Queen of Pentacles

The Queen of Pentacles is known as a big-hearted woman, perhaps of some means, with immense funds of affection, a woman combining dignity and grace with the sensual and erotic. She is a fine example of the bountiful earth and the compelling stimulations which drive life to glory and abundance. She enjoys conceiving babies as well as raising them. She’s a force of nature in her home and local environment. She’s a little different from the Empress as an Earth-mother type. More than just being a human instead of a demigoddess, she is more participatory or involved, a little less ethereal, has a bit more hair and smells more like a real woman: just the right amount of sweaty. And her fingernails are often broken from work in the garden. She can change her own oil and flat tires. She wears rustic with some class, and sandals in three seasons. Her life is largely outside of herself, in circulation, in the garden, or with family and community. She has many moods, but most are easygoing. Commentators also describe her as sensible, compassionate, sensuous, lavish, gracious, supportive, nurturing, generous, charitable, hospitable, forgiving, responsive, accessible, resource- ful, and caring. She is known for cooperation, liberality, enrichment, relatedness, familiarity, fecundity, abundance, and a love of nature. The manner of her interaction and interdependence might be described as mutualism, symbiosis, or reciprocity. There is a sense in which this queen represents the opposite of the Queen of Swords with respect to the primary evolutionary processes. The latter is unquestionably a force for selection, and sometimes can be quite harsh and cold, while the Queen of Pentacles is more experimental, tolerant, nurturing, supportive, kind, warm, obliging, pleasant, and encouraging towards diversity. She is not, however, a loose woman. As a patroness, she puts resources into circulation, spreading the wealth and well-being, to grow more wealth and well-being. But some of the wealth she shares might be yours, after she’s persuaded you to part with it. There is a little more to her than this, though. This card has a strong resonance with the mutable earth sign of Virgo, which is ruled by Mercury Epimetheus, hindsighted analysis or reasoning from precedents, and also is symbolized by the virgin, who will do very little sensuous procreating until she uncrosses her legs. But the connotation of the virgin here can be a little misleading. Yes, she is choosy and sets her standards fairly high, but once she affirms a choice, she has better reasons than most to move forward, and a better chance of success. This queen is generous because it pays extremely well. She has figured this out. She knows the value of free markets and open exchange. Spreading the wealth is a very practical way to amplify wealth. Diversity in a system is depth, strength, and resilience in that system. Even the very roots of sexual reproduction had this practical effect, which furthered our evolution immensely and led to this becoming a natural norm. This also made the world a lot more interesting and fun than just splitting ourselves in two. There is much more to giving and altruism than self-sacrifice. The world is a great tat and quo for the bargain price of our tit and quid. What goes around comes around, often multiplied in the process. So the Queen is not a loose or simple woman. She is ready to respond to someone or something worthy and authentic. She is ready to explore or exploit what’s available to her senses, and she’s apt to regard sensation as a good enough door to the truth. She will appreciate the variety and texture of it all, how all of the differences work together and weave themselves into a whole. Having a nobler understanding of the material, she will want enrichment rather than riches, comfort rather than comforts. She is moved more by persuasion than reason, and a promise of mutual benefit more than her own reward. She will see the reality in the exchange itself, not in the goods exchanged. Interrelationship and interconnectedness form strong threads that make for strong fabrics, especially of her family or community. Her life is in the weaving of this. The Yijing counterpart is Gua 31, Reciprocity or Influence. One of its images is the alpine lake, high on the mountain, and a young woman on top of a young man, and what these two pairs have to give to each other to mutual benefit. The distances between them are crossed, sometimes at some length or with difficulty, but the reward is a renewal of life. Congress or coming together is for mutual purpose and welfare, for symbiosis and synergy, for meeting each other’s needs, and sometimes even creating new beings.