Tarot of the Cat People: Ace of Wands

The card depicts a cat that levitates in the middle of fire unharmed, and a woman with a wand in her hand. The wand emits light*, it looks like there are two spheres of light surrounding its end. The spheres look a bit like the rings in stylized drawings of radio and television antennas. The woman looks at the cat and raises her arm towards it. The head of the cat is towards the woman although I am not sure where the cat looks.

A popular way to interpret the aces is to associate them with the pure essence of the suit. I share this view. However, I didn't like the standard suit interpretations that I read about, so I developed my own. The thing that is happening in the card is communication. The eye contact, woman's arm and the wand "antenna" seem to refer to it. But you must have some message to communicate. To me, the wands represent ideas, opinions and ideologies, which are present in the card, although not explicitly shown. The flames shine brightly, everything is bright and pure, not muddled. Many wands in the suit have spheres of light around their ends, but the wand in this card has the biggest spheres.

* According to the LWB, a wand can be used as a lantern. See Nine of Wands.

oooh - goodee, we've started. Thanks Tristram Shandy. My reply will have to be a bit later because our time differences are so huge and I have to go study my card. It may be another 24 hours before I can respond - but I'm with you.

This card always makes me think of a magic trick. The fiery light doesn't seem to hurt the cat. And the cat is orange, pretty close of the color of the fiery light.

From the book, the wands are associated with the emerald kingdom. The inhabitant are the sand people and they lived in domed oasis in the desert. For the ace of wand, it say that the woman is a shaman. So I guess she is in a trance and that she is in the middle of an important ritual. Maybe she consult the cat for a new project she have.

Hi all.
The Ace of Wands, to me, means the start of a new project.
I see a bubbling cauldron, and it’s a bit like cooking a new recipe, sort of throwing all the raw ingredients into a pot and waiting for them to transform into something else, a finished product. There is a lot of green in the card, and to me this signifies patience and calm are needed, but the oranges and yellows signify that perhaps this is lacking – a bit like more haste less speed.

I am used to Wands representing fire, but I see in the LWB that Wands is for the Emerald Kingdom - the Sand People, who are conservative but creative. Swords - the Ruby People - seem to have the element of fire.
The wands seem to be more lanterns than firebrands. In the Ace, the shaman is conjuring forth the completely formed firecat (I shall never be able to look at this card without thinking of Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat!) which appears to be born from heat and fire. For me aces are beginnings - the creative essence, the ideas from which the next couple of cards in the suit get their form and continuation.
I find the minor arcana in this deck difficult to interpret, but this is one card which gives the immediate impression of what it could mean.
I like Tristram Shandy's interpretation of the wand as being communication rather than just light - the two haloes definitely could be interpreted this way, and it will be interesting to see the other cards in the suit which also have haloes. If Swords in this deck are fire, and wands are air - that could add even more to this interpretation of the wands as being instruments of communication (through the air / ether) rather than just light. Does Karen Kuykendall's book have any information on this aspect?

My deck and book came!

My immediate impression of this card is transformation. The standing figure is transforming the cat in some way, something new from old rather than starting from scratch.
Rethink what you are doing, get rid of what isn't working, build on what is so you aren't reinventing the wheel.

Her outstretched hand is curved as though stroking and comforting, as opposed to rigidly pointing and commanding.

The glow from the scepter/wand throws light on what is to come.