Ace of Pentacles

When the Ace of Pentacles comes up in a reading, I feel a sense of warmth and satisfaction in my belly. The Ace of Pentacles is a home-made meal. The Ace of Pentacles is a cozy room filled with generations of family members. It is the seed planted and the seedling emerging from the cool earth.

Aces are beginnings by nature of being the first in a series of Ace to Ten. Pentacles represent the element of earth and the physical aspects of human life. The combination of “beginning” and “physical” can signify a lot of things: a new home, a budding career, or even an anticipated pregnancy.

With the Ace of Pentacles there is a world of possibilities open to us. From money & wealth to work/career to physical embodiment & bodily health to our spiritual connection to our planet, this Ace is a threshold that leads to a wide path. Like with the Ace of Cups, this card calls for receptivity to and gratitude for the magic of its element of earth.

In her section on this Ace in Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack says, "Spiritual work leads us to recognize the magic in normal things, in both nature and civilization, and then to go beyond them to the greater knowledge symbolized by the mountains." 

The element of earth is also the name of our planet and it holds the magic of life. We would simply not be here without it. Like an acorn grows into a mighty oak tree, the Ace of Pentacles is the nascent generational heritage of our human and non-human families. What strengths do you have that you want to pass on to your chosen ones? What gifts will you give to your niblings, pets, gardens, and potential grandchildren?

Of course, there are two sides to every coin and this pentacle is no different. Inheritance can be a boon but it can also be a curse. We often inherit the misdeeds and trauma of our ancestors. Our planet is our ancestor too and it has given us everything. How we treat the earth is how we see ourselves. Are we resources to be extracted? Are we an orchard to be tended, pruned and harvested? Or are we a delicate yet strong spiderweb, hanging on to several things at once and flexing in the wind?

The star is five pointed, indicating the synthesis of the four elements and spirit. The human body, like in DaVinci's Vitruvian man illustration, can also be the pentagram, our limbs connecting us to the earth & elements and our head connecting us to heaven & spirit.

You may be attracted to this Ace if you are wanting to start something new in the material world like a small business, a move to a new home, a new member to your family, or a job. Or perhaps you are an Earth sign, Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn. Perhaps you connect to the power of the pentacle in witchcraft, paganism, or nature magic.

The symbols on this pendant design are: the pentagram in a double circle to represent the four elements and spirit within the bounds of materiality, the inverted triangle with a line through it is the elemental glyph of Earth, and a leafy vine for growth and connection to nature. 

The sigil on the reverse of the pendant contains several components: an equal armed cross in a circle, the astrological sign for Earth which is rooted by an equal armed cross below it to make the Venus astrological symbol and below that is the alchemical sign for earth. Above is a crescent moon which forms the horns for the symbol of mercury and also for the astrological glyph of Taurus, the fixed earth sign of the zodiac. Finally, a leaf sprouts from the moon, growing towards the light.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.