Prince of Wands

The Knight of Wands is fire on the move. Think of bold, restless action: setting out, changing course, leaving one thing for the next with charm and confidence and very little luggage. It usually means a burst of energy, a journey or a move, and an eagerness that is hard to resist and hard to hold in one place.

Act on what excites you and to bring your whole self to it. The card favours courage over caution and momentum over deliberation. But its energy runs on novelty, so the question it raises is whether you’ll still be there when the first excitement fades. Go boldly, tell people what you’re doing, and decide in advance what finishing would look like.

Reversed, the fire either burns out or burns everything nearby. You may be rushing in without a plan, picking fights for the thrill, or leaving things half done to chase the next idea. Or the energy has nowhere to go: a trip cancelled, plans on hold, a drive with no outlet. Look at what you’re running from or toward. Slow down enough to finish one thing, and tell the people you’re leaving what to expect.

Charm can be a way to leave. Leaving feels like freedom, so commitments are always the thing to escape, and the people who stay behind sweep up. Boasting grows to cover the gaps, and the next adventure is picked partly to avoid looking at the last one.

Sudden and brisk: a rush of movement that comes and goes quickly. Its span runs from late Cancer into Leo, about 12 July to 12 August.

Someone who acts first and explains later: an adventurer, a charming newcomer, a restless colleague, a friend who’s always off somewhere, or you when you’ve decided to go. They’re confident, funny, impatient and hard to pin down. They start things with an energy that carries others along. Brave and generous, they’re first through the door. They may also overpromise, lose interest, or leave before the hard part.

The Knight is the Page’s idea put into motion. Where the Page found a spark, the Knight sets out with it, at speed and without much of a map. The Queen follows and gives the same fire a home, with warmth and presence.

The Golden Dawn makes this card Air of Fire, the Prince of the Chariot of Fire: fire spreading on the wind. It sits on Tiphareth, the sphere of the sun at the centre of the Tree of Life. Its span runs from Moon in Cancer through Saturn in Leo and Jupiter in Leo: a moody beginning, a stern middle and a generous finish.

Today, act on an impulse that does no harm: take the new route, start the conversation, say yes to the invitation. Move fast, but tell one person where you’re going. Decide now what you’ll do when the first rush wears off, so the energy has somewhere to land.