Seven of Pentacles
The seven of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a young man leaning on his staff, looking at seven pentacles on a bush. A. E. Waite read it as money, business and barter.
Meaning
Waite's description of the picture: "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."
What does the Seven of Pentacles mean?
Waite's meanings are "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". His list of additional meanings adds "improved position for a lady's future husband", and reversed, "impatience, apprehension, suspicion".
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 "Success assured. A large fortune."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsEight of PentaclesThe eight of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a craftsman carving pentacles and displaying them like trophies. A. E. Waite read it as work, employment and craftsmanship.
- 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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