THE EIGHT OF WANDS, LORD OF SWIFTNESS

   Eight wands are flying across the sky. They are descending together at the same angle and almost the same rate down to the Earth, which, considering the heaviness of the wands, is a masterful feat of coordination. Together in flight, the wands suggest the proficiency and focus of the intellect, a quality of Murcury, but suggests also a mastery and knowing that flows from a place deeper than the conscious mind, recalling the way a Zen master, shooting an arrow in total darkness, hits the bulls-eye. In terms of the Tree of Life, it is no wonder that the path of Sagittarius lies between Yesod, a sphere of the Moon associated with the subconscious, and Tiphareth, the sphere of the Sun and the Higher Self. Sagittarius is an archer, and the flight of his arrow suggests the ascent of the mind to higher realms. Mercury also, in his role as the messenger of the Gods, is associated with unexpected intuitions that are communicated to the conscious mind from the spiritual dimension. The fact that we don't know where the wands are coming from suggests this difficulty in identifying exactly where intuitive knowledge originates--from the personal or the transpersonal, from a God or from a divine level of the self.

CORRESPONDING COLOR: Violet-purple.

Reversed: inactive, slow, dull, unable to connect or understand