Notes on: Three of Wands
(Chance’s Virtue)
Artist’s Notes:
I’ve been told that every story can be summed up even beyond Joseph Campbell’s monomyth by one of two lines. “A stranger comes to town” and “Someone leaves town” and sometimes it is both. There are those who are led situationally to follow an inner call that leads them from place to place, person to person and situation to situation. He may not know what lies before him but he knows he has the creativity, intelligence, vitality and the will to keep moving forward. As long as he acts in accordance with his own being (purity), he will resolve the situation that he walks into, change what he needs to and leave again to wherever he is meant to be. Is he sane, living this life? One being’s sanity is another’s bugfug insanity and to me, it is better to ask if he is functional. The answer is assuredly yes, even hyper-functional. Most of us are so used to living according to or in reaction to society’s laws to the extent that anyone being true to themselves will seem hopelessly insane. If today’s society is any measure, then sanity may be a much-overvalued commodity.
About the Archetype:
Wands deal with force; creative, spiritual, and vital.
Threes deal with accomplishment, maturity and transmission of the energy involved.
Combining these two energies, we have spiritual energy that is ready to transmit and receive. It is an accomplished force that energizes everything surrounding it. Looking at various versions of this card I am reminded of the beginning of Kahlil Gibran’s classic book The Prophet, where a man thought to be spiritually advanced and wise has been living on an island, teaching and inspiring people for a long period and now awaits the ship that will carry him home. Before he leaves he transmits the wisdom that has come into his care to give.
Here this is shown by the central figure’s focus on both where he is going and what is left behind yet holds his affection.
Even more, this card represents a sending out of energy while staying behind and then the reception of energy. Again the idea of transmission is manifested.
Astrological Correspondent:
Sun in Aries – This energy always involves moving and sending forward. It is always moving forward inspiring other energies to do the same, no matter where in their own situation they may find themselves.
In a Reading:
In a reading, the Three of Wands talks about acting in accordance with nature both personally and in a wider sense. The path is known now all that remains is to follow it. If the person getting the reading is asking about whether a decision of theirs is the correct one in a moral sense, this card would answer with a resounding yes and that the path they are on is the correct one.
When the Three of Wands is reversed or poorly aspected, it may mean that finding the right path and deciding on goals feels unreasonably blocked. That may very well be the keynote for the reversal of the Three of Wands, a blockage of energy.
–GAR
Fate’s Whisper:
The Spark of Life in its early stages was considered to be suicide to hold. Out of a raven’s impulse, the tiger took to it immediately as it was the shiniest. At that moment it consumed him, only moments later he would come out unchanged. In fact in the words of his bias, “You can’t change what was already insane.”
This would give context that the gifts each pillar chose were nothing more than a natural extension of who they each were and how they operated. Presented with a new bigger picture it became a lesson their biases would never forget.
Just like the Pillars, we each represent something that seems much bigger than us. The gifts we hold are merely benefits of the transformations we have undergone. While some might seek these gifts for their benefit, the greater gift is when we simply use them as we please without the forced intent. So relax your gift is there all you have to do is take a breath and claim it.
–NF