The Tarot of Eli 2: Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot- Seven of Pentacles & The Triple Goddess Tarot- 7 of Pentacles

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 Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot — Seven of Pentacles

The Sevens belong to the Seventh Sephirah on the Tree of Life: Netzach, the sphere of Victory. That sounds triumphant until we remember that victory is never declared before conflict. One does not inherit Netzach without first enduring friction, delay, desire, and the testing of emotional endurance. Victory implies that something had to be struggled through, and sometimes the reward seems painfully small compared to the labor spent gaining it.

The Rider-Waite-Smith Seven of Pentacles presents this truth in plain and earthy language. A weary farmer leans on his tool beneath a dull sky, studying a plant that bears pentacles, yet not with the lush abundance one might hope for after such effort. One pentacle appears already harvested, while the rest still hang as if the full return has not yet arrived. The image speaks of work, waiting, and dissatisfaction. Much has been invested, but the harvest feels incomplete. The soul asks, “Was all this effort worth it?”

This is one of the more mundane illustrations in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, but its simplicity conceals a profound metaphysical and parapsychological lesson. The card shows what happens when consciousness is forced to confront time. Desire wants immediate reward, but manifestation in the material world does not move at the speed of desire. Earth moves slowly. Matter must coagulate. Results ripen according to law, not impatience.

Netzach and the Trial of the Sevens

In Western Hermetic Qabalah, Netzach is not merely pleasure, beauty, or emotional flow. It is also the power of endurance, the force that keeps the soul moving through discouragement toward realization. In the suit of Pentacles, this Netzachian current must operate through Earth, which means the energy becomes heavy, delayed, and resistant. Victory is still present, but it is not yet visible as a crown. It appears first as persistence.

This is why the Seven of Pentacles often feels disappointing. It reveals the stage in the Great Work when the practitioner has already invested thought, energy, time, labor, and belief, yet the outer world offers only partial evidence of success. The temptation is to call the labor a failure. But Hermetically, this card is not merely about failure. It is about the testing of endurance before fruition.

Sisyphus and the Burden of Repetition

The image naturally recalls the Greek legend of Sisyphus, condemned to push a great stone uphill only to watch it roll back down again. On the surface, that myth speaks of futility, repetition, and existential exhaustion. Yet in a Hermetic light, Sisyphus becomes more than a tragic figure. He becomes an image of the soul trapped in cycles of incarnation, effort, setback, and renewed striving.

The boulder is matter, burden, karmic residue, or the density of Malkuth itself. The hill is the ascent toward spiritual realization. Each time the stone falls, one may think all progress has been lost. Yet the esoteric lesson is subtler: the soul is refined not only by success, but by repeated effort under resistance. The labor itself becomes initiatory.

From this perspective, the Seven of Pentacles is not just about poor returns. It is about the painful stage in which one learns that true attainment is not granted by wishful thinking, but by sustained alignment between will, patience, and lawful growth.

Saturn in Taurus: Time Weighing Upon Matter

Astrologically, the Seven of Pentacles is attributed to Saturn in Taurus. This is one of the clearest combinations for slow material development. Taurus is fixed Earth: stable, fertile, sensual, patient, and resistant to sudden change. Saturn is structure, limitation, delay, karma, pressure, and time. Put Saturn in Taurus and growth becomes deliberate, heavy, and often frustratingly slow.

This is the image of the field that must be worked over a long season. It is the investment that does not pay quickly. It is the body, the bank account, the business, the relationship, or the spiritual practice that demands constancy long before visible results emerge.

Metaphysically, Saturn in Taurus teaches that matter answers to law. One cannot command manifestation into fullness simply because one wants it. One must prepare the ground, continue the work, and respect the pace of embodiment. This card often appears when the soul is being taught the difference between fantasy and actual realization.

Parapsychologically, it may also indicate that the individual’s psychic field is burdened by disappointment, weariness, or a subtle expectation of loss. When consciousness repeatedly anticipates meager results, the astral body can project stagnation into material conditions. Thus this card may reflect not only outer circumstances, but a psychic pattern of fatigue that must be corrected before the harvest can improve.

The Mysticism of the Number Seven

The number seven has long been revered in Qabalah, Hermeticism, astrology, and numerology as a number of testing, mystery, and inner wisdom. It marks a threshold where the soul turns inward. In the Tree of Life it is Netzach, but in broader esoteric symbolism it is also the number of sacred process: the seven planets, seven metals, seven stages of refinement, and sevenfold patterns of spiritual evolution.

Seven often indicates that progress cannot be measured merely by outer appearances. Something more interior is being formed. The soul is being asked to gain discernment, not just results. It is being forced to see whether it is devoted to truth or merely addicted to immediate reward.

In classical numerology, seven is the number of the mystic, the hermit, the contemplative one who withdraws from noise to perceive deeper law. In this card, that contemplative pause appears as the farmer standing back from the crop and evaluating what has come of his labor. The pause itself is part of the initiation.

A Forward Hermetic View

The Seven of Pentacles should not be read as simple defeat. It is better understood as evaluative delay. The soul has labored. Now it must assess. Is the method sound? Is the desire mature? Is the timing right? Has the energy been sustained in the right way? This card asks whether what is growing is truly worth continuing.

From a modern Hermetic standpoint, this is a card of measured correction. It tells the practitioner not to abandon the Great Work merely because results are slower than expected. Nor should one blindly continue a dead pattern out of stubbornness. Instead, one must pause, assess, refine, and proceed with greater wisdom.

That is the secret hidden in the seeming disappointment of the card. The slow season is not always barren. Sometimes it is the season in which the roots are deepening below the surface, beyond the sight of the impatient mind.

The Esoteric Lesson

The Rider-Waite-Smith Seven of Pentacles shows the ordinary human response to delayed manifestation: exhaustion, uncertainty, and dissatisfaction. But beneath that simple scene lies a deeper Hermetic truth. Victory is not always joyous when first encountered. Sometimes victory appears disguised as the willingness to continue despite discouragement.

The farmer, like Sisyphus, like the magician in the midst of the Great Work, must decide whether delay means failure or initiation. Hermetic wisdom answers clearly: delay is often initiation. Saturn in Taurus does not deny growth; it demands that growth become real, stable, and earned.

Thus this card teaches that the soul must learn patience with matter, discipline with desire, and clarity with effort. The harvest may not yet match the dream, but the pause between labor and fruition is itself a sacred station on the path.

Hermetic axiom: What is delayed in Earth is not denied in Spirit; it is being weighed, tested, and made worthy of form.

The Triple Goddess Tarot — 7 of Pentacles

The Triple Goddess Tarot 7 of Pentacles presents a far more fertile and life-affirming image than the weary tone of the Rider-Waite-Smith card. Here, a woman clothed in white gathers fruit from an apple tree that also bears seven golden coin-like pentacles. Rather than emphasizing frustration, this image suggests measured harvest, wise assessment, and sustainable abundance. The lesson is not one of greed, but of intelligent participation in nature’s cycles: take what is needed, preserve what remains, and allow life to continue its rhythm of renewal.

From a Western Hermetic Qabalistic perspective, this image still belongs to the sphere of Netzach, the Seventh Sephirah, but here Victory is shown in a softer Venusian form. Instead of battle as exhaustion, victory appears as right relationship with the material world. The harvest is not seized in desperation but received through timing, patience, and restraint. This is Netzach expressing the beauty of continuity: abundance that does not destroy its source.

Metaphysically, the card teaches that material success must remain aligned with the law of balance. One must not consume from the field in a way that leaves the future barren. In this sense, the image reflects a profound Hermetic truth: true prosperity is not reckless accumulation, but conscious participation in the flow of life. To harvest wisely is to understand that matter is not separate from spirit. The Earth is not merely a storehouse to be emptied, but a living matrix of recurring manifestation.

Parapsychologically, this card suggests a consciousness that has learned to moderate desire. The psyche is no longer driven by lack, panic, or compulsive taking. Instead, it demonstrates an inner field of trust, deliberation, and emotional maturity. The woman gathers with awareness, implying that the individual must choose carefully what to cultivate, what to receive, and what to leave for future growth. Thus, the card reflects not only outer harvest, but inner regulation of appetite, desire, and expectation.

Because this is the Triple Goddess Tarot, the number seven may also evoke the Seven Hathors, those mysterious Egyptian powers of fate, nourishment, birth, and destiny. Their presence adds a sacred feminine current to the card’s symbolism. The harvest here is not merely agricultural or financial; it is also destinal. The Seven Hathors remind us that what is gathered in life is linked to timing, cosmic order, and the soul’s relationship with divine provision. In that sense, this card becomes an image of the Goddess as dispenser of measured blessing—not excess, but sufficiency; not waste, but sacred continuance.

Comparison to the Rider-Waite-Smith 7 of Pentacles

Where the Rider-Waite-Smith Seven of Pentacles stresses disappointment, fatigue, and the painful feeling of labor producing too little reward, the Triple Goddess Tarot 7 of Pentacles offers a more regenerative interpretation. It still honors assessment, waiting, and patience, but it frames them through the wisdom of sustainable harvest rather than frustration. The Rider-Waite image asks, “Why is the reward so small?” The Triple Goddess image asks, “How may I harvest wisely so that abundance continues?” One leans toward discouragement; the other toward stewardship. Together they teach that the material world rewards not only effort, but timing, restraint, and reverence for the living field from which all blessings arise.

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When the 7 of Pentacles is thrown during a reading, implied:

• Is a fear of failure with finances, health, and relationships. However, 7 in Netzach is a weak event, and deregulation of the element of earth, so soon the querent's project will be completed if determined to "keep on" and ignoring the feelings of never finishing the task.
• The Determination to release this fear of failure should go on for 7 weeks or 7 months. However, this determination must be hard fought, for there is a tendency to abandon labor, and allow everything to sink in a mire of sloth.
• Yet again, putrefaction is before the transformation of purification, so this is the point where the "lowest fallen becomes the highest exalted".
•  Is that you shall succeed if you don't listen to the thoughts of failure that are tempting your brain. Push harder, you'll soon succeed!

If ill defined by surrounding cards, it implies:

• Deep-rooted blockages.
• Anxiety about money.
• Impatience.

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