Six of Wands: a wreath above the crowd

Start with the picture: one wreathed staff above rider and walkers

Waite describes the Six of Wands in a single sentence: a laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown, and footmen with staves are at his side.

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Six of Wands: a wreath held above the crowd

In the Rider-Waite-Smith picture the rider is in profile facing right, in a red cloak on a white horse whose cloth is green with red spots. The staff in his hand carries a laurel wreath at its head with a red ribbon trailing from it. A few faces show at the lower left, and the other staves are held by other people. There are six staves on the card, and only the one in the rider's hand wears a wreath.

What Waite lists: a victor, great news, expectation crowned by desire

Waite starts the divinatory meanings by telling you how the card was written: it can cover several significations. On the surface it is a victor triumphing. It is also great news, of the kind the King's courier might carry in state. And it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope.

The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth.

The three layers are written side by side, and none of them is named the correct reading. A reader who takes the whole card as "you won" has kept only the first.

Wreath, courier and footmen: three names and their sources

Three things in the scene deserve separating: the laurel wreath, the King's courier and the men on foot. Waite writes the laurel on the rider and the wreath on the staff, and does not explain the wreath. Laurel woven into a crown for a victor was an ancient Greek and Roman custom, which is general knowledge.

Reading the wreath as "a result someone has credited" and the footmen as "those who walk beside you" is a modern teaching analogy. Its use is that it turns the picture into things you can ask: who credited the result, and are those beside you present? Neither line is in Waite's text.

How to read it: split "it went well" into three kinds

The easiest slip with the Six of Wands is to merge winning, news and hope into one word, "good news". Waite wrote the three layers side by side, which hands you a sorting frame:

1. 1

   Done: can you find the record?

   This matches the victor triumphing. It needs a source in the records: a payment log, a shipping slip, a statement. If you cannot find the record, do not put it in this column yet.

2. 2

   Relayed: who said it, through how many hands?

   This matches the great news carried by a courier. A courier brings word, which is not the thing itself. Note where the word started and how many people it passed through.

3. 3

   Hoped for: which one thing is it?

   This matches expectation crowned with its own desire. Wish-list adds, enquiries and people who say "next time for sure" belong here. They are pleasant to see, and they are not sales yet.

An example: a small web shop is on day three of a launch sale, and the owner writes in the group chat, "the launch is a success". Sort the pieces of information behind that sentence into the three layers:

Once split, "the launch is a success" becomes three sentences of different weight: 62 paid orders is a result, "nearly sold out" is someone else's report, and 300 items in carts is hope. Each calls for a different next move: the first is for reconciling and restocking, the second needs its source checked, and the third is worth asking people why they have not paid yet.

Reversed and neighboring cards: the gate, the delay and "deferred hope"

Waite's reversed reading is drawn like a defense plan seen from the wrong side: apprehension and fear, "as of a victorious enemy at the gate"; treachery and disloyalty, "as of gates being opened to the enemy"; and also indefinite delay. None of these words says "defeat". They are about who stands at the gate and who is inside it.

The additional meanings come from other readers. Upright they read "servants may lose the confidence of their masters; a young lady may be betrayed by a friend", in period wording, and reversed "fulfilment of deferred hope". That runs opposite to the main entry's reversed words, so say which layer you use.