september 2025: nine of pentacles // harvest & hard work

hello, friends. the grove just started with an incredible group of people, our september forecast over at CALL YOUR COVEN is hot off the presses, and i'm working on some big things including additional resources for the 3am.tarot conservatory and the grief course that i've been slowly and lovingly assembling. it feels good to be coming back to creative life after the joy and exhaustion of launching my second book.

i know this world is very, very challenging right now. i know that your time and attention are limited and strained, that even small tasks feel huge these days. i am so deeply grateful that we can continue to connect in this way, and that i can offer you some words of insight on the tarot to welcome you into this new month. sending you love and courage and safety, today and always.

now, take a deep breath and let it out slowly. acknowledge any tension in your shoulders, your jaw, your neck, your lower back, and release whatever you can. let's talk about the nine of pentacles, and the beautiful labor of harvest.

depending on where and how you grew up, the word and concept of harvest could mean any number of things. as someone who was raised in a fairly rural area in the northeastern united states, surrounded by farms but not actually living on one, harvest was framed as a time of celebration, joy, connection, and relaxation: changing colors and crisp scents, pumpkin-carving and apple-picking and cider-making. it’s the precursor to spooky season, as summer shifts into autumn and the weather cools and the leather jackets come out. it’s also my favorite time of year, a time when fresh starts like a new school year overlap with cycles ending and leaves falling. even with climate change warming everything up, there's something about harvest and september that makes something in my spirit ease.

but for those who know, those who are more in touch with the land than i was growing up, harvest isn’t just autumn-themed parties and pumpkin spice lattes and new school supplies. harvest is also the busiest time of the year, when the hard labor of the growing season culminates and crops must be brought in efficiently and correctly. harvest is all hands on deck, early mornings and late nights, sweat and stress and intensity.

eventually the celebration will come, if the harvest itself is good — but the harvest is measured by how valuable the crop is, and success is never guaranteed.

just like with this limited, good-vibes-only perspective on harvest, we also see this kind of narrowed vision happen with certain cards in the tarot — and that happens particularly often with our card of the month, the nine of pentacles. in rider-waite-smith style decks, this card is almost always associated purely with success and self-made stability, with satisfaction and pride in a job well done, with security and independence and enough abundance to have everything we need. and while these joyful meanings aren't inaccurate, they also aren't the whole story, or the full picture of this part of the growing season.

when we only look at the celebration aspect of the nine of pentacles, when we act like every culmination will always be a success, we miss the rest of the meaning that this card has to offer: the intention and the struggle, the devotion and the discipline, the consistency and dedication that has gotten us to this final stage. the things that we have earned, the vision that we have fulfilled, and the yield we may be reaping.

the nine of pentacles is the process of harvest, after a long cycle of hard work. and when we work with this card, it’s worth acknowledging the effort and the exhaustion, as well as the magic and the pleasure. a physical, resource-oriented journey is coming to a close — and everything else gets to be personal.

breaking the nine of pentacles down into smaller pieces gives us the number nine (which we’ll be exploring in much more detail for paid subscribers tomorrow, as this month is positively drowning in nines) and the element of earth. nine as the final number of the pythagorean numerological cycle, as the culmination and the release, as advancement and attainment and truth. nine as contemplation, change, detachment. nine as awakenings, transformations, preparations for the next shift. 

and earth as the themes we’ve been exploring all year long: resources like time, space, energy, inspiration, support, privacy, health, wealth, attention. anything physical and tangible, the building blocks of our daily life. earth as the senses and the sensual, the felt and the tasted, the ways we interact with the world around us. earth as experience, patience, balance. earth as boundaries, support, intention, responsibility. earth as priorities, values, legacy.

together, this card finds us as the end of the cycle of pentacles, the natural conclusion to the story we’ve been telling and the work we’ve been doing. whatever seed was planted with the ace has grown into something worthy of reaping, something worthy of our attention, something that requires effort and skill to fully take advantage of. we hold this treasure with both hands, understanding that we have worked hard to make this thing, and also knowing that this particular journey is coming to an end. and we may already be starting to consider what our attention is moving towards, what we might want to invest in next — this card also holds the recognition that endings invite new beginnings, that the chapter we've been writing is complete.

this isn't just contemplation and observation, quiet satisfaction and gentle peace. this is also the labor, the effort, the work of severing and synthesizing all that has occurred. both sides of this coin exist within the nine of pentacles — and both meanings are important to our workings with this card.

what happens when we let this card contain both awareness in a journey ending, and relief that it's over? what does it mean to feel both satisfaction with our present and simultaneously, a deep yearning to move on? how do we hold both pride for what we have in our hands, and anticipation for new things we’re going to soon be reaching for?

listen, everybody is having a tough time right now. not only with the mental and emotional load of The Horrors which continue to grow in number and scope every single day — genocides and holocausts, starvation and bombs, shootings and arrests and endless violence — but also with rising costs and slashed social programs, the increasing challenges of being a person trying to get their basic needs met. at this particular moment, in september 2025, the abundance of the nine of pentacles might feel like a party that you weren’t invited to, a success story that you wish you were living.

and while this card can have a lot to say to anyone, i know that for me and a number of other folks in my orbit, this card holds special meaning: as the small business owner card, the card of self-employment. the nine of pentacles is often depicted with an “i made the life i wanted for myself and isn’t it incredible” vibe that can really resonate with those of us who have started from scratch, built something from the ground up, and continue to do the challenging but deeply rewarding labor of working for ourselves. 

there is so much pride, wonder, power, in creating something that can sustain us; in building our own foundation.

yet with tariffs and rapidly rising prices, with so many people struggling to pay their bills, many small business owners (myself included) are very much not in a nine of pentacles kind of place. every day i see new posts on social media from businesses who can no longer afford the products or materials or labor from overseas that makes their entire business possible. every day i hear of another small or local business shutting down, no longer able to afford the astronomical rent that landlords demand. it’s heartbreaking, terrifying, to see people who once could make a living for themselves having to surrender their business and do something else to survive.

in this way, the nine of pentacles really is the perfect small business owner card: because it represents not just the highs of success and satisfaction and stability, but also the lows of detachment and release and ending. working for yourself is always both, pride and fear and security and instability all at once.

i don't say this to elicit pity, or to bum you out, or to hint that 3am.tarot is closing. (it's not, i promise.) i started officially offering paid tarot services back in 2019, not thinking anyone would actually want to book readings with me —and it's blown my mind what 3am.tarot has become. books and podcasts, newsletters and collaborations, memberships and subscriptions, interviews and challenges — so much has grown out of my personal tarot work, and i'm beyond grateful that i can support myself in this way, doing something i love that i know also has tremendous value.

again, i don't say any of this because i want you to feel sorry for me, or guilty if you can't buy something from me right now. i say this because times are really fucking rough, and your favorite local businesses and self-employed creators are stressed and scared. i say this because working for yourself is a joy as well as an incredible burden. i say this because the nine of pentacles is able to hold all of this simultaneously, and can really represent the wonder and the effort required in bringing a long-term vision to its true culmination: the highs and lows, the joys and sorrows, the victories and the losses.

a cycle and chapter is ending, which can mean so many things at once.

not every business or service is meant to live forever. not every plant can endlessly fruit. not every pentacles journey ends in a resounding, wealthy success. sometimes this card offers us the grace and comfort of a real ending, a true harvest, before we move into the rest and recovery necessary to plan our next journey or goal. sometimes this card acknowledges that we've been working really hard towards something that is now finished, and gives us space to hold onto our emotions and sensations, our needs and our desires, in equal measure. and sometimes this card gives us permission to close something down, and consider what our next cycle or goal needs to be.

the nine of pentacles isn't only for times of plenty, but also times of scarcity — and this, too, is sacred. this, too, is part of the earth cycle.

everyone reads tarot differently, which means that your perspective on this card might be very different than mine. since i don't read reversals in my personal tarot practice, i tend to interpret every single card in a more dualistic way. there is light and shadow, magic and mischief, joy and grief within every single card — and i like it that way.

and what that means is that if what you need right now is to focus on the stability of the nine of pentacles, the abundance and safety and triumph that this card can hold, by all means do so. our joys are few, and if you are lucky enough to be in a position of security and celebration, if you are at the end of an abundant and successful season, you should absolutely soak up every possible bit of that energy.

but if the nine of pentacles feels impossibly out of reach today, if you're checking your bank statements against your bills every month with a sense of growing dread, if you're wondering how you're going to keep your business going in these very lean times, this card also has medicine, insight, care, and space for you. no matter how this current journey of pentacles is going for you, whether you're a place of feast or famine, nine means that the cycle is complete. and isn't that a gift, that a shift is on the horizon? isn't that a wonder, that the one true constant is change?

endings and loss are not unnatural. it’s far stranger to expect endless uninterrupted growth, to pressure a plant to produce year-round, to believe that every chance we take or goal we set will succeed. the nine of pentacles is the harvest in all of its fullness and complexity, the final stage of reaping and recovery, and an acknowledgement of what we have labored for — alongside the promise that a new opportunity to try again is soon at hand. hard work isn't a guarantee of wealth (if it was, we would all be billionaires and elon musk would be penniless), and there can be grief and pain in a harvest that isn't as satisfying as we'd dreamed of, which must also be honored.

the nine of pentacles reminds us that we always have another chance to grow something, that springtime will come again, that new seeds are still available and just waiting to be planted.

my tarot business is not closing, but it is in a place where i have to make some adjustments in order to support myself in this changing economy. i'm running new long-term creative containers with my wife that feel like they're pulsing with magic and richness in every session. i'm giving myself permission to put CARD TALK on hiatus, to consider taking an extension on my next book. i'm slowly building my grief container in spite of my fears that i won't have enough clients sign up to compensate for the emotional labor and time that it will require to manage. i'm offering private mentorships and making plans to expand the conservatory and trying new things, experimenting and exploring, bringing big magician energy into this transitional hermit year.

and perhaps the next pentacles chapter, the next earth cycle, will bring more bounty. perhaps the next harvest will be even bigger than this one, for all of us. all we can do is recognize what we have accomplished, celebrate where we can, grieve what we need to, and consider which seeds we will plant when the time comes.

i'm not sure where this essay is finding you. maybe you're rejoicing, maybe you're grieving, maybe you're doing both simultaneously. but as we move into september and harvest season, as the leather jackets and spiced ciders start to come out of retirement, i want you to consider: what does harvest mean to you, right now? what have you sown, and what are you now reaping? 

at the top of this year, what did you decide to invest in, and how has that investment grown? how has it changed you to pour energy and resources and effort into this goal? what has it become, and is it still growing? are you proud, disappointed, encouraged, frustrated? do you have enough, more than enough, or are you finding ways to get by with less?

and as you acknowledge and honor all of the work you've put into building something stabilizing for yourself, how can you celebrate your achievement and recognize upcoming change in equal measure? how can you allow this energy to be all that it is, and all that it could be? how can you let the nine of pentacles encompass every version of this story, and receive whatever medicine it might be extending in this moment?

wishing you a safe, supported, honest, and celebratory september, friends. i'll be back tomorrow with more on the numerology for september 2025, and will also have a few more pieces throughout the month on the nine of pentacles. if you don't want to miss a thing, upgrade your subscription to get every spread, essay, and resource i share.

as i mentioned, it's rough out here — so if you love what i do, i would so appreciate it if you could forward a favorite essay of mine to a friend, share about my work and books on social media, leave a review for TAROT SPREADS on amazon and goodreads, or check out my conservatory membership program. every purchase and every share truly help me survive as a queer, trans, disabled person in an increasingly hostile country. thank you for being here, for reading, and for valuing my work.