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Wands · minor arcana · Fire

Five of Wands tarot card meaning

The Five of Wands tarot card meaning: upright, competition, clashing opinions and friction; reversed, avoiding conflict, or a disagreement finally being resolved — sometimes also conflict that has turned more serious. Its Rider–Waite picture shows five wands.

Waite 1911, upright
Strenuous competition… Part III, § 2
Waite 1911, reversed
Litigation, disputes… Pictorial Key to the Tarot
Golden Dawn decan
Saturn in Leo Book T attribution

Waite, Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911; Golden Dawn, Book T.

Either side of it in the deck: Four of Wands and Six of Wands.

The same rank in the other suits: Five of Cups, Five of Swords and Five of Pentacles.

Part of the suit of Wands.

Laid out for one question: love spread, career spread and yes-or-no spread.

The imagery described here is from the Rider-Waite deck of 1909 and differs from deck to deck.

5 FIVE OF WANDS

Five of Wands upright

Competition, clashing opinions and friction. Everyone is pushing their own agenda, which creates energy but little cooperation.

The Five of Wands is conflict and competition: disagreements, clashing egos and everyone trying to be heard at once. It can be healthy rivalry that sharpens ideas or simple chaos; either way, nobody is yet in control.

Five of Wands reversed

Avoiding conflict, or a disagreement finally being resolved — sometimes also conflict that has turned more serious.

Reversed, the conflict is avoided or winding down: a truce, a resolution, or tension suppressed rather than dealt with.

Primary source

What Waite wrote in 1911

Upright
“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.”
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: William Rider & Son, 1911), Part III, § 2 — read the original text. Waite’s book accompanied the Rider deck and is where most modern card meanings come from; the readings above are modern interpretations built on it.

Where the Five of Wands sits in the deck

The 56 minor arcana, Five of Wands highlighted
Five of Wands in the grid of 56 minor arcanaWandsCupsSwordsPentaclesAceAce of Wands · Fire in its pure, unformed statepure fireAce of Cups · Water in its pure, unformed statepure waterAce of Swords · Air in its pure, unformed statepure airAce of Pentacles · Earth in its pure, unformed statepure earth2Two of Wands · Mars in AriesTwo of Cups · Venus in CancerTwo of Swords · Moon in LibraTwo of Pentacles · Jupiter in Capricorn3Three of Wands · Sun in AriesThree of Cups · Mercury in CancerThree of Swords · Saturn in LibraThree of Pentacles · Mars in Capricorn4Four of Wands · Venus in AriesFour of Cups · Moon in CancerFour of Swords · Jupiter in LibraFour of Pentacles · Sun in Capricorn5Five of Wands · Saturn in LeoFive of Cups · Mars in ScorpioFive of Swords · Venus in AquariusFive of Pentacles · Mercury in Taurus6Six of Wands · Jupiter in LeoSix of Cups · Sun in ScorpioSix of Swords · Mercury in AquariusSix of Pentacles · Moon in Taurus7Seven of Wands · Mars in LeoSeven of Cups · Venus in ScorpioSeven of Swords · Moon in AquariusSeven of Pentacles · Saturn in Taurus8Eight of Wands · Mercury in SagittariusEight of Cups · Saturn in PiscesEight of Swords · Jupiter in GeminiEight of Pentacles · Sun in Virgo9Nine of Wands · Moon in SagittariusNine of Cups · Jupiter in PiscesNine of Swords · Mars in GeminiNine of Pentacles · Venus in Virgo10Ten of Wands · Saturn in SagittariusTen of Cups · Mars in PiscesTen of Swords · Sun in GeminiTen of Pentacles · Mercury in VirgoPagePage of Wands · Earthy part of fireearth of firePage of Cups · Earthy part of waterearth of waterPage of Swords · Earthy part of airearth of airPage of Pentacles · Earthy part of earthearth of earthKnightKnight of Wands · Fiery part of firefire of fireKnight of Cups · Fiery part of waterfire of waterKnight of Swords · Fiery part of airfire of airKnight of Pentacles · Fiery part of earthfire of earthQueenQueen of Wands · Watery part of firewater of fireQueen of Cups · Watery part of waterwater of waterQueen of Swords · Watery part of airwater of airQueen of Pentacles · Watery part of earthwater of earthKingKing of Wands · Airy part of fireair of fireKing of Cups · Airy part of waterair of waterKing of Swords · Airy part of airair of airKing of Pentacles · Airy part of earthair of earthDecans and elements: Golden Dawn, Book T, 1888astrohot.com

The Five of Wands sits where the Fives row crosses the Wands column; its cell shows Saturn in Leo, the Book T decan.

ArcanaMinor
SuitWands
Number5
ElementFire
Yes or noMaybe

How this card is built

Wandsaction, ambition and creative drive Fivedisruption Five of WandsCompetition, clashing opinions and friction
How suit and number combine →

Golden Dawn correspondences

What zodiac sign is the Five of Wands?

In Book T (1888) the Five of Wands is Saturn in Leo: the first decan of Leo, 0°–10°. In 2026 the Sun passes through it from Jul 22 to Aug 2, (UTC).

Book T decanSaturn in Leo
Zodiac span0°–10° Leo decan 1 of 3
Sun in this decan, 2026Jul 22 – Aug 2, 2026 UTC
SignLeo Sun there Jul 22 – Aug 23, 2026
Other decans of LeoSix of Wands Jupiter, 10°–20°
Seven of Wands Mars, 20°–30°
Major arcana card of LeoStrength

The Leo page lists the modern decan rulers (Sun, Jupiter, Mars); Book T keeps the older Chaldean order — Saturn, Jupiter, Mars.

Where the Book T attributions come from →

Data, not interpretation

Hard facts about the Five of Wands

Five of Wands in 2026: 6 draws, its decan shaded
Five of Wands as the card of the day in 2026JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDectodayJan 19, 2026Jan 30, 2026May 28, 2026Jul 19, 2026, reversedSep 28, 2026Nov 24, 2026drawn as the card of the dayreversedSun in its decan, 0°–10° LeoCard of the day: astrohot.com draw seeded from the date · Sun: Meeus, JPL DE440astrohot.comFive of Wands as the card of the day in 2026JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDectodayJan 19, 2026Jan 30, 2026May 28, 2026Jul 19, 2026, reversedSep 28, 2026Nov 24, 2026drawn as the card of the dayreversedSun in its decan, 0°–10° LeoCard of the day: astrohot.com draw seeded from the dateSun: Meeus, JPL DE440astrohot.com

Six draws fall to the Five of Wands in 2026, once reversed; the first comes on January 19 and the last on November 24. That is joint 17th of 78, level with 11 other cards. The longest wait between two draws ends on May 28, 118 days after the one before. Not one lands during its decan.

Position in the deck 5 of 14
Odds of drawing it 1 in 78 · 1.28%
Card of the day in 2026 6 times · 1.64%
Reversed on those days 1 of 6

Dates in 2026: Jan 19 · Jan 30 · May 28 · Jul 19 (reversed) · Sep 28 · Nov 24

How the card-of-the-day figures are worked out →

The image

What is on the card

Five young men swing wands at one another in a jumble that could be a fight or a game. No one seems to be winning and no one is badly hurt.

Five of Wands in love, work and health

Five of Wands in love

Upright, arguments, competing priorities or rivalry for someone's attention. Reversed, finding common ground after a period of friction.

Five of Wands as feelings

They feel frustrated or challenged in the relationship, with tension that needs talking through.

Five of Wands in career and money

A competitive environment, brainstorming chaos or a crowded market. Stand your ground without fighting everyone.

Is the Five of Wands a yes or no card?

Maybe — expect a struggle. Upright it is a maybe, and reversed the spread leans it toward no. No other card among the Wands gives that answer — it is the only maybe of the 14. It is the odd one out among the Fives: the Five of Cups, the Five of Swords and the Five of Pentacles all say no.

Health: like every card of Wands, it points to energy levels and physical drive. The suit of Wands →

If you drew it today

What the Five of Wands advises

Decide whether the contest is worth your energy, and if so, set rules everyone can agree on.

How neighboring cards change the reading of the Five of Wands →

How to lay the cards out

Rest of the suit

Ace of Wands Two of Wands Three of Wands Four of Wands Six of Wands Seven of Wands Eight of Wands Nine of Wands Ten of Wands Page of Wands Knight of Wands Queen of Wands King of Wands

All 78 cards →

Sources

  1. A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: William Rider & Son, 1911), Part III, § 2

Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.

Cite this page

AstroHot. “Five of Wands Tarot Card Meaning: Upright and Reversed.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/tarot/cards/five-of-wands/

For Wikipedia {{cite web |title=Five of Wands Tarot Card Meaning: Upright and Reversed |url=https://astrohot.com/tarot/cards/five-of-wands/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-27}}