Esoteric Meaning
The pentacle is a five-pointed star enclosed within a circle, and it serves as the tarot's symbol of the element of Earth: material reality, physical health, finances, work, and the tangible structures of daily life. In Pythagorean mathematics, the pentagram was called the 'Pentalpha' (five alphas interlocked) and was considered the symbol of health, wholeness, and the divine proportion (phi) that governs the growth patterns of living organisms—from seashells to galaxies. The five points represent the five elements in many traditions (earth, water, fire, air, and spirit), with the topmost point representing spirit presiding over the four material elements. In the Ace of Pentacles, a golden disc inscribed with a pentagram is held aloft by a divine hand, hovering above a lush garden with an open archway, representing the material abundance and earthly opportunity being offered by the universe. Throughout the Pentacles suit, this symbol tracks the entire spectrum of material experience: wealth and poverty, skillful craftsmanship and shoddy work, physical health and disease, generous sharing and miserly hoarding. On The Devil card, an inverted pentagram appears on the Devil's forehead, with the single point facing downward—representing the perversion of spiritual values in favor of pure materialism, where the body and its appetites dominate the spirit rather than serving it.