An empty crossroads on a heath at night, a leaning signpost and poppy heads in the verge.

Wands · V

Five of Wands

Lord of Strife

The face of Five of Wands, engraved in gold on black, with its title, Lord of Strife.

This friction is a forge. Every rival here is sharpening your edge.

Upright

Competition, friction and testing. Conflict that sharpens skill if you keep it honest.

Reversed

Avoiding conflict that needs to happen, or fighting just to fight.

Show the spirits

The spirit work

Bael, first of the seventy-two, by day; Phenex the poet by night. Strife resolves through invisibility or through song: choose your weapon.

Where the card sits

Correspondences

DecanSaturn in Leo, 0° to 10°, the first face
Tree of LifeGeburah in Atziluth
Governing angelsVehuiah by day, Yeliel by night
Image of the decanA man riding on a lion.
Show the spirits
Day spiritBael, king
The seal of Bael

Appears as a cat, a toad or a man, sometimes all at once, speaking hoarsely. Makes one invisible. Rules 66 legions in the East. Goetia 1.

Night spiritPhenex, marquis
The seal of Phenex

Appears as a phoenix with the voice of a child. A poet who speaks marvellously of the sciences. Hopes to return to the Seventh Throne. Goetia 37.

Five of Wands in the guidebookAll seventy-eight cards

The Sablerune Tarot

In the making

Seventy-eight cards in fine gold line. Hear when the deck is ready to hold.

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Notes on sources

The meanings, the questions and the correspondences are the guidebook’s own. The paths, letters and astrology follow the Golden Dawn’s attributions; the angels are the Shem ha-Mephorash, as the deck gives them; the spirits, shown only when you ask for them, are the seventy-two of the Goetia. Where each comes from, and what is old and what is modern, is set out in the guidebook’s Notes on sources and seals.