Three of Wands
expansion · foresight · waiting for results · trade afar
Card art: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, for A. E. Waite. Public domain.
The suit of Wands
In a few words
- expansion
- foresight
- waiting for results
- trade afar
Ships sent out, and you watch the horizon. What you set in motion is coming back with more.
Upright
- Everything
- Ships sent out, and you watch the horizon. What you set in motion is coming back with more.
- Love
- A relationship widening its world; distance that does not weaken it.
- Work
- Business growing beyond the first circle. Export, travel, a bigger stage.
- Money
- Returns on effort already made. Trade and ventures over distance pay.
- Myself
- Confidence in what you have started. Let it travel.
He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. The card also signifies able co-operation in business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his side towards yours with a view to help you.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 192
Reversed
- Everything
- Delays in what you were expecting back. Ships late, plans stalled by distance.
- Love
- Distance starting to cost. Long-distance strain, or drifting apart.
- Work
- Expansion that overreached. Obstacles abroad, or partners not delivering.
- Money
- Returns slower and smaller than the plan said. Adjust the timeline.
- Myself
- Frustration with slow results. The horizon has not moved; your patience has.
The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 192
The card, as Waite described it
A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 192
The plain-word meanings on this page were written for ShreeJyoti and are still under review.