Day Seven. October 21st. Seven of Pentacles.
I am a day behind. Trying to catch up. But I am loving doing the #dropm78 with the Elsewhere Tarot. Spending day after day trying to connect with an artist who clearly has something they’re trying to say about the world feels so human and worthwhile.
Definition: Traditionally, the bounty of hard work. A bumper crop. The making of something monetizable.
Detail: What is the Elsewhere Tarot presenting?
It’s the same rough, sketchy drawing style. This time of a consignment shop named Z-2-A, with pulsating sun overhead and two shadowy figures out front, one of which is humanoid and the other of which is taller, and maybe doesn’t have arms. So, why the shadowy figures? These seem blurrier around the edges than the dark figures on the Ace of Pentacles, like maybe those were dark just for compositional art contrast reasons and these are intended to be shadows. To Jung, our “shadow” is repressed aspects of ourself that we need to connect with and integrate with to be metaphysically healthy. But, hmm. A consignment shop is an interesting aspect of capitalism. You’re taking things you own, often clothing, that you’ve moved on from, and putting them up for sale hoping others will find value in them and want to own them. It’s metaphysically different than a pawn shop, because theoretically what you sell to a pawn shop you want to get back when you have the money for it. Consignment is hoping chosen commodified aspects of your past self will be wanted by others for their future self. Hmm. Z-2-A is interesting too. From the ending to the beginning. And shadows as customers of a consignment shop? Do our shadows, the repressed aspects of ourselves, shop from the commodified aspects of others' pasts? Probably they shop from hot new trends too. Fast fashion. Temu. But what about when they do shop from the commodified aspects of others’ pasts? That feels…healthier to me? Creating an unrepressed self from aspects of others’ pasts is reading their poetry, and fiction, and biography, and engaging with their art, trying to connect with their tarot decks they’ve made, hearing their joys and regrets in conversation over coffee. Buying your clothes at a consignment shop isn’t doing all that, but it’s a wisp of it. You can have hope a shadow might create an unrepressed future shelf when it starts at a consignment shop rather than Temu.
Day: So, how does this card inform where I'm at in my life today? The shadow concept isn’t the most useful aspect of Jung’s work for me, not by a long shot, but I do like the idea that we create ourselves by integrating aspects of others’ pasts into us. That’s what a metaphysical deck is to me, like I wrote for the Ace of Pentacles, I want to connect with what Pamela understands about the world from her own lived strivings. So I’m feeling like the creator of the Elsewhere Tarot may be feeling the same thing, that our needful contention with the commodification of our lives has effects in the world when we’re active in being affected by aspects of others’ pasts.
Discovery: I love Pamela’s expressiveness in her art. Look at the guy’s body language and facial expression. He’s not sure how he feels about the amount of work and time he spent on it. Was it worth it? Lots of decks try to be universal by giving the figures on their cards neutral body language and blank expressions. Not Pamela. She has something to say about money in our lives. The guy is weary and doubtful about this endeavor of making and selling.
The first question guys ask when they first meet another guy is “What do you do?” It’s a belief that identity is importantly from the job you have, from the work output you spend your time on. It feels to me the farmer is feeling there are enlivening things he’d rather be spending time on. Buying clothes is a different kind of identity formation. It’s constructing yourself of material trappings. Except here, on the Elsewhere Seven of Pentacles, I feel the pre-owned aspect of the trappings is metaphysically significant.
#tarot #dropm78 #ElsewhereTarot #SevenOfPentacles #Pentacles