The Suit of Wands
The Fire suit, concerned with will, action, creativity, career and passion. It is the most active and outgoing of the four suits, and its questions are usually "should I do this, and how?"
For the suit's character and element in more detail, see The Minor Arcana; for the number meanings behind each card, see Numbers in Tarot; for the double-element logic of the court cards, see The Court Cards.
The suit's character
Wands people rarely agonize over decisions. Faced with a choice, their body has often already turned toward one option. This is not thoughtlessness. The energy itself trusts instinct and trusts getting started, and it enjoys the satisfaction of "I like this one, it's decided, now I can spend my time on something more interesting" far more than careful selection and endless comparison. That decisiveness rests on self-confidence: Wands assumes no choice will be badly wrong, and that hesitating too long is the real waste of time.
Another trait of Wands is that what you see is what you get; it cannot hide. The energy is outward and yang (active, projecting). Once an idea forms, it shows up in action almost immediately, and the people nearby can see it and feel it without having to guess. This is also why Wands cards are usually easier than the other suits to read straight from the picture.
A simple way to remember the suit's character is to picture a wand as a plain wooden stick. You can hit someone with it, or you can lean on it and use it to get work done. Aggression and practical support are two sides of the same staff, which matches the double nature of Wands: willing to charge ahead, and able to carry the load.
Common situations: from the first spark to holding up under pressure
Taken together, the Wands number cards trace a curve of career and drive, from a new start full of energy that flares up like a sudden spark (the Ace) to shouldering heavy responsibility alone while still moving forward on optimism and ability (the Ten). The underlying pattern is that the further you go, the more you take on and the more tired you get. Wands is good at the explosive energy of beginnings. The real lesson is whether you can keep your original conviction under sustained pressure.
Reading reversals: trace back to the previous card
The Wands suit offers a reversal technique that is good for practice. When a Wands card comes up reversed, you can often count back to the previous card (or one even earlier) to find which stage's lesson was never really passed, instead of reading the reversed card in isolation. For example, the Ten of Wands reversed (pressure too heavy to carry) often goes back to the Nine of Wands failing to build a conviction that can truly stand the test. The insecurity of the Nine may in turn come from the Eight's ability to move fast and solve problems not yet being solid. Following this line all the way back often lands on the Two or the Ace: a lack of confidence in one's own choices, and no connection with action itself from the very start. The method does not take the upright meaning of the previous card as the explanation for the reversed card. It looks inside the previous card's upright meaning for the reason things did not get through. In principle the same approach can be carried over to the other suits.
This also explains why the Five of Wands reversed should not simply be read as "no conflict." Wands by nature is willing to clash head-on, so a more accurate reading of the reversal is "a conflict that should have happened was avoided." The surface looks calm, but the problem has been shelved, and the peace may not be real.
All 14 cards
Number cards: Ace of Wands · Two of Wands · Three of Wands · Four of Wands · Five of Wands · Six of Wands · Seven of Wands · Eight of Wands · Nine of Wands · Ten of Wands
Court cards: Page of Wands · Knight of Wands · Queen of Wands · King of Wands