Rider Waite Tarot - Ace of Wands
A. E. Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith
US Games Systems

TITLE OF CARD IN RW DECK: Ace of Wands

BASIC DESCRIPTION: A large white hand emerging from a wisp of gray cloud holds a leafed rod. The hand appears to glow, and some leaves are falling down. The landscape below features a green meadow with a few trees, a river, a small hill topped by a castle, and hills or low mountains in the distant background.

FIRST THING THAT STRUCK ME: The whiteness of the hand, and the lines radiating out from it, which make it appear to glow.

SOME UPRIGHT MEANINGS: Instigator. Elemental fire, flame, light, warmth, and energy. Growth, enterprise, beginnings, potential. Activity, initiative, creativity. Energy, vitality, enthusiasm. The promising new beginning of a project, idea, or adventure. A moment of illumination, an impulse to do something new. Birth, sex, phallus. Inspiration, motivation, prodding, incitement, prankishness.

SOME REVERSED MEANINGS: Chaotic, unfocused, unmanageable energy. Damaging overzealousness. A false start. Bleak plans. The destructive, burning use of fire or light. Stagnation, stunted potential, blighted growth, malaise.

BIBLICAL: Aaron's rod (of Egypt fame), which blossomed and later was put into the ark of the covenant. Also the "brazen serpent" which Moses erected in the desert.

MYTHOLOGICAL: Prometheus bringing fire to man.

HERBS/PLANTS/FLOWERS/TREES: Looks kind of like a birch branch, except for the color.

LANDSCAPE/LOCATION: The background looks like Lenzburg, with the castle and the Aabach.

TIME/SEASON: indeterminate (green trees = summer?)

PUBLIC PEOPLE OR EVENTS: Olympic torch

OCCUPATIONS: baseball, polo, hockey, pool player; musical conductor; carpenter; blacksmith

QUOTES FROM OTHER SOURCES: What was it Roosevelt said: "Walk softly and carry a big stick" or some such?

PEOPLE OR SITUATIONS IN MY LIFE: This card came to tell me I was pregnant. (But it also made me think I would have a boy.)

PERSONAL THOUGHTS: I think the sexual aspect of this card is too often overlooked.

FAVORITE REPRESENTATION: My favorite Ace of Wands is the Healing Tarot.

COMPARISONS TO OTHER DECKS: The RW Aces are a bit bland about expressing their elemental energies, especially in comparison to more modern decks.

COMPARISONS TO OTHER CARDS: Off the top of my head (i.e. without scanning the entire deck), the Ace seems to be the shortest, bluntest Wand of all; more like a club, while the others are more like staffs.

SYMBOLISM GENERAL/SPECIFIC: Long ago and far away, Tom Tadfor Little wrote about a peasant with a stick, and its many uses. But I can't go into all that now.

One Love All Love
Moonchild