Nine of Pentacles: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Nine of Pentacles upright means: Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment. Reversed: Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.

The picture

“A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment.

Waite's additional meanings: Prompt fulfilment of what is presaged by neighbouring cards.

Reversed

Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: Vain hopes.

In one line

Safety and accomplishment in a garden of plenty. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Nine of Pentacles is the ninth card of the suit of Pentacles, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Nines: Nine of Wands, Nine of Cups, Nine of Swords.

In Esbat

Esbat deals a card of the day, face down until you turn it, and holds all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. The Nine of Pentacles can be shared as a picture. All 78 tarot card meanings.

Sources

Meanings and picture descriptions: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), public domain, checked against the Wikisource transcription. Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, 1910, public domain. Like the app, this page records what the book says; it does not promise outcomes.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

Esbat: Tarot & Book of Shadows, on Google Play

A card of the day, face down until you turn it, and all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. For Android.

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