6 of Wands

  • Arcana Minor
  • Suit Wands
  • Figure on this site Retreat with honor
Historical evidence

In the earliest decks

The Six of Wands belongs to the suit the Italian packs call bastoni, batons. The Latin suits (cups, coins, swords and a stick or club suit) came to Europe from Mamluk Egypt and Moorish Granada in the 1370s. In the Mamluk cards the fourth suit was polo sticks, which Europeans did not know as a sport, so it became plain clubs or batons.

Tarot itself is Italian in origin. In the numbered cards of the early Italian suits the suit sign is simply repeated: six batons arranged in a pattern, with no scene. One website describes a Visconti-Sforza Six of Staves (about 1450) in just this way, though that is a single, unverified description. The Tarot of Marseilles tradition kept the same idea, repeating the suit symbol on its pip cards, with flowers and vines filling the gaps.

The Sola Busca deck, engraved in the late 15th century (about 1490, hand-painted about 1491, probably Venice), is different: all its suit cards carry pictures. It includes a Six of Batons, but the sources consulted say nothing about what that card shows, so no link to the later Six of Wands can be claimed.

Historical evidence

The Rider-Waite-Smith card

In 1909 Pamela Colman Smith painted the Six of Wands for A. E. Waite’s deck, and, unlike the older pip cards, she gave it a scene: a rider wearing a laurel wreath on horseback, carrying a staff topped with a laurel crown, with men on foot holding staves beside him. Waite’s published description is short and names only the horseman, the laurel crown and the footmen.

Some scholars think Smith had seen photographs of the Sola Busca cards, then held by the British Museum, and drew on them for other cards; the sources consulted do not say that the Six was one of them.

Myth and literature · Quotation

Waite’s description

A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side.

Myth and literature · Context

Later meanings

The occult attributions are later additions, not part of the early Italian cards. In the Golden Dawn-based system followed by Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, the Six of Wands is called “Victory” and assigned to the second decan of Leo, ruled by Jupiter. The suit of Wands as a whole is linked to the fire signs Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, and in Crowley’s Book of Thoth to Will and fire.

Modern interpretation

As read on this site

This is the meaning used for readings here. Using the tarot to divine is a modern practice, and the Norse figure shown for each card is this site’s own association; the tarot began as an Italian card game. A short history is on the Tarot page.

Upright

Keywords: victory, public recognition, earned triumph, well-deserved success

The procession home isn't quiet — it's loud on purpose, because a real win deserves to be seen by the people who watched the effort that earned it. This card is victory, plainly: recognition arriving for work that actually merited it. If something has gone well, let it be celebrated as the win it is, rather than downplaying it out of habit or modesty.

In general: A genuine win has arrived. This is recognition you've earned, and it's allowed to be enjoyed in full.

In love: A relationship milestone or public acknowledgment that the bond is genuinely working, recognized by the people around you.

In work: Real recognition or success arriving after sustained effort. Let it be seen and credited, rather than minimized.

Reversed

Keywords: arrogance after victory, delayed recognition, ego inflation, fall from grace

A victory that goes to someone's head faster than it goes anywhere useful turns triumph into something closer to arrogance, and the people who watched the effort start watching the ego instead. This card warns against recognition curdling into self-importance, or a win that should have arrived but hasn't, with the absence of credit starting to sting more than it should.

In general: Either a win is being handled with more ego than it deserves, or a recognition that's actually earned is being unfairly delayed. Worth identifying which one this is.

In love: Pride after a relationship win tipping into one-upmanship, or recognition for something good going to someone's head rather than being shared.

In work: Success that's bred arrogance rather than gratitude, or a recognition that was earned but hasn't arrived, with the delay wearing on you more than it should.

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