The Suit of Pentacles

Earth, practical matters and the long haul

Pentacles are linked to the element of earth. They speak of what you can touch: money, work, your home, possessions, skills. This is the suit of security and patient building. It moves slowly, but what it builds lasts.

What the Marseille Pentacles look like

In the Marseille Tarot, this suit is drawn as golden coins, each decorated with a flower or a rosette in the center. On the numbered cards, they're linked by stems and leaves growing between them. The Two is the odd one out: its two coins are wrapped in a long ribbon, where card makers often wrote their name. The Ace shows a large ornate coin surrounded by greenery.

From Ace to Ten

• Ace of Pentacles: a concrete opportunity, a fresh start on the material side.
• Two of Pentacles: you juggle several priorities and adapt.
• Three of Pentacles: a job well done, craftsmanship, teamwork.
• Four of Pentacles: security, saving, the need to hold on.
• Five of Pentacles: a time of lack, when support from others matters.
• Six of Pentacles: generosity, sharing, a fair exchange.
• Seven of Pentacles: patience. You weigh up what you've sown before the harvest.
• Eight of Pentacles: careful work, learning, steady progress.
• Nine of Pentacles: personal success, comfort, independence.
• Ten of Pentacles: lasting prosperity, family, what gets passed down.

The four court cards

• Page of Pentacles: study, a practical project, an opportunity to grab.
• Knight of Pentacles: perseverance, slow but steady progress.
• Queen of Pentacles: a generous, practical and protective person.
• King of Pentacles: material success, security, mastery.

A reading dominated by Pentacles

Lots of Pentacles: your question has a material side, even if it doesn't say so. Budget, housing, working conditions, the time you have available. This suit asks you to be practical: what counts is what you do, not what you intend. It describes a trend, not an amount, and no card replaces doing the actual math.

Pentacles in love and at work

In love, Pentacles speak of solid ground: settling down, building a home, sharing a life plan. Less passion than Wands, more reliability. At work, this is the suit of your trade, your skills and step-by-step progress. The Eight of Pentacles, the card of learning, is a good sign for a training course or a new job. To go further, do a career reading.