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

The Seven of Pentacles shows a young farmer leaning on his hoe and looking at seven pentacles growing on a green bush. He has worked hard, and now he pauses to see what is growing.

It is a card of patience, assessment and long-term effort. This page covers what the Seven of Pentacles means upright and reversed, the symbols in the 1909 card and a spread for checking your progress.

Here is the Seven of Pentacles at a glance.

Book T calls the Seven of Pentacles the Lord of Success Unfulfilled and gives it Saturn in Taurus, the last decan of the sign, on Netzach. Saturn slows the growth of fertile Taurus, which matches the farmer pausing to see whether his crop is worth the work.

Later tradition The Golden Dawn also gave each decan two of the 72 Goetic spirits, one for the day and one for the night. For the third decan of Taurus, and so for the Seven of Pentacles, they are Valefor (spirit 6, day) and Vepar (spirit 42, night). Their pages read the old entries as history; see the spirit directory for all 72.

The card: what Pamela Colman Smith drew

Waite wrote: “A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there.”

Leaning on the hoe. He rests on his tool. The work is not over, but it is time to look.

The bush. The pentacles grow like fruit on a plant. Results take seasons, not days.

His gaze. He looks closely. The card asks for honest assessment.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Seven of Pentacles is patience and assessment. A young farmer leans on his hoe and looks at seven pentacles growing on a green bush. He has worked hard, and now he pauses to see what is growing. The card speaks of long-term effort, waiting for results, and deciding whether to keep going.

It appears when you have invested time, money or care and the harvest has not yet come. The card asks you to step back and assess honestly. Is this worth continuing? What needs to change?

Growth takes time. Some crops take years. The Seven of Pentacles is a reminder that patience is part of the work.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, the Seven of Pentacles can show impatience, frustration or work that does not pay off. It can also show poor planning, or giving up too soon.

Ask whether the problem is the crop or your expectations. A reversed Seven often needs a change of method rather than more effort.

Reversed, the farmer may also be pulling up the plants to check the roots too often. Constant checking, of savings, metrics or a partner’s feelings, can stop growth as surely as neglect does. Decide when you will next assess, and leave the bush alone until then.

In love, work and spirituality

In love. Upright: Investing in a relationship and waiting to see how it grows. Reversed: Frustration with slow progress, or doubts about the investment.

At work. Upright: Long-term projects, assessing progress, or waiting for results. Reversed: Impatience, or work that does not pay off.

With money. Upright: Long-term investment, patience with savings. Reversed: Poor returns, or giving up too soon.

In spiritual practice. Upright: Patient practice, and noticing slow growth. Reversed: Impatience with spiritual progress.

As feelings. Patient but unsure, waiting to see how things develop.

As a person. A patient, hardworking person who thinks long term.

As advice. Assess your progress honestly, and be patient.

Reading the Seven of Pentacles: positions and yes or no

In the past position: Slow effort got you here. In the present position: Pause and assess.

In the future position: Results are on the way, slowly. As advice: Keep tending.

In modern yes or no readings, the Seven of Pentacles leans yes. Patience points to yes, eventually.

What the Seven means, and the history behind the card

Seven tests what was gained. In Pentacles the test is patience. The Golden Dawn’s title, Success Unfulfilled, describes the waiting perfectly.

Here is how the Seven looks across the four suits:

• Seven of Wands: defense, perseverance, challenge
• Seven of Cups: fantasy, illusion, choices
• Seven of Swords: deception, trickery, strategy
• Seven of Pentacles (this card): patience, long-term planning, assessment

The farmer in this card is the first of three working figures in a row: the Seven shows him pausing in the field, the Eight shows an apprentice carving pentacles at a bench, and the Three, earlier in the suit, shows a skilled mason at work on a church.

Reading them together gives a small story about learning a craft. The bush he looks at is also worth noticing: pentacles growing like fruit suggest that money and results are something you grow, not something you grab.

Waite wrote that the young man looks intently at the pentacles as if they were his treasures and that his heart was there. That line is a good key to the card. The work is not finished, the harvest is not in, and he cares deeply about the result.

The card does not say whether the crop will be good. It asks you to look honestly at what you have grown so far, and to decide whether to keep tending it or to plant something else.

When A. E. Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910, he listed these divinatory meanings for the Seven of Pentacles: “These are exceedingly contradictory; in the main, it is a card of money, business, barter; but one reading gives altercation, quarrel, and another innocence, ingenuity, purgation.”

Reversed, he gave: “Cause for anxiety regarding money which it may be proposed to lend.”

Common questions

Is the Seven of Pentacles a yes or no card? Yes, with patience.

What does the Seven of Pentacles mean for career? Reviewing long-term work.

What does the Seven of Pentacles mean in love? A slowly growing bond.

Try this

Try this small spread for the Seven of Pentacles. Use it to review progress.

Affirmation: I assess my progress with patience and honest attention.

Reversed affirmation: I reconsider commitments when the evidence or my needs change.

If you keep a tarot journal, take one of these questions to it: What am I growing? Is my effort going to the right place? What do I need to prune?

What next

Cards that sit close to this one are Eight of Pentacles (steady work), The Hermit (the Major Arcana card of reflection) and The Empress (the Major Arcana card of growth).

The Seven 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, Six of Pentacles or the card after it, Eight 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 Seven of Pentacles.
• Aleister Crowley, 777 (London: Walter Scott, 1909), columns of the decans, the Minor Arcana and the court cards.
• Israel Regardie, ed., The Golden Dawn (Chicago: Aries Press, 1937 to 1940), “Book T”, titles and attributions of the small cards and the court.