The Lord of Virtue
What the 3 of wands has to teach us.
Have you ever pulled a tarot card and you really just didn’t understand what it was trying to tell you? And then the card keeps popping up, over and over again just to confound you even more? For me that card is the 3 of Wands —the Lord of Virtue. I’ve read the descriptions of the card from multiple sources, I know what it means, but I never really got what it was trying to say, if that makes sense. When it popped up I just felt some vague sense of duty maybe? A call to be a good example? I wasn’t sure.
I’m an audiobook person. I have a lot of time at work where I’m mostly on autopilot and that leaves me with the ability to listen to something without too much interruption. Naturally, I blow through audiobooks and podcasts so I’m always looking for the next thing for my ears to consume. This week I’m listening to How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Shur. If you’ve ever watched The Good Place, he’s the guy who created that show. As you’d expect coming from a pretty funny guy, the title is tongue-in-cheek and quite entertaining for a book on ethics. The book opens with the all important question: is it ok to just punch your friend in the face? To answer that important question, the author jumps into exploring Aristotle’s concept of virtue ethics.
Aristotle’s theory of virtue ethics comes from one of his numerous works, Nicomachean Ethics. According to Aristotle, virtues are habits or dispositions a person may possess that when cultivated in the right amount will lead to eudaimonia1, or flourishing. According to this model, flourishing is the ultimate goal or telos2 of being a human. The actual Greek word he uses for the idea of virtue is aretē or excellence. So in practice, virtue is more of a verb than a noun. It’s something you do, that you cultivate by repetition and habit. Moreover, it’s something you have to have just the right amount of. Excesses and deficits turn into vices, not virtues.
There are a lot of different virtues, like courage, truthfulness, generosity, and magnificence. Wittiness is actually one of the O.G. key virtues Aristotle lists as important in human flourishing. Wittiness, according to him is the golden mean between buffoonery and boorishness. If you are the class clown, or you kill every vibe you come across then it’s safe to say you’ve moved from virtue to vice in this category.
When I heard this description of virtue explained in the Aristotelian context, I immediately understood what the 3 of Wands card meant. It often came up for me in spreads to do with situations at work, and now I know the card was recommending that I conduct myself with just the right amount of whatever was needed at the time. Not too much, but not too little either. Not only must you invest the right amount of energy into that thing, but you must also cultivate the habit of doing so. It’s an ongoing effort.
If we pop the hood open on the 3 of wands, we find that it is the card of the exalted Sun in Aries. Most decks have this card decorated in fiery shades of red and orange. Ptolemy writes in the Tetrabiblos:
The Sun has its exaltation in the sign of Aries because this is the point at which the day and night become equal, signifying the beginning of the solar year and the renewal of life. This is when the Sun’s power is most visible and its effects most beneficial, as the balance of light and dark reflects the harmony of its rule.3
The symbolism here perfectly embodies the idea of virtue being the balance between two extreme points. The Sun at the spring equinox gives an equal amount of light and dark. In essence, it is right at the center of two extremes of the winter and summer solstices. Of course, the fall equinox would also fulfill that requirement, but the amount of darkness begins to increase in the fall and so is less ‘positive’ in those terms.
The card is also of the suit of Wands, symbolizing the energy of Fire and Will. It is an act of Will to cultivate virtue, and it is the Will that is served by the acquisition of virtue. When driven by excesses and vice4, we are easily manipulated by outside influences. We become tools of a Will that is not our own.
It’s easy to see how a lack of virtue in the common citizen is a win for the nefarious forces in our society. The more people operating from a place of vice and unbalance, the easier it is to push a view on them, sell them something, or get them to go along with unjust actions. Unbalanced states are powerful levers for unscrupulous people to take advantage of. As magicians, we need to be aware of these factors and defend against manipulation just as we would any other magical threat.
The Lord of Virtue has a lot to teach us about how to live in our current moment. By cultivating virtue ourselves and teaching our young ones to build that habit, we increase resistance to the manipulations of corrupt politicians and those who would bend us to their will. It makes us better magically operant people and better humans.
Hello reader, thank you for ending up on my newsletter. I truly appreciate you! Since you made it this far and must have some passing interest in all things odd, I want to introduce you to a new podcast called Dispatches from Post-Reality. I am creating the art for the show episode covers and social media posts. It touches on some of the same esoteric subject matter you’ve come to love from this newsletter but with a decidedly funnier and much more casual tone. Check it out!
Magicians will perk up at the connection to the very similar (perhaps identical) concept of the Good Daimon or holy guardian spirit for a more occult metaphysics of this idea.
Telos means end, goal, or purpose. Aristotle believed that everything in nature had a telos it was moving towards. For example, the telos of a seed is to grow into a plant. The telos of a human being is to accomplish eudaimonia.
Tetrabiblos, Book I.19. I’ve found differing translations but the main idea is that the amount of day and night are equal, but that the Sun’s share of light begins to increase after the Spring Equinox.
By vice I’m not talking about the things the motivational speakers in the middle school gym rally warned us not to do, like doing drugs or dropping out of school. I’m specifically referring to unbalanced states of virtue. Here’s a list of them, if you are curious.
Yes, the Middle Way, in Buddhist terms.