By Sarah Taylor
Woo-wheeeee! Three Staffs (Wands in the Rider-Waite Smith deck), associated with the element of fire. A veritable conflagration – but one that has maturity, is inclusive, and offers the highest potential of the Staffs suit: eros, spirituality and creativity. I look at this reading, and I too am ignited with the passionate heat they radiate. But it is a burn that doesn’t destroy — or doesn’t destroy what holds potential; it is a burn that illuminates and offers you the possibility to activate new alliances, new avenues of discovery, new ways of relating, and new ways of channelling your talents. It might even reveal new talents.
At the centre of the reading is the Ace of Staffs. If you’re unfamiliar with the Aces, they represent their suit in pure form: they are the most ‘spiritual’ of the minor arcana (the 56 cards based on a traditional deck of playing cards) in that they are in potential: they offer everything and nothing at the same time. When an Ace appears in a reading, it means that something has been released to us, but it is up to us to take it, harness it, and use it. How we then use it is played out in cards 2 through 10.
Aces, therefore, ask for our responsibility. If we do not step up and activate them, they will remain in the spirit realm — a gift, unopened. But if we do, and we do it with finesse, then oh yeah: woo-wheeee!
Staff/Wands energy is unmistakeable. It is that prickly, tingly sensation that you get when you are shot through with libido, the psychoanalytical term for creative energy. (I would also see it as representative of prana or chi.) Wherever, and however, you feel that sensation is where it is most activated. Yes, that goes for sexual attraction too, but it is in no way limited to that.