Four of Pentacles tarot card meaning: upright, reversed and symbols

The Four of Pentacles shows a crowned man sitting outside a city, holding a pentacle tight against his chest, with another on his head and two under his feet. He is not letting go of any of them. It is a card of security, saving and holding on. Here is what the Four of Pentacles means upright and reversed, the symbols in the 1909 card and a spread about what you protect.

At a glance

• Upright keywords: security, stability, materialism
• Reversed keywords: greed, possessiveness, fear of loss
• Number: 4 in the suit of Pentacles
• Suit and element: Pentacles, Earth Later tradition
• Astrology: Sun in Capricorn Later tradition
• Yes or no: Maybe Modern

The element and the planet in a sign (one of the 36 ten-degree slices of the zodiac called decans) come from the Golden Dawn system of the 1880s and 1890s, not from the first tarot decks. The yes or no lean is a modern reading habit. Use these layers if they help you remember the card, and skip them if they get in the way.

The card: what Pamela Colman Smith drew

Waite wrote: “A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He holds to that which he has.”

Clutching the pentacle

He holds a pentacle against his heart with both arms. Security is close to his heart, and also blocks it.

Pentacles under his feet

His feet rest on two coins. He cannot walk without letting go.

The city behind

He sits outside the town, alone. Holding on tightly can keep people out.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Four of Pentacles brings attention to what you protect and why. Saving resources, maintaining boundaries and preserving a dependable routine can all be sensible responses to uncertainty. The card asks whether you are holding steady or holding so tightly that nothing can move.

Build a buffer, protect your energy, keep your boundaries. Then ask what you would do if you felt safe enough to loosen your grip a little.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, the Four of Pentacles can show greed, possessiveness or fear of loss. It can also show letting go: spending, sharing or opening up.

Ask whether fear is running your money or your relationships. Small acts of generosity can loosen the grip.

Reversals are optional. Many readers never use them and read every card upright, and that is a complete way to read. If you do use them, decide before you shuffle what a reversed card will mean for you, and keep to that choice for the whole reading.

In love, work and spirituality

Love

Upright, needing security, or being possessive. Reversed, learning to trust.

Work and money

Saving, protecting your job or budget control. Reversed, overspending or fear-driven decisions.

Spirituality

Protective boundaries in practice. Reversed, holding on to a path that no longer fits.

As feelings

As someone’s feelings, the Four of Pentacles shows protectiveness or caution. They may hold back to feel safe.

The Four of Pentacles as past, present, future and advice

• Past: Holding on helped you feel safe.
• Present: Look at what you protect and why.
• Future: A time to save or protect is ahead.
• Advice: Hold steady, not too tight.

A Minor Arcana card usually describes the everyday texture of a situation: a mood, a conversation, a task or a step. If the Four of Pentacles appears next to a Major Arcana card, let the Major name the big theme and let this card show how it is playing out in the body and the other things Pentacles rule. If it keeps coming back over several days, write down what was happening each time.

Is the Four of Pentacles a yes or a no?

In modern yes or no readings, the Four of Pentacles is a maybe. It depends on whether you can loosen your grip. Tarot is better at showing the shape of a situation than at handing down verdicts, so if the question really matters, turn it into an open question such as “What do I need to know about this?” and draw again.

Affirmation and journal prompts

Affirmation: I protect what sustains me and allow room for connection.

Reversed affirmation: I loosen my grip where change is safe and useful.

Journal prompts:

• What am I holding tightly?
• What am I afraid to lose?
• What would I share if I felt safe?

What the Four means in tarot

Four is foundation, structure and pause. Four walls hold a room up, and four legs keep a table steady. The Fours can feel safe and settled, or stuck and closed, depending on how tightly the structure is held.

Here is how the Four looks across the four suits:

• Four of Wands: celebration, harmony, homecoming
• Four of Cups: contemplation, apathy, reevaluation
• Four of Swords: rest, recovery, contemplation
• Four of Pentacles (this card): security, stability, materialism

Learning a rank across the suits is one of the fastest ways to learn the Minor Arcana: the number or court rank gives you the shape, and the suit gives you the setting.

The history and art behind the card

In most decks before 1909, the number cards showed only a pattern of suit symbols, the way a playing card does. The Sola Busca deck from late 1400s Italy is the famous exception. Pamela Colman Smith gave every Minor Arcana card a scene with people in it, and that choice is a big reason the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is still the easiest deck for beginners. In Italian decks the suit is Denari (coins) and in the Tarot de Marseille it is Deniers, round coins. Occult writers of the 1800s, and then the Golden Dawn, turned the coins into pentacles, discs engraved with a five-pointed star, and Smith followed that. Waite noted that “in old Tarot packs this suit represented money”, but on this site I read it more widely as everything material you tend.

Look at the city behind him. Smith often put a town or a castle in the background of the Pentacles, and here it sits far behind the man. He has his wealth, but he is outside the community where it could be used. In older Italian and Marseille decks the Four of Coins was only four coins in a pattern, so this whole story of a man guarding his money is Smith’s own picture of the card’s meaning. It is one of her most human images, because almost everyone has held on to something like this at some point.

When A. E. Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910, he listed these divinatory meanings for the Four of Pentacles: “The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance.” Reversed, he gave: “Suspense, delay, opposition.” Waite said he was offering “a harmony of their meanings” gathered “from all sources”, which means older fortune-telling lists, not his own reading of the picture. On this site I read the picture first and treat lists like this as history.

A spread for the Four of Pentacles

Use this spread when you feel the need to hold on.

1. What do I protect? What I hold close.
2. What does it cost? What my grip keeps out.
3. How can I feel safe and open? One step.

Lay the three cards in a row, read each one on its own first, then read them together as a short story. Write one sentence for each position and one small action you will take.

Common questions

Is the Four of Pentacles a yes or no card?

It is a maybe. It depends on whether you can loosen your grip.

What does the Four of Pentacles mean for money?

Saving and security, or fear of spending.

What does the Four of Pentacles mean in love?

Needing security, or possessiveness.

Related cards

• The Emperor: the Major Arcana card of structure and control
• Six of Pentacles: sharing resources
• Ten of Wands: holding on to too much

Keep learning

The Four of Pentacles is part of the lesson Pentacles in my free Tarot for Beginners course. To see the whole suit on one page, go to the suit of Pentacles. To keep walking the suit, read the card before it, Three of Pentacles or the card after it, Five of Pentacles, or go back to all the card meanings. For the suits and numbers in one place, see The Minor Arcana: suits and numbers made simple. For every card with keywords, affirmations and examples, see my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot. If you would like a printable cheat sheet for all 78 cards, my 45-page Tarot Workbook is on Etsy.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part III, sections 1 and 2.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Nicolas Conver, Tarot de Marseille (Marseille, 1760).
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot, entry for the Four of Pentacles.