5 of Wands… again
A new deck always likes to return to previous lessons and with the 5 of Wands showing up to me again in this practice, I like the idea of expanding on the card’s invitation especially in this current time.
I like to view the suit of wands as the suit of community, in slight contrast, a lot of tarot readers see the 5 of wands as major conflict—clashing of wills, ego driven, sage mind collision. We look at this card and see different hands, different staves, holding fire at the tips, perhaps ready for battle. I dare to dream something a little different when looking at the Five of Wands by taking stock of what the current state of world is in. Conflict is community and our responsibility, or lack their of, to it.
Our current world hold almost 8 billion people, made up of varying experiences, identities, status, and access. Many have said we are living in unprecedented times. The scale of which we are experiencing global crisis truly is quite unprecedented. However, thanks to the internet we are connected with our history, our present, and our future in ways we’ve never before been able to grasp. Many of us are finally recognizing the parallels of history reproducing itself from lack of access to resources on a global scale, that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. There has been inequity for centuries (in some cases and places, millennia) for people of different races, abilities, and genders. Inequity spread while we prize, specifically here in America, the individual over the community, which has risen from hundreds of years of genocide and enslavement.
One voice that is grown from a deathly whisper to a full blown, deafening growl is how unsustainable (for all life) this kind of individual thinking is. We as a community are finally having conversations about the ideas of personal responsibility and community responsibility and how they interact. This is what I feel the Five of Wands actually represents. Different experiences breed different ways of thinking and responding to the world. Some school’s of thought are that we embrace all and make space even for hatred, greed, and carelessness, and see how we can fold the people running with these thought forms in. Some believe, it’s every person for themself. Other still, like me, strive for an evolution of thought to rise above the current ways of doing things. What would it look like for these arms of fire to light one hearth together? To use their staves for kindle to keep the fire going to keep us all warm? Conflict immediately affects the nervous system. It touches our ego. It can delight our competitiveness. I dream of and try to practice, productive conflict. As in, when in conflict, what if we were fighting for a common goal rather than who is right or carries the power.
Five of Wands invitation is to quit interrupting and listen, to finally speak up if you never do. We don’t solve conflict alone, nor do we solve it by wielding power as it always has been. We have to agree that we have and value common intention. Transition is coming, conflict wields the winds of change. Our invitation is to be intentional with ourselves, our capacity, our resources, and know well that we do not exist without each other.
CC