Pentacles Suit

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The Pentacles Suit

The Symbol:

The Pentacles Suit represents the receptive Earth element. A pentacle is the symbol of a pentagram (five-pointed star) engraved within a perfect circle or a coin.

Earliest tarot decks use a coin for this suit, and it was not until the late 1780’s that Comte de Mellet changed the suit from coins to pantacles (meaning talismans), which Eliphas Levi and other ceremonial magicians later reworked into pentacles.

Some people are bothered by the image of a pentagram, conditioned to misunderstand it as “satanic” or “evil” in some way, much as modern western society now views the swastika — a mythological solar symbol of light — as the twisted symbol of Nazism.

Actually, the pentagram is the ancient representation of the spirit incarnated or “ensouled” upon the Earth. Each of the elements is represented by the four lower points of the pentagram — from right to left the points represent water, fire, earth, then air — with the upper point representing spirit, which (ideally) remains senior to the other elements.

You can find out more about the symbolism of the Pentacle in tarot in our book: The Kingdom Within Tarot.