The Gothic Tarot by Vargo - Five Of Pentacles

A vampire is walking around a cemetary, filled with mist and skeletons, with dead trees in the back. The vampire is dressed in black, looks exactly like the Nosferatu in The High Priest and The Hermit. His apearance is scary and he looks like he's very hungry. Three arches are in the back and stand on four pillars. Five pentacles are entwined in the arches, three pentacles in the center and a pentacle on each side.

This vampire here is fulfilling his basic need, and he doesn't look pretty at all, like if feeding basically like he does, he went back in the level of evolution, became inferior to what he used to be. He has lost all complexity, all nuances, all life. His life revolves around his obsession, his basic need: blood. He's not like the other vampires in the deck, colorful, who have many needs: love, happiness, power, lust... The arches, showing the way out of this realm, are right behind him, but he doesn't see them. Still, he is so fierceful, that I don't worry for one second about his survival.

I want to take this card backwards. In my interpretation of Tarot, the five of pentacles indicates, “The result, of decisions. An us vs. them altitude. People struggle not through a lack of knowledge, but by having to live with poor decisions”. You know, nobody wakes up impoverished – it happens over time. So when we look at an RWS deck and see the folks walking by the church, we don’t see the rest of the story.

This guy, this Nosferatu in the necropolis, looks like a result of his own choices. We don’t know if he holds glee or evil in his heart – we just know he is surrounded by his own results.

The Five of Pentacles is a very predatory card, to me.

In terms of a relationship, it could be that one person is "chasing" after the other one, in a hunter/hunted, or predatory/prey type response.

Nosferatu are pretty intense vampires, not your run of the mill, long haired hunk. This person may embody aspects that scare you - is s/he a "bad boy" or "bad girl," or do they challenge you somehow?

Lastly, since this is a blood sucker who looks hungry, one person in the relationship may be sucking the other one dry, living off them, either emotionally, spiritually, and/or in a material (or financial) manner.

V Penticals

When I see this card I can also see his hunger, his thirst for blood. There a skeletons on the ground showing that there is no blood to be found. And he searches for his next victem isolated from civilization. This card represents hard times, rejection and ill health.
It is a hard time for the vampire because there is no food(blood) around thus the result of ill health. The empty lonely background sybolizes rejection.

I may as well progress with the Pentacles - again, without reading the above posts as not to prejudice my thoughts.

Ah, Nosferatu, stealthily walking through the fog amongst the tombstones and skeletal remains. Beautiful pentacled arches are in the backdrop. I sense that this is a card of caution - again, far different than the RWS version (which I have interpreted in many different ways depending on the situation). Depending on where this card fell in a throw, I could see the caution angle, but also to keep in mind the word "stealth" as I used above - "slow and steady win the race" to sling out an overused proverb. Keep your eye on the prize and proceed with caution. It may not be what Vargo intended, but this is how this card makes me feel.

Dan

Vampires need blood. This guy is scavenging the graveyard. Not much fresh blood to be found in corpses. Why isn’t he nabbing helpless women from the street, or stealing into their bedrooms? Why has he been reduced to trying to suck blood from corpses?

Does anyone else think that this Nosferatu looks remarkably like another vampire from another 5 card; The High Priest? Even the arches in both cards are very similar. The 5 of Pentacles could be a fall from grace, the trappings of money/material possessions that can drive a person to obsession and even ruin. It could indicate the corruption of morals and values.

In the LWB it also mentions ‘embarrassment’. Could this vampire be embarrassed by what he is, what he needs to do, and that’s why he won’t show his face and risk being seen by victims or passers by?

I've definitely equated the Hierophant and the 5 of pentacles, which are two cards that are indeed inter-related, I think. I remember once Holmes read for me and said the 5 of pentacles points to the Heirophant showing up "reversed". The 5 Pents and Hierophant are also mentioned in tandem by Pollack, if I remember my 78 Degrees... correctly.

To me, the Heirophant is our same nosferatu, just woken up. And then, 5 of pentacles, out for a bite.

Good point about the graveyard Kath! He's likely hungry, and surrounded by "nothing good to eat" (... like me.... in my kitchen).

Wow! Thanks for opening my eyes! I've never related to the Hierophant with this card. Obviously, in this deck, it's the same character, but I've never really linked them. The idea that the Hierophant falls from grace is really good.

Five of Pentacles

In this card a very feral looking vampire is skulking around in the foggy darkness. The location is in a very chaotic graveyard. Cracked and weathered tombstones and skeletal remains litter the ground. A three part gothic archway is centered behind him. The pentacles are mounted in the arches like lattice work. There are three pentacles in the bigger center arch, and one in the arches on either side. Leafless trees are seen in the background, reaching their skeletal branches out into the darkness.

There is no moon; stars nor any sign of hope anywhere to be found. All is desolate, dark and dreary. What used to be holy ground has been desecrated by this feral creature of the night. He is not the typical vampire, cultivated and sophisticated, but a bestial creature whose only goals are bent toward feasting on flesh and blood, to include bodies interred within the grave. This scourge of a vampire has leveled and defiled this cemetery to the point of unholyness; a mere shadow of its former self. It is no longer a symbol of the peace and serenity of death, but a chaotic waste site of destruction. All traces of honor and respect for those passed annihilated.

Kath said:

(...)
In the LWB it also mentions ‘embarrassment’. Could this vampire be embarrassed by what he is, what he needs to do, and that’s why he won’t show his face and risk being seen by victims or passers by?

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I like this interpretation!
These nosferatu-creatures would find it difficult to drink blood from the living, because of their appearance. (Assuming that nosferatu can't change their appearance, I don't know how that works in the vampire-world) They would immediately scare people away and although I think that they could still get to a prey based on the matter of strength, it would still be a risk; he could be seen.
The nosferatu could never blend in with a society, and therefore has to live in hiding (the bell tower on the Hermit card). He has to hunt for prey in secret (an abandoned graveyard). I can imagine this could give a feeling of loneliness, shame, embarrassment and eventually bitterness. The nosferatu envies the others who are not cast out like they are; they can blend in, they can enjoy their unlife. The nosferatu is all alone (well, apart from the bats of course )