King of Wands
The king of wands in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a king on a throne carved with lions, raising a flowering wand. A. E. Waite read it as an honest, friendly countryman, and news of an inheritance.
Meaning
In Waite's words: "The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble."
What does the King of Wands mean?
Waite's meanings are "dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected heritage to fall in before very long"; reversed, "good, but severe; austere, yet tolerant". His list of additional meanings adds "generally favourable may signify a good marriage", and reversed, "advice that should be followed".
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 King of Sceptres, reads it as a dark man, good, a friend.
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsAce of CupsThe ace of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a hand from a cloud holding a cup from which four streams pour, and a dove descending with a Host. A. E. Waite read it as joy, content, nourishment and abundance.
- 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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