Five of Pentacles – Rebecca Schoenecker

A photo of the Five of Pentacles from the Laughing Eye Weeping Eye tarot, Rider-waite tarot, and Colorful tears tarot. — Images from the Laughing Eye Weeping Eye tarot, the Rider-Waite Smith tarot, and the Colorful Tears tarot

The Five of Pentacles appears when life is tough.

The challenges can be many. You might be in a tight spot with finances or struggling to find work. The struggles can be personal, spiritual, or physical. You might be feeling drained or unable to get out of a dark place.

This card can also point to burdensome situations. You might be holding the weight in a relationship or acting as a caregiver.

Spiritually, you may feel that everything is a struggle and that peace, rest, or happiness is unattainable. The world seems harsh, cold, and unrelenting (which it often is!).

While this card speaks of being at a low point, there is hope on the horizon.

It might begin with asking for help. Your community, family, or friends may be able to offer support or connect you with resources to help you get back on your feet. Therapy and medical help might also be needed.

While it’s tough to show vulnerability, the courage taken to ask can bring you closer to support and deeper connections – and help you overcome the ruts you’re trekking through.

Sometimes the key to getting back on your feet is to see where energy, time, or resources are leaking out. In relationships, this card can indicate a tendency to rescue others. This leads to deficiency as time, energy, and power drain away; you are left with nothing to give and little for yourself. The solution might be to draw boundaries or, if needed, to remove yourself from the situation.

In a career or finance reading, this card indicates struggle. You might need to conserve finances, avoid risky investments, or focus on pursuing new career options. While this card suggests being down and out, it also holds the potential for rebirth. This is an opportunity for reinvention.

Spiritually, the Five of Pentacles can suggest a sense of disconnection. Your soul needs food; what can you feed it? You might need to look for new inspiration or start thinking about the potential on the periphery.

The Five of Pentacles is a tough card because, well, life is tough. It reminds us that there are lean, hard times, but that we get through them. We do this by asking for help, making better decisions, changing direction, and allowing ourselves to see difficulty as an opportunity to build something better.

Sources

Greer, Mary. Archetypal Tarot. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books, 2011.
Greer, Mary. Tarot Reversals. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2002.
Pollack, Rachel. Tarot Wisdom. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2008.
Snow, Cassandra. Queering the Tarot. Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2019.
Tea, Michelle. Modern Tarot. New York, NY: Harper Collins: 2017.
Wen, Benebell. Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2015.

Video

Tarot Spread

If you are drawn to the Five of Pentacles and want to dig deeper, get them outta your deck, make them your mascot, and draw some cards from the rest of the deck with this tarot spread I created!