← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 25/121
Three of Wands
The Three of Wands is the moment after the decision: the plan has been launched and the person waits, watching, for it to come back with something. It speaks of enterprise, foresight and a steady confidence — the strength of having already put things in motion, and the patience to let them travel.
The image
A tall figure, seen from behind, stands on a cliff edge and looks out over a wide sea where ships are sailing. Three staves are planted in the ground; he leans lightly on one. Waite describes "a calm, stately personage", and the ships as his own merchandise crossing the water. The turned back and the distance are usually read as looking ahead, beyond the immediate.
Upright
It tends to describe progress on a venture that is already moving: trade, expansion, a project going abroad, the first signs that effort will pay. Waite lists "established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery", and adds help from someone able, as if a successful merchant were looking your way. It can point to cooperation and to seeing further than others.
Reversed
Reversed, it is often read as delays in what was sent out, plans that overreach, or a lack of foresight. Waite, unusually, reads the reversal kindly: "the end of troubles", a pause or cessation of adversity and disappointment. Readers who do not use reversals simply read the upright.
Correspondences
A pip of the Wands, element Fire. In the Golden Dawn system, followed by most English-language decks, it is the Sun in the second decan of Aries, 10°–20°, and sits in Binah, understanding, on the Tree of Life. Its Golden Dawn title is the Lord of Established Strength.
In a reading
In the past it can show the start of something now bearing fruit; as an obstacle, waiting for results that are slow to arrive; as advice or outcome, to keep the long view and look for partners. With the Eight of Wands it often suggests news arriving 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).
Element: Fire — the element of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius
Mode: Cardinal — Aries is a cardinal sign