Knight of Wands
The Knight of Wands is the court card of fire in motion, an armored rider on a rearing horse. Readers traditionally take it as energy, passion and adventure, and Waite gives him departure, absence and a change of residence.
- Suit
- Wands (Minor Arcana)
- Golden Dawn
- Fire (court card)
- Upright
- energy, passion, adventure
- Reversed
- haste, impulsiveness
Upright
Horse and rider both look ready to bolt, and that sets the tone. Readers see a person or a phase driven by passion: bold moves, travel, relocation, starting before every detail is settled. The Knight is charming and full of daring. Waite links him to going away, so readers often connect the card with moves and long trips.
Reversed
Haste and impulsiveness shape the reversed Knight. Readers see plans abandoned halfway, tempers that flare or a rush into something without looking. It can also describe a person who arrives with a lot of noise and leaves just as fast.
In love and at work
Fast, heated romance and a partner who loves adventure but dislikes routine are traditional love readings. For careers readers link it to bold pitches, moving for a job or a restless urge to change roles. They describe the drive behind a choice and leave its results open.
In the picture
A knight in armor, his yellow tunic marked with salamanders, rides a rearing chestnut horse and holds up a leafy wand. Flame-colored plumes stream from his helmet. The land behind is a desert with pyramid-shaped hills. The Golden Dawn read all four Wands courts as aspects of Fire.
In a Caelumia profile
When Knight of Wands comes up upright in a Caelumia reading, it counts toward these themes for that day, alongside the rest of the profile: Adventure, Restlessness, Initiative.
Sources
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). Waite's own guide to the deck he designed with Pamela Colman Smith, with each card's divinatory meanings.
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Book T: The Tarot (1890s, published by Israel Regardie in The Golden Dawn (1937 to 1940)). The source of the planetary, zodiac and elemental attributions of the cards.
Updated September 28, 2026.
See it in your own profile
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