Skin-Deep Sovereignty

Embodying the Queen of Pentacles

There is a moment in a particular somatic practice that feels so close to the sacred: when I feather my awareness into my skin. Not in am abstract way, but when my skin becomes both the giver and receiver of sensation. When it drinks in the space around me. When I begin to feel the textures of air, sound, and energy brushing up against my body. In these moments, I come into contact with what feels like the edges of my being; though the word edges may be misleading. My skin reveals, not a boundary, but a permeable surface. It is through the skin that I first learned I am not separate.

In that space, I become like an orca gliding through water, extending its awareness outward in waves. I send my perception beyond myself, like a form of echo location. And what comes back is not mere data; it is recognition. My skin receives subtle messages of memory, familiarity, even divinity. What returns to me is not just the world, but the sacredness of being in relationship with it.

Somatic practices, for me, have been a profound gateway into this awareness. I have found that each part of the body carries its own form of intelligence. What do my lungs have to teach me about spaciousness? What does my spine have to teach me about boundaries? What can I understand about the relationship between embodied choice and the kidneys?

But, again and again, it is the skin that draws me into the wordless and transcendent. Practices that invite the skin to come alive always bring me into presence; not just within myself, but with the interconnected field of all things.

This embodied awareness highlights, with brilliant clarity, how every every choice, every gesture, ripples out in the wider world; and how I, in turn, can better attune to the ripples that meet me.

Naturally, this experience finds a home for me in the tarot; especially through the lens of the Queen of Pentacles.

The Sensation Function and the Pentacles

In the language of depth psychology, the suit of Pentacles aligns with what Carl Jung termed the Sensation Function. That is, our capacity to perceive reality directly through the senses. Unlike intuition or emotion, sensation doesn’t interpret or judge; it simply experiences what is. It grounds us in the tangible, the embodied, the present.

While the Pentacles are often pushed into the realm of only health and wealth, the depth psychological perspective offers us a deeper understanding of what the Pentacles can offer us. They guide us to the everyday magic of lived experience; the quiet intelligence of the body, the feel of fabric, the weight of breath, the scent of the earth. They ask: What is here? What is real? What can be felt in this moment, without needing to name or explain it?

The Pentacles offer us a chance to reflect on our presence in this life to a full range of embodied experiences and physical creativity. When we become fully embodied in our present experience, we can start to see the magic in the mundane. While other suits explore our inner landscapes; thought (Swords), emotion (Cups), intuition and Dharma (Wands), the Pentacles bring us back to the interface between body and world. They ground us in physicality, and in doing so, open a portal to presence.

The Queen as Embodied Wisdom

Among the court cards, the Queens represent a mature expression of the yin principle; receptive, attuned and quietly powerful. While considered as introverted, I prefer to think of the Queens as deeply relational. Their orientation is not toward the internal, but toward meaningful interaction with the world around them. As the mature yin expression, they tap into the power of relating and loving wisdom and allows us to see how all four functions can be experienced through the lens of the feminine and the relational.

The Queen of Pentacles, in particular, embodies the art of full-body listening. She is present with what is real. She invites us into ritual and rhythm, care and connection. She tends to the tangible with reverence. Her strength lies not in force, but in her capacity to hold and to respond; to meet the world with both feet on the ground and a heart open to wonder. In many ways, she is the archetype of somatic presence. She doesn’t bypass the body to reach the spiritual; she honours the body as spiritual. For her, the act of living in a body is already sacred.

Skin as Sacred Threshold

It makes sense, then, that the embodied essence of the Queen of Pentacles, is the skin. It is our relational and perceptive interface with the external; both a boundary and a bridge. Through the skin, we express care, pleasure, comfort, and boundary. It is where the self meets the other.

When we come into relationship with our skin; not to change it or fix it, but simply to feel through it, we begin to experience our wholeness differently. We sense how interconnected we are. We begin to understand that embodiment is not just about being in a body, but being in contact; with space, with other people, with the ground beneath us.

The Queen of Pentacles reminds us that presence is sacred. That tending to our body is not indulgent; it is devotional. That when we touch the world through the skin, we are also touched in return.

A Final Reflection

If you were to draw the Queen of Pentacles today, I’d invite you to feel into her through your skin. Not to analyse her meaning through key words, but to embody her through the skin. Let your hands touch something soft. Let your breath move slowly. Let yourself feel the space around your body as alive and relational.

Your skin remembers something you may have forgotten:
You are not separate. You are held.