For You to See Life - 4u2c.life

The card of the Eight of Pentacles portrays Daedalus at his workshop in the precincts of King Cocalus’ palace in Sicily. On either side of him, richly laden vines clamber up wooden posts. Behind him can be seen a verdant vista of green mountains leading to the sea. On the ground at the craftsman's feet lie seven golden pentacles, all in an unfinished state and awaiting future work. On the wooden table before him lies a single golden pentacle, around which Daedalus engraves an elaborate border.

Minor Arcana ~ The Eight of Pentacles

The Eight of Pentacles presents Daedalus once again as an apprentice, working hard on developing his skills. Implied here is the natural outcome of the Seven: Daedalus has chosen the god, and consequently a new venture has opened up to him, where new skills must be acquired so that the project may blossom and bear fruit. The Eight of Pentacles is the card of the apprentice, but unlike the Two, where we saw the craftsman juggling his energies and developing his talents through clever shifting of funds and resources, the Eight does not imply instability. Here we see a spirit of dedication and one-pointed energy. This enthusiastic spirit is often the accompaniment of a new venture, particularly if this is a departure from what we have done before. In many ways the Eight coincides with that period in life which follows what psychology calls ‘mid-life crisis’, for the Seven of Pentacles in some ways embodies just this crisis: What we have been has become stale, yet a departure into new pastures is often attended by anxiety and a fear of losing all the stability we have built. Yet if such a transition can be successfully made, then we see the fresh energy of the Eight, which implies not only enthusiasm about acquiring a new skill but also relief that we have not exhausted all our potentials, but can still continue to grow and make new things manifest.

On a divinatory level, the Eight of Pentacles augurs a period when the individual plays the role of the hard-working apprentice who is struggling to acquire a new skill. This card can suggest a talent which the individual has recently discovered and which is worthy of development and effort, or it can imply that a hobby could be developed into a profession. The individual may experience great enthusiasm and interest in some new field of work which requires him or her to become a hard-working trainee, often at a time oflife when one ‘ought’ to be firmly established.

I will explain in my readings what each card means, this is a general interpritation taken from the Mythic Tarot Deck

Information Source: Mythic Tarot Deck
[published in 1986 by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene and Illustrated by Tricia Newell (not the New Mythic Tarot)]