Survival is the root of all evil

Sitting down to write today after the longest meditation I’ve ever done. It was interrupted in the middle, but I think it was a part of it somehow. I feel very calm and peaceful. What we hope for out of meditation. I asked the cards for something fun, I received the four of pentacles. I’m excited to uncover what this will bring out of me. It is what this writing project is all about. What each card will draw out of me on the day it is drawn.  

The suit of pentacles is associated with the element, earth. The earth element holds characteristics like strength and stability. Think of the attributes we would ascribe to trees or to mountains. The number four carries similar interpretations. It is often associated with practical matters, the building of systems and structures, discipline. 

The pentacles are represented by coins, stamped with a pentagram; the five sided star. In this card we see a young cat, he is standing in front of a big city with one pentacle in hand, one on top his head and two beneath his feet. Holding these possessions tightly, he displays wealth and prosperity here but also a rigidity and possibly greed. A big, blue, clear, but also empty, sky above him. 

The four of pentacles brings all this together and gives focus to themes of material wealth, security and stability. It is about our gains and attachments to the external world. This card asks questions like: Where in my life am I clinging to things? Where do I need better management? Am I being too rigid? Do I feel security in my life? All about our relationship to wealth and how we see wealth in our lives. Receiving wealth and security - or sharing it - can be one of the most difficult things for people in this day and age. We hold a lot of fear over our financial status, if we have enough, when more will come, how it will come, what happens if it doesn’t or if we lose it. There is a lot of anxiety in the world over money, even though there is so much of it out there. 

Financial security can go hand in hand with possessiveness and a severe need to control. Perhaps it is because financial security is a myth and in chasing it and trying to have it our only tools are possessiveness and control, for our fear of losing it becomes the only driver. 

It is telling that although in a reading this card would point to financial security, it is its reverse that would signal generosity and letting go whilst also indicating financial insecurity. It tells me that holding on too tightly to wealth could me rigid and greedy, being too liberal with generosity could lead to reckless spending and oversharing. These two sides hold a delicate balance here. Giving without depleting and gathering without hoarding. I suppose the idea is, the more money you make, the more you must spend and give. But even if you make less, you shouldn’t hold on to it more, just spend and give a little less. This card marks the dangers of holding on too tightly. 

We all want to be financially secure, don’t we? Financially independent I think is what we call it nowadays, To have enough money aside or coming that we don’t have to want for anything or worry about the future. Does that fulfil us? It very well might, actually. Not in the way we’re sold. If I, myself, have enough for me and mine, I still don’t think I can live carefree until all my friends, acquaintances and community does also. If it was just a few of us, we would still be a part of the current system of exploitation. Today, being wealthy just means being in a more comfortable prison. But, if we were all financially independent and no one had to worry about poverty, about electricity getting shut off, or not having food; then I think people would really start to shine. Artists would pop out of people who had been buried under stress. Love could be attended too more easily and we would just have, time, some real free time. 

A small vision of a utopia. Although I don’t see it as a utopia, there would be hardship and conflict; I don’t think we can escape these things as humans. I do think we can escape mass exploitation that keeps the majority of the world in a survival state while a select few enjoy obscene luxuries.

Following from this, it is also interesting to note that the four of pentacles can also suggest, self preservation. Guarding ourselves, which could be seen as possessive or stingy but it comes from a survival instinct. It shows how much money and survival have been intertwined in our world. Money is not something we want just to be lavish, it is necessary and not having it can be outright terrifying. 

Money is not the root of all evil. I don’t know why we started this rumour, a saying that holds weight as if it were gospel. Maybe its because since the dawn of money it has divided us into classes and those classes indicate how good or bad our lives will be. How much chance we have at survival which is at the core of what drives us as living beings. And so it is not money that it is the root of all evil but the high prices we will pay, the lengths and depths we will go to, to survive.