The Archetype and The Tarot: The Thief and Four of Pentacles

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The Thief Archetype

This is another one of those archetypes that we tend to notice most readily on the shadow side…as someone who steals things. But the bigger pattern of The Thief involves the ability to discern value, as well as being a master of understanding concepts like ownership and possession. 

In the light, The Thief can quickly recognize when something is valuable, be it a good idea, a worthwhile project, an argument to engage in, or a work of art. This brings a profound sense of clarity that prevents us from investing energy in ultimately dissatisfying endeavors. Even more importantly, The Thief in the light helps us understand the ephemeral nature of material possessions and gives us the gift of knowing that what truly brings fulfillment can never be stolen.

The shadow Thief is preoccupied by lack, and steals what they think they don’t have. I know none of us wants to outwardly identify as a shadow Thief, but I think we all have the potential for theft, and this can be a sneaky pattern. 

I think one of the things we’re being asked to do this week, is look for ways this shadow pattern might show up for us.

• Do we steal another’s time by perpetually running late?

• Do we make backhanded comments and thereby steal another’s joy?

• Do we share passwords for streaming services?

• In what situations do we feel theft is justified? (For example, if a loved one was hungry and we walked by a king’s feast piled high with food that was likely to go uneaten, would we take a bit of bread to feed our family?)

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Four of Pentacles

In this card, we see a figure with four pentacles or coins. This person has one coin under each foot, one on their head, and one held tightly in their arms. The most prominent message in this card is about clinging too tightly to our resources out of a fear of loss. Just as importantly, however, is the fact that the person in this card already has tremendous wealth. Abundance is their literal foundation and also pours into them from the heavens. Their fear of lack is not based on an actual experience of limited resources, but comes from something deeper—maybe a sense of not belonging or a betrayal, maybe an inherited ancestral wound, etc.

When this card comes up, it’s a call to go deep and really examine the reasons why we might have a scarcity mindset and restrict flow in our lives.

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How do these two work together?

To me, the Thief and Four of Pentacles have a very similar energy. Because they came up together, I think it’s a sort of emphasis or underscoring of the general message to explore our scarcity mindsets.

One way to do this is to look at what we might be hoarding. The things we stockpile are great indicators of our insecurities. These might be obvious things like food, shoes/clothing, electronics, tote bags (apparently this is a very common thing to hoard), etc. Or more subtle collections like friends, information/knowledge, digital photographs, resentments and regrets.

To be clear, this is not about shaming ourselves for any of it, but rather to allow our hoards to shine light on insecurities we might not have been aware of. Once we have awareness of an insecurity, we are empowered to make choices about it. If we’re feeling particularly strong, we can make choices towards overcoming the insecurity, or we can honor where we are and choose to not participate in activities that trigger the insecurity. Given that, our guiding questions this week are:

What are we hoarding? And WHY are we hoarding it?

Let me know how you do with these questions this week. I, for one, have a lot of stockpiling to explore.

W&M A/T Mini Ritual Thief/4 Of Pent

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