Five of Wands
Five of Wands
Number 5 Fire
A wands card: drive, work, and what you are building.
Upright
frictioncompetitionscrappy conflicttoo many voices
Everyone is talking at once and nobody is quite fighting. The Five of Wands is friction rather than war: competing priorities, a group where five people want five things, a project with too many opinions in it. Tiring, and usually not malicious.
Reversed
avoided conflictpeace madeinner conflict
Either the scrap is over or it has gone underground. Reversed, this is conflict avoided at the cost of resolving it, a truce that satisfies nobody, or the whole argument happening inside one person.
What is in the picture
Five young men waving staves at each other. Nobody is hurt and nobody is winning. It could be a fight or a rehearsal.
What it says about…
The line a reading leads with, depending on what you said you were asking about.
A bit of everything
Upright: a lot of competing voices and not much actual hostility. Pick one and go.
Reversed: the conflict has gone quiet without being settled.
Love and relationships
Upright: bickering rather than trouble. Still worth stopping.
Reversed: things unsaid to keep the peace. The peace is not being kept.
Work and direction
Upright: too many stakeholders. Somebody has to decide and it may as well be you.
Reversed: politics under the surface. Watch rather than join.
Money and security
Upright: competing demands on the same money. Rank them explicitly.
Reversed: a financial disagreement being avoided.
Me, honestly
Upright: you want several incompatible things. That is normal and it is also the problem.
Reversed: the argument is with yourself and it has no referee.
A decision I am stuck on
Upright: decide and accept somebody will be annoyed.
Reversed: you are trying to find the option nobody objects to. There is not one.
If this card leads
Stop trying to find the answer everyone likes.
As a yes or no
Upright, it reads as maybe. Reversed, maybe.
“Somebody will be annoyed, and that is survivable.”
Draw it in a reading
The meaning above, applied to something you are actually asking about.
