Isn't it Rich?
Where is the line between generosity and greed, between hoarding and sharing, between eliciting envy and experiencing jealousy? These are the bedrock boundaries explored in the Four of Pentacles. The number four in the minor arcana cycle offers a place for foundational contemplation. Pentacles meditate on money as the primary energy exchange of affluence and power.
In the Four of Pentacles, we find a young king embodying his wealth- four large coins surround him. He sits on a throne in the foreground of a vital city. Perhaps it is the city he rules, and as such perhaps it is the city with which he shares the love in his heart that beams through the pentacle he grasps. Perhaps it is the city that rules over him, and as such it is the city from which he guards this love, protected by his barrier of wealth.
It is easy to become intoxicated by the possibilities of total satiation, and our socialization places great value on the role of money in the possibility of satiation. When I was a little girl, it was a common pastime to sit around with my two sisters and our friends and daydream about what we would do if we won a million dollars. This inevitably was tied to the fantasy that our needs then would be met.
The Four of Pentacles asks us to consider that satiation resides not in self-interested accumulation, but rather in sharing. It asks us to consider the questions: What might it feel like to be clear of this eternal longing? How well are you supporting yourself in your hopes and dreams? What great fullness rests behind the cold and unyielding coin in front of his heart? Might that coin be a lens through which the heart can shine?
I find that accessing my personal wealth is confusing. When is my financial stability sound enough to share my fortunes with others? Sharing the wealth in my heart without measuring and hoarding is often hard to discern; to offer my gifts without expectation of something in return often feels elusive. Yet it is within this offering, of loot or love, that I feel the full support of my foundation.
These are the teachings of the Four Pentacles, to turn our inward accumulation outward. To access these teachings, in times of generosity or in times of fear, we have our spiritual practice, and its reminder simply to breathe. The breath is my access to the flow. The flow is my access to the eternal Divine. The divine reminds me that there is more than enough for all of us.-- CLP
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