The Five of Wands in Tarot: Meaning, Upright and Reversed

In brief: number, name and keywords

The Five of Wands breaks the stability of the Four: what was set in place is now tested by rivalry, confusion or competitive spirit. Traditionally it is read as agitation, disagreement, a play of forces in which everyone seeks their place.

The card is called Five of Wands in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and carries the same name in both traditions.

Keywords: rivalry, agitation, healthy competition, disagreement, confusion, contest.

The image in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck

In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, five young people, dressed in different colours, each brandish a staff that they cross or raise in apparent disorder. They stand on bare ground under a clear sky; there is no injured person and no blood.

None of them seems to be truly attacking: each faces another, or circles around. The scene can be read as a quarrel, a training game or a dance between rivals.

• The five crossed staves: ideas or wills colliding without any of them gaining the upper hand.
• The varied clothing: five points of view, five temperaments that do not yet agree.
• The absence of wounds: a conflict that is noisier than dangerous; a melee that may also be a game.
• The bare ground: no protective setting; everything happens in the moment.

In the Tarot de Marseille

In the Tarot de Marseille, the Five of Wands is a card of pips: five staves, most often arranged in a St Andrew’s cross with one staff at the centre, among leaves and flowers. No figure. The arrangement is symmetrical and rather calm, which contrasts with the traditional sense of turmoil: some readers see a stable central point in the middle of the storm, others the core of a conflict taking shape.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Five of Wands traditionally evokes disagreements, rivalries, competition, or a hubbub of ideas in which everyone wants to make their voice heard. One also sometimes reads a positive competitive spirit here, a challenge that stimulates.

The card is not necessarily negative: it shows a tension that needs clarifying. In a reading, it invites you to identify who is fighting for what, to distinguish a real conflict from mere noise, and to decide whether to enter the game or to look for a common rule.

Reversed: different schools

School 1: the opposite or the excess. Reversed, the Five of Wands is read as a quarrel that calms down, a conflict avoided or, on the contrary, a tension that simmers without being expressed. The staves are lowered, but the disagreement remains.

School 2: the block or held-back energy. In this reading, you may see tiredness from quarrels, a withdrawal from competition, or a confusion that is clearing. The card invites you to ask whether you are avoiding a useful disagreement or ending it at the right moment.

Some readers only use the upright meaning: this is an equally valid choice.

Correspondences (Golden Dawn) and numerology

According to the Golden Dawn, the Five of Wands corresponds to Saturn in the first decan of Leo: the limit and constraint of Saturn weigh on the ardour of a fire sign, hence the idea of friction. These attributions come from nineteenth-century English occultism.

The 5 breaks the stability of the 4: in traditional numerology it is the number of movement, instability and rupture with the established order. It also evokes the five senses and the human being standing with arms and legs apart. The four Fives of the deck are often the most uncomfortable of their suit; the page on the Fives in tarot compares them. The Major Arcana card numbered 5, The Hierophant (Pope), reminds us that order can be taught as much as it can be challenged.

Possible readings and questions for reflection

Tarot does not say what will happen: it offers images to think with. Here is what the card may evoke, symbolically, depending on your question.

• Personal reflection: noticing what sets us against ourselves or against others. Possible question: where do I want to measure myself, and where am I scattering my energy?
• Relationships: disagreements, jealousy, lively debates, teasing. The card names a tension, not the end of a bond.
• Work: rivalries, competition, messy teamwork, brainstorming. Symbolically a dynamic, not a failure.
• Money: competition, negotiations, disagreements over sharing. It predicts no loss.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Where am I spending energy on a conflict that is not mine?
• What am I trying to defend at the moment?
• Which common rule is missing from this situation?

Combinations with neighbouring cards

A card is rarely read on its own. A few simple pairings, as starting points:

• The Four of Wands: an established framework that the tension comes to shake.
• The Six of Wands: the melee finds its outcome; recognition or clarity after the dispute.
• Justice: a disagreement that calls for a fair rule.
• The Tower (House of God): two cards of upheaval; what is moving can no longer be sustained.

To practise: the three-card spread; for the whole picture: the guide to the Minor Arcana.

Beginner mistakes

• Reading the Five of Wands as a real brawl: it is more of a rivalry, sometimes a playful one.
• Looking for a culprit: the card shows a group dynamic, not a fault.
• Overlooking the desire to play or to measure oneself: it can be healthy.

Exercise

Take five sticks (or five pens) and lay them on a table, crossing them. Name for each one a voice within you or around you that is demanding to be heard. Then move them one by one until they lie side by side in parallel: this small, concrete gesture helps you imagine how several wills can coexist.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Guide to the Minor Arcana.