Tarot card meanings · Wands
What does Eight of Wands mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Eight of Wands upright means “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”, and reversed “Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who are married”.
Upright
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.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who are married.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
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.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Where does the Eight of Wands fall in a reading?
Eight of Wands belongs to the suit of Wands. On this site you draw three cards, which take three of the places in the ten-card method Waite describes: “This covers him”, “This crosses him”, “This is before him”. The same card reads differently in each place, and the I Ching cast beside it may agree or disagree.
Ask one question. Draw three cards, and cast an I Ching hexagram beside them to see where East and West agree. Free.
Draw three cardsWaite's words are quoted as printed, and left out where they speak of money, law, illness or disaster. The pictures are the 1909 deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. For entertainment and self-reflection.