Tarot by the Mouthful - Three of Pentacles

Kyle is a foodie who loves Tarot. Theresa is a Tarot reader who loves food.

Together, we host Tarot by the Mouthful: a mouthwatering, multi-media culinary tour through the world of Tarot.

Sublime recipes. Soulful stories. Essays, videos, interviews and delicious surprises.

Join us every Sunday for a new installment — and get ready to sip, slurp, crunch and savor your way through the entire Tarot deck!

This week: Three of Pentacles

Three of Pentacles – Skill development or apprenticeship. The Three of Pentacles symbolizes talent grown under the watchful eye of mentors. A reward for a job well done; recognition. Taking pride in your work. This card can also represent collaboration or teamwork. A group effort that leads to a beautiful outcome. If you’ve ever worked on a project with a perfect team, you’ve felt the energy of this card.

Kyle – The Hustler

I’m a hustler. Born, and, I suppose, bred. Not a hustler of the confidence man sort, but a doer, full of ideas, and things that could work out, get done, turn into something, get me further, and make a show of it too. Everything I have to a greater extent, at least career wise, is the result of my hustle, my invention and P.T. Barnum advocacy. Because even though it wasn’t reasonable, proper, protocol or correct, I asked for it or went for it anyway. Sure there has been plenty of luck, love, and relationship glue along the way. But a lot of that too came from just plain showing up, or pitching, and then following through.

If fools can’t be suffered by those that easily identify the insufferable as fools, than a hustler has no patience for those that mope, stall, and live in the realm of the tentative. I’ve found most of us, fellow hustlers I mean, are also fairly sensitive, even impinging on insecure. We dream big and get it done. We risk and say “why not” and then get on the phone calling people who can help connect the dots, all the while hoping the world doesn’t notice we are under-qualified, not quite up to scruff, or our blueprint plans are more ink on napkins than drafting paper and perfect penmanship.

Often saddled with visualization skills in prime form, we frustrate when our business partners, colleagues, friends, lovers… hell the world, can’t also see the grand thing we have captured in our mind’s eye. Amelia Bloomer, Steve Jobs, Herve’ Ritz, and Lady Macbeth, hustlers all.

One of my great lessons in life has been to learn collaborate. To hone the hustle into something hitched to “get it done” energy, but which doesn’t go off “half cocked”. My partner in life and business is the logical sort. Full of levity, creativity and thoughtful perspectives. As a result, I have been tempered like steel as we progress forward on this or that project or goal. Hustlers place pride and fun in the pitch. She listens, intuits, assesses, and acts.

The Three of Pentacles represents this sort of learning, the learning of personality contrast, of collaboration. It is the card of lofty goals and achievements, made whole by partners and contributors, all in their place, who have their parts. There is work to done the card says – a cathedral to be built no less! But you can’t pull it off with just a pair of hands, a sky full of enthusiasm, and a chisel alone.

Theresa – The Apprentice

When it comes to cooking, I’ve never had formal training. Everything was learned at my mother’s knee, watching her knotty little hands deftly create beautiful, wholesome meals from scratch. What we didn’t have in material goods was more than made up for at the dinner table.

We ate well.

All that I learned in the beginning came from observing her.

As I got older, my own foray into the kitchen expanded beyond her skills and tastes. But this too, was self taught. Magazines, television, cookbooks all served to sharpen my chops.

Watching, reading, doing.

That, and consistent practice, is one way to become proficient. But taking classes under the watchful eye of a skilled chef is a faster, better way. When you work directly under a master, you not only advance quicker but you also learn the techniques that make your work cleaner, honed, perfect.

Since the beginning of this series with Kyle, I started taking cooking classes. Partly to add some beef to Tarot by the Mouthful, but also the simple fact that I’ve always wanted to become a better home chef. This series has inspired me to up my game and learn the things that have always intimidated – or intrigued me.

The classes have been fun (hey, it’s nice to be a student again!) but I’ve also come away with newfound skills and knowledge that allowed me to understand the science behind cooking (who knew sugar was a “wet element”?!).

I’ve tackled croissants, knife skills, soufleés, pickling, candy, cakes, French pastries…and more. I’ve even convinced some pals to join me because hey, a shared learning experience is even twice as nice (and fun!).

I’m having the time of my life and better yet: I feel like a cooking apprentice, appetite whetted for more information, more training.

Because that is the beauty of any skill you want to perfect – cooking, tarot reading, any art for that matter – the more you learn, the better you get. The better you get, the more you want to learn.

Like the figures in the Three of Pentacles, we stop and admire the work, we check our progress and course correct when necessary. We consult, we questions, we seek perfection – but then get right back into it until the work and learning are complete. Both rarely are. And that’s what makes it all so delightfully maddening.

Stay curious. Keep learning. Cook on, cook off.

“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” ~ Richard Feynman

Bon Appetit!

Theresa and Kyle

photos from personal collection and Jessica Kaminski

Hungry for more? Click here to explore the entire Tarot by the Mouthful series, from the very first card… right up to our latest installment. Bon appetit!