Seven of Wands
The Seven of Wands is the seventh numeral card of the Wands suit, associated with the element Fire. It represents defending a position already won, against challenges or opposition arising after the previous card's victory.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-22
Historical fact
Before 1909, the Seven of Wands was typically a plain card, showing seven wands with no scene. The scene now associated with the card — a figure on high ground, wielding a wand in a defensive stance against six wands raised from below, toward them — was created by Pamela Colman Smith for the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, published that year, and became the visual reference for later decks.
Interpretation — Rider-Waite-Smith / Golden Dawn
In the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, this card is titled 'Valour.' It represents the courage to defend a position, opinion, or achievement already reached against opposition or competition — the advantage of the high ground suggests that, despite the challenge, the figure retains the upper hand in the dispute. Reversed, it can indicate feeling overwhelmed by opposition, giving ground, or losing the confidence to defend oneself.
Interpretation — Thoth (Aleister Crowley)
In the Thoth deck, the card is also titled 'Valour' and associated with Mars in Leo — Mars's direct aggression combined with Leo's confidence and pride, resulting in assertive courage and readiness for confrontation. It represents willpower sustaining a position under pressure, with conviction rather than hesitation.
Curiosities
- Art historians including Stuart R. Kaplan trace much of the visual inspiration for Pamela Colman Smith's Minor Arcana scenes to the Sola-Busca tarocchi, a 1491 Italian deck — the earliest known tarot to illustrate every numeral card with a narrative scene rather than plain suit symbols — which Smith is believed to have studied before designing the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
- The Golden Dawn assigned each of the 36 numeral Minor Arcana cards (2 through 10, across all four suits) to one of the 36 decans of the zodiac — a system dividing each sign into three 10-degree segments that originated in ancient Egyptian astronomy and was later adopted by Hellenistic astrology, as in Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the Seven of Wands mean in Tarot?
- In the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, titled 'Valour,' it represents the courage to defend a position already won against opposition or competition. In the Thoth deck, associated with Mars in Leo, it is read as assertive courage and readiness for confrontation.
- Does the meaning of the number 7 repeat across the other suits?
- Broadly, yes. In the Rider-Waite-Smith / Golden Dawn tradition, each number from 2 to 10 carries a wide theme across all four suits — the 7 tends to introduce a test or challenge to a position already reached, expressed differently according to each suit's element.
- Was this card illustrated differently before 1909?
- Yes. Before the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, this card showed only seven wands, without the scene of the figure defending high ground — that illustration is Pamela Colman Smith's creation.
Sources
- Michael Dummett. The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City (1980).
- Arthur Edward Waite. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910).
- Aleister Crowley. The Book of Thoth (1944).
- Stuart R. Kaplan. The Encyclopedia of Tarot (1978).