The Five of Pentacles is not often considered a favorable card to draw from a Tarot deck. Struggles with a loss of public status or becoming disillusioned with a social institution or belief system are strongly suggested. Alienation from persons in a family and/or community might be indicated by this card also. Of course, every card or flow of energy can be aligned with to either create change or simply ride out some bumpy weather.
He struggles with genuine grief and trauma, wounded entitlements, and his disappointment with becoming an adult, simultaneously.
In J.D. Salinger’s classic Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield experiences extreme disconnection from both individual people and the values demonstrated by the larger social world. He calls the adult world phony and proceeds to tell the reader of all the experiences he has had that confirm the validity of his viewpoint. Throughout the retelling of his ordeals of loss and alienation, Holden reveals the many ways he has made his own plight considerably worse. He struggles with genuine grief and trauma, wounded entitlements, and his disappointment with becoming an adult, simultaneously.
Holden Caulfield is a self-admitted unreliable narrator and is also often fairly unsympathetic. His wild and relentless hyperbole is a lesson in itself. Holden ascribes profound drama to the endless minutiae of his life which succeeds to elevate his frustration and sense of being an outsider. Holden Caulfield’s worldview does not do him any favors when it comes to getting his needs met in even the most minimal of ways. He is dissociated from relationships and immersed in a cynical cosmology when he finds himself in a phone booth with no one to call. This scene captures a fair sense of the Five of Pentacles experience.
we understand the kind of man Holden needs to become
Ultimately, Holden’s most genuine desires are revealed in the way he misunderstands some song lyrics and creates a visualization to go with them. The song lyrics are, “if a body meets a body coming through the rye,” but Holden hears, “if a body catch a body”. From this, he creates a vision of himself catching children coming through the rye before they can fall over a cliff at the edge of the rye field. This is not something that happens anywhere except in the mind’s eye of Holden Caulfield, yet we understand the kind of man Holden needs to become in order to fulfill his true nature and just how much work and change it will take if he is to succeed.
The story ends just as Holden begins his journey in from the cold, metaphorically speaking. Though Holden agrees to stay with his family in order to stop his little sister Phoebe from crying, he admits to himself that she was not actually crying. This choice combined with his self-awareness is the first fledgling step of Holden Caulfield figuring out how to grow up.
The Five of Pentacles will give us plenty to worry about, but we do have the power to clear our heads and look for how our own stubbornness or entitlement or just not fully listening to someone else is holding us back from enjoying a sense of belonging and contribution.
May we find the patience for those who have a long way to still to go.
By
Michelle Embree
Author of
Daydream Tarot: A Basic Guide for Visionaries
READ her monthly Tarot column in
ANTIGRAVITY MAGAZINE
Listen to her podcast
SECRET ANTENNA About Author
Michelle Embree is an author, a Tarotist, performer, and podcaster. She has toured her work throughout the US over the span of two decades. Enjoy her podcast Secret Antenna on Spotify or her latest book: Daydream Tarot: A Basic Guide For Visionaries. You can purchase this book, schedule a Tarot reading, and find out more here: www.michelleembree.com
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