Prince of Wands
Air of Fire
The Prince of the Chariot of Fire
Rider-Waite: Knight of Wands
- Prince Vau, Air
- Wands Yod, Fire
- Air of Fire rank of suit
- Tiphareth sphere of the Princes
- Yetzirah the world of formation
- 21° Cancer to 20° Leo Jul 12 – Aug 11
- ♋︎Cancer
- ♌︎Leo
- Cancer III Four of Cups
- Leo I Five of Wands
- Leo II Six of Wands
- Hexagram 42 I, Increase (Wind over Thunder)
- Fire colour element
In a reading
Swift, strong, impulsive, violent in action, just, noble and generous, fond of jokes and mockery, sometimes cruel in his humour; a person of great energy and little patience. Badly placed: cruel, intolerant, prejudiced, ill-natured.
On the card
A crowned youth rides a chariot of flame drawn by a lion, holding a phoenix wand; his crest is a winged lion head, and the flames around him are shaped into ordered waves.
Kabbalah and astrology
The Vau of the Yod: Air of Fire, the fire made intelligent and directed, the flame that knows where it is going. He rules the last decan of Cancer (the Four of Cups) and the first two of Leo (the Five and Six of Wands): the heart of summer.
Rules Four of Cups (Cancer III, The Moon), Five of Wands (Leo I, Saturn), Six of Wands (Leo II, Jupiter). The courts of the twelve arcs each take the last decan of one sign and the first two of the next, so that every court contains a hidden tension between two signs.
I Ching
Crowley builds each court's hexagram from two trigrams, the suit below and the rank above: Wands give Thunder, Princes give Wind. The result is hexagram 42, I, Increase (Wind over Thunder). See I Ching and the courts.
Depth psychology
Intuition carried into action by thought: the strategist of energy. As an inner figure, the animus as planner and mover. The four ranks are often read as the four ways the suit's function can be lived: the Knight extraverted and initiating, the Queen introverted and sustaining, the Prince as its intellectual form, the Princess as its embodied form.
Thoth and Rider-Waite
This card corresponds to the Rider-Waite Knight of Wands. Crowley renamed the ranks to follow the letters of the Name: Knight (Yod), Queen (Heh), Prince (Vau), Princess (final Heh), so that the Thoth Knight is the Waite King and the Thoth Prince the Waite Knight. The figures' mounts follow the Golden Dawn: Knights on horses, Queens on thrones, Princes in chariots, Princesses on foot.
Related cards
Cards ruled
- ☽︎Four of Cups LuxuryCancer III, Jul 12–21
- ♄︎Five of Wands StrifeLeo I, Jul 22–Aug 1
- ♃︎Six of Wands VictoryLeo II, Aug 2–11
Trumps of Cancer and Leo
The other Princes
- ♎︎Prince of Cups Air of WaterAir of Water
- ♑︎Prince of Swords Air of AirAir of Air
- ♈︎Prince of Disks Air of EarthAir of Earth
The court of Wands
Correspondences follow the Golden Dawn system as used in Crowley's Book of Thoth and Liber 777. Card images are described, not reproduced. Where sources differ.