Three of Wands
The three of wands in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a man seen from behind on a cliff edge, watching ships pass over the sea. A. E. Waite read it as established strength, enterprise, trade and discovery.
Meaning
Waite's description of the picture: "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."
What does the Three of Wands mean?
Waite's meanings are "he symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea"; reversed, "the end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment". His list of additional meanings adds "A very good card; collaboration will favour enterprise".
In older decks
Italian packs call the suit bastoni, clubs; the British Museum's catalogue of 1876 lists it among the suit marks of the earliest cards. Papus, who calls it the Three of Sceptres, reads it as the realization of the commencement of the enterprise.
Read next
- Next in Tarot cardsFour of WandsThe four of wands in the tarot's Minor Arcana: four staves hung with a garland, two women raising nosegays, and a manor house beyond. A. E. Waite read it as country life, repose, harmony and prosperity.
- 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
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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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