Illustration by Pamela Colman Smith, 1910. Public domain in the US since 1966 and in the UK since 2021. Vector digitisation of the Rider–Waite–Smith deck by OpenClipart contributor "klaatu-tarot", released public domain.
Ace of Wands
Creation and Enterprise
Waite’s 1911 book gives this Ace creation and enterprise in one list, but calamities of all kinds in another.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III, section 2, Wands: Ace; section 4, Wands: Ace.
A hand from a cloud grasps a leafing staff above a river valley and a distant castle.
More context
Smith’s Ace shows a hand emerging from cloud and gripping a leafy wand above a landscape with water and a distant castle. Waite’s 1911 text describes the hand and club, then lists creation, invention, enterprise, birth and family. He also records money, fortune and inheritance as another account. His reversed meanings include fall, ruin and a clouded joy. In a later list the upright Ace instead means calamities of all kinds. Waite acknowledges that the additional meanings frequently disagree with his earlier list.
Light
Waite’s upright Ace marks creation, invention, enterprise and beginnings, extending to birth and family.
Shadow
Waite’s reversed Ace signifies fall, decadence, ruin and a clouded joy.