Eight of Pentacles

Head down, hands busy. Skill built one piece at a time.

The picture

A young craftsman sits at a bench with a hammer and chisel, carving a star into a pentacle. Six finished pentacles hang on a wooden post beside him, and another lies on the ground by the bench. A small town sits far off in the distance.

Upright

Eight is effort, movement and mastery. In Pentacles, that means practice. Apprenticeship, study, training, doing the job properly and then doing it again tomorrow. Chop wood, carry water.

He has taken himself out of town, away from the noise, and he is completely absorbed. There is no rush in him, and no audience. Each coin on the post is a little better than the one before. Repetition is how the hands learn, and there is quiet satisfaction in watching them get better.

This is a good card for anyone learning a trade, starting a course, or putting in the unglamorous hours on something that will pay off later. It also turns up when the work itself has become the reward. Nobody claps for the fortieth coin. You carve it anyway, because the next one will be better.

Reversed

Reversed, I read this as too much or too little. Too much is perfectionism and overwork: carving the same coin forever because it is never quite good enough, or working so hard that the rest of life goes missing. Too little is going through the motions, cutting corners, the work done without any care in it.

To tell which, think about the last thing you finished. If you could not stop polishing it, it is too much. If you cannot remember caring how it turned out, it is too little.

When it turns up

What skill would be worth ten minutes a day, every day, for a year?

Eight of Pentacles has also been a Tarot Card of the Week. Read that post to see the card at work on a real week.

If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.

Related pages
The Number 8