The King of Wands | The Power of Tarot’s Bridge Card

Published by Alison Cross on

Last week I wrote about the King of Wands and how A E Waite saw this card as the stepping stone from the glory of the Major Arcana to the mundanity of the Minor Arcana.  
Today I thought I’d expand on this and show you how I am using The King of Wands card as a result of reading Waite’s insight.
Let’s see how powerful he really is!
First, procure your
deck’s King of Wands card.

Split your deck into
two bundles – one for the Major Arcana and the other for the Minor
Arcana and shuffle each bundle well.
Ask your King of Wands
card to guide you to the most significant Major that you need in
order to make progress (in your issue, towards your goal, whatever it
is that you are looking for help with).
Place your King in the
Major Arcana bundle and shuffle, all the while keeping your question
for him at the forefront of your mind. 
When you are content to stop
shuffling, take your Major Arcana bundle, face down, and lay down
each card in turn, as if you were playing snap or something. When
you turn the King of Wands, you are paying attention to the NEXT card
that you turn over – this is the Major that will help you.
Do the same with the
Minor bundle and your King of Wands card. Again, you are looking for
the card that follows the King of Wands as you turn over each card in
the bundle.
You now have two cards
– a Major and a Minor. These have been linked by the King of
Wands.
How can reading these
two cards together help you with your issue?
Here’s a worked
example:
The question concerns a
stale relationship and a need for break-through:
The Lady (Empress equivalent) and the 9 of Pentacles.
I am struck by how sad
The Lady looks, despite being surrounded by such luxury and
fecundity. The harvest necessitates the cutting of the wheat, the picking of the fruit; the
arrival of the baby heralds the end of her pregnancy. She is brooding
the losses that come with creation.
The 9 of Pentacles
woman wears the same pensive expression and she too looks materially
comfortable. Her hawk is held on the glove. In order for it to fly
free, she has to let it go.
The two cards that the
King of Wands has chosen to act as a bridge tell me that in order to
effect a break through, the sitter has to work on two things to make
the necessary break through.
  • If comfort is
    paramount, then the sitter must be prepared to accept the necessary losses and
    restrictions in order to keep comfortable.
  • If, however, the sitter
    wishes the bird to fly freely, then some discomfort and uncertainty
    must be endured in order to create something new and better.  


Alison Cross

The Tarot's Court Cards are my specialist area.Β  They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ....

2 Comments

Anonymous · 3rd November 2016 at 11:31 am

What if the King of wands is the last card in the bundle? The Justice followed him in the Major Arcana, but he was at the bottom of the Minor, so I guess this means no bridge πŸ™‚

    Alison Cross · 3rd November 2016 at 9:38 pm

    No – just think of your bundle as a circle, not a pile and the card on the top will be the one that comes after the King of Wands πŸ™‚

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