The Five of Pentacles represents law on the bodily level of human expression. Five of Pentacles upright: consideration. Five of Pentacles reversed: disregardance.
The Five of Pentacles represents the sphere of law on the bodily-practical level of human expression.
The respective bodily function is the DNA, which rules all organic activities. Breaking laws produces karma. On the bodily level, law-breaking includes things like smoking, alcohol consumption, drug abuse, and sleep neglect.
In the context of practicality, the Five of Pentacles stands for the laws and rules that govern the querent’s circumstances. The laws of the external world are rigid, and we need to adapt to them. Hence, the title adaptation.
If we don’t adapt to circumstances, we end up swimming against currents. This is where the secondary meaning of unnecessary or unrewarded toil comes from.
While the Five of Swords signifies karma through mental actions — that’s the law of attraction — the Five of Pentacles stands for instant karma, the immediate reaction of the external world and people to our actions. This is where the secondary meanings of repercussions, financial issues, poverty, isolation, change for the worse, resistance, struggle, hardship, adversity, and ruin come from.
Karma corrects imbalances and removes unmerited gains. Hence, the Five of Pentacles calls for making peace with our karma. But karma also corrects unwarranted losses. In case the querent’s question pertains to a loss, the Five of Pentacles may call for patience, i.e., waiting for karma to recover a loss.
The emotional reaction to karma is a sense of helplessness. This is where the secondary meanings of worry and insecurity come from. We can overcome emotional reactions to karma by considering that karma is undeviatingly just.
The Five of Pentacles calls for orientation, adaptation to circumstances, and acclimatization to new circumstances. An inauspicious Five of Pentacles hints at the opposite: disorientation and maladaptation. This is where the secondary meanings of trouble through lack of imagination and foresight come from.
Laws don’t do the work for us. We have to walk the walk ourselves. In case the querent’s question pertains to an undertaking, an inauspicious Five of Pentacles may indicate procrastination. That’s what Jim Carrie meant when he said, “You can’t just visualize and then go eat a sandwich.”
An inauspicious Five of Pentacles may also indicate DNA-related challenges, as well as ill-health and unwellness that result from karmic responses to body neglect or maltreatment.
Five of Pentacles Symbolism
The five pentacles in the picture form a pentagon and a pentagram.
We know from the Five of Wands that the pentagram signifies the rulership of the soul over the four basic human faculties: intent, imagination, intelligence, and bodily action.
On the bodily-practical level, the pentagram symbolizes the soul’s ability to apply these five faculties to practical matters. Losing control over one or more mental elements, which happens on a daily basis, causes adversity. Hence, many tarotists consider this card predominantly inauspicious.
The Five Psychological Core Meanings of the Five of Pentacles
We derive the psychological meanings of Tarot cards from their position on the Tree of Life. In the Enlightenment Tarot framework, the Five of Pentacles represents Geburah of Malkuth, i.e., law and karma 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 Five of Pentacles:
- Power of consciousness: Adaptation
- Constructive use: Consideration
- Unconstructive use: Disregardance
- Auspicious state of mind: Acclimatization
- Inauspicious state of mind: Maladaptation
Reflective Questions
If the Five of Pentacles appears in your spread, it may be beneficial to ask yourself the following questions:
- Which circumstances are so powerful that you need to adapt to them, rather than resisting them?
- Which external rules or limits produce boundaries for you, and how can you make them work for you?
- Which of your daily habits support well-being, and which ones don’t?
- In what ways do you respect your body, and in which ways do you abuse it?
- What surprising responses from your environment do your actions produce, and why?
- Which responses to your actions feel out of your control and cause a sense of helplessness?
- What form of consideration toward people, society, and nature could restore balance in your present situation?
- How might acceptance of unwanted karma lead to renewal?
Five of Pentacles Summary
The Five of Pentacles informs us that if we accept and learn from karma, we can establish balance in our lives, which leads to success and wellness.
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 Five of Pentacles
Let’s explore what various tarotists wrote about the Five of Pentacles.
Tarotists emphasize the astrological significance of Tarot cards since these lend themselves to divination and fortune-telling.
The Five of Pentacles corresponds to the first decanate of Taurus, ruled by Venus.
The main Taurian characteristics are: determined, practical, and dutiful.
The corresponding Tarot card is the Intuition or Hierophant card.
Taurus rules the 2nd house, the house of creativity, aka the house of fortune. Fortune is a bit misleading since it pertains to much more than just earning money.
Venus rules Taurus. Taurians are hard-working artisans. We don’t find fortune, we create it. Mind that fortune is a wildcard. For those who are after money, fortune means money. For scientists, fortune means knowledge. For those pursuing enlightenment, fortune is enlightenment.
The Hierophant is the revealer of the mysteries. She reveals to us what true fortune is and how to acquire it.
Mind the Hierophant is the patron of Tarot readings.
What Paul Foster Case Said About the Meanings of the Five of Pentacles
For the Five of Pentacles, Paul Foster Case proposed the keyword uncertainty in material affairs. With this, Paul emphasizes the inauspicious meanings of the Five of Pentacles, i.e., by adapting to circumstances.
While the forces of the Five of Pentacles may be difficult to handle, we can use them to bring about our success, i.e., through adaptability.
To this, Paul added the following secondary inauspicious meanings: unrewarded toil, loss of money, poverty, and trouble for the querent through lack of imagination and foresight. Imagination is the mental faculty of the Generation card, which is related to Venus. The Reason card, which precedes the Intuition card, is associated with the Hebrew letter Heh, which means window and has the numerical value of five (the number of the card). Paul likes to point out that intuition is an extension of reason.
These are Paul’s auspicious meanings: labor (Taurus), toil (inauspicious Taurus), the cultivation of the land (ox), building and plans concerning it (Taurus), some anxiety over money, concordance, affinity, and adaptation (to laws).
What Arthur Edward Waite Said About the Meanings of the Five of Pentacles
Arthur Edward Waite wrote that the Five of Pentacles heralds material trouble and destitution.
The symbolism of the card supports this. We find two figures, both poor, one even disabled, apparently homeless, who make their way through a chilly, snowy landscape. However, at the upper center of the picture, we find a window that resembles that of a church, and which has the appearance of a portal. This symbolism conveys hope. This could be the window of the temple of the higher self, which you find in the Intuition card.
Arthur’s inauspicious meanings are: disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, and profligacy. All these indicate disregard or misuse of applicable laws.
Arthur mentions that some cartomancists consider the Five of Pentacles a card of love, spouses, mistresses (the Venus influence), friends, and concordance and affinities in general. If it turns up inauspicious in a reading, it may foretell troubles in love relationships.
Last but not least, this card shall indicate the conquest of fortune through reason. This aligns with the connection between the Five of Pentacles and the Hebrew letter Heh (window).
What Etteilla Said About the Meanings of the Five of Pentacles
Etteilla, a French occultist, wrote that the Five of Pentacles may foretell a love affair (Venus) or misconduct (disregardance of social rules).
What Papus Said About the Meanings of the Five of Pentacles
Papus, another French occultist and the founder of the Martinist Order, wrote that this card may indicate coming success, which may balance a loss.
This is an auspicious meaning that pertains to material karma.
What Gregor Mather Said About the Meanings of the Five of Pentacles
Gregor Mather, the founder of the Golden Dawn, believed that an auspicious Five of Pentacles signifies a lover or mistress, love, sweetness, affection, or pure and chaste love. These meanings go back to the Venus influence in Taurus.
Gregor’s inauspicious meanings are: disgraceful love, imprudence, license, and profligacy. These represent unbalanced Venusian influences.
What Mme. Le Marchand Said About the Meanings of the Five of Pentacles
Mme. Le Marchand, a celebrated 19th-century Parisian fortune teller, believed that the Five of Pentacles foretells the death of the querent’s parents, which will suddenly change her fate.
Alternatively, if the first man the querent meets on a Friday morning dies, she will have luck in a lottery. But if the first person she meets on a Saturday morning is a woman in black, she will have ill luck in a lottery. These are strangely specific fortune tellings, highly suspicious of superstition.
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.