Four of Pentacles: Mystic Faeries Imagery

This card fascinates me. When I first got this deck, I read each of the story lines for the minor arcana. The 4 of Pentacles is the point just after the young fae has pulled herself up by the bootstraps and made the best life she could out of a crappy situation, but before the she loses everything she has worked for.

The book claims this card's message is that you should stop and enjoy the fruits of your work. Make sure you have planned well for the coming hard times, but more or less give yourself a big pat on the back.....but really?

In the 5 of Pentacles the same fae is in ruin because the rats came and stole everything she had, but had she paid attention in the previous card she would have noticed on the right hand frame a rat stealing from her while she admires her handy work.

I have seen some of the book v.s. no book debate, and while I haven't made up my mind yet, this card seems to support the idea that the book is far from beeing infallible ^_^ Pictures are worth a thousand words, or so they say.

I don't know this deck, but ... obviously I've got comments anyway. <grin>

In the book or no book debate I'm on the fence. I say do both. Read the book. Look up the meanings of the cards. And then do all of the intuitive things too.

Not every card. Not every time. But there are times when looking at the pictures is the only thing that works. There are times when knowing a little numerology is the only thing that works. And there are time when keywords open the door into the card, and you get those from books and websites.