Ace Of Pentacles

Come into my parlour
then through the door
past the curtain
step inside the portal
and lift the top layer
enter the circle
put your hands upon the mandala
and open the box inside the dial
follow the money
keep digging-

Will I find the root? No.
I'll reach the stars.


An Ace is element at its starting-point. It could go anywhere. By the time you get to the Three, it probably already did.

When tarot readers and other occult folk talk of elements, they might talk of Earth as representing your physical existence, your home, your work, your security and your bodily health; I don't think that's accurate. I say earth is. Earth is real, it's one of the constituent parts of the world occultists live in; it might manifest in your life as work, home, body, but those are just the consequences of something that is more deeply present.

[What I wrote next later got snipped off into the Elements article.]

An Ace of Pentacles is Earth landing in your world - maybe like a rock on a muddy pond-bed, maybe like a meteorite. It's heralding a change of a practical nature - reversed, it may be encouraging such change - and this isn't so much about rearranging the furniture (though that itself is Earth magic at its finest - try it, you'll see how it works) as about Earth itself becoming a stronger current in your life.

(I really like this card, btw; it is layers within boxes within wheels within dials, with a star of David in the middle, and perhaps an eye in the middle of that. An Ace of Pentacles opens doors, and with Pentacles, inside every door is another door).


Images of the Ace of Pentacles:

Roots of Asia - similarly layered. A seed, planted in a spiral, becomes a tree of many triangles; in spite of the geometric forms, the card feels very natural compared to the Intuitive card. Earth is both things - both the world made by people, and the world just as it is.

The Robin Wood Tarot sets the Ace of Pentacles in a wood, above a long path lined by flowers.

'Maturity', the Osho Zen Ace of Pentacles, shows a man whose being is within a rainbow circle, brighter than the world outside. The Zen view of people is that we are all already enlightened, and just need to be nudged into remembering it; we carry springtime within us. The Earth in your life is already there - the Ace of Pentacles is prompting you to let it bloom.