The Page of Wands: Dressed for the Adventure

The Page of Wands has officially entered Organic Tarot, and apparently he got the memo that this deck has a dress code. Top hat? Check. Tailcoat? Absolutely. Walking stick? Naturally. A tiny spark of something mysterious held delicately in his hand like he has just discovered fire and is deciding whether to build a civilization or cause a little trouble? Very Page of Wands. I love him already.

The Page of Wands is the card of beginnings, but not the carefully organized kind. This is the beginning that starts with, “Wait…I have an idea.” There is no spreadsheet yet. No five-year plan. No guarantee that any of this is going to work. There is simply curiosity, excitement, and the delicious suspicion that something interesting might happen if you follow the thought a little further. The Pages are students and messengers in tarot, and Wands belong to fire through creativity, passion, desire, movement, and inspiration. Put those energies together and you get someone standing at the edge of possibility saying, “Well, why not?”

That is exactly what I wanted this Page to feel like. He is surrounded by a landscape that seems almost impossible: flowers blooming beside dark stone, water moving beneath him, a blazing yellow sky, a pale sun hovering behind his head. Everything feels slightly exaggerated, slightly dreamlike, as though he has wandered into a world that hasn’t quite decided what it wants to become yet. And there he stands in black and white, completely composed in the middle of all that color. . He looks like he arrived from another time carrying some secret bit of knowledge with him, but the Page isn’t necessarily the wise old magician. He is still figuring things out. He just has the confidence to dress like he already knows.

And perhaps that is part of the lesson.

There is something wonderfully freeing about the Page of Wands because he reminds us that we do not have to be experts before we begin. We don’t need permission to become interested in something. We don’t have to know whether the painting will work, whether the garden will grow, whether the book will become a book, or whether the strange little idea sitting in the back of our minds will turn into anything at all. Sometimes curiosity is enough of a reason to start. Pick up the wand. Follow the spark. Make the thing. Ask the question. Take yourself seriously enough to begin and perhaps not so seriously that you become afraid to experiment.

Making Organic Tarot has required a great deal of that energy. Every card becomes its own investigation. I start with the traditional meaning, but somewhere between the photographs, torn paper, flowers, landscapes, bodies, color, history, memory, and intuition, the card begins telling me what it wants to become. The Page of Wands feels particularly connected to that process because he represents creative permission. He doesn’t arrive with the finished masterpiece tucked under his arm. He arrives carrying potential.

And I think I need that reminder as much as anyone.

At this stage of life, beginning again feels different. I’m less interested in proving that I know exactly where I’m going. I’ve done enough living to know that half the interesting things happen because the original plan went completely sideways anyway. The Page of Wands gives me permission to remain a student—to become fascinated, to investigate strange things, to wander toward mythology and nature and history and the metaphysical world , to make connections that might not make sense to anyone else yet, and to see where they lead. Curiosity does not have an expiration date.

So this beautifully dressed gentleman joins Organic Tarot carrying the message: follow what fascinates you. You don’t have to understand the whole journey from where you’re standing. You only need enough fire to illuminate the next few feet.

Although, judging by the top hat, apparently looking fabulous while doing it is also strongly encouraged.