Three of Pentacles: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Three of Pentacles upright means: Métier, trade, skilled labour; usually, however, regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory. Reversed: Mediocrity, in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness.

The picture

“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.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

Métier, trade, skilled labour; usually, however, regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.

Waite's additional meanings: If for a man, celebrity for his eldest son.

Reversed

Mediocrity, in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: Depends on neighbouring cards.

In one line

Skilled labour, and the renown it earns. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Three of Pentacles is the third card of the suit of Pentacles, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Threes: Three of Wands, Three of Cups, Three 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 Three 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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