The Seven of Wands and dabbling with Decans
Hand Painted Art from The Little Sister Tarot
The Seven of Wands. In deepening my Tarot practice, I have found that working with decans has come into play ( more on this in a minute). Some Tarot practitioners tie this card to the start of Sagittarius season, representing the energy of late November, falling approximately around November 22nd- December 1st. (You can find this system within The Tarot of the Holy Light) Yet another school of thought ties this card to Leo season, highlighting the end of this season between August 12th- August 22nd. (This system can be found in 36 Secrets) Before we jump into the richness of the Seven of Wands and how to work with it, it is worth taking a moment to pull back and ask ourselves the following questions.
What are decans, why do they matter and how does this tie to Tarot?
These questions are apt if you happen to be intrigued by astrology (as I very much am!) and there are plenty of Tarot readers who are not, and that is completely ok. No way is the right way, there is only the right way for you. So if you find you are one of the previously mentioned folks for whom Astrology is a love language, read on! If not, go ahead and jump on down here to get more in depth with this card.
Let’s start with the foundation. There are 12 signs on the Zodiacal year (although there is the idea of a 13th Zodiac sign, Ophiuchus, in which I am not an authority by any means and which you may research here) Each zodiac sign is assigned to a 30ish day window on the Gregorian calendar year. When those 30 odd days are broken up even further into 10 day segments, we refer to each 10 day window as a decan. TS Chang wrote a wonderful book looking at this in detail if you wish to nerd out like I do which I will link again here 🤓 These decans, or 10 day periods have been applied to each of the Minor Arcana cards. Decans and how they relate to Tarot deserve a whole written piece of their own, but for now, this cheat sheet will have to do!
Why does the above mentioned discrepancy exist when it comes to determining which 10 day window the 7 of Wands (or any Minor Arcana card!) falls within? Upon first learning about decans, it took me a little while to wrap my head around how it works, I found myself digging into various sources to help sort out the confusion I felt around it. By no means am I an expert, and the simplest way I can think of to voice these varying opinions and to help you choose a method is to think about how you view the Aces and the Tens of the Tarot.
As the seed from which the suit is birthed, do you see the Aces as cardinal and a representation of the entire season that it kicks off (i.e. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) or do you believe that the Tens as the finale and the “curtain fall” of the suit, holds the weight of each element and therefore should be designated all three Zodiac signs of that element’s particular suit (i.e. Ten of Wands = Aries, Leo, Sagittarius; Ten of Cups = Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces; Ten of Swords = Libra, Aquarius, Gemini; Ten of Pentacles = Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo) If you adhere to the first set of reasoning, with the Aces representing a season on the Gregorian Calendar, then the Seven of Wands would be tied to late Leo season,or Leo III, falling approximately between August 12th - August 22nd. If however the notion of the Tens holding the weight of each element rings true for you, then the Seven of Wands will be represented by Sagittarius I marking the dates when this energy falls to be approximately November 22nd- December 1st. Or perhaps you are like me and believe that both of these things are true! And now this places us in a tricky predicament, as the rationale we follow will dictate the calendar correspondences for all of the Minor cards. In choosing one correlation we can add a richness to our understanding of that particular card, as we are able to tie aspects of that particular Zodiac sign to it.
At the moment, I have decided to follow the former methodology, linking the Aces to represent the entirety of a Season, and following that logic, it places the Seven of Wands as a tail ended Leo Season card. There is a great chart depicting this idea in TS Chang’s book and I now feel that a future writing will explore these ideas more in detail. Whew! Well, alright. Now that that has been discussed, let's get into the card itself!
Introducing the Seven of Wands
The Sevens in the Minor Arcana can be viewed as a time to take stock and internalize what is happening on the exterior. A time to ask ourselves, what am I attempting to do and what is the struggle? For within the Sevens, there is often a struggle on some level of varying degrees.
The Seven of Wands is one of the cards where the traditional meaning does not always suit me. In the classic interpretation, this card speaks to protecting yourself from external threats to your most recent achievements. While some elements of this can hold true, I found that in my early days of studying the Tarot, this often didn’t fit with what I was experiencing.
At its core, we can tie the Seven of Wands to protection. Protection from what you ask? Is there a true threat coming from the outside to knock us off balance? Or is it all just perceived with no actual threat present- yet there are copious alarm bells going off in our head? If it is the latter, then what we need protecting from is the workings of our own mind.
No matter which one of these two holds true for us, this card wants us to view how we are internally and externally responding to what we perceive.
Before we begin to blame ourselves for “irrational” defensive thoughts if we realize that our mind has taken over, let’s look at this through the lens of kindness for ourselves and perhaps how capitalism may play a role.
One of my teachers, Lindsay Mack was the one who first allowed me to look at this card through the idea of a perceived threat rather than a true one. Keeping this in mind, I’ve learned to pause whenever I see this card, to check in with myself to ask what is truly going on. This is your invitation to do the same.
When the Seven of Wands comes forward, it makes me think of “fight or flight”, with an emphasis on “fight”. Living in a capitalistic framework, many of us are conditioned from an early age to believe that in order to be worthy, we must produce. One of the addictions that is actually applauded in our Western culture is workaholism and the constant striving for more. If you are lucky enough to see this for the smoke and mirrors that it is, I’m cheering you on right now! While I know that the idea of constantly pushing for more is a complete mental trap, where we find ourselves victim to the unsatiated taskmaster of capitalistic pursuits, I too have found myself at its mercy on more occasions than I like to admit.
When we find ourselves constantly pushing, feeling that we must be actively contributing, and not necessarily even to gain more, but simply to maintain what we have, this can require a great deal of our energy. We may find that we have been working so hard to maintain some position of how we think we are supposed to be that we find ourselves on the defense even if no one is coming to knock us off of the hill, the one that we have just worked so hard to climb in the Six of Wands. We deeply feel we must maintain the level of achievement that we gained and the recognition and applause that came with it.
Along with the need to defend our gains, we may find ourselves on guard because we have been working hard in areas of our lives without allowing for much time to rest and process. I find that when this happens and we are constantly on the move, we may be more quick to act, or quick to respond, rather than take a moment to evaluate what is actually going on right now. Here is where the idea of protection enters the room, as this card asks us to check in on our own energy. What is happening around us right now? Is this a time where we need to push, defend and stand our ground? Or are these ideas perceived rather than real, due to past experiences, conditioning or maybe even as a result of pure exhaustion?
And so we ask ourselves the question:
What is the reality of my situation?
And…
How am I currently taking care of myself and my own energetic resources?
This card is asking us to focus on what is truly in front of us. Maybe it is time to dig in and stand up for what needs defending. And if so, this fiery energy is here to support you and make sure that you know you are more than capable of doing just that! Perhaps it is not, and we can understand that there is no one or nothing truly here to harm us. That we are safe to stop pushing ourselves and maintaining our watchful eye over everything. We can put our wand down and say ,”Hey, everything is honestly alright.” It is a chance to regulate our nervous system (I love a gentle Yoga practice for this) and be present in the moment. To leave the landscape of our minds and come back to our bodies and know that we are safe.
And lastly, how may this card tie to Leo? If there is anything I have learned about Leo for certain, it is that Leo, as a sign, is always here to face and stand up to the challenge. This doesn't mean that this energy has to be loud, overt or bold. It can be muted and still make its point. Bravery and courage, traits tied to this sign, doesn’t come from fearlessness, but rather it appears and moves forward in spite of it. And so, when we need to protect against a threat, whether it is real or perceived due to the constant pushing we have been doing, Leo has the fortitude to carry this energy to the finish line, and the quiet strength to embrace us and remove the wand from our hand, and firmly yet softly say, “It is ok to rest”.