December 2025 Tarot Card Astrology: Three of Pentacles
The Three of Pentacles tarot card, Mars in Capricorn, will enjoy its ruling planet’s transit through the middle decan of Capricorn starting December 28 and lasting almost two weeks through January 9. During this time, the Sun will also perform its annual march through this part of the zodiac. Add Venus to the mix for an abundance of Capricornian productivity and discipline as we start the new year! In this article, we’ll explore the Three of Pentacles and its related astrology, Mars in Capricorn. Incorporating masonry, wizards, and dragons, we’ll see how Capricorn gives the needed control to energetic Mars so he can achieve mastery.
Please see all my articles on tarot card astrology. You might also like my astro-limericks, including this one on the Three of Pentacles. If you’d like to receive a notification whenever I publish a new post, you can subscribe to this blog using the form right under this paragraph (it’s also at the top right hand column if you’re on a desktop computer).
Three of Pentacles: Mars in Capricorn
- The Three of Pentacles is titled “The Lord of Material Works” and represents hard work, achievement, artistry, and skilled craftsmanship. I call this card the Master Craftsman.
- Mars is the warrior, expressing passion, excitement, desire, ambition, anger, and a willingness to fight for what it believes in. It is our energy and vigor. Mars rules Aries and Scorpio while Capricorn serves as its place of exaltation.
- Capricorn is a cardinal earth sign with Saturn as its ruler. Capricorn acts practical, dependable, disciplined, determined, authoritative, dutiful. It likes to build, systematize, and create structure. Its symbol is the sea goat and its glyph resembles a bearded goat with a curled fish’s tail.
Three of Pentacles: Mars ruling the second decan of Capricorn
- The calendar dates, when the Sun passes through this decan each year, are approximately December 31 to January 9.
- Mars will pass through the second decan of Capricorn from Sunday, December 28 just after 4 a.m. to Saturday, January 10 at just before 4 a.m.
Mars in Capricorn
When we consider that Capricorn is the sign of Mars’ exaltation, we discover a useful detail: Mars loves to be told what to do. Although Mars can display fierce independence and a “nothing will get in my way” attitude, it’s almost calming to consider Mars’ appreciation for subservience. That’s because Mars is the soldier: he knows and understands the chain of command. He will do everything in his power to achieve his objective, but someone up the ladder typically authorizes that assignment.
Mars in Capricorn is ambitious and loves to reach his goals. He’ll attack a task head-on and persevere through every derailment to get the job done. And then does he kick back and relax? No, he checks in with the boss and asks, “What’s next?” Mars in Capricorn doesn’t rest on his laurels, he’s looking ahead to the next peak to climb. Mars in Capricorn is rarely a one-hit wonder; he shines in success after success.
Mars appreciates the structure of Capricorn. The discipline of this sign perfectly channels and directs Mars’ high, sometimes erratic, energy. Also, Mars likes to do, not think, so when someone agrees to take the reins, Mars can focus on staying in the zone.
However, there’s an exception to this rule. And that’s when Mars reaches mastery. Interestingly, this is not so much about climbing the ladder to success as it is about perfecting routines, building systems, and managing the complexity of a project. This placement captures both the worker bee energy of Mars as well as the authority of Capricorn’s ruler, Saturn. When Mars gains self-control, he achieves excellence.
Unlike Aries, where Mars is a self-starter, or Scorpio, where he responds to lurking threats, in the sign of his exaltation, Mars is a man with a plan.
Image of the Three of Pentacles
Tap, tap, tap. He controlled the large, weighted mallet with a delicate finesse. A crumpling of papers behind him broke his concentration. Not fully turning around, his tight jaw barely released his curt, “Yes?” He’d been interrupted all morning. At this rate, he was not going to hit his deadline.
He turned his head a little further and barely avoided a grimace. Her Lady Hoity-Toity was yet again gracing him with her presence. These rich widows were the bane of craftsmen everywhere. And this one in particular had nothing better to do than look over his shoulder at every inconvenience. But she was the one funding this project, so he had to grit his teeth and be nice. Or at least respectful.
One of the monks was escorting her. Women weren’t even allowed in this part of the abbey. But her money increased the size of her world. He’d just as soon reduce the size of his back down to the square inch of chisel tip on stone. It was the only way to get things done.
She shook the plans at him as she yapped on about deadlines or materials or something or other. Wait, she didn’t even have the most current blueprints. When he first learned his trade he never imagined that part of the work would include talking funders off the ledge.
However, as a master of his craft, he took a deep breath, stepped down from his bench, and slowly and succinctly explained that now that he had completed the updated double-arched entryway—which would let twice as many people through at a time—it really didn’t make sense to go back to the narrower single arch variation, even if it had been a few inches taller. She pursed her lips and huffed. But when he smiled gracefully and complimented her innovation—it would, after all, be the only double arch entryway in three counties—she puffed up a bit and managed a flustered smile.
Relieved, he kindly pointed out that the choir was rehearsing in the Great Hall and if she hurried she might catch it. She commanded the monk to escort her and at last the stonecutter returned to his tap, tap, tap.
Title of the Three of Pentacles: Lord of Material Works
The phrase “material works” is not something the average person might say on a daily basis, but the concept is easy enough to understand. Material works are simply physical accomplishments, the tangible results of our efforts. This is an important consideration—it’s more than a checkmark ticking off a list item. Material works are solid, real things.
Why that title for this card? In qabalah, the four tarot Threes correspond to the sephirah Binah, a symbol of gestation, birth, and motherhood. By extension, Binah reminds us of the creative process. In the suit of Pentacles, or the World of Assiah, which is the World of Manifestation, we focus on the material results of that creative energy. Voila! The things we make, our material works.
What do you do that results in a created object?
I think of myself as creative, but I confess that currently only my knitting produces objects I use, wear, share, or gift. Most of my accomplishments—blog posts, videos, classes, podcasts, etc.—have a certain degree of ephemerality and in the long run are subject to the whim of the internet and the bandwidth I’ve staked out there. Perhaps I could learn a lesson from the Lord of Material Works!
The Astrology of the Three of Pentacles
Mars is active, willing to get his hands dirty and appreciative of an honest day’s work. In Capricorn, the sign of professionalism, dedication, and building, it doesn’t take long to come up with the scene in the Three of Pentacles: an artist putting the finishing touches on a long-term, detailed, and difficult project. Mars in Capricorn combines the starting pistol rush with the stick-to-itiveness of the marathoner. Here Mars has matured, perfected his technique, and developed systems to accomplish his goals.
Mars rules the middle decan of Capricorn, or the fixed decan. The fixed quality builds to last. Here, Mars doesn’t whittle a quick toy. This masonry has the staying power of stone. Grounded in the earth, strong, inalterable. The material works of Mars in Capricorn will last for centuries.
Mythology of the Three of Pentacles: Mars in Capricorn
After meditating on the Three of Pentacles and the idea of building churches, I remembered a story a friend told me a few years ago, about Dinas Emrys in Wales. After reviewing the legend, It turns out that not only is it an interesting story that includes masons as characters, but it’s also a surprisingly appropriate representation of the Three of Pentacles.
The Legend of Dinas Emrys
In a nutshell, this legend of the British Isles tells the story of a king named Vortigern who tried to build a fort or castle tower, but every night the masonry that had been set during the day sunk into the earth. The king consulted his wizards, who told him, variously according to different versions of the story, that he must find an orphan child, a child born of a virgin, or a child with no father, and spill his blood on the stones and mortar. These advisors claimed that would strengthen the foundation of the citadel and prevent its collapse.
The king sent out messengers far and wide to seek such a child. Eventually they located someone who fit the bill close enough and brought him back to the castle. It turns out this young person was Merlin. Precocious in the way only mythological children can be, he demanded to know why they wanted to sacrifice him.
When he heard the story of the nightly collapse of the day’s work, he turned to the wizards and asked what lay beneath the foundations of the tower. They had to confess they had no idea. He said a pool lay there. They excavated and indeed found an old cistern. Then Merlin asked them what was in the pool. Again they had no idea. He explained that it contained two dragons, one white and one red. The wizards confirmed this as well. Merlin explained that the white dragon represented the invading Saxons, while the red dragon represented the defending Britons. He further predicted that the red dragon would win. Not only did Merlin save himself from this threatened death, but in one version of the story, the king granted him the castle for his own use.
Curiously, several of the authors of this story give Merlin the name Ambrose or Ambrosius. At the end of the final version of the story, Merlin declares that “Aurelius Ambrosius will be crowned king. He will reign in peace and will restore the churches.” Aurelius Ambrosius was the brother of Uther Pendragon and uncle to King Arthur. The historical character, a warrior king, arranged for the repair and rebuilding of all the churches destroyed by the Saxons. Ambrosius took control of Vortigern’s castle. Due to Merlin receiving the castle in earlier versions of the story and sharing a name with Ambrosius, it can be easy to falsely equate the two.
But what’s curious from a tarot perspective, is that we have in one story a king laying the masonry for a castle, an authority speaking down to bumbling incompetents, and a warrior king who builds churches. Combine these characters into one person and we have the man with the hammer in the Three of Pentacles.
closing Thoughts on the Three of Pentacles: mars in Capricorn
The dragons themselves, although not in the card image, also seem to capture the Mars in Capricorn energy. Dragons are dangerous and destructive, but sources of great power when under control. Rather than seeing the two as representing warring nations, we could consider them as parts of us. Perhaps the white dragon is dutiful and eager to please, while the red dragon shows the fire of independence and the blaze of authority. Tradition assigns the color red to Mars.
What’s collapsing in your life? What misdirected energy and power is the cause? Finally, what authority can harness its ability? Sometimes you have to be the worker and sometimes the boss. But when the two dragons fight, they swirl together in a relationship of balanced interaction, like the white and black combining in the Tao, where the first plus the opposite creates a balanced third, which is the source of the ten thousand things. How can you become your own master?
