TAROTSeven of Pentacles
Upright
Looking ahead via planning and/or expectation of rewards for previous hard work
Planning for the future through hard work and plans carried out now.
Patience and diligence.
Investments and financial plans.
Forgoing luxury today for a better future tomorrow.
Intuition
The image denotes a rather complex set of beliefs associated with Egyptian myth centered on Isis and Osiris. It represents the trials and tasks performed by Isis in recovering the throne of the Kingdom from the forces of evil. She does this through diligence, patience and perseverance in the face of setbacks and obstacles. She is sure that a positive outcome will emerge because it is the correct outcome.
Reversed
Impatience through lack of progress. Not looking ahead to the future and living for today.
Not seeing gains through either lack of planning or simply bad luck.
Giving up too soon or having a sense of entitlement.
Inflexibility in changing plans to suit a changing situation.
Being on the wrong path in life and a need to reconsider your aims.
Astrologia
Personal growth within a stable environment. Very strong work ethic, aimed at family and creating stable structures. Strong grip on finance. Can be slow to differentiate between problems caused by chance and ones of their own making, instead always assuming the latter.
Seven of Pentacles
The Seven of Pentacles represents diligence and hard work that will pay off in the future.
Unless Lady Luck is on your side (and you should rarely rely on her as she can be fickle), success is not something that just appears.
Success is a seed that you have to plant in advance and sometimes years in advance. It is nourished by the water of hard work, vision, and good decisions.
Future success has to take root before it can grow, but looking on the surface it initially appears that nothing is happening, and you may be quick to judge it as a failure. Yet down below, the embryo of future success will be taking shape.
The card asks us to remember that:
- Success takes time. We have to be patient.
- Success takes effort that may go unrewarded initially. We need a vision of the future and confidence that it will happen.
- Finally, success takes hard work. We have to be prepared to get down on our knees and get our hands dirty.
Isis and Osiris
The story of Isis and Osiris is fundamental to ancient Egyptian religion.
The story involves a King with no heir (Osiris), his Queen (Isis) and a rival to the throne (Set - often seen as a force of chaos). Set kills Osiris (often via a drowning in the Nile) and takes the throne in his place. The corpse is found by Isis and Gods friendly to her. Before she can do anything, Set realizes and snatches the corpse back, cutting Osiris into 14 pieces and burying them across the Kingdom.
Undaunted by this, Isis is fueled by love of her husband and the righteousness of her cause, and does not consider the impossibility of the task ahead of her. Instead she sets to work.
Turning into a falcon (or often ‘woman with the wings of a falcon’ in many ancient statues and iconography), Isis flies high to find and recover the pieces. They are carefully preserved, put together and bandaged (creating the mythical process that was replicated in funerary mummification), and brought to life by Isis with the help of the healing skills and spells of Thoth (Page of Wands). Further magic is invoked and Isis becomes pregnant with the child Horus (who is born with the head of a falcon to reflect the appearance of Isis as the point of conception).
The resurrection magic is short lived however, and Osiris must return into the ground as the spirit of growth from the ground (and the fertility associated with the yearly Nile flooding) and God of the afterlife.
Horus grows to adulthood, defeating Set and reclaiming the throne.
The death and rebirth of Osiris into the afterlife led to the intricate funerary tradition that ancient Egypt became well known for. Isis was seen as having the power of resurrection (as she resurrected Osiris) and played a major part in funerary rites as well as becoming the mother of all future Pharaohs through this story.
The card represents this story with each of Osiris’ corpse sections represented by one side of a pentacle, giving seven pentacles in all for the 14 pieces. Through the hard work of Isis, the parts join together to form future fertility in the desert (which was created by the yearly flooding of the Nile), as well as the birth of the future greatness of ancient Egypt through a line of Pharaohs.
Finally, it should be noted that the myth or Isis and Osiris was known to early Western civilization. It was recorded by the Ancient Greeks and others. It may be the root source of early Western cults based around the afterlife (such as Eleusinian mysteries) and the root of the archetype of the twice born God (such as Dionysus), as well as some early Christian iconography.
Description and Symbology
We see a woman (possibly the original prehistoric Isis) planting crops in the otherwise barren desert. Under the ground, we see seven pentacles growing into a future of possibility that will return the hard work.
Beside the woman we see a jackal representing the God Anubis. Anubis guides the dead to the afterlife, and was an earlier form of Osiris (his root is probably the original God of the afterlife as archaeology tells us he precedes the myth of Isis and Osiris).
The jackal thus points to a much more spiritual card reading that transcends good work and its reward in this life and points to the balance of good work done in an entire life and its reward in the afterlife. The developing child now represents not the future but the soul as it grows through good work performed in this life.
The woman working the earth
A woman tends the ground of the desert. This may be the Goddess Isis or any woman from prehistory. Despite the inhospitable terrain, her patient work looks like it will bear fruit in the future.
The pentacles
Below ground, the seeds have formed a root system that transforms what was put into the ground into greater material rewards via the pentacles.
The vision of the future
The seeds do not only produce material gains over time, but also security and future generations. The developing child may also represent the effect of hard but fulfilling work; it grows the soul in readiness for the next life. Finally the child may represent the growing potential and vision that will shape the future.
The earth as provider of the future
The balance of sky to earth weighs heavily to the earth. This matches the ancient beliefs that placed more weight on the earth than the sky; they saw that all sustenance came from the ground. The earth was also where the afterlife occurred.
Tips for Readings
The following table shows the upright and reverse meanings for general questions. The last row ('Yes/No') is useful when you are picking a single card to decide a yes or no decision.
Upright
Reversed
There will be a period of looking to the future and working together to make it happen. This may be a commitment to reach a milestone in your lives or put in the work to clear up previous mistakes and misconceptions. Whatever the reason, the card points to a growth of the relationship through increased wealth, security and togetherness.
For those looking to a new partner, this card points to an eventual strong and successful relationship characterized by abundance. It will take some initial work to set this up from you both although the eventual gains will be high.
Plans have been made but they do not seem to be working out: the house still cannot be afforded, budgets do not allow that holiday, or money is simply tight. Most likely, there is impatience, or ideals that don’t match reality, or the chosen path is not one you will be travelling in this life. It may be time to revisit the plan, at least for now.
For those looking to a new partner, there may be problems with one partner wanting more than the other one. There may be a materialistic streak in one partner that is not a priority nor understood by the other, or a difference in work ethic. Whatever the cause, this needs to be resolved one way or another.
Work and experience carried out in the past will affect you positively in the near future.
This may be through recognition and promotion, or growing beyond your current position into a new role you previously only dreamed about.
The card asks that you carry on with your good work for a while longer however, as patience is the keyword.
You are underappreciated or not fitting in with your current work environment.
This may be through your work not being noticed, taken for granted, or you are simply disillusioned or fed up with the job and given up trying.
Whatever the reason, the card suggests your current path will not give you the results you want, and it may be time to start looking elsewhere.
Any health problems you have will be best solved by long term changes that will take a while to show a difference, but if you are serious about change this is the way to do it.
It will require patience and consistent effort over time.
Any health problem you have are caused by long term habits; poor diet, lack of exercise or other poor choices, all of which are now making themselves visible but have been a long time coming.
Take the card not as a criticism or a warning but advice; your problems took a long time to show themselves, and the cure – better living and healthy choices - will work to the same timescale, so patience is the key.
As a spiritual indicator, this card suggests patience will yield the best results.
You are on the right path but you will not see results for a while, yet they are there under the surface.
The card also suggests stepping back to see how far you have come so far.
Although you may be constantly looking to the future, it is sometimes wise to also look at your current-self compared to the earlier you and see how far your journey so far has taken you.
You may be feeling frustration, slow changes, impatience, or simply that aspects of your life feel like a bad-fit, and the core reason may be that the path you have chosen is not the one either you nor the universe wants you to take.
It is important to know that your time now is not wasted – it is part of shaping the new you that will emerge later.
There is a better path out there for you and it will make itself obvious when the time comes; when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
This is a highly positive card for investing for the future. It denotes good eventual results if you are diligent and patient.
You should not however aim for the quick wins and windfalls, as these will not come unless you are very lucky (and few people are!).
Instead, take a long term view and watch modest and realistic growth multiply through the forces of time and patience.
Investments may not be producing the returns you expected, or are failing.
This may be caused by following another exuberant bubble or other get-rich quick scheme.
It may be caused by expecting to see other people’s returns whilst not either having the same lucky timing they did, nor doing the same research they did.
Whatever the reason, the card suggests it is time to rethink your current strategy, or realize investment never gives you the short term gains you expect. It takes years and patience to see it through the low troughs as well as the high spikes.
Yes because you have planned for future success.
No because of delays, mistakes or lack of planning and lack of putting in the early work towards success.
Reading the Card
The upright card
The upright Seven of Pentacles means you are in a position where hard work and dedication to a task will be necessary to achieve success, or that you have already done the work and should expect success from it.
Either way, the card suggests patience will be necessary to see the full outcome but it will be positive. This patience also suggests planning and a confidence in your plan and the work put in. This confidence ensures you change your plans only because of new opportunities rather than:
- An inpatient desire for quick wins.
- Cashing in early through fear of failure.
Another issue the card often suggests is that work done well is never wasted. Luck comes and goes, but the trick is being ready to leap towards opportunities when they come your way, and nothing does this better than prior useful work to set you up to make the leap. This work could be education, investment, experience gained, or simply a dogged belief in your eventual success. Having the security, skills, temperament and resources to be able to leap when the chance appears multiplies your chances of success.
Work done well is never wasted
Without them, the stakes will be too high and you might even skip the opportunity as too risky.
The reversal
The reversed Seven of Pentacles represents work not put towards your future. This may be for many reasons:
- A lack of patience.
- The project or idea running too slow or failing to generate the expected returns.
- A lack of belief or disillusionment in your ideas and plans, or a failure to do the groundwork and planning.
- Or simply not doing the work but expecting luck to win through for you!
The reversed card points to lack of planning or lack of investment of your time and money.
It may also suggest that you are simply wrong. It may be time to rethink your way forward.
Sometimes what you want is not what the universe has set aside for you, and there is something else out there that is your perfect fit. The hard work you do today will still be useful in shaping your future because failure is the best teacher, and when the student is ready the teacher will appear, but there is another direction your future will take towards final success.
Card Design Process
Although many of the myths of ancient Egypt were lost to us for thousands of years until we rediscovered the ability to read hieroglyphics (so do not appear in our language as archetypes), some ancient Egyptian myths were carried afar through trade routes and cultural mixing, and the story of Isis and Osiris was one of them.
It was therefore added in this deck. Even then, the story has many different versions and characters, so simplifying it into a single and clear image was not easy! Taking it back to its fundamental themes immediately made the Seven of Pentacles jump out as a perfect match.
Final Words
The Seven of Pentacles represents the hard work, planning, vision and self-belief that results in success. It notes that success is rarely immediate, and there is always a pause while your plan works itself through.
On the surface it may look like nothing is happening, but significant changes in life are often slow. To fully benefit from them, you have to curb impatience, follow your plan, and wait.
