She...may be the song that summer sings...

Anna K, US Games 2013

Who's this lovely dark-haired lady harvesting everything there is from one grove? It's the Queen of Pentacles, one of my favourite court cards. I wanna be a Queen of Pents when I grow up.

She is the closest thing to the Empress in the tarot courts. But whereas the Empress has a distinct 'It's-not-nice-to-fool-Mother-Nature' danger about her, the Queen of Pentacles is all soft edges and connection. She does seem to be pregnant in this image, a condition often used in tarot art to denote growth, fruitfulness, abundance, continuity. The vine is also a potent symbol of the riches of the earth, and so we have one curling about our Queen of Pentacles. She is surrounded by baskets, each containing a different type of fruit or vegetable, suggesting that abundance of all types flows through her, boundless bounty. She has just picked a ripe plum and is enjoying its fragrance, probably about to take a bite of it, because the Queen of Pentacles is nothing if not entirely plugged in to the earth, and of all the tarot queens she understands and enjoys the pleasures of the physical plane. She also most deeply understands and empathizes with its pains and sorrows.

Rachel Pollack's excellent 'Tarot Wisdom' says the Queen of Pentacles means: 'Love of nature, intense involvement with the physical world. Happiness, physical security, possibly wealth, though enjoyment is more central to the meaning. Someone who loves life and is self-sufficient, who prefers nature to cities, who may be a hermit, not because she (or he) dislikes people but just because she doesn't really need them.'

This does sound a lot like me in many ways, and I would love to bring those qualities to the fore within myself. It's a nice sunny day for it. :)

I'm certainly more aware of my body today after going shopping yesterday for clothes. Rude awakening. I've gone up two sizes. I never thought I'd see the day that I was this size again. Still, I should not be surprised because I've always known that for me, 10 lbs equals one clothing size, in whichever direction I'm going. And I've gained 22. The truth hurts, though. And while I'm at it, why oh why do they make trying on clothes such a traumatizing experience? They ought to have the place lit up with a soft pink glow, and Joe Cocker singing 'You are So Beautiful' gently in the background, and when you finally wrestle the garment on and settled in place (swearing optional, but it does seem to help the process), there should be an angelic flourish of harp music -- but OH NO! Instead they install mirrors on all walls and light the place to simulate the experiene of seeing yourself from every angle in FULL SUN. Nooks and crannies of cellulite you never imagined possible will make themselves known to you at a time when you are at your most vulnerable, getting undressed in a public place while nursing the fragile hope that this garment (outrageously priced though it is) may be the one that will do good things for you. Bastards. The only answer to it is to seek solace at the bottom of a bag of toffee popcorn.

But that was yesterday. So far today I've done well (sort of)...okay I did eat a cookie already, but at least I've worked out! Chalene Johnson's Turbo Jam Cardio Party Mix 2. Good one. I also managed to pop the elastic in the top I bought yesterday, because it was too tight on my forearms. I've always done that, even when I weighed 131 lbs. Don't like elastic on the sleeves, especially short or 3/4 length sleeves. Makes marks on me. I'm delicate. :)

Oh, and about the title of this post...it comes from a song:

Songs and poems often spring to mind when I'm reading the cards. Those who've had a reading from me may have noticed this. :)