pentacles · Minor Arcana
Six of Pentacles
The suit · Pentacles
body, money, time, the things that take actual days
Where it sits
Something crosses over.
How this suit behaves
Heavy and honest. Pentacles do not lie about how long something takes.
Take it into a reading
What you give and what you get have drifted apart. This stage is the crossing point: one of you has been carrying more. Name the imbalance out loud, even if it stings. Then decide whether you are giving from want or from habit. Both answers are allowed. Staying quiet about it just extends the drift.
I drew Six of Pentacles about this relationship. What is actually stuck?
Ask this →WorkWork is moving between hands right now. A favor gets repaid, credit gets handed over, or a task passes to someone else. Say clearly what you expect back, and when. Unspoken expectations are what turn generosity into a debt nobody agreed to.
I drew Six of Pentacles about work. Where do I move first?
Ask this →MoneyMoney moves from one side to the other here. A loan, a repayment, shared costs, help given or received. Write down who owes what and by when. When you lend, treat the amount as gone until it returns. That keeps the relationship out of the ledger.
I drew Six of Pentacles about money. Is it actually short, or am I afraid to spend it?
Ask this →How you areYou are in the crossing. Something you hold is leaving your hands, or something owed is arriving. Notice which direction it runs and whether the scale is level. Balancing it now costs less than balancing it later. Do that, then stop tracking it.
If Six of Pentacles is naming a state I am in, should I rest first or move first?
Ask this →Questions
What does the suit of Pentacles cover in Six of Pentacles?
body, money, time, the things that take actual days Heavy and honest. Pentacles do not lie about how long something takes.
Is Six of Pentacles a good card?
There are no good or bad cards here, only which side of one you are standing on. Upright: Something crosses over. Reversed: Heavy and honest. Pentacles do not lie about how long something takes.
Where this comes from
The 78 illustrations are the 1909 Rider–Waite deck, drawn by Pamela Colman Smith (1878–1951). More than seventy years after her death it is in the public domain in the US, the EU and Japan — the licence tag on every single file was checked on Wikimedia Commons. The original scans have had their outer border and title band trimmed, and one pass of tone laid over them so they sit with the frame. The frame, the banner and the card back were made here. The reader portraits are public-domain paintings — several decorative panels by Mucha (1860–1939), plus Copernicus by Matejko (1873), The Alchymist by Wright (1771) and The Crystal Ball by Waterhouse (1902). Their licence tags were checked one by one on Wikimedia Commons too, then cropped and toned to match.
The wording on this page is editorial — this site's reading of the card, not a quotation from Waite. Waite's own divinatory meanings are in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), which is in the public domain.