Day Two. October 16th. Two of Pentacles.
Definition: Pamela isn't as hopeful with the Two of Pentacles as she was with the Ace. Two coins isn’t enough to live on. Dance for your coins. Your hands are infinitely tied to the work of collecting coins, unusable for whatever other purpose you might wish. And also we’re just ships passing each other on the waves in the sea.
Detail: So, what is the Elsewhere Tarot presenting?
It's a billboard at night that says “One Night Only. Tonight Only. Don't Miss Out.” next to a long road leading to an illuminated city in the distance. The shadow behind the billboard suggests that I'm driving a vehicle down the road to the city, and seeing the billboard because of my headlights.
So...hmm. Clearly I'm driving to the city on my way to the thing on the billboard. I kind of like the way these Elsewhere Tarot cards are casting me as a viewpoint figure. In the Ace of Pentacles I was a work supervisor. In this I'm driving to the thing. An enlivening thing. Something I want in my life. But “Don't Miss Out”. Will I make it in time? That's anxiety. Fear of missing out. It feels like it might be a music event? If there were no implication of headlights then maybe I'm walking and won't make it, but my path is straight and I'm driving, so I think I'll make it. But can I afford it? Maybe I only have two coins. F🪙M🪙? I have to get to the city in time and I have to be able to afford it.
Day: So, how does this card inform where I'm at in my life today? I certainly do feel fear of missing out. I want to see my son grow up and have kids. I have game projects I'm eager to finish and publish. No one gets infinite time and life. We all ultimately miss out on many things. Or wait, what if I'm not going to some entertaining, enlivening performance. What if I'm the scheduled event? I'm late. I'm not where I need to be. I'm not where my audience is. I definitely feel that. I didn't sell many copies of The Sneeze. I didn't find my way to its audience. Look at the glow of that city. There are connections to be had there. I've traveled to dozens of realities playing journaling games. But I haven't found that city yet. It's Brigadoon. One night only. I have to get there.
Discovery: Pamela's Two of Pentacles shows a figure wearing a conical hat dancing in the street with a coin in each hand and a looping cord like an infinity symbol connecting his hands to each other. In the background are two ships passing each other at a distance on very turbulent waves. If the Elsewhere Tarot is a RWS inspired deck, and it is, then its Two of Pentacles should be thematically similar to Pamela's, or at least understand it and disagree. And...it does understand it. Waite calls it a card of “gaiety” and “recreation,” but no way. It was Pamela's idea to do illustrated minors and I'm convinced Waite only gave her minimal, maybe just numerological guidance and then later when he wrote about them he imposed descriptors that accorded with his occult thinking that don't reflect her mysticism and intent, which I think can be found by looking at the body language and expressions of her figures. I don't believe the farmer on the Eight of Pentacles is unequivocally happy with his bumper crop. I don't believe the worker on the Eight of Pentacles represents artful craftsmanship. And here on the Two of Pentacles I don't see gaiety and recreation. Pamela's dancer is tied into an unending cycle of eking out coins, never having enough, with life passing him by like ships passing at a distance. He's entertaining, but not enlivening, because the commodification of life as coins keeps him from a context of connection in which he would be enlivening.