Three of Wands

The Three of Wands, or Three of Batons, is a playing card of the suit of wands. In tarot, it is a Minor Arcana card.

Three of Wands from the Rider–Waite tarot deck

Three of Batons ("bastos") from a Spanish deck

Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games.^[1] In English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, tarot cards came to be utilized primarily for divinatory purposes.^[1][2]

Divination usage

A calm onlooker faces the sea, possibly a merchant or someone anticipating a journey. The three represents creation and optimism—looking ahead to a mission. The card symbolizes enterprise, trade, or commerce.

Keynotes : achievement – venture – travel – pursuing a journey.

If reversed, it suggests completion, hard work ending, or disappointment.

Key meanings

The key meanings of the Three of Wands:^[3]

• Achievement
• Fresh starts
• Long-term success
• Partnerships
• Trade

In popular culture

In the 1922 poem The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot associates The Man with Three Staves with the Fisher King, "quite arbitrarily".^[4]