Five of Wands Tarot Card Meaning
The Five of Wands is competition and friction — many voices, everyone swinging a stick. Upright it is rivalry that can sharpen you if kept friendly. Reversed it turns into real disputes, trickery or contradiction.
Number card · Suit of Wands (energy, drive and work) ·
Upright keywords:
Reversed keywords:
Five of Wands upright
A group of young men brandish staves at one another — as if in sport or in strife. Waite calls it a mock battle — the struggle for riches and fortune, the battle of life. Healthy competition: stay sporting, keep your goal in view, and you may come out ahead.
Five of Wands reversed
Waite reversed gives litigation, disputes, trickery and contradiction. Disagreements have turned serious; cool things down, and put agreements in writing.
A is one drawn upside-down.
Five of Wands in love
Bickering or competing priorities. Listen more than you argue.
Five of Wands in career
Competitive markets, tough negotiations, team friction. Channel it into good work.
Five of Wands in money
Competition for resources; avoid disputes you can settle calmly.
Is Five of Wands a yes or no?
Upright: Mixed / not yet. Possibly — but only after a contest. You will have to work for this.
Reversed: Reversed, Five of Wands reads as a gentle no: disputes, legal arguments, trickery.
The yes/no lean is BornClock’s reading convention drawn from the card’s meaning — Waite himself did not assign one.
Ask your own question — draw one card →Symbolism in the Five of Wands card
What appears in the 1909 Rider–Waite–Smith picture, as Waite describes it:
- Five youths with raised staves — Waite: mimic warfare — sport or strife
In Waite’s own words (paraphrased)
Upright: imitation, sham fight, strenuous competition, the struggle for riches and fortune; the battle of life.
Reversed: litigation, disputes, trickery, contradiction.
Source: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910, public domain). Some of Waite’s 1910 fortune-telling meanings are old-fashioned; the plain-English reading above is ours.
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