The Eight of Pentacles represents intelligence on the bodily-practical level of human expression. Eight of Pentacles upright: pragmatism. Eight of Pentacles reversed: lack of pragmatism.
The respective faculty of consciousness is practical intelligence.
We use practical intelligence to get our jobs done and manage our lives. This is where the secondary meanings of skill in the management of material affairs and industry come from.
The Eight of Pentacles also signifies practical knowledge, the ability to use knowledge, and to learn from experiences. We tend to curse our challenges. Instead, we should ask ourselves, “What do I need to learn to overcome this challenge?” This is where the secondary meanings of apprenticeship, expertise, and scholarship come from.
Society reduces the need to fight for survival. Earning money has replaced the fight for survival, and most of our material issues have become money issues. Practical intelligence rules money management, which should be rational. This is where the secondary meanings of gain of ready money in small sums, penny wisdom, and pound foolishness come from.
During leisure time, practical intelligence expresses through curiosity and playfulness. Its favorite pastime is solving riddles. According to Friedrich Schiller, the play drive is the most powerful human drive.
Did it ever happen to you that you were so upset that you couldn’t think straight? That happens when emotions overpower intelligence. Hence, the Eight of Pentacles calls for prudence: the ability to keep one’s cool in stressful situations. Ever heard of Stoicism? That’s the philosophy of prudence.
In the context of dealing with experiences, the Eight of Pentacles signifies perception, which comes after sense impressions and recognition. This is how it works: sense impressions (Ten of Pentacles) → recognition (Nine of Pentacles) → perception (Eight of Pentacles). Recognition is a subconscious process that detects and labels something the senses report, like recognizing an apple. Perception is a conscious process that makes sense of what we recognize. For instance, we may perceive that an apple is rotten and unhealthy to eat.
An auspicious Eight of Pentacles calls for using practical intelligence with a social conscience. The rule is simple: Use any means necessary to achieve what you want, except at the expense of someone or something else.
Since intelligence has an inclination toward manipulation, an inauspicious Eight of Pentacles may indicate that the querent is fond of intrigues. The extreme of this is Machiavellianism. This is where the secondary meanings of meanness in money matters and the temptation to overreach somebody come from. A neighboring inauspicious of Pentacles (greed) would confirm such a reading.
An inauspicious Eight of Pentacles may also signify an urge to play with fire, superficial perception, and excessive curiosity, like prying, nosiness, or stalking.
Eight of Pentacles Symbolism
The eight pentacles in the picture form an eight-spoked wheel.
Think of this wheel as a symbol of a practical rolling toward a goal.
In Buddhism, the eight-spoked wheel symbolizes the noble, eight-fold path. The corresponding eight virtuous practices prevent the intellect from bending or breaking rules.
The eight noble practices are: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi (receptivity to the higher self).
On the bodily-practical level, the noble path encompasses right speech, right conduct, and right livelihood. Following these rules will prevent you from justifying means with ends.
The Five Psychological Core Meanings of the Eight of Pentacles
We derive the psychological meanings of Tarot cards from their position on the Tree of Life. In the Enlightenment Tarot framework, the Eight of Pentacles represents Hod of Malkuth, i.e., intelligence on the bodily-practical level of human expression.
Every Tarot card represents a faculty or power of consciousness. We can use faculties of consciousness constructively and destructively, which produces either a fortunate or an adverse state of mind. Hence, every Tarot card has five core meanings.
These are the five core meanings of the Eight of Pentacles:
- Power of consciousness: Practical intelligence
- Constructive use: Prudence, pragmatism
- Unconstructive use: Imprudence, lack of pragmatism
- Auspicious state of mind: Confidence, know-how
- Inauspicious state of mind: A lack of confidence, insecurities
Reflective Questions
If the Eight of Pentacles appears in your spread, it may be beneficial to ask yourself the following questions:
- What knowledge and skills do you need to overcome your current challenge?
- How do you usually respond to obstacles: with a complaint or by asking the right questions?
- When did emotions run high while handling money decisions?
- In which cases did rational choices protect you from future problems?
- In moments of stress, what helps you keep clarity and composure, and how can you improve this?
- Where do curiosity and play show up in your daily life outside of obligation?
- In which situations does your intellect slip into control, manipulation, or intrigue?
- What would it mean for you to pursue your goals without cost to others or yourself?
Eight of Pentacles Summary
The Eight of Pentacles teaches that calm perception, constructive intelligence, and the willingness to learn from challenges promote success.
Where Do Tarot Card Meanings Actually Come From?
The meanings of Tarot cards come from various sources. The most common are:
- The position of the Tarot cards on the Tree of Life
- Astrological correspondences (signs, planets, & houses)
- The symbolism of Tarot cards
- Intuition
- Meanings that pertain to fortune-telling
Most of the Tarot card meanings you can google are astrological correspondences and go back to the Golden Dawn and Arthur Edward Waite. Astrological meanings have dominated because Astrology favors fortune-telling. But Astrological meanings are unsuitable for (psychological) Tarot readings.
If you are interested in an overview of the astrological correspondences, you can download a high-resolution chart by subscribing to the Enlightenment Tarot.
Tarot card meanings are a bit of a mess since the meanings that pertain to their position on the Tree of Life mingle with astrological correspondences, symbolic interpretations, and fortune-telling connotations. That’s tedious to memorize. Further, tarotists’ opinions, knowledge, and linguistic backgrounds shaped some of these interpretations. Last but not least, many meanings are fuzzy, contradictory, and overlapping. If you want to understand why they overlap, read the article How to Deal With the Overlapping Meanings of Tarot Cards.
The meanings of the Enlightenment Tarot are based on an objective and holistic framework: the Tree of Life and the four levels of human expression. The resulting meanings are transparent and logical and, hence, easier to memorize.
What Various Tarotists Say About the Meanings of the Eight of Pentacles
Let’s explore what various tarotists wrote about the Eight of Pentacles.
Tarotists emphasize the astrological significance of Tarot cards since these lend themselves to divination and fortune-telling.
The Eight of Pentacles corresponds to the first decanate of Virgo, ruled by Mercury, which is also exalted in Virgo. Hence, Virgo has a strong intellectual inclination, but unlike Gemini, these express more through literacy, scholarship, and execution.
The main Virgo characteristics are: serving, industrious, and discerning.
The corresponding Tarot card is the Attainment card. The hermit holds up the light of ageless wisdom. This light symbolizes the responsibility we have toward mankind and our own evolution.
Virgo rules the sixth house, the house of responsibilities and routines, aka the house of health. This house governs employment and other services that we provide. This includes health matters — the responsibilities we have toward our bodies and minds. This house also governs literacy and the knowledge we need to assume our responsibilities. Virgo rules the abdomen and digestive system.
What Paul Foster Case Said About the Meanings of the Eight of Pentacles
For the Eight of Pentacles, Paul Foster Case proposed the keyword prudence (composure).
Prudence includes skills in the management of material affairs (Virgo), industriousness (Virgo), gain in subordinate positions through writing (the 6th house), clerical work or travel, and the steady gain of money in small sums (Virgo).
An inauspicious Eight of Pentacles can signify avarice, hoarding, penny-wise, pound-foolishness, meanness in money matters, and loss through travel or writing (sixth house).
If the Eight of Pentacles appears in a spread, the querent is likely to have difficulties with superiors or inferiors (the 6th house), and she may lose by trying to overreach someone else (the 6th house).
As mentioned, Virgo is an intellectual sign, and an unbalanced intellect may cause pedantry, manipulation, and pettyism.
What Arthur Edward Waite Said About the Meanings of the Eight of Pentacles
Arthur Edward Waite believed the Eight of Pentacles signifies work and employment (the 6th house), and commission (earnings through employment).
Arthur added that it may also signify craftsmanship and skill in craft and business, but in a preparatory stage. This is questionable since craft is more of a Taurian talent. But it could imply intelligence in business and the exercising of craft, meaning talent in solving crafting challenges.
The picture shows a craftsman carving a pentagram onto coins. The pentagram symbolised the soul’s rulership over the four mental faculties: intention, imagination, thinking, and action/speech. Hence, the pentagram symbolizes purposeful practicality, which prevents materialism.
An inauspicious Eight of Pentacles, on the other hand, may hint at voided ambition, vanity, greed, extortion, intrigue, and loan sharking. It may also signify the cunning use of skills. These meanings pertain to manipulative intelligence, in particular, in money matters.
Arthur believed this card can represent a person, too, i.e., a dark girl or a young businessman, who has relations with the querent. How he arrived at a dark girl is unclear. The connection to the court cards is the Knight of Pentacles, which is a young, practical man.
Last but not least, this card may foretell that the querent may be compromised in a matter of money-lending.
What Etteilla Said About the Meanings of the Eight of Pentacles
Etteilla, a French occultist, wrote that the Eight of Pentacles may signify a pleasant girl (the opposite of a dark girl) or avarice.
Avarice is an excessive monetary ambition, which Etteilla might have derived from the sixth house connection, which seems far-fetched.
Why the Eight of Pentacles shall foretell a pleasant girl is unclear. As mentioned, the connection to the court cards is the Knight of Pentacles.
What Papus Said About the Meanings of the Eight of Pentacles
Papus, another French occultist and the founder of the Martinist Order, wrote that this card may foretell partial success or, if inauspicious, a great loss of money at the last moment.
What Gregor Mather Said About the Meanings of the Eight of Pentacles
Gregor Mather, the founder of the Golden Dawn, also believed that an auspicious Eight of Pentacles foretells the appearance of a dark girl, but may also signify beauty, honesty, chastity, innocence, and modesty. Beauty feels off – since it’s the title of the sixth sphere on the Tree of Life – but we could consider the latter four meanings as Virgo talents.
An inauspicious Eight of Pentacles may foretell flattery, loan-sharking, hypocrisy, and shiftiness. All these are negative intellectual expressions.
What Mme. Le Marchand Said About the Meanings of the Eight of Pentacles
Mme. Le Marchand, a celebrated 19th-century Parisian fortuneteller, believed that the Eight of Pentacles may foretell that what the querent dreams on the night between Friday and Saturday will become true.
In another scenario, the card may suggest that if the querent does the contrary to what someone whispers in her ear, she will have good luck.
This card shall also foretell the prosperous course of any business undertaking, a bountiful harvest, or a fruitful marriage. Business seems off, since it is a matter of the 10th house. Harvest is a fitting meaning, since the Attainment card represents Virgo. Its number is nine, whose numerological meaning is completion. Marriage seems off, too, since marriage is a matter of the 7th house.
The Psychological Framework of the Enlightenment Tarot
Every Tarot card represents a faculty of consciousness. We can use faculties of consciousness constructively and destructively. This produces favorable and adverse experiences.
We can express faculties of consciousness on four levels:
- The spiritual level (wands/fire/intention)
- The creative-feely level (cups/water/imagination)
- The intellectual level (swords/air/intelligence)
- The bodily level (pentacles/earth/bodily action)
The four tools on the magician’s table symbolize these four levels:
- The wand (spiritual)
- The cup (creative-feely)
- The sword (intellectual)
- The pentagram (bodily)
These tools correspond to the four so-called elements: fire, water, air, and earth.
For this reason, the Enlightenment Tarot wands are made of fire, the cups consist of water, and the pentacles are composed of earth. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to illustrate something made of air, since air is invisible. For that reason, all swords are made of crystal to show at least transparency.
The Enlightenment Tarot derives its meaning from the Tree of Life and the four levels of human expression. This is an objective holistic framework that reveals the psychological imports of Tarot cards and their faculties of consciousness. Read more about this framework in the article The Psychological Framework of the Enlightenment Tarot.
The Enlightenment Tarot project attempts to rediscover the original meanings of the Tarot cards that pertain to their position on the Tree of Life. These meanings are simple, clear, and easy to memorize.
*This framework is compatible with Paul Foster Case’s qabalistic system.
Do you want to learn more About The Enlightenment Tarot?
If you want to delve deep into the psychological meanings of Tarot cards, read the book Tarot of Life.
If you are curious about how the Enlightenment Tarot came about, read this article.
If you are interested in learning how to perform psychological Tarot readings, subscribe to receive a free copy of a guide on how to perform psychological Tarot readings.
If you are looking for a psychological Tarot deck, you have come to the right place. The Enlightenment Tarot derives the cards’ meanings from a holistic and transparent framework that is easy to learn and memorize. All major and minor arcana carry psychological titles, and the court cards display psychological profiles. Have a look at the Enlightenment Tarot deck here.
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This exceptional Tarot deck is based on an objective and holistic psychological framework: the Tree of Life. All minor and major cards feature psychological titles. For example, the Magician has the title ‘Attention’, and the Six of Cups has the title ‘Decision’. The court cards exhibit psychological profiles. For instance, the Queen of Wands stands for a willful woman: generous or stubborn, resolute or revengeful, intense or tyrannical, magnetic or dangerous.