King of Pentacles

Identity

Symbols

• Bulls on the ThroneBulls — emblems of long-worked soil and accumulated wealth; the king's power grew out of labor, not seized in war.+

  Waite says 'the bull's head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne', and Smith carves it at both upper corners of the back and again on the arm-fronts — where the Emperor's throne has arms 'fronted by rams' heads'.

• Embroidered GrapesThe whole body is written over with "already borne fruit" — he is not waiting on some future year.+

  The pattern on the robe — grape bunches, vine leaves — is the same growth that climbs around the throne, so at the edges it is hard to tell where his cloth stops and the garden starts. Only the red hood and the face stand clear.

• Globe ScepterThe orb — his charge is a closed world, no longer expanding outward; its work now is to hold within.+

  The orb rides on the sceptre in his right hand and the pentacle lies under his left: two gold rounds set on either side of a dark robe. The sceptre stands upright in his fist, held but not raised toward anyone.

• Castle at the EdgeThe castle stands at the edge of the scene — he need not look to know it is there. Real stability does not require repeated checking.+

  In the Ten of Pentacles Waite describes 'an archway which gives entrance to a house and domain'. Here no entrance is shown: the towers rise at the right beyond the wall, and the wall stands between the king and the building.

• The Wall Behind the ThroneThe finished wall behind the throne — his realm is built, not merely marked out.+

  The wall crosses the card at about chest height and serves as its horizon: below it, vine, flower and patterned cloth; above it, mostly flat yellow sky, broken by the horned top of the throne and the castle towers.

• Armour Under the RobeBelow the hem of the vine-covered robe, one foot shows in plate armour.+

  Waite reads the face as 'suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency', and lists 'valour' first among the card's meanings. The foot is the only armour in the picture, and the robe of grapes nearly covers it.

Story

He faces straight out at the viewer, and the whole card is built around that frontal seat, nearly symmetrical, horned at both top corners. Below the line of the wall almost every surface carries pattern — cloth, leaves, fruit, flowers — and the eye has to search for where the man ends and the growth around him begins. Above it the sky is flat yellow and almost empty. Nothing in the scene moves or is about to; its weight settles low, into the lap and the broad base of the throne.

Correspondences

Elemental Dignity

Shadow

Related Cards

King of Cups

Ten of Pentacles

The Emperor

Combinations with this card