Six Pentacles - the Creative Cycle:
We see a stream of golden pentacles, a counter-clockwise circling of energy. And a solid bear of a character as the central pivot. Waite says this one is "in the guise of a merchant".1 What are these actors playing for us, here on the road outside a city? What is this piece of street theatre between a successful merchant and two worn out beggars?
Pentacles speak about the stuff of the world. About the magic of creating real things, real successes, real foundations.2 From our impressions of this image, something tangible is to be made.
Compare the archetype XVII The Star3. A counter-clockwise flow of dream energy is mirrored here: by the central figure pouring to the first supplicant; across to the next; up through the scales; becoming a stream of golden stars across heavens in the mind, and back to enrich beggars and earth. The sheer weight of gold returning could make the cycle self-sustaining.
In being the merchant we are richly at the center of the universe, supported and sustained, nourished and protected by universal creative substance. Now we are to distribute a balance.
We deal out six coins – two for you, two for the other, and two remain in the palm. This is not a one-tenth tithing recipe, but two thirds of something precious. Not gold, but an energy or information. Here we are as the Star, glowing in our stability and comfort, cycling energy to the world. We inspire and nourish.
A three times two-ness in the image finds a connection with Two and Three of Pentacles where: a youthful Two Pentacles4 has creative uncertainty in planning, and sending off our little ships; and Three Pentacles5 shows hard work and cooperation mid-project. With Six Pentacles we have success, and there is something to be shared.
Our merchant also pontificates a little. We have connections with the Hierophant (Major Arcana V)6 through cloak color, the attendance of two supplicants, and using similar hand postures. Hierophant is the authority on inspiration embedded in tradition, directing an army of supplicants who become authorities in turn. Something passes from one to the many.
We are Star and Hierophant acting in the world. From the Star we cycle fresh energy into now, and through the Hierophant we invoke tradition. The interplay and complexity of cycle and recycle; history and learning, along with inspiration and epiphany.
Yet another backstory to our charismatic merchant: wardrobe has put us in warm finery like someone from the Hanseatic League.7 That was an old northern version of the European Union, and it facilitated trade around the edges of Europe for about four hundred years. Merchants like us traveled the road and sea routes, trading goods and services, and bringing Renaissance culture back to northern cities.8
In being a supplicant, our poverty is creative need. Our characters are worn thin by a struggle to create. We face failure and the blank page. We may be held small through fear: someone could steal our idea; no one can help because only we can do this right.
How will we grow by creating? How will our relationships grow by creating together?9
As the left character we are asked to cycle half. Half of everything is to be out in the world, creating through movement. As the right character, here we've been, starving and begging, yet we have an unpublished red-letter something in the pocket. Cooperation and flow! Push out our little ships!
We take heart from the Hierophant's supplicants: to live simply, but create with the word of authority. Humble and strong and aspirational.
We learn to expand like a merchant, to employ, delegate, outsource. We can find subtle, half-hidden paths through which to advance.10
We learn, plan, create, assess - until this cycle harmonizes with that cycle.
1 6 Pentacles, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite, p270
2 Little Red Tarot: Magic Stars
3 The Star, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite, p136
4 2 Pentacles, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite, p278
5 3 Pentacles, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite, p276
6 The Hierophant, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite, p88
7 Wikipedia, Hanseatic League
8 Holbein the Younger portraits of Hanseatic notaries,
and The merchant, and The Ambassadors
9 Dr. Dain Heer, The Power of Questions
10 Scott Young, Career Planning and The Dao
All images sourced at:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider-Waite_tarot_deck