5 of wands -- what are they doing?

okay... I just started doing the whole draw-a-card-a-day thing and writing down MY interpretations, rather than continuing to study books. (Umbrae would be pleased to know he's converted yet another!)

Today this card was the 5 of Wands. ... traditionally I learned that this card mean conflict, strife, activity but no result, etc. However, when I really looked at the card, it looks like they are having FUN! I don't get the impression of conflict, rather I get the feeling of play. I wonder what they are actually doing. One of my first thoughts was, hey, they are building a house... but that's obviously not it. What kind of person would begin the process of building a structure with big sticks, without laying a foundation? So, no, not building a house. And not fighting.

It looks as if they are boys engaged in play. As we all know young men are full of energy that needs to be directed somewhere or they'll burst! (Snakes and snails and puppydog tails)... testosterphone, sexual energy, aggression, etc., etc. So rather than the expression of this energy having "no result" as the books dictate...do we need result? Isn't the act of expression enough in itself? The need to engage in activity for activity sake...

Anyway, I wanted to know other people's views on this card.....

What do you think they are doing? (and furthermore, I used to see this card as slightly negative... but now I'm changing my mind... what connotation do you associate with this card?)

5 of Wands RWS

It almost looked to me like it could also be a sport of some kind, like an event at a festival or something. A competition of sorts, but that still has the same basic result as the other interpretations.

I never understood the ‘strife’ aspect of the card. Any author who writes about strife, gets an F. They just copied what someone else said – and never ever looked at the card.

You’re right. They are having fun. Which means that they are involved in a game, a sport. To an outsider, it appears like chaos. But to the participants, it’s fun.

It’s our ‘outsider’ perspective that provides a negative aspect. We don’t understand what they are doing. When you are an ‘insider’ you understand it’s very positive.

Kinda like being on the Chicago Board of Trade, trading the Wheat Market. The screaming and yelling, the pushing the shoving, those wacky hand signals, and everybody knows exactly what they are doing…(go watch “Trading Places” again) it makes perfect sense, it’s well orchestrated…It’s only chaos to the uninitiated…

I see no strife either. (I give those who say it is an "F", like Umbrae. Two "F's" in one day.... that's tough luck.)

From a Marseilles point of view, it would mean to me (amongst a host of other things) learning one's limits. Testing oneself. One cannot test oneself all alone - one needs other people. Also one sometimes just has to accept that there are others who are "stronger" - and not feel all pissed off about it. And also accept that there are others who are "weaker" and we must not exploit them for this.

When I look at the RWS picture (it's one of my favourite cards in this deck), I see more or less the same thing.

Diana said:

From a Marseilles point of view, it would mean to me (amongst a host of other things) learning one's limits. Testing oneself. One cannot test oneself all alone - one needs other people. Also one sometimes just has to accept that there are others who are "stronger" - and not feel all pissed off about it. And also accept that there are others who are "weaker" and we must not exploit them for this.

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hmmmm, that's interesting. I never thought about it that way. cool.

The Wands in the Five are wielded in various directions…..which could signify the various ideas and opinions which are being tossed around here.
Everyone wants to have their say, but it looks as if no one can get a word in edgeways.
I can almost hear them!

Looks to me like a typical 'staff meeting.'

I see this card as a kind of friendly squabbling. Healthy competition (I read somewhere) also makes sense to me.

J

In my Robin Wood deck they are just inches away from their wands forming a star. (pentacle)
So I always saw it as an exciting challenge and exchange of ideas.

Umbrae said:

I never understood the ‘strife’ aspect of the card. Any author who writes about strife, gets an F. They just copied what someone else said – and never ever looked at the card.

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I'm surprised to see a specific interpretation of an illustrated pip card categorized as wrong or given an "F."

I hate to disagree with my good friend Umbrae (although if I didn't disagree with him once in a while, he would probably worry about me), but I think that with something so inherently subjective as Waite and Smith's wonderfully ambiguous pictures, it's silly to say a particular meaning is wrong.

From a historical perspective, it would certainly not be incorrect to interpret the card as strife. Waite took his meanings from the Golden Dawn system, in which the 5 of Wands is correlated with Saturn in Leo, which could certainly be interpreted as a great amount of combative energy, or strife. And the Golden Dawn actually used the word "strife" in the card's name.

But even if one wants to ignore all that and just look at the picture, at its most basic level it does indeed show "strife," defined in my dictionary as "heated, often violent dissension; a struggle, fight or quarrel; contention or competition among rivals; earnest endeavor or striving." Five people are shown swinging sticks at each other. They could certainly be playing a sport or constructively building something, but they could just as easily be engaged in a gang fight.

Personally I like to think of the cards as expressing a range of subtle gradations from positive to negative. Actually the dictionary definition nicely encapsulates the appropriate range. So it really all depends on the context of the question and the surrounding cards.

-- Lee

Hahahah. It's fun to give out F's. I've been giving some out myself lately.... it eases tension .

....aaaaaaaaaah......

Maybe there is an element of easing one's tension in the playful jousting. The flavour of the card in this deck for me is one of merriment, and play, much like the scene in the fourth act of La Boheme, boys fencing with baguettes (bread)...

However, when puppies play they nip and bit eachother very roughly and sometimes it can turn into a real fight.

When boys play fight on the street I see the same thing. Its a kind of wild energy that scares me sometimes -- I think that at any minute it could turn nasty (It scares me cuz I'm a girl).