The Nine of Pentacles - Building and Celebrating your Resources in the Tarot

The Nine of Pentacles is a card about celebrating and making the most of your gains.

To give you a bit of context whilst you reflect on your own relationship to the card, here are a few key things to know about the Nine of Pentacles:

As a suit, the Pentacles - also called Coins or Disks in some tarot decks - are typically associated with finances and other tradable, earnable earthly resources. Taken as a whole, the Suit is a parable for navigating your relationship to money and resources - as the cards progress from Ace to Ten, the narrative of the cards hints at the development of a more mature, experienced relationship to money and resources. Appearing near the tail end of the suit, Nine of Pentacles, in many ways, represents a common ideal when it comes to finances and resources.

In Aleister Crowley’s Thoth tarot, the card is captioned with the keyword “gain,” and the Rider Waite Smith version of the card shows off a similar theme: it paints a picture of comfort, luxury, and independence.

The fertility, safety, and ease within the illustration suggest we’re looking at someone who has managed and grown their resources well. It invites any card reader to consider their own relationship to their resources. Are you able to enjoy - even luxuriate - in what you have? How are you building your way toward comfort?

While the imagery in the RWS card, as well as Crowley’s keyword “gain” seem primarily linked to financial wealth, this card doesn’t necessarily need to be about financial gain. Instead, you can look at it as an opportunity to consider what resources you do have at your disposal - talents, skills, space, time, attention - and how you can best manage those things for your own comfort and pride.

In your tarot journal, you’re asked to reflect on what this card means to you, now, in this moment, and what actions and thoughts it inspires in you. As you journal, pay attention to what you’re personally picking up in the card, but also consider what the key themes in the card might be telling you. What resources are you managing well in your life right now? What resources need your attention? What’s something you would like to gain in the foreseeable future? How has your relationship to your finances and other resources evolved in the last several years?

This mini-tarot lesson was brought to you by me, Chelsey Pippin Mizzi, founder of Pip Cards Tarot. I hope you gained a little context to help you continue reflecting on the card in your own way, and I’ll see you tomorrow for another mini-lesson.