Pamela Colman Smith · RWS deck
The Minor Arcana
Five of Wands
Geburah in Atziluth
- Suit
- wands
- Rank
- Five
- World
- Atziluth
- Station
- Geburah
- Verb
- I receive
Geburah, the cut and the boundary
Geburah is severity: the faculty that cuts, bounds and defends. Every Five in the deck shows trouble, and the fit between image and station is the cleanest of any rank.
Upright
Flowing. Competing claims on what was received: the call is sorted by contest. In the world of meaning, a call that arrives is not left alone. Others want it, or want a say in it, and the contest shows what it can withstand.
Misdirected. Contest for its own sake, or abandoning the call to avoid the contest.
Reversed
Blocked. The contest is avoided, so the call is never tested.
Flooded. Conflict everywhere, everything contested.
The image
Five young men in ordinary clothes swing staves at one another in an open field. No one is clearly winning and no one seems badly hurt. It looks more like a scramble than a battle.
Learn how to read Five of Wands in a spread
This page shows you what Five of Wands means. Knowing how to read it — how it shifts next to the other cards, what the reversal is really telling you, and how to turn a spread into a clear answer — is what the RWS Decoded course and book teach, card by card.
