Knight of Wands in 6 decks
The same card as 6 decks draw it, five and a half centuries apart. What stays the same is the card’s core; what changes is where a reading can find something new. The meanings are written for the Rider–Waite–Smith picture; the descriptions here are of each deck’s own. Not in Oswald Wirth, which has no Knight of Wands card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A knight in armour decorated with salamanders rides a rearing horse across a desert, his staff raised and his yellow cloak flying. Pyramids stand in the distance. The horse's forelegs are off the ground and the rider is leaning into the motion, not back from it.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A rider in a broad yellow and red hat holds a green club upright in one hand. His pale horse, seen with its head turned toward the left, is covered by a long red caparison lined in blue, with a yellow studded collar. Green and yellow ground shows below. Titled CAVALIER DE BATON.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A knight in armour decorated with salamanders rides a rearing horse across a desert, his staff raised and his yellow cloak flying. Pyramids stand in the distance. The horse's forelegs are off the ground and the rider is leaning into the motion, not back from it.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A rider in a broad yellow and red hat holds a green club upright in one hand. His pale horse, seen with its head turned toward the left, is covered by a long red caparison lined in blue, with a yellow studded collar. Green and yellow ground shows below. Titled CAVALIER DE BATON.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
A young rider in a dark hat with a red brim sits on a grey horse moving to the right, holding a long baton upright. His yellow doublet is patterned with scrolls, and both he and the horse wear plumes.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
A fair-haired youth in a dark blue tunic with gold-trimmed skirts rides a rearing white horse, holding a long gold staff across his body. The horse wears a red bridle and a dark caparison decorated with dark shields. The ground behind is dark tooled lattice, with worn green grass at the foot.
In the Visconti-Sforza deck the number cards show only their suit symbols, and the trumps are unnamed and unnumbered.
Sola Busca
c. 1491
A rider in a helmet and red tunic sits on a grey horse with a raised foreleg, a club over his shoulder, pointing ahead. His bare leg hangs down without a stirrup. Lettering at the top reads AP and OLINO, partly hidden by the club, and a small 12 is near the horse's legs.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A young man with a topknot gallops on a brown horse across a grassy slope, his red coat streaming behind him. He holds up a lance with a long red pennant in one hand and a sheathed sword at his side. A red fox runs alongside, and tall pines and hills stand against an orange sky filled with blowing red leaves.