posted September 09, 2012 07:33 PM
If it was a one card reading then4 of pentacles is about someone holding on too tight, or they have alterior motives and maybe are sitting on things until they work out if the person satisfies certain criteriia, or they may be bypassing any hope of success and just taking what they can get - so they might even be a bit pushy with trying to have a quick consummation because they think that's the best they can get. So it can be taking advantage of the circumstances, or it can be a longer term type of wanting to control and possess.
If the general question was how does 'sam' feel about 'sara'
the 4 of pentacles would generally mean that sam would have a lot of insecurities about being able to 'get' sara and 'keep' her, he would probably be cynical and sarcastic and think that she won't like the ones that he already holds dear, and she won't like who he is over time, so he'll want to set in motion some kind of dominion over her. He might try to somehow change and influence her to subtley make her more like the kind of person that he would feel more secure with, or he could try to keep tabs on her and make sure she is where she either says she is or where he wants her to be. For example, if he had to go to work and she had a day off he might say things like why don't you go out for the day and go shopping with his mother, or maybe he might say that he was going to call her at his first break, and when he did he would be asking her casually things like what was on tv and did she have music on etc, and anything to sus her out and maybe he could check/verify later - to make sure she was where he wanted her to be.
or depending on other things about the guy, he could be way past this level of manipulation and control and be totally playing a high stakes long term means at aquiring a that person and if over the long term he for some reason starts to lose interest, this would be when you get the confused dynamic of a person that doesn't want you but doesn't want anyone else to have you, or doesn't want to be committed to you but likes to come in and out of your life and influence your attitude to other people in your life etc.
In the major arcana, the emperor can have similar connotations, but the emperor has a lot more going on and everything is cranked up to a more powerful domination and more of a far reaching influence, and the emperor would expect the other person to kow tow to them more, and that they would have other options so if the object of desire didn't come up to par, then there was always others or other ways of skinning a cat.