Five of Pentacles

Upright

hardship · out in the weather · the lit window

Two figures in the snow outside a stained-glass window of five pentacles. Times are thin, and that is true — also true: there is a lit room, and asking is not a failure of character. Lean on each other and go toward warmth; poverty of money and poverty of belonging are different weathers, so name which one you are in.

Reversed

help arriving · leaving isolation · pride that stays in the snow

A door may be opening, or you are too proud to knock. Five reversed often means the storm has a thaw in it — aid, work, a friend with a spare room — so take it. Earth is communal at its best; staying in the snow to prove a point only proves the snow.

On the card

• The snow

  A real cold season. Hardship is not a metaphor here.

• The lit window

  Help exists. Pride is sometimes the extra weather.

• Shared cloak

  Two people in it together. Poverty is lighter when it is not lonely.

When it shows up

This looks like a tight month, an illness, walking past the door you could knock on.

History

Smith’s beggars — one on crutches, one in rags — pass a church window glowing with five gold pentacles. Waite’s Five is material trouble, and the window is the argument: plenty exists nearby. Earth, at five, is the body in winter; many readers note the lighted glass as the help the figures have not yet turned toward.

If you want to sit with it

Where is the lit window — and what would it cost you to knock?

Optional. Nothing is saved.