Knight of Wands

The Knight of Wands is action at full speed with the details unread.

Charismatic, impulsive, magnetic and genuinely brave, and not somebody to rely on for the long middle of anything.

Golden Dawn made him fire of fire, the most volatile figure in the entire seventy-eight. The horse is rearing, the visor is up, and he is leaning forward into it. The horse is not under full control and neither of them minds.

Bold, decisive movement. Passion, adventure, charging at it.

Excellent when speed matters more than precision, which is a real category of situation and one where deliberation is the expensive option. Travel and relocation are common literal readings.

As a person he is exciting to be around and the thing he is best at is starting, which is genuinely valuable and is not the same as being able to finish.

Recklessness, arrogance, burning out. Starting hard and leaving.

Or the energy blocked: frustration with no outlet, which is this figure's worst state because the volume does not reduce when the direction disappears.

The reading worth watching is the pattern rather than the instance. One abandoned venture is a decision; four is a description.

Passionate, fast, exciting, unreliable. Great chemistry, unclear commitment.

The card is honest about the trade rather than disapproving of it. What is on offer is intensity, and intensity is real; what is not on offer is a guarantee that it will still be here in six months.

Reversed, somebody who pursues intensely then vanishes. The tradition treats this as characteristic rather than cruel, and the useful point is that the pursuit was sincere at the time, which is exactly what makes the disappearance so confusing to be on the end of.

As somebody's feelings, it reads as hot, immediate and undirected at anything long-term. Take it at face value rather than as a promise.

A high-energy push, a bold move, a risk taken.

He is the person you want to launch something and the wrong person to run it. Sagittarius gives it distance and scope, so relocation, travel and international work come up literally.

Reversed, a project charged into without planning and abandoned mid-way, which is the standing risk and is best managed by pairing him with somebody from Pentacles rather than by asking him to slow down.

Impulsive financial decisions. High risk, occasionally high reward, and not to be counted on.

The card is not against risk; it is against unexamined risk taken at speed because the opportunity was exciting.

Its only useful discipline is size. Risk what its loss would not change, which is advice this figure can follow and the advice to slow down is not.

Passion as a legitimate path, and both the value and the limit of intensity.

Every tradition has room for the person who arrives at full speed, and every tradition also notices that intensity alone does not sustain a practice past the first difficult year.

Associated with conversion experiences and with fervour, and with the observation that what begins in fire usually needs something slower underneath it to survive.

High energy, athleticism, and injury from going too hard. Sagittarius rules the hips and thighs in the traditional correspondence.

Read as reflection rather than diagnosis, the card describes a body used hard and enjoyed, with the characteristic risk being the acute injury rather than the slow decline.

Its counsel is unwelcome and consistent: warm up, and stop at the point where it starts hurting rather than at the point where you have to. An injury already sustained belongs with a physiotherapist rather than being trained through.

A knight in salamander-embroidered armour on a rearing horse, visor up, leaning forward. The horse is not under full control and neither of them minds.

Golden Dawn assigned the Knights the fiery part of their element, making the Knight of Wands fire-of-fire: the most volatile figure in the entire seventy-eight.