Rws And Pentacles - Question for Users

[Marigold]

I hope this is the right sub forum for this question. It's something I've actually wondered about for quite some time.

 

For those people who use the RWS tarot deck (or similar) and if you're not into occult practices, or wicca stuff or things like that, do you take into account what pentacles/pentagrams mean and imply, or do you just consider them to be round objects that have a relation to the earth element ? 

 

I'm also curious to know how many people who use the RWS deck have studied Golden Dawn stuff so as to deeper their understanding of what Waite was trying to communicate through his deck.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Marigold

[LeFou]

Some old decks call the suit Coins. It makes sense to me so I use that. 

[DanielJUK]

I am pagan / wiccan and I only associate them with coins and / or the material / earth element. I have never associated them with pentagrams in any reading 🙂

[Barleywine]

I don't attach any special meaning to the pentagrams/pentacles in the RWS deck. The round suit emblems serve the same purpose as Coins in older decks, with the added correspondence to the element of Earth. Some writers have noted that coins are made from minerals mined from the earth, so the connection to mundane affairs is reasonable. Here is a graphic I once did to help my sitters settle on a topic area when they have no specific question. The Ace of Disks shows my understanding of the significance of Earth in a reading:

 

 

 

 

[gregory]

I just see them ALL as coins, round things, not wiccan or anything in particular. I have read up on Golden Dawn but - um - not exactly to the stage of using it for added understanding of Waite. Maybe I will do now.

[Esk]

I also condider them as coins and linked to the earth element. When I begun I had the same interrogation and now I don't even pay attention to the pentagrams.

[Ariana]

Linked to the Earth Element,I have done readings in the distantpast,and always they represent something practical,earthly and reliable.Depending,if its a young page of pentacles or if its someone elderly or more mature in the pentacles aray,but very earthy and stable,depending on age or maturity of person or thing your inquiring about,

[YlvaBlue]

I just link them to Earth, whether they're Pentacles, Orbs, Shields, Coins, Rocks or Pebbles 🤣

 

Something interesting occurred to me yesterday, though. In Gawain & The Green Knight a pentacle is given as protection to the knight and is linked to Mary, with the five points linked to her virtues, I think (sorry, I don't have any of my old research in front of me and this is very much me digging into the darkest deeps of my memory). That made me think some more about the qualities of the earth suit and how, ultimately, its fruits are the things that make people feel protected, in a material sense, by giving them stability and security, all that bottom-row-of-Maslow stuff. A different way of seeing the Pentacle itself, I suppose, if you want or need to.

[Marigold]

Thanks for all the replies up to now. I find this very interesting.

 

[katrinka]

14 hours ago, Marigold said:

I hope this is the right sub forum for this question. It's something I've actually wondered about for quite some time.

 

For those people who use the RWS tarot deck (or similar) and if you're not into occult practices, or wicca stuff or things like that, do you take into account what pentacles/pentagrams mean and imply, or do you just consider them to be round objects that have a relation to the earth element ? 

Round objects that have relation to the earth element. Coins, that kind of thing.
I find it odd that there's such a push to make Tarot a Wiccan thing. Go shopping for Tarot bags, boxes or spread cloths and you'll see pentagrams, pentagrams, pentagrams. And when it's not that, it's triple moons and triskeles.
If one is Wiccan, by all means be Wiccan. If calling Tarot part of the religion helps some poor sap get to keep a deck in prison, good.
But Tarot in and of itself isn't Wiccan. It's a product of Christian Europe.
Waite taught a form of mystical Christianity.
Crowley wouldn't have Christianity on a silver platter, so he invented Thelema.
Gardner ripped some of Crowley's ideas for Wicca. But that's about the extent of it.

Quote

 

I'm also curious to know how many people who use the RWS deck have studied Golden Dawn stuff so as to deeper their understanding of what Waite was trying to communicate through his deck.

 

Waite was actually trying to conceal the GD stuff in that deck. It was intended for the "unwashed masses."
The greatness of that deck is mostly due to PCS, IMHO. She brought in elements of the theater, she made it fun and atmospheric. Kind of a big, Anglo Kipper deck.
But it gives a very narrow window into Golden Dawn meanings. Those don't begin to open up until you get into Crowley, Book T, etc.

Edited July 31, 2019 by katrinka

[Marigold]

7 hours ago, katrinka said:

The greatness of that deck is mostly due to PCS, IMHO. She brought in elements of the theater, she made it fun and atmospheric. Kind of a big, Anglo Kipper deck.
But it gives a very narrow window into Golden Dawn meanings. Those don't begin to open up until you get into Crowley, Book T, etc.

Yes, PCS was a genius. And Crowley was too (my personal dislike towards him and his ideology doesn't remove that fact). 

 

Thanks for your whole post. It was a well needed addition here !!

[Barleywine]

10 hours ago, katrinka said:

Waite was actually trying to conceal the GD stuff in that deck. It was intended for the "unwashed masses."
The greatness of that deck is mostly due to PCS, IMHO. She brought in elements of the theater, she made it fun and atmospheric. Kind of a big, Anglo Kipper deck.
But it gives a very narrow window into Golden Dawn meanings. Those don't begin to open up until you get into Crowley, Book T, etc.

I certainly agree with this. As much as I think that Smith's images don't always square perfectly with the thrust of Waite's text, they were both initiates of the Golden Dawn. Smith most likely had some of her own ideas, and Waite probably didn't browbeat her into submission the way that Crowley seems to have done to Harris (if we read between the lines in the "Bibliographical Note" of the BoT).

[juyuio]

On 7/30/2019 at 6:33 AM, Marigold said:

I hope this is the right sub forum for this question. It's something I've actually wondered about for quite some time.

 

For those people who use the RWS tarot deck (or similar) and if you're not into occult practices, or wicca stuff or things like that, do you take into account what pentacles/pentagrams mean and imply, or do you just consider them to be round objects that have a relation to the earth element ? 

 

I'm also curious to know how many people who use the RWS deck have studied Golden Dawn stuff so as to deeper their understanding of what Waite was trying to communicate through his deck.

 

 

 

 

Hi Marigold!  I am into wiccan stuff, so I do just treat pentacles as earth.  I have never used the Golden Dawn deck by the way. 

[DevonCarter]

I also see them as coins, and in some decks they are just coins - which I actually prefer. I suspect a large percentage of the general public would regard tarot less suspiciously if they were just plain round coins in the RWS.

 

16 hours ago, katrinka said:

Go shopping for Tarot bags, boxes or spread cloths and you'll see pentagrams, pentagrams, pentagrams. And when it's not that, it's triple moons and triskeles.

So much this. I'm not interested in having ANY of those things on my stuff. I mean, they're fine, don't get me wrong, but they don't mean anything special to me. I'm glad they're available for those who DO want them, and for those who find them meaningful, but they're not really for me. At some point I'm going to make my own bags for the decks that need them, probably knitted, with no symbols on them at all.