Eight of Pentacles

Identity

Symbols

• The WorkbenchNot a prison — the table he has chosen to remain at.+

  The bench is a plain plank on splayed legs, set out on open ground rather than inside a shop. He sits on the same board he works on, the disc propped in front of him against a small block.

• Finished Pieces Along the PostThe evidence of repetition hung up where it can be seen — progress isn't a slogan, it is a row of countable objects.+

  Waite says he shows his work 'in the form of trophies'. The Greek tropaion was exactly that: captured arms hung on a post or tree trunk where the enemy had turned. Here five discs hang down the post, a sixth standing at its foot.

• Hammer and ChiselTwo tools in division of labor: one presses in, the other removes. Shape emerges in the exchange.+

  Waite calls him 'an artist in stone', so these are a carver's tools, cutting the star into the disc rather than striking metal. The hammer is raised in his right hand; the chisel's point is already set on the pentacle's face.

• The Distant TownThe outside world has not vanished — merely unwatched at this hour. When the piece is done, it will be carried in.+

  Waite ties this card to the Three of Pentacles, where the apprentice 'has received his reward' and works 'in a monastery'. Here the town and its tower stay small at the far left, behind his back, across empty ground.

• The Piece Lying on the GroundA finished piece left lying on the ground — no anxiety, no display, simply present.+

  In the Golden Dawn's Book T this is the 'Lord of Prudence', the Sun in Virgo's first decan under Hod, with a warning: 'penny-wise and pound-foolish'. This disc lies flat before the bench, outside his gaze, fixed on the chisel.

• Pentacle Under the ChiselThe piece in hand — of all eight, the one with a tool on it now.+

  Every line of the figure runs to this disc: the curved back, the lowered head, the lifted hammer and the chisel all converge on it. It sits at the end of the bench nearest the post, a short reach from the hanging row.

Story

Most of this card is empty pale sky; the work is crowded into the lower half and against the right edge. The eye starts at the top of the tall wooden post, steps down the column of discs hung on it, and arrives at the bench where the young man sits bent over his task. His head is lowered to it and his back is turned on the rest of the scene. Far off at the left, past a stretch of open ground, a small town with a tower gives the picture its depth. The light is flat and even, with no weather in it, and his raised arm is caught at the top of its stroke.

Correspondences

Elemental Dignity

Shadow

Related Cards

The Hierophant

Three of Pentacles

Nine of Pentacles