I awoke this morning with a lot of unanswered questions and a need to speak to the Divine. So I fired up the altar, prepared my daily tea and added therapeutic flower essences. I pulled out my cards from my spiffy new Celtic Dragon deck and began shuffling while meditation incense filled the air. What lesson did I need today? What do I need to be reminded of… what did I forget….?
The card I pulled was the Six of Pentacles…..
Here tasty human… I have some riches for you….
The beggar comes to the dragon seeking. The dragon offers the right to exist, shelter, wealth… it’s easy to look at this and wonder if the old man will be eaten. However, behind the dragon you see a maiden. Her dress is simple but intact, the dragon’s arm gently around hers as she is draped over his leg. She is safe.. this may not be a trap… 
Here in the Rider Waite deck we see the money manager, courtier by the mode of dress. Holding the scales in one hand and offering money in the other. Alfred Douglas in The Tarot describes this card as a philanthropist card. Money coming in and going out are in harmony. However, this card has never felt particularly harmonious to me. Our main figure offering money is doing so well at managing his affairs that he can afford to offer funds to those beneath him dressed poorly, their faces looking up at him in a beseeching manner. This doesn’t feel balanced to me…
The six coins, or pentacles as some call them are not evenly displayed on the card. Instead of displaying two rows of three, there is an uneven quality to their display here. There are more coins above the man in yellow who is receiving the gift. The other figure waits… observing the man holding the scales.
In the journey of resources, five represented a loss of control. Here in six we see a tight control but the overall outlook has improved. Instead of financial ruin the main figure CAN now offer riches and still be rich.
With that
in mind, I see another layer to this card. Just because we have something… doesn’t mean we lose it if we give it away. The cycle and the scales of the Universe always ensure that the balance is kept in one way or another. When we attain a place where we have, some of us may be tempted to KEEP it because we remember what it was like to be one of the figures waiting the hand out from below. I have been guilty of it. I hoard, yarn, fabric, tools, you name it… I have a tendency to collect things. My childhood was traumatic (like many others out there) and I remember what it was like to be dependent on the system or charity of others and boy did I develop a dislike for it.
Here we reveal another layer to the six of coins. Accepting the gift. All morning while I write this, I thought I had logged into Keen 
to begin working with clients and giving readings… I lost track of that browser window no less than five times. Each time, I lost track of it, I rejected the gift of prosperity. There is a subliminal conditioning common to many (at least in America) that while we as a society are needy and sometimes demanding…. (Like the Cat People rendition of the six of pentacles to the right) somewhere behind that demand is the self destructive idea that we don’t really deserve it.
A child will accept a gift, no questions asked (as well as the cat!). An adult however, has learned through challenges to typically ask… ‘What do you want..?’ or ‘What will I owe you…?’. Through the destructive selfishness of others we may have learned that gifts are to be looked upon with suspicious eyes, and the exchange carefully considered. While I agree that we should always be aware of the potential for an exchange even when receiving today, and giving tomorrow, I mourn the simple act of taking what is offered freely without guilt. Is your cat a failure because you feed it every day? IS your child sub-human because you provide for it it? Of course not.
You are no less of a person when in need.
Another consideration to the topic of this card is symbiotic relationship that is apparent in the Shadowscapes deck (left).
Upon first view it may seem like our main character is just sitting up there pissing away all his money. When we look closer, we see the sapling growing and the vines trailing up the stonework. Without the gift the sapling could not grow. Without the air it provides the giver cannot breath to play his music upon the wind.
We do see in this card as with other decks that there is a clear idea of those that have, are above those that receive. There is a hierarchy there that makes my past drama twitch. However, the artist has an interesting and perceptive take on this relationship. The artist explains that their interpretation was that the symbiotic relationship between the vine and the man on the stone ledge is the possibility that neither has the upper hand. Without the vine the man’s perch might come crashing down…
Just because we give, does not make us superior.
Just because we receive does not make us inferior.
Here, I believe is the true lesson of the six of pentacles. If you have; give, if you need; receive. Neither can set you above or below anyone else, only you can. So lift yourself up and accept the gifts and prosperity of the Universe. You are not a failure for needing help and without you, the Gods wither without humans to teach their lessons.
As Lady Belladonna keeps telling me… Balance is key.
