Are any of y’all watching ‘The Wheel of Time’ series on HBO (I refuse to call it MAX)? There was a long hiatus between seasons, which means I’m now rewatching the entire first season so I can really settle into the vibe before I dive into season 2. I love the show, and I loved the books when I was younger; one of my greatest memories is of sitting in a papasan chair in my messy teenage bedroom, reading one of the thick paperbacks all day long while eating an entire box of dry Lucky Charms.
Anyway! I was pulling cards while I watched last night and had a nice moment with 2 of Wands. I drew it when the character Moiraine, a kind of witch/magician who’s come to ferry away some other characters from their little village and take them on a grand, dangerous, and very unexpected adventure, says to them: Your lives aren’t going to be what you thought.
2 of Wands is absolutely the start of a journey. You’ll often hear about planning in 2 of Wands. Consideration, mulling things over. The figure in this card is commonly depicted on a sort of foundation, looking out onto the horizon, not seeming particularly urgent; just chewing on the possibilities.
And yet, the astrological correspondence of 2 of Wands is Mars in Aries. Mars is the Tower, and that’s an awfully strong energy in a card that can otherwise seem rather placid. Mars indicates ambition and drive; perhaps this person is merely determined to set off on their adventure and reach their goal.
But I think there’s more here than simple resolve or will. The Tower upends things. Its energy sweeps in and confronts you with the reality that your life isn’t going to be what you thought. A new and different journey is beginning.
I pulled 2 of Wands constantly when I was getting divorced and things were a shitshow. I was in a major Tower moment, wildly disoriented and struggling to see my new path.
I remember 2 of Wands showing up very significantly in a reading I did for someone whose partner was dying a protracted death— a slow motion Tower-- and she was looking ahead to what her life might be after he was gone.
The Tower is very present in this card. Something is forcing change. We are coming to see that our lives will not be what we thought.
We are standing in the tension between the things we cannot control (the Tower) and the only thing we can control, which is our willingness to show up fully, and trust in our capacity to meet the challenge: that’s the Aries element of this card, corresponding to the Emperor.
Sometimes the energy of Mars/Tower we feel in this card isn’t external, but internal: something within us demands that bold new journey. Then we must hold the tension between desiring to know ourselves more authentically and test our own abilities (Emperor), and having to leave our known worlds, and upend our own assumptions in order to do it (Tower).
2 of Wands is often associated with travel, and it makes sense. To put ourselves into foreign places is to unlearn (Tower) and to develop deeper trust in ourselves (Emperor).
In some ways, beginning every day is a 2 of Wands moment. We live in a world in which our safety is in no way guaranteed (Tower), and we have to, somehow, believe in our own enough-ness (Emperor) so that we can step out into it.
Perhaps 2 of Wands is a whole-hearted embrace of the idea that our lives will not be what we thought. With the Tower dismantling our expectations, we become free to create from a place of open imagination and be in conversation with possibility.