Eight of Pentacles - and the mystery of ordinary life

Oh, thank you, Silverkitten, I can't wait to hear some of the thoughts that are going through your head. It was such an odd moment, to see that gnome their peering out of the card. Do you want me to post a picture of the card? Or do people have the deck?

P.S. This card seems to have either predicted or provoked the of effusion my imagination, as witness last night's Wacked out dream with green cows.

Oh I would love to see a picture of the card if you would post one. I don't have the deck, and none of my decks have a picture resembling anything like what you've described.
Now I will go read about your dream

Blessings,
Donna

Chop wood, Carry water...

There are some things which you do over and over and over with no thought as to getting any better at them.
Like dishes.
You don't ever get better at doing them....but in the absolute mediocrity of the task you shift into a Zen state that allows you to perhaps assume a mental state or clarity that then allows the perfection of the task to incarnate.
So that thru mediocrity you are elevated to another place where the mastery of the task allows something quite close to being in the mind of God to emerge...

Or perhaps i should say, that a sort of God-mind emerges....

One other little thought about the 8 of Pentacles.
I have often noticed that there are two kinds of people within the 8 of Pents.
Those that work at a task to master it and then are happy to reproduce that quality forever.
Happy with the thought that it will always be the same work of perfection.
They find the challenge in maintaining that perfection.
In this person you find the gnome and that Zen like state....

The other kind of person works and tweeks untill they attain that one perfect piece of work and then they need to move on because the challenge was in creating that one masterpiece.
There is no challenge in creating one after another..
So they are always in search of the next project to perfect.
And maybe here is where we find the dove or the many colored cows...

The man in my sharman-casselli deck seems happy and relaxed. He knows exactly what he is doing and is confident that his work will be done, and it will be done well.

It is curious how you suddenly see things you've never seen before on a card you look at alot. I've always liked this card. I go to uni, so this card sooths me, reassuring me that I can do my work well, and at the end of the day, I can step out into the beautiful day that I can see through the open door.

It is only just now, looking at this card, that I see some weeds and grass pokeing through the stone floor, and right at the man's feet, in the shadows of the workbench, a mouse. I wonder what they mean...

Oh my, I saw a gnome, you see A MOUSE!

firemaiden ~

This is a beautiful thread.

It makes me think of my Mother who, had she been born in another time and place would have lived out different dreams. She was a crafts woman in her role as mother and wife. But she may have preferred to be a poet or writer. Life didn't offer the opportunity.

Circumstance forced her to make all our clothes, which she did beautifully, to cook and look after all the material and emotional needs of six energetic children as well as our father. She was typical of her generation but none the less special because of that. My father was the same - A teacher loved and remembered by his students for years afterwards.

One can see examples of 8 Pentacles right throughout life but particularly close to home.

Moongold

To be of use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

Marge Piercy

I think this is an VIII Pentacles poem. Marge Piercy is agreat American poet who clearly also used the Tarot. (She wrote a poem called Seven of Pentacles which is also about work and can be seen at Post 15 in the Tarot Themes and Poetry Thread in Talking Tarot).