Tarot symbolism: Wands and creative lifeforce
Fire - Aries, Leo, Sagittarius - Feeling Type
The Suit of Wands is related to spirituality, inspiration, strength, and expansive consciousness. When you see Wands in a reading, it’s addressing the core of your being: your personality, your ego, energy, and identity. I’m most excited to see Wands in a reading because it goes beyond the everyday mundanity to delve into a greater sense of purpose. As the element of Wands is fire, it’s passionate, wild and energetic. It also represents masculine aspects like willpower.
The element of Wands is about creative lifeforce, which reminds me of Jung’s definition of libido. Libido is the psychic energy that drives us and the creative fire that guides us towards wholeness. A magic wand is a conduit for intention, with ancient roots in humans using sticks as symbols of power.
Striving > being
Over the past six years, I have employed at least forty different tactics to improve my mental health, ranging from the most obvious like exercise and eating well, to more obscure things like daily goddess affirmations and reishi mushroom extract. My journey can be measured by self-help books, which would probably equal about 100 metres in length.
After a year of sobriety, I experienced a euphoric sense of completion and felt I had reached the end of a very long quest. Then a series of stressful events caused me to subconsciously unravel until I woke up in the middle of the night in a state of pure panic, frozen in place and feeling as though my mind was going to snap in half.
I felt betrayed by my mind and body, furious that after all my efforts I was still not “healed.” I hadn’t realised that my efforts to change my life were rooted in self-rejection and shame, and collapse was inevitable.
Waving a magic wand and having everything fixed, or transformed or exactly how you want things to be, would be fantastic. We live in a world rife with anger and anxiety and conflict. Of course, we are searching for relief.
The ego is the part of us that wants everything to be right (and also to make others wrong). We prioritise happiness and avoid sadness because we think it isn’t productive. We want to be perfect and never fall short of that (not even once). We push ourselves to perform better than we did before, anything else is failure. We only love ourselves when we are doing well.
"Life is not here to make you happy, it’s here to make you concious.”
Eckhart Tolle
Success through creation
The combination of the masculine action and creative passion of the Suit of Wands is almost triggering for me. As someone who often derives my value from completing projects, finding a happy balance between “following your bliss” and “making art” can quickly turn into an oppressive totalitarian regime.
The Suit of Wands, although masculine like Swords, approaches a creative life with a warmth and effervescent energy that can be best described as magic. It casts a spell on mundanity, turning pumpkins into carriages, showing you how your life can be transformed in seconds simply by looking from a different perspective. Perhaps you’ve woken up, pissed off and tired and would rather be involved in a minor car accident than have to go to work, and step outside the front door to find it’s actually a little warmer than you expected, and the yellow leaves on the trees are particularly bright today, and you see the great big blue sky behind it and remember you are on Earth, and that 628 million kilometers away is Jupiter’s moon which is covered in hundreds of active volcanos erupting right now, but you are here on this planet, holding your keepcup in your hands enjoying the tram ride watching life as it is right now in this moment unfold in front of you, hundreds of people living their lives that are just as important and all encompassing as yours, and yes maybe they are on their phone too much but they still have people who love them and stories that make them cry and dreams of their own, and you realise that maybe work isn’t so bad because today you have leftover pasta and you wanted to hear what happened on your coworkers date and so you sit on the tram and smile.
Chasing calm (and never finding it)
I had told myself that the word for the rest of this year was “calm”, hoping that I would be able to miraculously handle stressful transitions with ease and grace. A synchronistic podcast episode titled “Stop Chasing Calm” from Maisie Hill reminded me to prioritise connection instead.
How I feel connected to my creative lifeforce:
Therapy
Women's circles
Connecting with the present moment (away from social media) by feeling sensations in my body
Creative play: painting, drawing, dancing
Regular mindfulness practice: yin yoga and guided meditations
Morning pages (3 a5 pages of stream of consciousness writing first thing after waking up)
Morning walks through the park
Spending time with kind people
Being sober
Quality time with my partner
Patting my cat
Being silly and playing with children
These actions or choices are my magic wands. They are not activities to be formed into a to-do list (like I have made them in the past). They are centered in being, not achieving, and connect me to wholeness and purpose. What are yours?
