Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.
-Warren Buffett
Holding on to security, Resource protection, Fear of loss, Driving control, greed
Overview
Holding on with a Vice Grip
You’ve tasted hunger before, and now you’re stingier than you should be. You’re holding on to the resources you have like they’re going to save your life of feed your soul .
While you’re holding onto this survival, you’re not actually living. You’re saving every single cent to stay above water but you’re not having fun? The basic things that make life worth living are being forgone for the sake of having a savings.
This card is symbolic of holding on too tightly to something—anything. Whether that’s an idea, power, money, a person. Regardless, you’re strangling the life out of something.
Symbolism
A crowned figure sits rigidly on a stone throne outside a city, clutching a large pentacle tightly to his chest with both arms. Two more pentacles rest under his feet, and a fourth crowns his head. The city walls and towers rise in the background under a clear sky. His posture is defensive and possessive, symbolizing holding on tightly to resources or security.
Meaning
Resource protection
You won’t let go, even if the thing you’re holding is on fire. The vice grip you have is stinting the flow of energy into other parts of your life. Perhaps your greed has caused you to become isolated and alone. A toxic relationship could be seeping into other realms of your life. The mentality you have towards this thing are not only blocking new opportunities from coming but preventing new opportunities in other parts of your life as well.
Holding on to security
Obsession with stability maybe causing you to sacrifice a lot more than your time. Loved ones could be caught in the cross fire and hurt in the process. They just want some of your time, which does not seem like a lot to ask for from the people who have proven their loyalty. Attachments and selfishness are blinding you to the needs of those around you. Let your grip loose just enough to regain blood flow to your extremities and enjoy the life you are fighting too hard to perfect.
Driving control
This could be a situation that is so important to your stability, you are willing to sacrifice your happiness to it. A person or job provides you great stress and stability at the cost of your will to live. Question your relationship to it, take some time away from it. If the stress can’t be lessened by distance, then you need to reclaim yourself.
Fear of loss
Since you struggled as long as you did, you find yourself putting more importance on money and material than you used to. There maybe an unintentional level of greed involved as you hold on too tightly to things, remembering the times that you had nothing.
Of course where there is money that means there is success! All that hard work and collaboration you put in is finally coming through. The feeling of being grounded and stable is undervalued.
Greed
Yet, there is a level of greed strung from the desperation to keep your feet on the solid ground. Everything you’ve created, you are possessive of. Every trinket and simple thing that you struggled so hard to earn means more than it should. Even the title you earned you are deeply attached to, only giving the minimum credit to the peers who helped you.
Remember why you started
Remember why you’re here, and what you’re original ideal was in this endeavor. With all the shiny things before your eyes it’s sometime hard to remember why you started it. Do not sacrifice anything for the sake of your own possessive gain. Stay the course and you’ll keep your rewards.
Four of Pentacles Reversed
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
Epictetus
Letting go, Generosity, Releasing fear, Healthy relationships with money or control
Overview
Unlike the upright version, this card has a relieving definition. You are letting go of something and allowing it the freedom to transform, mutate or evolve. You are finally letting it breathe, and releasing your grip around its throat.
Meaning
Letting go
The flaming thing you’ve strangled to hold onto has finally burned you severely enough to warp your hand, and you let it go. Look at the scorch marks in your skin as a lesson learned. There’s a time to release the things we are afraid to lose. If not you’ll end up hurting yourself and the very thing you tried to retain
Generosity
You can’t be buried with your wealth, it’s better to give some of it away than it is to be known for everything you never spent. Whether you’re being generous with your time or money. Spread the love or the wealth if you have the means to do so.
Releasing fear
By letting go of the fire, you’re letting go of the fear of losing. Holding on due to lack of security, or clarity does nothing but hurt everyone in the end. By releasing this thing, you can finally begin to understand where you stand with it. That’s the lesson behind the proverb if you love something let it go.
Healthy relationships with money or control
After a time of struggle, you held onto everything way too hard. Now you’re coming back to a place of stability and thus you are reestablishing a healthy relationship with money. It’s no longer your keeper and it no longer has power over you.
