Wands

Wands are based on the institutional balance of the periodic table. They require enterprise, growth, progress and advancement. Institutions and mages require this level of development. In the Faerie Tarot, wands are represented by 32 cards, counting two crazy eights and 14 other Major Arcana cards.

• Ace of Wands -- sacrificial satisfaction
  • painting -- with castle in the background on a distant hill, a wand springs from the ground, shooting forth a single flower into the air.
  • meanings -- the creation of a new institution, requiring sacrifice and creativity. Birth (of a child or an adventure) springing from invention and a breath of fresh air.
    • associated element -- cesium?
• Two of Wands -- evangelical predation
  • painting -- the young mage looks out over a castle's crenulated ramparts at a sun rising over a calm harbor. He holds a wand in each hand. Each wand is surmounted by a ball. He waves one wand over the other, producing the image of the doc? world on the globe of the second wand's ball.
  • meanings -- evangelical ruler, attaining his goals and needs through boldness and courage. His dominant personality allows him to convince others to join the institutions he is founding. Unification in a common society.
    • associated element -- barium?
• Three of Wands -- commensual laudation?
  • painting -- a stately merchant looks out over a calm harbor, watching his ships coming in with wealth and change. He waves three flaming wands to signal their destination.
  • meanings -- Trade and commerce achieved after a long chase. Practical knowledge and business acumen brings back praise given threefold greater in its return.
    • associated element -- lanthanum?
    • other Major Arcana
• Four of Wands -- symbiotic cooperation
  • painting -- two young sorceresses each hold a wand in each hand, casting spells which spin a garland of flowers in the air above them.
  • meanings -- celebration of romance as it can best be achieved by a society or institution in cooperation and peace. The fruits of symbiotic labor and the tranquility of respite after peace is finally achieved.
    • associated element -- hafnium?
• Five of Wands -- warding?
  • painting -- five apprentices brandish their wands as if in sport or combat. Bolts of energy flash from the tips of each, only to be blocked by other wands.
  • meanings -- strife and conflict. Unsatisfied desires blocked by the benign efforts of others. Obstacles which ward against damage within an institution can produce frustration and conflict.
    • associated element -- tantalum?
      • Six of Wands -- depressed parasitism
        • painting -- a sorceress rides her steed through a dark forest, casting flame from her wand to light a small sapling alongside the path ahead. Four other saplings burn wand-like along the path, lighting the way through the woods. Her companion prepares to extinguish the sapling furthest behind the rider.
        • meanings -- conquest through persistent effort. A glorious victory which enables advancement based on the efforts of others who may be more productive.
        • associated element -- tungsten?
      • Seven of Wands -- angry sadism
        • painting -- angrily wielding a war fan whose six spines are made of six wands, a young man deflects the bolt of energy coming from the seventh wand in the hand of his enemy.
        • meanings -- obstacles and challenges met by one's wits, sharpened by anger at the attack. Overwhelming odds overcome by tricks and counter-moves. Newfound advantage and victory.
        • associated element -- rhenium?
      • Eight of Wands -- synnecrotic conflict
        • painting -- a flock of wands flies in v-shaped formation over an empty field.
        • meanings -- an unusual manifestation of speed and movement. Conflicts which arise out of too-rapid advancement. Hastily made decisions, resulting in a dramatic event. Sudden institutional progress leading to fascist tendencies.
        • associated element -- osmium?
      • Crazy Eights
      • Nine of Wands -- sacrificial satisfaction
        • painting -- a bandaged mage builds a wall around himself out of nine large wands. He bears an expression of satisfied anticipation even though he appears to be leaning on one of the wands. A wolf's skull sits atop one of the wands.
        • meanings -- enemies hidden within an institution, offering betrayal in the guise of aid. Expectation of difficult sacrifice to come. The discipline and order of the institution offer a respite from the current battle.
        • associated element -- gold?
      • Ten of Wands -- evangelical predation
        • painting -- stooping in a field of 10 wands, each spewing forth flowers, an old man is burdened by the flowers which he's gathering for the institution represented by the castle in the background. He hopes the flowers will be distributed by the others in the castle to improve their public image.
        • meanings -- the excessive pressures of public relations. A final trial before a final resolution of problems. A danger of using institutional power for selfish ends.
        • associated element -- mercury?
      • Page of Wands -- commensual laudation
        • painting -- bearing his wand of bone, the Page of Wands shouts his message of praise out across a barren wasteland.
        • meanings -- as an envoy of one institution to another, a stranger of good intention. Faithfulness and loyalty can result in even unintended benefits.
        • associated element -- thallium?
      • Maid of Wands -- symbiotic cooperation
        • painting -- a female apprentice stands in a doorway of a new institution, holding her wand in anticipation of the possibilities of new awareness. She looks out on an empty landscape, barren except for tiny sprouts dotting the gray land.
        • meanings -- brilliance and learning possible through the cooperation between the old and new. Freedom and adventure possible only through symbiosis, even with the fertility provided by death. Spontaneous expression of courage and beauty. Release from the fear of death through the understanding of the cycles of life, writ both large and small, in ourselves and in our institutions and societies.
        • associated element -- lead?
      • Knight of Wands -- benign warding
        • painting -- the mage-knight rides a dragon into the air, directing the giant lizard with his tiny wand. He must leave the institutions he loves to protects them from the chance dangers of the world. Ironically this may expand the instutitions' reach even more than those who remain at home, trying to protect them defensively and grow their strengths from within. He looks suspiciously like Tovvack.
        • meanings -- a journey begun in haste. Inspired creativity appropriate to a person of wide-ranging interests. His creativity and education are born as much from his absent-minded curiosity as from a concentrated desire for change and transformation. Yet somehow change and transformation seem to be found in everything he seeks.
        • associated element -- bismuth?
      • Queen of Wands -- depressed parasitism
        • painting -- the Queen of wands holds in her hand a baton with which directs an orchestra of cats in the foreground.
        • meanings -- a patroness of the arts, symbolic of the institutions of the arts. She uses her practical charm and grace to promote meaningful expression and love. But her inner sadness at the confinement of the very institutions she creates leads to a strange contradiction: Though she can promote daring creativity in others, she remains chaste and uncreative in her own right. It is also reflected in her quick temper in which she can use her attractiveness and her sense of artistic honor to provoke a kind of transformative self-reclamation in others which she fears in herself.
        • associated element -- polonium?
      • King of Wands -- angry sadism
        • painting -- the King of Wands pulls flowers from a wand. Behind him books fill the wall, each bearing a lion on the spine. In the foreground, alchemical utensils wall him in.
        • meanings -- a gentleman devoted to his education. His mature wisdom derives from his honest commitment to learning. Inwardly he is angry at the degree to which his knowledge and his fatherly devotion to his institutions give him little freedom of action. This hidden anger makes him sympathetic to others, even those who have greater freedom. Those institutions may be of his creation or others since he is a friendly joiner.
        • associated element -- astatine?
      • Crone of Wands -- synnecrotic conflict
        • painting -- an old hag stirs her cauldron with a wand while a falcon circles overhead
        • meanings -- everything seems relative. The circle cannot hold. In order to understand the pattern, one must give up the belief in institutions (which can be fallible and contradictory, even to themselves). Indeed, one must give up the illusion that the self is an institution.
        • associated element -- radon?

See also Rods, Faerie Tarot and Minor Arcana.

— Scotus - 27 Jan 2001