TAROTEight of Pentacles
Upright
Hard work, focus and commitment to mastering a skill
Striving for perfection in a skill, career or art.
Job satisfaction and success in career direction.
A focus on career and skills at the expense of everything else
Intuition
The card shows Hephaestus, God of fire, metalworking and artisans. He works at his forge creating the eight pentacles.
The flames of the forge take the shape of a woman; one of the nine Muses. Without an understanding of beauty, emotion and form as well as function, there is no art nor craft in anything we make.
Reversed
Uninspired or lacking skill or ideas.
Lacking the skills or perseverance to create what you set out to produce.
Lacking commitment to finish what you started.
Lack of attention to detail in your work or dealings.
Astrologia
Practical with an attention to detail; the perfectionist. Well-ordered, efficient and resourceful. Can become judgmental and an over-perfectionist of both others and themself
Eight of Pentacles
We move on from the Seven of Pentacles, where the pentacles are raw materials to the next stage where we make them ourselves.
The Eight of Pentacles represents commitment to a craft, skill or discipline, and the hard work, and eye for detail that results in quality. The card often denotes a commitment and pride in your work.
And of course, if you want to financial security from your work, you often need to be the best you can be, and the card can also point to the need to learn and practice your skills to become the best. This may mean education and studying, or it may mean focusing on learning new things on the job so you can progress to a higher level. It can point to a period where you enjoy your work; job satisfaction and seeing your work being used for the good of others.
On the downside, the card can sometimes represent an over-emphasis on career and your work to the detriment of other things: your relationships, your free time and perhaps even your health.
The card shows the God of craftsmen, using his forge on Mount Olympus to create the eight pentacles of this card.
Hephaestus
Hephaestus was the God of fire, volcanoes and as many early crafts required fire in their manufacture; metalwork, pottery, cookery, etc., plus many other ancient crafts associated with needlework and cloth were associated with the hearth fire (as that was where they were made to pass away the end of the day).
He was also lame. Although there are many stories to explain this, the root cause is probably that many ancient blacksmiths would become unable to walk in later life because of the common use of poisonous compounds over years of metalworking, such as arsenic poisoning (causing rheumatoid arthritis and difficulty with joints – and walking).
Finally, Hephaestus was of course a very skilled craftsman. Many magical weapons and artifacts the Gods carried were made by him. Hephaestus’ forge is where Prometheus was said to have stolen the spark of fire to give to humans, and also where the punishment for this was created; Pandora the first woman, and her jar (which became a box in the 16th century because of a mistake translating the word pithos - a large earthenware jar, into pyxis - box). The jar contained all the ills of humankind, and Pandora was given the ‘curse’ of curiosity so that she would eventually open it.
Description and Symbology
The card shows the God Hephaestus using his immense craftsmanship and his magical forge to create the pentacles on the card – perhaps even the first coins.
The fire takes the shape of an ethereal woman. This is one of the Muses. Without the artistic, literary and musical abilities associated with the Muses there can be no creative ideas and therefore no craft, and without that, any lump of metal will remain a lump of metal no matter how often you heat or shape it. It could also refer to the ‘curse’ of curiosity inherited from Pandora, and without which we will never learn anything.
The master craftsman
We see the God of craftsmen, Hephaestus creating perfect pentacles in his forge on Mount Olympus.
The fire of higher learning and curiosity
Hephaestus’ forge flames takes the shape of a winged woman. This might be his muse (specifically one of the mythological muses associated with the higher aspects of learning) or it could be the fire of curiosity that makes us all human – the ability to be curious about our world, and create things for ourselves that the Gods did not create for us.
The Pentacles
The image shows the pentacles we have created in the past, as they fly away from Hephaestus’s hammer. There is also the pentacle that is being created now. The forge itself represents our curiosity and ability to learn, and therefore our ability to create greater works tomorrow – so long as we maintain our ‘curse’ of curiosity!
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
This card represents a period of building things outside the relationship; career improvement or education that will eventually result in material security but not specifically romance or emotion. This may however lead to greater respect and pride of the skills and determination on show, especially if the goals are shared.
If you are fine with that then this is a good card. Perhaps you want a more emotional kind of fire. If that is the case, you may have to wait!
For single people looking for a new relationship, there may be competition for your time and it comes from career, education or a passion project.
There may be problems from career or self-improvement (such as training or education) that are causing problems.
Long hours or difficulties at work may be an issue, such as frustration with progress, boredom or lack of appreciation at work.
Whatever the problem, it is important to manage the process so there is good communication and support throughout this time.
Any work or training undertaken to better your position at work will pay out with better skills or a promotion.
For those looking to start a personal passion project or business idea, this card is a good sign – things will go well so long as you take the time to learn the ropes and spend the time to learn the subject matter.
This card suggests a lack of progress in career or personal projects.
This may be caused by impatience to see results, not taking the time to learn the required skills or simply boredom and taking crafty shortcuts rather than learning a craft.
There is a need to make sure what you are doing is really for you, as there seems to be a reluctance to commit.
Although this card is not directly associated with health and instead is related to bettering yourself with new skills in career and personal creative projects, there is a need to look after your health, particularly because your focus on career or the work may take a toll on your health.
Make sure you take time out, or spend some of that energy on making your body a perfectly crafted item as well as whatever you are making!
A lack of progress or mistakes in career or a personal project or business idea will cause problems with stress or worry.
It is important to maintain a good work-life balance and keep stress confined to business hours, giving you space outside that time to decompress and connect to your personal life and more calming influences.
Remember, being tired and stressed may be an outcome of a busy days work, but it makes no sense if you start the day in the same state, as that is when mistakes really start to happen!
This is a time when you will be thinking about gaining new skills with a view to bettering your career position or pursue new business or creative ideas. It may also represent a time where you learn new skills to move career.
As long as this is something you will be proud of for reasons other than simply material gain, you will enrich yourself with the experience.
You may be embarking on a career change or gaining new skills, but this card suggests the path will be fraught with indecision, problems and possibly even boredom.
The root cause for this may be spiritual – you are doing this merely for material gain, but to be truly committed, you need to be committed to the aim because you believe in it for other reasons such as artistic or self-expression, a worthy and intellectual challenge, or the final work will give you a sense of pride.
The card suggests you will struggle unless your material gains are also underpinned by your spiritual expectations, specifically a sense of purpose in what you do.
You will gain an exceptional attention to detail and planning, making it a good time to review your investments and other financial transactions.
You may also have a new business or creative idea that requires training or learning new skills, and it may be important to be able to cover the temporary loss of income this may create. Check the finances before you start your passion project, as you are emotionally committed and it would be a shame if you failed through lack of funds!
A lack of concentration on detail or difficulties in career may impact your finances.
Make sure you are capable of the job you are doing, and committed to completing it because failure and delays may have financial or career implications.
Yes through being skilled and committed to excellence.
No through being distracted and not aware of the details (which is where the devil often lurks!).
Reading the Card
The upright card
The Upright Eight of Pentacles signifies either a need to hone your skills through dedication, learning, and hard work, or to follow a desire to do the same simply to better yourself or explore creative avenues.
The need may come because you feel constrained in your current career and want to move up a step or two. The card suggests this is a good idea because you will be successful. The card often has an emphasis on being curious and learning. If you have the option of taking courses at work, the card suggests taking them. If you are thinking of taking time out to enter (or go back to) education for a period, the card suggests this is a good idea.
The desire may come from something you have put off for years ‘because life got in the way’ but now have the time or inclination to make it a business or side-project. The upright card may encourage you to spend time on a hobby or pastime, turning it into something that others might want to use. Painting, writing, music, or creating your own Tarot deck based on other interests… and then realizing that other people might want a copy (which is the route this creator took). The possibilities are as endless as your own curiosity and desire to better yourself!
The card can occasionally point to being too dedicated to your career through pushing yourself to high goals or imposing impossible standards on yourself.
The reversal
The reversed Eight of Pentacles points to a lack of skill, motivation self-belief or a massive dose of impostor-syndrome.
You may be bored by a repetitive job that gives you no creative outlet, or overworked and underappreciated. The card advises that ‘quantity has its own quality’ may have worked for Joseph Stalin but it doesn’t work so well outside a wartime economy! The way forward is to better yourself by doing what you are good at or gives you a sense of pride rather than what makes you money. This is not an easy task as it may well mean honing your skills so will be a long term solution, but it is rarely the wrong solution – who does not want to better themselves?
The card may also point to rushing the learning process and walking before you can run. This may seem like failure but is often simply rushing or expecting too much too early. Learning takes time, and failure is often a constant teacher during the early days. This time will pass through perseverance and learning.
Finally, there is always the problem of impostor-syndrome; comparing yourself to the ideal person who has no fear, who has perfect composure in meetings and always seems to know what to say. That person is the same as all of us; constantly working it out, and forever biting their tongue over their mistakes!
We are all our own worst critic, but impostor-syndrome is just another name for ego, except that we are in on the joke and know we are not perfect. Better to realize that is just being human and not a God. We can create; rarely perfection but often good enough.
Card Design Process
The use of Hephaestus as the master craftsman was pretty much a given for this card, but the image was always missing something. Making the connection that his forge was possibly the living source of his ingenuity rather than ‘just a fire’ added that missing something.
Final Words
The Eight of Pentacles represents the dedication, eye for detail and hard work needed to master a craft. The card also points to the learning and curiosity that makes us better people through new skills and learning from our mistakes and experience.
