The Two of Pentacles
Symbolism
Here is a man who appears to be juggling two pentacles, one in each hand. These represent duality in the material world with our many choices and opportunities of what to do.
There is a lemniscate figure-eight circling the two pentacles stretched in opposite directions, with the centre over the heart. This shows the eternal nature of duality and opposites in the physical world, and that our choices become clear when we are heart-centred.
There is a rough sea with ships sailing on it showing the turbulence caused by never knowing which option to go for.
Keywords
Upright: Choices, balance, multitasking, ungrounded, stress, priorities, adaptability, resourcefulness, ups and downs.
Reversed: Disorganized, chaos, indecisiveness, over-committing, yes-man, overwhelmed, self-doubt, time-out time, spread thin.
Upright meaning
Options of where to go, what to do and what choice to make in this material world is a daily experience. We juggle needs, desires, habits, and responsibilities. It is easy to try to do too much, and it is a struggle to play different roles of maybe, partner, colleague, friend, mother, etc, all asking us to share different skills and qualities. It is easy to feel out of balanced and overwhelmed.
This duality and juggling of options comes up as we try to multitask in our lives, thinking that we can do more than one thing at once and do it well. We take on more than we can chew, and often become unproductive due to our dispersed focus. This card calls us to focus on our hearts to make our choices from present moment intuition.
Duality in this world can be seen with what we call difficult or challenging experiences and beautiful, inspiring ones. Life will always present us with a mixture of both dark and light ups and downs. It may be difficult at times, but our work is to juggle these opposites and find an internal balanced relationship with both.
Calling in boundaries is key with this card. Knowing when to say ‘No’, so we don’t overcrowd our schedule, and knowing when to put our personal needs before others is key to jugging our choices in life. This is a card of priorities and becoming clear about what ours truly are. This is why the heart connection is the more subtle and yet important part of the message.
Reversed meaning
The Shadow of this juggling Two can be seen when we choose to do too much and our pleasing program that makes us say ‘Yes’ too often creates chaos in our lives. If we are unconscious of these programs, then we can try to do too much through an insecure desire to please others, and we are asked to question our choices before we burn out.
Choices are certainly unavoidable in this life, we will always be faced with many of them. Often, we are not inspired by any of life’s choices, and yet we conform to choosing from ‘the lesser of two evils’, as we say. We may be stuck in a belief that some of this life has to be shitty, and so let’s carry on choosing what we don’t like. We stay in an uninspiring job for too long, or a hurtful relationship, and we don’t believe we have another option, when we actually do.
The material world presents black and white choices, or it seems to. We are often stuck in the belief that we have to do this or that; to go down this path or another, and that there is no middle path. What we often forget is that it is the way we walk; the emotional space we are in that is more important than the specific path itself. The ‘right’ choice is in the vibration that we carry more the material option we may choose.
This card comes up when life becomes a little chaotic. We may have become paralysed and afraid to make choices, through fear of making the ‘wrong’ one, or we may be running around like a headless chicken, trying to balance all the responsibilities we have chosen to take on. We are called to sit, to breathe and to check in with ourselves. It is time to slow down and de-stress, before we make any more choices from a vibration of fear or anxiety.