Nine of Wands: Concrete Jungle

The Marseille Nine of Batons (Wands) is the only card in the pip sequence that shows no foliage or natural growth of any kind. Numbers 2-10 in the pips cards can be famously difficult to read due to their similarity to each other, with each card displaying a large cross comprised of an increasing number of batons as they intersect more densely as the suit progresses. Most of the cards show flowers and/or leaves growing either at the side of the wands or at the top, expressing a connection with Nature at all times.

Above: 2-10 Wands from Paul Marteau’s version of the Tarot de Marseille.

But then the Nine of Wands comes. Eight batons cross in the usual way to form a cross, and one single baton runs vertically through the centre of them, as is usual in the odd/active numbers. But what has happened to the leaves? The stems? Where have the flowers gone in this card?

When we compare this card to the rest of the pips in the Marseille Wands, we get a direct lesson in how we feel when nature is not around, when the sharp angular corners and edges of human-created buildings and spaces have eliminated signs of Nature from the naked eye. Look how perfectly straight and sharp those batons have been cultivated to look!

Sit with this image. What might an equivalent building or neighbourhood look like to you? How might it feel to live inside a building that this sharp, human-crafted card suggests?

Now, compare this with the Six of Wands, with those juicy, healthy flowers that float at the north and south of the card, at the leaves growing at the east and west? If these two cards represented the same building, but in a different state, what might be going on the Six that is missing in the Nine? What might have brought it about?

Above: Six and Nine of Wands from Paul Marteau’s version of the Tarot de Marseille.

For me, both cards could represent an immaculate high-story building in the centre of a city. The Six might be surrounded by lush, thoughtfully planted trees, or perhaps it was created near a river with a flowery bank at its sides. Or perhaps the person who lives in the apartment has simply remembered to bring Nature inside by hanging some plants in the window or feeding the birds on the window ledge. The Nine has forgotten Nature altogether, either inside, outside or both. It’s a concrete hell.

I have been that latter person, living in a concrete jungle. I have also worked with people with mental health difficulties who have described the process of bringing Nature indoors as life-changing. Beautiful petals grow in the light where concrete reigned before. Birds chirp and sing on the ledge. Pigeons coo. Something shifts inside of us. It matters.

If you pull the Marseille Nine of Wands in a Nature reading, you might want to pay attention to the places in your life where Nature feels lacking. How does it impact you?

That’s all for now, friends. Thank you for being here – and please check out my Therapeutic Tarot Sessions and my courses embracing Tarot and Nature if you’d like us to work together. You can also sign up for the Tarot Blog newsletter (different to my main newsletter) below to receive occasional email updates (roughly monthly) with the latest posts.

Smiles from Scotland,

Stephen