Barbara Walker Tarot - Five of Pentacles: Hardship

Five wretched beggars—one a woman with a starving baby, one a child apparently dying—huddle on a wintry night outside a warmly lighted church, unable to enter. The dire five of the money suit suggests the nadir of poverty, which the medieval church did little to relieve, as this tarot picture recalls. Interpretations include hard times, worry, loss, adversity, insecurity, lack of help from established institutions.