Seven Of Pentacles: Saturn In Taurus

Spring 2022 Tarot Card Astrology: Seven Of Pentacles

Saturn won’t be in Taurus until 2028, and won’t enter the third decan of that sign until June 2029. A retrograde will keep it in roughly that area of the zodiac for about a year. In the meanwhile, the Sun is currently in its annual pass through this ten degrees of the sign of the bull. In fact, the Sun in Taurus squares Saturn’s current position in Aquarius on the day of the lunar eclipse: May 15, 2022. The Sun, Moon, and Saturn form a grinding wedge of tension known as a t-square that day. Saturn is slowing down for his June retrograde, increasing the friction of this configuration. Even though Saturn in not in Taurus in the sky above, here below we will feel the energy of the Seven of Pentacles: Saturn in Taurus as we explore this card’s contradictory meanings.

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Please see all my articles on tarot card astrology. You might also like my astro-limericks, including this one on the Sun in Taurus square Saturn in Aquarius. If you’d like to receive a notification whenever I publish a new post, you can subscribe to this blog using the form right under this paragraph (it’s also at the top right hand column if you’re on a desktop computer).

Seven Of Pentacles: Saturn In Taurus

• The title of the Seven of Pentacles is “Lord of Success Unfulfilled.” Traditional meanings for this card include patience, waiting for the harvest, or sometimes waiting too long and thus losing an opportunity. The image alludes to the gap between doing the work and seeing the results. Alternate traditions cast this card in a negative light, calling it failure.
• Saturn’s keywords include endings, boundaries, time, limitations, old age, slowness, discipline, authority, and the father. Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius while Libra provides its place of exaltation.
• Venus rules the fixed earth sign of Taurus. Possessions and material comfort are symbols for the sign. Its common keywords include committed, conservative, cultivating beauty and pleasure, appreciating luxury, stubborn, and enduring. Its symbol is the bull and its glyph looks a bull’s horned head.
• Seven of Pentacles: Saturn ruling the third decan of Taurus
• The calendar dates, when the Sun passes through this decan each year, are typically May 11-20.

Saturn In Taurus

Saturn is heavy and slow while Taurus, a fixed earth sign, is eager to maintain the status quo. The two together embody inertia! It seems like this combination loses all momentum and drags to a halt.

But not so fast. Saturn loves commitment. Taurus putters around gardens. Saturn can emphasize Taurus’s dedication to its work. Saturn in Taurus loves the long, slow development of a goal.

Image of the Seven of Pentacles

A man leans on a hoe, gazing at vines that are laden with fruit in the form of seven disks. The Seven of Pentacles expresses the patience required to wait for the harvest. It indicates the period of time that follows the completion of the work, while the final outcome matures of its own accord. In that sense, it represents the long, harrowing, and out-of-our-control process in which, after having done all that we can do, the end result is completely out of our hands. Frost, drought, insects, and disease are just a few of the things that can destroy a crop despite our hard work. At the same time, the gardener is present. It’s true that his portion of the work is complete. Nevertheless he watches, guards, and protects.

Sometimes the vines look like they are wilting. That can be an indication of disease on the one hand, but on the other, the vines may start to die back as the fruit becomes ripe. The harvest is the most delicious if we wait patiently. But in other cards, the fruit itself looks damaged. In this case, the card alludes to a lost opportunity. We stood idly by while our crop reached the peak of ripeness, and now it is beginning to rot. Either way, act at the wrong time — too soon or too late — and we lose the rewards of our labor.

Title Of The Seven Of Pentacles: Lord Of Success Unfulfilled

Although the title of this card is “Lord of Success Unfulfilled,” I like to call it “Success Not Yet Fulfilled.” I find that the essence of the card centers on the idea of the outcome being in potential. Like Schroedinger’s cat, it could go either way.

On the other hand, the Crowley-Harris Thoth deck titles this card with the unforgiving word, “Failure.” As a result of these two contrasting titles, combined with the Rider-Waite-Smith card image, a variety of scenes crop up depending on the deck lineage. Everything from a lush and run-away garden to a stark, barren concrete metropolis appears on Seven of Pentacles cards.

The Astrology Of The Seven Of Pentacles: Saturn In Taurus

Saturn is slow, methodical, and patient. Does the card tell a story of waiting for an inevitable achievement? Saturn brings poverty whereas Taurus values luxury. Perhaps we’ve lost our investment, a significant setback. Saturn represents limitations, obstacles, and fear. From this perspective, it may be impossible to navigate this maze. In this scenario, we feel lost, lonely, and bereft of the results of our hard work.

Actually, Saturn in Taurus is a perpetual motion machine. Saturn can plod through the Taurean fields to his heart’s content. Working from sunup to sundown appeals to Saturn, and Taurus loves the attention. Saturn loves to stockpile resources, so Taurus’s cupboards are never bare.

Saturn rules the mutable decan of this fixed sign. This last decan prepares to hand off to the next sign. But this fixed earth sign doesn’t like change. Saturn’s not crazy about it either. So together, Saturn and Taurus plot to maintain the Taurean twilight as long as possible. Hold this moment now, forever, and we’ll have achieved perfection.

The Mythology Of The Seven Of Pentacles

In the Seven of Pentacles from the LoScarabeo Tarot, the pentacles are broken and gray, gone completely bad. They look like stones, which makes me think of Saturn in the guise of Cronus, who ate his children.

In the story, Cronus fathers six children with his wife, Rhea. Cronus’s parents, Gaia and Ouranos, foretold that his son would overthrow him. Attempting to subvert the prediction, Cronus ate his children. But crafty Rhea consulted with Gaia and Ouranos, who shared a trick to keep her youngest son, Zeus, safe. Rhea wrapped a stone in a blanket and fed that to her husband. Meanwhile, she enlisted friends to take her son away to safety and hide him. When Zeus was grown and strong enough to overcome his father, he returned. He caused Cronus to vomit up the stone, as well as his brothers and sisters, saving them all.

Themes of fear, abhorrence of change, going to extreme lengths to prevent natural development and succession, and even waiting patiently for the right time for revenge, are reminiscent of the Seven of Pentacles and Saturn in Taurus.

Interestingly, Cronus later fathered a seventh child, Chiron, a centaur. His last child is known as the wounded healer. An appropriate legacy for a god who left so many wounds in the world.

Conclusion

How do you read the Seven of Pentacles: Saturn in Taurus? Is it the lush garden, the paved over paradise, or something in between? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please share them in the comments!