Seven of Pentacles
This piece is all the way back from July 2020. This card depicts the Iroquois legend of The Lazy Boys Who Became the Pleiades, a constellation that bears great importance in many cultures around the world. In particular I am using the version passed down by Jesse Cornplanter of the Senecan people, the variation differing only in that the last boy who glances back down to Earth falls, becoming the first pine.
The Seven of Pentacles is a card about harvesting the long term projects and goals you've set into motion. I chose the Iroquois legend because it's a story I grew up with, and which stuck to me because of its haunting imagery. The boys spend all their time dancing instead of assisting the elders in the hunt, so when they come in for food, they are denied, as a means of teaching them a lesson. Rather than move them to change their ways, this merely motivates them to dance more. Eventually they become so light-headed with hunger that their feet begin to lift from the ground, their bodies becoming so light. To the rest of the tribe's horror, the seven boys drift off into the skies. One boy, upon hearing a woman of the village call after him, turns back and falls to the Earth, becoming the first pine.
What is the lesson to be learned, here? I like to think it's a lesson that everyone in the community has a different purpose, and that not everyone is made to hunt. Some are artists and engage in dance, yet they are just as valuable as those who physically place food upon the table, and should be allowed to eat. Otherwise you lose a very essential part of your society. Then again, being an artist, I am incredibly biased towards this way of thinking.
I chose sketches of Smoke Dancing, as it is a competitive dance meant to impress with flair. It is a modern dance, really only made popular in the 1990s, though its origin is hard to place. Likewise the events of this legend take place "a long time ago," and cannot be exactly placed either. Mixing in this modern dance is a way of making the tale timeless, as again I chose the dance for its joy of the dance itself and its performative competition, as I imagine the boys caught up in their dances that worldly needs such as hunger are easy to ignore.
Insofar as how this legend fits in the card's meaning, the harvest of the village in abandoning the boys is to lose them, and the harvest of the boys' dancing is to do so eternally in the skies.
I suppose in general I wish society placed a greater value on art, and that is why this tale has stuck with me. Art, in many ways, offers immortality and a guiding light.
This is one of my charity pieces in my shop where 100% of the proceeds goes to a specific charity. This one goes to AISES (American Indian Science and Engineering Society) which is a program my friend used to get into NASA. Being that this card is both Native and celestial, AISES seemed like an appropriate choice.
You can purchase a print here.
