Two of Pentacles: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Two of Pentacles upright means: On the one hand it is represented as a card of gaiety, recreation and its connexions, which is the subject of the design; but it is read also as news and messages in writing, as obstacles, agitation, trouble, embroilment. Reversed: Enforced gaiety, simulated enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting, composition, letters of exchange.

The picture

“A young man, in the act of dancing, has a pentacle in either hand, and they are joined by that endless cord which is like the number 8 reversed.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

On the one hand it is represented as a card of gaiety, recreation and its connexions, which is the subject of the design; but it is read also as news and messages in writing, as obstacles, agitation, trouble, embroilment.

Waite's additional meanings: Troubles are more imaginary than real.

Reversed

Enforced gaiety, simulated enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting, composition, letters of exchange.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: Bad omen, ignorance, injustice.

In one line

A dance with two coins: gaiety, and news in writing. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Two of Pentacles is the second card of the suit of Pentacles, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Twos: Two of Wands, Two of Cups, Two 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 Two 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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