Eight of Wands

Meaning: Speed, progress, sudden changes; news swiftly traveling.

Depiction: The Pequod swiftly passes the first ship it encounters (the Albatross), a rusted ship with tattered sails. The Albatross' captain is seen on its deck  shouting as his speaking trumpet falls into the sea. Ahab calls to him as the Pequod flies by. The eight harpoons of the suit are protruding from the ship's prow.

Text: Chapter 52- The Albatross
But taking advantage of his windward position, he again seized his trumpet, and knowing by her aspect that the stranger vessel was a Nantucketer and shortly bound home, he loudly hailed—“Ahoy there! This is the Pequod, bound round the world! Tell them to address all future letters to the Pacific ocean! and this time three years, if I am not at home, tell them to address them to ——”
***
Round the world! There is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings; but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct? Only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started, where those that we left behind secure, were all the time before us.

Comments: It would be so easy to cheat with this one and just show eight harpoons over the ocean! But why do that when there's a 500+ page book to draw from? Perhaps I will think of a more apt scene later, but I like the faith and optimism of "Round the world," even if Ishmael isn't persuaded by it.

Seven of Wands

 

Meaning: The inner struggle to defend your position.

Depiction: Ahab, sitting in a chair on the deck, stomps on his quadrant with foot and ivory leg. The seven harpoons of the suit rest near him.

Text: Chapter 118 - The Quadrant
Then gazing at his quadrant, and handling, one after the other, its numerous cabalistical contrivances, he pondered again, and muttered: “Foolish toy! babies’ plaything of haughty Admirals, and Commodores, and Captains; the world brags of thee, of thy cunning and might; but what after all canst thou do, but tell the poor, pitiful point, where thou thyself happenest to be on this wide planet, and the hand that holds thee: no! not one jot more! Thou canst not tell where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yet with thy impotence thou insultest the sun! Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy; and cursed be all the things that cast man’s eyes aloft to that heaven, whose live vividness but scorches him, as these old eyes are even now scorched with thy light, O sun! Level by nature to this earth’s horizon are the glances of man’s eyes; not shot from the crown of his head, as if God had meant him to gaze on his firmament. Curse thee, thou quadrant!” dashing it to the deck, “no longer will I guide my earthly way by thee; the level ship’s compass, and the level dead-reckoning, by log and by line; these shall conduct me, and show me my place on the sea. Aye,” lighting from the boat to the deck, “thus I trample on thee, thou paltry thing that feebly pointest on high; thus I split and destroy thee!”

Moby Dick, or, the card game/King Post (2013)

Comments:  I needed a little more elaboration on meaning for this card, so I turned to this site, where the author points out that in the RWS version the subject is wearing two different shoes, which suggests he lacks a stable footing in life. Well, we all know who lacks a stable footing on the Pequod, both mentally and physically. This card is meant for Ahab. He is struggling between reason (quadrant) and intuition (ship's compass and dead reckoning by log and line).  Using the quadrant to navigate is reasonable, but to find Moby Dick he chooses to rely on instinct instead.

Six of Wands

 

Meaning: Victory, success.

Depiction: The Pequod successfully outruns the Malay pirates who've been pursuing it. Six harpoons are visible on the ship.

Text: Chapter 87- The Grand Armada
But thoughts like these troubled very few of the reckless crew; and when, after steadily dropping and dropping the pirates astern, the Pequod at last shot by the vivid green Cockatoo Point on the Sumatra side, emerging at last upon the broad waters beyond; then, the harpooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining upon the ship, than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained upon the Malays.

Comments: This is another tough one, as Moby Dick contains very few if any victories - but evading the pirates definitely counts.

Five of Wands

 

Meaning: Conflict, disagreement, struggle.

Depiction: The start of Steelkilt's mutiny aboard the Town-Ho, in Moby Dick's story-within-a-story. He's confronted by the officers and harpooners, while two sailors are coming down the ropes behind him to drag Steelkilt away. The four harpooners hold their harpoons; the captain holds his whale-pike to symbolize the five wands of the suit.

Text: Chapter 54- The Town-Ho's Story
“I left off, gentlemen, where the Lakeman shook the backstay. Hardly had he done so, when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and the four harpooneers, who all crowded him to the deck. But sliding down the ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle. Others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued; while standing out of harm’s way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck.

Alternate Depiction:   In the forecastle, the sailors are gathered together. The Spanish sailor attempts to pick a fight with Daggoo, and the group gathers eagerly to watch. Five harpoons are propped up in the background.

Text:  Chapter  40 - Midnight, Forecastle.

DAGGOO (springing). Swallow thine, mannikin! White skin, white liver!
SPANISH SAILOR (meeting him). Knife thee heartily! big frame, small spirit!
ALL. A row! a row! a row!

Comments:  I originally chose the Spanish sailor/Daggoo conflict for this - but thought about it and changed to the Steelkilt mutiny, which is a more consequential dispute.

Four of Wands

 

Meaning: Freedom, creativity, and domestic happiness.

Depiction: On a calm day, Queequeg and Ishmael weave a rope sword mat together on the quarterdeck, Ishmael sitting and Queequeg standing beside him. Four harpoons lean against the bulwark behind them.

Text: Chapter 47- The Mat-Maker
It was a cloudy, sultry afternoon; the seamen were lazily lounging about the decks, or vacantly gazing over into the lead-coloured waters. Queequeg and I were mildly employed weaving what is called a sword-mat, for an additional lashing to our boat. So still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene, and such an incantation of reverie lurked in the air, that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own invisible self.

I was the attendant or page of Queequeg, while busy at the mat. As I kept passing and repassing the filling or woof of marline between the long yarns of the warp, using my own hand for the shuttle, and as Queequeg, standing sideways, ever and anon slid his heavy oaken sword between the threads, and idly looking off upon the water, carelessly and unthinkingly drove home every yarn: I say so strange a dreaminess did there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea, only broken by the intermitting dull sound of the sword, that it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the Fates. 

Comments:  Although Ishmael indulges in the grand fantasy that he and Queequeg are weaving fate at the Loom of Time, really they haven't been captains of their own destiny since they boarded the Pequod.  This small moment together is probably the most domestic they get the entire time they're at sea.

The American Renaissance Tarot version of this card is Chapter 94 - A Squeeze of the Hand! An interesting choice and the way it is portrayed is true to the spirit of the card meaning.

Three of Wands

  

Meaning: Action and adventure, traveling.

Depiction: Finally, Moby Dick is spotted. Ahab is at the main mast, Tashtego below him at the top gallant mast, Moby Dick a  pale hump in the water before them. The top of  three harpoons are visible at the bottom of the card.

Text: Chapter 133- The Chase- First Day
Fired by the cry which seemed simultaneously taken up by the three look-outs, the men on deck rushed to the rigging to behold the famous whale they had so long been pursuing. Ahab had now gained his final perch, some feet above the other look-outs, Tashtego standing just beneath him on the cap of the top-gallant-mast, so that the Indian’s head was almost on a level with Ahab’s heel. From this height the whale was now seen some mile or so ahead, at every roll of the sea revealing his high sparkling hump, and regularly jetting his silent spout into the air.

Rockwell Kent, Man at Mast (1929)

Comments: The plans initiated in the Two of Wands are now progressing. The crew pledged to kill Moby Dick in Chapter 36, and the official pursuit of the white whale begins nearly 100 chapters later.

For Three of Wands, American Renaissance Tarot uses this scene from  Ch. 36- The Quarter-Deck, depicting the three mates with their lances as well as Ahab,

Two of Wands

  
Meaning: New plans, partnership and influence.

Depiction: The crew of the Pequod watches on the quarterdeck as Ahab nails the doubloon to the mast. The two representative harpoons are held by Daggoo and Tashtego.

Text: Chapter 36 - The Quarter-Deck
While the mate was getting the hammer, Ahab, without speaking, was slowly rubbing the gold piece against the skirts of his jacket, as if to heighten its lustre, and without using any words was meanwhile lowly humming to himself, producing a sound so strangely muffled and inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels of his vitality in him.

Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming: “Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke—look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!”

“Huzza! huzza!” cried the seamen, as with swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast.

Could it be...Modern Ahab?

Comments: This choice of scene makes sense as it's the exact moment when Ahab sells the crew on his quest to kill Moby Dick, crystallizing his plan and the direction of the book.