AUTHOR’S NOTE: My daily tarot reading (literature, not cards) recently presented the idea that the reversed 2 of Wands in the Waite-Smith deck conveys “tension.” I’ve never thought of the reversal of this card as elevating the stress that is already there, only making it more insidious. In my “Tarot 101” lesson material on the upright expression, I wrote: “The Two of Wands in the RWS deck looks like a placid, thoughtful card, but a good deal of unresolved tension is apparent in it.” Waite is no help in this regard since his only commentary on the reversal was quite bland: “Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.”

On further reflection, and in keeping with my previous posts on this card, I recalled that a comparable duress appears in its upright orientation. (Note that the Thoth 2 of Wands [titled “Dominion”] exhibits no such conflicted temperament despite its combative turbulence, implying outright “domination” as one might expect from its esoteric correspondence to Mars in Aries; apart from the red cap and cape that are only mildly suggestive of truculence, this quality doesn’t come across convincingly in Smith’s version, which in its mildness downplays Waite’s Golden Dawn roots.)

At first glance, the scene shown in the RWS image is entirely passive. The obviously wealthy man is standing perfectly still, apparently eyeing his prospects for a bright future as a “world-beater” (the globe that is literally in the palm of his hand) while a tranquil landscape stretches before him. (If he were truly a “child of Mars” he wouldn’t be standing there but would be off on a mission, perhaps scouting his borders or maybe going bowling.) But the two wands tell a different story.

One of the wands stands lower than the other and the man has his back to it in denial of the nagging issues that he has tried to put behind him but that won’t go away. (A mixed metaphor would be “skeletons in his closet that are breathing down his neck” – a neat trick if you have no lungs!) The wand in his hand symbolizes present expectations that are being undermined by his unsettled history and that can’t be brought to bear on his future aspirations (signified by the globe) until he acknowledges and deals with the impact of that deliberate dissociation.

The individual has two tasks before him: 1) put previous concerns to bed once-and-for-all, and 2) reconcile the outcome of that effort with his current circumstances, which may have to be adjusted to accommodate the input. When he has done so, the road before him will be unobstructed and he can advance with confidence. We can discern this bold, fearless path quite clearly in the Thoth 2 of Wands, which suggests “might-makes-right,” but in the RWS card the way is fraught with indecision.

As as with all the Twos, I see this one as indicating compensatory action, similar to a swinging pendulum. The man has “one foot in the past, one foot in the present” and is being held back from further achievement by the hesitation that is one of the hallmarks of this card. He is tempted by a promising future but must compensate for the lingering hold that the past has on him, and the present is where he must come to grips with it. Many readers interpret this card as describing a decision to be made and the planning that leads to positive results, but I think it is more complicated than that since there are several factors at work in the matter and psychological “baggage” that must be jettisoned or brought into line with the long-range objective.