Three of Wands

Depicted on the Three of Wands: A stately merchant looks out over a calm harbor, watching his ships coming in with wealth and change. This is taken as meaning practical knowledge of many kinds.

Fourteen of the Major Arcana associated with the Three of Wands: The Hierophant, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man, Death, The Devil, The Tower, The Sun, The Angel, Judgment, The World, and three others.

All of the wand threes are associated with change and practical knowledge:

The Hierophant

  • Ecorelation: benign warding
    • Change: From an active worldly perspective to a passive, spiritual one
    • Practical Knowledge: The religious traditions
    • Associated Element: Cerium?
  • Image: Wearing the three-tiered tiara of papal authority and carrying a bishop's crook as a staff, The Hierophant blesses two figures before him. Four ships enter the harbor behind him, which has two gigantic columns guarding its mouth. The first ship bears the standard of the dragon; the second, the standard of the horse; the third, the standard of the trident; the fourth bears a banner on which are two crossed keys.
  • Meaning: The old order. The spiritual side of the protective impulse in man. Ritualism and mercy. Foregiveness and imspiration. Servitude and conformity as a result of timidity.

The Captain's Wife

  • Ecorelation: depressed parasitism
    • Change: From fear to relief
    • Practical Knowledge: Patience in the face of adversity
    • Associated Element: Praseodymium?
  • Image: A middle-aged woman weeps even though her ship has come in. It bears a banner embazoned with a black tapeworm.
  • Meaning: Wealth acquired through hardship and personal privation. A return of the old, denial of the new. Old opportunities which return late in life.

The Devil

  • Ecorelation: -- angry sadism
    • Change: Enslavement by the senses
    • Practical Knowledge: Domination
    • Associated Element: Neodymium?
  • Image: Slaver ships bring a chained couple to the pedestal on which stands a horned demon with draconic wings. The slavers row back toward the ships through heavy seas.
  • Meaning: Bondage and subservience. Unexpected failure and temptation. Perversion of the senses and inability to realize one's goals.

The Tower

  • Ecorelation: synnecrotic conflict/sacrificial satisfaction
    • Change: A complete break with the past
    • Practical Knowledge: The nature of change itself
    • Associated Element: Promethium?
  • Image: On a crag which defines the far strand of a harbor, lightning strikes a tower, severing its crown-shaped top. Two ships put out boats as if to rescue two figures they can see falling from the tower.
  • Meaning: Complete and sudden change. Arrogance and pride cast down by breaking of old beliefs by Providence. Disruption, adversity and misery which follow the abandonment of past relationships. The need for outside intervention when the new truths of the past become today's orthodoxy.

The Angel

  • Ecorelation: synnecrotic conflict/evangelical predation
    • Change: Rejuvenation
    • Practical Knowledge: The interconnectedness of nature
    • Associated Element: Samarium?
  • Image: A triumphant angel emerges from a sarcophagus bearing a banner in one hand and holding a phoenix on the other shoulder with his left hand. The ship arriving in the harbor behind the sarcophagus bears another banner, this one bearing the likeness of the angel Gabriel. The foreground angel bears no trumpet, but has a strong halo. The frieze on the sarcophagus depicts a man walking the pattern.
  • Meaning: The completion and perfection which comes from focus. Interweaving the patterns of experience. The vast design of nature as it can be reflected in our own development.

Judgment

  • Ecorelation: synnecrotic conflict/commensual laudation
    • Change: Awakening
    • Practical Knowledge: Foregiveness
    • Associated Element: Europium?
  • Image: Angelic male trumpets the rising of a family from a harbor's shallow waters. A banner with a cross on it depends from the trumpet. The ship behind the family also bears a banner which has a cross on it.
  • Meaning: Atonement and judgment. Rebirth and development from consideration of present actions as they affect others.

The Sun

  • Ecorelation: sacrificial satisfaction
    • Change: From dissatisfaction to satisfaction
    • Practical Knowledge: The happiness of daily life
    • Associated Element: Gadolinium?
  • Image: The sun shines down upon a happy child on a horse, while porpoises accompany four ships into the harbor. The ships bear sunflower banners.
  • Meaning: Unselfish satisfaction. Warmth and sincerity from liberation.

The Hermit

  • Ecorelation: evangelical predation
    • Change: Internal change
    • Practical Knowledge: Occult science
    • Associated Element: Terbium?
  • Image: A bearded and hooded man walks with the aid of a staff, holding aloft an hourglass which appears to function as a lantern. Behind him two ships enter the harbor. The first bears the standard of the anvil while the second bears a banner with a salamander on it.
  • Meaning: Annulment and regression. Knowledge and wise counsel. Discretion and caution through the withholding of emotion, usually due to a fear of discovery. Self-denial and circumspection as a means of evangelism.

The Table

  • Ecorelation: commensual laudation
    • Change: From privation to plenty
    • Practical Knowledge: Graciousness
    • Associated Element: Dysprosium?
  • Image: A great banquet is laid out before peasants on a trestle out-of-doors. A great ship lies at anchor in the harbor, a goblet on its standard.
  • Meaning: Honor to those truly responsible. Thanksgiving and toasts at the table. Humble praise. Joining others in shared celebration of the fruits of your common labors.

The Hanged Man

  • Ecorelation: symbiotic cooperation
    • Change: Regeneration
    • Practical Knowledge: Adjustment to new forces of life
    • Associated Element: Holmium?
  • Image: A man hangs by his right foot from a cross before a harbor where a single enters, bearing the standard of the eagle. His open eyes and calm face seem to show he has reached a stage of acceptance and waiting for new events.
  • Meaning: The symbiotic cooperation between men and gods, though both may be punished for it. Stasis and constraint. Vigilance for a time of maximum cooperation and forebearance for those who cannot wait.

Wheel of Fortune

  • Ecorelation: benign warding
    • Change: Random events
    • Practical Knowledge: Exploitation of good opportunities
    • Associated Element: Erbium?
  • Image: In front of the same four ships found on The World card, Chance herself stands bestride a giant wheel. The four biblical creatures on the standards of the ships are all reading books. The wheel is divided many ways, allowing all the cards of the Major Arcana to be represented in different circles.
  • Meaning: Unlikely coincidence, especially as it brings us to a culmination or an ending, which can be either good or bad. Destiny or fate as a way to an outcome.

The Widow

  • Ecorelation: depressed parasitism
    • Change: From hope to grief
    • Practical Knowledge: Acceptance
    • Associated Element: Thulium?
  • Image: A middle-aged woman weeps even though her ship has come in. It bears a black flag with no insignia, indicating its captain is dead.
  • Meaning: Wealth acquired in tragic circumstances. Letting go of the old, embracing the new. Grief and mourning. New opportunities which rise early in life.

Death

  • Ecorelation: angry sadism
    • Change: Unexpected loss
    • Practical Knowledge: Value of anger to clear away the old to make way for the new
    • Associated Element: Ytterbium?
  • Image: Armored skeleton wields a scythe and wears a feather on a helm. A fleet of four ships arrives in the harbor behind him. One bears a standard of the crack'd mirror, symbolizing youth and beauty. The next bears the standard of the bag of coins of wealth. A third bears the standard of the bishop's mitre. And the final ship bears the flag of a king's crown.
  • Meaning: Abrupt change of the old self. Angry rejection of others as surrogates for the old self (which is actually that which is being rejected). Illness, possibly leading to death. The beginning of a new era.

The World

  • Ecorelation: synnecrotic conflict
    • Change: Ultimate change from one level of existence to a higher level. Becoming (and creating) that which is made up of the class of things of which the self was previously a member
    • Practical Knowledge: Synthesis
    • Associated Element: Lutetium?
  • Image: A fully clothed female stands in the center of a wreath, holding a wand in each hand. Behind the wreath, four ships have entered safe harbor, bearing an elemental flag -- a bull (earth) on the first flag; a winged man (air) on the second; an osprey (water) on the third, and a lion (fire) on the fourth.
  • Meaning: Resurrection, a premonition of the Crone of Pentacles, completion. Triumph in spite of signs to the contrary. Last laugh.

See also Three of Pentacles, Crazy Eights, Faerie Tarot, Minor Arcana, and Major Arcana.

— Scotus - 03 Feb 2001