Eight of Pentacles in 6 decks
The same card as 6 decks draw it, five and a half centuries apart. What stays the same is the card’s core; what changes is where a reading can find something new. The meanings are written for the Rider–Waite–Smith picture; the descriptions here are of each deck’s own. Not in Oswald Wirth, which has no Eight of Pentacles card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A craftsman sits at a bench chiselling a pentacle, with six finished ones displayed on a post beside him and one more waiting at his feet. A town is visible in the distance but he is not looking at it. His whole attention is on the coin under his hands.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Eight coins stand in two columns of four. Between them a central stem carries red tulips at top and bottom, and at the middle a red and blue star-shaped flower with red flowers pointing out sideways. Yellow leafy branches stretch across between the rows.
Marseille number cards are read through their number and suit; the written meaning here gives the scene the Rider-Waite-Smith card adds.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A craftsman sits at a bench chiselling a pentacle, with six finished ones displayed on a post beside him and one more waiting at his feet. A town is visible in the distance but he is not looking at it. His whole attention is on the coin under his hands.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Eight coins stand in two columns of four. Between them a central stem carries red tulips at top and bottom, and at the middle a red and blue star-shaped flower with red flowers pointing out sideways. Yellow leafy branches stretch across between the rows.
Marseille number cards are read through their number and suit; the written meaning here gives the scene the Rider-Waite-Smith card adds.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
Eight coins stand in two columns of four along a grey central stem. Red bands curve between the pairs, red teardrop shapes project to the sides, and a grey lily-like flower tops the stem.
Viéville number cards show only their suit symbols; read them through number and suit, with the written meaning as a guide.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
Eight gold coins in scalloped blue rings and salmon outer rings stand in four rows of two. A line of small blue and red flowers on green stems runs down the centre between the columns. Green sprigs edge the cream ground within a red border.
In the Visconti-Sforza deck the number cards show only their suit symbols, and the trumps are unnamed and unnumbered.
Sola Busca
c. 1491
A wicker basket piled with coins hangs by a rope from a dead tree. On the ground below lie a human skull and bones beside a single coin. A white cloth hangs from the basket and the numeral 8 is at the right.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A long-haired man in a red kimono, with a tattooed forearm, sits at a wooden workbench engraving a three-comma swirl into a gold coin with a fine tool. Seven finished coins lie in two rows on the bench beside a knife. Dark foliage surrounds the veranda, and a red torii stands in the night behind him.