The Tarot of Eli 2, LLC: Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot- Five of Wands & The Triple GoddessTarot -5 of Wands 

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Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot: Five of Wands

The Fire of Contest, Embodied Will, and the Trial of Mastery

The Rider–Waite–Smith Five of Wands presents five youthful figures locked in apparent combat, each wielding a fertile wand. The entire scene bespeaks fiery conflict—the aggressive, activating aspect of Fire that animates all things. This is not Fire as warmth or illumination, but Fire as friction, the spark produced when multiple wills collide in embodied space.

At its core, this card speaks of assertiveness, combativeness, and action, which may manifest as constructive or destructive depending on the level of consciousness brought to bear. It can indicate great personal courage—as seen in first responders who risk their lives for others, or individuals who place their reputation and safety on the line for a cause they believe in. In such expressions, the Five of Wands may point to recognition, popularity, and success achieved through decisive and visible action.

At its best, this is a card of candor—of forceful honesty and clearly expressed intent. One does not equivocate here. The will is declared, sometimes loudly, sometimes clumsily, but always with undeniable vitality.

However, because this is also a card of willfulness, it carries the shadow of impulsivity. Action taken without integration or foresight can generate more conflict than resolution. At its most unbalanced, the Five of Wands can indicate tyrannical behavior, needless aggression, or an attack being perpetrated upon the querent, whether physically, verbally, or psychologically.

The Hermetic Significance of Five

In Western Hermetic Qabalah, Five is the number of the human body, the pentagram of Homo sapiens—head, arms, and legs extended into manifestation. It is the number of embodied will, Spirit attempting to assert itself through form. This immediately explains why Five so often introduces struggle into the Minor Arcana: embodiment is resistance.

The pentagram formed by the five wands in this card appears torn apart, no longer a unified symbol of balanced Spirit-in-matter, but fragmented by competing egos. Each youth is dressed differently, reinforcing the image of divergent identities, each convinced of its own correctness, each attempting to dominate the field through force rather than synthesis.

This is Fire below Tiphareth—Fire that has not yet been solarized.

Strife as the Crucible of Mastery

On traditional Tarot imagery, the Five of Wands implies that the journey toward mastery is inherently strife-filled. Nothing of value is mastered without passion, intensity, and sustained effort. Whether one seeks mastery in love, art, magic, or war, the path requires discipline, devotion, and determination—qualities often avoided by those who seek comfort over growth.

This card challenges the illusion that harmony is the starting point. Harmony is the result of properly directed conflict.

To master any successful creation requires Fire that is uncompromising, yet ultimately refined. The Five of Wands shows Fire in its raw, untrained state—essential, necessary, but not yet wise. It is the testing ground where weak emotion is burned away, and where the will discovers whether it is merely reactive, or capable of becoming sovereign.

In Essence

The Five of Wands asks:
Can you withstand friction without fragmenting?
Can you engage conflict without becoming it?

Here, Fire tests the body, the ego, and the will. What survives this contest is not brute force—but tempered mastery.

Triple Goddess Tarot: Five of Wands

Strife of the Will Within the Feminine Field

The Triple Goddess Tarot – Five of Wands presents the same essential dynamic of conflict and competition found in the Rider–Waite–Smith Five of Wands, though expressed through five women rather than five men. This change of gender does not alter the card’s meaning; rather, it reveals the same principle operating within a feminine psychic field.

Each woman wears a differently colored robe—red, yellow, green, black, and blue—signifying distinct emotional drives, desires, and instinctual responses arising simultaneously. These colors echo the multiplicity of forces that inhabit the embodied self. As in the RWS card, there is no single, unified direction of will; instead, several competing impulses attempt to dominate the moment.

The result is strife, confusion, confrontation, and too many hands in the pot.

Hermetic Alignment with the RWS Five of Wands

In both decks, Five remains the number of embodied will—the pentagram of Homo sapiens struggling to coordinate Spirit within form. Whether the figures are male or female is secondary to the deeper Qabalistic truth: Five is where unity breaks into multiplicity, and Fire becomes friction.

In the Rider–Waite–Smith image, masculine competition emphasizes outward struggle and visible conflict. In the Triple Goddess Tarot, the feminine expression reveals inner contention—the clash of emotional, instinctual, and intuitive drives within the psyche. Yet the lesson is identical:

The will must be preserved through chaos by gaining clarity of intent.

Without clarity, Fire disperses. With clarity, Fire forges.

Feminine Strife and the Trial of Coherence

The presence of women in this card highlights that conflict is not solely external or patriarchal in nature; it also arises within the creative, receptive, and relational realms. Here, the struggle is often subtler, but no less intense—an internal war of feelings, loyalties, and desires seeking expression all at once.

This card warns against diffusion of energy. When every impulse demands immediate action, nothing is truly accomplished. Passion becomes noise rather than power.

As with the RWS Five of Wands, this is not yet mastery—this is the testing ground. The initiate must learn which impulses deserve expression and which must be disciplined, harmonized, or sacrificed.

In Essence

The Triple Goddess Five of Wands teaches the same Hermetic law as its RWS counterpart:

• Strife is unavoidable at the level of embodied will

• Conflict reveals where intention lacks coherence

• Mastery begins when Fire is focused rather than scattered

Whether expressed through masculine contest or feminine complexity, the message remains the same:

Clarify your intent—or be consumed by competing forces of your own making.

When the 5 of Wands card is thrown during a reading it implies:

• There is a 5 day, 5-week or 5-month period in the querent's life consisting of quarreling, fighting, and violent strife or contest.
• Because of this volcanic energy, there is also boldness, rashness, and a certain amount of cruelty.
• Lust, desire, prodigality, and generosity are also possible.
• In such a fiery card, more so than many others, it really depends on which position the card is sitting and whether it is ill or well dignified.

If ill dignified by surrounding cards or reversed, it implies:

• There is soon to be, or is now being, quarreling, argument, and fighting in their immediate environment, which is deeply passionate and usually means in a relationship, be it family, or lover.
• Recklessness. 
• Rash actions.
• If the 5 of Wands lands in the position of "finds you" (Celtic Cross) and/or the significator position, it usually means that the querent is in internal Strife over a situation and is unable to decide. Where the cards fall, tells all!

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