THE SUIT OF PENTACLES
King
The figure calls for no special description the face is rather dark,
suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency. The bull's
head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this
suit is represented throughout as engraved or blazoned with the pentagram,
typifying the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that
by which they may be governed. In many old Tarot packs this suit stood for
current coin, money, deniers. I have not invented the substitution of
pentacles and I have no special cause to sustain in respect of the
alternative. But the consensus of divinatory meanings is on the side of
some change, because the cards do not happen to deal especially with
questions of money. Divinatory Meanings: Valour, realizing
intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes
mathematical gifts and attainments of this kind; success in these paths.
Reversed: Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.
PENTACLES
Queen
The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed
up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of
intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein.
Divinatory Meanings: Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security,
liberty. Reversed: Evil, suspicion, suspense, fear, mistrust.
PENTACLES
Knight
He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect
corresponds. He exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein.
Divinatory Meanings: Utility, serviceableness, interest,
responsibility, rectitude-all on the normal and external plane.
Reversed: inertia, idleness, repose of that kind, stagnation; also
placidity, discouragement, carelessness.
PENTACLES
Page
A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over
his raised hands. He moves slowly, insensible of that which is about him.
Divinatory Meanings: Application, study, scholarship, reflection
another reading says news, messages and the bringer thereof; also rule,
management. Reversed: Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury;
unfavourable news.
PENTACLES
Ten
A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and
domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs
accosting an ancient personage seated in the foreground. The child's hand
is on one of them. Divinatory Meanings: Gain, riches; family
matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family. Reversed:
Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry,
pension.
PENTACLES
Nine
A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of
grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain,
suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and
testifies to material well-being. Divinatory Meanings: Prudence,
safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment. Reversed:
Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.
PENTACLES
Eight
An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of
trophies. Divinatory Meanings: Work, employment, commission,
craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory
stage. Reversed: Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction,
usury. It may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the
ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.
PENTACLES
Seven
A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles
attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these
were his treasures and that his heart was there. Divinatory Meanings:
These are exceedingly contradictory; in the main, it is a card of money,
business, barter; but one reading gives altercation, quarrels--and another
innocence, ingenuity, purgation. Reversed: Cause for anxiety
regarding money which it may be proposed to lend.
PENTACLES
Six
A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales
and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his
own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart. Divinatory
Meanings: Presents, gifts, gratification another account says
attention, vigilance now is the accepted time, present prosperity, etc.
Reversed: Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion.
PENTACLES
Five
Two mendicants in a snow-storm pass a lighted casement. Divinatory
Meanings: The card foretells material trouble above all, whether in
the form illustrated--that is, destitution--or otherwise. For some
cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers-wife, husband, friend,
mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be
harmonized. Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.
PENTACLES
Four
A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with
hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He holds to that which
he has. Divinatory Meanings: The surety of possessions, cleaving to
that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance. Reversed: Suspense,
delay, opposition.
PENTACLES
Three
A sculptor at his work in a monastery. Compare the design which
illustrates the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice or amateur therein has
received his reward and is now at work in earnest. Divinatory Meanings:
Métier, trade, skilled labour; usually, however, regarded as a card
of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory. Reversed: Mediocrity, in
work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness.
PENTACLES
Two
A young man, in the act of dancing, has a pentacle in either hand, and
they are joined by that endless cord which is like the number 8 reversed.
Divinatory Meanings: On the one hand it is represented as a card of
gaiety, recreation and its connexions, which is the subject of the design;
but it is read also as news and messages in writing, as obstacles,
agitation, trouble, embroilment. Reversed: Enforced gaiety,
simulated enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting, composition, letters of
exchange.
PENTACLES
Ace
A hand--issuing, as usual, from a cloud--holds up a pentacle.
Divinatory Meanings: Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also
speedy intelligence; gold. Reversed: The evil side of wealth, bad
intelligence; also great riches. In any case it shews prosperity,
comfortable material conditions, but whether these are of advantage to the
possessor will depend on whether the card is reversed or not.
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