--By Hyperion Night
The Page of Pentacles
Study. Learning new skills. Beginner's mind. A message or opportunity.
A lot of really good martial artists are a little nuts. These are people who've dedicated their lives to learning how to take people apart. It's not that they're necessarily lovers of violence, but it takes a certain sort of person to devote that many hours to the practice. Just to be clear, I am only a middling martial artist.
In class last week, the sensei went on a rant about people who "know" moves. "You don't know the move. You say, uh-huh, got it, but you don't got it! You have to practice a move ten thousand times!" And on and on and on. It was a familiar rant, and thankfully not directed at me.
But as I looked around at the others in the class, I realized the really good students were the ones who were focused on the details, who assumed they didn't know the move and so kept digging deeper and deeper. They kept their beginner's mind, and so they were able to keep learning where others just slopped through the moves and stagnated. And they practice. Hoo boy, do they practice.
The Page of Pentacles card in Tarot shows a young man studying a pentacle. It's what is called a court card--a card representing a member of a royal court--page, knight, queen or king. The court cards typically represent personalities--either the personality of someone around you affecting the situation, or an aspect of your own personality which is or should be affecting it.
So who exactly is this page? He's a young man, and that speaks to a certain level of either immaturity or innocence. He's a student. He stands in a blooming meadow beneath a clear sky, representing promising beginnings and clear thought.
If this card pops up in a reading and reminds you of someone, that's a good sign to spend some time thinking about how that someone is affecting your situation or how they could assist it. If it doesn't seem like anyone in your circle, then the card is likely calling on you to bring the positive elements of this Page into the situation. How might approaching the issue with beginner's mind illuminate things? Is there something you can learn here? Or is there something you can study or improve on?
Alternately, you could examine where the negative elements might be hurting. Are you so open-minded your brain's in danger of falling out? Are you behaving immaturely or naively?