The Mill: A Winter Pastoral (24)
The Answer
1. Significator (the questioner): 2 of Pentacles

A man weighing or juggling two alternatives having to do with money
2. Cover and Cross (opposed forces now): 6 of Pentacles and Page of Swords

The just official giving money to the deserving poor [Unemployment insurance]

The young romantic knight of pain and truth [The Mill quest]
3. Crowning(outcome of conflict): King of Swords

The knight matured and sober
4. Beneath (background of present situation): 3 of Wands

Merchant watching ships embark (money-making schemes)
5. Behind (immediate past): Page of Pentacles

Youthful aesthete contemplating artistic beauty
6. Ahead: Emperor

King of Swords aged further, a land owner
7. Yourself: 2 of Swords

Stalemate, staying on the fence
8. House: The Hermit

Introspection, solitude, desiring a new direction
9. Hopes and Fears: The Fool

Letting Go, Abandon, Beginning
10. The Answer: 5 of Pentacles

Winter’s utter desolation, poverty, madness, cripples cut off from warmth, light and beauty
***
Another Tarot reading, two years earlier.
