8 Pentacles: Improving Your Craft

When I first started down the Tarot path I did a 3-card reading for myself regarding the potential to turn my craft into a career some day.  I pulled: The Queen of Pentacles, the Princess of Pentacles, and the 8 of Pentacles.  I found it a beautiful and very encouraging sign that I was walking down the right path - it was a lovely confirmation from the universe.

The 8 of Pentacles is about taking your talent or passion and working hard to turn it into your life.  It's about understanding that success isn't immediate, and you have to dedicate yourself to your task and to your craft in order to improve it.  Taking a class, reading books, practicing, networking, studying, the list goes on.  And if you truly understand what learning is all about, you realize that you never "know it all" - there are always more layers to unfold, and ways to go deeper.

So I decided to sign up for a course (as mentioned in yesterday's post) on "intuitive" Tarot. The title of the course was funny to me, since all Tarot is intuitive (though I suppose there are "cold readers" who may not engage their intuition as much, but I digress).  But I'd been curious about the instructor, a local psychic-medium who seemed very down-to-earth and wise.  I thought she'd be a wonderful person to work with and learn from.  Well, my other 3-card reading (about whether I should take the course - I got Hanged Man, Queen of Cups, 6 Wands) told me to go for it, and I went for it, and after my first evening I was not disappointed.  The instructor is the very embodiment of the Queen of Cups, and the focus is on really going into the cards - not the traditional meanings we all know and understand, but what each card "says" to you, even if that may stray from more intellectual understandings.  That is precisely what I was hoping for.

Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot
(US Games)

Cards speak deeply and loudly, most especially if the deck you're working with is the right fit for you.  If the images mesh with your soul, you get a lot more out of readings.  My most intuitive, in-depth readings have been with the DruidCraft and Wildwood Tarot, whose themes and artwork resonate with me at a fundamental level.  Don't get me wrong - I love my other decks, and enjoy reading with them.  The Rider Waite and Morgan Greer are great working decks, and have a special place in my heart.  But for those moments that leave the ordinary and venture into psychic-land, I find the tool that helps bring me there are those two aforementioned decks.

So last night, after spending quite a while "going into the cards" we did short readings for each other.  The woman who read for me was great.  She is just beginning her journey, and has not formulated strong associations with any of the cards yet.  I chose three cards and when she turned them over they were: 5 Pentacles, 10 Pentacles, 8 Pentacles.  Ah, the lovely 8 Pentacles makes an appearance again, at the precise setting that the original 8 of Pentacles had pushed me toward!  What I loved most was her interpretation of 5 Pentacles.  This can often be kind of a downer card - yes, there is light coming through the window, and the understanding that all things are temporary, etc.  But the main focus is on being shut out, not having enough (attention or money), struggling to make ends meet, etc.  Not having these associations, her interpretation was based solely on the images on her fairy-themed deck.  She said "I think this card is saying that in the past you had a lot of resources around you, but you didn't see them or recognize that they were there for you."  Brilliant.  The materials were always there, you just didn't see them, or know how to tap into them.  It was a beautiful take on a challenging card.

So 8 Pentacles.  The journey never stops.  All of us are eternal students, and taking advantage of opportunities to deepen and expand our craft is not only good practice professionally, but makes our experience richer and more profound and rewarding as well.