four of pentacles

Scarlet Air

I see a lot of duality in both the pentacles and swords suits (two sides of a coin, double edged blade).

On the one side, the Four of Pentacles can very much be seen as a greedy, possessive miser, who refuses to share what they have. They desperately want to be in control and as a result shut people out. However if we think about what comes after in the Five of Pentacles their fear of losing what they have becomes more founded. Suddenly we have the other side of the coin, protective and frugal. They know what could be ahead of them if they do not see the value in what they have and use their resources wisely.

As others have said, the thing of value the Four of Pentacles is guarding, isn't always money either. It could be an introvert who is spending too much emotional energy on others and needs to pull back to prevent burning out. Or maybe it's Great Aunt Mable who fiercely guards her family recipes, refusing to share them with anyone. But the reason she wont give them out is her cooking is her identity and without it she thinks the family wont bother to come visit anymore.