TAROTAce of Wands
Upright
The potential for new beginnings based on ambition, passion, and drive.
A new energy in your life that allows you to create or nurture new things.
A new career or passion project, travel, positive transformation, challenge, or child.
In all cases, the card represents the passion and ambition required to start. Work is still required to make it happen!
Intuition
The card shows the wand used to create the most basic and fundamental spell of all; fire.
The man is Prometheus, who stole a spark of fire from the Gods to give to mankind.
The Gods did not want mankind to have fire because it would give them too much power. Fire brings mankind closer to the level of Gods because with fire we can create, transform and destroy.
Reversed
A lack of energy in your life; boredom, lack of motivation and apathy.
Resistance to change or lack of belief in yourself.
Failure in a creative endeavor or passion project through lack of drive to make it happen
A feeling of having the same year of experience over and over again, especially in career.
Astrologia
Will and Ingenuity. Passion for life and full of energy. Charismatic. Prone to being impulsive or reckless.
Ace of Wands
The Ace of Wands represents the archetype of the Visionary or Creator.
He defines the passion, creativity, and energy that fuels emotion and ambition. He possesses a clear sense of purpose and direction in life, capable of taking risks to achieve his goals. He accepts the challenge, placing himself fully at the center of change and new beginnings.
Without this force, our vision of the new, untried, and novel remains an abstract concept. We need the Visionary within us to make it happen.
The Ace of Wands is governed by the element of Fire. Fire transforms and changes; it symbolizes the passion to never accept the ordinary. Instead, it forces us to be creative, try new ideas, and pursue our ambitions.
The Reversed card does not represent the exact opposite so much as a lack: a lack of ambition, passion, and drive. It suggests that if the flame in our heart is extinguished, our life becomes cold, repetitive, and stagnant.
There is no figure better suited to represent these new, passion-driven beginnings than the god who gave us fire in the first place.
Prometheus
The wand is traditionally seen as a tool of magic, and the oldest spell of all is the creation of fire. The gods, and in particular Zeus (The Emperor), forbade humanity from possessing this knowledge. Fire grants the ability to create, change, and transform the world. In short, it allows us to become closer to the gods themselves.
Fire grants the ability to create, change, and transform the world.
One god went against this edict. Prometheus stole embers from the furnace of the God of Fire (Hephaestus, seen in the Eight of Pentacles), gifting the flame to humanity.
For this, he was severely punished, but that was of little concern to him. His love for humanity and his passionate belief that we should live better was enough.
Prometheus took full responsibility for his actions. He is not, after all, the God of Fire; he is the God of Forethought. He knew exactly how his actions would turn out. Humanity would gain the power and ambition to tread where gods walked, but he would be eternally punished.
Description and Symbology
As with all the Ace cards in this deck, the background is white, focusing entirely on a single archetype. We see Prometheus himself brandishing a torch as he presents the secret of fire to humanity.
Alternatively, the figure could represent one of our distant ancestors holding the newfound ability to create fire.
We see a man’s blue body beginning to glow orange from the heat of the flame. This shift in color is most intense around the head and heart: Fire allows us to create using both the ingenuity of the mind and the passion of the heart.
As with standard Tarot depictions, the torch bears green leaves, suggesting living wood that would not normally burn. Thus, we are not looking at literal fire, but at fire as the symbol of passion and ambition. This fire does not consume dry wood; it burns within living flesh.
The Ace symbol
The Ace symbol incorporates several Celtic motifs, amongst them the Trinity Knot and the Dara Knot. The Trinity knot represents the eternal flame of the spirit (it also has other more orthodox meanings as the Holy Trinity) and the Dara knot represents the intertwined roots of the Oak, symbol of wisdom. You need both to wield this wand!
The Firebrand
The wand in this image shows one of the most ancient spells; the creation of fire. The leaves on the wood suggest this is not a normal flame because the wood is still living, which suggests this is the flame of passion and ambition within the living soul.
The leaves also represent the green shoots and new life that the flame within us pulls us towards.
The Figure
The figure could be either Prometheus himself or a mortal using fire. We see that in either case, the fire begins to warm the head and heart, suggesting fire as a driving element of both the heart and head via passion and ambition.
Tips for Readings
The following table shows the upright and reverse meanings for general questions. The last row ('Yes/No') is useful when you are picking a single card to decide a yes or no decision.
Upright
Reversed
A new romance is in the air. This may suggest a new relationship or a change for the better in an existing relationship.
Expect passion, sexuality and excitement, and perhaps a new journey together.
This may also be the best time to rekindle an old flame.
For those looking to increase their family now is a good time to try.
There is a sense of disappointment within relationships. This is coming from a lack of passion, disconnection, lack of life-goals, or cooling with your significant other.
You will need to address this root cause and bring feelings back into the equation, and/or re-prioritize your time if you want the relationship to grow or return to better times.
New opportunities for career growth caused by a new, more engaged and passionate you.
You have the passion, but still need to put in the work to make this happen. This may involve taking a few risks and having confidence in your vision and ideas.
You will probably have the feeling that your career consists of the 'same one year of experience over and over’ and you may even be working purely for the money.
The power to change this has to come from you. Regain ambition or find something that has meaning to you.
Looking for a new career or identifying the inertia in your current career are good starting points, but finding a connection and passion with what you do is the root problem.
Your mind and its new-found energy and will to succeed will help with health. Any new health regime or competitive activity has more chance of success.
If your drive is aimed at career or personal passion-project, just make sure personal health stays high in the mix. No burning your body out!
You will find yourself trapped in the rat-race, are overworked, pulled into problems that you have no real interest in, or have not done anything truly new and for a long time and this may be affecting your health.
It is time to take a break and put yourself first by looking at what you really want, and what you need to do to kick-start a fire in your life.
Now is a great time to follow your passions. If this new direction means giving up the old-you or a boring current life, then now is the time to shed your old skin!
Remember — ‘spirituality’ does not mean ‘church’; it can mean anything that opens up the window to a new ‘you’ so a change of look, new lifestyle, or moving to a social circle that suits you more are all valid options here. Follow your heart!
There is a disconnection with what you want out of life and what you are actually doing. You lack feelings for your current lot and may have got to where you are simply by ‘letting the wind blow you here’ or allowing others to make major decisions in the past.
The core problem now is to find purpose in your life again. That is the real missing component. Without it, you will not be passionate about anything.
New business opportunities or a new impetus in an existing opportunity that transforms it.
The driver in all this will be you. You have the drive to make it fly, but you will also need to put in the work.
Poor planning (or even no planning) have created problems that will start to appear, perhaps because financial planning does not interest you.
Consider it another way — look at the things that do make you passionate and work forward from there. What do you need financially to make these things happen? What do you need to save or invest and grow to give you the runway to work on your real passion project?
Yes, through new energy and passion for success.
No, through lack of belief in yourself or lack of passion.
Reading the Card
The Ace of Wands suggests we are nothing without our passions. We were given fire through the passionate beliefs of a god, and what he believed was the right thing to do.
The fire within drives us to great things through a purpose of our own. When that fire is lacking, we become bored, directionless, and nothing more than bodies formed of clay, animated by the breath of an uncaring god with no real purpose.
The Upright Card
The Upright Ace of Wands is a signal to pursue your passions. This may occur via a new venture, a career, a passion project, or travel taking you somewhere entirely new.
It may also denote a new relationship or the deepening of an existing one. For those hoping to extend their family with a new child, the Ace of Wands signals that now is an excellent time to try.
The card suggests you will soon get the chance to pursue these things, but the card alone does not guarantee it. That is up to you. It is your responsibility to recognize the chance for what it is when you see it.
Nevertheless, the Ace of Wands promises that taking up the challenge will be positive, provided you grasp it with passion.
The Reversal
The Reversed card is not the exact opposite of ambition and passion; it is a lack of them. You could be more ambitious or passionate about what is approaching, but something stands in the way. The card offers a chance to fix this situation.
If you do not take up this challenge, things will not necessarily go badly, but the opportunity will be missed.
Worse, you may be left in a weak position. You may end up bored in a career, unfulfilled in a relationship, or spiritually stunted, haunted by questions like 'Why didn't I...?' and 'What stopped me?'.
Card Design Process
Although the Ace cards appear to be simpler designs (having fewer elements), they were actually some of the hardest to conceptualize. Selecting the right archetypes for Swords, Cups, and Pentacles was straightforward, but Fire was difficult, as the actual god of fire (Hephaestus) was a poor fit. Prometheus did not seem to fit either, until the creation of fire was viewed as one of the first true magic spells.
It no longer feels like magic because we can all create fire today. However, it would have been true, transformative magic to the first people who saw it created by another human.
Final Words
The Ace of Wands represents the inner forces of passion, creativity, and ambition. It highlights their ability to create great things or spark major transformative changes in our lives when we listen to them.
The card tells us that a chance to act will soon occur. Whether we choose to grasp this torch and use it to light up our lives is entirely up to us.
