Card of the Day: Mother of Pentacles

Against a background of stable horizontal lines shaded green-blue-purple, a doe stares directly at us, ears perked. She is utterly at rest, yet totally alert. A spotted fawn with ears as big as the doe’s sleeps against her mother’s warm body.

This is one of my favorite cards in the deck—for the colors and the feeling. The best feeling in the world: utter safety, protection, warmth and care. The doe’s body is literally a bed, a bottle, a shelter, a teacher; it is everything for this fawn. This is the Mother of Pentacles. She is the Queen, the Artist, the master of the internal realm of the earthy Pentacle suit. The suit of internal and external resources.

To me, this card depicts the energy that becomes available when the activity of one’s life is in total alignment with one’s own nature. The doe is not conflicted about her role in the fawn’s life. Everything in her is programmed to protect and care for her fawn, to teach her the ways of finding food, avoiding predators, and becoming self-sufficient. This total alignment between purpose, goal, and desire on the one hand and activity on the other generates powerful energy—resourcefulness, creativity, receptivity and confidence.

I sometimes meditate on this card when I feel like I need to call in that kind of nurturing, protective energy. When I need to tap into my internal resources, my own internal mother energy. Or when I need to attune to my values and intentions, so that I can take a step in that direction.

My friend Bethany Saltman wrote a book called Strange Situation that comes out on April 21st. It’s a powerful story and a good example of what happens when you align yourself with your true purpose and tell a true story. Bethany goes so deeply into her own personal story, that what she finds there is universal. It’s a story of how we love. And how we can love more freely and fully. I can’t recommend it enough.

How are you mothering yourself these days?