Five of Wands
competition · friction · rivalry · a scramble
Card art: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, for A. E. Waite. Public domain.
The suit of Wands
In a few words
- competition
- friction
- rivalry
- a scramble
Five sticks waving, nobody hurt yet. Competition, argument, a lot of noise and some real testing.
Upright
- Everything
- Five sticks waving, nobody hurt yet. Competition, argument, a lot of noise and some real testing.
- Love
- Friction, rivalry, arguing over small things. Nobody is winning this.
- Work
- Competition for the same prize. Sharpen your case; do not fight dirty.
- Money
- Rival offers, price wars, a scramble for the same rupee. Stay clear-headed.
- Myself
- Inner conflict, too many wants at once. Pick the one worth fighting for.
Imitation, as, for example, sham fight, but also the strenuous competition and struggle of the search after riches and fortune. In this sense it connects with the battle of life. Hence some attributions say that it is a card of gold, gain, opulence.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 188
Reversed
- Everything
- The scuffle ends, or you step out of it. Tension eases, or is being avoided.
- Love
- A quarrel settling, or one being swept under the rug. Check which.
- Work
- Cooperation replaces rivalry. Or conflict avoided at the cost of honesty.
- Money
- The competition cools. A fair settlement, or a fight you wisely dropped.
- Myself
- Peace after inner struggle, if you actually chose. If not, it returns.
Litigation, disputes, trickery, contradiction.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 188
The card, as Waite described it
A posse of youths, who are brandishing staves, as if in sport or strife. It is mimic warfare, and hereto correspond theThe Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 188
The plain-word meanings on this page were written for ShreeJyoti and are still under review.