← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 24/121
Two of Wands
The Two of Wands is the card of looking out from a secure place and deciding what to do with it. The first spark of the Ace has become a position — some success, some power — and the question now is whether to stay or to venture further. It is about planning, ambition and the restlessness that can come even with achievement.
The image
A man in a fine cloak stands on the battlements of a castle, looking over sea and shore. He holds a small globe in his right hand and a staff in his left; a second staff is fixed to the wall beside him. A cross of roses and lilies is carved on the stone. The globe is usually read as the world he could reach, the fixed staff as what he has already secured.
Upright
It tends to describe someone weighing up their options with real resources behind them: making plans, thinking about travel or expansion, setting a long-term aim. Waite saw two readings that do not meet — "riches, fortune, magnificence" on one side, sadness on the other — and likened the figure to Alexander, sad amid the wealth of the world. So the card can also point to dissatisfaction with what one already has.
Reversed
Reversed, it is often read as plans that stay on paper, fear of leaving the familiar, or a choice put off. Waite's reversed list is "surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear" — something unexpected that unsettles the plan. 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 Mars in the first decan of Aries, 0°–10°, and sits in Chokmah, wisdom, on the Tree of Life. The Golden Dawn titled it the Lord of Dominion.
In a reading
In the past it can show a decision that set a course; as an obstacle, hesitation at the edge; as advice, to make a plan and commit to a direction. With the Three of Wands it is often read as plans moving into action; with The World, travel or a wider horizon.
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