Time is money and patience bears fruit in the 8 of Pentacles or Disks, the Lord of Prudence. The messenger god, at home everywhere, enters his rulership as we arrive in the sign of Virgo. The Sun governs this decan, ripening the grain and bringing in the harvest. Pantries and coffers fill even as the days shorten, ensuring another generation will thrive even if the previous one must pass onward. Here the Hermit makes the Sun safe in his lantern for its long journey through darkness.

In our conversation we encounter "harvest mothers, ladies of justice, and youthful virgins" alike: Ceres/Demeter, Ishtar, Astraea, Erigone, Persephone. Hermes takes on his psychopomp form, his caduceus opening the ways to the underworld. We discuss Prudence as the "mother" of cardinal virtues: temperance, justice, fortitude, Spica, the Milky way, the long road from grain to loaf, the double-bodied bird-maiden, Masonic aprons, chisels, hammers, and engraving, Gandalf as the Hermit, the Eightfold path, the lantern as a shop light!, the forest for the trees, long-term investments, trees of knowledge, geomancy's Populus, the I Ching's hexagram 33 (dùn), Diwali, Hermopolis or Eight-Town, Ningishzida the lord of the good tree, Archangel Michael, Archdemon Adrammelech, truthfulness vs falsehood, the concealed light and the secret fire borne by the most modest of hands.

The 8 of Pentacles or Disks is associated with Virgo, the sign of small things, and it's a commonly known fact that Virgos like putting things away. Boxes within boxes, bags within bags! Therefore, one lucky listener this week will receive a mini-deck from Mel and a mini-Arcana case to house the mini-deck from me. You can sign up as a patron and find out more about the drawing at www.patreon.com/fortuneswheelhouse.