King of Pentacles
Roi of Coins (Deniers, Tarot de Marseille) · Lord of the Wide and Fertile Land, King of the Spirits of Earth (Golden Dawn) · Knight of Disks (Thoth)
The King of Pentacles sits on a bull-headed throne in a robe of grapevines, a card of material mastery, prosperity and the steady authority of the provider.
Upright abundance · security · business acumen · leadership · stability · prosperity · generosity
Reversed greed · materialism · stubbornness · financial mismanagement · corruption · obsession with status
- Astrology
- 21° Leo – 20° Virgo (Golden Dawn Knight)
- Element
- Fire of Earth
- Golden Dawn title
- Lord of the Wide and Fertile Land, King of the Spirits of Earth
- Yes or no
- Yes
Upright
Upright, the King of Pentacles stands for success in the material world achieved and managed well. He is the established business owner, the landowner, the provider: secure, generous, practical and patient. In the Waite–Smith tradition the card signifies valour, realising intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, and success along those paths.
In love, he may describe a reliable, protective and generous partner, or a relationship that offers security and comfort. He shows care through provision and loyalty.
For work and money he favours financial success, wise investment, leadership in business, property and long-term prosperity. He represents someone who knows how to turn effort into lasting value.
His advice is to manage your resources with confidence and generosity, enjoy the fruits of your labour, and use your security to support others.
Reversed
Reversed, the King of Pentacles is often read as wealth or power misused. Greed, materialism, an obsession with status, stubbornness or poor financial judgement may come to the fore. Some readers see a person who equates worth with possessions, or who uses money to control others.
Not every reader works with reversals, and many read this King upright in every position. When reversals are used, this card commonly asks whether security has become an end in itself, and whether the King's wealth is still serving the household and community it was built to protect.
The image
Smith's King of Pentacles sits on a dark throne carved with bulls' heads, in a garden overflowing with grapevines. His robe is covered with a pattern of grapes and leaves, so that he seems to merge with the vines around him. He holds a sceptre in his right hand and a pentacle in his left, resting on his knee. An armoured foot appears beneath the robe, resting on what is usually identified as a boar's head. Behind him rises a castle with towers.
History
The Tarot de Marseille King of Coins sits on a throne holding a large coin, and kings have headed the court cards since the earliest decks. Smith's richly decorated figure is a new treatment of the old type. Waite's 1910 Pictorial Key calls attention to the bull's head as a recurrent symbol on the throne and gives valour, realising intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts, and success in these paths; reversed, vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption and peril.
The Golden Dawn had no king in Waite's sense; its court figures were Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess. In the widely used correspondence followed here, Waite's King matches the Golden Dawn mounted Knight, titled "Lord of the Wide and Fertile Land, King of the Spirits of Earth", which Crowley's Thoth deck calls the Knight of Disks. Some authors instead equate Waite's King with the Prince.
Symbolism
The bull is the emblem of Taurus, the fixed earth sign, and of strength and fertility. The grapes and vines stand for abundance and the fruits of cultivation, and the castle for security and establishment. The armour beneath the robe has been read as the strength and effort that underlie his ease. The boar, traditionally an emblem of strength and of the hunt, suggests wildness mastered.
In the scheme used here the King of Pentacles is "Fire of Earth": the dynamic force that drives material accomplishment. As the Golden Dawn Knight he rules from 21° Leo to 20° Virgo and is attributed to Chokmah and the letter Yod. Readers following other schemes will treat him instead as "Air of Earth".
In a reading
As a person the King of Pentacles is often read as a successful businessperson, a provider, or anyone with authority over resources. With the Emperor he emphasises authority and stability; with the Ten of Pentacles, family wealth; beside the Four of Pentacles, a warning against holding too tightly. In an advice position he recommends confident, generous stewardship. For the Golden Dawn court system, see the Golden Dawn.
Sources and further reading
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite, 1910
- The Book of Thoth — Aleister Crowley, 1944
- The Golden Dawn — Israel Regardie, 1937
- The Qabalistic Tarot: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy — Robert Wang, 1983
- The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination — Robert M. Place, 2005