Nine 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 Nine of Wands card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A man with a bandaged head leans on a staff and looks warily over his shoulder, while eight more staffs stand in a row behind him like a fence. He has been hurt and is still standing. His posture is both braced and tired.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Eight staves cross in two bundles of four behind a single upright yellow staff, their middles bound in a tall blue lattice with small red diamonds. Grey flared ends fan out at the corners. There are no flowers or leaves, and the numeral VIIII is printed at both sides.
Marseille number cards are read through their number and suit; the written meaning here gives the scene the Rider-Waite-Smith card adds.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A man with a bandaged head leans on a staff and looks warily over his shoulder, while eight more staffs stand in a row behind him like a fence. He has been hurt and is still standing. His posture is both braced and tired.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Eight staves cross in two bundles of four behind a single upright yellow staff, their middles bound in a tall blue lattice with small red diamonds. Grey flared ends fan out at the corners. There are no flowers or leaves, and the numeral VIIII is printed at both sides.
Marseille number cards are read through their number and suit; the written meaning here gives the scene the Rider-Waite-Smith card adds.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
Eight batons in four pairs bend into a lozenge around a woven grey centre with a small red diamond, and a ninth grey baton runs straight down the middle. Yellow leaves and small blue flowers fill the sides.
Viéville number cards show only their suit symbols; read them through number and suit, with the written meaning as a guide.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
Nine blue staves with bright gold baluster ends cross four by four with one upright through the middle, forming a dense lattice. Orange lozenges mark the crossings and small green sprigs fill the diamonds. Flowers and vines run around the edge.
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 young man with a red headband wades through water, hugging an armful of nine long staves to his chest. A small tree and green hills stand on the bank behind him. The numeral 9 sits just to his right.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A long-haired man in a red kimono trudges forward bent almost double, hugging a heavy roped bundle of wooden poles against his shoulder while leaning on one more pole as a stick. His face is strained and his sandalled feet drag on the dirt path. A huge red sun hangs behind him between dark bamboo, and a sprig of pink blossom grows at left.