What does the Knight of Wands mean?

It means going at something with everything you have. He rides a rearing horse in armor, bold and fully committed. Waite's meanings were departure, absence, flight, and a change of home. It points to chasing something decisively, a burst of energy, travel, or a person who is exciting and hard to hold on to.

Is the Knight of Wands good for love?

For passion, yes: a whirlwind romance, or someone pursuing you with obvious intent. It is exciting, and says nothing about how long it will last. Reversed it points to someone who burns hot and then disappears just as fast.

What does the Knight of Wands reversed mean?

Usually a burst of energy that does not last: an intense start followed by disappearing, or a project attacked for two weeks and dropped. It also covers recklessness with consequences, and frustration that turns into irritability. Waite's reversed meanings were a break, a split, an interruption, and discord.

What is the difference between the Page and Knight of Wands?

In Waite's descriptions, the Page stands still and announces something, while the Knight is on the move, setting out on the road. The Page has the appetite to begin. The Knight is already riding, with far less caution about where.

Knight of Wands meaning (upright & reversed)

The horse is rearing up instead of running. Its front legs are off the ground, and he is on top of it, holding on.

There is more power in this picture than direction. Behind him are mounds or pyramids: something huge, built slowly by a huge number of people. He rides past it at speed without seeming to notice.

Waite says the movement of the horse is the key to the rider. Everything about this man is headlong.

Knight of Wands upright meaning

Going at something with everything you have.

The Knight of Wands rides a rearing horse past mounds or pyramids, in armor, holding a sprouting staff. He is passion in motion: bold, magnetic, and fully committed to whatever he has decided on. Waite read him as departure: absence, flight, moving abroad, a change of home. He noted that although the Knight wears armor, he is traveling. He is not riding to war. In readings he points to chasing something decisively, a burst of energy, travel, or a person who is exciting and hard to hold on to. As advice, the card favors going at something properly instead of carefully. That helps when hesitation has been the problem. What he does not offer is stamina or judgment. The horse is rearing, and there is more power here than direction. So the card works best when the direction has already been set by something other than him.

Knight of Wands reversed meaning

Recklessness, or energy that will not last.

Reversed, the Knight of Wands either burns out or breaks something. The most common reading is a burst of energy that does not last: an intense start followed by disappearing, a project attacked for two weeks and then dropped, or a person who arrives at full speed and leaves the same way. The card is describing a pattern more than a single event, and it usually appears when the pattern has happened before. Its second reading is recklessness with consequences: acting on conviction without checking anything, a fast decision that costs someone. A third version is frustration. The energy is real but blocked, so it comes out as irritability, more than movement. That one usually eases by finding an outlet, more than by trying to calm down, since this suit does not respond well to being held back. Waite's reversed meanings were a break, a split, an interruption, and discord.

A reversal is rarely the upright card's opposite. Reversed tarot cards covers the four conditions a reversal usually describes, and how to tell which one a spread is asking for. Every card's reversed meaning sits beside its upright one on reversed tarot card meanings.

Knight of Wands in Waite's 1910 key

The meanings above are Reflecta's reading. These are the ones A. E. Waite gave in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the guide he wrote for the deck Pamela Colman Smith drew. He wrote them for fortune-telling, a use tarot took on centuries after it began as a card game in fifteenth-century Italy. Some of his words are blunt, and none of them can tell you what will happen.

Upright: Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.
Reversed: Rupture, division, interruption, discord.

Symbolism in the card

The horse rearing up: Waite says the horse's movement is the key to the rider's character: hasty and headlong. The front legs are off the ground, and the rider holds on. There is more power here than direction.
The short wand and the armor: Waite notes he wears armor and carries a short wand, but he is not riding to war. He is shown as if traveling. This is a man setting out, more than a man attacking.
The mounds or pyramids behind him: Waite says he is passing mounds or pyramids. Something huge stands in the landscape, built slowly, and he rides past it at speed without seeming to notice.

Knight of Wands in love and relationships

Upright. Passion, a whirlwind romance, or someone pursuing you with obvious intent. Exciting, and the card says nothing about how long it will last.

Reversed. Someone who burns hot and then disappears, or a relationship that moved fast and lost momentum. It can also mean your own habit of losing interest once the chase ends. Waite read a split or discord into the reversal.

Knight of Wands in career and work

Upright. Bold action, an ambitious move, or tackling a project with real energy. Waite's meanings included departure and a change of home, so it can mean a move for work. Strong when hesitation has been the problem, and weak when stamina is needed.

Reversed. Starting fast and not finishing, or a decision made without checking. It can also mean frustration at work with nowhere useful to go.

Knight of Wands in money

Upright. A bold financial move made on conviction, more than careful planning. Higher risk and higher energy, and the card is noticeably not cautious about it. It cannot weigh the risk for you.

Reversed. Impulse spending, or a financial commitment made in a burst of enthusiasm that has since vanished, leaving the payments behind.

Knight of Wands as feelings

Upright. Intensity, and pursuit. The card describes wanting something and acting on it fast. That can be flattering, and it tells you little about the following month.

Reversed. Cooling as fast as it heated up, or frustration with the situation. The intensity can be real, but intensity is different from staying power.

Is Knight of Wands a yes or a no?

Upright, it leans yes. Reversed, it leans no.

Upright it leans strongly yes, about commitment more than wisdom. It favors going all in, and accepting that the consequences will come fast. Reversed it leans no, often because the energy may not last, or because acting now could be reckless instead of bold.

Every card's leaning in one table, upright and reversed, is on yes or no tarot, along with what a maybe is asking you to do.

Knight of Wands card combinations

+ Knight of Wands and Page of Wands: The spark, and then the charge. Often a sequence, where an early interest quickly becomes full commitment, with everything that means about speed.
+ Knight of Wands and Knight of Pentacles: The fastest and slowest riders in the deck. The reading often turns on which one the situation needs, and more often it is the slow one.
+ Knight of Wands and The Chariot: Force with direction. A strong combination. The Chariot supplies the direction that this Knight does not carry on his own.
+ Knight of Wands and Ten of Wands: The charge, and the load that follows. Often a warning: taking on everything at speed can produce the heavy bundle the Ten describes.

Every pairing on this site, Knight of Wands's included, is collected on tarot card combinations.

I can go at this properly, without holding back.

Knight of Wands: common questions

What does the Knight of Wands mean?: It means going at something with everything you have. He rides a rearing horse in armor, bold and fully committed. Waite's meanings were departure, absence, flight, and a change of home. It points to chasing something decisively, a burst of energy, travel, or a person who is exciting and hard to hold on to.
Is the Knight of Wands good for love?: For passion, yes: a whirlwind romance, or someone pursuing you with obvious intent. It is exciting, and says nothing about how long it will last. Reversed it points to someone who burns hot and then disappears just as fast.
What does the Knight of Wands reversed mean?: Usually a burst of energy that does not last: an intense start followed by disappearing, or a project attacked for two weeks and dropped. It also covers recklessness with consequences, and frustration that turns into irritability. Waite's reversed meanings were a break, a split, an interruption, and discord.
What is the difference between the Page and Knight of Wands?: In Waite's descriptions, the Page stands still and announces something, while the Knight is on the move, setting out on the road. The Page has the appetite to begin. The Knight is already riding, with far less caution about where.