Page 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 Page of Wands card.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A young page in a tunic patterned with salamanders stands in a desert landscape with pyramids in the distance, holding a tall staff and looking up at its sprouting tip as if it has just said something. His stance is open and eager. The land around him is dry and the staff is the only green thing in it.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A young man stands turned to the right, partly seen from behind, in a yellow and red cap, a green tunic and a blue cape. He rests both hands on a tall green knotty staff set on the ground beside him. He wears blue and red hose and green shoes on yellow ground. Titled VALET DE BÂTON.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
A young page in a tunic patterned with salamanders stands in a desert landscape with pyramids in the distance, holding a tall staff and looking up at its sprouting tip as if it has just said something. His stance is open and eager. The land around him is dry and the staff is the only green thing in it.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
A young man stands turned to the right, partly seen from behind, in a yellow and red cap, a green tunic and a blue cape. He rests both hands on a tall green knotty staff set on the ground beside him. He wears blue and red hose and green shoes on yellow ground. Titled VALET DE BÂTON.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
A young man with fair hair stands in profile facing left, in a red and yellow cap and a green tunic with a red belt. His left hand rests on a tall knotty staff and a large round dark shape, perhaps a shield or cloak, hangs at his back.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
A fair-haired youth in profile, facing right, stands holding a tall pale staff with a dark turned knob at its lower end. He wears a dark blue cloak edged with gold fur, a green glove and red hose. Behind him is a dark tooled ground; the green hills and grass below are worn and flaked.
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 long-haired youth in a buff jerkin with red sleeves walks over hilly ground, carrying a great club on his shoulder. He wears one green and one red leg, white boots, a dagger in a red sheath and a small red purse at his belt. The numeral 11 is at the left.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A young man with a topknot and tattooed arms and chest stands in a bamboo grove in a red jacket, teal sash and dark trousers, holding upright a bamboo staff whose tip burns with a small flame. A red fox sits at his feet. Red maple leaves drift through the air, and mossy rocks and a pine branch frame the right side.