King of Pentacles Tarot Card Meaning & Interpretations

Court cards, like the King of Pentacles, are unnumbered which makes using numerology to unlock their basic symbology more challenging. On the surface we have the male ruler of the elemental domain of Earth but not much else to go on. We can however link Tarot's Kings to their supreme ruler and card number 4 of the Major Arcana, The Emperor, which would give any King a numerological attribute of 4 by proxy.

The same element and numerology is found in the 4 of Pentacles in which we see a minor, modestly dressed, king hoarding 4 pentacles, or coins. He sits on a stone box with a town or city visible in the background. The 4 of Pentacles is the bankers card, where wealth is stored and safely guarded. The wealth that is stored there belongs to the King of Pentacles.

The Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) deck's King of Pentacles faces front with his head turned slightly to the right, or west, representing the future. Like the minor King, or banker, in the 4 of Pentacles this King's primary focus is on guarding what he has. Notice the subtle detail of the armoured left foot protruding out from under his beautiful cloak. No other King in the RWS minor arcana, not even the King of Swords, is wearing armour. Unlike the minor king his gaze is right and downwards. He's considering future investments to increase his wealth but with guarded caution. He desires greater wealth but with the minimum risk to what he already has.

The King of Pentacles, also known as the King or Coins or King of Deniers, can be a mature* man whose vocation in life is related to the element of earth (farmer, gardener etc), business man, banker, accountant, tax advisor/collector, personal trainer or health professional. The symbolic relationship to this card may not be vocational. It could be a description of his personality. In this case this man will be a cautious person who is grounded, a good negotiator, materialistic, business minded and may have a tendency to be stubborn. As the element of earth also refers to physical health, or ailments, this person could be athletic, careful with their body and perhaps even quite proud of it too. This could be someone who works out regularly and takes care with what they eat.

*maturity happens between ages 28 to 37, when a man enters his 2nd numerological life cycle.

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THE PICTORIAL KEY TO THE TAROT

By Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

The figure calls for no special description the face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency. The bull's head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this suit is represented throughout as engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, typifying the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that by which they may be governed. In many old Tarot packs this suit stood for current coin, money, deniers. I have not invented the substitution of pentacles and I have no special cause to sustain in respect of the alternative. But the consensus of divinatory meanings is on the side of some change, because the cards do not happen to deal especially with questions of money. Divinatory Meanings: Valour, realizing intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and attainments of this kind; success in these paths. Reversed: Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.

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