← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 70/121
Six of Pentacles
The Six of Pentacles is about the flow of resources between people: giving, receiving, sharing, and whether that exchange is fair. It can describe help offered or accepted, a debt repaid, or a relationship in which one side holds the purse — and asks what that balance does to both.
The image
A well-dressed merchant holds a pair of scales in one hand and drops coins into the hand of a kneeling beggar with the other; a second beggar waits. Six pentacles float above. The scales are usually read as fairness and measure; the kneeling figures as the inequality that giving can either ease or reinforce.
Upright
Upright, the card is read as generosity, support and reciprocity — charity, a gift, a fair deal, help when it is needed. Waite gave "presents, gifts, gratification", and also "present prosperity". It may describe being in a position to give, or being willing to receive without shame.
Reversed
Waite's reversed meanings were desire, envy, jealousy and illusion. Modern readers often see strings attached to a gift, one-sided generosity, or help used as leverage. Some readers do not use reversals.
Correspondences
A Minor Arcana card, the Six of Pentacles, element Earth. In the Golden Dawn's attributions, which most English-language decks follow, it is the Lord of Material Success: the Moon in the second decan of Taurus, 10°–20°, in Tiphareth, the sixth sephirah.
In a reading
As advice it may say to share, or to accept what is offered; as an obstacle, that someone is keeping score. In the outcome position it often reads as relief or support arriving. After the Five of Pentacles it is a well-known image of help reaching those in need.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Decan: Moon in Taurus, 10°–20°
Element: Earth — the element of Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn
Mode: Fixed — Taurus is a fixed sign