Pentacle
The Pentacle (or Coin) is one of the four suits of the Minor Arcana in tarot, traditionally associated with the element Earth, the material realm, and the body. It is represented by disks or coins and includes fourteen cards.
Origin and etymology
The French word denier comes from the Latin denarius, a Roman silver coin. The suit of Coins descends from the Italian denari and the Spanish oros, which in turn descended from the 14th-century Mamluk cards in which one suit represented coins. In the Visconti-Sforza around 1450, the coins take the form of disks decorated with family arms. The 17th- and 18th-century Tarot de Marseille, particularly in the Nicolas Conver edition of 1760, preserves this coin imagery. The link with earth was codified in the 19th century by the French and English occultist schools.
Evolution and tradition
The major turning point came in 1909 with the Rider-Waite, where Pamela Colman Smith replaced the disks with pentacles: five-pointed stars inscribed within disks. This graphic innovation has sometimes caused confusion between Coin and Pentacle. In the Golden Dawn tradition, the suit is associated with the final Heh letter of the Tetragrammaton and with the element earth. Modern decks alternate between the two names: the Marseille and Latin tradition keeps Coins, the Anglo-Saxon tradition uses Pentacles or Coins. Aleister Crowley's Thoth (1944) uses Disks.
Practical use
In a reading, Pentacles describe concrete realities: money, work, physical health, the home, material goods, fertility. A dominance of Pentacles signals a period in which tangible concerns prevail. The Ace of Pentacles announces a material gift, a favorable start; the Ten of Pentacles family or estate stability, sometimes transmission. The court cards of Pentacles embody pragmatic, reliable personalities, sometimes too attached to material matters. On Tarotoui, each card of the Pentacle suit has a dedicated entry with an upright and reversed interpretation.
Going further
Reducing Pentacles to money is a simplification. They encompass all embodiment: the body, the soil, matter, the concrete. The frequent confusion with the pentacle proper comes from the Rider-Waite: a pentacle is a pentagonal magical symbol, whereas a coin is, originally, simply a coin. Note also that some tarot readers, such as Alejandro Jodorowsky, link the Coin to circulation rather than to hoarding.