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
Waite describes the card: "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
In Italian packs the suit is bastoni, clubs: the earliest suit marks, the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 records, were coppe, danari, bastoni and spade, "cups, money, clubs, and swords". Papus, who calls it the King of Sceptres, reads it as "a dark man, good, a friend".
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
Last reviewed September 28, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research