Five of Pentacles: tarot meaning, upright and reversed

Two travellers pass through snow outside an illuminated window of five pentacles.

Upright

hardship · exclusion

A period of material difficulty or exclusion calls attention to available support.

Reversed

returning support · persistent scarcity

Conditions may begin improving while the expectation of deprivation remains.

In a reading

The position gives this card a particular task: a description of the situation, a challenge, or guidance. Read its image and meaning alongside the other cards and the question that brought them together.

Golden Dawn correspondence

Mercury in Taurus, 0–10 degrees. This is the attribution in Book T.

Sources

A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. These notes are original interpretations of the Waite–Smith imagery, informed by that text.