Minor Arcana, Wands
Ace of Wands
spark, creation, start, enterprise
Upright
A hand comes out of a cloud holding a branch that is still putting out leaves, with a castle far behind it. Waite lists creation, invention and enterprise: the first spark of something that could grow.
Asked about a new business or side project, the card favors a small first step this week while the idea still has heat. Older readings add birth and inheritance. Treat those as symbols, since a card is no forecast of either; a doctor or lawyer can speak to the real thing.
Reversed
Waite's words here are fall and ruin, with a certain clouded joy. In plain terms, the spark has gone damp. An idea may have lost its reason for existing, or the energy behind it may be spent.
Look at a stalled plan and ask what first excited you. If you still can't say, let it rest for a while. If you can, cut the project down to one task you can finish this week.
A card is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
In Waite's words
Upright: Creation, invention, enterprise, the powers which result in these; principle, beginning, source; birth, family, origin, and in a sense the virility which is behind them; the starting point of enterprises; according to another account, money, fortune, inheritance.
Reversed: Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, to perish; also a certain clouded joy.
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part 3, on Wikisource. The meanings above are by Cast & Chart.
Card art by Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.