← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 68/121
Four of Pentacles
The Four of Pentacles is about holding on. It describes the wish for security and the effort to keep what one has — money, position, habits, feelings — safe and under control. That can be sensible stewardship, or a grip so tight that nothing new can come in.
The image
A crowned figure sits on a stool outside a city, one pentacle balanced on his crown, one clasped to his chest, and one under each foot. He is safe, but he cannot move without letting something go. The city behind him is usually read as the world he has stepped back from in order to guard his possessions.
Upright
Upright, the card is read as stability, saving and holding firm. Waite gave "the surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has", and also gift and inheritance. It can describe a sound decision to consolidate, or caution that is turning into possessiveness or fear of change.
Reversed
Waite's reversed meanings were suspense, delay and opposition. Modern readers often see the grip either tightening into hoarding or loosening all at once into carelessness, or a sense of security that has been shaken. Some readers do not use reversals.
Correspondences
A Minor Arcana card, the Four of Pentacles, element Earth. In the Golden Dawn's attributions, which most English-language decks follow, it is the Lord of Earthly Power: the Sun in the third decan of Capricorn, 20°–30°, in Chesed, the fourth sephirah.
In a reading
As advice it can mean "protect what you have"; as an obstacle, "you are holding on too hard". In relationship questions it can describe control or emotional reserve. Beside the Five of Pentacles it is sometimes read as fear of loss driving the grip.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Decan: Sun in Capricorn, 20°–30°
Element: Earth — the element of Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn
Mode: Cardinal — Capricorn is a cardinal sign