X of Pentacles - Legacy
An old family patriarch, wearing an ornate cloak adorned with grapes and gold colour, sits petting a dog. He watches an elegant couple and their child enjoy each other’s company. They all gather under a large stone archway that holds banners and a family crest. In the back ground is a large home and stone wall under a blue sky. 10 Pentacles arranged in the shape of the Kabbalah Tree of Life screen the scene.
Pentacles relate to the element of earth – so represent our external, everyday and mundane reality, and how we manifest the things we want in life through our body, health, work, money and relationships … And with the 10 of pentacles we are being asked to consider these aspects in the context of family and home.
While the scene in the card conveys abundance, richness and stability, your reality may or may not be this in the literal way of money and assets.
In what ways am I wealthy, abundant and stable?
With 3 generations being depicted in the image, you’re also being asked to step back and take a deep time perspective. Where you can observe from your higher mind, a longer and wider view of family and where you – at this point in time - are in the mix.
In his book, “Retire Your Family Karma”, Ashok Bedi describes the underlying concept of family karma as how your circumstances and choices will have an effect on your children and grandchildren, and beyond. At the same time you’re dealing with the circumstances and choices made by your parents and grandparents, and ancestors before them. Being conscious of these multidirectional influences can help you honour and make good use of the ancestral blessings, and work towards dissolving as much as possible of what’s been harmful. Doing your best to not pass on outdated and unhelpful family stuff.
What legacy – by way of family traditions, ideals and values– have been passed on from the generation’s that have come before me? Which of these are blessings? And which are more like curses?
I was ‘surprised – not surprised’ to pull this card, as in the moment of writing this piece, my family have been holding vigil around my dying father. An initial projection of hours to days to live has stretched to over a week so we’ve had a lot of time to gather and reflect and share exactly our heart-mind responses to these questions. He was not a perfect father but good in many ways, so we’ve been able to reconcile collectively what we’ve valued and begin to explore how we might be able to transform more troublesome influences.
What legacy can I consciously leave to those who come after me?
What of my inheritance do I want to release or transform? What would that look like in my everyday reality of body, money, work, and relationships?
What can I harvest and integrate, to take deep root for lasting legacy? What would that look like in my everyday reality of body, money, work, and relationships?
Deep time perspective can help you realise that you’re a player among many in the longer and greater context of time. And that each generation takes part in rearranging the elements of opportunity, fate, destiny and conscious choice so that you can retain whatever family legacy contributes to your growth and the expression of your innate talents and gifts, and reject whatever thwarts it. Doing this can help take the pressure and heavy responsibility off you, to try to fix or heal everything and/or blame and remain a victim of choices that were out of your control.
Mendy xx
If you enjoyed this reflective practice, and would like to do more depth exploration using the tarot, consider booking an online tarot counselling session.