Six of Wands: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Six of Wands upright means: The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth. Reversed: Apprehension, fear, as of a victorious enemy at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being opened to the enemy; also indefinite delay.

The picture

“A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth.

Waite's additional meanings: Servants may lose the confidence of their masters; a young lady may be betrayed by a friend.

Reversed

Apprehension, fear, as of a victorious enemy at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being opened to the enemy; also indefinite delay.

Waite's additional meanings, reversed: Fulfilment of deferred hope.

In one line

The victor rides home: expectation crowned. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Six of Wands is the sixth card of the suit of Wands, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Sixs: Six of Cups, Six of Swords, Six 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 Six 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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