Pentacles in tarot: the 14 cards and their meaning

Pentacles are the suit of the concrete: work, money, and everything you build to last.

concrete
work
lasting

The essentials

Pentacles at a glance

For you

When pentacles dominate a spread, the question is material: a job, resources, a project to make last.

Element: Earth
Domain: The concrete, the body, and resources
Rider-Waite: Pentacles
Cards: 10 numbered, 4 court cards

Pentacles in a reading

Many cards from the suit
Many pentacles in a spread turn the reading toward everyday life: work, resources, habits, everything that is established little by little. The suit speaks of a way of acting, never of money advice.
A single card from the suit
A single pentacle anchors the reading in the concrete: a gesture to take up again, an effort to continue, a base to check. Its meaning becomes clearer through the card’s position and the cards touching it.
With the Major Arcana
With a Major Arcana, a pentacle gives substance to the grand theme: it shows what can be done today, through simple and regular actions, to make it exist.

Wands Cups Swords

From ace to ten

The progression from 1 to 10

The ace lays down the coin like a seed, the following cards make it bear fruit, wear down, or be shared, and the ten shows its foundation: the path from a gesture to what it sets in place.

The court cards

Four ways to act

Four court cards, four ways of working with matter: learning, persevering, maintaining, managing, depending on whether you are page, knight, queen, or king. They are ways of acting, not portraits.

Rider-Waite: drawings by Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Images resized and compressed by Versana; Marseille Minor Arcana diagrams and card back drawn by Versana.

Frequently asked questions about the Pentacles

What do the Pentacles represent in tarot?

Pentacles are the suit of the concrete: the suit of work, resources, and lasting things. They speak of what is built patiently, of upkeep, of the material you work. The numbered cards each shed light on a stage of it, and the court cards on a way of going about it.

Which element goes with the Pentacles?

Pentacles are associated with earth, the element of the solid and of what supports. This traditional reference helps in remembering the orientation of the group, but it is not applied to each court card and holds only as a point of support for the reading.

How do you read the progression from ace to ten?

In numerical order, the sequence tells the life of an undertaking: a seed, growth, trials of patience, then a foundation. Many readers see a path of maturing in it. Each card sheds light on one moment, which the spread then places.