Eight of Pentacles (Rider Waite Tarot)
First Impressions
Depending on how it’s done, on the artist’s grasp on the cards and their own individual takes, the Eight of Pentacles sometimes seems to be interchangeable with the Three of Pentacles. Look at the Morgan Greer, or even better, the Hudes. Clearly they are two takes on the same concept.
It’s easy to see why; both cards deal with skilled work, with craftsmen plying their trade or honing their skills. In the case of the Three, he is doing it for hire, and is under the watchful eyes of others. He has to work to others’ specifications. But in the Eight here, there is no such implication. He has only himself to please, and is doing it for the practice or the love of what he does.
The central figure on Waite and Colman Smith’s depiction is a burly, bushy-haired young workman. A carpenter, or more likely a woodcarver. He wears crude soft shoes of reddish-brown leather, red hose and blue smock, and a heavy black craftsman’s apron tied over the lot. He sits astride a bench and has a hammer raised in one hand, poised to strike the chisel or awl in the other. With these tools he is inscribing a five-pointed star in a disk propped up on a block on the bench before him - a pentacle. He’s been at this a while; five more are hung from the tree or wooden beam before him, a sixth is on the ground propped up against the bench, and a seventh lies flat on the ground. In the distance, separated from the key scene by the distinctive double horizontal line of Pamela Colman Smith’s stage cards, is a far-off town or village. Clearly he works at some remove from the maddening crowd.
Some depictions (Robin Wood, Gilded) show the main figure here as a youth or even a child - someone who is just learning their craft. Others, such as the World Spirit, show him under the tutelage and watchful eye of an older and more experienced figure like a teacher or mentor. I see these depictions as referring to him as an apprentice. I don’t really see signs of that here, except possibly in the fact that if we look closely enough at the eight pentacles here, they aren’t all the same. Some are a wee bit askew or imperfect. If I were determined to see the man as learning his trade and honing his skill, I would see it as a sign that “practice makes perfect”.
Creator’s Notes
Waite says in
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot:
Waite said:
An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.
Is it stone? Really? Most depictions of this card show them as being made of wood or gold. But it would make sense with the use of hammer and chisel. However, I think this is another example of Waite’s descriptions and Colman Smith’s pictures being removed from one another, not quite corresponding.
Others’ Interpretations
Waite defines the Eight of Pentacles as:
Waite said:
Divinatory Meanings: Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage. Reversed: Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury. It may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.
Thirteen builds it all up as a story using much of the suit of Pentacles:
Thirteen said:
An apprentice or craftsman works on the last of eight pentacles that he has created, the other hanging completed. To understand this card, we might well go all the way back to the Three of Pentacles and the story that developed from there. We saw the craftsman gaining patronage, which led to an abundance of funds to hold tight to in Four of Pentacles. Alas, the craftsman lost it all in Five of Pentacles, but generosity saved him in the Six of Pentacles. In the seven/pents he stood his ground, waiting and watching for a fresh opportunity.
Now that opportunity has come in the Eight of Pentacles. This card could, in fact, indicate a new job or new training. A new investment or new workout program. In some interpretations, the querent might be at a lower level than he was, going through an apprenticeship. This might be a little demoralizing, but there is still gratitude for the employment. Either way, there are clearly no patrons this time to finance him; he is working hard to prove something to himself and his new employer, not to impress rich backers.
Seeing it from another angle, it is working out at a local gym rather than at a expensive fitness center, and working out for your own good not in hopes of impressing anyone. This card is about diligence and limiting your work to a particular project. It is doing your best not to show off what you can do or in the hopes of something more (as in the three/pents for patronage), but because you want to take pride in your work.
To this end, whether learning this skill or already a master at it, the querent will (or should) pay attention to details, research, train, and do whatever else is needed to feel that their work goes above and beyond. Even if no one else notices, they will know that they have taken themselves to a higher level.
Funny, that resonates with a perspective that occurred to me while searching the forums. Well, in other words, a perspective that was suggested somewhere here and I’ve taken into consideration. That of someone operating in the outdoors on a crude bench and propped up by a block of wood rather than a workshop with a designated workbench. It makes me think of a hobby, perhaps someone attempting to make a living or at least a supplementary income from his hobby, someone moonlighting and picking up a little money on the side. Or at least trying to, just starting out. Back to square one.
Symbols and Attributes
Astrologically the Seven of Pentacles is linked to the Sun in Virgo. The Sun is, of course, a powerful life force imbuing one with great potential for achievement. Virgo, an Earth sign, is a sign of quiet dedication, analytical and perfectionist tendencies, work. So the Sun in Virgo would indicate a time when one’s hard work and dedication pays off in spades. As long as one pays great attention to detail, the possibilities are endless.
The number eight, as the doubling of the stable and structured four, speaks of extreme order and stability. The need to create order, make sense out of disorder, is a key factor here. Combined with the stable and grounded Earth element of the suit of Pentacles, and the Eight of Pentacles is about creating order in the material world. Getting ducks in a row on the job, putting your physical world to rights.
Combine these aspects of the card - Sun in Virgo, Eight, Pentacles - and what do we get? Conscientious and meticulous physical work that leads to great material potential. Bodes well for this card.
The central figure in the card is the craftsman himself. He is working patiently on a pentacle before him on the bench. Why a bench, why not a table like il Bagatello uses in the old Milanese decks like the Soprafino? It would make more sense, and be more practical. I wonder if this is a deliberate choice to emphasize the apprentice aspect of the card? Look, poor guy, doesn’t have proper tools, doesn’t have a proper workspace, doesn’t even have a proper inclined work surface to prop up his work, just a ratty old block of wood. He’s just starting out. Hasn’t earned his place, his work space, can’t afford good tools. Another possibility I’ve come across as well is that it’s a visual pun. Johannes Fiebig and Evelin Burger suggested in
The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot that the advice it carries is to “be your own benchmark”. Bench. Mark. Get it? Basically, having no guild or master or what have you, he has nothing against which to mark his progress. So he has to create his own standards. As for the block of wood, I got nothing. But the oversized hammer and chisel I’m inclined to take as either another indication that he’s just starting out, and hasn’t got the right tools for the job, or a Masonic reference, along with the apron he wears.
Yes, I know it’s not a true Mason’s apron as we see it today. Of course nowadays they‘re ceremonial and much fancier; you wouldn‘t wear them to protect your clothing from stains, tears and stone dust. But it’s an apron nonetheless, and craftsmen other than Masons wore them too. It’s black, indicating hidden knowledge and the unconscious. So perhaps this guy is deeper than we think. Also, Black is the colour associated with Saturn; as I found in the Seven of Pentacles, Saturn is a planet of order and the slow workings of time. The apron covers a blue smock; blue is a colour of ideas and intuition and the unconscious process. His leggings are the red of action and purpose and outer activity. All together, the colours the craftsman wears point to a well-rounded individual whose inner and outer worlds are balanced out, and are extended outward into the material world of work. His posture - the bent back, the focus on the pentacle beneath his hands - underlines his emphasis on material work.
The eight pentacles of the card, the products of his work, are arranged interestingly. From the craftsman’s perspective four of them are hung above his eye level, the remaining four are below eye level. If he were to look up from the one he’s working on, that is. The four overhead, I see as his goal, as something to which he can aspire. It speaks of his ambition. They’re hung up high to attract the attention of passing trade; he’s proud of them and wants to show them off. More on that in a bit. I’ve also seen them referred to as part of the Tree of Life. But their spacing is too regular for that, and I take that in the spirit that we get to the point of seeing Qabalah and Sephirotic references everywhere once we start.
The other (lower) four pentacles are not at that level yet, but they give him something toward which he can work, something for which he can strive and seek to improve himself. Of these lower four, only one seems to be actually hung on the post; one is propped against the bench, one is
on the bench and one lies flat on the ground. The two on the ground carry a caution, to my way of thinking they represent the risk of spreading oneself too thin. As if the craftsman is so busy that he hasn’t time to find a proper place to hang them safely out of the way before he has to start on the next one. Take the time to finish one thing before jumping to the next. And “the next” in this case is the one on the bench before him. There is always more work to be done.
Notice how the pentacles all differ, how some have thicker edges or borders, how some have the stars slightly askew. Some readers view this as referring to the apprentice aspect of the card, how he hasn’t yet got it down pat and practice makes perfect. Others see it as sloppy craftsmanship. But uniqueness, the fact that no two are the same, is a hallmark of hand-crafted items of any kind. And I kind of like the endearing notion that this might be a nod to the old decks, the crude woodcut Marseille decks in which the Deniers were not identical. But really, if you want eight perfect and identical cookie-cutter pentacles to hand outside the front door, then go to a department store, buy them where they’re mass produced in a Third World factory. You want quality? You want something locally made? You want something unique? Then don’t look for what you think of as “perfection” and just like the ones over all the neighbours’ doors.
Remember that in
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot Waite says that he exhibits his pentacles like trophies. So did he view them as examples of his work, as finished products? Or as trophies, as bragging rights? I think Waite refers to the latter, so I would take it to mean that he does not view this card so much in the light of actual physical work. Funny, as all other indications of the card itself speaks of physical work to me. So I wonder if Waite and Colman Smith were on the same page here.
Five of the eight pentacles are actually hung from the post on the far right of the card’s image. And unique to Pamela Colman Smith’s depictions, the grain and texture of the wood is explicitly drawn. You can see the ridges of the bark, and the whorls of knots. It may just underline the crudeness of the craftsman’s makeshift surroundings, like he’s working out of his backyard shed or under a tree. But it is so specific that I tend to think that it must be a deliberate choice. I found some interesting suggestions while searching online, when I happened across a book excerpt of Fiebig and Burger’s new book. First, it was suggested, the rings stand for slow and gradual growth. The knotholes where branches used to be show age rings, indicating the slow and gradual growth of the tree. It represents also the figure’s slow and gradual mastery of his craft. But what else do they represent? They show that once there were branches there, that they’ve been pruned or sawed off. The craftsman’s efforts are singular. Literally no “branching off”, his attention is on mastering his skill. He’s pruned off extraneous distractions.
In the distance behind this scene is a far-off village or town. The craftsman is at some remove from it, perhaps to better hone his craft without distractions? But a road leads the way. However, note the horizontal lines. Another stage card. But in this case I like the term “separation card” per Isabel Kliegman; suggesting a deliberate distancing or separating of oneself from the rest of the world. Rachel Pollack suggested:
Pollack said:
[…]we see the apprentice lost in his task. And yet work also needs to be related to the outside world. However much we follow our standards and instincts or seek our own development the work we do lacks meaning if it does not serve the community. Therefore, behind his shop - though far away - stands a city, with a yellow road (yellow for mental action) leading to and from the workshop.
My Interpretations
Despite Waite’s assertion that this card shows “trophies”, I still tend to view the Eight of Pentacles as a card of work, of learning or mastering a craft. But it isn’t about churning them out, it shows someone who derives pride and pleasure from his skill and his finished product. With meticulous work, careful attention to detail, dedication to the process and the unhurried patience to work at it, there is great potential here.
In a reading I would definitely take it as a positive sign for those concerned with learning a new skill, going back to school, or starting out in a new field. If a question is about starting a new venture, perhaps about turning an existing interest or talent into a money-making opportunity, it bodes well. As long as you are willing to invest the time and the effort.
