Six of Pentacles upright
The Six of Pentacles is about giving and receiving. You are in a situation of exchange where money, gifts or help pass from one person to another: you give, or you receive, depending on the place you hold. This can take the form of financial aid, royalties, a salary, a loan, a gift or a share of profits. It can also be the repayment of a debt, a lawsuit won or an inheritance received. Accounts are balanced and problems find a solution. The card also touches on requests for a raise, sponsors, investors, contributions, agreements reached and services traded in return. What circulates is not necessarily money: the card also concerns your schedule, how you manage your time and how other resources are shared out.
Six is a number of harmony, reciprocity and social life: the one who gives needs someone to receive, and the other way around. Within the suit of Pentacles, matter and money, this is the most favorable card, the one where everything is settled harmoniously. It announces success and gain in material ventures, with power, influence and standing. That success is the reward for hard work, and it is short-lived: you enjoy it only briefly.
Your strengths
You also know how to share your resources so that abundance benefits several people.
What holds you back
- At worst, the situation is a relationship of dominance and submission between those who have and those who have not, with small cosmetic reforms or emotional or material dependence.
- You can be proud of your wealth, insolent because of your comfort, or a big spender.
- You give from a position of superiority, and the relationship depends on two people agreeing on their places: one wants to dominate, the other wants to be dominated.
- A situation can also hold you in place: a job that pays but neither satisfies you nor lets you advance, an unhappy but comfortable relationship, a setting where people give just enough that nobody looks elsewhere.
- You give what you can afford to lose and keep your deepest feelings to yourself, even if you are at ease with others.
- You often set what you give by what others expect of you, to avoid awkwardness.
- You believe you know what the other person needs when you are projecting your own needs and fears onto them.
- You can feel embarrassed or frightened by the strong emotions people show you, or offended when someone offers you help.
- You need to watch what is brief: success passes quickly.
What helps
Giving others what they are able to receive, without overwhelming them. Knowing yourself well enough, and understanding people well enough, to give what they truly need rather than what you think they want. Putting yourself in a position to receive: when you practice meditation, an art or the tarot, you notice that life often brings a small, useful boost at the right moment. Helping others with fairness and generosity.
Love
In a relationship, one gives and the other receives, and the two are well matched: a relationship built on dominance can be very stable. You are at ease with others but you hold back your deepest feelings.
Friendships
You give people what they can receive, avoiding making them uncomfortable.
Six of Pentacles reversed
The upright Six of Pentacles speaks of sharing, generosity and a balanced exchange between the one who gives and the one who receives. Reversed, this balance comes undone: you may feel shortchanged or deprived of what is yours. Desire takes over from fairness, and there is a lasting gap between what you want and what you get.
On the money side, hoped-for gains may not materialize, the profit may prove illusory, and money lent or received may be misused or not returned. You may also have to ask, negotiate or do favors, or receive help that comes with unpleasant conditions.
In relationships, the reversed card shows a lack of generosity: the one with more power gives by measuring what they can afford, and does not really share. It also shows the resentment of those who receive charity, or the pity that goes with it. You may see others as ungenerous or never satisfied, when it is you who project that lack onto them.
You may also refuse charity, by denying your own needs or those of others. If you were mistreated or ignored in the past, you may be hungry for attention. The card also sometimes indicates a situation where the power gap is growing and you want to restore the balance. It can finally say that you break down social hierarchies and put everyone on the same level.
When it comes to supporting others, it asks you to discern what each person is ready to receive and able to handle. Some expect quick fixes, which a wise person knows not to give. It can also point to someone who reveals a little in order to obtain larger sums afterward.
What holds you back
- You feel a lack: what you receive never closes the gap with what you desire.
- You can be envious, jealous or greedy, and come across as ungrateful.
- You may refuse help, or deny your needs and those of others.
- You may give without really committing, measuring what you agree to lose.
- You sometimes expect quick results or an easy gain that do not come.
What helps
- Giving yourself a gift, if you have been treated without regard or ignored.
- Turning a loan you are not sure will be repaid into a gift, or not lending, or keeping a reserve.
- Reviewing how you spend your time and money, and how to improve your situation to bring it up to the level you aim for.
- When you are in a position of strength, giving more freely instead of measuring what you can afford.
What the card shows
What the image shows
A person in merchant's dress weighs money with a scale and hands it out to people in need. In the Six, they have found a source of charity. One person stands above two others: the image forms a hierarchy, with the giver at the top and the receivers below. The two beggars are kneeling. The scale is balanced. The figure only has the look of a merchant: he can stand for a teacher, or a religious or psychological doctrine.
What the scale and the gesture mean
The scale points to Justice, that is, to truth as a living force that holds the universe in balance. The merchant plays here the role the old man at the gate plays in the Ten of Pentacles. Life gives you what you need and what you can use, especially when you put yourself in a position to receive. It gives a small boost at the moment it serves you most. The merchant also shows his success in life and his kindness.
The general meaning of the card
The Six of Pentacles speaks of sharing, generosity and charity. It also speaks of gifts, gratification, attention, vigilance and present prosperity. Six is the highest point of its suit and its element. It is a number of harmony, reciprocity and social concerns: the one who gives needs someone who receives, and the one who receives needs someone who gives. You can be the one who gives or the one who receives: money, gifts, help, financial aid, a salary, a loan, profit sharing. What is handed out is not necessarily money: the card can also concern organizing time and sharing other resources. At best, it shows an abundance that circulates and a fair, generous charity. At worst, it shows a situation of domination and submission, between those who have and those who don't, with codependency. The image reads differently depending on the person you identify with.
The relationship between the giver and the receivers
The giver gives from a position of superiority. Because the people are well matched, this kind of relationship is often very stable: one wants to dominate, the other wants to be dominated. The lower position is not necessarily a weakness: the dominated person is often the one who started the relationship and wants to keep it, even when the other would like to change it. The hierarchy can also be a situation, emotional, economic or otherwise, that gives very little to people, just enough that they don't look for anything else. That is the case of a job that pays a little without satisfying or offering progression, or of a relationship where people are unhappy but comfortable. Nothing is truly reconciled, but the situation keeps its balance and carries on.
A measured generosity
The figure does not give spontaneously: the scale shows that he measures what he can afford, that is, what he will not miss. On the emotional level, this describes a person who easily makes contact with others but keeps her deepest feelings. The relationship comes from both sides: many people accept only limited "gifts," and a strong emotion can embarrass or frighten them. Some refuse charity and file every offer of help in that category. The Six of Pentacles can therefore say that people are given what they are able to receive. Most people dose their generosity according to what others expect of them, so as to embarrass neither themselves nor others. Giving someone what they need, and not only what they think they want, takes great self-knowledge and knowledge of human psychology. Few people manage it: many believe they see the other's need when they are projecting their own needs and fears onto them.
The spiritual meaning
Religion and esoteric teachings give people what they are able to receive. Many people cannot, or will not, receive a religious or psychological teaching in its full form. If you give more than people can receive, they stop listening. The value of a discipline such as meditation, tarot or artistic work also lies in the state of mind you take on while practicing it: the work itself changes you. By looking at these images, you put yourself in a position to receive what they give.
In the Golden Dawn model
A white, radiant hand comes out of clouds and holds a branch of a rosebush with white roses and buds, each touching a pentacle. The six pentacles are arranged in two columns of three, with the symbols of Taurus and the Moon. The card means success and gain in material undertakings, prosperity in business, power, influence, rank, nobility and authority over others. It describes someone lucky, successful, liberal and just.
What holds you back
- You give while measuring what you can afford to lose.
- You are at ease with people but keep your deepest feelings.
- You think you see what the other needs when you are projecting your own needs and fears.
- You may take a position of superiority when you give, or stay in a low position when you receive.
- You can become proud of your purse, arrogant from abundance, or a spendthrift.
What helps
Giving people what they can receive, and not only what you think they want. Getting to know yourself better, so you can recognize the other person's real need. Putting yourself in a position to receive. Keeping in mind that every success is temporary.
