Five of Pentacles

Out in the cold. Hard times, and the help that may be closer than you think.

The picture

Two people make their way through falling snow. One walks on crutches, with a bandage around his head. The other has a shawl wrapped over her head and shoulders, and her feet are bare. Behind them a stained glass window glows in a dark stone wall, with five pentacles set into the glass. Neither of them is looking at it.

Upright

Five is the number of disruption and struggle. In Pentacles, it lands on the physical world: money trouble, a job gone, illness, a winter that goes on too long. This is a hard card to draw, and I read it as a mirror. It shows you where you feel the cold right now. It says nothing about where you will end up.

Now turn to the lit glass behind them. There is warm light in there, and it is right behind them. Help is often close in this card, a building with the lamp on, and the hard part is turning round to see it. People who are struggling are often too tired, too proud or too ashamed to knock.

Notice too that there are two of them. Nobody on this card walks alone.

Reversed

Reversed, this card stays a mirror. I read it as turned inward, or delayed. Turned inward is the feeling of not enough when the numbers are actually fine: the old fear of going without, still walking through the snow long after the weather has changed. Delayed is recovery on its way, the hard season easing slowly, a door beginning to open.

To tell which, compare the feeling with the facts. If the bank balance and the body are steady and you still feel out in the cold, it is inward. If the hard time is real and starting to ease, it is the thaw arriving at its own pace.

When it turns up

Where is the lit window near you, and what would it take to knock?

If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.

Related pages
The Number 5