Five of Wands
Five of Wands · Card 27 of 78
creativity, will, action
Tarot Reading →Upright keywords
- competition
- friction
- crowded arena
- creative sparring
- healthy rivalry
Reversed keywords
Upright meaning
Five youths brandish staves in mock battle: the Five of Wands is rivalry in its sporting key. Expect a crowded arena, competing bids, sibling energy at work, several strong wills bouncing off each other. The friction is not necessarily damage; it can be how ideas get tested, provided everyone came to play rather than to wound. Know what the contest is actually for, and whether entering it serves you. Some scrums deserve your best swing; others are noise wearing armor. Stay light on your feet, keep it above the belt; the stakes are usually smaller than the shouting suggests.
Reversed meaning
Reversed, the scrimmage either dissolves or turns ugly. On the gentle side, tension eases: hostilities settle, an argument resolves, everyone lowers their staves and remembers they are on a team. On the shadow side, the conflict goes underground, sabotage, gossip, politeness with a blade in it, or the fighting continues with no one able to say what it was about. There is also an inner reading: your own impulses at war, plans pulling against each other until nothing moves. Withdraw from battles that no longer mean anything. Save your staves for contests that deserve them.
Classical excerpt — The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III §2
Divinatory Meanings: 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. Reversed: Litigation, disputes, trickery, contradiction.