Welcome to Tarot Thursdays! This week we will be exploring the Eight of Pentacles and how it can be used as a prompt or brainstorming in our writing.

Tarot is an interesting thing. It’s based upon symbolism and metaphors through imagery. With these images the subconscious mind is tapped into through the story provided. Not everyone gets the same thing from a piece of art. Each piece will influence each person in a slightly different way.

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Introduction of the Card

The Eight of Pentacles is card number 71 in the deck and the eighth card of the Pentacles Suit in the Minor Arcana of the Tarot.

Let’s take a look at the following examples of this card below.

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Card Examples

Notice the similarities between them and take note of their differences. Do any of these move you more than the others? Take your time and allow these cards to tell you their story.

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My Analysis of These Cards

Except for the Dragon Tarot card, each of these individuals are busy working on something. In the Dragon Tarot, the dragon is carefully walking on tip toes around a cluster of scorpions. What do these cards have in common? They all depict an intense focus on the details of what they’re doing.

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Themes of the Card

Each card has a set of keywords associated with it that serve as themes for its image. These keywords will vary somewhat depending on who you ask.

According to the Learning the Tarot website, the keywords associated with the card are:

• DILIGENCE
• KNOWLEDGE
• DETAIL

You can learn more about what this site has to say about this card here.

According to the Biddy Tarot website, the keywords associated with the card are:

• APPRENTICESHIP
• EDUCATION
• QUALITY
• ENGAGEMENT

You can learn more about what this site has to say about this card here.

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What this Card Means to Me

This card is often called the apprentice card and with good reason. It’s here that we take the resources and skills that we have and we set ourselves to work on mastery. It isn’t enough to just do the thing anymore. It’s about being the best at what we can do with that thing.

As writers, this isn’t the first draft. This is the revision process. The editing, refining, and polishing of our words into something that truly shines in such a way that we can take pride in it before the world even looks at it.

And it is certainly not something that happens over night. It takes practice, training, measuring, assessing, and even more practice. It’s that steady determination to get it right every time that leads us to mastery.

The keyword I choose for this card is: DILIGENCE.

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Music Playlist

In this spirit of all this, these are the songs I have picked out for this card.

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The Writing Exercise

This exercise is a free write. Permit yourself to write whatever comes to mind based upon the theme of this card. Choose a keyword or key phrase and run with it to see what you come up with.

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I would love it if you linked or pinged back what you wrote so I could see where you went with this.

Happy writing!

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Mythic Tarot by Liz Greene (Author), Juliet Sharman-Burke (Author), Tricia Newell (Illustrator) © 1989
Dragon Tarot by Terry Donaldson (Author), Peter Pracownik (Author) © 1996
Universal Tarot by Lo Scarabeo (Author), R. De Angelis (Illustrator), A. E. Waite (Designer) © 2001
Tarot of Dreams by Ciro Marchetti (Author), Lee Bursten (Author) © 2015