Ace of Pentacles
A hand—issuing, as usual, from a cloud—holds up a pentacle. Divinatory Meanings: Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also speedy intelligence; gold. Reversed: The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence; also great riches. In any case it shews prosperity, comfortable material conditions, but whether these are of advantage to the possessor will depend on whether the card is reversed or not.
A. E. Waite, Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911)
Power of earth, usually associated with business, finance and material matters signifying growth. A seed, the beginning of a venture, success, inner and outer richness, money from an unexpected source, gifts. Pure joy, beginning of matter, also physical contact. Charge of physical energy is available for the birth of a new creative vision in the manifest world creating tools and beautiful objects. Contract, good earning, perspectives, work. "Money makes the world go around."
Ace of Rainbows: Maturity
This figure stands alone, silent and yet alert. The inner being is filled with flowers–that carry the quality of springtime and regenerate wherever he goes. This inner flowering and the wholeness that he feels affords the possibility of unlimited movement. He can move in any direction–within and without it makes no difference as his joy and and maturity cannot be diminished by externals. He has come to a time of centeredness and expansiveness–the white glow around the figure is his protection and his light. All of life's experiences have brought him to this time of perfection.
When you draw this card, know well this moment carries a gift–for hard work well done. Your base is solid now and success and good fortune are yours for they are the outcome of what has already been experienced within.
Tarot of the Ages - Mario Garizio ©1988 U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
The Ace of Pentacles is the foundation for all kinds of projects in the real world; this foundation is as valuable as gold, and as solid as concrete. It is the cornerstone of a building that might stand for decades, or crumble to dust after a few years - this is determined by how the rest of the structure is put together. The Ace of Pentacles is not the promise of long-lasting financial and material security that some might expect, but it is the sign that such things are within your reach. It gives you the resources to go in search of higher goals.
The appearance of this card is usually the sign of a turn for the better in terms of fortune and wealth, and sometimes it can even indicate gifts of money, or inheritance from unexpected sources (hence the coin appearing from "thin air"). This gift does not have to be money of course; any kind of gift that has value to both the giver and the receiver can be indicated by the Ace of Pentacles. In particular, the card often refers to wedding rings and proposals of marriage, which may seem out of place in the Pentacles suit until you realize that such proposals are the solid foundation upon which the castles of love must be built. The Ace also represents the fertile soil in which ideas can be planted to grow and mature. This will be a slow growth, as the Pentacles never move at a fast pace, but the success of the harvest is practically assured. The only caveat is that the Pentacles suit demands a realistic outlook. If you want to succeed, start now - it is not the time to dream and fantasize when there is work to be done! Forget flourish and dramatics, because hard work is the only thing that is going to produce results when the Ace of Pentacles is afoot. Keep your feet firmly planted in the Earth and let your common sense (and your intuition) guide you to success.
More often than not, the realms of material and spiritual wealth are mutually exclusive, and in some cases they are in fact detrimental to one another. But on the Ace of Pentacles all types of wealth are portrayed, and though the material world is certainly in full view, most cards feature a gateway or a passage into the more spiritual realm far in the background. The Rider-Waite is typical of this; through the gap in the hedges we can see the cold white mountains of abstract and spiritual thought. You can achieve spiritual peace through material means, if you knows the path.
Tarot of the Dream Enchantress ©2009 Lo Scarabeo