RW TITLE OF CARD: Six of Wands

ALTERNATE NAMES: Victory

BASIC DESCRIPTION: A young man rides a dusty-white horse. He wears a laurel crown, and bears a wand with a laurel wreath tied to the top with a red ribbon (Maibaum?). He is accompanied by (apparently) five of his buddies, who are on foot and also bearing wands.
FIRST THING THAT STRUCK ME: Why does the horse look back at its rider?

UPRIGHT MEANINGS: Waite: The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth.
Riding high, victory, triumph, conquest, coming out on top, desires realized as a result of efforts, optimism, expectation comes to fruition, success, achievement, advancement, gain, awards, prizes, winnings. Recognition, acclaim, honor, adulation, praise, acknowledgement, position and prestige, good news. Self-esteem, pride, celebrating accomplishment. A solid team with a strong leader, an excellent negotiator, diplomacy.
ALSO: Triumphal procession, parade.

REVERSED MEANINGS: Waite: Apprehension, fear, as of a victorious enemy at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being opened to the enemy; also indefinite delay.
Victory at a high cost; false victory, win with inconclusive gain, superficial benefit, delayed successes and rewards, humbling losses, treachery from a subordinate, mutiny, disloyalty. Defeatism, fear of a victorious enemy, fear of betrayal, apprehension, anxiety, pessimism. Euphemizing a defeat, honoring superficial ideals or shallow heroes, pitfalls of patriotism and hero worship. On one's "high horse," arrogance, false pride, placing self above others.
ALSO: A hollow theatrical spectacle, devoid of substance. Creative blocks.

BIBLICAL: Palm Sunday; Matthew 21:6-9

And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set [him] thereon.
And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed [them] in the way.
And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

Triumph of Mordecai; Esther 2:8, 10-11

Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head.
Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.
Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.

Revelation 3:5

He that conquers will thus be arrayed in white outer garments; and I will by no means blot out his name from the book of life, but I wil make acknowledgement of his name before my Father and before his angels.

MYTHOLOGICAL: Mars, Roman god of war and protector of growth (fire energy).
HISTORICAL: Lady Godiva; conquerors of all sorts--e.g. Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Charlemagne, King Richard I, etc. Anybody on horseback in a statue.

ANIMAL/INSECT:
PLANTS/TREES: laurel
TIME/SEASON: indeterminate

MUSIC: "We are the Champions!" by Queen; also marching bands.
FILM/BOOK: The end of Dune, when Jessica (?) puts the imperial robe on Paul's shoulders, and Alia says, "He *is* the Kwitatz Haderach!"
PUBLIC PEOPLE OR EVENTS: astronauts, sports champions, NYFD
OCCUPATIONS: Mountie (RCMP), general, team captain
QUOTES FROM OTHER SOURCES: "We're Number One!"
Something in human nature causes us to start slacking of at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility and commitment.--Ross Perot
Health, happiness and success depend upon the fighting spirit of each person. The big thing is not what happens to us in life, but what we do about what happens to us.--George Allen

PEOPLE OR SITUATIONS IN MY LIFE: My UF commencement party.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS: From my personal experience, this card reminds me of all the times in the last decade that I've missed welcoming large trophies to Florida. (Bucs, Marlins, Lightning, Gators, Seminoles) Or back in the old days, watching the Apollo astronauts return home.
I really have a lack of feeling for this card. Perhaps I just don't get enough "victory, triumph, success" in my life. Or maybe I just see such things differently, i.e. Star or Sun.

FAVORITE REPRESENTATION: I like the Native American version--Custer's Last Stand; also Gothic and Navigators of the Mystic SEA.
COMPARISONS TO OTHER CARDS: Joan Bunning refers to the Six of Wands as Chariot Lite, and I can see that; but there's no horse on the RW Chariot card. The only other cards with horses are the four Knights, Death and The Sun. I won't go through a detailed analysis, but one interesting thing is that on The Sun card, the sunflowers turn toward the child rider, rather than toward the actual sun; in the 6W, the horse turns toward the triumphant rider, rather than watching where he's going. (Or is this just an artistic device to show that he's spirited?)

COMPARISONS TO OTHER DECKS:

ANCESTRAL PATH TAROT Six of Staves
art by Julie Cuccia-Watts; text by Tracey Hoover

Book says: "Description: A triumphal procession celebrates the victories of Ramses II over African and Middle Eastern enemies. The Pharaoh, bow in one hand and reins in the other, effortlessly controls the pace of his high-spirited steeds. He is the human counterpart of the archetypal charioteer and solar god, Horus. Murals on the wall behind the crowd reflect the victory parade of an ancestor of the Pharaoh. They are similar to scenes of conquest and ceremony commissioned by Ramses II for the Hall of Seti in the Temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak to glorify his own exploits."
Yet another victory . . . but this time, rather than teamwork and unity, I see individual power and division. Our "hero" is not merely a victor, he is a conqueror, on the up side of a win-lose situation. To set himself high, others must be brought low. This is emphasized by the division of the spectators: nobles and peasants on opposite sides of the street. But it's a grand celebration, and the Pharoah is very great.

 

HALLOWEEN TAROT Six of Imps
art by Kipling West; text by Karin Lee

This card is a departure from the Rider Waite in that there are six Imps riding on the horse (and one cat). Their acheivement is definitely the result of a group effort. One could almost imagine that their acheivement is to get on and ride that horse! He does not look friendly! (Spirited?) None of the Imps is looking forward, and they don't look very triumphant to me. They are just enjoying the ride, supporting each other as well as their little furry friend.
Whereas on the Rider Waite 6W, the horseman could be seen as the victor of the contest in the 5W, in the Halloween Tarot, there's more a sense that the Imps have managed to get their Wands pointing in the same direction, and the victory is that they've come together as a team.

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This page contains excerpts from my original contributions to an online Tarot discussion. The Comparative Tarot list is made possible by Valerie Sim and Yahoo! groups.
Six of Wands IMHO page created August 2004.
http://www.moonchild.ch/Tarot/minors/wands/w06/w06imho.html