A darker view of the Three of Pentacles

Since June 9, 2024, I have seen the Three of Pentacles as being primarily a dark or negative card, even though Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot assigns it a positive meaning. Here I want to explore this darker view of the card, incorporating some comments by Bill Wright on my post "All the pebbles I have seen."

⁂

1. Working in the dark to build a church from secret plans

Bill notes that on the card, "men are working on/ in a Cathedral or Church," and

The Three of Pentacles shows these men working literally in the dark - the men are juxtaposed against a completely black background and environment while they discuss their plans.

He further notes that the man on the left, wearing an apron and holding a maul, is a stonemason, thus suggesting Freemasonry and the Book of Mormon theme of "secret combinations." Working in darkness, secret plans, and (somewhat surprisingly) church-building are all portrayed in negative terms in the Book of Mormon. Many passages could be cited here, but one part of the book that hits on all of these themes is 2 Ne. 26-28, part of Nephi's long discourse that makes up two-thirds of that book:

And the Gentiles are lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and have stumbled, because of the greatness of their stumbling block, that they have built up many churches; . . . . And there are many churches built up which cause envyings, and strifes, and malice. And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness . . . . For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness (2 Ne. 26:22-23).

And wo unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord! And their works are in the dark; and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? (2 Ne. 27:27, quoting Isa. 29:15)

For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other: Behold, I, I am the Lord's; and the others shall say: I, I am the Lord's; and thus shall every one say that hath built up churches, and not unto the Lord (2 Ne. 28:3).

Yea, and there shall be many which shall . . . seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark (2 Ne. 28:9).

Coming back to the Masonic angle -- and we must remember that A. E. Waite, the designer of this card, was himself a Mason and wrote several books on the subject -- it is perhaps significant that there are three men on the card and that the only Masonic implement detected is the Maul. In the legend of Hiram Abiff, which is part of a Master Mason's initiation, Hiram was murdered in the Temple of Solomon (which he had designed) by three ruffians, lesser Masons intent on extracting from him the secrets of a Master, and the weapon that dealt him the death blow was a Maul (sometimes called a Gavel). One Masonic pamphlet I've read (I can't seem to find it online) says that the Maul is the only Masonic implement to have no explicit moral lesson attached to it, and the writer proposes that, as the weapon with which Master Hiram was murdered, it should serve to remind us of the sanctity of life. In other words, the implement Waite chose to depict on this card is one which in Masonry has no other symbolic meaning than murder -- specifically, secret murder committed by members of an oath-bound fraternity.

⁂

The Three of Pentacles and the Devil

Nephi, quoted above, refers to "the combinations of the devil, . . . the founder of murder, and works of darkness." It is interesting to note, then, certain iconographic connections between the Three of Pentacles and the Devil card.

Besides the 14 cards of the suit of Pentacles, two of the Major Arcana also feature pentacles or pentagrams. A quick glance at all 16 cards incorporating this symbol shows that two of them stand out as different:

As you can see, almost all of the pentacles on these cards follow the same black-on-yellow color scheme. The only exceptions are the Three of Pentacles and the Devil:

Once this has been noticed, other correspondences between these two cards suggest themselves. The Devil's number is 15, and a trio of five-pointed stars represents the same number. In the Golden Dawn system, the Devil represents Capricorn, and the Three of Pentacles is the second decan of the same sign. Both cards have a black background, with gray and tan as the other dominant colors. Both show two figures standing on the floor and a third standing on a raised surface. This third figure raises the left hand ("left" from our point of view) and in the right holds an implement with its head angled downward.

On the Three of Pentacles, the implement is the Maul. On the Devil, it is a torch. However, John Opsopaus's Pythagorean Tarot offers a different interpretation of the Devil, portraying him as Hephaestus or Vulcan and putting in his hand what may look an awful lot like Dr. Evil's spaceship but is in fact "a large hammer or mallet."

I have connected the hammer-wielding mason on the Three of Pentacles with the murder of Hiram Abiff, as told in the Master Mason's degree. The password of the Master's degree is Tubal Cain. In the Bible, Tubal-cain is the first smith, "an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron" (Gen. 4:22), and a fanciful folk-etymology derives Vulcan from his name. Given the, uh, spaceship-like shape of the hammer on Opsopaus's card, it is significant that Masons typically portray the secret name Tubal Cain via the rebus "two-ball cane."

The name Cain is of course closely associated with secret combinations. The Jaredite secret combinations, we are told, "had been handed down even from Cain" (Ether 8:15), and Cain took a title that many have seen as a very thinly veiled reference to the rank of Master Mason:

And Cain said: Truly I am Mahan, the master of this great secret, that I may murder and get gain. Wherefore Cain was called Master Mahan, and he gloried in his wickedness (Moses 5:31).

Cain was succeeded in this title by Lamech, and thus perhaps by Lamech's son Tubal-cain (Moses 5:49). 

⁂

The Three and Nine of Pentacles

One February 13, 2026, I drew a single card from my Rider-Waite deck, put it face-down on the table in front of me, and, as is my usual practice, attempted to perceive it psychically before turning it face-up. I "saw" three pentacles arranged in a triangle and a figure in a red and yellow robe, so I very confidently predicted that it was the Three of Pentacles. When I turned it over, though, it was the Nine.

This false prediction made me notice parallels between these two cards that I'd never noticed before. On the right side of the Nine of Pentacles, we have three pentacles arranged in a triangle, much like those on the Three. On the left, we have this same triangular arragement -- this time oriented exactly like that on the Three -- repeated twice. As it happens, these are also the only two cards in the deck to show someone wearing a yellow garment with a pattern of red marks on it. The grapes on the Nine, together with the woman's curly hair, also suggest the female figure from the Devil card.

As I contemplated the card, I thought about the falcon. This is a bird known for its excellent eyesight, but on the card its eyes are covered with a hood, which made me think of the line "the seers hath he covered." As it happens, this line from Isaiah is quoted in the very section of 2 Nephi I cited above in reference to building churches and working in the dark.

For behold, the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. For behold, ye have closed your eyes, and ye have rejected the prophets; and your rulers, and the seers hath he covered because of your iniquity (2 Ne. 27:5).

I've always seen the Nine of Pentacles as a very positive card, and I still think that is its usual meaning. But every card has many meanings, and one of its meanings does seem to tie it to the Three.