I had drawn the 8 of Pentacles as my card of the day and decided to do a little refresher on the card. So, I looked up the meaning in a few different tarot books I own, as well as checking what some other tarot websites have to say.
One interpretation that seemed to come up quite often was that the 8 of Pentacles represents an apprentice or craftsman learning their trade.
But when I look at the card, that isn’t what I see.
I see a man who has already completed seven of the eight pentacles. Five are displayed proudly on the wooden structure, with two others on the ground. Everything he has made looks carefully crafted and, to me, completed.
Whilst the man appears in modest in his clothing and perhaps in the tools he is using, I don’t necessarily see him as an apprentice. I see him as a working-class man. Someone who is grounded, practical and down-to-earth, much like the qualities I often associate with the Pentacles suit.
Of course, depending on the surrounding cards, I could absolutely see the 8 of Pentacles representing someone who is learning a trade or completing an apprenticeship. Tarot meanings aren’t always black or white, and the cards around it can change the way I interpret a card.
But by itself, the card just doesn’t evoke “apprentice” to me.
If anything, I see someone who has taken the time to learn their craft and is now becoming very good at it. Perhaps they aren’t quite at the end of their journey yet, but they’re certainly not at the beginning.
And this is where the number 8 also becomes interesting to me.
The number 8 is often associated with things uch as infinity, abundance, karma and consequence. It also sits close to 10, which in tarot is often associated with completion.
So, rather than seeing the 8 of Pentacles as someone who is just starting out, I see it as someone who has put in the work and is now seeing the results of that effort.
They have learned. They have practiced. They have created something they can be proud of. And they’re still working towards the next stage.
This is why I think it is important to remember that tarot education resources are exactly that: resources for learning. They aren’t necessarily the final word on what a card has to mean.
Books and websites can teach us the traditional interpretations and give us a foundation to work from, which is incredibly useful. But eventually, I think you also need to look at the card itself.
What do you see? What stands out to you? And what does the image make you feel?
And does the traditional interpretation actually make sense when you look at the card?
Sometimes you might agree completely with the commonly accepted meaning.
And sometimes you might look at a card and think, “That’s not what I’m seeing at all.”
And that’s okay.
I don’t think learning tarot means memorising a list of meanings and never deviating from them. To me, learning tarot is about understanding those meanings, looking at the imagery, considering the context and eventually developing your own relationship with the cards.
After all, if we weren’t allowed to disagree about tarot, there probably wouldn’t be quite so many tarot books in the first place.
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