Six of Pentacles

Definition

A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.

Divinatory Meanings: Presents, gifts, gratification another account says attention, vigilance now is the accepted time, present prosperity, etc.

Reversed: Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion.

Detail

A lot of the reading on this card centers on the balance of the scales; however the detail that sticks out to me is the asymmetry of the pentacles themselves. They are weighted to the left side, which (ironically?) is the side that is doing the distribution.

The definition also states "a person in the guise," which makes me think that there is something that is slightly disingenuous going on here.

Day

Rachel Pollack's book Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom has a lot to say on this card, but one phrase stuck out to me when I was reading the entry for it:

Sometimes the hierarchy does not indicate a person but rather a situation – emotional, economic, or other – which dominates a person enough to keep them looking for something else. This can happen in a job which gives material benefit but little satisfaction or chance of improvement; ...

That thought lingers. It's been where I've felt for a few years now. Perhaps coincidentally since I've started on this particular spiritual path. Not that this spiritual path gives me dissent with my current work; rather, I have been more aware of my spiritual self in these last few years and I can tell that there is a kind of satisfaction that used to come from my work that no longer does.