Five of Pentacles

In many respects, the Five of Pentacles is on the opposite spectrum of the Four of Pentacles — while the four represents someone in a position of power that’s clinging to his money in a miserly fashion, the Five of Pentacles is someone who has lost everything or is in very poor financial circumstances.

This could be because of hard luck, or could be the result of worshiping money a bit too much, as previously seen with the Four of Pentacles. Even though the pentacles usually relate to money and material wealth, when this card appears in a reading it could also be indicating disaster and loss in other areas of your life.

While most tarot readers and practitioners will tell you there are no true “negative” or “positive” cards in a tarot deck, it’s pretty hard to put any kind of positive spin on the Five of Pentacles and it tends to be one of the more challenging cards to work with in the Minor Arcana. It can indicate a point of rock-bottom where one has to find a new approach to how they handle not only finances but their life, and often indicates a need to turn to spiritual pursuits after focusing solely on the material world.

Material wealth can come and go, but your spiritual gifts can never be taken away without your consent.