(Note: this is a collection of the meanings attributed to the cards by some occultists in the past centuries. It does not reflect my own study or opinion of the cards. It is only meant as a quick comparative reference as I develop my own take.)
Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)
The time period is the third decanate of Virgo, under the rulership of Venus, September 13 to September 22. Meanings:
Well-Dignified: money through servants or subordinates; gain in matters connected with medicine, drugs, food, nursing, farming or gardening;
completion in material gain and fortune, but nothing beyond.
Ill-Dignified: material success, but heaviness and dullness of mind;
sometimes loss through the matters listed above; slothfulness.
Keyword: Wealth.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)
A. E. Waite
A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs accosting an ancient personage seated in the foreground. The child’s hand is on one of them. Divinatory Meanings: Gain, riches; family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family. Reversed: Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry, pension.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)
Aleister Crowley
The Ten of Disks is called Wealth. Here again is written this constantly recurring doctrine, that as soon as one gets to the bottom one finds oneself at the top; and Wealth is given to Mercury in Virgo. When wealth accumulates beyond a certain point, it must either become completely inert and cease to be wealth, or call in the aid of intelligence to use it rightly. This must necessarily happen in spheres which have nothing whatever to do with material possessions, as such. In this way, Carnegie establishes a Library, Rockefeller endows Research, simply because there is nothing else to do.
But all this doctrine lies behind the card; it is the inner meaning of the card. There is another view to consider, that this is the last of all the cards, and therefore represents the sum total of all the work that has been done from the beginning. Therefore, in it is drawn the very figure of the Tree of Life itself. This card, to the other thirty-five small cards, is what the twenty-first Trump, The Universe, is to the rest of the Trumps.
[…]
The number Ten, Malkuth, as always, represents the final issue of the Energy. Here is great and final solidification. The force is completely expended and results in death. Mercury rules this card in Virgo; and this may imply that the acquired wealth, being inert, will be dissipated unless put to further use by devoting its power to objects other than mere accumulation.
The disks, or (as they have now become) coins, are arranged on the Tree of Life, but the Tenth coin is much larger than the rest; the image indicates the futility of material gain.
These disks are inscribed with various symbols of mercurial character except that the coin in the place of Hod (Mercury) on the Tree is marked with the cipher of the Sun. This indicates the only possibility of issue from the impasse produced by the exhaustion of all the elemental forces. At the end of matter must be complete stagnation, were it not that in it is always inherent the Will of the Father, the Great Architect, the Great Arithmetician, the Great Geometer. In this case, then, Mercury will represent the Logos, the Word, the Will, the Wisdom, the Eternal Son, and Virgo the Virgin, in every implication of that symbol. This card is in fact a hieroglyph of the cycle of regeneration.
Among the Geomantic figures, Mercury in Virgo is Conjunctio. The meaning, conjunction, is shown plainly by the attraction of the descending (female) Triangle, the cipher of the Yoni, to the ascending (male) Triangle, that of the Lingam. This union completed, they appear interlaced, forming the figure of Capricornus, the Sign in which the Sun finds his rebirth. It is the holy Hexagram, the symbol of the uniting of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, the accomplishment of the Great Work, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness. Sic sit vobis!
(From the Book of Thoth)
Golden Dawn’s Book T
AN Angelic Hand, holding by the lower extremity a branch whose roses touch all the Pentacles. No buds, however, are shewn. The symbols of Mercury and Virgo are above and below.
The Pentacles are thus arranged:
* *
*
* *
* *
*
* *
Completion of material gain and fortune; but nothing beyond: as it were, at the very pinnacle of success. Old age, slothfulness; great wealth, yet sometimes loss in part; heaviness; dullness of mind, yet clever and prosperous in money transactions.
Malkuth of HB:H (Riches and wealth).
Herein are HB:LAVYH and HB:HHa’aYH set over this Decan as Angel Rulers
Etteilla
The house
Upright. In terms of spiritual medicine, this card, in its natural position, signifies: Home, Household management, Economy, Savings. – Dwelling, Domicile, Residence, Manor, Lodging, Regiment, Ship, Vessel, Vase. – Archive, Castle, Hut. – Family, Origin, Race, Posterity. – Cave, Cavern, Refuge.
Reversed. Lottery, Luck, Gambling, Chance, Accident, Ignorance, Fate, Destiny, Predestination, Fatality. – Fortunate or unfortunate opportunity.
MQS
