Adventures in Tarot Cards: 8 of pentacles, Part 2–Going Public

“’You see a craftsman honing his skill. He’s not in his shop, though. He’s working outside—in the world—so there’s a connection to something larger than himself.  Beyond him, in the distance, is a doorway. A building. A Town. There’s a community waiting for what he makes. His skills have a purpose….There are people the craftsman can serve, and those people will, in turn, support him.’”

-Steven Hockensmith and Lisa Falco, “The White Magic Five and Dime: a Tarot Mystery.” Midnight Ink, Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. 12014

Recently I came across a new interpretation of the 8 of Pentacles that I had never realized was true. The deck they use in that book is the Rider-Waite variant called the Universal Tarot by Robert de Anglis, published by Lo Scarabeo. The 8 of Pentacles shows a person working on pounding out pentacles on a work bench, but it adds the details mentioned above, an archway and door to one side. I was curious at this point and went back to the Rider Waite deck that I have and sure enough, behind the worker way in the distance, is a town. The craftsman is working OUTSIDE.

This is a wonderful idea! People are so often afraid to show their work. I often counsel people NOT to talk about their dreams to people that don’t understand. They will just discourage them, pooh-pooh them or at worse, crush them.  Instead we need to find support groups, or make them. We need like-minded people that “get” what we are trying to achieve. That is a story for another post. But we cannot just do our craft in a vacuum. We must get it out to the world eventually. Do a recital. Put the work in a gallery. Sell it at a crafts fair. Practice, but eventually put your work out in the world and see if it flies. I have just realized this is a call to action card: show what you have done. Make it part of the world.

I know people who have talent, real talent, who refuse to take their talent public. They are painters who never exhibit their work, actors who do the workshops but never get on the stage, writers who never submit their work to a publisher. They say they are not ready, I say they are afraid of failing.

They WILL fail. We all do, but if we keep practicing we get better. Letting others see us allows us to be reviewed or critiqued. Some are nasty reviews and critiques that can cripple us and leave us scared so show our stuff anymore, but others help us improve. And without getting Out There, showing our stuff we would never learn to improve.

The same is true with Love. If you don’t get out there, if you don’t give your heart away and get it broke sometimes, you never find out what you really want. What is REAL Love to you? You need to be brave and get out into the REAL world. That is a lesson of the 8 of Pentacles I never realized before.  Get out there and find a place in the world that is YOURS. Practice, you can do it!

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