I was thrilled when Llewellyn asked me to contribute to their tarot blog. This article is a repost. Please find the original posting here: Llewellyn Tarot Blog.
Happy Spring!
“I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees.”
Pablo Neruda
Neruda’s erotically charged words perfectly describe what happens within the Ace of Wands, don’t they? Especially the RWS Ace of Wands. The ace is literally shuddering, shedding its leaves in excitement. The wand throbs with fire and passion, blooming like a woman in the throws of lust and abandon, pushed to her limits, filled by her lover.
This is the absolute essence the entire suit of Wands.
Spring wakes everything up, it pokes and nudges us. We feel it it the very recess of our bones as we find the sun, shed heavy winter clothing and bask in lingering twilight evenings. We notice the purple shock of a blooming flower, warm breezes tickle our skin, farmer’s markets buzz with excitement as early asparagus and sweet peas appear. Can we align our decks and our souls with the tremblings of Spring? Can we milk fire’s magic out of a tarot deck? Out of ourselves? I think we can.
The shift of seasons are important, they keep us in touch with nature’s rhythms and remind us we are part of nature, not separate from it. Various schools assign different tarot suits to the seasons. But Wands and the element of fire are the power that germinates a seed to sprout. Wands are the voltage of true magic, the currents dividing the pentacle-like cells in within your body. Wands, like spring, wake us up. But more importantly, they move us to action. Wands gets things accomplished.
It is important to differentiate between the desire reverberating inside Wands and the fluid emotion spilling out of Cups. They should not be confused. Desire and love intertwine like vines of woven wisteria and honeysuckle. But they are two distinctly different things. Desire requires action while love requires feeling. Love moves mountains but it can also be a passive experience. Desire and the suit of Wands always carry a physical, visible side effect. The spark of flirtation that brings people together. A flash of passion moving a person or crowd to action. The fire ignited when injustice is witnessed or experienced. And the element of longing, that sweet ache, painful deliciousness, toe curling, never satisfying, deep in your bones longing comes straight from Wands.
Become a consort to spring as it surrenders itself. Feel yourself melting and sliding into summer. Grasp the Wands of desire in your hands. Find what makes you quiver and embrace it every day. Give readings to lovers, then embrace your own infatuations. Toss imaginary tarot cards at everyone you pass. Cook a meal like it’s the last one you’ll ever eat. Dig up the garden just to smell the dirt on your skin. Find an old tarot deck and bury your favorite card to see what blossoms. Cast cards in the moonlight and charge your deck by day in the sun. Call forth the fireflies and take destiny into your own hands. Feel fortune rolling in your palm, throw it toward the stars. Let them shower back over you reflecting your own brilliance.
Spring clean with your deck, pull a card for each room. Dust off your Magician wand, polish the Hermit’s lantern and light a candle inside, fasten baskets of flowers to your porch like the Hanged Man, dip into Temperance’s pond, drive to work like the Chariot, be as brazen as Death and cavort with the Devil.
The torchlight of Wands helps me to see perfectly inside of you. I’m looking right now. You are beautiful. I see infinite winding roads, dark caverns waiting to be filled, and pages of life ready to be written. Just like spring, you’ve only just begun. And no one, not even I, know what you have in store.
So, on languid spring nights, when no one is watching and you sit alone, shuffle your cards. Let the Wands of tarot light a fire inside of you. Most importantly, let them spark you towards those untraveled places inside yourself.
Let Wands illuminate and warm you from within so as summer arrives, you’ll drip with magic, weave effortless enchantment and conjure your heart and bodily desire.
Cast your cards wisely…
Sasha Graham's Tarot Diva Blog 