PROJECTS • TAROT

2 of Pentacles

Evaluation, decision, budgeting, diagnosis

Range of meanings

Light: Weighing options. Comparing prices. Determining the value of one option over another. Juggling resources to make ends meet. Making difficult choices based on what’s best for your body or your bankbook. Looking at the bottom line. Asking for a second opinion on health issues.

Shadow: Engaging in endless price comparison. Putting off a buying decision for fear of finding a slightly better value later on. Buying something without regard for value. Breaking your budget with unnecessary expenses. Engaging in behavior with no regard for how your body or bankbook will be impacted.

Questions to ask

  1. What course of action best suits your long-term goals?
  2. In your situation, what happens if you ask for help?
  3. What happens if you do what you can do without asking for additional resources?
  4. What values govern my decisions?
  5. How willing am I to sacrifice a little pleasure now in order to have more pleasure later on?
  6. Given my current situation, which course of action will give me more of what I really need?

Advice

Personal Growth: Be aware of how you determine value. What matters? What doesn’t? Before you can answer these questions, you must have a firm grip on your own value system. Making a choice becomes infinitely easier when you have a firm grip on what you value and why.

Work: How well do you balance demands of work and life? Remember: you should be working to live, not living to work. If the job is dominating your schedule, press back. If unfettered playtime is ruining your productivity, sober yourself by tallying up the time and money lost to distractions.

Relationships: What does this relationship cost you? If this relationship were an investment, how profitable would it be? This card extends an invitation to consider the pros and cons of your relationship. Before taking action, consider what you have to gain … and what you have to lose.

Spirituality: Of the many options you have for service, which will ultimately do everyone the most good? Identify your skills and talents, and use these as a means of illuminating your own best contribution. Pair your resources with those of other, like-minded people and get twice as much done in half the time.

Fortune-Telling: It’s time to balance the budget. Avoid the temptation to spend critical funds on frivolous goods.

Associations

Astrological: Capricorn

Planet: Jupiter

Fool's Journey: The main character weighs the impact his or her course of action will have on everyone involved.

The Number 2: The Other: Division, debate, duality.

Coins: One of the four suits of the tarot. Also sometimes called pentacles or diskc. Coins suggest health, wealth, practicality and physicality. Their domain extends beyond money and finance to all physical things, including the human body. Coins explore your attitude toward resources of all kinds: what you’ve been given, and what you do with it. In RWS-influenced decks, Coins are often called Pentacles. A pentacle’s design (with the upright star in the middle that represents the human body) reminds us that physical blessings, from possessions to our bodies, are to be used for higher purposes. In your own life, how often do you focus on “the star in the coin”?

Juggler: In the Marseilles deck, the Magician is a juggler, known for his slight of hand. In RWS-inspired decks, the 2 of Coins depicts a juggler carefully balancing two Coins joined by a lemniscate (infinity symbol). The world offers us infinite options; the choices we make are a result of weighing each option against our personal value system. There are options in the air.

Distant Village: Some RWS-inspired decks depict a distant village in the background of the 10 of Wands and on the 2 of Coins. The village is the light at the end of the tunnel: a reminder that the destination is close at hand. The 'way out' may be as simple as declining an opportunity you lack the time or energy to complete. In the case of the 4 of coins, the distant village can be interpreted as a city that the king holds dear and is unable to let go of, much like the coins in his arms.