Relentless, Passionate Pursuit: Meditating on the Knight of Wands

The Knight of Wands — fiery, passionate, and willing to travel extraordinarily long distances in order to reach his goal. His horse, under his control, rears, ready to burst forth towards the goal once more. This is not a horse of a patient person. This is the horse of a person with a place to go, and that, for sure, is the Knight of Wands.

The Knight of Wands is fiery — the suit of Wands is representative of fire, and like many of the male courtiers in the Wands suit, he is dressed in a tunic emblazoned with salamanders on it. Salamanders in tarot represent renewal, rebirth, and are also representative of the element of fire. The plumage the Knight wears is also evocative of flames, and this guy is ON FIRE to get his stuff done.

I have a note “where angels fear to tread,” and with that sort of notation it’s no surprise that this card is associated with Sagittarians, who have long been associated with bold, fiery impetuousness. He is the shoot first, ask questions later type — and he’s loaded with the requisite weaknesses and strengths.

One of the reasons I own so many tarot decks is that the different decks give different feelings to the cards, and often Barbara Walker’s Tarot helps jar some feelings loose where other decks may not feel so visceral. For her tarot, Barbara Walker selected Dagon, the Canaanite fish god, to Represent the Prince of Wands.

Dagon’s wand and cauldron represent fire and water while his goat head and fish tail represent land and sea. He is a dual natured god, much like the double edged nature of fire itself. This card suggests something unconventional and startling while still evoking stability. Much like Dagon holds within them the four elements, they also hold both chaos and order; irrationality and consistency.

The Knight of Wands, when upright is the sort of ‘take on the world’ type of feeling. When reversed, it shows what happens when that fiery interest is scattered. It can represent scattered energies, an inability to focus, or a period of creative restlessness.

To effectively meditate on the Knight of Wands would take movement — Tai Chi or a favored style of yoga would work best — anything that builds that powerful, creative fire in the belly.