Tarot card meanings · Wands
What does Nine of Wands mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Nine of Wands upright means “The card signifies strength in opposition. If attacked, the person will meet an onslaught boldly; and his build shews that he may prove a formidable antagonist. With this main significance there are all its possible adjuncts—delay, suspension, adjournment”, and reversed “Obstacles, adversity”.
Upright
The card signifies strength in opposition. If attacked, the person will meet an onslaught boldly; and his build shews that he may prove a formidable antagonist. With this main significance there are all its possible adjuncts—delay, suspension, adjournment.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Obstacles, adversity.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
Behind are eight other staves—erect, in orderly disposition, like a palisade.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Where does the Nine of Wands fall in a reading?
Nine 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.