Four of Pentacles
The four of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a crowned figure clasping a pentacle, one over his crown and two under his feet. A. E. Waite read it as holding on to possessions, and inheritance.
Meaning
Waite's Key to the Tarot describes the design: "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."
What does the Four of Pentacles mean?
Waite's meanings are "the surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance"; reversed, "suspense, delay, opposition". His list of additional meanings adds "for a bachelor, pleasant news from a lady", and reversed, "observation, hindrances".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is danari, money, one of the four suit marks the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 gives for the earliest cards. Waite noted that "in many old Tarot packs this suit stood for current coin, money, deniers". Papus reads it as "Opposition of fortune. Loss of money."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsFive of PentaclesThe five of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: two beggars in a snowstorm passing a lighted window. A. E. Waite read it as material trouble and destitution.
- The same shape in Historical flagsBennington flagA flag of thirteen stripes, white at the top and bottom, with “76” under an arch of stars in the blue canton, long said to have flown at the Battle of Bennington in 1777. The Bennington Museum, which owns it, dates it to between 1812 and 1830, because it is made entirely of cotton.
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles, letters and numbers, squares and rectangles or stars.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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