King of Wands

  • Arcana Minor
  • Suit Wands
  • Figure on this site The warlord
Historical evidence

In the earliest decks

The suit now called Wands is Batons (bastoni) in Italian, one of the four Latin suits, with cups, coins and swords. The King is the highest of its four court cards. The ranks in the Tarot de Marseille are Valet (Knave or Page), Knight, Queen and King, which the French call the honours.

Among the oldest surviving tarot cards is the Visconti-Sforza deck, painted in Milan around 1450 by the workshop of Bonifacio Bembo. Its King of Batons is in the Morgan Library in New York (MS M.630, no. 19). He is described as a crowned king seated with his legs crossed, holding a sceptre in one hand and a staff in the other, with an eagle on his robe.

In the Marseille tradition, which survives in cards from the 17th century onward, the baton suit is not illustrated with scenes. Its numbered cards show crossing straight batons.

The Sola Busca deck, a complete 78-card set from the late 15th century now in Milan, is different. Its King of Batons carries the label “Levio Plauto R.”, which is thought to be a garbled form of the Roman name Rubellius Plautus.

Historical evidence

The Rider-Waite-Smith card

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck, drawn by Pamela Colman Smith for A. E. Waite and published in 1909, gave every suit card its own scene. Photographs of the late 15th-century Sola Busca deck were given to the British Museum in 1907, and some scholars think Smith drew on that deck for her minor cards. This is a suggestion about the deck as a whole, not a claim about this King.

Waite’s own description of the King of Wands is short: a flowering wand, a cap of maintenance beneath the crown, and a lion on the back of the throne. Waite also notes that the other kings of the deck wear the same kind of cap.

Myth and literature · Quotation

Waite’s description

The King uplifts a flowering wand, and wears, like his three correspondences in the remaining suits, what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown. He connects with the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back of his throne.

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: decisive command, strategic mastery, unflinching leadership, earned authority

The warlord commands with total clarity, decisions made and held without flinching, strategy executed without second-guessing. This is the energy of someone who has earned the right to be decisive because they've thought it through fully before the moment arrived. If you're in command of something right now, lead the way the warlord does: clearly, and without apology for the clarity.

In general: Clear, confident command is called for. Indecision here would cost more than a wrong call made with conviction.

In love: Taking clear ownership of a decision that affects the relationship, rather than leaving it ambiguous or shared in name only.

In work: Leading with full strategic clarity, making the hard call and standing behind it without hedging.

Reversed

Keywords: domination, control for its own sake, authoritarianism, command without purpose

Command curdled into domination for its own sake stops being about the mission and starts being about the commander. The reversed warlord wants obedience more than outcomes, and that's a tell worth noticing whether you're the one in charge or the one being led. Strategy serves a purpose beyond itself; when it stops doing that, it's just control.

In general: Authority here has detached from its actual purpose and started serving itself. Worth questioning what the command is actually for.

In love: Asserting control in a relationship that's less about the relationship's wellbeing and more about maintaining the upper hand.

In work: Leadership that's become about maintaining power rather than achieving the goal the power was supposed to serve.

Unsure whether this card represents a person or an approach? Read our guide to tarot court cards.

Draw a card for a reading · How to read cards together · Reversed cards