Start Today with Guidance and a Glimpse of Possibilities

Seven Cups appear in the air before a figure containing fabulous treasure, success, and achievements - and danger. The stance of the person beholding this array of desires, hopes, and fears suggests surprise, wonder, and hesitation about which Cup - if any - to choose.

In the Two of Wands, we see a man standing, alone, atop a walled fortress, holding the world in one of his hands. In the other, he holds one of the Wands of the card, while the second Wand has been fastened to the ramparts on his right. Like this bound Wand the figure here has been hemmed in by his success, and we can imagine him pondering on what, exactly, it has brought him.

The key to understanding The Hanged Man is realizing that he is maintaining this hanging by choice. This card depicts a man suspended, upside down, from the branch of a tree, a bright glow around his head. He has assumed this symbolic hanging position to reflect, meditate, and become at one with the universe - the light encompassing his head represents his success in achieving this. 

After the shifting and chancy light of the moon comes the beauty of The Sun, blazing down joyfully on the child who rides a horse away from a walled garden. This garden is often interpreted as being that of Eden. Rather than leaving it fearfully and in shame, however, here the child leaves its shelter optimistically, ready for the adventures that his new self-knowledge will grant him. The Sun points to the inherent capacity of simple, everyday life to be deeply infused with wonder and happiness, and the miracles in the minutiae all around us.

The Ten of Wands is a card that represents burden and choice. In the Rider Waite image, the figure trudges homeward, weighed down by the many Wands that he bears. He is close, though: a house is visible in the near distance and he has but a short distance of his journey left to complete.

The Six of Wands is the ultimate expression of the Fire optimism: we do not know if the triumphant figure depicted on the card, lauded by the followers processing with him, is returning home after a great triumph or riding into battle. What matters is that his very belief in life and his own abilities have assured both his past and future successes.