Six of Pentacles
The six of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a merchant weighing money in scales and giving it to the needy. A. E. Waite read it as gifts, gratification and present prosperity.
Meaning
In Waite's words: "A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart."
What does the Six of Pentacles mean?
Waite's meanings are "presents, gifts, gratification", another account giving "attention, vigilance" and "present prosperity"; reversed, "desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion". His list of additional meanings adds "the present must not be relied on", and reversed, "A check on the Querent's ambition".
In older decks
Italian packs call the suit danari, money; the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 lists it among the suit marks of the earliest cards. Waite noted that "in many old Tarot packs this suit stood for current coin, money, deniers". Papus reads it as the realization of the opposition, and ruin.
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsSeven of PentaclesThe 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.
- 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
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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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