Tarot for the Modern Reader
Winter and the Suit of Swords
Winter, and the suit of Pentacles. This week we are officially moving into the season of winter here in the Northern Hemisphere. Whether you love or hate the cold weather it brings, I always enjoy the change of energy a new season brings, and the opportunities to celebrate those changes spiritually.
The Sun will make it's annual move into Capricorn, and with that, the Wheel turns once more. We now enter the fallow period of our lives. Winter brings the time of regeneration. We may not all love it, but we do all NEED it. A garden needs a period for the soil to compost before it can nourish new life. The phoenix must return to ash before it can rise again. All things in nature need this inward time, and so do we.
As we begin the season, we start out at the Winter Solstice. Hooray! While this is the longest and darkest night of the year, it is the moment where the sun begins its ascent again, and from here forward, each day gets just a little bit longer than the one before. On this day, we also celebrate Yule if you are so inclined. This is one of my favorite Sabbats.
With Autumn we began to slow down. The days got shorter and colder and we continually harvested our crop. Now, our gardens lie fallow, nurturing the soil, and we too, stay inside, snuggle up against the cold, and nurture ourselves. While holidays can make this time of year particularly busy, they will come and go.
Capricorn Season
The season begins with the final week of holiday preparations and continues into the New Year. But come January 2nd, the holiday hustle is over and we are settling back into our routines. This begins a solid 2-3 month period where the days are still short, the temperatures are cold, and we must find ways to protect ourselves from the seasonal depression that can nip at just about all of our heels at some point.
Winter begins in Capricorn, this is a cardinal earth sign. All of the solstices occur in cardinal signs, these are the leaders of the zodiac. A time of beginning things or initiating new actions. Capricorn is the workhorse of the zodiac. In Capricorn we can find ourselves determined, committed and steadfast. And willing to work hard to accomplish it.
We often throw out a list of goals at the New Year, however, I would encourage at the winter solstice, for you to think about one thing that is really important to you, and create a plan for how you can accomplish that goal. It's ok if it takes all year, but beginning this early and maximizing the amount of time you have under the Capricorn sun is a good idea.
The World and the Minor Suit of Pentacles
Capricorn is the ruler of The World card. How fitting! Capricorn is ruled by the planet Saturn and these energies are tied very closely to The World card. The World's about achievement, it's about completing a cycle, reaching the pinnacle of success, closing out one chapter and successfully starting anew. These are all things that can only happen when we use Capricorn's strong work ethics and Saturn's discipline.
Capricorn is also a ruler of the Pentacle cards in general, alongside fellow earth signs, Taurus and Virgo. But it's Capricorn that begins the winter season, and one of the reasons the Suit of Pentacles as a whole is attributed to Winter. Pentacle cards are slow moving energy. Think of how slow molasses moves in the cold of winter.
When the cards of the Pentacles suit come up in a reading, we have much of the same energy. Things are slow and solid. Things take time. In the suit of Pentacles, we see that energy of Capricorn and the fellow earth signs, such as building, structuring, and responsibility driven behavior in general. This is a time, much like Capricorn symbolizes, that we are focusing on doing the work.
Associations for the Suit of Pentacles
We may see more Pentacles cards show up in our readings now. This was certainly true for me with Swords cards after the Autumnal Equinox. I don't know about you, but I welcome the change to the money cards! Let's do a bit of a deep dive on the associations for the Suit of Pentacle cards:
The Suit of Pentacles corresponds beautifully to the luxurious playing card suit of Diamonds. You may also see this suit named:
Coins
Discs
Deniers
Stones
and more in other decks….
This does not change the inherent meaning of the cards. As it relates to people, the Pentacles Court Cards are usually used to represent those with an Earth Sun sign:
Taurus
Virgo
Capricorn
Major Arcana Cards that correlate to the Suit of Pentacles are as follows, in each of these cards you will find Pentacles energy:
The Empress
The Hierophant
The Hermit
The Devil
The World
Some Keywords to associate with the Suit of Pentacles:
Winter
Money
Possessions
Land
Assets
Health
Work
Values
Wealth
Moving through the Minor Arcana
So how do the cards of the Minor Arcana relate to the season of Winter specifically? Let's begin with the Ace. Aces always bring new beginnings, just like the Winter Solstice brings a new beginning. As the year turns over just a week later, we are often beginning new opportunities related to the Ace of Pentacles. Take your health and fitness goals. Starting a new way of eating or just picked up a gym membership? Yep, that's in the Ace of Pentacles' wheelhouse.
As we move through the suit we see more signs of the season. The two which is our financial juggler often shows up as those holiday bills come in, but also, we are trying to balance what is important to us. We have these new things we've added to our lives and schedule when we hit Jan 1 and made new goals. In the three, we find ourselves working to integrate these things and even create the systems and processes we need to help us meet our goals.
We reach the four after we have been in the winter season long enough to feel lethargic and maybe a bit depressed by the short days, long nights and cold temps. We reach that fallow point after the holiday hub-bub and new year excitement begins to wear off. We begin to wonder what goals and tasks that we took on are worth holding onto and building out further.
In the 5 I feel we have reached that hardest part where we are slow moving and questioning our choices and goals. The six always asks us to make choices. Which goals should be kept, which should be given over? This happens in the seven. We decide what projects we began at the new year that are successfully taking shape, and which ones need to be pruned. The eight finds us now doubling down on the things that worked, and as we reach the end of the suit, we are rewarded for that work in the nine and the ten.
The Suit of Pentacles is associated with the season of Winter in general, however the first month, the month of Capricorn is where the energies will play out the strongest. I would recommend you use this time to think about what things are most important to you, and put your efforts there in January, while you have the cosmic help of the Universe at your back. You can use The World card as your totem, take it out and keep it in front of you as a reminder of your hard work and dedication to your project, and the rewards that will come when you see it through to fruition!
Join us in our Facebook group Tarot for the Modern Reader right now!
I'm Liza, professional Tarot reader, writer and mentor, and this is Tarot Liza. Everyday we're working to bring our mission of delivering more value and Tarot education to the Modern Reader to life! Welcome! Read more...
S02 E041 Announcements, a Blooper and the True Samhain Portal
We’re now in the window of the true Samhain portal. Tune in to this week’s episode and pickup the ritual I left out of last week’s episode (oops!), as well as why you might want to do these rituals again (or for the first time), this week! But hurry- the portal won’t be open long. I also share a few announcements for the podcast for the coming month!...Read More »
S02 Ep040 Rituals for Halloween (and beyond!) for Tarot Readers
Halloween and rituals go hand in hand. Although we have turned Halloween into a night of spooky fun, complete with costumes and candy for children, it is really a special night to honor those who are no longer with us, and based on the much older pagan sabbat of Samhain. It's a great time to communicate with those who have passed over, or any of our spirit guides, as the veil is much thinner not only during Scorpio season in general...Read More »
S02 Ep039 The Death Card: Death and Rebirth- Letting Go During Scorpio Season
Death, rebirth and letting go, these are the themes that let us know that Scorpio season has arrived! This is the time of year that we are prime to look into the deepest darkest corners and excavate the things that are no longer serving us. The things that are holding us back. Things that have long outlived their usefulness. Some of these things go all the way back to our childhood, and some are just outdated and outworn patterns of behavior...Read More »
S02 Ep038 The Shadow Self: How to Own and Heal Our Shadow Qualities
The Shadow Self, what is it and where does it come from? How is it formed, and how do we heal it? Why do we have it in the first place? These are all questions that come up when we begin discussing the shadow. No discussion about the shadow is complete without a dive into mythology, as all things related to the shadow are naturally related to the Underworld, which is the domain of Pluto (who in the Tarot, rules the Death card). Join me in this episode to learn how to identify your shadows, and join us on a 13 day Shadow Work Challenge!...Read More »
S02 Ep037 Your *Already-Written* 3 Card Tarotscope for Every 10 Days for the Rest of Your Life
Want to know what's in the cards? Look no further than the stars! What if I could share with you a cool way to use a 3-card-reading, every 10 days, that you don't even have to draw yourself, that could accurately forecast your next 10 days? What if we could do that for all of the 10 days of the rest of your life? And you don't have to be an astrologer to do it either! This technique also works retroactively- so you can look back in time at the forecasts for significant times in your life to see how they match up! Join me this week...Read More »
S02 Ep036 Contracts and Sorrow- Gifts of the Three of Swords
The decans and their forecasts, are determined by their astrological associations- so while we may look at the imagery in this card and think it would be a terrible predictor of our week, it's astrology tells a different story. The association for the Three of Swords is Saturn in Libra, and that's the association we need to keep in mind, when we are considering the energy that we are going to be experiencing during this card's reign or tenure. Saturn is cold, dark, heavy, wet, dreary…. Hence the rain in the Rider-Waite-Smith card behind...Read More »