Patience doesn’t grow on trees
On the Pentacle journey, where we are exploring money, resources, wealth and generational inheritance, it’s not uncommon to hit some lulls on your way to that library where the King of Pentacles sits with his commanding knowledge or the forest ruled by the Queen of Pentacles with her steady abundance.
Scarcity first greets us in the Four of Pentacles, where we fear not having enough, and then it carries into the Five of Pentacles, when we feel the wince of the stock market crashing or the bank account that might not have enough to cover all of this month’s bills.
The icy grip we have on our wealth thaws with the Six of Pentacles, the Buy Nothing card, which stands as a proud reminder that we always have enough because we always have something to give.
But that’s where the Seven of Pentacles comes in.
There are some days when we cling to our coins and others when we fling them, and now we’re trying to find the steadfast patience it takes to grow the kind of wealth that’s worth passing on.
We’re not only talking about money, of course. We’re talking about health and education, charity and art, travel and knowledge. “All the things that make you feel wealthy,” I tell my students.
Sevens are in the same category of contractions as the Fives. If the Fives are a place where we feel like we have to defend ourselves, the Sevens are where are defending (Fives) with a decision (Twos). We decide to fight the good fight for what we believe in. We decide to admit when we are wrong and do something about it. We decide to find victory through surrender. We decide to be patient rather than rush our precious seeds into growing too fast.
The garden metaphor is a good one with the Pentacles. The seeds you plant early in your journey might not all come to fruit. Some of them are zinnias that will die at the end of the summer. Others are trees whose shade you’ll never know.
No matter if this garden is growing for a season or a reason, it’s in your care and you get to decide how you want to proceed.
Do you want to buy fertilizer and try to make it grow faster? Do you want to work on other projects so your baby can have the space it needs to grow on its own terms? Can you search within yourself for the confidence to trust what you’ve learned so far? You know that the gift economy is available to you. You know that we can’t get what we don’t give. You know that what is for you is for you.
“All delays prove beneficial” is a phrase my business coach told me a long time ago, and I’ve kept that mantra close to my heart, especially when it feels like the scales aren’t balancing like they should.
Because an important part of this process is learning how to ride the waves of expansion and contraction. We are in a seriously contractive time. The stock market is crashing in ways I’ve never seen in my lifetime, and yet, I know that the work I’m doing each day, the seeds I’m planting, are growing at their own precious speed, just like I am.
Getting frustrated that things aren’t happening on my timeline isn’t going to help them happen any faster.
