King of Wands upright
The King of Wands shows the energy of Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) at maturity. The card is linked to Fire and especially to the sign of Leo. The King carries both success and responsibility toward others.
You are in a situation where you can take charge, with vitality and confidence. You have a firm mind and you dominate others through the force of your will or your mastery of your field. Your strength comes from a solid conviction that you are right: you know what you want, you think your method is the right one and you find it natural that others follow you. Your drive is put to work on useful projects or a long-term career. Your adventurous nature can still feel uneasy in this role, and you want to move toward new experiences. You may be looking for new projects, new activities or new methods.
You may be called on to make important decisions and set goals. You can advise groups or individuals and give them your support. You can act with pride, dignity and self-respect, or be publicly recognized for your abilities. You often have a strong desire to express yourself, to stand up for your ideas and to create something that sets you apart from others. You can succeed as an entrepreneur, by taking risks and creating. In a discussion, your moral strength brings mediation and moral support.
In the role of parent or partner, you are firm and like to be in control, and at the same time you inspire, you are lenient and you take care of others. What you have established has become dominant, but its assumptions may deserve to be questioned.
You are honest, with good intentions, a conscience and integrity. You are noble and you despise pettiness and smallness. You are fair, you see both sides of every question and you hold great respect for each person. You are positive and optimistic, because your energy is strong enough that you misunderstand negative attitudes. Your courage is very strong and your endurance is unfailing: you fight obstacles and end up winning over the long run. You have an enormous capacity for work, and you work for the sake of work itself. You have a sense of commitment to others, which puts your energy to good use. You have talent, knowledge and education. You have a very broad sense of humor, you may enjoy elaborate pranks and laugh at yourself as well as at what you boast about. You are romantic about history and traditions.
What holds you back
Put your energy at the service of a commitment to others and of projects that last. Seek to do good to everyone with a sincere heart. Question what has become dominant in you.
- You can seem domineering, insistent and aggressive until you have established your territory and your competence.
- You try to do everything yourself.
- You are quick to act and sometimes violent in expressing an opinion, which you do not necessarily share deep down.
- Your pride is one of your big flaws, and you can boast excessively.
- You can seem mysterious and frighten for no reason those who know you only by name.
- Pushed too far, you become cruel, intolerant, prejudiced and bad-tempered, and sometimes lazy or cowardly.
King of Wands reversed
The upright King of Wands shows a person with authority, courage and generosity, who leads through force of will. Reversed, these leadership qualities are exaggerated or thrown out of balance. You may be this person, or know one.
Your confidence turns into arrogance and you lead in a domineering way. You do not take it well when someone gets in your way, and you impose your authority convinced you are in the right. Your pride becomes overwhelming to others. Your power, ego and vanity then rest on bluff, appearances and flattery.
You may misuse your power or make reckless decisions. You may oppose others only to show that you do better than they do. You can be aggressive, take advantage of others and, if pushed, lose your temper. Boundaries are a problem: you set them too harshly and enforce them strictly, or they are weak, ineffective, even absent.
Losing a position or retiring can be hard for you. If your identity rests on your authority, you are left helpless when you lose it, and you may look ridiculous. You become ineffective when your world no longer works the way you expected. Unimportant details may escape you or take up too much room, and errors of judgment can appear and weaken your position. You may pour all your energy into a small area where you rule, ignoring the rest of the world. A single mistake or lapse can then bring down what you have built.
You may step back from positions of authority, let others decide and prefer to follow rather than lead. You may admit your lack of skill or knowledge and let go of control. If a rank is forced on you and makes you uncomfortable, you may run from power. You may also try to overthrow a leader or an idea.
Like the other reversed kings, this card can also point to an absent father or the absence of a positive male role model.
When a reversed court card describes a specific person, that person is disturbed, blocked, or has a bad influence on you. When you look at the qualities of the card, they are altered. The upright King of Wands is powerful and commands, but he has little patience for the weakness of others. Reversed, you see this strength after obstacles and defeats. It does not disappear: you become more nuanced and more understanding toward others, but also harder in how you look at life, which no longer seems as easy.
Your strengths
You keep your strength despite the obstacles. You can become more tolerant and more understanding toward others after defeats. You can recognize your limits and make room for others.
What holds you back
- You are domineering, arrogant and cannot stand being contradicted.
- You misuse your power and make reckless decisions.
- You oppose others to show yourself superior, you can be aggressive and lose your temper.
- Your boundaries are either too harsh or too weak.
- You lose your bearings when you lose your role or your position.
- You retreat into a small area you master and ignore the rest.
- You may instead run from all responsibility or be too lenient.
What helps
Acknowledging what you do not know and agreeing to share or let go of control.
What the card shows
Two symbols dominate the card: the lion and the salamander. The lion is the emblem of Leo, and it points to the personality traits that belong to Fire. The salamander is a legendary lizard believed to live in fire, and alchemists were very fond of it as a symbol. The lion stands for the concrete side and the salamander for the spiritual side. The salamanders embroidered on his robe bite their tails: the closed circle means maturity and fulfillment. On the Knight of Wands' outfit, the tails and mouths do not meet, which marks the difference between the two cards.
The king wears a cap under his crown, like the three other kings. A king is a sovereign responsible for the well-being of his people: all the kings therefore show both success and social responsibility. The King of Wands translates these qualities into the language of Wands. He shows the adventurous energy of Wands mastered and turned toward useful projects or long careers. He leans forward on his throne, as if he wanted to leap up to seek a new experience: this posture says that the role of a responsible leader sits poorly with his adventurous nature. At his best, he masters creative Fire, and his commitment to others has tamed it and put it at everyone's service.
Another description of the card shows him wearing a golden, winged crown, seated on a chariot of which one wheel is visible. He has large white wings. He wears a breastplate and scaled boots decorated with a winged lion's head, the same symbol as on his crown. His chariot is drawn by a lion. His arms are bare, and he holds a torch or a staff of fire. Flames burn under the chariot, some wavy, some upright. He rules the sky from the end of Cancer to the second decan of Leo.
What the card means: the King of Wands expresses the established maturity of the fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). He evokes generosity, courage and greatness of soul. He is majestic and imposing. He points to a person with a strong will, able to dominate others by force of character. His power comes from a firm belief in being in the right: he knows his method is the best and finds it natural that others follow him. He is fast, strong, quick, rather violent, but fair and generous, noble and not petty. He is honest; he sees neither reason nor advantage in lying. He is positive and optimistic, because his fire burns so strongly that he does not understand why anyone would express negative attitudes.
Your strengths
You have confidence and vitality to take the lead in a situation. You act with confidence and take a leader's role. You can make important decisions and set goals. You advise and support people or groups. You manage what you do with pride, dignity and self-respect. You have a strong wish to express yourself and to create something that sets you apart from others.
What holds you back
- You can seem authoritarian and aggressive until you have established your territory and your competence.
- You tend toward intolerance: you understand weakness or despair poorly when you have not lived them.
- Your impatience can say: "if I can do it, you can too."
- When you are doing badly, pride becomes overwhelming: you can become arrogant, authoritarian and dictatorial, and refuse any interference.
- You can oppose others to show yourself superior, take advantage of them or lose your calm if you are pushed.
- Your limits are either too hard or too weak.
- A change such as retirement or losing a job can be hard for you to live through.
- You can concentrate on a small domain where you dominate and ignore the rest of the world.
What helps
- Put your energy into useful projects or a long-term career.
- Question yourself when an idea that has become dominant rests on assumptions that need examining.
- After obstacles and failures, keep your strength while becoming more understanding toward others.
