Wednesday 25 September 2013

The 10 of Coins

So I made my first daily pick, and blow me what should come up but, wait for it, The 10 of Coins. This was the last of the Minor Arcana I roughed out, for the Bonefire companion book, so it was written about 3 days ago. I guess you could say, it is fresh in my mind.
That aside, this is absolutely not where I would have begun this lengthy journal of the deck. I was hoping for a simpler pick; Bonefire being what it is, has chucked me right in the deep end and given me possibly the trickiest of all.
Disclaimer aside, on I go.

The 10 of Coins
Okay so.....And this really is an, 'okay so' kind of a card.
Firstly to say, I went out on a limb with the design of the Bonefire 10 of Coins. It is very different from the Rider-Waite and, as in the 10 of Cups, I have not depicted the human family, of whom both 10s  speak so much. Of all the cards in the deck, here, I struggled. Could my interpretation mean anything to anyone besides me?

When I look at the RW version, I wonder if Pamela had similar misgivings with her own image. My problems upon meeting the 10, when reading had never quite resolved, often leaving me foxed...intuition  deserting. I arrived at a compromise, allowing the card to represent; an appreciation for all of ages of life as equally important and contributions from all family members, dead or alive to be highly valued.

Deeper research in to the 10 brought me to this image (I will post image as soon as I have gadgets on person):
I painted a wild poppy plant in a field on the outskirts of a village. 9 pentacles at the heart of the flower heads and 1 as a poppy seed, deep and stirring in the earth. I chose this flower as a symbol of remembrance and it's long use in magik and medicine.

The poppy heads are arranged carefully to echo the 'Tree of Life' of the Kabbalah, which also appears on the RW. 10 of Pentacles. The flowers themselves show us the various stages of the life-cycle of the poppy;  full blooms, buds, petals falling and a dried seek pod waiting for a passing breeze to shake out its wares. In the ground we find a seed has moistened and germinated. No stage of this life is more, or less important to the success of this plant.

Tiny pentacle stars twinkle in the sky as the magic is released by this process of nature at work; yet all would go utterly unmarked, were it not for the tiny dog who judges all he meets with the same friendly wag. Crouching down in a salutation to the poppy, he honors it. Nose to the ground, he has the scent of something secret and special and is unconcerned by the parishioners in  church searching for a little magic of their own, while socks dry and domesticity will eventually see them buried in the Earth.

The details vary, but the essentials are the same for the poppy plant, or the little dog. We are invited to be mindful of the amazing stories of survival we see daily, pay less heed to the banal, head outside and join the little dog digging in the dirt.

The 10 of Coins in a reading says, take a retrospective look to your ancestors and consider the path they trod. What lessons well heeded now can help us as we face our own challenges?  When they were the custodians of the earth, on which you stand, what contribution did they make? Will your own equal theirs?
The work of the natural world sets a very high bar.



1 comment:

  1. Thank you,Gabi. I now can interpret this card with a much deeper understanding. I look forward to reading what you can share about the other cards.

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