Eight of Wands
The eight of wands in the tarot's Minor Arcana: eight wands flying through open country. A. E. Waite read it as activity, swiftness and haste.
Meaning
Waite's Key to the Tarot describes the design: "The card represents motion through the immovable-a flight of wands through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold."
What does the Eight of Wands mean?
Waite's meanings are "activity in undertakings, the path of such activity, swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed towards an end which promises assured felicity; generally, that which is on the move; also the arrows of love"; reversed, "arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who are married". His list of additional meanings adds "domestic disputes for a married person".
In older decks
The Italian suit is bastoni, clubs, among the marks of the earliest cards in the British Museum's catalogue of 1876. Papus, who calls it the Eight of Sceptres, reads it as "Opposition to its success. The Enterprise will only partially succeed."
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsNine of WandsThe nine of wands in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a man leaning on his staff before eight others standing like a palisade. A. E. Waite read it as strength in opposition.
- The same shape in Chinese radicalsMù 目The character for ‘eye’, and radical 109 of the 214 Kangxi radicals, under which characters for looking and seeing are filed.
See also
The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant.
Sources
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite, William Rider & Son, London, 1910 (the sacred-texts.com transcription, on the Internet Archive), The Lesser Arcana; Some Additional Meanings of the Lesser Arcana
- The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, Chapman & Hall, London, 1896, translated by A. P. Morton (scan on the Internet Archive), The Divining Tarot, second lesson: the minor arcana
- A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, by W. H. Willshire, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1876 (scan on the Internet Archive), General history: the marks of the suits
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from letters and numbers, lines or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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