Stop Confusing These Two Tarot Cards!

Or, how to tell the Two and Three of Wands apart

👻🚨 Who’s ready for a spooky tarot challenge!? My 10-Day Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun Tarot Challenge will start on 10/21! In this themed daily tarot challenge, we will explore 10 spooky symbols and how they show up in the tarot. Deepen your connection to your cards and have fun counting down to Halloween and Samhain! It is open to all paid supporters, so if that’s not you yet, upgrade for just $5 to join us. You’ll get an email each day with a special tarot question, tarot spread, or other tarot exercise connected to that day’s symbol, a daily comments section to hang out with fellow tarot challengers, plus a beautiful challenge e-journal! 🚨👻

I love both of the cards we’ll be examining today. They come together in sequence and they have a very similar vibe that is equal parts dreamy and thrilling to me.

But, as we know, there is no reason for two identical or interchangeable cards to exist in the tarot. And one of the more common questions I have gotten over the years is about what the difference is between these two tarot cards and how to interpret them differently when they show up in our tarot readings.

The dynamic duo in question?

The Two and Three of Wands.

[I wrote about the Two of Wands in a past newsletter too, if you want to check that out as well!]

First, you are not crazy. These tarot cards are quite similar.

Like I said, the difference between the Two and Three of Wands is a frequently asked tarot question. (If you have other tarot pairs that you have trouble telling apart, let me know. We can cover them together in future newsletters.) This means you are not off base if you’ve also experienced confusion with telling these two tarot cards apart.

Not only are these cards right next to each other in the numerical sequence of the suit of Wands, but they are both depicted quite similarly:

• There’s a lone figure in each card.

• The wands are closely surrounding each figure.

• Both figures are holding onto just one of the wands.

• Both figures are situated at a height.

• Both figures are looking out into the distance.

• The sea and mountain landscape even looks the same!

Come on! After that list, if you had no idea what the rest of us were talking about, surely you do now, right!? So what’s the deal? What are the different interpretations or messages of these two tarot cards that look so similar?

The key to telling these cards apart is noticing and understanding some essential differences between them.

Let’s examine four of them now. I guarantee you will never be unable to tell these tarot cards apart again after reading this newsletter.

Difference #1: Setting or Location

The setting, or where we are located, is different in these two tarot cards.

In the Two of Wands, the figure is still at home. They are in the safety of their castle. The figure in the Three of Wands, on the other hand, is not at home. This figure is standing at the edge of a precipice, looking out into the ocean.

So what does this difference tell us about these cards?

If you draw the Two of Wands, you’re still in your comfort zone. You’re not necessarily being called to take drastic action yet. You are, however, being invited to start looking ahead, pondering your next move, and planning your eventual action.

If you draw the Three of Wands though, your intuition might be trying to nudge you out of your comfort zone. You are being invited to muster up some courage and venture into unfamiliar, uncharted territory.