Morgan Greer - 10 pf Pentacles

Flavio

Card foreground shows two red-orange flags, 5 pentacles are painted in each one, on the background a happy couple walking through an arc in a stone wall.

The flags are covering the arc, seems to me that some guards are holding them and moving them only to let selected people pass through the arc, this card is one of the most different when compared with RWS designs.

In this case I see the 5 pentacles in each flag as some kind of heraldic symbol of the family living behind the arc, so this family has some traditions and generational values, from this point of view I can relate Morgan Greer 10 of Pentacles with the traditional meaning for this card.

On the other hand... 10 are about end of cycles, and the fact to see the 10 pentacles splited in 2 times 5 makes me feel unconfortable, probably each side of the flag has 5 pentacles but the appearance remains to me as only 5 of Pentacles.

What are your thoughts about this card?
 

Grizabella

This card struck me, too, as being very different from the usual 10 of Pentacles image. The absence of the old man, children and the dog threw me. I don't know why they weren't included. For some reason, it makes the couple seem kind of selfish to me. But maybe the old man, children and dog are just out of sight where we can't see them.

For me, the ten pentacles divided between two flags conveys that material wealth isn't true security. At any time, if one flag were to be gone, they'd be at five of pentacles poverty level. It's pretty appropriate to our current economy here in the states where so many people are one paycheck away from being homeless. Or one income, in the case of so many two-income families.
 

Flavio

Lyric said:
For me, the ten pentacles divided between two flags conveys that material wealth isn't true security. At any time, if one flag were to be gone, they'd be at five of pentacles poverty level.
That's a nice take, to enjoy this "10" status without forgeting it can turn into "5" any moment, so this card becomes also a warning to avoid overindulgence.
 

brenmck

This card just came up again for me, and as before the first thing I see is the very large "X" formed by the staves of their banners. That each staff bears five Pentacles is a very interesting insight.
It says to me "No admittance. We've got everything we want and we're very satisfied."
The couple is preoccupied with material success at the exclusion of anything or anyone else. Absent are the traditional figures that represented the warmth and security of family and the trappings of a happy home. The shade of green, barely included, is dull and dying. The yellow of enlightenment is closed in by the stone archway over the couple. It's a very different state portrayed here.

~B~
 

Flavio

brenmck said:
This card just came up again for me, and as before the first thing I see is the very large "X" formed by the staves of their banners. That each staff bears five Pentacles is a very interesting insight.
It says to me "No admittance. We've got everything we want and we're very satisfied."

The couple is preoccupied with material success at the exclusion of anything or anyone else. Absent are the traditional figures that represented the warmth and security of family and the trappings of a happy home. The shade of green, barely included, is dull and dying. The yellow of enlightenment is closed in by the stone archway over the couple. It's a very different state portrayed here.

~B~
Just took a look at the online image of the card, until now I focused on the "X" I always see the flags :) now it looks pretty much as the 2 of Swords! I believe the yellow flag poles mean some "half-way enlightment" as it is not as bright as the yellow inside the castle.

I can relate you take to modern and exclusive clubs, bars or restaurants, only certain people with high social status and economical power are allowed in so at moments this card could be inspirational to work hard to improve your life level, not a very spiritual goal, but anyway we are dealing here with the Pentacle suit.
 

Sentient

I hope you don't mind one more point of view. :)

If I had to sum up what I first look for in the 10P in WS-related decks it would be "lineage." Matters pertaining to more than one generation of family.

Often one will see some grandeur in the elements, but for me this is not essential. What could symbolize the core idea of lineage? Coats of arms, heraldry, a homestead, generations, a bridge between old and young, unity.

I see some of those things in the MG. For me, the banners don't allude to a possible material insecurity as much as they communicate balance. The 10 pentacles on the banners stand in for the specific ornamentation of the house - what it stands for, who it represents and/or their occupations.

Male and female emphasize this balance, standing together on either side of the vertical axis of the card.

But the image as a whole has a fairly lifeless quality. The emphasis on the stone structure, the dull color of the grass (as brenmck pointed out), and the lack of any other people or creatures seems to indicate a somewhat static situation.

I don't think I am biased in favor of the WS, but I think that without at least one other generation depicted (the WS had 2) that one loses a very important dimension to this card.

The MG depiction could easily be a some self-contented yuppie couple living out in the suburbs. This is not what I understand this card to mean. Now if that yuppie couple were to have a child, start saving for that child's college education, and one of them started to have to deal with end-of-life issues in connection with an ailing parent, that would be different.

A large part of who we are in this world is defined by the choices our ancestors made. We create our own lives by making choices for ourselves and the next generation. For me, the way the MG 10P is drawn doesn't seem to fully get at all this rich stuff the way the WS does.

What do you think?
 

WalesWoman

Morgan Greer was my introduction to Tarot, so I didn't know anything about dogs and old men or kids or anything of the RWS image.

What struck me about this card was it seemed to close off this couple from the outside world, similar to earlier comments, that they had everything they needed and were seperate from anything and everything. The walls represented security, strength, protection and endurance, that it would be something that was lasting. The crossed banners made me think of Gyfu or Gifu, X the rune that means Gift, many blessings and happiness. This couple was protected and secure... mainly because they were in their own little world and cut off from others.

But it also seems to me to be a barrier... do NOT go there... hand off, no tresspassing... sort of like marriage vows... forsaking all others and let no other interfere with this couple.

But then there is something very empty and lifeless to this card, that their attention is only on each other, as if theirs is the only existence that matters in a way. It sort of feels like haute monde... a bit decadent and self indulgent.
 

brenmck

Sentient said:
A large part of who we are in this world is defined by the choices our ancestors made. We create our own lives by making choices for ourselves and the next generation. For me, the way the MG 10P is drawn doesn't seem to fully get at all this rich stuff the way the WS does.
What do you think?

Through my work I have recently been spending some time in the land of the incomprehensibly rich, where miles of square miles are covered by homes that are palaces. Each transplated, fully-grown palm tree probably cost thousands of dollars, to hardly be noticed by the gentry as they wend there way home to cocktails and satiety. You can't believe there is that much money in the world. It's opulence beyond imagination, and its colors are finely-crafted hues but dead, dull, and with no reflection of what we try to see as life; more the work of a skillful mortician than a talented land-scaper.

If you asked them "Is this all there is?" their answer would probably be "Yes, but next year should be even better." The next generation will buy themselves into the best universities and walk into positions of power and wealth without a single flush of gratitude - this is all their "right." To them the notion of a spiritual journey is just something we poor people conjure up to take our minds off our misery.
Looks just like MG's X of Pentacles to me.

~B~
 

Sentient

From what I am reading, it seems that the majority of you see this card as getting at the negative aspects of wealth, rather than generational concerns. I admit, this does follow from the image.

Is this the case, and if so, does it represent a departure from how you view the WS 10P?
 

Flavio

brenmck said:
To them the notion of a spiritual journey is just something we poor people conjure up to take our minds off our misery.
I was shocked by this sentence... but yes, there is people like that in the world, funny some of them at a very mature age turn their heads to the spiritual path in the hopes to clean the guilt of a lifetime.