Cue the blues: it's the 5 of Pentacles or Disks - otherwise known as the Lord of Worry, or the Lord of Material Trouble. It is the very disaster we thought we could forestall by stockpiling gold in the Four of Pentacles! Mercury (The Magician or Magus) presides over the second decan of Taurus (The Hierophant), the quicksilver psychopomp contending with the steadfast pontifex. Who will prevail, the Picker of Locks or the Keeper of the Keys?! In this celestial heist, bankruptcy is all but certain, and there's plenty of worry to go all around. And yet there is more to this card than meets the eye.
In our conversation, we discuss Taurus as bridge between the spiritual and the mundane, and the bull's quest to find success between worry and the failure. We discuss sacred bovines, agriculture, having, holding, and belonging, economic inequality, the mills of God grinding slowly, tattvas, Earth Day, the star known as El-Nath, nails as the Vav of the Hierophant, averse pentagrams, padlocks, the problem-solving intelligence, patriarchs, Isaac's sacrifice, the separation of waters, the angel Kamael, the demon Asmodeus, mendicants, the church as that which binds and excludes, the etymology of "worry", broken records, elephants, keys, and the idea of the 5 as freedom from cycle of matter.
Because the 5 of Pentacles is known as the Lord of Worry, and is governed by Mercury, god of writing, we are offering this week's winner a Fortune's Wheelhouse notebook from our RedBubble store. You can use it to conquer your worry! by anticipating and planning for any eventualities that might arise. (Alternatively, you can choose a T-shirt featuring the winged messenger as the Magus from Mel's Tabula Mundi deck.)