Six Of Wands

one
the first step of a thousand miles
two
the open roads before me
three
I am rising
four
I am stooping under the sun
five
the climb is steep, and I am tired
six
and I am here.


The Six of Wands is suspiciously benign. It is victory, and it is celebration of victory; it is a triumph parade after a long, deliberate effort. The Six of Wands never comes from nowhere, and is rarely a surprise. The Six of Wands says you earned this. On the other hand, it says and now you have to live up to it, which is perhaps why the Wands get so complicated from here on up.

Conway's image has, as far as I know, only one commonality with most Sixes of Wands; it's daylight. Her figure (seemingly naked, possibly male) has climbed his steep curve, and now raises merry arms to the sun. But I am a dawnwatcher, and I think the sun in the image looks like a setting sun.

The Six of Wands tells you to raise your hands and celebrate the ways that your dreams and ideas have come about, but it advises against resting on your laurels; a reversed card may be doing just that, though I'd be more inclined to read a reversal as meaning a failure to celebrate what you have done. Celebration is a moment in every soul, and it is not wrong to bring it to the surface. That said, go read verse 31 of the Tao Te Ching; its message, that war ends with a funeral, not with triumph, was recently echoed by Our Crucial Pamphlet from Penny Arcade.


Images of the Six of Wands:

The Dragon Tarot has the first Six of Wands I fell for; a black letter V, and a diamond beneath it. In my head this card will always be linked to - owned by, part of - Gaiety, the Knight of Wands.

In the Osho Zen, Success is a man astride a tiger, walking over the world.

The Roots of Asia also has a great cat, resting in the shade - this card suggests a Six in territorial victory.