By Sarah Taylor
The Three of Wands, the ubiquitous Seven of Wands, and the Page of Wands. Wands, Wands, Wands. Such fiery energy in the midst of a lot of astrological water. The potential for steam indeed!
On the left, in the Three of Wands, a man stands looking out at a bay, a seeming sea of fire on which he has let his ships sail — all of them going off to foreign shores carrying what they need. There is an element of risk that is necessary in order to broaden horizons and to come back carrying something new and enriching.
The figure is well-dressed, but not extravagant. He wears a gold circlet on his head. A circlet is a form of crown. He is a ruler, standing foursquare on the ground. His back is turned to us, which I feel demonstrates an ability to trust his circumstances, as he is positioned on the edge of what feels to be a cliff or at least a sharp incline that drops towards the water. His right hand holds one of the wands that accompany him. He is bonded with it, but not dependent on it. This image suggests interdependence with the energy that drives him and feeds him, and which he honours in return.
But this is the next step of the journey — he has to let something precious (I wrote “previous” first, and I think this holds true in this context) go in order to give the space for something even richer to return.
And on to another cliff-top — this time one that might be starting to feel all-too-familiar due to its regular appearance in the Weekend Tarot Reading. The Seven of Wands represents the cliff-top of consciousness, the figure resisting the rising up of what lies beneath him. We move from the perspective of the back of one figure to the front of another. In other words, we have the privilege of being able to see from more than one angle. We have the capacity for insight.
While our ships are out — their passage prepared carefully, and much feeling beyond our control now that we have relinquished them to the seas — the next task asks us to attend to business within. Business without has set its course, and implicit in the two cards side-by-side is that much of the success of their journey rests with what we are ‘keeping at bay’ now that we have entrusted our material lives to the voyage that lies beyond the bay.
In the time of Mars in Cancer, the Seven of Wands can manifest as an attack on what emerges from our feeling side. When something sets us on edge or calls us to take an angry and defensive position, we can be sure that we are reacting to our own material as well as to what seems to be taking shape around us. The Seven of Wands exhorts us to think before we take up arms in a battle stance, which will simply project the fight into the world, and to pause for a moment to make a decision:
Are we going to fight, as perhaps we have tended to do so, to keep something from sailing into our sights from the deep oceans? Or can we use our warrior mentality differently? Can we become warriors on behalf of ourselves?
In short, can we use our wands — our connection to our creative passion — to welcome into our embrace the means by which we can feel more freedom and more creativity? Yes, what comes with it may be uncomfortable to acknowledge, but when we do, we understand that the fight has been over, and for some time. It was waged out of necessity at some point. Now, though, what we fight are simply parts of ourselves — elements that hold invaluable seams of gold that we can mine from the earth. That gold is breaking through the earth’s crust, surfacing to meet us. The wand we hold is the tool to meet it with agile grace. It is the power of creative thought — to choose a new approach.
The Page of Wands emphasises this new approach. The Page is young — the inner child who is allowed to roam free in our psyches. See how he holds his wand? It contacts the ground, a conduit for the energy lying there. It stands vertically, connecting it to the sky, with the Page holding the current. There is flow. The ground around him is arid, but in the background are the pyramids, the seat of ancient wisdom. He is a novice, but he is open to possibility.
If we trust that we have done our best, if we choose to surrender to the unknown — casting our ships on the open water, welcoming our unconscious into the light as righteous warriors — then we become guardians of magic. It is the magic of eros, and it can accompany us on an adventure into ourselves and what we have to offer others.
Today’s Oracle on Planet Waves sums it up perfectly:
You are so intimately related to what you achieve and your concept of accomplishment that your whole sense of identity is based on this. I know you have many humble goals, such as eating well every day, and taking care of your family and your immediate environment. Now other objectives are calling you: plans and ideas greater than you’ve ever considered. I suggest you tune into this and notice that your drive is coming from the inside — not as a lurch toward something outside yourself. In other words, your desire is to project something you are becoming into the world, rather than reaching for something you are not. This is a far more effective way to achieve your desires, because it’s based on a feeling of completion from the beginning. On the deepest level of learning, this is the skill you are now acquiring.
Let it emerge. Be in wonder with it. Become a keeper of the inner flame, and watch it grow.
Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Three of Wands (Sun in Aries), Seven of Wands (Mars in Leo), Page of Wands (the earthy aspect of fire)
If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread.
What a Wonderful Read . . . Thank You All
Thank you, everyone!
Charles – I so agree with your observation of the Page! Ha! I think a lot of us are feeling that right now 🙂
The 3 and 7 of Wands are the past. Manifestations of a work well done, of accomplishment and struggle, in the right purpose. But they are let go and only reflections now.
The Page if Wands is in the present. He is with the fire; embracing the Spirit. Proud, honored, but still stands in humility. I see him as patiently awaiting, listening for direction for his responsibility on cue. In every sense, receives such wonder of the gift. Gently in his hands he holds the instrument, this very moment. He is ready to play the notes in service unfolding before him now.
Once again, dear Sarah, you uncannily touch on the stage of the journey that I’m at. In fact a new consciousness is emerging in me that is heart-centred and trusting, but the mind/ego doesn’t like this and is battling with it tooth and nail. And even though I’m aware of this, the ingrained (mostly unconscious) thought patterns are so strong, that I find that I have to watch ths happenng and have patience as the shift takes place, rather than struggle with it. It’s so hard to let go of the ‘struggle’ and fear, when that is all I’ve known. “If we trust that we have done our best, if we choose to surrender to the unknown — casting our ships on the open water, welcoming our unconscious into the light as righteous warriors — then we become guardians of magic.” Yes. Thank you so much, Sarah, for this wonderful, helpful reading.
The 3-7 pair is especially interesting. In both cards, the figure is literally above the scene. In the 3, the man watches his ships sail, he has set them in motion and can only watch them go out into the world to achieve the goals he has set. He watches from a high hill, so his vantage point can keep the ships in view far off into the distance, more than if he watched from the dock. In the 7, again the figure is above the crowd, he’s trying to be above the battle (the unseen crowd below him, battling with the wands like the 5W) but he still tries to maintain control of his position and keep the battle from reaching him. The Sun/Mars Aries/Leo correspondences you note, give a powerful boost to the Wands fire energy, but the odd numbers are unbalanced and it’s a situation that has been set in motion and has not yet been resolved.
I always laugh at the Page of Wands. He looks at that wand with a puzzled look like “I wonder what the hell this thing is good for?” The earth of fire element wants some tangible result from that intangible fire energy. I don’t think I’ll assign him to the other pair, I’ll let him stand alone as a symbol of our wonderment at the potential of the fire energy. In the other pair, the men have both used the fire energy to initiate a situation, or to get mastery over it. We need to be like the Page and use that spark, use one’s will to initiate a situation with the best possible intent, give it a launch, watch to see it maintains its position, and try to deflect energy that would detract from the results, but in a detached way, and let the outcome happen on its own.