The Open Athenaeum

✶ The Study Deck

Knight of Wands

Wands, of the lesser arcana

Waite & Colman Smith, 1909 · described 1911

He is shewn as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith.

the plate, in waite's words · the painted card will hang here in time

In divination

Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.

Reversed: Rupture, division, interruption, discord.

The library's note

Mailed but not on any warlike errand, the Knight rides past mounds or pyramids at a pace Waite reads directly off the horse's motion, "the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith." He carries wands' vitality forward as departure rather than arrival, "flight, emigration, change of residence," the suit's energy given legs and a destination rather than a household to guard, unlike the Page one rank below him or the King two ranks above.

a young page · the keeper's voice pass on the note is still to come

Doors Onward

Sources & Further Reading

  1. Waite, A. E. (1911). The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. Card text quoted verbatim, his punctuation kept. (Public domain.)
  2. Card described at: http://sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktwakn.htm

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