1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. Ace of Wands

Minor Arcana · Wands

Ace of Wands

• creation
• invention
• enterprise
• beginning

Upright meaning

A spark of creation and enterprise: the starting point of something you could build. Waite calls it principle, beginning and source.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, Waite includes a certain clouded joy. A prompt to notice what is dampening an idea before you set it aside.

• clouded joy

Symbolism

A hand from a cloud holds a stout, leafing wand over a landscape.

Group

Minor Arcana · Wands

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part III §2 (The Lesser Arcana). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.