The suit of pentacles is the earth suit, and it covers money, the body, the house, and the work as work, everything you can put your hands on and everything that has to be paid for. The pentacle itself is a coin with a five pointed star pressed into it, and it turns up on every card in the suit as something being offered, weighed, clutched, carved or grown.
It is the least dramatic suit and the most useful one, because its cards are about things that can be done before dinner. Fourteen pentacles run from the first coin held out to a household with three generations in it, which takes a while, and the suit is honest about the while.
Earth, money, the body and the home
Earth is slow and it holds what you put in it, and the suit of pentacles has the same two qualities. The picture for the whole suit is the unopened mail beside the kettle, there since Tuesday, because most pentacles questions are about a plain thing that would take four minutes to face and has been given a week of avoiding instead. The suit also covers the body, which people forget until a pentacle turns up in a question about work and turns out to be about sleep.
The suit of pentacles from ace to king
The Ace of Pentacles is a hand holding out a single coin above a garden, the offer of something you can build on, a job, a lease, a first payment. The Two is a young man juggling two coins in a loop, keeping two things going at once, and the Three is an apprentice on a bench in a cathedral, work good enough to be discussed. The Four of Pentacles is a man with a coin clutched to his chest, holding what he has so hard that nothing new can be picked up, and the Five is two people in the snow passing a lit window, short of money or company or both, with help closer than it looks.
The Six is a merchant with a set of scales giving coins to two kneeling figures, and asks which of the three you are. The Seven of Pentacles is a man leaning on his hoe looking at a vine with seven coins on it, and the Eight is an apprentice carving coins, the same task done well enough times to become skill. The Nine is a woman on her own in the garden she planted, and the Ten of Pentacles is an old man with his dogs and his family under an archway, the full household.
The four people are earth at four ages. The Page holds a coin up to the light, the beginner who wants to learn the trade properly, and the Knight sits on a black horse that is not moving, the slowest card in the deck and the most reliable. The Queen sits in a garden with a rabbit at her feet, the one who makes sure everyone has eaten, and the King sits with his coin on his knee, provision that has become a kind of quiet.
The fourteen cards of the suit of pentacles
- Ace of Pentacles new opportunity, solid ground, practical start
- Two of Pentacles balance, juggling, flexibility
- Three of Pentacles collaboration, craftsmanship, teamwork
- Four of Pentacles security, saving, holding on
- Five of Pentacles hardship, feeling left out, worry
- Six of Pentacles generosity, support, fair exchange
- Seven of Pentacles patience, assessment, long view
- Eight of Pentacles practice, craft, focus
- Nine of Pentacles self-sufficiency, earned comfort, independence
- Ten of Pentacles family, home, lasting security
- Page of Pentacles study, curiosity, beginner's focus
- Knight of Pentacles reliability, routine, patience
- Queen of Pentacles practical care, warmth, resourcefulness
- King of Pentacles stability, mastery, good management
The slow cards
Three cards in the suit of pentacles are about waiting, and people draw them when they wanted movement. The Seven is the vine that is growing whether or not you can see it today, and its honest question is whether the standing and looking is patience or stalling. The Eight is the tedium that becomes competence, and the Knight arrives when he said he would and not a day earlier, so when he turns up three times in a month the deck is describing your speed rather than announcing a visitor.
Money questions the cards cannot answer
The plain thing to say is that no card can see whether the money will come or whether you will get the job, and a reader who tells you otherwise is guessing. We are not financial advisors and neither are the cards. What the suit can see is your side of the money: the envelope not opened, the money conversation with your partner that keeps being postponed, the number you have not actually written down, and every item on that list is a thing you can do this week. If money has become frightening, a free debt advice line will know more than any card. The money reading is dealt for the side that is yours.
Reversed pentacles
A reversed pentacle is earth turned inward, held up, or loosening. The Four reversed is the grip easing, which feels like loss on the first afternoon and like room by the end of the week, the Five reversed is the cold stretch beginning to ease, and the King reversed is provision that has become control, the one who pays for everything and mentions it. The page on reversed tarot cards sets out the three readings, and none of them is an omen about your bank balance.
Tonight, one envelope
The suit of pentacles asks for one thing more often than any other, which is to look at the number rather than at the feeling about it. So tonight, open the one envelope or unread bank message you have been walking past, read it to the end, and write the single figure that matters on a sticky note for tomorrow. A number you have seen is one you can start on, which the earth suit has been saying since the ace.
Questions people ask
What does the suit of pentacles represent in tarot?
Earth, which in a life is money, the body, the house and the work as work. Pentacles are the practical suit, the cards about things you can put your hands on and things that have to be paid for, and they move slowly because those things do. They are the least dramatic cards in the deck and the ones most likely to hand you something to do before dinner.
Can the pentacles tell me if I will get money?
No. No card can see whether money will arrive or whether an investment will pay, and a reader who says otherwise is guessing. What the pentacles can see is your side of the money, the envelope unopened, the number not written down, the conversation postponed, and each of those is something you can do this week. If money is frightening, a free debt advice line knows more than any card.
What does it mean to draw a lot of pentacles?
That the question is more practical than you made it sound. Three pentacles in a three card spread say the situation is about money, the body, the home or the work, and that it will move at the pace those things move, slowly and reliably. Look at the numbers for where you are, then for the one card that is not a pentacle, because that is usually the feeling underneath.