Knight of Wands

The Knight of Wands is Fire of Fire — the suit's energy at its most concentrated and volatile — and the card accordingly describes action, daring, and a quality of passionate pursuit that is magnificent in its momentum and occasionally heedless in its direction. Traditionally he is the adventurer, the charmer, the person who throws themselves into things completely and trusts that speed will compensate for what planning lacks. He brings movement and excitement wherever he goes; he also has a tendency to move on once the fire of a new thing has settled into the work of sustaining it. As a card of events, he signals rapid change and bold initiative; as a character study, he is someone whose enthusiasm is real but whose follow-through rewards watching.

Imagery

Commonly depicted as an armored figure on a rearing horse, charging forward with a staff held aloft, the horse and rider both full of visible energy and forward momentum. Salamander motifs traditionally appear on the armor or cape, and the landscape is often barren or volcanic — a fitting setting for this amount of fire.

Reversed

Fire without aim — recklessness, frustration, or grand intentions that never gallop anywhere.

Reversed, the Knight of Wands describes the suit's volatile fire tipping into its excesses. The headlong momentum becomes recklessness — action without thought, a charge in the wrong direction, the charm curdling into temper when things do not move as fast as the will demands. Fire of Fire, inverted, burns hot and badly. The reversal can also describe the opposite: fire that is all talk and no movement, grand intentions and passionate declarations that never translate into anything done, a frustration that builds because the energy has nowhere to go. Traditionally the card reversed appears where impulsiveness is causing damage, where a project is stalling for want of follow-through, or where someone's enthusiasm has soured into anger or unreliability. Its counsel is to aim before galloping, and to sustain past the first flush of excitement.