Pushing Extremes -- Giving vs. Receiving

The 6 of Pentacles
One of the Tarot cards, the Six of Pentacles, portrays a rich man giving money to beggars.

This card talks about giving and receiving. The wealthy man is tossing coins with one hand, while in the other he is holding a balanced scale.

The most clear interpretation is that the person who has too much gives to the ones who have too little, thus creating balance in society.

Whereas in a relationship reading, the Six of Pentacles urges us to take a closer look at how much we give and receive. This applies to money and tangible things, but also to love, attention, and communication.

Opposites Giving : Receiving are crucial for relationships. They are  even more important for romantic connections, the success of which depends on an unhindered flow of attention, love, money, communication and sexual energy between partners.

This is why Giving : Receiving, as a karmic pattern, rules love lives of many. At the deepest level, all their ‘love games’ revolve around these opposites.
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Until they integrate Giving and Receiving, they tend to give too little or too much to their partners.

An Unfair Game
In many cultures, including ours, giving is considered noble and spiritually evolved. Whereas receiving is frowned on and often brings with it shame and guilt.
This is why some people, who are eager to make their relationship work, sacrifice everything for their partner. But they often get nothing in return.

Even worse: their partner may betray them, steal from them, or cheat on them. So the ‘extreme givers’ are left in shock: how is it possible that they were treated so unfairly?

I wrote about a similar phenomenon in my previous post: Hippolytus, the protagonist of Euripides’ tragedy with the same name, is shocked at being punished 'for all his virtue.'
Euripides lets us see through Hippolytus’ fate that too much of a good thing leads to trouble.

At the spiritual level, relationships are games. If you give too little, the game will be too difficult for your partner, and sooner or later they will collapse under its burden.
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But if you give too much--if you do all the work--they will become bored.

Contrary to what one might expect, you’re not doing any favors to those to whom you give too much. We value the things we have to work for—as working for something entails making an effort and overcoming obstacles to achieve it.

Which is how we evolve spiritually.

So when we give too much, we are robbing our partner of the chance to truly experience the giving pole.
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In the words of Rabbi Dessler: “We don't do for the people we love so much as we love those for whom we do.”

For relationships to function well, there needs to be an equal balance of give and take.

​Three pentacles on each side of the scale.