The Seven of Wands stands for creativity on the spiritual level of human expression. Seven of Wands upright: aspiration. Seven of Wands reversed: obsession.
On the Tree of Life, the seventh Sephirah is Netzach, the sphere of creativity, feelings, and desires. Netzach translates as victory or success, which means success in fulfilling desires.
Essentially, creativity and desiring are the same thing, they only differ in execution. Desiring is dreamlike and passive. Creativity is focussed and active.
We copy most of our desires from experiences. We see a Ferrari and we want it. We see a Gucci bag and we want it. We see fame and we want it.
The desires we copy from experiences are charged with emotions. For instance, we may want a Ferrari because we feel envious to those who have one. Or we may want a Gucci bag because it makes feel special proud. Materialistic desires lead often to frustration because they are legion and difficult and/or expensive to fulfill. Did you ever get what you wanted, and it didn’t fulfill you? Did you ever get what you wanted and the moment you got it, you didn’t want it anymore? You fell prey to the temptation of materialistic desires.
The Seven of Wands signifies the roots of desires, which are motives. Motives are abstract. When they take on a form, we get a desire. For instance, the motive to love someone can take the form of wanting a mate or having a child.
Motives originate in cosmic intention and are charged with feelings. Example: our heart’s desire. The corresponding feeling is passion.
Passion is love’s little sister. Don’t think of passion as an obsession, which is an emotion. Think of passion as active enthusiasm, like being passionate about Tarot.
Passionate souls neither mind working hard nor facing adversity. They feel challenged by adversity. That’s where the secondary meanings of courage, pleasure in labor/strenuous action, and perseverance come from.
We can’t help adding a selfish twist to motives when we turn them into desires. That’s just the way personality works — it personalizes. But remaining conscious about our motives can help to formulate desires as unselfish as possible.
An auspicious Seven of Wands calls for meaningful motives, authentic passion, and minimalistic desiring.
An inauspicious Seven of Wands may indicate a lack of passion or a selfish motive. For instance, someone may donate to charity because she wants to show off.
Seven of Wands Symbolism
The seven wands in the picture form a seven-pointed star.
The seven-pointed star symbolizes experience and practical skill, since there is no geometrical method for drawing this star.
This indicates that dealing with and mastering desires is a practical skill and a matter of experience.
The Five Psychological Core Meanings of the Seven of Wands
We derive the psychological meanings of Tarot cards from their position on the Tree of Life.
According to the Enlightenment Tarot framework, the Seven of Wands represents Netzach of Tiphareth, i.e., creativity on the intentional-spiritual level of human expression.
Every Tarot card represents a faculty or power of consciousness. We can use faculties of consciousness constructively and destructively, which produces either a fortunate or an adverse state of mind. Hence, every Tarot card has five core meanings. Here are the five core meanings of the Seven of Wands:
- Power of consciousness: Passion (to do something)
- Constructive use: Aspiration (to be something)
- Destructive use: Obsession (to have something)
- Favorable internal experience: Courage
- Adverse internal experience: Timidity
Reflective Questions
If the Seven of Wands appears in your spread, you may want to ask yourself the following questions:
- What motives are behind my current desires? Are these benevolent motives?
- Which of my current desires did I copy from experiences? Are they worth pursuing?
- Are my current motives aligned with my higher self’s intention or have they taken on a selfish twist?
- Am I true to my motives, or am I allowing external pressures to shape my desires, like social expectations, peer pressure, or the expectations of family and friends?
- What things that I own don’t I desire anymore? What about getting rid of them?
Seven OF Wands Summary
The Seven of Wands calls for authentic motives, minimalistic desiring, and turning one’s back to consumerism, showing off, and status symbols.
Where Do Tarot Card Meanings actually Come From?
The meanings of Tarot cards come from various sources. The most common are:
- The position of the Tarot cards on the Tree of Life
- Astrological correspondences (signs, planets, & houses)
- The symbolism of Tarot cards
- Intuition
- Meanings that pertain to fortune-telling
Most of the Tarot card meanings you can google are astrological correspondences and go back to the Golden Dawn and Arthur Edward Waite. Astrological meanings dominate at present because Astrology is a divination tool and favors fortune-telling. But these meanings are unsuitable for (psychological) Tarot readings.
If you are interested in an overview of the astrological correspondences, you can download a high-resolution chart by subscribing to the Enlightenment Tarot.
Tarot card meanings are a bit of a mess since the meanings that pertain to their position on the Tree of Life are mixed up with astrological correspondences, symbolic interpretations, and fortune-telling connotations. That’s tedious to memorize. Further, tarotists’ opinions, knowledge, and linguistic backgrounds shaped some of these interpretations. Last but not least, many meanings are fuzzy, contradictory, and overlap. If you want to understand why they overlap, read the article How to Deal With the Overlapping Meanings of Tarot cards.
The meanings of the Enlightenment Tarot are based on an objective, holistic framework: the Tree of Life and the four levels of human expression. The resulting meanings are transparent and logical, and hence, easier to memorize.
What do Various Tarotists Say about the Meaning of the Seven of Wands?
Let’s explore what different tarotists wrote about the Seven of Wands.
Usually, tarotists consider the astrological significances of Tarot cards. The Seven of Wands corresponds to the third decanate of Leo, ruled by the Sun and sub-ruled by Aries and Mars.
Here, we have a conjunction of rulership (Leo), vitality (the Sun), visionary pioneering (Aries), and drive/ambition (Mars). This cocktail of forces signifies a foresightful and ambitious rulership. On the negative side, this may indicate (violent) conquest. On a social scale, it corresponds to colonialism.
Creativity emanates the 27th path illustrated by the Tower/Awakening card, the 28th path illustrated by the Star/Revelation card, and the 29th path illustrated by the Moon/Evolution card.
What Paul Foster Case Said About the Meanings of the Seven of Wands
For the Seven of Wands, Paul Foster Case offers the keyword valor. Valor or courage is the inner experience that results from passion.
According to Paul, this card also denotes strength, pleasure in strenuous action, courage in the face of difficulties, and adventure. Passion turns problems into challenges. If you’re passionate about something, you don’t mind working hard. The psychological term for passion is intrinsic motivation, which leads to adventurousness, i.e., excitement in overcoming adversity.
Mind Paul uses the term strength because of the Leo connection. Leo is related to the Strength/Suggestion card.
From the Leo connection (rulership), Paul also inferred the meanings of magnanimity and influence over subordinates. An inauspicious Seven of Wands signifies determined opposition from subordinates and open enemies. The term open enemies is bit off, since open enemies are a matter of the 7th house ruled by Libra.
On the inauspicious side, the Seven of Wands may indicate danger through love affairs or self indulgence, ignorance, pretense, vain-glory, quarrels, and wrangling. These are the consequences of indulging in and losing control over one’s desires. Hence, the Seven of Wands may signify uncultivated motives.
What Arthur Edward Waite Said About the Meanings of the Seven of Wands
Arthur Edward Waite agrees this card signifies valor.
In the picture, six wands attack a man equipped with one wand. This is a nice allegory. Six is the number of self-consciousness and the ego. This means that a man equipped with the wand of passion may fight off the ego’s materialistic agenda.
Arthur wrote that on the intellectual plane, this card signifies discussion, wordy strife, negotiations, war of trade, barter, and competition. Arthur should have known better when he wrote that. This card belongs to the spiritual-intellectual level of human expression. Mentioned attributions belong to the Seven of Swords.
Arthur adds that the Seven of Wands is a card of success (Netzach = success), for the combatant is on a higher ground and his enemies may be unable to reach him. Passion is a powerful motivation that wins over lesser, materialistic desires.
An inauspicious Seven of Wands shall indicate perplexity, embarrassments, anxiety, and indecision. These result from unclear motives and lack of courage.
What Etteilla Said About the Meaning of the Seven of Wands
Etteilla, a French occultist and the first known professional tarotist, offers the meanings of negotiation and indecision.
Likely, he arrived at the meaning of negotiation by considering competing motives and desires. In a way, indecision is the opposite of negotiation, since we can only negotiate if we have a firm standpoint.
What Papus Said About the Meaning of the Seven of Wands
Papus, another French occultist and the founder of the Martinist Order, offers the meaning of certain success.
He arrived at this meaning by considering the translation of Netzach, which is victory. Likely, he added the attribution certain since we are on the spiritual-intentional level of human expression.
What Gregor Mather Said About the Meaning of the Seven of Wands
Gregor Mather, the founder of the Golden Dawn, claims that this card signifies advantage (the advantage of passion and courage), as well as success, gain, profit, and victory. The latter goes back to the meaning of Netzach, which means victory.
He offers the inauspicious meanings of indecision, doubt, hesitation, anxiety, and embarrassment. hese are the consequences of a lack of passion and courage.
Embarrassment is an emotional reaction to social exposure, in particular, exposed failure (failure is the opposite of success).
What Mme. Le Marchand Said About the Meaning of the Seven of Wands
Mme. Le Marchand, a 19th century, celebrated Parisian fortune teller, said that the Seven of Wands signifies a secret passion, which the querent will overcome after a struggle of fourteen days.
The meaning of passion is spot on. It is unclear why Mma. Le Marchand thinks the querent should overcome her passion. Maybe she meant a socially unacceptable passion. The fourteen days pertain to fortune telling.
The Psychological Framework of the Enlightenment Tarot
Every Tarot card represents a faculty of consciousness. We can use a faculty of consciousness constructively and destructively. This produces favorable and adverse experiences.
We can express faculties of consciousness on four levels:
- The spiritual level (wands/fire/intention)
- The creative-feely level (cups/water/imagination)
- The intellectual level (swords/air/intelligence)
- The bodily level (pentacles/earth/bodily action)
The four tools on the magician’s table symbolize these four levels:
- The wand (spiritual)
- The cup (creative-feely)
- The sword (intellectual)
- The pentagram (bodily)
These tools correspond to the four so-called elements: fire, water, air, and earth.
For this reason, the Enlightenment Tarot wands are made of fire, the cups consist of water, and the pents are composed of earth. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to illustrate something made of air, since air is invisible. For that reason, all swords are made of crystal to show at least transparency.
The Enlightenment Tarot derives its meaning from the Tree of Life and the four levels of human expression. This is an objective, holistic framework that reveals the psychological imports of Tarot cards and their faculties of consciousness. Read more about this framework in the article The Psychological Framework of the Enlightenment Tarot.
The Enlightenment Tarot project attempts to rediscover the original meanings of the Tarot cards that pertain to their position on the Tree of Life. These meanings are simple, clear, and easy to memorize.
*This framework is compatible with Paul Foster Case’s qabalistic system.
Do you want to Learn more About The Enlightenment Tarot?
If you want to delve deep into the psychological meanings of Tarot cards, read the book Tarot of Life.
If you are curious about how the Enlightenment Tarot came about, read this article.
If you are interested in learning how to perform psychological Tarot readings, subscribe to receive a free copy of a guide on how to perform psychological Tarot readings.
If you are looking for a psychological Tarot deck, you came to the right place. The Enlightenment Tarot derives the cards’ meanings from a holistic and transparent framework that is easy to learn and memorize. All major and minor arcana carry psychological titles, and the court cards display psychological profiles. Have a look at the Enlightenment Tarot deck here.
#Seven of Wands #Seven of Wands meaning #Seven of Wands Tarot interpretation #Seven of Wands upright #Seven of Wands reversed #Seven of Wands symbolism #Seven of Wands spiritual significance #Seven of Wands in Tarot spreads #Seven of Wands energy and inspiration