--By Hyperion Night of Beanblossom's Tea and Tarot
The Queen of Pentacles
Nurturing. Practical. Mothering.
As a newbie Tarotista, I had a mentor named June. Her graying hair was cut in a severe style, and as an ex-cop she was a no-B.S. style Tarot reader. June wasn’t famous. She never really put herself out there. But she was in high demand, and by some people in very high places.
One day, when she’d come to observe me reading at a Psychic Fair (I said I was a newbie, didn’t I?), she pulled me aside.
“You can’t talk to your clients like that,” June said.
Fair attendees wandered past us in the echoing hall, and I wondered how many clients this little sidebar was costing me. “Like what?”
“You can’t just tell them their relationship is, and I quote, ‘a dumpster fire in a fireworks factory.’”
“I was just telling her what I saw in the cards. And I told her the relationship was salvageable. I even told her how to salvage it.” I’d given damned good advice, and I was proud of it. I was helping.
June sighed and cocked her head, a slight and familiar smile playing about her lips. “Did I ever tell you about the time I walked up on five grown men looting a corner store?”
“Uh, no.” I’d definitely have remembered that.
“It was in SF. There was a riot. I shouldn’t have been on my own, but I’d gotten separated, and… long story. The point is, I walked around the corner in my uniform, and there they were, pulling junk food out of a broken window.”
“What’d you do?”
“I put on my best mommy voice, and said, ‘Now boys, you know you’re not supposed to be taking that. Put it back and go home.’ They hung their heads, returned the stuff, and shuffled off.”
“And this has to do with my dumpster fire comment, how?” I asked, annoyed.
“Sometimes you can lay things on the line. You can be the dad. But sometimes, you’ve got to be the mom. When you said that to your client, she shut down. She didn’t hear what you told her next. She was too in shock. I’m not telling you to lie about what you see. I’m telling you to work your way through the cards so the client sees it herself. Lead her to her own conclusion, and then she’ll be open to hearing about possible next steps. I’m telling you to be more nurturing.”
June pulled a card from the top of her deck. Flipping it over, she set it on my table. “I’m telling you to be the Queen of Pentacles. In charge, practical, but kind.”
Let’s be clear now, my mentor had totally stacked that deck to draw the Queen. But she was also right. It was super irritating.
But I started a deep dive into that card that night to figure out the Queen’s energies and how to bring them into my readings.
Here are some of the things I noticed. In the Rider-Waite-Smith card, the Queen of Pentacles attentively cradles the Pentacle in her lap as if it were a child. She sits in her garden—something which must be nurtured and cared for—at home in her earth element. A cherub and a rabbit are carved into her throne. A bird nests in her crown. Combine all this fertility/motherhood symbolism with the mature feminine qualities of the queens, and I could see the "mothering" and "nurturing" interpretations of this card, especially since Pentacles can symbolize home and hearth, as well as work and money.
It took me some time to figure out how to draw these nurturing but practical qualities into my Tarot readings. Asking the right questions, I’ve found, can be a good way to help clients see things for themselves.
Where does the Queen of Pentacles need to be brought into your current situation? Or how is she operating there now?
P.S. The card can also mean you're pregnant. So. There's that.
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