Page of Wands in Love

When the Page of Wands appears in a love reading, the archetype suggests inspired emotional spark. Arthur Edward Waite's image shows a young figure with feathered cap regarding a budding staff, the literal picture of someone delighted by the beginning of something. Rachel Pollack reads the Pages as the youthful, exploratory expression of each suit's element; the Page of Wands is Fire in its most curious, playful form. In love, this often mirrors the flirtation that catches you by surprise, the new attraction that brings energy back into life, or the messages from someone whose interest is enthusiastic and uncomplicated. What's being revealed here is heat in its lightest, most curious form. In my practice with this card in love readings, it appears for readers experiencing a fresh attraction, for those getting playful messages they reread more than once, or for couples whose relationship is being renewed by the lighter, less weighty kind of passion.

The Page is not the King, the experienced lover, or the Knight, the headlong passion. The Page is the beginner, which is its own kind of medicine. Mary K. Greer notes that the Page of Wands carries the gift of seeing things with fresh eyes. The card mirrors love that has not yet learned to be careful, which can be exhilarating or naive depending on what happens next. Receive the spark without immediately predicting where it must go.

In the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, this context reading is triangulated against three reference works. According to Rachel Pollack in Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (1980), Page of Wands in Love questions is best read as one station in the archetype’s broader narrative. Arthur Edward Waite in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) describes the symbolism Pamela Colman Smith painted. Mary K. Greer in 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card (2006) describes context-specific reading as the practice of letting the archetype speak in the language of the question.