Six of Pentacles

The Plate

One hand gives; the other weighs. A merchant in a rich red robe stands over two kneeling figures, dropping coins into the raised hands of one while his left hand holds a merchant's scale, level, at shoulder height. Six pentacles hang in the air around the group. The plate could have drawn open-handed giving and left the scale at home; instead it puts the instrument of measurement at the exact center of the act of mercy, and holds it balanced — not tipped toward either beggar, and not set down.

The Reading

Alms weighed are still alms; that has to be said first, because the card is frequently read as an indictment and the kneeling figures really do go away with money. Aid arrives on this card — a loan granted, a salary paid, knowledge shared with someone below you on the stair. The scale simply refuses to let the transaction pretend it has no terms. Someone decided who receives and how much, and the deciding is itself a kind of power that giving does not dissolve. The useful question the plate puts to a querent is positional: which of the three figures are you, this month? Most people answer too quickly.

Reversed, the terms outgrow the gift. Repayment is extracted in gratitude, the loan renews itself forever, and generosity becomes a way of purchasing the posture of the other two figures. The coins still move. The scale now tips.

In the School

Sixes restore the flow the fives interrupted, each in its element's manner. In Earth — Pentacles' assignment in the table of Foundations of Astrology — restored flow looks like distribution: goods, wages, alms, all countable, all counted.