Today, I encountered this quote from Ernest Hemingway:
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
I pulled a Tarot card to explore it:
The journey towards self improvement doesn’t have an end. If we hope to improve ourselves, and our character, indeed if we hope to next year be superior to what we were last year, we must start walking down that pathway anew, each and every day.
For we will never reach perfection, but we should always strive to perfect our character. We do that one day at a time, one step at a time.
And shouldn’t that be our ultimate goal in life? To be better tomorrow than we were today?
The Ace of Pentacles points us to new beginnings in the material world. That speaks profoundly to the quote above. For during our lifetimes here on earth we are moving through the material world, and each new day is for us a new beginning. We must learn from the mistakes of our past, but not be trapped by those mistakes. We must be able to forgive ourselves for them, so that we can move beyond them.
In this way, by striving each day to learn from our errors, and to avoid repeating those errors, we can move from what we have been, to what we will ultimately become.
The first step is of course discovering what is truly important to us. What do we believe our purpose in this life truly is? What will, in our own judgement, make us truly noble?
By excising anything contrary to those answers, we improve ourselves. Step by step, little by little. We ought not do that which is in opposition to what we believe to be important. We ought not act in conflict with that which we see as our purpose in life. We ought not say that which is contrary to our personal vision of nobility. This is of course hard, for we are all imperfect in a myriad of ways and prone to all manner of vices. Hard as well for we seem prone to acting against our own interests, prone to self-sabotage.
With self knowledge, and work, and mindfulness, we can find that true nobility. The us of tomorrow can be better than the us of yesterday.
But while we pursue this quest, we do well to remember the Ace of Pentacles. To remember that every new day is a new beginning. A new opportunity for us to become that which we hope to become.
I like this analysis.
Pentacles are also about physical energy that comes from the bones - the things that endure in the Earth-plane because they replicate themselves - these kinds of energy patterns. If Wands are the fiery upper growth, then Pentacles are the deep burrowing roots. Each has its own season. You fertilise for root-growth in the winter, you fertilise for top growth and prune, in the Spring & Summer.
What could be more noble that someone who recognises they are lucky and blessed and says to themselves: "Let me pass on this Grace to others and not hoard it all to myself. Let me take my blessings and gifts and talents and abilities to move the needle on whatever it is in the world, multiply and develop them, and pass them along to the next person." To me that outstretched hand speaks very loudly. It's your tithe to the world, you rent for being here. But it's not outright charity. What it is, is helping to knit up Creation and keeping the place humming, in a very real way being an apprentice to The Great Architect in the business of the World. It's the combination of acts you make in the world, much as a gardener would do, by planting beauty and kindness in the world so others may also eat from the tree and in their turn also pass it on. It's humbly offering whatever wisdom you've come to by, in the words of the Delphic Oracle "Knowing Thyself" And it's entirely humble and quiet - if your ego is feeding on it - it's not authentic and that's the test.
Hemingway's right - the only competition you have is with your former self, and the future self you are nurturing and bringing into being. The trick is to be loving to your former self and recognise him or her in the others around you, and offer them the same loving kindness out of understanding and acceptance.
We are all mirrors for each other.