As the suit of Pentacles or Coins, the element of Earth explores our relationship with the material world, with manifesting our work in concrete ways, and seeing discernible, physical progress in our journeys.
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Ace of Earth
We begin the journey of earth, much as the other elements, with the planting of a seed, but in this case, it is a real and material thing. It could be literally starting a garden or it may be the arrival of a financial opportunity such as a new job or promotion. This could likewise signal the beginning of a school term or a new mode of training. The primary purpose is that the Ace of Earth starts a cycle that, if cultivated well, leads to prosperity and abundance.
Reversed: Somehow, the opportunity is lost. You may be passed over for job or promotion or failed to get funding for school or projects. While these things do happen, examine your situation to see if a lack of planning and foresight on your part contributed to this circumstance.
Astrology: The Earth signs, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn – The Earth signs the concerned with the visceral, the real, the material, the body. They crave physical comfort and prefer for things to be just so in their home so they can deal with the outside world. Taurus leads the way and sets the pace in a methodical and deliberate way, unwilling to rush into anything but always making time for a little rest and a nice snack. Virgo tends to the household and makes sure that everything is just so, particular and orderly. Capricorn rounds out the earth signs with tenacious leadership skills, a gift for oration, and a work hard/play hard attitude – nothing in half measures!
Two of Earth
When a new endeavor is started, don’t neglect the practical changes that must happen to support it. Be conscious about balancing your time between your new responsibilities and your standing obligations. Time and resource management are vital, so build in a routine to keep your books balanced along with your time and energy. Integrating new changes requires embracing adaptability.
Reversed: Either from miscalculation or overconfidence, disorganization takes root and spreads. Financial disarray comes from spending too much time and energy in the wrong area. Lack of preparation or misallocation of resources causes a significant imbalance.
Astrology: Jupiter in Capricorn – Capricorn takes Jupiter’s lofty ideas and makes sure they can conform to reality. This can feel uncomfortable or even lead to a loss of motivation when the fantasies and schemes are analyzed to be unrealistic. Capricorn wants Jupiter to think about measurable results, about the consequences of achieving their final outcome, to balance the admirable goals with pragmatic consideration.
Three of Earth
Teamwork and collaboration, especially with a trusted advisor or mentor, leads to reaching your milestones on time. We start to discover that learning new skills and improving existing ones are crucial to advancement. Be open to coaching possibilities, and don’t be afraid to gather advice from a few different reliable sources.
Reversed: You might be acting like a “lone wolf” despite having a team of supporters and advisors at your disposal. When you ignore the wisdom from those with more experience and fresh perspectives, you are opening yourself up to making completely avoidable mistakes. You may also be trying to use the wrong tools or skills to accomplish this task.
Astrology: Mars in Capricorn – Capricorn loves Mars’ strategic thinking, so this astrological combination makes for a very strong foundation moving forward – and “forward” is a direction that is definitely going to happen. Capricorn’s determination and perseverance benefits Mars greatly with a very sure-footed path towards a significant goal.
Four of Earth
When a project comes together according to a well-thought-out plan, stability and security are established. This is not a time to splurge on frivolities or to indulge in excess: this stability now requires nurturing and care. Converse resources, plan the way forward with sense of prudence, taking stock of as many factors as possible that might impact your eventual outcome. From a relationship perspective, Four of Earth may indicate a new cohabitation arrangement, romantic or otherwise.
Reversed: If you don’t understand how your resources are generated, becoming miserly and selfish is an easy trap to fall into when a little abundance comes your way. This tendency to jealously guard resources may apply to finances, material supplies, or even information or personal time.
Astrology: Sun in Capricorn – Responsible-minded Capricorn tends to look towards themselves during this time, building patterns of self-sufficiency and reexamining the goals and plans for the future. It is not a time for giving or gifting: it is a time to take serious inventory of what material, emotional, and energetic resources are available.
Five of Earth
Even the best laid plans can fail in some form or fashion, and here we see a downturn in circumstances. This event is often a result of forces outside of your control, but the result is isolation, poverty, and financial loss. Where you felt part of a team or partnership before, you now feel left out. This is an opportunity to consider what you truly value in the endeavor that you’ve invested in and whether you are being fair in your demands.
Reversed: Your balance sheet might appear to be financially secure, but you are still feeling unfulfilled and dissatisfied. Perhaps you made the error of equating material stability with emotional and spiritual attainment: this has never been the way of the world. While, yes, material security is necessary for happiness, it acts in this way only as a foundation to enjoy the truly fulfilling aspects of life: community, family, and personal creative pursuits.
Astrology: Mercury in Taurus – The messages that Mercury brings to Taurus involve practical applications and getting rid of fanciful ideas and wishful thinking. The list of possibilities are stripped down to almost austere levels, focusing in hard lines on only those things that can return tangible results in a short period of time. Experimentation and exploration are right out, one can only use the tools and methods that are already known to work.
Six of Earth
An act of generosity or even charity may be the factor that helps you get your legs back under you. This might indicate a well-negotiated loan, short-term with honorable conditions. It is a reminder that the community that we rely on is not finely delineated: help can come from any number of surprising sources. Likewise, should luck befall you without provocation, share your good fortune without expectation – but, as the key lesson of Earth reminds us, do not let yourself become excessively frivolous.
Reversed: In a moment of desperation, you might end up taking on irresponsible debt, compromising your long-term material security as well as your personal integrity. If you are the one in the position to assist someone else, you are resistant to this and only do so through someone else’s coercion or bribery. Compromise means giving up something you want for something you need, regardless of anyone else’s gains; negotiation means making sure everyone gets their needs met and as many of their wants as possible.
Astrology: Moon in Taurus – When Taurus visits the house of the Moon, the focus turns from getting things done to having things done, but especially to Taurus’ desires. After the phase of austerity and belt-tightening and hard focus, Taurus wants a nice, hot bath, a luscious meal, and a little well-earned indulgence.
Seven of Earth
This is the early summer of your endeavor where the vines are growing like mad and you can see the fruit emerging, but it is still some time away from the actual harvest. This is when tending the mundane things is most important: making sure receipts are accounted for, that schedules are balanced, and that nothing nefarious is allowed to lurk through neglect. Keep your eyes clear for signs of trouble and deal with it as quickly and efficiently as possible to leave plenty of time and energy for daily maintenance. You start to receive some of those returns on your long-term investments.
Reversed: If your energy and attention is spread too thin, if you are investing only tiny bits of yourself in only tiny things, you will never receive a return of significant value. Likewise, if you have not invested in the daily upkeep and nurturing of your endeavor, you will only see poor performance and small gains. This disappointment often stems from a lack of wisdom in long-term visions and plans.
Astrology: Saturn in Taurus – It’s time to take inventory of what’s what and determine whether your plans are on track. Saturn brings the rule book and the tape measure to get the exact dimensions of the endeavors Taurus aspires to. It’s also the time to examine beliefs and values to see if they still serve you: our world view must remain flexible, though Taurus demands that they only change for good reason.
Eight of Earth
The training you began is nearing completion and you are ready to graduate to the next level of education: the apprentice readies to become the journeyman, the journeyman prepares to become the master. This phase is not about parties and glamour, though: you are discovering your place in the organization and in the community, serving your role and coming to understand the deeper meaning of the work you do. We are invited to find the magical in the mundane, to use what we have learned to produce higher quality results. In relationships, this phase might also suggest a proposal or engagement: only agree if it makes sense from an emotional and material perspective.
Reversed: If we don’t know how we’ve achieved great results in the past, it’s easy to become neurotic and perfectionistic about anything we try to accomplish in the future. Without dedication to gaining the necessary skills, we have no true confidence in our abilities and our ambitions flail without the tools to achieve them.
Astrology: Sun in Virgo – Where Taurus has a bit of a hedonistic side, Virgo is prone to be far more modest and discerning. The Sun in Virgo is dressed to impress, keeps an impeccable house, and is prepared to host a soiree of tasteful elegance. What better way to demonstrate the strides that have been made and the successes that have been accomplished?
Nine of Earth
We’re almost there! The fruit is ripe on the vine, the harvest can begin, and the well-earned results of our hard labor are realized. We experience gratitude and appreciation for a job well-done, and we are able to carry ourselves with the quiet confidence of someone who has earned their accolades through dedication and perseverance. We understand our individual strengths and can inventory the benefit we provide to our community.
Reversed: Last-minute panic before a project can drive you to finally finish, but the end product may not be nearly as robust or solid as it could have been. You may experience financial setbacks from poor decision making and insufficient due diligence about where time and money should be invested. It may be easy to get pulled into a cycle of burying oneself in work – something that has a discernible, material result – in order to avoid interacting with friends and family.
Astrology: Venus in Virgo – Discerning Virgo does not make exceptions or allowances for that which does not measure up – least of all romances or commitments. And why should they? Such hard work has been put into the journey, into making so much progress, that it is unthinkable to compromise at a time like this. They are ready to reap their just rewards, and anyone who accompanies them should be prepared to fall in step with the pace they’ve already established.
Ten of Earth
At last, the finish line! All that hard work, all that studying, and all those ups and downs finally bring you to the goal you’ve been working towards. You enjoy a healthy community, a well-established and well-appointed family life, and enough material stability to be able to relax in appropriate measure. It might indicate an inheritance or simply the ability to retire comfortably, or it could mean promotion to a position of authority and responsibility commiserate with your honest abilities. Regardless, now is the time to take a deep breath of relief and know that you deserve what has now come your way.
Reversed: The chickens have come home to roost: when only poor effort and cut corners were invested in a project, the harvest is going to be very poor indeed. Financial failure was inevitable in that it was completely preventable. This loss extends past purely financial realms and manifests as loneliness, loss of connection with others, and possibly estrangement from family and friends.
Astrology: Mercury in Virgo – Mercury is exalted in Virgo because the need for distinction and discernment can only be satisfied through effective communication. Messages transmitted here are crystal clear and are not sugar-coated in any way: say what you mean, mean what you say. This is not just the moment of truth because the truth is the only thing that matters, not just in this moment but in perpetuity.
Page of Earth
The Page arrives as an enthusiastic messenger and/or assistant, bringing word of new opportunities and project updates. They are familiar with the work to be done but are unable to provide deep explanations. However, their excitement and thirst for adventure is contagious. This is the upbeat agent showing you around the new office or the club member walking you through all the advantages of the facility.
On the Path of Earth, this is the start of a new job, new promotion, or new project. There is a childlike glee to starting this endeavor, even though you are very conscious of the amount of work and dedication that will go into making it successful.
Reversed: Usually a younger person who offers a deal that seems too good to be true, and it definitely is. The offer is at least partially a scam and definitely intended to defraud. Whatever project is proposed will have a distinct lack of sufficient planning, will suffer endless delays, and will promise unrealistic gains in impossible time frames.
Astrology: Earth of Earth – The earth moves around the sun but also beneath our feet. The Page encompasses both of these dynamics, giving a foundation to the work that must be done as well as the schedule. The idea that the earth is still and inert is an illusion: powerful forces are at work, even if you can’t see them.
Knight of Earth
The Knight is an efficient and methodical person who strongly promotes routine and conservation of energy. They are the Project Managers, the ones who make sure that all the details are attended to through both the mundane and the extraordinary parts of the endeavor. They know that the goal is ambitious – lofty, even! – but they are confident in its attainment through perseverance and teamwork.
As a phase along the Path, the Knight indicates a need to examine your plans and projects more thoroughly. When he shows up, he’s pointing to a potential mistake you might be overlooking or a step that you might be skipping. He doesn’t judge: he just wants you to do you due diligence and turn out your best work.
Reversed: The archetypal Middle Manager who schedules constant meetings, micro-manages their team with seemingly arbitrary scrutiny, and generally interferes with actual work being done by others. They produce nothing themselves but believe that they are critical and irreplaceable. They tend to avoid taking on real responsibilities at work while using the pressures of “work” to avoid addressing responsibilities at home.
Astrology: Air of Earth – There are great pockets of gases under the crust of the earth, causing shifts in the landscape in great and small ways. Ideas move through the material world at a much slower pace than in the mind, but only things that affect the material place create real change.
Queen of Earth
The Queen is the ultimate matriarch, a practical, down-to-earth woman who is masterful in her motherly and homemaking abilities. Abundance flows from her table for everyone, and there is always room for one or two more places at that table. She is the source of security and comfort within her home or organization, making sure that everyone’s needs are met and that relationships between members of the community are honestly regulated.
The Path puts the Queen in your journey as an indicator that sharing your abundance and investing in your community is a critical piece of your overall success. Even if you don’t know exactly how someone is going to benefit your group or organization, it will behoove you greatly to make sure that no one in need is turned away.
Reversed: Food is love, and more particularly, the quality of food reflects the quality of love. The Queen Reversed finds herself endlessly busy with any number of projects, programs, or promises, and that leaves her with little time to nurture her community. She fancies herself the matriarch, but she’s more likely to rely on pre-packaged or fast food rather than preparing an actual meal, literally and metaphorically. She tends to replace facing her emotions with food, so she can often represent eating disorders as well as avoiding emotional responsibilities.
Astrology: Water of Earth – Nearly all molecules of water are the same ones made billions of years ago in the hearts of stars, and only the shape ever changes. When that primordial liquid shifts under the soil, it absorbs all the nutrients, chemicals, and substances that occur in the world above, and so one will only gain from the well that which one allows to flourish in the land around it.
King of Earth
The King of Earth is the patriarchal counterpart to the Queen’s matriarch, but not in an unhealthy or toxic way. He is the strong father who provides for his family, who delivers abundance, honest discipline, and physical security. The King tends to be reserved and thinks carefully about his actions and how they will affect his family and community. He is far more likely to demonstrate his virtues through actions than through words and those in his community find that what few words he shares are well-considered and deliberate.
This is the culmination of the Path of Earth, the point where your journey is shared finally with your community as a whole. You have achieved your goal and now integrate its meaning into your life. What did you accomplish? How have you been changed by this journey? What skills did you gain that can be generalized to other areas of your life? You sit confident and secure in the knowledge of your own abilities.
Reversed: The King Reversed is authoritative and domineering, commanding his community through material or physical threats. He controls the household through restricting access to financial resources, demanding arbitrary or unrealistic rule adherence, and has a significant capacity to be fully abusive in multiple ways. At his core, he is insecure and uncertain of his own worth and so feels that he must bully and force others to bend to his will.
Astrology: Fire of Earth – Volcanoes are portrayed as the most violent form of tectonic activity, devastating entire cities, casting whole nations into darkness, and yet, the most fertile and luscious soil comes from the very land that is created with such catastrophic heat.
Final Thoughts on the Path of Earth
The Path of Earth is about much more than just money and material wealth. When we hear the word “abundance”, we often think of overflowing coffers and endless supplies of food and drink, but the more salient meaning is of capacity to share. In much the same way that we do not put delimiters on ideas like gratitude, we also do not preemptively limit what you may share with others. The most powerful abundance we can enjoy is that of a close-knit and supportive community, a family in the purest sense as a group of individuals mutually bound with the interest of each members’ highest good.
That’s not to say that the Path of Earth isn’t concerned with money or material gain: it absolutely is! The critical understanding is that money is an intermediate currency that translates into value. It is meant to be a “shorthand” for the value of your labor in exchange for the benefits you provide to your organization, and in turn it is exchanged to other organizations for your shelter (rent), sustenance (groceries), and comfort (electricity and so forth). Our goals should ideally center around making sure that these things are provided to ourselves and our loved ones, not centered around the pursuit of money itself.
This is why the Path of Earth is so devoted to education and training, to bettering ourselves and building our skills rather than merely making passive investments. It nourishes and grows our capacity and potential so that we can build greater expanses of abundance: by being able to care for and support more fruitful and loving communities.