Two of Wands: A Grand and Steady Purpose

This is a piece I originally posted on my Patreon in January of 2021. I love it too much to keep it behind a paywall.

How do you know love? Can you recognize it in your body? It used to feel like an electric current in my veins, shocking. Always needing another jolt to feel loved. Now I know love because it rolls in like cloud cover--easily, with a grand and steady purpose behind it. I'm not sure if it is love that is displayed in the Two of Wands, but there is a strong sense of purpose and forward thinking between the two individuals who are holding the world in their hands. The contemplative figure gazing upon their future has been joined by someone else who offers a hand for the weight of the world. Are they in love? Are they siblings? Colleagues? Are they planning to venture into the unknown together, or is the person on the right passing the torch, so to speak? Perhaps they were never considering leaving in the first place, but simply contemplating the world in their palms. Either way, these two seem to have a quiet confidence in each other and it gives a solid feeling to the relationship: these two understand each other. Each person is seen by the other and trusted immensely. This card is the prompt for you to think about who and what you want to bring into the future with you, and what your purpose may feel like--not what it looks like. 

Two is the number of duality and partnership, and the Two of Wands is asking us where we want to go with the partnerships in our life. It's also asking us to make peace with the dualities in and around us, and even more than that, to embrace them. Become friendly with your own dualities and contradictions because they will equip you to better navigate the journeys you will take, both inward and outward. It takes a certain fortitude to hold a contradiction within yourself, and accept it, and love it. But the universe is composed of contradictions and opposing truths, so why should you be any different? 

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In terms of partnerships, the two figures are looking at each other while holding the world in their hands, with a mixed sense of responsibility and ownership. Who is it that you'd like to confer with about the world? Who makes you feel like you can take on the world? Who is passing the torch to you, or vice versa? What new worlds are you taking on, or are old ones being passed off? What worlds are you creating with your existing partnerships? There seems to be a mutual confidence between the two globe-holders, their steady gazes suggesting a partnership where both parties are considered equals. Which people treat you as an equal in life? Where do you feel imbalance in your relationships, and can it be corrected? Some imbalances are innate and can only be accepted, not corrected. Where do you feel imbalance in your body? This is important because an imbalance felt in the body can lead you to an imbalance in your environment, be it your thoughts, the people you spend time around, the content you consume, the climate where you live, or a partnership that has fallen to one side or the other. Some things are meant to be imbalanced, but it doesn't mean you have to accept it. See? This is a contradiction we can hold: some imbalances can only be accepted, but you also don't have to accept imbalances in your life. Sometimes it's better if the source of the imbalance is removed altogether.  Again, do they make you feel like you can take on the world? If you are belittled in a partnership, you can shrink until even your world becomes too much to hold. 

The overall feeling I have when looking at the Two of Wands is a sense of purpose, and it is strictly a sense. There is no path laid out for either characters on this card, and they haven't even begun to gaze upon the world they've obtained. They are looking at each other, looking inward, appearing very grounded and calm. That is what purpose feels like, in my body at least: calm, grounded, teeming with ideas and life but focused on what's most important. Nobody ever accomplishes their purpose (in the material realm) on their own and even a spiritual purpose must be fulfilled by first convening with your consciousness and separating from your egoic 'self.' There is always a duality to be held in order to accomplish the 'how' of your purpose. It always begins with finding the thing that gives you that feeling of purpose in your body. It may not be grand on a relative scale, but the journey towards your purpose is always a grand one because it's you becoming the most realized version of yourself. You may not always feel steady, but purpose is the undercurrent that never wavers. Purpose is that one gentle hand on your arm, propping you up so you can hold (and behold) the world.