Monday 21 December 2020

Winter Solstice Tarot Reading: The Five of Pentacles

I drew a tarot card for the Winter Solstice and it was the Five of Pentacles. It shows two people struggling in the snow, limping past a stained glass window through which light shines. You can see the card here.

You might be wondering why I chose to use a rather basic yet garishly coloured deck when I have lots of tarot sets to choose from. Well, it is because the deck belonged to my parents, and for me the Winter Solstice is a time to remember our ancestors.

The card is from the Hoi Polloi Tarot, which came out in 1972. Fifty years ago there weren't the number of decks to choose from that there are now. I think the Rider-Waite-Smith deck was hard or expensive to get back then, and this was an alternative before US Games gained the rights to use Pamela Colman-Smith’s beautiful designs. I rediscovered my parents' deck - along with some dowsing rods and a few books on esoteric subjects - when I was going through their things after they died. It isn't a deck I use often, but when I do I am very aware that their hands were the last ones to touch them before my own, and it as if I hear their voices guiding me in my reading.

In the book that comes with the set, the divinatory meanings is: "People who are in need in the midst of plenty. It also stands for material problems, either because of want or some other cause." That can certainly be an apt depiction of our world at the moment. So many people are struggling and in need.

However, the description also says it depicts people who "have not yet grasped the inner light." Although the image could be a Christian one, as the stained glass window could be that of a church, on the Winter Solstice the message to me is about the light of the returning sun. From now on, the days will start to get longer and the nights shorter. There is cold and hardship all around us now, but sun is growing in power each day and offers hope for the future. Have faith that spring and summer will return, and easier days lie ahead as the wheel of the year turns.

One of my resolutions for 2020 was to do some form of divination at least once a month and blog about it. I've been doing that partly by drawing tarot and divinations cards and blogging about them regularly. Below are links to some of my earlier readings:

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2020/11/card-for-day-temperance-magical-nordic.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2020/09/divination-engineer-strength-steampunk.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2020/07/divination-for-day-tower-from-vertigo.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2020/06/divination-fool-from-haindl-tarot.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2020/05/tarot-for-day-four-of-autumn-coins.html

6 comments:

Jane said...

Nowt wrong with a bit of garish colour on a grey day like today! You've inspired me to get out my old Douglas Sheridan deck (also 1972). It's basic and colourful (must be a 70's thing!) but the cards are dreadful quality, thick and guillotined very hard, so they're almost impossible to shuffle or spread. One reading a year with them is enough!

Badwitch said...

The Douglas Sheridan tarot looks fascinating - I just searched for it after you mentioned it. I've not seen that deck before.

Siduri said...

Oh, interesting about this deck! In 1972 I was given my first tarot deck by my mother for my birthday. The LWB says it is Tarot Classic made for U, S, Games, copyright 1971. I got my deck out and looked at the Five of Pentacles and the coloring for the card is exactly the same as the card you have in your blog post. The LWB has the usual bare bones interpretation, material trouble, etc. Glad to know a bit more history about the design of the deck and your deck history sounds wonderful. Good Solstice!

Badwitch said...

I'm finding it fascinating to hear about other people's tarot decks from the 1970s!

Jane said...

Just looked at the 5 of pentacles in the DS deck. It's very red, blue and purple and shows a couple cast adrift on a piece of wood with a shipwreck in the background, and 5 fish swimming by in the foreground. To me it says "Let go of the past even though times are uncertain; new opportunities are there for the taking". Seems rather appropriate during Covid!

Badwitch said...

Yes, times are hard, but we have to look forwards and find the opportunities in our new world rather than spend too much time grieving over the past.