Eight of Wands
This is a learning resource. It shows you what this card meant originally, in the words of Arthur Waite, who created the deck in 1909 with the artist Pamela Colman Smith.
Card shown is from the original 1909 printing illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, now in the public domain.
Before You Look
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The Original Meaning
Ask yourself. How close were you? Where did your meaning come from? Was it a book, a video, or the card itself?
Download this card as a PDFPlease Note
I am showing you Arthur Edward Waite's meaning to help you understand why this card exists in the deck and what it was intended for. Waite and the artist Pamela Colman Smith both belonged to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a society that studied the tarot as part of its teaching. Waite wrote that the cards held a higher meaning than fortune telling.
Please bear in mind that reading a card is different. When we read, we go to the thing we are most drawn to on the card. We read it for what lives in that moment, for that person and that question.
Imagine Jane, John and Louise each came to you for a reading. They asked three different questions, and you pulled this same card for each of them. Would you give all three the same meaning?
Want To Know What It Means?
When you break a card down, you go with the thing you are drawn to. Want to know what that thing means? Start here.
Learn to read the card itselfEverything here, including the Clear Cut Tarot Method, remains the property of Soriah School of Tarot.