1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. Eight of Pentacles

Minor Arcana · Pentacles

Eight of Pentacles

• work
• employment
• craftsmanship
• skill in craft

Upright meaning

Craftsmanship: work, employment and skill in craft, perhaps in the preparatory stage. Patient practice.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, Waite gives voided ambition and vanity. A prompt to focus on the work rather than its display.

• vanity

Symbolism

An artist in stone works at his bench, showing finished pieces as trophies.

Group

Minor Arcana · Pentacles

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part III §2 (The Lesser Arcana). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.