Blessed Lammas! Enjoy your first harvest of love and maybe blueberries and corn.
We were asked for this blog hop to write about our favorite Pentacles card. For me, definitely the Nine. The number 9 is important to me since it reflects my life year in numerology (Hermit and Moon cards in the Tarot). I am often drawn to the nines in my decks, but actually most of all in the Pentacles (or Coins or Disks) suit.
Artistic Interpretations
Now, the question is, which imagery, which deck? I have some arrayed before me (just the RWS-style ones that have pictures of scenes and people, not just pip cards).
The above three cards have the traditional RWS landed gentry or noble woman of means in solitary enjoyment of her property, although not a one is smiling, it seems (is there a wisp of a smile on the Robin Wood deck lady?). And then we go off in different directions with the other three. One with a maiden, yes, but in very different circumstances (a tree coming out of a piano), one with a woman and a man riding horses out of the mist, and one with an antlered old grey male shaman figure and no harvest that I can see (but that’s the Wildwood tarot for you).
Hmmm. The charm has always been the woman of power and comfortable wealth. You’d think I’d prefer the Ten of Pentacles, with its family theme, but I like the independence of the woman in the Nine, even though she’s not quite complete in the harvest of love and family; she’s enjoying her own power at the moment, and the fruit of her own labor (or perhaps also the labor of her farm workers—I do hope she’s treated them well).
Colman’s Nine of Pentacles
I do note that most of my decks with the more traditional woman and her garden do show some flowers and stone or other structures, except one. And I will go with that one as my favorite because it’s true to the idea of the harvest of the fruits of the land and not just the display of beauty. And we women are more than just figures of beauty, although we are that, too. 😉
Pamela Colman-Smith’s original drawing, recolored by Mary Hanson-Roberts for the Universal Waite deck, seems to be the truest to the meaning of Lammas as the early harvest. Our lady carries the energy of Venus (see the pattern of her over-gown) in Virgo (the order of of her land and togetherness of her person) in a vineyard filled with ripened grapes. Now that’s something to harvest! And perhaps soon a small mammal for the table caught by her little hawk.
It can be wondrous to see the artistic freedom and new themes taken by various artists, but the reason that the traditional RWS images have lasted so long and been derived from so many times is the way they include just what is needed to express a comprehensive interpretation of the card.
So, a Lammas wine-cup salute to Ms. Colman-Smith and her lady of the Nine of Pentacles.
Blessings!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I like the 9 too because to me it shows a sense of independent responsibility with all material things. 🙂
The 9 is a fave of mine and I associate her with the Empress as well. She is, to me, the mini Empress.
It’s hard to pick a favourite, isn’t it? I always wonder what passion it is that the lady of the 9 Pents keeps hidden beheath that hood!
Ali x
Yay, another Nine of Pentacles! I love Universal Waite, too. x
So many of us picked the Nine of Pentacles – a lot of independent-minded women out here 😀 Lovely choice, and I adore that you picked the most nature-based one 🙂
Looks like the Nine lady is pretty popular. Will have to get back to work for the moment, but will hop over to more blogs later on…
I see connections to the Empress too, as well as the Queen of Pentacles 🙂 Sometimes I think she has a Mona Lisa smile!
I’ll drink to that. 🙂
Independent, dynamic, and grounded. I’ll raise a glass to that as well! Great post!
It’s interesting to note that the 9/Pentacles is the only Pentacles pip card with a woman as the main character…It seems that a woman in the RWS isn’t associated with work but with leisure 😉 Just a random thought of mine as I move along the Lammas Blog Hop 😉
Christiane, I hadn’t thought about that pattern, although some decks add in more ladies in different places, but maybe not in the Pentacles; I will have to look. Yeah, and we work our butts off, too! Trying to imagine a ragingly feminist Tarot deck, but one of the Goddess-based ones has likely taken this perspective already…
Hi Joanne, there are several decks, and not just Goddess ones, that have taken that approach or something similar. For example, the Llewellyn Tarot has a lot of women in it, though in a balanced way. The Manga Tarot (Lo Scarabeo version) has swapped women and men, so all the RWS cards that show men now show women, and vice versa. Doesn’t make a huge difference to the balance of the Majors, but it does with the pips. Then most Goddess decks have only women, sometimes even in the Courts. And the Vanessa Tarot takes a playful feminist approach to the cards, with only four showing men at all (Lovers and Devil are two) 😉
The Nine of Pentacles is such a great card. Thanks for making it come alive here!
very cool that many of us chose the 9 of Pentacles. And yes, it sure is a great card.
Claire-Marie
“… a Lammas wine-cup salute to Ms. Colman-Smith and her lady of the Nine of Pentacles.”
Well said. Without Pamela Coleman-Smiths’ artwork we would be the poorer.
Her style, though not flamboyant or especially beautiful, one could study the multi-layered depth and symbolism of her images for a lifetime.
A very interesting blog, thank you. Bright Blessings – FS xx
Yep I was glad to shift from Original RWS to Universal in one respect: I can see details of symbolism a lot easier with Hanson-Roberts’s recoloring. Not a lot of detail in faces and such like some of the more recent artistic decks, but the Thoth is simple in line in a similar way. I do find it a nice relief to work with older decks just for the simplicity as I learn. Thematic decks are easier to understand when one has the “basics” covered.