← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 30/121
Eight of Wands
The Eight of Wands is the fastest card in the deck. After the struggles of the Five and Seven, the way is suddenly clear and things move quickly. It speaks of momentum, swift progress, messages and travel — of events that, once in motion, arrive sooner than expected.
The image
Eight staves fly diagonally through the air over a wide, open landscape with a river and a hill. There are no people in the card at all. Waite describes "motion through the immovable" and says the staves "draw to the term of their course" — they are about to land. The absence of figures is often read as events moving under their own power.
Upright
It tends to describe speed and things coming to a head: plans moving fast, a reply arriving, a journey, a rush of activity. Waite lists "activity in undertakings", "swiftness, as that of an express messenger", "great haste, great hope", and also "the arrows of love". It usually encourages acting while the momentum lasts.
Reversed
Reversed, it is often read as delays, crossed messages, haste that causes mistakes, or energy scattered. Waite turns the arrows into "arrows of jealousy", internal dispute, quarrels and "stingings of conscience". Some readers do not use reversals.
Correspondences
A pip of the Wands, element Fire. In the Golden Dawn system, which most English-language decks follow, it is Mercury in the first decan of Sagittarius, 0°–10°, and sits in Hod, splendour, on the Tree of Life. Its Golden Dawn title is the Lord of Swiftness.
In a reading
In the past it can show a period when everything happened at once; as an obstacle, a pace too fast to steer; as an outcome, quick resolution or news. With the Knight of Wands it is often read as sudden travel or a move; with the Three of Wands, word from far away.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Decan: Mercury in Sagittarius, 0°–10°
Element: Fire — the element of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius
Mode: Mutable — Sagittarius is a mutable sign