By Sarah Taylor
What are you still holding on to?
The Four of Pentacles’ second week at the centre of the reading gives us two points to consider: first, that the work of letting go of what is holding us prisoner is still in process. Second, a reminder to look for what we might still be unaware of — whether through unconsciousness or willful ignorance — that is asking to be released.
The king in the Four of Pentacles didn’t get where he is now without tenacity. It takes effort and sacrifice to hold all the pentacles as close to him as he can. But just what is he sacrificing? And why? Does the reason even have meaning anymore, save for the one he gives it simply by hanging on for dear life?
Assistance is at hand in the form of the Page of Swords, who feels like a temporary archetypal energy available that is able to sever the strands that remain and which hold the king in bondage to his ‘stuff’.
The Page of Swords stands on no ceremony. This is a youth who has not yet learned the courtly art of diplomacy. He and his sword come in with an uncensored quality. Out of the mouths — and from the blades — of babes. He sweeps clean. What he might work well with is a certain gravitas that still exists in the king, if he were to drop his weary possessiveness and remember why he ascended to the throne in the first place. Otherwise, the aftermath of the Page’s visit could resemble the result of a trip to an over-enthusiastic hairdresser. I think we’ve all been through one of those.