Five of Wands
Secret whisperStaves clash in the dust; the contest sharpens the hand.
Upright meaning
Upright keywordscompetition, conflict, rivalry, clashing ideas
Competition and friction are in the air. Healthy rivalry can push you to grow, as long as it stays constructive and nobody fights just to win.
Reversed meaning
Reversed keywordsavoiding conflict, inner conflict, truce, resolution
The quarrel is winding down — or you are dodging a disagreement that needs to happen. Look for the common ground.
About the suit of Wands
Wands belong to Fire: will, passion, ambition, creativity and work you care about. They speak of energy and action, of what you want and how boldly you go after it.
Reading the Fives of the tarot
Fives break the calm: conflict, loss or change that unsettles what the four built.
In Waite’s own words (1910)
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, public domain. Original English text.
Divinatory meaning: 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.
The picture
A posse of youths, who are brandishing staves, as if in sport or strife. It is mimic warfare, and hereto correspond the
