Tag Archives: 10 of Swords

A Twofer

The focus of this blog since July 2016 has been, month on month, astrological correspondences in the tarot cards mostly focussing on the minor arcana. 

This post is longer than usual. You may want to make a cup of tea before reading it.

This month’s, these two months’ (Gemini), two book reviews are here.

I missed the Taurus season post (Jupiter retrograde may have had something to do with it), so in true Gemini fashion am now making up for it with a ‘twofer’, that is a two-for-one. One value here is to re-visit this sequence:

Saturn…Jupiter… Mars… The Sun… Venus… Mercury… The Moon.

These are the seven planets of the ancient world, and they are listed above in order of their orbital periods, from the outermost planet visible with the naked eye, Saturn, taking approximately 29 years to complete its spiral journey around our star, The Sun…

…Thru Jupiter, 12 years. Mars, 22 months, The Sun, 1 year (from our earthly perspective – of course nowadays everybody knows that the Earth orbits The Sun, but it still looks the other way about!), Venus, 8 months, Mercury, 3 months, The Moon, 1 month (The Moon orbiting the Earth, of course.) NB: values are approximate.

So, in this post I am looking at the 5, 6, 7 of Pentacles and the 8, 9, 10 of Swords. We begin with the 5 of Pentacles, Mercury in Taurus, and the sequence continues with The Moon in Taurus  corresponding to the 6 of Pentacles … are you following? Do you see what the next planet will be?

The sequence starts again with Saturn. So the 7 of Pentacles expresses Saturn in Taurus.

But with the 8 we change suit (pentacles to swords. Earth to Air), and we change sign, fixed earth (Taurus) to mutable air (Gemini), although the planetary sequence continues…

We have two intersecting sequences to cope with; the nine cards 2 thru 10, and the 7 planets.

The Aces, the Court cards, and the Majors have their own assignations.

What I’m getting at, is that once you have the hang of how the 7 planets repeat around the circle of the zodiac, and once you see that there are 3 Minor Arcana cards assigned to each sign, you can marry the two sequences and therefore it will be obvious that next month’s post will begin with the Two of Cups, and the correspondence will be Venus in Cancer, and that therefore that card’s esoteric title, “The Lord of Love” makes perfect sense!

Here is the post below:

5 of Pentacles. Mercury in Taurus. Bear in mind that Mercury (a.k.a. Hermes and many other names) is the trickster God. God of thieves, also. But above all the compactor of the symbolic solar system, alone of the Gods able to move into the underworld and back. Taurus is an earth sign in fixed mode, values here are likely to be; security, solvency, safety. The swift energy of Mercury may disrupt, bring sudden change or alteration.

6 of Pentacles. The Moon in Taurus. The Moon waxes and wanes, rules our emotions and our instincts, moves water around the world and fluid around the body, also speaks to nourishment and to need. In the Rider Waite, the image shows a supplicant, a receiver and a donation – with which figure do you identify? The card of getting what you wish for, or the card of making it happen?

7 of Pentacles. Saturn in Taurus. (You see how we start the sequence again?) Saturn rules. Literally. What are the rules in this situation? The title of this card is; The Lord of Dissatisfied Work. Here Saturn invites/insists that you take another look. Is the work complete to the highest level of your skill? It may be… or, it may be that you need to do another (yet another) draft. Go over the details one more time. Saturn doesn’t let you off the hook.

8 of Swords. Jupiter in Gemini. Mighty Jupiter, (a.k.a. Zeus and by many other names) expands everything he touches. In Gemini, the sign of being interested in multiple ways (Oh, look! That’s shinny!) focus could be a problem. Rushing here and there interested and enthused about everything, everybody and every project – maybe look back and stable Taurus to ground your inspiration and give it form.

9 of Swords. Mars in Gemini. The image here is not encouraging, but consider the Martial energy. It can be expressed at a low level in a drunken brawl, in inarticulate rage, in wordless fury, or, this same energy can be used to; achieve mastery in martial arts, sophistication in forceful debate, precision in enquiry. To lend one’s personal power to conflicting directions, or to be torn by opposite desires can lead to the condition described in the card’s title, The Lord of Despair.

10 of Swords. The Sun in Gemini. It doesn’t look good, does it? The Sun in Gemini, but the image (in this deck) showing the approaching darkness of the setting sun, (or is it the light of the approaching dawn?) and the finality of a slain figure. All beginnings must have an end that precedes them. All birth and re-birth must also glance at death in some way. What ending is occurring or needs to be acknowledged?

This whole thing about how the card and the planet link in a logical sequence was very confusing to me, until I suddenly “got it” and that happened in one swift intuitive flash – honestly it did. If you struggle with this and would like to understand it better, feel free to reach out in an email and we can set up a time to go over it on a pay-what-you-wish basis! colin.mcphillamy@gmail.com