Knight of Pentacles in 5 decks
The same card as 5 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 Visconti-Sforza or Oswald Wirth, which have no Knight of Pentacles card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A knight in dark armour sits motionless on a heavy black horse, holding a pentacle out in front of him and regarding it steadily. Behind him, ploughed fields run to the horizon in neat furrows. Neither horse nor rider is in any hurry.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A rider in a red cap carries a yellow club over his shoulder, while a coin floats in the air at upper right. He wears a striped tunic and a blue cloak. His pale horse walks to the right with a foreleg raised, wearing a red bridle and a green scalloped breastband. Titled CAVALIER DE DENIERS.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A knight in dark armour sits motionless on a heavy black horse, holding a pentacle out in front of him and regarding it steadily. Behind him, ploughed fields run to the horizon in neat furrows. Neither horse nor rider is in any hurry.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A rider in a red cap carries a yellow club over his shoulder, while a coin floats in the air at upper right. He wears a striped tunic and a blue cloak. His pale horse walks to the right with a foreleg raised, wearing a red bridle and a green scalloped breastband. Titled CAVALIER DE DENIERS.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
A young rider in a red and yellow cap sits on a grey horse moving to the left, holding a pink baton over his shoulder. A single coin floats in the upper left corner, and the horse has a pink mane and a yellow saddle cloth.
Sola Busca
c. 1491
A rider in a red tunic on a white horse throws an arm across his face, a large ribbed shield on his back. A single coin rests on the ground in front of the horse. The name SARAFINO is written in two lines at the top between curled ornaments, and 12 is at the left.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A young man in a green headband and patterned green clothing rides a dark horse at a walk through a forest of tall pines, holding up a gold coin with a three-comma swirl and looking to the side. A sword hangs at his hip. A tanuki trots beside the horse, a large red sun sits low among the trees, and orange leaves drift through the teal air.