Three of Wands

Three of Batons ("bastos") from a Spanish deck

The Three of Wands, or Three of Batons, is a playing card of the suit of wands. In tarot, it is a Minor Arcana card.

Three of Wands from the Rider–Waite tarot deck

Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games.[1] In English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, tarot cards came to be utilized primarily for divinatory purposes.[1][2]

Divination usage

A calm onlooker facing towards the sea. There's a possibility that he is a merchant or looking forward to a journey. The three represents creation – looking forward to something with optimism – a mission. This card symbolizes enterprise, trade, or commerce.

Keynotes: achievement – venture – traveling – pursuing a journey

If the card is reversed, it means the end of a task, toil, a cessation, and disappointment.

Key meanings

The key meanings of the Three of Wands:[3]

• Achievement
• Fresh starts
• Long-term success
• Partnerships
• Trade

In popular culture

In the 1922 poem The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot associates The Man with Three Staves with the Fisher King, "quite arbitrarily".[4]

References

1. Dummett, Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot. Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd. ISBN 0-7156-1014-7.
2. Huson, Paul (2004). Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage. Vermont: Destiny Books. ISBN 0-89281-190-0.
3. Trusted Tarot (2010) Three of Wands
4. "Eliot, T. S. 1922. The Waste Land". www.bartleby.com. Retrieved 2020-01-01.