Quantum: The Ace Pentacles

nisaba

The Ace Pentacles, subtitled "Gluon", shows us a large image of a silver Pentacle angled away from us, a red lozenge at its centre. As befits an Ace we are looking at a manifestation of the Very Small here: gluons exist only as carrier-particles for the Strong Force (immensely strong, but only over tiny micro-distances) which anchor sub-atomic particles together into atoms. Ironically, they do not exist as a part of the said atoms, merely as a theoretical way for the energy of that force to move around.

Without gluons, theoretically there can be no atoms. Without atoms, we're all completely stuffed. The whole material world begins and ends here - and Pentacles are all about the material world. Aces are focussed points, beginnings, and potential in their elements, so even though this one doesn't show us - say - a full atom of hydrogen, which is the building-block of all the other substances that make us and our worlds, it is every bit as essential as that, because without gluons there would *be* no hydrogen atoms to create all the other elements out of, in the universe's star-centred alchemical crucibles.

This image is a simple one, showing is a wave of energy travelling in front of the Pentacle itself, and lines of force radiating out at all angles. An essential card, all about the very beginnings of manifestation. I don't know about you, but I really, really hope that my gluons don't come unglued any time soon.