The suit of Wands: all 14 cards

The suit of Wands is the fire suit of the tarot. Its cards are about drive, creativity, courage, ambition and the energy that gets things started. When Wands fill a reading, something wants to move. This page gathers all 14 Wands cards in one place, with a short meaning for each, the story the suit tells from Ace to Ten, and simple ways to read it.

At a glance

• Element: Fire Later tradition
• Themes: drive, creativity, courage and momentum
• Other names: Batons, Rods or Staves; Bastoni in Italian decks and Bâtons in the Tarot de Marseille
• Playing card suit: clubs
• Zodiac signs: Aries, Leo and Sagittarius Later tradition
• Cards: Ace to Ten, then Page, Knight, Queen and King

What the Wands are about

Wands cover the things you do because you want to, not because you have to: creative projects, new ventures, passions, travel, competition and the confidence to be seen. They also cover what happens when that fire burns too hot, from squabbles and impatience to the heavy load of the Ten.

In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck of 1909, Pamela Colman Smith drew a full scene on every one of these cards. That makes the suit easy to learn: look at what the people in the picture are doing, and you already know most of the meaning.

All 14 cards of Wands

Here is each card with its upright keywords from my book. Follow the links for the full meaning, reversed meaning, symbols and a spread for every card.

• Ace of Wands: new inspiration, potential, creativity
• Two of Wands: planning, decisions, expansion
• Three of Wands: progress, foresight, exploration
• Four of Wands: celebration, harmony, homecoming
• Five of Wands: conflict, competition, tension
• Six of Wands: success, recognition, victory
• Seven of Wands: defense, perseverance, challenge
• Eight of Wands: swift action, movement, progress
• Nine of Wands: resilience, persistence, last stand
• Ten of Wands: burden, responsibility, hard work
• Page of Wands: curiosity, enthusiasm, new opportunities
• Knight of Wands: energy, passion, impulsiveness
• Queen of Wands: confidence, independence, warmth
• King of Wands: leadership, vision, determination

The story of the Wands, Ace to Ten

One easy way to learn a suit is to read the numbered cards as a story. Each number has a shape that repeats across the suits, and the suit gives it a setting.

The Ace offers a spark. In the Two you plan, in the Three you send your ships out. The Four celebrates a first milestone. The Five brings competition, the Six a public win, and the Seven the need to defend it. The Eight is sudden speed. In the Nine you are tired but still on guard, and in the Ten you carry more than you should. The fire has been used, and a new spark is needed.

This story is a teaching tool. It is a modern habit, not something Waite or Smith wrote down, and you do not need it to read the cards. Many readers find it helps the cards stick.

The court cards of Wands

The Wands courts are lively people. The Page is an eager beginner, the Knight is an adventurer who rushes ahead, the Queen is warm and confident, and the King is a visionary leader.

Court cards can describe a person in your life, a part of you or an approach to the situation. The gender or age of the figure does not limit who the card can describe.

Reading the Wands in a spread

Many Wands in one reading usually means action, momentum and decisions in motion. It is a good sign for starting things. It can also mean too much going on, so check whether the cards point to inspiration or to burnout.

No Wands at all can suggest that the question is not about energy or drive, or that motivation is low right now. Ask what would light a small fire.

Look also at which Wands cards appear. Low numbers point to beginnings, middle numbers to struggle and adjustment, high numbers to completion. Courts point to people or attitudes. Read the pattern first, then each card.

The history behind the suit

Historical The four suits are older than tarot. They came to Europe with playing cards in the late 1300s, and Italian and Spanish cards still use cups, coins, swords and batons. When tarot appeared in 15th century Italy, it added the trump cards to this ordinary pack of four suits.

Later tradition In Italian decks the suit is Bastoni (batons) and in the Tarot de Marseille it is Bâtons, plain cudgels or clubs. Smith drew every staff in leaf. Waite explained that the wands are “always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation”, and that small detail is a good memory key for the whole suit. The pairing of suits with elements comes from occult writers of the 1800s and was fixed in its best-known form by the Golden Dawn.

A spread for the Wands

Use this four-card spread when you want to look at drive and the other themes of the suit in your life right now.

1. Where is my fire? What excites me right now.
2. What feeds it? What gives me energy.
3. What drains it? What puts it out.
4. How do I use it well? One action for this week.

Shuffle the whole deck, not only this suit. If one of the cards that turns up is a Wand, pay extra attention to it.

Common questions

What element are the Wands?

Fire, in the Golden Dawn system used by the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. A few older systems and some modern decks give Wands to air, so read the guidebook of your own deck.

What playing card suit matches Wands?

Clubs. The Italian and Spanish suit of batons became clubs in French playing cards.

Are Wands good cards?

Most are energetic and positive, but the suit also has its hard cards, such as the Five, the Seven and the Ten.

Keep learning

The Wands are covered in the lesson Wands of my free Tarot for Beginners course. For all four suits and the numbers in one place, see The Minor Arcana: suits and numbers made simple, and for the people cards see Tarot court cards without confusion. You can browse every card in all the card meanings, and my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot has the full entry for each card.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part III.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Michael Dummett, The Game of Tarot (London: Duckworth, 1980).
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot.