Eight of Pentacles

UPRIGHT

A craftsman hammers carefully at a pentacle on his bench, six finished above him, one waiting below. The Eight of Pentacles is the apprentice's discipline — the patient repetition through which skill is laid down, the work that becomes mastery one identical strike at a time. The card honors the bench more than the bench's product.

REVERSED

Reversed, the Eight of Pentacles is the work skimped or the practice abandoned. The card can name a person cutting corners that will show in the finished piece, an apprentice who has decided they already know enough, or, more gently, a craftsman so deep in repetition they have lost the original love of the craft.

Return to the full deck, or draw the cards and see Eight of Pentacles in context.