Rogue Interpretation: Five of Pentacles and Loneliness

Two years ago the Five of Pentacles resonated at its more conventional interpretation of scarcity and perception of loss. I know this because it kept corresponding to clients under financial strain. Not to mention that in the run up to becoming a full time, professional tarot reader I’d quit my six figure corporate job and with that abandoned the only financial security I’d ever known. I knew scarcity was the right hit because it corresponded to my IRL vibes while coming through fast and instant in readings.

But that phase passed and since then I haven’t seen much of the Five of Pentacles. She rotated out of the pulls and when she did appear it was in a minor spread position as a fading current and weakening influence. But she’s resurfaced and brings an entirely new message with her this time.

In a recent client reading she was front and center in the Celtic Cross spread with the first flash insight as loneliness, feeling isolated and alone. I had a quick battle in my head because I knew the client wasn’t physically lonely. She’d just completed a trip with friends and was visiting family (my client was literally surrounded by people) but as I opened the spread to interpretation she affirmed she’d indeed felt lonely during the trip. She’d overextended herself and felt boxed in by an expectation to ensure group needs were met ahead of hers. She existed in a tension of feeling responsible for the mood of the group while neglecting her needs. She physically felt like the RWS image of the Five of Pentacles and explained how disorienting it felt to be traveling with a group while feeling like a connection was missing.

Here we have reading with the Five of Pentacles that illuminated both the loneliness of the image and the inability to connect with support systems. Like the RWS image of the woman and child walking in the snow past a church with no available entrance, this reading helped the client see the toll the trip had taken on her. Her daily wellness practices used at home weren’t available to her. It’d been hard to maintain her diet, wasn’t getting enough rest, and couldn’t feel recharged. The exhaustion of being ‘on’ for the group had left her feeling like the figure in the card - energetically drained and alone.

In a separate reading for another client, Five of Pentacles again resurfaced after a rough weekend of dating. The night before the reading she’d been stood up by a date and, in the same night, saw a potential romantic partner on a date with a different woman. Although she took the events in stride, she’d been wounded and felt emotionally deserted. It’d been a rough go to both be stood up by a date, and see the promising potential of another man sitting with another woman on a date. The events of the evening left her feeling exhausted and punished, walking through an unfriendly landscape in the cold.

To note, both women were in the process of changing how they moved through the world (corresponding to the 5 energy of the card, tension facilitated by personal evolution, growth and change). They were in the energy of conflict and tension brought on by personal growth.

In the first reading the client realized she was losing herself to larger group energies, not only on the trip but in other aspects of her life. She didn’t feel permission to exist as herself and she interrogated her instinct to fade into background. The reading put a spotlight on her unconscious habit of minimizing her personhood. Likewise for the second reading, the client was in the midst of momentous change. She’d adopted a new spiritual practice, which changed how she related to others. She was in deep 5 energy, and while ultimately a rewarding experience, the change energy was rippling through different facets of her life, especially as she worked towards building romantic partnership.

For my clients the Five of Pentacles moment was incredibly validating, a recognition their loneliness was witnessed and understood. Growth isn’t always a bright trajectory propelling us over the rainbow. As we shed old skins we feel differently, and often feel uncomfortably too. And while it may feel that our normal coping mechanisms are failing us, the Five of Pentacles extends the story into new terrain as she walks forward, into the next card.