Pentagram in tarot

The five-pointed star has been used as a protective sign since antiquity, and in Renaissance magic it represented the human being, four limbs and a head, or the four elements ruled by spirit. Smith engraves a pentagram on every coin of the suit of Pentacles, turning the old suit of money into a suit of talismans. The Magician has a pentacle on his table, and the Devil wears an inverted pentagram on his brow, spirit pushed beneath matter. In readings a pentagram is the material world made meaningful: work, body and resources understood as more than money.

Cards that show pentagram

The Magician
The Magician: The four suit emblems
A cup, a sword, a coin engraved with a pentagram and a wand lie on the table. They are the emblems of the four suits and of the classical elements, water, air, earth and fire. The whole of the Minor Arcana is within his reach.
The Devil
The Devil: The inverted pentagram
A white five-pointed star sits point-down above the brow. Upright, the pentagram is often read as spirit ruling the four elements; inverted, as matter and appetite ruling spirit, which is exactly the situation the card describes.
Ace of Pentacles
Ace of Pentacles: The golden pentacle
A large yellow disc engraved with a five-pointed star, much larger than the hand holding it. The pentagram was Waite's sign for the whole suit, standing for the four elements governed by spirit; on the Ace it is the suit's gift of matter and value in its simplest form.
Two of Pentacles
Two of Pentacles: The two pentacles
Two gold coins marked with pentagrams, held at different heights in each hand. They stand for two demands, resources or options, never quite level, constantly being rebalanced.
Three of Pentacles
Three of Pentacles: The carved pentacles
Three pentacles sit in a trefoil carved high in the arch, with a small cross-like flower boss below. They are the only pentacles on the card and they are part of the building itself: value made solid in stone.
Four of Pentacles
Four of Pentacles: The coin on the crown
A pentacle balances on top of his small gold crown. It suggests that money or security has become part of his identity and his thinking: the coin sits where his mind is.
Five of Pentacles
Five of Pentacles: The lit window
A tall stained-glass window glows yellow in the dark wall, showing five pentacles set among green leafy branches with small red flowers. It suggests shelter, charity and spiritual help: warmth that is present and visible, though the figures pass beneath it.
Six of Pentacles
Six of Pentacles: The six pentacles
Six coins frame the scene from above: three down the left side, two on the right and one at the top centre. They frame the merchant like a halo of good fortune, the wealth from which he gives.
Seven of Pentacles
Seven of Pentacles: The plant with six pentacles
A dense green plant with large leaves and curling tendrils rises on the left, with six pentacles set among the leaves like ripening fruit. It is the clearest image in the suit of value as something cultivated over time.
Eight of Pentacles
Eight of Pentacles: The coins on the post
Six finished pentacles hang in a column down a tall wooden post on the right. Waite called them trophies: the visible record of repeated work, each one a little proof of skill.
Nine of Pentacles
Nine of Pentacles: The pentacles
Six pentacles are stacked on the left of the card, at her right hand, and three more sit on the right, low among the vines. Her hand rests on the stack rather than gripping it; the wealth is part of her surroundings, not something she clutches.
Ten of Pentacles
Ten of Pentacles: The arrangement of ten pentacles
The ten coins are laid out over the scene in the pattern of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, three columns from top to bottom. It links material inheritance to a much older map of the whole of creation.
Page of Pentacles
Page of Pentacles: The raised pentacle
He holds a single pentacle just above his upturned hands, almost floating, at eye level. Waite stresses how intently he looks at it: the coin is an object of study, something to understand before it is used.
Knight of Pentacles
Knight of Pentacles: The pentacle in his hand
He holds the coin up in front of him, but his gaze seems to go past it. Waite notes that 'he exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein': he carries his responsibility without needing to stare at it.
Queen of Pentacles
Queen of Pentacles: The pentacle in her lap
She holds a large pentacle on her knees with both hands and gazes down at it. Waite says she 'contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein': her wealth is something she thinks about and tends, not something she flaunts.
King of Pentacles
King of Pentacles: The pentacle
A large pentacle rests on his knee under his left hand. He does not grasp or display it, he simply holds it, comfortable with what he has.