Queen of Wands
The queen of wands in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a queen enthroned, holding a wand in leaf. A. E. Waite read it as a friendly, honourable countrywoman, and success in business.
Meaning
Waite describes the card: "The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic."
What does the Queen of Wands mean?
Waite's meanings are "A dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honourable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of money, or a certain success in business"; reversed, "good, economical, obliging, serviceable. Signifies also—but in certain positions and in the neighbourhood of other cards tending in such directions—opposition, jealousy, even deceit and infidelity". His list of additional meanings adds "A good harvest, which may be taken in several senses", and reversed, "goodwill towards the Querent, but without the opportunity to exercise it".
In older decks
In Italian packs the suit is bastoni, clubs, one of the four suit marks the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 gives for the earliest cards. Papus, who calls it the Queen of Sceptres, reads it as a dark woman, good.
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsKing of WandsThe 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.
- 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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