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5 of Earth, Torment

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(2016), pencil on paper, 5.5"x10.5" backed with digital frame.

While the 4s are all about consolidation, the 5s are about an eruptive breaking of molds. The stability of the 4s grows unstable, and if we were comfortably settled with the previous cards we now go through a certain amount of pain and insecurity at having to adjust. The 5s are under the auspices of Mars whose somewhat violent energy is very appropriate to the dynamic of these cards.

In the suite of Earth the Mars energy is the most painful and difficult. When material securities fall away and prove brittle people suffer. We are material beings and if we are robbed of that sustenance whether it be actual food or our home, possessions or sense of safety we are in pain. The kind of experience I could imagine for this card is a quiet farm-stead with the fields ripe for harvest, and an army marching through, killing the farmer and his family, slaughtering his livestock and trampling his wheat into the dirt.

The Rider-Waite deck shows two figures clad in rags that are struggling through deep snow. One of the figures is on crutches, the other looks emaciated and freezing. Behind them is a church-window showing a stylized tree with five coins. The Crowley-Harris deck shows an inverted pentagram with five coins at its points. The colors of the card are deep somber purples and violets shot through with flames and the whole arrangement looks like some kind of infernal, creaking machine, its gears grinding against each other slowly and painfully.

For my card I wanted to find a more modern and disturbing image that embodies the sense of all agency and physical safety being stripped away from the querent. A rhesus monkey is immobilized on a scientist’s laboratory table and five bolts secure a ring of electrodes to its skull. It cannot free itself and will have to endure whatever experiments are planned for it.

When we draw this card it means that we are threatened in our material existence or feel that we are threatened. We may feel that our sense of security has been stripped away, perhaps because we lack the physical means and resources to sustain ourselves or because we are afraid that we cannot meet our material needs. Our job may be on the line. We may face some kind of physical threat like a disease or infirmity. There is also a strong sense that we are caught in a situation where we are helpless to do anything about these threats, that it’s almost fated that we should be a victim.

For a relationship-related question you may be at a point where a partnership or friendship puts you into physical jeopardy. Do you face violence or other abusive behavior from someone you are emotionally connected to? Are you afraid to lose someone because you can no longer provide for them or for yourself? Is someone emotionally blackmailing you or taking advantage of you because you rely on them to provide you with shelter or money or physical safety? Alternatively someone you deeply care about could be in pain or in need and you want to help.

If the card position points to a business related issue you may deal with losing your job or the fear of losing your job. Maybe you are deeply in debt over an investment and afraid that you will lose some or all of your possessions. A project could be in jeopardy and you don’t know how you can salvage the situation. You may feel that no matter how hard you try you cannot be successful – too much is stacked against you.

In your personal life and development the card may mean you are feeling threatened and helpless. Are you dealing with an illness and are fearful of the outcome? Are you in a situation where you lack things you feel you need to survive? Try to overcome your sense of paralysis and see if you can reach out to others for help. Speak about your fears and your needs to people who care about you.

If the card is uncovered in an adverse or blockage position it could mean that you are so caught up in your sense of misery and personal helplessness that you are unable to help yourself or anyone else. It could also mean that you are cowering before doomsday scenarios that just exist in your imagination. What lies at the bottom of your material fears – are they rational or are you just tormenting yourself like some hypochondriac who is in perfect health yet imagines himself to be dying of a dozen different diseases?

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