Ten of Pentacles Tarot Card Meaning & Interpretations

To understand the specific meaning of a card in Tarot it is worth comparing similar cards as this provides a contrasting perspective. To understand what the 10 of Pentacles represents compare it to the preceding card in Suit of Pentacles, the 9 Of Pentacles. The cards numbered 9 in Tarot are solitary figures and none more so than the 9th card of the Major Arcana, The Hermit. The 9 marks the last step of a cycle before it finishes and is symbolical of endings. The 10 marks the beginning of a new cycle after the completion of an old one. In numerology the number 10 reduces to 1 (1+0 =1) linking the 10s to the Aces. The difference between a 10 and an Ace is that an Ace is a completely new cycle, it comes from nothing. The 10 is a new cycle that builds upon the layers of previous cycles. The 9 of Pentacles is symbolic of an individual enjoying the rewards of material success and the 10 of Pentacles represents a group of people enjoying material success gathered over one or more cycles. This is why this card has come to symbolise inheritance, legacy and family wealth.

The symbolism of inheritance, legacy and family wealth is illustrated in the Rider Waite Smith (RWS) deck with a richly dressed elderly man sitting in the foreground facing right towards the future. In the background two adults and a child can be seen. We are being shown 3 generations of a family to emphasise that this wealth is collective across many cycles of seasons and years.

The RWS deck's illustration of the 10 of Pentacles is significantly different to all the other Minor Arcana cards because it is the only one to arrange its elemental emblems in the shape of an occult symbol - The Tree of Life. The artist, Pamela C. Smith, arranged the emblems of the other minor cards either together, in no significant arrangement, or broke them into smaller groups to add additional symbology using numerology. The Tree of Life does not appear in any other card in the deck. It may be partially shown behind the The High Priestess, on the veil of the temple behind her, but that remains open to interpretation. The Tree of Life has 10 nodes each connected to its adjacent node with a branch, or path, of which there are 22 in total. This is a very significant number as not only is it the number of cards in Tarot's Major Arcana but it is also a Master Number in numerology. The Master Number of 22, also known as the Master Builder, is the most powerful of all numbers. Waite makes no mention of this detail in his card guide and Smith may have depicted it because the 10 of Pentacles lends itself easily to this symbol with its 10 pentacle embossed discs.

The 10 of Pentacles, or 10 of Coins, is a card of good long term investments, financial security in the home and at work, inheritances, legacies, trust funds and family wealth. The element here is Earth which relates to health and material possessions. It has a collective reference to the material and therefore can represent a corporation, business or place where businesses trade such as a market place.

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THE PICTORIAL KEY TO THE TAROT

By Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs accosting an ancient personage seated in the foreground. The child's hand is on one of them. Divinatory Meanings: Gain, riches; family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family. Reversed: Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry, pension.

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