1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. Five of Wands

Minor Arcana · Wands

Five of Wands

• strenuous competition
• struggle

Upright meaning

Strenuous competition and struggle, which Waite also calls mimic warfare, as if in sport. Energy that can sharpen or scatter.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, Waite gives disputes and contradiction. A prompt to look for the point everyone actually agrees on.

• contradiction
• disputes

Symbolism

A group of youths brandish staves, as if in sport or strife.

Group

Minor Arcana · Wands

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part III §2 (The Lesser Arcana). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.