Three of Pentacles
The three of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a sculptor at work in a monastery. A. E. Waite read it as skilled labour, trade, and renown.
Meaning
Waite's description of the picture: "A sculptor at his work in a monastery. Compare the design which illustrates the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice or amateur therein has received his reward and is now at work in earnest."
What does the Three of Pentacles mean?
Waite's meanings are "métier, trade, skilled labour; usually, however, regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory"; reversed, "mediocrity, in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness". His list of additional meanings adds "if for a man, celebrity for his eldest son", and reversed, "depends on neighbouring cards".
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 "Realization of this commencement of fortune. A small sum."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsFour of PentaclesThe 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.
- 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
Added . Last updated .