II of Pentacles

Keywords: Balance, multitasking, juggling, making decisions, weighing options, running the gauntlet, happily dancing through all of life's activities and obstacles

Reversed: Imbalance, indecision, stop multitasking, too many balls in the air, out of control, avoiding conflict, single focus 

Affirmation: I accomplish my goals with ease and grace.

Associated Major card: Temperance

The II of Pentacles is all about achieving balance and often with an element of grace thrown in there.  The Pentacles represents earth energy, so practical concerns will be in high focus with this card.  The Twos are about decision making, so the II of Pentacles asks you to make practical decisions about your day-to-day life. You need to feed yourself, do work, make money, find a place to sleep, exercise your body- all earth oriented activities. Each needs to get done, sometimes all at once.  The II of Pentacles figures out how to bring all those needs into harmony.

What ends up happening is that the II of Pentacles turns into the quintessential tarot card for multitasking.  Traditionally, the card depicts a man juggling two pentacles in the air while standing on one foot.  Good for him!  He looks like he has got his shit together and luckily, you can relate.  You are feeling confident and a bit jubilant.  Sure, you have a lot of balls in the air, but you enjoy your life.  You created all this and you are committed and loving it.  Somehow you're holding it all together and it's working!

The key to keeping this up is to carefully weigh and sensibly make your decisions. The motto of the II of Pentacles is:  I accomplish my goals with ease and grace.  When this card comes up in a reading you're not worried about picking the wrong thing, or doing things out of order.  You are in the flow.  You can see the plan.  You are rattling things off your to list like a mad person, absolutely committed to and engrossed in your life.

When you see the II of Pentacles in a reading you could very well have a positive train of thought about yourself that goes something like this: "You are an amazingly capable, intelligent, resourceful human being. There are so many awesome things you want to do with your life and you are doing them! You love eating and make it an enjoyable time of your day.  Sleeping is the best and you even get to snuggle at the same time. Bathing!? Bring on the sweet smells of clean skin! You run errands with a skip in your step and you are doing what you love for a living. Therefore your whole life is a journey of awesome and you have boundless energy to fit in learning, creative projects, hanging out with friends, and even reading pointless sci-fi books by the pool.  Wake up and smile!"

II of Pentacles reversed: One common attitude with the II of Pentacles reversed goes something the opposite of above, thinking: "Let’s face it- you’re never going to get it all done.  There are just too many awesome things that you want to do with your life and only so much time.  You also are required to make time for things like eating, sleeping, and bathing.  You have a million errands to do to facilitate those things, and you have to somehow earn money so you can pay for your eating, sleeping, and bathing as well.  That leaves just enough time to complain that you didn’t have enough time, and then it’s time for bed.  Wake up, repeat."

So, finding balance is often easier said than done. Like the picture of Balancing Rock in Arches National Park above, sometimes it can feel like the odds of staying balanced are slim. Life can be pretty topsy turvy and deciding how to keep all of the elements of your day in check, can be overwhelming.  It seems like you are constantly one step away from dropping all those balls you are juggling and having them shatter into a million pieces on the ground around you.  I mean, who's to say a slight earthquake won't topple Balancing Rock tomorrow?  Everything is crazy!

One thing that can help with the overwhelm of the II of Pentacles reversed is to just stop multitasking.  Stop everything.  Breathe.  Then do one things at a time.  It’s all about single focus and completion of each of your tasks.  Then it's knowing what to do next. Make a list of action items and only reveal to the top one to yourself.  When you are finished that action item, let yourself contemplate and act on the next item.  Maybe even set up rewards for when you reach certain benchmarks.  You can figure this out.  You are capable.

The worst that you can do is give up or resist change.  Try taking your focus into your physical body.  Do some balancing activity, such as tree pose from yoga, and just breathe into it.  Can you align the energy of your body with your goals for the day.  Check in with yourself periodically throughout the day to see if you are starting to lose confidence or get overwhelmed.  Remember, the II of Pentacles is just a beginning card and you can work to create a support system and method to make things run more smoothly and be less overwhelming in the future.  Take it one day at a time.