Wands and Swords.

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 19 Sep 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Angeline	19 Sep 2002
I am wondering if anyone could help me in my distinction between wands and swords... I'm currently working through the excercises in J Bunnings Learning the Tarot and in excersise 3.1 I found I mixed up wands and swords for quite a few of the answers....I am wondering if this way of learning the cards is right for me?? I do have feeling when I look at the cards yet they don't often seem to match her suggestions of card meanings. I appreciate that her card deffinitions(for want of a better word) are not gospel...but it is so easy to feel wrong when so new. Should I try to get the feel for suits? Or just get the feel for each card ?? Angeline

MystiqueMoonlight	19 Sep 2002
Individual interpretations for cards is fine, but in my experience I find it is best to use it as a "loose" guide. If you have a unique feeling with regard to a particular card no matter whether it is a suit, Major or Court card then I suggest you note that in your Tarot diary and go with it. The cards really should be an inspiration to your intuition. They are not necessarily a dictionary with set meanings which everyone in world knows and uses.

Mojo	19 Sep 2002
I'm a proponent of just reading the images on each individual card. I don't get bogged down in the meanings of the suits, or the elemental or astrological associations with them. Occassionally the suit will come into play, particularly if there are a lot of one suit or another in the spread. Wands and Swords are confusing to a lot of readers. Both of them are action suits. Swords have dual meanings, and you can remember that by looking at a sword - it has two cutting edges. Think about how you would use a sword. It's not like a gun where you can just pick it up and hurt someone with it. You have to draw it back, gauge how hard and in what direction you are going to swing it, and then you follow through. If you try to have action without thought, the sword becomes just as dangerous to you as to your enemy. So to me, swords are about what you do and why you do it. A combination of thought and action. Wands, on the other hand, have a wide variety of uses. They can be a source of fire, or you could build things with them, or you could use them as weapons, or for any of a wide variety of other uses. So to me, this makes Wands about how you do things. I always teach my students to use the images as their guide. To me, that makes tarot so much more personal.

Angeline	19 Sep 2002
Thanks for such quick replies ......you have made me feel much better. And Mojo thanks for the tip on how to look at the cards...it makes so much sense once someone points it out! Angeline

The Wands and Swords. thread was originally posted on 19 Sep 2002 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.