~ Discovering the Wild Unknown: Daughter of Wands ~
Today’s card draw in the Discovering the Wild Unknown series is the Daughter of Wands.
I want to start off by providing an important notice, which will be included in all of this series. However, other things that will be included that you can skip to are:
- Card Description
- Considering the Card, where I look at how I would interpret certain imagery used
- Traditional Rider-Waite definition
I only include the latter as a comparison, to show how wandering down your own understanding of images and symbols can bring you to a similar meaning, though along a different path with different experiences. This is to help expand knowledge of the card.
I will not, however, be including the definitions from the guidebook, as that is not the point of this. Also, I don’t have rights to that material.
Important Note
I started this series because I had read that people struggled with the deck purely because the definitions in the Little White Book were very Rider-Waite-based, and that there wasn’t much wisdom regarding the animals and symbolism chosen.
This series is to help you to decipher the meanings yourselves. I am by no means saying what I have to say about the cards are correct for anyone outside myself. However, I am providing my daily journal entries regarding the deck to act as a guide so that you can begin your own journey.
When I started tarot, I had no idea what to write in my journal, and thus didn’t. Instead I obsessively read and re-read the Little White Book belonging to the Spiral Tarot (which is why today I can completely quote the book). I didn’t trust myself to know the cards, even when I could recite the definitions. I was afraid to put the book down.
To this fear of lack of knowledge, Kim Krans, creator of The Wild Unknown, writes:
You do know enough. You’ve been a person on earth every day since you were born. You’ve experienced all the emotions and situations these cards depict. Quiet the naysayer…don’t let it prevent you from sitting down with a friend (or yourself) and using these cards to help talk about what’s going on in your life. It will be positive. It will be radical. You’ll find things start to reveal themselves through the cards that have been hidden away, covered with dust.
pp. 10-11 The Wild Unknown Guidebook
Description of the Wild Unknown Daughter of Wands
The Wild Unknown Daughter of Wands shows an orange, thin, delicate snake forming a figure eight around a wand. The wand itself is white and without much detail in it. Though where off shoots of branches are, it blooms redish pink flowers. There are seven flowers in total.
Traditional Card Meaning
Traditionally, the Daughter of Wands is known as the Page or Princess of Wands. This card is almost like the personification of the Ace of Wands. It is the first experience of someone picking up the Wand and wondering just what it is and how to use it. There is curiosity about it, wonder, and excitement.
This energy is caught up in the wands, as is the noviceness of the Page. The Page is generally seen a s youth, someone who gets excited quite easily as well. However, this doesn’t necessarily denote youth in age, but rather, a novice in a new career or creative project.
The Wands are the element of Fire, and correspond to passion, creativity, which can also correlate to career. The Pages correspond to Air, which is communication and thought. The Air is being applied to the Fire which can feed it, making it bigger. There is a lot of excitement in this card. Likewise, too much Air can extinguish it. Thus, thought and communication applied to passion and creativity can get the ball rolling on any new project. However, overthinking and saying the wrong thing might kill it altogether.
What I derive from the Wild Unknown Daughter of Wands
Corn snakes are beautiful, delicate creatures, and when they’re young, are nimble and spindly. The smallness of the Daughter of Wands’ head, the way her tail curls, implies this youth. They’re harmless snakes, which is why they always make great pets. The Daughter of Wands is harmlessly playing with the Wand that she’s wrapped around. It’s almost as if she doesn’t really know what it is, but just likes the way it feels on her scales and that it blooms.
The blossoms are representative of creative forces, as are any blooming in the tarot. The blankness of the stick itself makes me think that things have yet to be created with it. So far, it is just a tool under consideration for action. She knows that she likes this tool, she wants to use this tool, but is just figuring out how to do so.
The figure eight generally represents infinity, or timelessness. I think this is a reminder that we always have untapped potential and creativity, we just need to know how to access it.
About the Deck
The Wild Unknown Tarot is a 2016 Harper One publication, created by Kim Krans. The deck is widely available at most bookstores who carry Tarot cards, but also on Amazon. Kim Krans always wrote The Wild Unknown Guidebook.
