn - What Seed Will You Plant?
Right now we are at the tail end of the dark moon in Capricorn leading up to the new moon in Capricorn this evening/ (or tomorrow wee hours depending on your time zone). The dark moon of 3 days leading up to a new moon is when old habits, systems, and structures are dissolving and when we can also take advantage of this energy to pray or do spellwork for such release in our own lives. The new moon is when Spirit/Nature herself plants the new seed, and when we can also plant a seed of blessing or intention for some cause or dream.
When this occurs in Capricorn we are directed to attune such intentions, prayers or spell-crafting to our most inner sense of self, our psyche, soul, spirit and our emotional needs as they pertain to family, history, dreams, traditions and especially any task that stands before us like a mountain to be scaled or moved. The Capricornian myth is that of a trickster deity Sea Goat rising from the depths of the collective unconscious ocean to bring civilization to humanity. What aspect of your personal unconscious or the collective unconscious is your archetypal sea goat feeling called to haul to the surface?
Mars in Taurus - Being Both Rooted and Ready To Act
Mars is often seen as a representative aspect of leadership or “kingly” energies, embodying and motivating initiative, ambition and the will to act. Thus, I felt called to direct a bit of our focus today to Mars in Taurus as this is an important transit which will take over 2 months before heading into Gemini on March 3. That means the sooner we tune into this portal to access “King of Pentacles” energies, the better we will be able to utilize this portal for personal and collective growth.
When we slow down, get grounded, get earthy and maybe even dirty, awaken our senses, begin to build form, grow roots, embody our strength, we have the opportunity to be and to invoke a sensual, rooted and nurturing power when it comes to leadership. When we cross pollinate this with passion, heat, energy and even anger or angst, it is as if we are tearing off an old blindfold and breaking out of a long-work straight-jacket as we finally ignite the will to act. What does this mean in your personal life? How do you see this playing out in the collective? How can we champion each other at this time?
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