light and shadow - ace of wands

Is it nice to start with the minors, the aces, since they're cards for new things and this is a new thing, and wands come first in the book.

The first thing I see are the flowers, the plants - the lushness of it all. And the zigzag lines of coiled energy, something fierce waiting to happen, something growing. In this deck, the Wands are Fire, and I guess, summer, when everything grows, so I guess I associate this card with a time of lush and rapid growth - but the negative side of that is something like the way that baby plants can't grow big if they're choked out, and then the fire that comes and makes room and chars the seeds, opens them up so that they can grow. Then this card of epitomizes the cycle of the forest - growth, stagnation, fire, renewal?

Does anyone know what the thing in the bottom right corner is? It sort of looks like it might be some kind of sleek cat or sleeping animal. It might just be a shadowy hill. It stands out because of the smoothness of the shape - everything else is all lines and points.

I tried to find a little bit about what the palm tree symbolizes, and <a href="http://www.snant.com/fp/archives/palm-tree-symbolism/">this link</a> was helpful. Talks about how West African cultures see the palm tree as a symbol of "the union between heaven and earth and the interaction between the two," of the power of heaven entering earth...

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from the accompanying book by Brian Williams:

"The Ace of Wands is a mighty club made of interacting, interweaving elements, a fabric of organized chaos. It stands like an immemorial totem, a powerful source of stories and authority...." (100)

Also "fire commands consuming violence, true, but it also prompts renewal and richness.... the Ace of Wands signals the arrival of powerful forces associated with Fire: comforting warmth or scorching heat, revealing light or blinding glare.... triumph, success, transformation." (100-101)

In the book it also likens the three flowers to "the three pillars of legend" and I have no idea what that means (although it recalls the staff of Moses in the previous sentence). I'm trying to think more of the power of staves as well...

book

Is my book the only faulty one? After the introduction, pages 5-20 are missing! The first chapter after the introduction is "5. The Hierophant", the first Four Major Arcana are missing! ah well.........nothing is perfect.

Regarding that object in the lower right corner, I first thought it to be an animal, but on second look it looks like a path way to a hill in the distance. Don't know for sure. BB, Michael

To me the object looks like a river of lava running out of the volcano in the distance and coming toward us with could give a link to the element fire and also a link to Moses as I recall reading somewhere that the mountain with the burning bush could have been a volcano.

lava

I like that interpretation of lava. It surely fits the theme of the card. Thanks! BB, Michael

tarobones said:

I like that interpretation of lava. It surely fits the theme of the card. Thanks! BB, Michael

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So do I !
the lava has also 2 facets a negative -burning and distroiing everything on its path with its fiery energy /thats when the energy of the avce is to strong unchanneled but there are also trees that need from time to time a volcanic erruption to survive - and a positive one its cooled down its starting with a clean slate and on very fertile ground full of nutrients

Originally posted by cyclamen:
In the book it also likens the three flowers to "the three pillars of legend"

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He could be referring to the three pillars on the Quabalistic 'Tree of Life'. One being yang/masculine, one being neutral, and the third being ying/feminine.

This card makes me think of the equatorial forest, where everything grows so fast, so abundantly that it tangles - yet never strangles. "Organised chaos" is a good way to put it. I see leaves, flowers, lianas, several varieties. I see snakes & vegetation all around. I smell humus but also sap. I feel vapour. It is a tremendously vital card.

The volcanoes in the distance fit in well with the equatorial forest image. In the forests of Eastern Congo - where you find gorillas - you have several vocanoes. They are dangerous - remember the recent destruction of Goma - but they also fertilise the earth & the Congolese & Rwandese peasants that live in their shadow depend them...even as they fear them.

This Ace of Wands also reminds me of a tree that was in my garden in Zimbabwe. It was a baobab, but on it grew so many other plants, that it looked like ten trees in one. It grew passion fruit & berries, & some other fruit which I had never even heard of (delicious). It was a setting for at least three varieties of flowers, lianas hung from it. It twisted & thrust with such vigour!

All aces are aspects of the Magician - and in the Magician I see some of that organised chaos - the thrusting, creative impulse that hasn't been quite channelled yet.

the Image

Thought I'd post the image in case somebody wanted to see it. BB, Michael

Yes, that's it.

Goldenhair said:

He could be referring to the three pillars on the Quabalistic 'Tree of Life'. One being yang/masculine, one being neutral, and the third being ying/feminine.

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The reference as you point out.

Lava - Hawaii

la-luna said:

To me the object looks like a river of lava running out of the volcano in the distance and coming toward us with could give a link to the element fire and also a link to Moses as I recall reading somewhere that the mountain with the burning bush could have been a volcano.

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Lava is a great insight. The card has a Hawaiian feel to it. M.G. also read and studied about Huna traditions and so this is a perfectly appropriate reading of the image.