Western Tarot symbolism
Five of Wands
The text allows either sport or strife in the group's gestures, then calls the action mimic warfare. Its main interpretations turn that imitation into competition and the effort to acquire riches. The additional list narrows this to success in financial speculation and treats reversed quarrels as potentially advantageous. Those are historical divinatory assignments rather than instructions to invest or seek conflict.
Loading your archive…

In the sources
The card account
LiteraryThe text allows either sport or strife in the group's gestures, then calls the action mimic warfare. Its main interpretations turn that imitation into competition and the effort to acquire riches.
Comparing the lists
LiteraryThe additional list narrows this to success in financial speculation and treats reversed quarrels as potentially advantageous. Those are historical divinatory assignments rather than instructions to invest or seek conflict.
Context & interpretation
The active library scan carries L. W. de Laurence’s name and reproduces material associated with A. E. Waite’s Tarot exposition. This entry follows that supplied edition’s card prose and supplementary lists. Historical divinatory assignments and period character labels are distinguished from the pictured symbolism and from independently supported judgements about people or future events.
Original passages
Source 1
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
It is mimic warfare, and hereto correspond the Diviiia- iory Meanings: Imitation, as, for example, sham tight, but also the strenuous competition and struggle of theOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The Illustrated Key to the Tarot, supplied de Laurence edition; card description, active reader leaf 101
Exact supplied-edition extracted passage actually read; whitespace-normalised quotation anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Image descriptions attributed to printed prose; no new full-plate visual inspection asserted.
- Edition
- IMJ-0149-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0149-E001-P0101
- Original scan leaf
- 107
- Recorded leaf number
- 107
- Current Reader position
- 101
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 2
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
Five.—Success in financial speculation. Reversed: Quarrels may be turned to advantage. Four.—Unexpected good fortune. Reversed: A married woman will have beautiful children. Three.—A very good cardOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: The Illustrated Key to the Tarot, supplied de Laurence edition; additional meanings, active reader leaf 150
Exact supplied-edition extracted passage actually read; whitespace-normalised quotation anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Image descriptions attributed to printed prose; no new full-plate visual inspection asserted.
- Edition
- IMJ-0149-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0149-E001-P0150
- Original scan leaf
- 156
- Recorded leaf number
- 156
- Current Reader position
- 150
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Illustrations
Continue exploring
Ace of Wands
A hand from a cloud presents the suit's single stout wand.
Shared source pageEight of Wands
Flying wands carry the numbered suit into an image of swift motion.
Shared source pageFour of Wands
A garland joins four foreground staves beside a bridge and a house.
Shared source pageKing of Cups
A cup-bearing king sits amid sea imagery, with a ship and a leaping dolphin.
