A sculptor at his work in a monastery. Compare the design which illustrates the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice or amateur therein has received his reward and is now at work in earnest.

Upright Meaning:

Artifice, trade, skilled labour; regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.

Seated on her throne, the Empress holds up the golden sceptre. She represents the archetypal female.

Reversed Meaning:

The unravelling of important matters, vacillation, difficulty, doubt, ignorance, over-possessiveness, smothering.

The Sphinx sits atop a wheel in the sky, symbolic of the wisdom of fate. Other Egyptian characters ride the wheel as it turns, which is surrounded by four cherubs who serve as the guardians of Heaven.

Upright Meaning:

Destiny, success, elevation, luck, felicity, well-being, bliss, euphoria, fun times, good luck, fruition, godsend.

A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He clings to what he has.

Reversed Meaning:

Suspense, delay, opposition, bad economy, repression, stubbornness, penny wise – pound foolish.

A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there.

Reversed Meaning:

Somebody trying to borrow money and the anxiety that this spawns; altercation, quarrels, haggle, bad deal, rip-off, pestering, entice, con, beguile, coax, bait and switch.

A man hangs upside down from the Tau cross. This is a card of self-sacrifice and enlightenment.

Reversed Meaning:

Selfishness, the crowd, politics, corruption, self-deception, misunderstanding, ignorance, denseness, blindness.