Tarot card meanings · Wands
What does Three of Wands mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Three of Wands upright means “He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. The card also signifies able co-operation in business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his side towards yours with a view to help you”, and reversed “The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment”.
Upright
He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. The card also signifies able co-operation in business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his side towards yours with a view to help you.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
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.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Where does the Three of Wands fall in a reading?
Three 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.