THE LESSER ARCANA
_Otherwise, the Four Suits of Tarot Cards_, will now be described
according to their respective classes by the pictures to each belonging,
and a harmony of their meanings will be provided from all sources.
Such are the intimations of the Lesser Arcana in respect of divinatory
art, the veridic nature of which seems to depend on an alternative that
it may be serviceable to express briefly. The records of the art are _ex
hypothesi_ the records of findings in the past based upon experience; as
such, they are a guide to memory, and those who can master the elements
may--still _ex hypothesi_--give interpretations on their basis. It is
an official and automatic working. On the other hand, those who have
gifts of intuition, of second sight, of clairvoyance--call it as we
choose and may--will supplement the experience of the past by the
findings of their own faculty, and will speak of that which they have
seen in the pretexts of the oracles. It remains to give, also briefly,
the divinatory significance allocated by the same art to the Trumps
Major.
[Illustration: KING of WANDS]
THE SUIT OF WANDS. KING.
The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is
dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble. The King uplifts a
flowering wand, and wears, like his three correspondences in the
remaining suits, what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown.
He connects with the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back
of his throne. _Divinatory Meanings_: Dark man, friendly, countryman,
generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies
honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected heritage to fall in
before very long. _Reversed_: Good, but severe; austere, yet tolerant.
[Illustration: QUEEN of WANDS]
WANDS. QUEEN.
The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of
life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality
corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic. _Divinatory
Meanings_: A dark woman, country-woman, friendly, chaste, loving,
honorable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed
towards him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of
money, or a certain success in business. _Reversed_: Good, economical,
obliging, serviceable. Signifies also--but in certain positions and in
the neighborhood of other cards tending in such directions--opposition,
jealousy, even deceit and infidelity.
[Illustration: KNIGHT of WANDS.]
WANDS. KNIGHT.
He is shown as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although
mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The
motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests
the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith. _Divinatory
Meanings_: Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man,
friendly. Change of residence. _Reversed_: Rupture, division,
interruption, discord.
[Illustration]
WANDS. PAGE.
In a scene similar to the former, a young man stands in the act of
proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a
postman. Beside a man, he will bear favorable testimony concerning him.
A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief
qualities of his suit. He may signify family intelligence. _Reversed_:
Anecdotes, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability
which accompanies it.
[Illustration]
WANDS. TEN.
A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.
_Divinatory Meanings_: A card of many significances, and some of the
readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with
honor and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is
also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression
of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy.
The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that
he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if
it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss. _Reversed_:
Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.
[Illustration]
WANDS. NINE.
The figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if
awaiting an enemy. Behind are eight other staves--erect, in orderly
disposition, like a palisade. _Divinatory Meanings_: The card signifies
strength in opposition. If attacked, the person will meet an onslaught
boldly; and his build shows that he may prove a formidable antagonist.
With this main significance there are all its possible adjuncts--delay,
suspension, adjournment. _Reversed_: Obstacles, adversity, calamity.
[Illustration]
WANDS. EIGHT.
The card represents motion through the immovable--a flight of wands
through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That
which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Activity in undertakings, the path of such
activity, swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great
hope, speed towards an end which promises assured felicity; generally,
that which is on the move; also the arrows of love. _Reversed_: Arrows
of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and
domestic disputes for persons who are married.
[Illustration]
WANDS. SEVEN.
A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves
are raised towards him from below. _Divinatory Meanings_: It is a card
of valor, for, on the surface, six are attacking one, who has, however,
the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies
discussion, wordy strife; in business--negotiations, war of trade,
barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant
is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him. _Reversed_:
Perplexity, embarrassments, anxiety. It is also a caution against
indecision.
[Illustration]
WANDS. SIX.
A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown;
footmen with staves are at his side. _Divinatory Meanings_: The card has
been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the
surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as
might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation
crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth.
_Reversed_: Apprehension, fear, as of a victorious enemy at the gate;
treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being opened to the enemy; also
indefinite delay.
[Illustration]
WANDS. FIVE.
A posse of youths, who are brandishing staves, as if in sport or strife.
It is mimic warfare, and hereto correspond the _Divinatory Meanings_:
Imitation, as, for example, sham fight, but also the strenuous
competition and struggle of the search after riches and fortune. In this
sense it connects with the battle of life. Hence some attributions say
that it is a card of gold, gain, opulence. _Reversed_: Litigation,
disputes, trickery, contradiction.
[Illustration]
WANDS. FOUR.
From the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great
garland suspended; two female figures uplift nosegays; at their side is
a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house. _Divinatory
Meanings_: They are for once almost on the surface--country life, haven
of refuge, a species of domestic harvest-home, repose, concord, harmony,
prosperity, peace, and the perfected work of these. _Reversed_: The
meaning remains unaltered; it is prosperity, increase, felicity, beauty,
embellishment.
[Illustration]
WANDS. THREE.
A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff's
edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the
ground, and he leans slightly on one of them. _Divinatory Meanings_: He
symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce,
discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are
sailing over the sea. The card also signifies able co-operation in
business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his
side towards yours with a view to help you. _Reversed_: The end of
troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and
disappointment.
[Illustration]
WANDS. TWO.
A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a
globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the
battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily
should be noticed on the left side. _Divinatory Meanings_: Between the
alternative readings there is no marriage possible; on the one hand,
riches, fortune, magnificence; on the other, physical suffering,
disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives one
suggestion; here is a lord overlooking his dominion and alternately
contemplating a globe; it looks like the malady, the mortification, the
sadness of Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world's wealth.
_Reversed_: Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.
[Illustration]
WANDS. ACE.
A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club. _Divinatory
Meanings_: Creation, invention, enterprise, the powers which result in
these; principle, beginning, source; birth, family, origin, and in a
sense the virility which is behind them; the starting point of
enterprises; according to another account, money, fortune, inheritance.
_Reversed_: Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, to perish; also a certain
clouded joy.
[Illustration]
THE SUIT OF CUPS. KING.
He holds a short scepter in his left hand and a great cup in his right;
his throne is set upon the sea; on one side a ship is riding and on the
other a dolphin is leaping. The implicit is that the Sign of the Cup
naturally refers to water, which appears in all the court cards.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Fair man, man of business, law, or divinity;
responsible, disposed to oblige the Querent; also equity, art and
science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative
intelligence. _Reversed_: Dishonest, double-dealing man; roguery,
exaction, injustice, vice, scandal, pillage, considerable loss.
[Illustration]
CUPS. QUEEN.
Beautiful, fair, dreamy--as one who sees visions in a cup. This is,
however, only one of her aspects; she sees, but she also acts, and her
activity feeds her dream. _Divinatory Meanings_: Good, fair woman;
honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving
intelligence, and hence the gift of vision; success, happiness,
pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother.
_Reversed_: The accounts vary; good woman; otherwise, distinguished
woman but one not to be trusted; perverse woman; vice, dishonor,
depravity.
[Illustration]
CUPS. KNIGHT.
Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet,
referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes
characterize this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side
of sense haunt him in his vision. _Divinatory Meanings_: Arrival,
approach--sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition,
demeanor, invitation, incitement. _Reversed_: Trickery, artifice,
subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.
[Illustration]
CUPS. PAGE.
A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate page, of studious and intent
aspect, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the
pictures of the mind taking form. _Divinatory Meanings_: Fair young man,
one impelled to render service and with whom the Querent will be
connected; a studious youth; news, message; application, reflection,
meditation; also these things directed to business. _Reversed_: Taste,
inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, artifice.
[Illustration]
CUPS. TEN.
Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and
ecstasy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right
arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm.
The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy but are
happy after their own manner. There is a home-scene beyond. _Divinatory
Meanings_: Contentment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of
that state; also perfection of human love and friendship; if with
several picture-cards, a person who is taking charge of the Querent's
interests; also the town, village or country inhabited by the Querent.
_Reversed_: Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence.
[Illustration]
CUPS. NINE.
A goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, and abundant
refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to
indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the
material side only, but there are other aspects. _Divinatory Meanings_:
Concord, contentment, physical _bien-être_; also victory, success,
advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the
consultation is made. _Reversed_: Truth, loyalty, liberty; but the
readings vary and include mistakes, imperfections, etc.
[Illustration]
CUPS. EIGHT.
A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity,
enterprise, undertaking or previous concern. _Divinatory Meanings_: The
card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely
antithetical--giving joy, mildness, timidity, honor, modesty. In
practice, it is usually found that the card shows the decline of a
matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be important is
really of slight consequence--either for good or evil. _Reversed_: Great
joy, happiness, feasting.
[Illustration]
CUPS. SEVEN.
Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of
the fantastic spirit. _Divinatory Meanings_: Fairy favors, images of
reflection, sentiment, imagination, things seen in the glass of
contemplation; some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent
or substantial is suggested. _Reversed_: Desire, will, determination,
project.
[Illustration]
CUPS. SIX.
Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers. _Divinatory
Meanings_: A card of the past and of memories, looking back, as--for
example--on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the
past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving
new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are
disporting in an unfamiliar precinct. _Reversed_: The future, renewal,
that which will come to pass presently.
[Illustration]
CUPS. FIVE.
A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups; two others
stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a
small keep or holding. _Divinatory Meanings_: It is a card of loss, but
something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a
card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to
expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not
without bitterness or frustration. _Reversed_: News, alliances,
affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.
[Illustration]
CUPS. FOUR.
A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on
the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another
cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his
environment. _Divinatory Meanings_: Weariness, disgust, aversion,
imaginary vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety
only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but
he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure.
_Reversed_: Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.
[Illustration]
CUPS. THREE.
Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one
another. _Divinatory Meanings_: The conclusion of any matter in plenty,
perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace,
healing. _Reversed_: Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It
signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the
pleasures of the senses.
[Illustration]
CUPS. TWO.
A youth and maiden are pledging one another, and above their cups rises
the Caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a
lion's head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old
examples of this card. Some curious emblematical meanings are attached
to it, but they do not concern us in this place. _Divinatory Meanings_:
Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the
inter-relation of the sexes, and--as a suggestion apart from all offices
of divination--that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature
is sanctified.
[Illustration]
CUPS. ACE.
The waters are beneath, and thereon are water-lilies; the hand issues
from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams are
pouring; a dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked Host, descends to
place the Wafer in the Cup; the dew of water is falling on all sides. It
is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana.
_Divinatory Meanings_: House of the true heart, joy, content, abode,
nourishment, abundance, fertility; Holy Table, felicity hereof.
_Reversed_: House of the false heart, mutation, instability,
revolution.
[Illustration]
THE SUIT OF SWORDS. KING.
He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He
recalls, of course, the conventional Symbol of Justice in the Trumps
Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of
life and death, in virtue of his office. _Divinatory Meanings_:
Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its
connections--power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law,
offices of the crown, and so forth. _Reversed_: Cruelty, perversity,
barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. QUEEN.
Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm
of her royal chair; the left hand is extended, the arm raised; her
countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with
sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and, her sword notwithstanding, she
is scarcely a symbol of power. _Divinatory Meanings_: Widowhood, female
sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation,
separation. _Reversed_: Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, bale,
deceit.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. KNIGHT.
He is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies. In the design
he is really a proto-typical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost
be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Skill, bravery, capacity, defense, address,
enmity, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. There is
therefore a sense in which the card signifies death, but it carries this
meaning only in its proximity to other cards of fatality. _Reversed_:
Imprudence, incapacity, extravagance.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. PAGE.
A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the
act of swift walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his way
the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and lithe, looking this
way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance,
spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging. _Reversed_:
More evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, unprepared state;
sickness is also intimated.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. TEN.
A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain,
affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not especially a card of
violent death. _Reversed_: Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none
of these are permanent; also power and authority.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. NINE.
One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is
as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of
utter desolation. _Divinatory Meanings_: Death, failure, miscarriage,
delay, deception, disappointment, despair. _Reversed_: Imprisonment,
suspicion, doubt, reasonable fear, shame.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. EIGHT.
A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her.
Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable
bondage. _Divinatory Meanings_: Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis,
censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness.
_Reversed_: Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; what
is unforeseen; fatality.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. SEVEN.
A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly; the two others of
the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp, is close at hand.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also
quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance. The design is uncertain in
its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each
other. _Reversed_: Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander,
babbling.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. SIX.
A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore. The
course is smooth, and seeing that the freight is light, it may be noted
that the work is not beyond his strength. _Divinatory Meanings_: Journey
by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient. _Reversed_:
Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a
proposal of love.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. FIVE.
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their
swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder,
and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master
in possession of the field. _Divinatory Meanings_: Degradation,
destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonor, loss, with the variants and
analogues of these. _Reversed_: The same; burial and obsequies.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. FOUR.
The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon
his tomb. _Divinatory Meanings_: Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's
repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the
design. _Reversed_: Wise administration, circumspection, economy,
avarice, precaution, testament.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. THREE.
Three swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind. _Divinatory
Meanings_: Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and
all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to
call for specific enumeration. _Reversed_: Mental alienation, error,
loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. TWO.
A hoodwinked female figure balances two swords upon her shoulders.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests,
courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms; another reading gives
tenderness, affection, intimacy. The suggestion of harmony and other
favorable readings must be considered in a qualified manner, as Swords
generally are not symbolical of beneficent forces in human affairs.
_Reversed_: Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.
[Illustration]
SWORDS. ACE.
A hand issues from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is
encircled by a crown. _Divinatory Meanings_: Triumph, the excessive
degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great
force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher
significance than comes usually within the sphere of fortune-telling.
_Reversed_: The same, but the results are disastrous; another account
says--conception--childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.
[Illustration]
THE SUIT OF PENTACLES. KING.
The face of this figure is dark, suggesting courage, and the bull's head
should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this
suit is represented throughout as engraved with the pentigram, typifying
the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that by
which they may be governed. In old Tarot packs this suit represented
money. The consensus of divinatory meanings is on the side of change, as
the cards do not deal especially with questions of money. _Divinatory
Meanings_: Valor, intelligence, business, mathematical gifts, and
success in these paths. _Reversed_: Vice, weakness, perversity, peril.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. QUEEN.
The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed
up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of
intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security,
liberty. _Reversed_: Evil, suspicion, suspense, fear, mistrust.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. KNIGHT.
He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect
corresponds. He exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Utility, serviceableness, interest,
responsibility, rectitude--all on the normal and external plane.
_Reversed_: Inertia, idleness, repose of that kind, stagnation; also
placidity, discouragement, carelessness.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. PAGE.
A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over
his raised hands. He moves slowly, insensible of that which is about
him. _Divinatory Meanings_: Application, study, scholarship, reflection;
another reading says news, messages and the bringer thereof; also rule,
management. _Reversed_: Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury,
unfavorable news.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. TEN.
A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and
domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs
accosting an ancient personage seated in the foreground. The child's
hand is on one of them. _Divinatory Meanings_: Gain, riches; family
matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family. _Reversed_:
Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry,
pension.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. NINE.
A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of
grape-vines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain,
suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and
testifies to material well-being. _Divinatory Meanings_: Prudence,
safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment. _Reversed_:
Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. EIGHT.
An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of
trophies. _Divinatory Meanings_: Work, employment, commission,
craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory
stage. _Reversed_: Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury.
It may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the
ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. SEVEN.
A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles
attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these
were his treasures and that his heart was there. _Divinatory Meanings_:
These are exceedingly contradictory; in the main, it is a card of money,
business, barter; but one reading gives altercation, quarrel--and
another innocence, ingenuity, purgation. _Reversed_: Cause for anxiety
regarding money which it may be proposed to lend.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. SIX.
A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and
distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own
success in life, as well as his goodness of heart. _Divinatory
Meanings_: Presents, gifts, gratification; another account says
attention, vigilance; now is the accepted time, present prosperity, etc.
_Reversed_: Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. FIVE.
Two mendicants in a snowstorm pass a lighted casement. _Divinatory
Meanings_: The card foretells material trouble above all, whether in the
form illustrated--that is, destitution--or otherwise. For some
cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers--wife, husband, friend,
mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be
harmonized. _Reversed_: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. FOUR.
A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with
hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He holds to that which
he has. _Divinatory Meanings_: The surety of possessions, cleaving to
that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance. _Reversed_: Suspense,
delay, opposition
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. THREE.
A sculptor at his work in a monastery. Compare the design which
illustrates the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice or amateur therein
has received his reward and is now at work in earnest. _Divinatory
Meanings_: _Métier_, trade, skilled labor; usually, however, regarded as
a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory. _Reversed_: Mediocrity,
in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. TWO.
A young man, in the act of dancing, has a pentacle in either hand, and
they are joined by that endless cord which is like the number 8
reversed. _Divinatory Meanings_: On the one hand it is represented as a
card of gaiety, recreation and its connections, which is the subject of
the design; but it is read also as news and messages in writing, as
obstacles, agitation, trouble, embroilment. _Reversed_: Enforced gaiety,
simulated enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting, composition, letters of
exchange.
[Illustration]
PENTACLES. ACE.
A hand--issuing, as usual, from a cloud--holds up a pentacle.
_Divinatory Meanings_: Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also
speedy intelligence; gold. _Reversed_: The evil side of wealth, bad
intelligence; also great riches. In any case it shows prosperity,
comfortable material conditions, but whether these are of advantage to
the possessor will depend on whether the card is reversed or not.