Ten of Pentacles

Minor Arcana · Pentacles · number 10 · Dieci di Denari

Ten of Pentacles, plate by Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1910

Upright

The Ten of Pentacles is an old man seated with his dogs under the arch of a house as a couple and a child pass by: gain, riches, family matters, archives, lineage, the abode of a family. It is the card of stability passed from one generation to the next. If these days you are dealing with the house, an inheritance, elderly parents, family papers, it is no accident: something solid is being built or handed down. The practical advice: put the important documents in order, talk to your family about what must be decided together, and remember that the real wealth is who sits at the table.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Gain, riches; family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family.»

Reversed

Reversed, the Ten of Pentacles hands the house over to chance: luck, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard. And sometimes, Waite adds, a gift, a dowry, a pension. Family stability wobbles over a bet, a reckless investment, spending out of control, or a misfortune that is nobody’s fault. If these days you are tempted by a stroke of luck, a scratch card, a speculation, it is no accident that the card holds you back. Watch out for theft too, material and otherwise. It is not a sentence. The practical advice: do not gamble what the family needs, check insurance and locks, and if an income arrives, put it somewhere safe.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry, pension.»

Source

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) Part III, § 2, The Lesser Arcana, Ten of Pentacles https://archive.org/details/a.-e.-waite-the-pictorial-key-to-the-tarot