I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Sunday Planning, I plan for the week ahead.
In my Tarot reading for this week, I pulled the Queen of Pentacles in the position of energy entering.
This queen nurtures the home, the body, and creative pursuits. She is nurturing, grounded, and practical. She creates a comfortable and stable home environment. She is a “sovereign homemaker” who enjoys cooking, gardening, and creating a welcoming space for family and friends.
In Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack writes of the Queen of Pentacles:
Her qualities, as well as the sexual symbolism, relate her to the patron of Pentacles, the Empress. At the same time, as a Minor figure she carries a quality lacking in the archetypal trump of passion: self-awareness. She knows and believes in herself, and in the magic of her life. In readings, this quality of self-trust will often prove the most important.
If the King stands beside the Fool then the Queen belongs with the Magician. Like him she wears a red robe over a white shirt; leaves and flowers frame both of them; a yellow sky shines behind each. Where the Magician manipulates the forces hidden in the world, the Queen of Pentacles joins herself to those forces, allowing them to flow through her into her daily life.
The Pentacles, according to Pollack, are a magical sign:
As a magical sign, Pentacles symbolize the ‘magic’ of ordinary creation. Taken simply this means the beauty of nature, the joy of satisfying work. The symbolism, however, carries a deeper meaning…. The mystic or magician does not simply ground the self in a negative way, using the world as the opposite of spiritual experience. Rather, the natural world, because it carries a firmer reality than the other elements [fire, air, water], because it does not lead so easily to confusion or misconception or ill use, opens the way to more mystic experience.
Homemaking is ordinary creation, but it can be magical. I want people who come to my house to find it a little magical, like a departure or refuge from the noisy, dirty world outside.
Painting is a physical action of the world, taking place using things of the earth1—natural and man-made pigments, linen or cotton canvas stretched onto wood frames, brushes of differing shapes, sizes, and textures—that feels like magic when a painting with striking power emerges.
When my daughter visited me this week she commented on how I’ve decorated my home. She said, “I love being surrounded by art.” She liked a painting I did recently that’s in a very different style from my usual. It’s abstract trees of some sort. I haven’t titled it yet, or even decided if it’s finished.
With each painting I hang, my home becomes a little more magical, a little more of a departure.
Of the suit of Pentacles, Pollack says, “We ground ourselves not just in our work but in a love for the world around us.”
My abstract trees do represent my love for the world around me, but also represent my work in the world. The color of the trunks reminds me of the dark brown-black of tree trunks in the mountains. The warm bright colors suggest autumn in the hills.
This week, I look forward to bringing queenly energy to the magic of ordinary creation, including homemaking, painting, and writing.
You’d think last week might have been the week for the Queen of Pentacles energy to show up, as my daughter was visiting and I hosted a dinner here one evening. But this week I’m feeling motivated to do a complete cleaning and straightening of my house. It needs it, and plus my niece is coming to stay for a few days starting Sunday.
And, Ray is coming here and will be spending the night for the first time tomorrow night. As older people, we are both pretty aligned with the living apart together idea that so many older couples choose. But we also want to spend the night together sometimes. That is strong motivation for getting my home in order and, I hope, making it a little bit magical.
- Pentacles are the earth sign. Swords are air, Wands are fire, and Cups are water. ↩︎