Minor Arcana, Pentacles
Five of Pentacles
hardship, poverty, exclusion, companionship
Upright
Two ragged figures walk through snow beneath a lit church window. Waite says the card foretells material trouble, then notes a rival reading of love and affinity, and admits the two cannot be reconciled. Together they suggest hardship shared with someone.
Losing income can be isolating, and help may be closer than it looks. Contact a nonprofit debt counselor, tell your creditors early, and lean on the person beside you. The card cannot tell you how your finances will turn out.
Reversed
Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord and profligacy make up Waite's list. Take these as a picture of money or home life that has stopped being organized, with no verdict on where it ends.
Open the envelopes and list what you owe and what comes in. Arguments about spending usually go better with the numbers on the table. A free debt counselor can help you set priorities, and one week of tracking is a fair start.
A card is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
In Waite's words
Upright: The card foretells material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated—that is, destitution—or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers—wife, husband, friend, mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonized.
Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part 3, on Wikisource. The meanings above are by Cast & Chart.
Card art by Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.