If struggling were the way to get there, we’d all be there by now.
Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity: Stop Holding Your Breath, Start Living Your Life

Here’s hoping that you followed through on the guidance from last week’s card, because if so, there is a reward offered. As the Wheel of the Year swings towards the crowning moment of Solstice next week, we are visited by the beautiful Ace of Pentacles.

We have nearly reached the climax of the growing light in the Northern Hemisphere, and the deepest dark moment, the shortest of days, in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Ace of Pentacles represents the power of the Earth, since the Pentacle is a magical tool that is ruled by the element of Earth and North. The Disc or Pentacle may represent a sacred shield, a coin, or even a scrying mirror of destiny. This suit is concerned with matters to do with physical health, our homes, and all forms of our material security, including work, money, and career.

As with all Aces of the Tarot, this card holds the full potential of its suit. Each Ace shows the hand of the Divine emerging from a cloud and offering a gift.

The Ace of Pentacles‘ great power is to manifest into physical reality that which your imagination (Air), desire (Fire), or heart (Water) long for.

Got To Get Back to the Garden

This Ace is being offered from within a garden, that numinous place where the will of Nature and Humanity work in harmony. It is also the place from which the world’s dominant religions, sadly, tell us we have been exiled.

But — is that story really the will of the God(s), and humanity’s eternal legacy?

What if that mythic rejection was never true and that we have been welcome at the banquet of Divine plenty all along?

As many historians, ethno-economists, and thought leaders are aware, the “Trance of Scarcity,” as teacher and author Victoria Castle names it, is like an ancient Sleeping Beauty spell that has held humanity in thrall for millennia.

The pervasive fears of not enough — not enough resources, not being good enough, humanity’s stain of immorality that is upon us from birth —  are all contributing to this “Story of Separation” that author Charles Eisenstein asserts has crippled our species with an innate sense of wrongness for thousands of years.

The evidence is mounting that we can, and must, reconsider and reject this old, old story. It has brought us systems and institutions of untold woe. And humanity’s fights over Scare-City now threaten a vast, nearly incomprehensible destruction of life on this planet as we have known it.

Who, we might ask, benefits from the majority of humanity being held captive by these beliefs so ubiquitous that they are nearly invisible to us?

Is it time to bust the myth of banishment, struggle, and exclusion?

The Tarot nudges us towards this very realization, for behold – the gateway is open, and crowned with flowers.

True Prosperity

This week, you might reflect upon what you consider “treasure” to be. Is it really the numbers in the stock market? Is it the trickle-down from closed-door dealings by unknown money handlers who risk our lives with their obscure territorial games?

Do we meekly succumb to the shadowy wheeling and dealing of the unnamed elite, by whose whim, in the blink of an eye, thousands may be unemployed, unhoused, at war, or bankrupted?

Shall we settle for food that is drenched with secret, deadly chemicals or artificially created in a laboratory? Cheap, disposable goods made by children in wretched conditions? Is life made richer by accumulating more and more gadgets and mindless entertainments that detach us from our own humanity?

Perhaps true prosperity is much simpler, yet increasingly elusive: having plentiful, healthy food on your table, clean water pouring from your faucet, and peace in your neighborhood.

The Ace of Pentacles recommends these as benchmarks of our personal prosperity, abundance, health, security, and happiness.

The Gate Is Open and Welcoming

This would be an auspicious time for planning new projects and making wise purchases for beautification or investment. Are you shopping for a new home, or thinking of a renovation project? This would portend a good beginning.

This Ace also suggests it’s time to re-discover the wonders of your physical body. Perhaps you might get a massage, begin a new workout regimen, or learn to prepare new kinds of nurturing foods. This is also an invitation for exploring new sensual delights.

This week, there is a potential for a new start, one that has, in its very structure, the elements for a successful outcome. Could there be a promotion, new job, or inheritance coming for you?

In what ways might you create a new level of comfort, beauty, and security in your life?

Build strong foundations, and embrace the sweet sacredness of the physical, manifest world.

Ground yourself in work that you love, in the body that brings you pleasure, and align yourself with the beautiful gifts of Earth Herself.

This week, the hand of providence taps your shoulder to remind you that Paradise was not lost.

It is here, now, as it always has been. It is up to us to reclaim it by creating lives and systems that honor and nurture it.

My special thanks to my friend and brilliant Tarot colleague, Ellen-Mary O’Brien, who told me about Victoria Castle’s book.