Tarot Blog Hop: Lammas

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Choosing my pentacles card to represent Fruits of the Harvest was no trouble at all! The Pentacles suit has always been a favourite of mine. I just love them, and fancied myself a Queen of Pentacles for a long time--but that was just me wishin'--I've got way more of the Queen of Swords in me than Earth Mother, but still...

I've always been attracted to fields of grain, sheaves, cornucopias spilling with fruit and vegetables, and images of men and women working in fields to bring in the crops that will feed them through the next long year. I once tried a meditation in which I asked for my own personal god/goddess image. I don't know exactly what I was expecting to appear, but to my surprise, I got a sudden and vivid close up image of a head of ripe grain, glowing as if surrounded by a halo. Not sure why I was surprised, really. I've always had a reverence for grain. Stores of grain, loaves of bread, bins filled with dried pasta. There are few things lovelier to me than a window display in an artisan baker's. Is that odd?  I suppose it speak deeply to my love of security, of comfort and of assurance that ample provision has been made against hard times that may come. 

Which brings me round to the Pentacles suit. Surely no other suit in the tarot deck speaks so profoundly to these earthly concerns; and of the pentacles suit, no card so directly as the Nine of Pentacles. 

Morgan Greer, US Games 1979

I love the Morgan Greer Tarot; it is my primary reading deck for clients, and the Nine of Coins in the Morgan Greer is my favourite Nine of Coins of all my decks. 

The traditional Nine of Coins usually shows a woman standing in the gardens of her obviously affluent home, holding a bird of prey. She is the epitome of secure. Her home is all one could wish, her garden lush, her clothing luxurious, and she is indulging in falconry, a sport and pastime of the nobility. 

The Morgan Greer Nine of Pentacles stands out from the deck because it is the only card with purple colouring. Purple, the costliest colour. The sky, the grapes, and the lady's clothing consist of shades of purple. She wears a dark green overtunic that makes her necklace of glowing pentacles stand out in contrast. Behind her, a tree has come to fruition with exotic-looking nuts. On the table before her, a golden bowl filled with ripe grapes of varying types. On her hand, a large jeweled ring. Huge pearls hand from her ears. Her turban is decorated with the plumage of some exotic bird. The imagery of this card suggests anything but lack, anything but insecurity, anything but want. 

The thing that attracts me to this card is not the symbols of wealth and luxury, but the feeling of complete and utter security. This woman is content. She has everything she needs. 

The message of the card this Lammas is: Look around you. You have everything you need. You really are robed in purple. Life has set a golden bowl of grapes before you. Are you wallowing in your purple robes, whatever they may be? Are you tasting the grapes? Are you sending that falcon out to catch those dreams and hopes of yours, secure that whatever he returns with will be exactly what you need? 

What is your purple robe? What is your golden bowl of grapes? What prey would you like to send your falcon after? Do you have the faith to do it?

Look around you again. All around you are the first fruits of your harvest. Count them. Gather them in. Indulge your heart and mind and senses in them. This is your life--be present in it!

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