Suits & Seasons: Spring
As someone who spends so much of my life working with, talking about, learning about and thinking about the tarot, it doesn’t take much for me to wonder, “How does this real life thing relate to the cards?” I’m sure I drive my partner nuts with my regular tarot references!
And so, as seasons change, I have found myself revisiting something that originally sprung to mind (pun unintended… but now I kinda like it) around the last spring equinox. There are four seasons and, coincidentally, four tarot suits. Which season corresponds with each suit?
The more I’ve thought about this question, the more obvious the correspondences have seemed, and as we approach the Spring Equinox, I have found myself revisiting the idea that Spring and the Pentacles are inextricably linked.
If we pair this suit and season together, what can we learn? What wisdom do they reinforce within one another? What can Spring teach us about the Pentacles and, likewise, what can the Pentacles teach us about Spring? It’s the perfect thing to think about as we enter into the season…
Deck: Wayhome Tarot by Bakara Wintner & Autumn Whitehurst
The Connection
In springtime, we begin to see nature bloom. Plants that have laid dormant begin to grow again, flowers sprout, trees blossom. Seasonally, it is generally perfect conditions for growth. I am in no way an expert in all things green-fingered, but it’s my understanding that early spring is a good time to tend to many plants, prune trees and sow certain seeds, to ensure they grow into their healthiest selves as the weather warms.
Cultivating plants takes work, consistency and effort, something that the Pentacles suit knows a lot about. This grounded, earthy, slow-moving suit teaches us that the most valuable things in life take time, commitment and dedication to bring to fruition. This is most evident when we look at the journey from the Ace to the 10. The Ace of Pentacles is a seed. A seed has little value in the present moment - it is simply a seed. However, plant it, tend to it, and over time, it has the potential to yield beautiful results, to yield a fruitful harvest, and produce a plant from which more seeds can be grown, and so, over time, the harvest you yield from that one seed can grow exponentially. The value of the seed is in it’s long-term potential. It is delayed gratification at its finest.
Not only does it take time to yield that seed’s potential, but it takes a lot of effort, and the 10 of Pentacles is the culmination of that hard work and dedication. The 10 can be likened to the majestic oak tree that was planted many, many, many years before, or the self-sustaining, mature garden. Neither of these things became that way overnight. They require care, they require attention, appropriate water and pruning of leaves and branches to stimulate healthy growth. They have weathered many a storm, fought every frost… they have stood the test of time.
Spring is a growth-oriented season. We are planting seeds for the future or tending to those that have already been planted, whether that be in a literal or figurative sense.
Maybe it’s the longer days and bluer skies, but many people feel motivated to really drive forward their projects in the spring, and I mean real, sustained momentum. There is typically also less distraction in the spring vs other seasons, such as summer or early winter, where events, parties and holidays dominate our social calendars.
Not only this, but spring is also the season associated with the tackling of hard tasks, ones that we may have put off over winter, or perhaps that we haven’t done all year! For instance, there’s a reason why we refer to it as ‘spring cleaning’. For some it’s doing a deep clean, for others it’s reorganising the cupboard you’ve been dumping stuff in all year. In spring, if you’re doing the things that you’ve been putting off doing, it’s very… well… Pentacles of you! This earthy suit is grounded, sensible and disciplined. Of all the suits, it would be the Pentacles that would roll up its sleeves and get stuck in to the task that might not be glamorous, but matters… because there is an inherent recognition that the strongest, most valuable things take time, effort and dedication to grow.
The Wisdom
This combination reminds us that planting seeds and putting in the work does pay off.
We live in an instant world, and so it can be easy to dismiss or discount things that do not bring us immediate results. Why do the difficult thing that might pay off in 5, 10, 20 years, when you can just post a photo on social media and get instant gratification in the form of likes and comments? Why take the time and go through all the effort of cooking a meal from scratch, when I can just order take out and have it delivered in 20 minutes?
Putting in the work, laying the foundations for future success, is generally the only way to actually get success. Odds are, you’re not going to win the lottery tomorrow or go viral on TikTok overnight. Even if you did, in order to win the lottery, you still have to first buy the ticket, to go viral on TikTok, you still have to actually make and post the video. You have to plant a seed before anything can grow.
The more effort you put in, the more you look after your ‘seed’, whether literal or figurative, you are cultivating a resilience that you can not only reap the rewards of, but can also see you through hard times, like the harsh cold of winter.
So, for spring, plant those seeds my friends, watch them grow, and bloom like the beautiful flower you are.
If this has resonated with you…
There are a couple of ways I can help you work with the Spring energy this season.
Book a tarot reading with me - The Spring Garden reading, available for a limited time, is designed specifically to work with the Spring Equinox energy, to help you assess the metaphorical garden that is your life, the seeds you are sowing and their potential for growth.
Download my FREE PDF Workbook - If you prefer to pull your own tarot cards, I’m giving away a PDF workbook that reveals The Spring Garden tarot spread, including journalling prompts for each card. To claim your copy, sign up to the newsletter by entering your email at the bottom of this page, and I’ll send it over to your inbox for FREE!
Join the conversation - Do you agree with the link I’ve made or do you see a different link? Tarot is a tool with great depth, and the more we discuss it, the more we can understand it and form our own relationship with it. I’d love to hear your thoughts and chat about it with you in the comments!
