PROJECTS • TAROT

Ace of Pentacles

Health, wealth, practicality, receiving

Range of meanings

Light: Outlining a plan for achieving prosperity. Becoming aware of opportunities to improve income or health. Realizing you have everything you need. Appreciating everything the Universe has given you. Receiving the perfect gift at the perfect time.

Shadow: Indulging in relentless consumerism. Wanting more, no matter how much you have. Obsessing on your account balance. Suffering from hypochondria. Consuming blessings without expressing gratitude. Taking what you want without concern for the needs of others.

Questions to ask

  1. When you see the Ace, what’s your first impression? Is the Coin in a display case, elaborately decorated but out of reach? Is it being offered or taken away? Will the Hand of God freely give it or snatch it from your grasp? If you take this Coin, how long before you get another?
  2. If I made my decision based solely on practical concerns, what would my decision be?
  3. What resources are available to me?
  4. What will be the physical and financial impact of my decisions?

Advice

Personal Growth: The dream of the world offers us many shiny baubles and hypnotic pleasures, and most of us live in cultures that celebrate acquisition. An opportunity to possess more may come your way. To prevent imbalance, have your ethics clearly in mind, and be prepared to manage your new resources wisely.

Work: An opportunity to earn more money or work in better conditions may come your way. As always, though, you must balance this against the requirements and constraints of such a position. Money is important, but not all-important. Weigh all your options before making a choice.

Relationships: While money and sex can be used to “buy” attention, they cannot purchase true love. An opportunity to have what you’ve always wanted (at least, in a physical sense) may or may not satisfy your craving for genuine affection. The motive behind a gift means more than the gift itself.

Spirituality: Your spiritual path should influence how you see the physical world, coloring attitudes about everything from possessions to your own body. Ponder the higher purpose your physical resources should play. What are you doing to use them to advance the greater good?

Fortune-Telling: Your health will improve. The check you’re looking for really is in the mail.

Associations

Astrological: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo

Fool's Journey: At the last minute, the main character stumbles on a resource that will enable him or her to triumph.

The Number 1: Origins, unity, seeds.

Coins: One of the four suits of the tarot. Also sometimes called pentacles or diskc. Coins suggest health, wealth, practicality and physicality. Their domain extends beyond money and finance to all physical things, including the human body. Coins explore your attitude toward resources of all kinds: what you’ve been given, and what you do with it. In RWS-influenced decks, Coins are often called Pentacles. A pentacle’s design (with the upright star in the middle that represents the human body) reminds us that physical blessings, from possessions to our bodies, are to be used for higher purposes. In your own life, how often do you focus on “the star in the coin”?

Nature of the Ace: Compressed into the Ace are all the qualities of all the other cards of the suit. In this way, the Ace can be said to be the “root” or “seed” of its associated element.

Hand of God: On the Aces in Marseilles and RWS-inspired decks, a heavenly hand extends from the clouds, offering the viewer the suit’s distinctive marker. When opportunity comes your way, take advantage of it; the hand that extends an offer can always withdraw it.