April 28th, 2025 § Comments Off on 6 of Pentacles from the RWS Tarot § permalink
This is the first in a series of posts where I plan to share a few observations about specific cards.
It’s not so much meant to be me defining what a card might mean in a reading, but rather just a series of points connected to, or incorporated into a card image that might widen your own interpretation.
It’s a pentacles card and therefore describes a situation in the physical world.
This 6 is connected to the Major Arcana card #6, the Lovers, and therefore incorporates ideas surrounding choice, commitment, and self-actualization.
in a reading, the querent might be represented by any or all of the characters in the image – the person doling out the coins, the person receiving them, and/or the person still waiting.
There is a distinct difference in the colours worn by the characters, with the two supplicants in blankets of muted yellow and blue, while the person with the coins (and the scale) is in vibrant red, and a tunic of stark black and white.
The RWS 6 of Pentacles is considered a ‘stage’ card, meaning that it looks like the characters are performing on a stage.
There seems to be a castle, and a forest in the background. Who do you think lives there?
Of course there’s much more to this card than these six points, but how might these particular ideas influence your interpretation of this card in a reading?
The Rider-Waite Smith deck is probably the most popular Tarot deck in the world. Though painted by Pamela Colman Smith, Arthur E. Waite is credited with most of the deck’s design. But is that fair?
In Mary K. Greer’s upcoming webinar, she’ll be investigating whether or not Waite should be given as much credit for the deck as he actually gets.
Though the famed occultist clearly had a specific plan for the Major Arcana, what about the images in the Minor cards? They were some of the first Tarot Minors to be illustrated with actual scenes in them rather than simply suit symbols.
How did they come about and whose idea were they? Pamela Colman Smith’s?
The two-part class will be offered through Global Spiritual Studies and will be live January 24th and 31st at 9:00 pm ET (6:00 pm PT). It will be available afterwards on download and DVD.
But Arthur Waite’s decision to use descriptive pictures throughout the minor arcana made it easy for even first time users to do a reading. And to begin to understand the philosophy buried within the cards.
The RWS deck, accompanied by Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot, opened Tarot up to everyone, not just those who were members of secret magical societies.
I think Waite was interested in much more than just ‘peering into the future’ as this piece seems to suggest, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Through their deck, Arthur Waite and artist Pamela Colman Smith made an enormous contribution to Tarot. They really changed everything.
Here’s a holiday gift for every Tarot lover’s list!
Susan and the Mermaid is the rediscovered tale of a magic ring, an underwater kingdom, and a wise old woman who knew how to make her granddaughter’s dreams come true. And if that’s not enough to entice you …. it was written and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith!
Of course Tarot readers around the world know Smith as the illustrator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, perhaps the most widely used deck in the world. But did you know she was a writer? In fact, by the time she was twenty, Smith had already published three critically acclaimed books.
Susan and the Mermaid was first published in 1912, three years after the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. It appeared in the Christmas edition of The Delineator, a woman’s magazine meant for mothers and their children.
This new edition reproduces the original text and images. It also provides a close-up look at dozens of full-colour illustrations Smith created to accompany the story. It looks great.
