First of all, this is a really cute deck you can get from etsy. It's fully illustrated, mostly in RWS style, but with mermaids. The card stock is sufficient, but a tad thin. Unless you're a stock freak, however, it shouldn't keep you from buying this sweet, self-published deck. And it does come with a guide that you can download. Now that we're done with THAT, the Ace of Wands is about a spark of energy or creativity that comes to you. But as the deck's guide points out, it's the kindling. And kindling doesn't last long on its own. You need to use that spark as your impetus ASAP or the next time you turn around, it will be gone.
I frequently find myself "sitting" on projects. I was all fired up to do them at one point, then I decided to think about them. Then thinking turned into not thinking. And not thinking turned into not getting anything done. If my sister is reading this, that is what happened to her plier pouch I AM going to make. I got all the materials together, then I started the dreaded thinking and rethinking. Fortunately for her, shame is good motivator for me, too. So she'll get it. Sometime. And now that I've mentioned it on my blog, probably sometime soon.
But that's what happens if we don't keep the momentum going. As someone who works in a creative field, I know that ideas are nothing without execution. But often in everyday life, we might find ourselves tending more toward idea generation than actually executing the idea. That's how it goes with my hobbies. And that's why, as kind and "generous" as I my seem in some ways, it's rare that I will promise someone one of my hobby creations. I like to have to have the freedom to just generate ideas and no actual outcomes. Otherwise, it becomes like my work, where I HAVE to generate outcomes.
Something interesting about this card, though, is that I first saw it as a drowning woman still holding on to a sunken boat's oar. Of course, it's not that at all. It's a mermaid offering up the wand of energy and creativity. But I thought the other way was an interesting interpretation of an Ace of Wands. Like even though she was sinking away, she was still offering up one last spark...one last move toward creation.
Sometimes a creative person invests so much of themselves into something that it can drag them down. We perfect and hone and bleed our creativity into a turkey of a project until it sucks the very life out of us.
So I hereby declare this card as saying two things...don't let the sparks that come to you go out. Pursue them. Stoke them. And build them into a blazing success, if that's what's intended. But also know when to stop fueling the flame. Some fires might exist solely to get to a certain place and then be abandoned. They may have only come to offer lessons or techniques that you'll need down the road. That's all part of the creative process, too.
I've heard people try a hobby, for example, only to give up when they hit a roadblock halfway through or didn't like the outcome. They decide they have no talent, aren't worthy, aren't as good as so-and-so...whatever. And what they don't understand is that so-and-so is only as good as they are because they knew which flames to fan, which to snuff out, and were to look for other flames.
That only comes from pushing past our fear of failure. We place so much emphasis on talent when, perhaps, an equal or more powerful force in creativity is discretion. Everybody is good at something. But sometimes you have to fuel a few sparks before you find it.
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