Page of Wands
Valet de Bâton (Tarot de Marseille) · Princess of Wands (Golden Dawn, Thoth) · Knave of Wands
A young man in a salamander-patterned tunic studies the tip of his staff in a desert: the Page of Wands is read as enthusiasm, curiosity and fresh news.
Upright enthusiasm · exploration · messages · curiosity · free spirit · discovery
Reversed immaturity · impatience · unfinished ideas · bad news · restlessness
- Astrology
- No zodiacal span; rules the quarter of the heavens around Leo
- Element
- Earth of Fire
- Golden Dawn title
- Princess of the Shining Flame; Rose of the Palace of Fire
- Yes or no
- Yes
Upright
Pages in the Waite–Smith tradition are students and messengers, and this one is full of fire. He stands for the excitement of a new interest, the eagerness of a beginner, and news that stirs things up. Waite described a young man in the act of proclamation, unknown but faithful, whose tidings are strange; his divinatory list adds a dark young man, a lover, an envoy, a postman, and someone who may carry family news.
Love and relationships: flirtation, a playful new attraction, or a messenger bringing a declaration; youthful passion that needs time to deepen.
Work and money: a new idea, an apprenticeship, a course of study, an exploratory project or an unexpected offer.
Advice: follow your curiosity, but do not confuse the first rush of excitement with mastery. Keep the flame lit long enough to learn something.
Reversed
Reversed, the page's fire flickers. Readers describe enthusiasm that fades as soon as a project becomes difficult, impulsive decisions, a scatter of half-begun interests, or a messenger whose news is unwelcome or unreliable. Waite's inverted meanings were anecdotes, announcements and evil news, together with indecision and the instability that accompanies it. Some readers see an inward meaning — a creative idea not yet ready to be shown. Many do not use reversals at all. When they are read, this one asks for patience with oneself and a little discipline to turn sparks into steady warmth.
The image
A young man stands in an open, sandy landscape, holding a tall wand upright before him with both hands and gazing up at its sprouting tip. He wears a yellow tunic patterned with black salamanders, a short cloak, boots and a soft hat with a red plume that rises like a flame. In the distance three pyramid-like mounds break the flat horizon; a similar desert reappears behind the Knight of Wands, giving the court cards of the suit a shared country. The sky is a clear blue, and the page's stance is that of someone about to make an announcement.
History
Court cards have a longer pictorial history than the pips. Italian packs of the fifteenth century already included a page, or fante, beside the knight, queen and king, and the Marseille Valet de Bâton is a standing youth holding a great club. The Golden Dawn renamed the four courts King, Queen, Prince and Princess, and in its system the page's place belongs to the Princess. Waite returned to the older titles in 1910, and Smith drew a page who looks as if he has just been entrusted with a message, in keeping with the long tradition of the page as servant and courier.
Symbolism
In the Golden Dawn scheme the Princess, and so the Waite page, is Earth of Fire: the most solid, grounded expression of the fiery element. Princesses were not assigned a span of the zodiac; instead they rule a quadrant of the heavens around the north pole, together with the ace of their suit. The order's title for this court is the Princess of the Shining Flame and Rose of the Palace of Fire. The salamander, a creature believed since antiquity to live unharmed in fire and adopted by Paracelsus as the elemental spirit of fire, is the emblem of the suit and reappears on the Knight and the King. The pyramids hint at ancient knowledge and far travel; the plume is fire made visible.
In a reading
Readers sometimes read pages as real young people, sometimes as messages, and sometimes as a part of the querent that is just beginning to learn. With the Eight of Wands the news comes quickly; with the Ace of Wands a new passion begins. Waite noted that the page will bear favourable testimony beside a man, and that he becomes a dangerous rival if followed by the Page of Cups — an example of the old practice of reading cards in sequence.
Sources and further reading
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite, 1910
- The Golden Dawn — Israel Regardie, 1937
- The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City — Michael Dummett, 1980
- Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for Personal Transformation — Mary K. Greer, 1984