Queen of Pentacles
The queen of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a queen enthroned, contemplating the pentacle in her lap. A. E. Waite read it as opulence, generosity, security and liberty.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "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."
What does the Queen of Pentacles mean?
Waite's meanings are "opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty"; reversed, "evil, suspicion, suspense, fear, mistrust". His list of additional meanings adds "dark woman; presents from a rich relative; rich and happy marriage for a young man", and reversed, "an illness".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is danari, money: the earliest suit marks, the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 records, were coppe, danari, bastoni and spade, "cups, money, clubs, and swords". Waite noted that "in many old Tarot packs this suit stood for current coin, money, deniers". Papus reads it as "a fair woman, indifferent or inimical".
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
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research