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Combinations · Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot
Five of Pentacles combinations
Whatever card lands beside the Five of Pentacles shows where help could come from in a lean season, or what keeps it out of reach. Every partner in the deck is covered in both orientations, including a second copy of the Five.
Card meaning: Five of PentaclesCombinations are common patterns, not rules
The readings here describe how a pair most often reads. Check each one against two things before you apply it. The first is the question: the same pair says one thing about a relationship and another about a job offer, and the question decides which side of the pair matters. The second is the background, meaning what the querent already knows about the situation, the position each card holds in the spread, and the cards around the pair. When the question or the background points another way, go with them over the general reading. Each pair page lists the exceptions that come up most often.
Which way up the Five of Pentacles falls decides more of the reading than almost any partner can. Upright, it is a lean season: lost income, worry about security, a feeling of standing outside, sometimes health running low. Reversed, it is the thaw, with work restored, relief, and help finally accepted. On the card, snow falls at night and two people cross it, a barefoot woman holding a thin shawl around her and a man on wooden crutches, his head bandaged and a bell at his neck. Behind them a stained-glass window is lit, and neither of them looks up.
Most partners say where that help could come from. The Empress offers care, the Hierophant a community or an institution, the Six of Pentacles a loan or a gift, the Three of Pentacles people to work beside. Upright beside an upright card, the Five never reads well, and twenty-one partners make it hard, among them the Tower, the Moon, the Devil and seven of the Swords, each adding shock, fear, dependence or a private struggle to the shortage. Reversed, it reads well beside sixty-four upright cards. For the quintessence, add five to a numbered partner: the Six gives Justice, the Four the Hermit, the Tower the World.
Five of Pentacles beside other cards in a spread
Beside Major Arcana cards
Most trumps name a kind of help within reach of the upright Five: the Empress offers care, the Hierophant a community or school, Justice an honest accounting, the Wheel of Fortune a turn already under way. The Hanged Man, Death, the Devil, the Tower and the Moon read hard instead, adding a wait that cannot be rushed, an ending, an attachment, a shock or fog to the shortage. Reversed, the Five reads well with nineteen upright trumps; the Devil, the Tower and the Moon keep it mixed.
Beside Wands
Fire and Earth are neutral, so a Wand brings energy the querent can aim at the shortage: the Ace's new way of earning, the Two's plan, the Knight's bold first step. The Five, Eight, Nine and Ten read hard upright, as a quarrel over scarce income, a sudden expense, holding out alone, or overwork while help goes unclaimed. Every reversed Wand reads hard beside the upright Five. With both cards reversed, the Five, Seven and Ten read well, the fight or the load set down and help accepted.
Beside Cups
Water is friendly to Earth, and a Cup brings warmth into a cold stretch: a partnership in the Two, friends in the Three, old family ties in the Six, a household that holds in the Ten. Four Cups make the upright Five hard, through the Four's closed heart, the Five's grief, the Seven's daydream of rescue and the Eight's chosen departure. Reverse the first three and the pair eases to mixed; with both cards reversed they read well, as interest, healing and clear sight return along with the money.
Beside Swords
Air and Earth are contrary, and the Swords split in two. The Ace, Four and Six, with all four courts, keep the upright Five mixed: clear thinking about the shortfall, a pause to rest and ask for help, a move away from a hard place. The Two, Three, Five, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten read hard, adding indecision, heartbreak, conflict, secrecy, a trapped mind, dread or a hard ending. With both cards reversed, all of those but the Two read well, the fear or quarrel lifting with the shortage.
Beside Pentacles
Earth beside Earth keeps the pair on wages, bills and the body. Every other coin keeps the upright Five mixed and offers something practical: the Ace an opening to claim, the Two careful juggling, the Four a reserve, the Six help given or lent, the Eight new skills, the Nine savings built earlier, the Ten family support. A reversed coin under the upright Five reads hard, because the support it stands for falters too. Reversed, the Five reads well with all thirteen upright.
Beside court cards
All sixteen courts follow one pattern: mixed beside the upright Five, hard when the court is reversed, good when only the Five is reversed, mixed again when both are. Each court shows how the querent meets the lean stretch, or how they experience someone close to it. The Queen of Cups brings calm and empathy, the Queen of Swords plain requests for help, the King of Pentacles planning and experienced support, while a reversed Knight of Swords turns haste with scarce money into further loss.
Beside a card of the same number
Five ties it to the Hierophant and the three other Fives, and five and five make ten, so the Wheel of Fortune is the quintessence of all those pairs: the low point belongs to a turning cycle. The Hierophant brings a community or institution that can help. The Five of Wands adds competition for scarce income, the Five of Cups grief beside the loss, the Five of Swords a fight that drains everyone. Two upright Fives of Pentacles double the lack; two reversed ones read as the winter breaking.
Beside reversed cards
Beside an upright Five, a reversed partner usually reads hard, since the partner's trouble lands on a querent who is already short. Eleven pairs ease to mixed, because the reversal removes something that was making the hardship worse. The Devil's hold loosens, the Four, Five and Seven of Cups lift, and the Three, Five, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten of Swords pass their worst. A second Five of Pentacles, reversed, also leaves the pair mixed, one copy still in the snow while the other steps out.
Five of Pentacles with every card
Each row gives the outlook in all four states, read from Five of Pentacles's side: Five of Pentacles first, then its partner.
Harmonious
Mixed
Challenging
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