With the sun in Leo (leadership) and the moon in Sagittarius (adventurous philanthropic pursuits), today is a King of Wands day.

In the King of Wands, we meet first-hand astrological fire symbolising the human imagination in its most dynamic aspect.  Ever wondered why we ‘dream’ by the fireside and ‘light a candle’ to ‘show the way’?  It’s because fire speaks in a primitive language we desire desperately, to understand.

However when dealing with fire, there are two key points to keep in mind; (1) by its nature fire transforms and consumes and (2) unless controlled, fire is deadly destructive.

For insight into the energy of a King of Wands day consider the adventures of the mythic hero King Theseus of Athens, who was at the same time brave, inspirational, and downright mean.

After single-handedly slaying the monstrous Minotaur, Theseus abandoned Ariadne, the woman he loved and who’d helped him, and went on to change the course of history with the sheer power of his ideas.

Three cheers for Theseus, we’re tempted to say.

However it takes a certain single-minded selfishness to be a successful King of Wands, which if left unchecked can bring disastrous results.  Such was the fate of Theseus.

After years of chasing dreams, King Theseus eventually married Phaedra, a Cretan princess who tragically fell in love with his son, Hippolytus, whom Theseus had fathered on another.  When Hippolytus rejected his stepmother’s advances, Phaedra convinced Theseus that he’d raped her.  Infuriated, Theseus cursed Hippolytus, which resulted in Hippolytus’ gruesome, untimely death.  After Phaedra committed suicide, Theseus was so saddened by the mess that he’d created that he could see no option but throwing himself off a high rock into the sea.

The trick to getting the best of a King of Wands day is to avoid racing impulsively about to selfishly further our own ends, as did Theseus.  Instead we might summon our innate nobility and rise above ourselves to inspire others (as well as ourselves) to strive for ever higher ground.

Lying at the very heart of our being, fire gives meaning to our lives.  It points us toward new and exciting experiences that will make us into all we potentially can be.  But as the King of Wands discovered, it’s one thing to strive towards greatness and quite another to chase after our own tail.  Once we’ve discerned the difference, we can confidently go forward and give our all to life.