Two of Pentacles

Cardinal earth: opposites, reversals, mirrors.

TWO OF PENTACLES

The image from the Rosebud Tarot shows a mirror image – it isn’t clear if there are two figures, or one reflected twice.

The roses, too, are multiplied.

Whirling, spinning, and rotating – these are the forces that inhabit both the Two of Pentacles and Capricorn I.

CAPRICORN I + TWO OF PENTACLES

This card correlates with the first decan of Capricorn. You can learn more about the decans here.

This decan includes the winter solstice, and many other religious, spiritual, and pagan midwinter holidays. What these holidays have in common, is a focus on the light returning, a period of rebirth after the darkness.

T. Susan Chang shares a story about the connection between death, the solstice, and the Two of Pentacles:

So death is integral to the solstice and lurking in the subtext of the 2 of Pentacles. One astute podcast listener observed to me that the 2 of Pentacles' remarkable hat reminded her of the camel-hair hat or sikke worn by the whirling dervishes of Sufism. Its shape is meant to evoke a tombstone; the dance itself both observes and summons the death of the ego.

This strange point in the year, the turning of the world, is a moment in flux.

The greater benefic, Jupiter, exerts a pull on us as the greater malefic, Saturn, exerts a push.

The tension between the two might be understood as something like diamond rain – beautiful, expansive, and generous as well as heavy, earthy, and cold.