Knight of Wands: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Knight of Wands upright means: Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence. Reversed: Rupture, division, interruption, discord.

The picture

“He is shewn as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.

Waite's additional meanings: A bad card; according to some readings, alienation.

Reversed

Rupture, division, interruption, discord.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: For a woman, marriage, but probably frustrated.

In one line

Departure and a change of home: the road calls. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Knight of Wands is the twelfth card of the suit of Wands, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Knights: Knight of Cups, Knight of Swords, Knight of Pentacles.

In Esbat

Esbat deals a card of the day, face down until you turn it, and holds all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. The Knight of Wands can be shared as a picture. All 78 tarot card meanings.

Sources

Meanings and picture descriptions: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), public domain, checked against the Wikisource transcription. Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, 1910, public domain. Like the app, this page records what the book says; it does not promise outcomes.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

Esbat: Tarot & Book of Shadows, on Google Play

A card of the day, face down until you turn it, and all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. For Android.

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