The Pents Courts and Career

Absynthe

About a year ago I starting getting the King, Queen & Page of pents turn up in readings for me regarding my career. It made no sense at the time because I had a job I didn't intend to leave. Well I did leave it and now the Pents court cards seem clear to me.

Page Of Pents - new job, yes there will be one. I couldn't see it before because this was hiding behind an event which had to play out first, leaving my previous job.

King Of Pents - future employer, I often get this card to stand in for large corporations in career readings.

Today I asked what my next career move should be and got Queen Of Pents. I had recently decided to rekindle my old career in finance and yes the QoP fits in perfectly here especially if we see the King as a finance corporation. The Queen of Pents is someone who would be happy supporting said corporation and being supported in turn. In other words, an employee. Pents and finance are a natural fit as is the idea of rehashing a career that was once left, following the known route, putting the energy back into a slow process and following traditions, processes and security. All very career things to do and all very pentacles.

Well at least this solves a year long mystery for me now, just putting it out there. Sometimes the cards can be this obvious. But we don't necessarily connect it until certain events have transpired.
 

Barleywine

I find it interesting that you had all of the human components of a "recipe" for career success except the "active ingredient" - the Knight of Pentacles.

Looking at the Golden Dawn's "abstract" interpretation of the four "Honours:"

"Potential Power is the King" - this looks like "opportunity writ large" to me.

"Brooding Power is the Queen" - this implies lengthy deliberation before taking a first "step in the right direction"

"Power in Action is the Knight" - this one is MIA, suggesting that initiative was in short supply

"Reception and Transmission" is the Knave - you were "getting the message" that a career move was needed.

Since the Knights sit at the center of the Tree of Life, the "heart" of the system, my thought is that your "heart wasn't in it" at the time the question was first posed. In more fanciful terms, I sometimes see the Knight as the "consort" of the Queen, so her emergence at this time could mean that she is finally going to seek "completion" through some kind of action. There isn't a whole lot of literature (or at least I don't have it) on career aspects of the cards, but Banzhaf has this to say about the Queen of Pentacles (Disks) in professional terms:

"Willingness to accept responsibility, worthwhile projects, strong character." It does imply a more subordinate rather than an entrepreneurial role.
 

Grizabella

I always learn a lot from your posts, Barleywine. :)

Absynthe, thank you for posting this. It really gives some added depth to the meanings of the Pentacle cards. When I abstractly think of Pentacles, I think of down-to-earth things but I forget to include the workplace sometimes unless I get the 3 or the 8 of Pentacles.
 

rwcarter

Sometimes the cards can be this obvious. But we don't necessarily connect it until certain events have transpired.
Sometimes cards/readings won't completely make sense except in retrospect. Glad you were finally able to make sense of your repeating cards.

Rodney
 

Absynthe

I want to update my post in terms of Barleywine's response because there are a lot of things said here which are only just clear to me now.

Yesterday I was offered a job with a finance company. The King & Queen Of Pent's have been featuring large in my readings this week. The King more than the Queen.

I also want to point out my birth chart features because they are highly relevant. I'm a water sign with a water ascendant BUT all my career houses (2, 6th & 10th) are in the three earth signs. I also have Pluto in my 2nd house(Virgo) which explains the multiple careers across unrelated industries. But I am only now returning to my first ever career, finance. Everything has come full circle. I also have retrograde planets that point to me not being able to get a handle on my wealth potential until later in life. I've always been good with money management but terrible with career choices (Taurus midheaven points to needing to stick to something), resulting in instability in my security even though the cash was okay. My Venus has just progressed direct.

I find it interesting that you had all of the human components of a "recipe" for career success except the "active ingredient" - the Knight of Pentacles.

"Potential Power is the King" - this looks like "opportunity writ large" to me.

"Brooding Power is the Queen" - this implies lengthy deliberation before taking a first "step in the right direction"

"Power in Action is the Knight" - this one is MIA, suggesting that initiative was in short supply

"Reception and Transmission" is the Knave - you were "getting the message" that a career move was needed.

All of this is very astute. In the earlier part of the past year I would receive the Knight Of Pentacles, Page Of Pentacles & Queen of Pentacles with far greater frequency than the appearance of the King. At that time I was ensconced in a career I had no intention of leaving. The cards were urging me to change career although I can't be faulted for not immediately making that connection.

Since the Knights sit at the center of the Tree of Life, the "heart" of the system, my thought is that your "heart wasn't in it" at the time the question was first posed. In more fanciful terms, I sometimes see the Knight as the "consort" of the Queen, so her emergence at this time could mean that she is finally going to seek "completion" through some kind of action. There isn't a whole lot of literature (or at least I don't have it) on career aspects of the cards, but Banzhaf has this to say about the Queen of Pentacles (Disks) in professional terms:

"Willingness to accept responsibility, worthwhile projects, strong character." It does imply a more subordinate rather than an entrepreneurial role.

All of this is also correct. I had to be forced out of my previous career and I was. Then and only then was I willing to take any action and also only because I had to, not because I wanted to. I thought about finance because it was the only connection I had with the old corporate world I had left and it seemed a good thing to leverage on my resume.

In my prior career I was also in a leadership position and I hated it. I did not like the separation from coworkers that being the leader requires nor did I enjoy that particular responsibility. I spent my entire time in the leadership role wishing I was back as a worker instead. I did not leave the leadership role because of the money it paid.

It's curious that even now there is still a reluctance within me to return to something I've done before. As if it's not exciting enough and breaks my rule of never looking back when I leave something. And yet if we look at my birth chart, I am the kind of person who desperately craves and wants security in a career. Not only that but I'm built for it. I'm only truly happy when I'm following a known process, got a job to do and can just get in there and do it well. I'm one of the most stable, reliable and dedicated workers in just about any job I take on. It's been my trademark and the reason why I've been offered so many different opportunities.

So why have I been chasing instability and excitement over the tried and true for such a long time? That's the question, and why do I still feel ill at ease with returning to a known career?

I'm a traditionalist at heart, even though I am avante garde and unconventional in some respects. I hate traditions for traditions sake, but do enjoy many cultural traditions because of the continuity they bring to life, and I do enjoy those principles which have been proven to work regardless of the era. My taste is clothing, furniture, objects has always run along classic lines. Timeliness and quality are things I look for. Very earth attributes. It's no surprise really that I might be suited to working in one of the world's oldest traditions, that of finance.