The Tarot Year: December 21-31

the decan

the II of pentacles represents the first Capricorn decan, roughly December 21-31. its astrology is Jupiter in Capricorn, and divinatory name is Harmonious Change. following on from the X of wands – Oppression – it’s a welcome change indeed. it’s in a good position in the Tarot Year – leading up to the solar New Year, and often a time of change and new beginnings.

what does the 2 of pentacles mean in tarot?

given the arrival of this card at the time of winter solstice, the juggling of polarities it presents – light and dark, summer and winter, hot and cold – the II of pentacles reminds us, the world is always turning, and we can dance along, if we but listen to the tune.

each day, more and more of the light returns, and the lesson nature teaches us regarding harmonious change is a powerful one. it’s easy to get out of step though – to work too hard and make ourselves ill – to invest all our time in projects and neglect our relationships.

what does The Lovers mean in tarot?

the Tarot I drew to read this decan is VI Lovers, which expands the themes of the II. together, these cards invite us to recognise the sacred in the mundane, to look at our labours, and our loves, as intrinsic to our growth as human beings, and not something in some separate compartment, somewhere else, far away.

these cards ask us to look at the choices and balancing acts involved in our relationships. there is a focus on blending roles, responsibility, and romance here – which isn’t always easy at this time of year. with those ships in the background of the II, there may also be decisions in the background about moving on or staying put.

like Adam and Eve in The Lovers, change may not always be harmonious, but sometimes we must leave Paradise if we are to grow.

the advice

history will laugh at your hat, but you should wear it anyway

history is the record of every decision: every decision changes the course of history

free will is where the mundane and the sacred meet

your material world and your spiritual world are the same thing

Eve did not eat the apple so much as wield a sword

sometimes we must leave Paradise if we are to grow

roles, responsibility, and romance: to juggle is divine

the world is always turning, and we can dance along if we will but hear the tune

change is not inevitable, it is continuous

the light increases day by day, each choice a step upon the way – that is harmonious change

the symbols

the first thing anyone notices about the II of pentacles is this figure’s hat. it's the definition of a power move. history makes every hat look stupid, in the end – if you think about it, hat fashions are the one fashion that is the hardest to revive. but this is something else.

beneath the strangeness of the image to our modern eyes, it’s worth remembering hats have a long-standing, symbolic function of indicating status, and by extension, character.

here, the expansive energy of Jupiter acts in Capricorn to give the II the pleasure of planning, thinking contingencies through, of demonstrating skill to the world – driving the practical energies of Capricorn towards true fulfilment of self.

ships always represent crossing, and therefore change – they can be thought of sharing “bridge symbolism” (Cooper). these rising waves tell us this crossing to a new condition is not going to be a walk in the park – but it’s crucial to remember the rising and the falling of the sea is designed to echo the rising and falling motion of the dancing juggler. they've got this.

this is the ebb and flow of change – which is not so much inevitable, as it is continuous, going on beneath our feet, and all around us in nature, whether we choose to be conscious of it or not – and which is harmonious inasmuch as we harmonise ourselves with the process, and get on board with it.

the rolling sea tells us what’s going on inside the mind, the subconscious of the juggler is managing not only the task at hand, but anticipating the possible future outcomes of the venture, which come into and out of the mind without ever being born.

this is a card of past, present, and future, for sure, of accepting transformation. understanding change means understanding the how the arrow of time moves forward.

the belt is a useful symbol here – the II has the process under control. everything is reined in. reversed however, remember that belt has a long, waving end, which could unravel.

in the midst of all, there’s that borderline at the bottom fifth – the RWS is a stage card. there’s an element of performance here – a display of skill, mastery, or, reversed, empty headed showing off.

and yet the presence of the looping infinity symbol, the lemniscate, reminds us that every step – every choice – we make moves us towards a higher purpose. that is harmonious change.

ultimately all our experiences teach our souls the rules of this reality, which must be transcended if we are to keep moving towards our divinity.

the hard way is a great teacher. but we can make life easier for ourselves if we work with change as an experience not only of the material world, but also as expressing the need of our spirits to grow, expand, reach towards the light.

VI The Lovers is laden with some of the deepest, most resonant symbols in the Tarot. Adam and Eve have a spiritual mountain to climb, in the background – are framed by the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life – the serpent winds around the Tree of Knowledge – we have the angel standing in place of God, and the light of divine wisdom represented by the sun’s rays.

for me, this card is always the moment of separation from God, with whom Adam and Eve had lived in Eden. the flaming hair of the angel tells us that this figure symbolises the flaming sword God set at the entrance of Eden to prevent Adam and Eve from ever returning.

stripped of their immortality, cast out from Paradise – cut off from the physical presence of the divine – cut off from the light of god – if ever there was a disharmonious change, this was it. that’s one reason why it’s so interesting this card comes to meet the II of pentacles.

in choosing to eat the apple, Eve gave birth to free will. Beforehand, she and Adam were like children in God’s garden, innocent, sexless, protected from reality. did the serpent deceive Eve, or free her?

in Eden, Adam and Eve had no need to grow. cast out, they had every lesson to learn. choice and change cannot be separated.

these cards remind us choice is how we become human, how we come to live a life filled with the light of our souls, a divine life, regardless of circumstance. the mirror image of XVI The Devil gives us the mirror message; when we sacrifice our free choice to attachment, compulsion, obsession, or addiction we are in Hell. Adam and Eve lost Paradise, but choice earned humanity its free will.

it doesn’t have to be a decision that changes the course of history to matter, it just has to be ours.

that’s what that Big Red Hat is really – the knowledge that whatever I do next re-makes the world, one increment at a time.

the II of pentacles is an ‘Eve’ really – the serpent gets a bad rep as a deceiver – and we can think of it as the other polarity of choice, compared to the angel. do I listen to the angel or the devil? how do I know what is good or bad when the outcomes of the decision I’m about to make cannot be predicted? what really matters is that our choices are free.

the II is also an ‘Eve’ in being one of Pamela Colman Smith’s androgynous figures. look at the thighs, and the hips – the IIs bring us the lesson of integrating apparent binaries – and this figure is like XXI The World but clothed.

bearing in mind this feminine aspect, and in relation to The Lovers, we might read the II as the news of the pregnancy – the cycle of life going on – the slow change of the body – the transformation of identity – the increasing curve of the body – the filling of the mind and the filling of the belly.

beneath the surface

there are seas to sail, and mountains to climb here, for sure. heading into unknown territory is a theme of both cards, as is taking a chance. will those ships come in, and reap a profit? what will happen if I eat this apple?

both cards remind us, it’s in the exercise of free will where the mundane and the sacred meet. earthly life is dominated by animal instinct, but if we learn choice, discernment, discretion – and use it wisely – and the changes we face may be easier. choice is ours. it’s how we make ourselves, how we build who we are. it’s how our souls grow.

so these cards tell us to listen to the divine within, and to make our choices. they may not be perfect, but they will be our own, and in exercising our free will, we step closer and closer to our divinity, just as the length of daylight increases with each turning of the globe.

the Hebrew letter assigned to The Lovers is Zain, and the symbol is the sword. not for nothing is this aspect of divine intelligence assigned here as The Disposing Intelligence – the ability to separate and understand our options, and to cut away those which no longer serve.

the magical name of the VI is Children of The Voice, Oracle of the Mighty Gods. the message is clear – we speak with the voice of the divine when our thoughts, actions, and feelings are aligned with our highest purpose, not with our egos.

like so many other swords in the Tarot, this sword is a symbol of truth, honesty, fairness. it can be difficult to speak your truth sometimes – although for some Gemini natives, the problem is reversed. they don’t always use the tact, diplomacy, or kid gloves some situations need. like the word of God, Gemini energy is sometimes rather blunt.

here, that word is “Get out”. like I said before, though, while for some the loss of Paradise is catastrophe, Eve’s act of disobedience created freedom, independence, sex, and a lot of other good things – but the other thing it created of course was the need for self-sufficiency, and therefore work.

the fall from grace meant a different relationship with the material world, consequently. we still dream of a world where we labour not, yet still have all – like the nostalgic dream of childhood presented in the VI of cups.

we see it in people’s dreams of retirement – we see it in get rich quick schemes – in gambling – in business, everywhere.

but there is no Paradise for us, except that part of it which Eve walked out of Eden with.

and that part of Paradise is knowledge of self, and the inner connection with the divine, which was never broken, and therefore the ability to be connected with divinity through our words and deeds – even if the deity no longer walks next to us.

what ties these cards together, then, is the serpent – probably the most complex and layered of all symbols, given its resonance throughout cultures everywhere on the planet. there are far too many of those resonances to account for here.

but in brief, the serpent is associated with the devil, and this is one reason why this aspect of the godhead is described in the Tarot with XVI The Devil as The Renewing Intelligence.

the serpent can symbolise eternal life, due to its sloughing of its skin, and the rebirth and renewal this represents. the Wild Unknown uses the butterfly to show this.

by extension, the serpent is a symbol of “spatial infinity”, particularly as the ouroboros, the serpent “biting its own tail,” and representing “the eternal cycle” (Cooper).

in this regard, it is somewhat interchangeable with the lemniscate, which is the buried connection between II and VI.

in this regard, it wasn’t so much eating the apple that changed things forever, it was the encounter with the serpent.

what urged Eve to take the forbidden fruit, perhaps, was that the serpent gave her a better view of material reality.

it whispered… perhaps… the infinite is in all things. the material world is not what it seems. there is a deeper connection in the world around you. learn to ‘open’ the material world and see the divine within. dive in.

and that extends way beyond apples, to our bodies, to our world, to our physical reality, really. Eve did not eat the apple as much as she wielded a sword.

where does this leave the II of pentacles and the Capricorn decan? this figure has their hands full – what more could you need then a connection with the material world that is also your connection with the divine? the juggler's mind is at full capacity for sure. the Sensual Wicca Tarot captures both aspects, right.

and what about those raised feet – there aren’t that many dancers in the RWS, but the ones that are present are telling – and the end of course with the world dancer, XXI.

if we, perhaps, compress the II and VI together, we might end up with The World – a symbol of infinity – the dancer – the balance of all elements – the union of masculine and feminine – that raised foot, showing all potentiality.

with thanks to the decks and designers – the RWS of Pamela Colman Smith with Mary Hanson-Roberts, Chris-Anne's Muse and Lightseer Tarot, RuPaul’s Drag Race Tarot, Manara, Kim Krans's Tarot, Siri Rose’s Cascadia Tarot, Elisa Poggese’s Sensual Wicca Tarot, Nicoletta Ceccoli’s Tarot, Antonella Platano’s Tarot of the 78 Doors, Jack Sephiroth’s Heaven and Earth Tarot, Marco Proietto’s Capobianco Nero Tarot, MJ Cullinane’s Crow Tarot, and Star Spinner Tarot by Trungles.