The Six of Pentacles is a difficult card to describe because it falls in the shadowy area between the lack of The Five of Pentacles and the affluence of The Ten of Pentacles. These two cards represent the extremes of not having and having. The Six of Pentacles covers the huge middle ground where it is not clear exactly who has what. It is about positive and the negative. The Six of Pentacles is all about giving and receiving. It is about taking care of someone and also being taken care of. It is about sponsoring and being sponsored. It is also about supporting someone while being supported. The Six of Pentacles is about offering or receiving a gift or a reward. It is about acquiring and not acquiring what you need. Sometimes you will be successful in acquiring it and sometimes not.

On this card, a well to do gentleman is tossing a few coins to a beggar while another supplicant waits to the side. The giver holds the scales of justice as if claiming the right to decide who deserves blessings and who does not. In this picture we see both sides : what it means to give and to receive, to dominate and to submit, to be on top and to be on the bottom. It seems clear who has and who hasn’t. Life is not that simple and how quickly fortune changes. The Six of Pentacles is all about teaching and learning, imparting and receiving information, becoming and finding a mentor, offering and taking advice, showing and being shown the ropes, knowing and not knowing a secret.

In readings, The Six of Pentacles asks you to look very deeply into the whole issue of what having really means both materially and immaterially. You may see yourself on one side or another, but this card asks you to reconsider. Think of the successful businessman who suddenly declares bankruptcy, the tyrannical invalid who dominates through weakness, the teacher who learns from her students and the parent who controls by giving money. The Six of Pentacles is about leading and following, dominating and submitting, acting with authority and deference, asserting and denying your wishes, coercing and being coerced, doing all the talking and listening.

The keywords for The Six of Pentacles include both the have and have not sides of each meaning. Sometimes this card is a clear sign one way or the other. You will get the gift you want. You will have to defer to another. In all cases, though, you should question the obvious and go deeper. You should ask yourself about the situation you are in and where it is leading you. You should even ask yourself who is in charge of the situation and what is really going on.

The following can be associated with The Six of Pentacles :

• Having / Not having
• Resources
• Knowledge
• Power