Three of Wands: tarot card meaning

In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Three of Wands upright means: He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. The card also signifies able co-operation in business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his side towards yours with a view to help you. Reversed: The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment.

The picture

“A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910

Upright

He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. The card also signifies able co-operation in business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his side towards yours with a view to help you.

Waite's additional meanings: A very good card; collaboration will favour enterprise.

Reversed

The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil and disappointment.

In one line

Ships at sea: established strength and enterprise. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)

Where it sits in the deck

The Three of Wands is the third card of the suit of Wands, one of the 56 Minor Arcana. The other Threes: Three of Cups, Three of Swords, Three 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 Three 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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