The Three of Pentacles reversed offers a practical message that, at its heart, is one of the simpler to interpret. This is a card about your work, most often about career, but also your “work” in other areas of your life. Someone or something isn’t pulling its weight, and your work is suffering for it. Finding the logjam that’s attracted this card can take some doing if your question isn’t specific, but this is not one of the more difficult cards to work with. It is one of those cards that you can’t ignore because it points to an inability to move forward in whatever your concerns are.
TheTeam of Threes and Pentacles
Threes are the team number — while a team cancertainly have only two people, adding a third increases the level ofcooperation needed between all involved to ensure no one ends up the odd personout. You can’t exclude a person from the team without creating imbalance.Pentacles are the practical, material card and often include work among theirdomains. It’s no coincidence that the Pentacles are sometimes called Coins.However, note that practicality and material needs apply to more than just yourcareer. Your relationship has a practical teamwork aspect to it (there’s areason the word “partner” is used for both romantic and businessrelationships) as you work on not aggravating or ignoring each other.
The Three of Pentacles is about teams and workand how you interact with others and they interact with you to get thingsdone.The Eight of Pentacles is related but is more about skills and developingtalents; the Three of Pentacles is all about your daily life at the office oron the worksite. You have to work with your co-workers to get everything done.Even if you’re a freelancer who works from home alone, you still form a teamwith your clients. You also form a team with your freelancer colleagues andeven with other people in your household. After all, it’s their cooperationwith you regarding noise and leaving you alone that helps you get your workdone.
TheReverse of a Team
When reversed, this card has a number ofinterpretations, but they can all be boiled down to a breakdown of the team.The logjam in the flow of cooperation could be you, your partners, or otherfactors, but at some point, someone or something is interfering with thateffort.
One option is that there is a straight block.Your company’s product isn’t popular due to bad marketing, a bad economy, orsimply a lack of understanding of what your intended customers need; the“team” that your company forms with the economy, for example, isn’tleading you to the sales you’d hoped for. Maybe your co-workers are not reallyinto their work — or maybe you’re the one that needs to up your game.
Your team could be excessively competitive tothe point of blocking other members’ efforts to contribute. Maybe it’s time forthe team to break up because it’s no longer effective, and it’s time for themembers to find new teams. Maybe your work has been ignored and your team won’tlisten to you, or you and your co-workers are good, but your manager isn’t.This card can show up in a relationship spread, too, when one partner is boredor seems at-odds with the other. Or your families aren’t supportive of yourrelationship.
The point is that you need to look at whataspects could be the team and what could be forcing the team apart as it triesto reach its goals. Think of the clueless management you see in so manycompanies that aggravates its workers and gets little done (or at least, littlecompared to what could be done if management would only wise up). Or, think ofthe rogue Human Resources manager who, instead of helping the employees througha problem, sides with management and makes it harder for the employees tothrive at work.
Technically, any aspect of your life could beconsidered to have some “work” in it. Schoolwork, yard work, the teamyou form with a personal trainer or spin class instructor, the team you formwith even your city’s public works’ division to keep your neighborhood in goodorder — they’re all teams. That makes interpretations take a bit longer if thetopic of the question isn’t clear, but you can find out what’s going on. If youask about a specific work issue, then you know the card refers to work. If youask about how the next month will go for you, you may have to do follow-upspreads to narrow down what the Three of Pentacles reversed is referring to.
Interpretation based on the card’s location inthe spread is pretty clear-cut. Is the card in a position representing youractions? Then you know you might be the one who needs to start cooperating. Isit an outcome card? Then you know that something happening now will lead to abreakdown in how one of the teams in your life functions.
Because this card can be so closely tied to anaspect of your life that affects you personally (because even your job affectsyou very personally), you can be so close to the question that it becomesdifficult to see a clear answer. A professional reading can give you adifferent perspective.
The Three of Pentacles reversed isn’t a badcard, but it is one you have to listen to. If you ignore it, the situationcould get much worse and throw up some real blocks that prevent you from movingforward. And one more thing: This is the work card, which holds a clue as tohow to respond — professionally. Keep calm and and professional as you addressthe situation.
