Minor Arcana · Pentacles · earth
Four of Pentacles
Four of Pentacles in tarot is a card of holding on, control and material security.
Key meanings
- holding on
- control
- material security
- hoarding
- fear of loss
Four of Pentacles upright
Stability and care for what's yours: a firm footing that guards what you've built through times of change.
The shadow side
Measuring your safety only by what stays clenched in your fist.
Four of Pentacles reversed
Fingers loosening into generosity with what you hold, or the opposite, a stinginess that chokes tighter than before.
Four of Pentacles as the card of the day
You press a coin to your chest with both hands, another balances heavy on your brow, and two are pinned to the ground beneath your heels, as if the city behind you would fall the moment you let go. But what you hold in a death grip cannot grow or breathe. Today you can loosen your fingers just a little and feel that the ground is still holding you.
The question this card asks
What are you so afraid to let go of right now, and what are you really protecting yourself from?
Four of Pentacles: yes or no?
leaning no
Four of Pentacles clutches its coins and lets nothing go. No growth in that grip.
The scale runs from yes to no through three middle steps, and the earth in this card lands it on leaning no.
That is one card leaning, and what it leans on is holding on. Pull your own card →
Every card is a mirror, not a verdict. Walk the other arcana and listen to what they say together.
✦ See all 56 Minor ArcanaFAQ
Is Four of Pentacles (earth) a kind card or a hard one?
The deck holds no plainly bad card. Its themes are holding on and control, and the tone comes from your question together with the upright or reversed position. Frightening you is not my work.
Is Four of Pentacles counted a minor arcanum, and how do you read the element of earth?
Minor, suit of Pentacles (earth). The minor arcana tell the everyday and the majors the large turns, and inside the everyday this card is ruled by earth.
Which cards are the neighbours of Four of Pentacles in the suit of earth?
Look either side and you find Three of Pentacles and Five of Pentacles. The suit runs Ace to King, and every rank of it is worked in earth.
Does Four of Pentacles (earth) read differently the other way up?
Upright, the reading starts from holding on and control and opens out from there. When it falls reversed, earth turns inward, and the question becomes what you are not letting through.