This card has been appearing in a few of the readings I’ve done lately. The readings haven’t had anything to do with money, so the card’s appearance has had me thinking. When upright, the six of pentacles talks about charity, that there is balance in the act of giving to charity and of not being too proud or stubborn to ask. (Contrast this with the five of pentacles where people in need are walking past a church where they could get help, but they are either not seeing it or not able to accept the charity.) When this card is reversed, the balance is not there. Either someone who can give is hanging on to his or her money or the people who could receive aren’t benefiting. Where upright this card is the card of generosity, it’s a miserly card upside down.
We commonly think of pentacles as the cards of money. Associated with Earth, pentacles are often called the suit of coins. In fact, many tarot decks call this suit coins or discs, which evokes an obvious feeling of money. So yeah, it’s easy to see how the generosity or lack thereof associated with this card relates specifically to money.
Except, as I said, I wasn’t asking about money. One question involved relationships, the other involved money in a round-about-way since it involved my businesses. In the later case, I took this card to mean that the opportunity wasn’t there. That I might give and give and not receive anything in return financially. So that made sense to me. The other reading, however, didn’t. Until I realized how I was out of balance in the giving and receiving realms.
I was not allowing myself to receive the positive feelings and love directed to me from other people. I’ve been so busy the last two years taking care of everyone else, of being the strong one, the one to hold up a partner who had a heart attack last year and a mother who over a year ago lost the sight in her right eye and suddenly found herself very dependent on me for driving and other tasks. I held all of this on my shoulders, always giving and receiving support to my friends and family, but one word of “I am so proud of you” from my mom and I was bawling like a starlet receiving her first Oscar. “You love me! You really really love me!” my subconscious would shout and the waterworks were on.
When this happened again a few days ago (I was by myself, but received a very touching email from an unexpected source of support), the waterworks started. And I thought, “this is ridiculous! You have nothing to cry over! This is a very happy email.” But even thinking that made me cry harder. And dang it! I hate it when I cry. I get water spots on my glasses and have to go clean them.
And then, maybe because I was reading a book that talked about being open to receiving and believing that we deserved it, I had that “aha” moment. Maybe in both spreads, but definitely in the relationship spread, this card wasn’t talking about money. It was talking about love, good will, deservedness. If I didn’t believe that I deserved these things, then the balance was out of whack. I could give and give and give, but as long as I was pushing away the returns the universe was trying to send me, I would eventually have nothing more to give. Which, frankly, was where I was at about three months ago. If I wasn’t able to be humble in my giving and proud to receive (isn’t that a switch), then the coins would fall on the ground as they’re doing when this card is reversed.
So for me, there are a couple of lessons here. Don’t get so hung up on the tarot symbols that you can’t see the symbolism for you in your own life, and make sure you’re open to receiving and giving everything, including coins.
May the cards be with you!
Alison Cross: 
Arwen: 
Christiana Gaudet: 
Koneta: 
John: 
Sharon: 
ivy: 
Aisling: 
Twitter
Facebook