Today I drew the King of Pentacles its come up in a few readings lately, but always as a negative card, the shadow of the King, rather than the king himself. In the Witchy Tarot the Kings have been replaced by the Trials. At first this seemed to me to be a fairly radical departure from the norm, the more I thought about it the more I realized its not really.

If we take the point of view that the Kings are the 14th card in a give suit, then Numerologically they reduce to 5s, 1+4=5. The 5's all represent lifes Trials in the Tarot. The artist has concentrated on the Kings role numerologically as 5's rather than on their traditional image as Patriarchs. This decision resulted in some very interesting cards. That I think give us a better understanding of more conventionally depicted Kings.

In the case of one reading, using the Gendron deck, the Q was having troubles at work, involving a difficult supervisor. So the shadow of the King of Pens, falls on the 5 of Pens, the Poverty card. Reflecting the need to make ones living in the world, and that energy being obstructed by another person. The king is more appropriate for this reading than the minor card, because we also have the authoritarian element present in the court card. So by presenting us with the Shadow of the King, the Tarot presented us with a very exact portrait of the energies in play, IMHO.

In the Witchy Tarot, whose focus is much more on relationships, the King is branding a the young woman, at the head of a line of young women. The card is clearly about sexual conquest for its own sake. In the Art Nouveau Tarot we have the same theme, Zeus (I think) struggling with one of his many unwilling "lovers". [Its amazing the amount of rape in those old stories.] The King as Bacchus, the energy of fertility run amok. My perception is that Bacchus has become fairly popularized now, seen as a god of wine women and song. A fun god. My understanding of his ancient rites however, is that they were pretty horrific

The turkeys depicted with the king in the Gendron, speak to Fertility through sacrifice. The King the Robin Wood clearly is meant to Echo the symbol of the Greenman, who again was a symbol of fertility through sacrifice. As time went on people sacrificed animals, or later a share of their crop to the old gods. Originally though the drama was played out quite literally and the "God" was sacrificed.

Of course the ancient societies did not fear death in the same way we do today. It was of course a world without modern medicine, and modern birth control. Women had many more children and often died in child birth. Death literally preparing the way for new life. Death could not be hidden in hospitals, or shunted away from polite society by the 6 o'clock news not quite showing the gory details. It was a world where the death of the Shepard king was closer to home, and not so much an abstraction.

I know I have focused on the negative today. I think sometimes it is easier to understand a card, if you understand its shadow first. For myself this is definitely true of the Kings. Kings are rather outside my humble experience. The Turkeys beside the King in the Gendron represent Fertility and Wealth Shared. That shadow of which is wealth misered, the King as Robber Baron. The green of the King is the life force itself. Sexual love but also Rape. His crown is the sacred circle, the universal symbol of completeness, and also the universal symbol of the void. His pentacle itself. Upright the 5 pointed star the symbol of the 4 elements united under the element of spirit. The truly ascendant soul. Inverted the symbol of the Goats head. The symbol of the Animal in the Man, our most basic and materialistic instincts. So the king is the summation of his suit, he shines with its greatest splendor, and casts the darkest shadow. To see him truly you have to see all, shadow and flame.

Blessed Be, BB.

Divination: The Ability to Acquire Wealth, A dependable, Industrious individual, Loyal, Patient, Reliable. Methodical, Steady, Mathematically competent.

Reversed: Corrupt, Grasping, Vice, Obstinate, Tyrannical. Avarice.