Four of Pentacles

How it actually shows up

Four of Pentacles is holding on, and the card is more sympathetic than most readings allow. Somebody who grips this tightly usually learned to, in a period when there genuinely was not enough. That is not greed, it is memory. The problem is that the grip outlasts the scarcity and begins costing the very security it was built for: money not put to work, feeling not spent, a life arranged so nothing can be lost because nothing is risked. The question worth asking is not why are you so tight-fisted. It is: what year is your body still living in, and is that year still happening?

Common pairings

• Five of Pentacles — the fear of the loss is doing more damage than the loss did
• The Devil — the holding has become the relationship
• Six of Pentacles — the way out is giving something away deliberately, and small
• The Empress — abundance is available and you are not letting it in
• The Hanged Man — the grip is what is keeping everything still

Astrological Correspondences

Element

Earth

Arcana

Minor Arcana