The Five of Wands as Intentions: To Spar With You, Not Yet to Settle

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Five of Wands as intentions is a plan to keep the sticks up. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed, and why friction can be interest.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Five of Wands as intentions that are competitive and unsettled. In an intentions position the card suggests the person means to keep things in contest with you: to challenge, to spar, to compete, to not quite let it resolve. The intention may contain interest. It does not yet contain a decision, and the noise is partly a way of avoiding one.

This is five figures waving sticks with nobody hurt. The person intends to keep the game going. They have not decided what the game is for.

The Five of Wands upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Five of Wands guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with conflict, competition, disagreement and scattered energy. When the card lands in a position that asks what someone intends toward you, I read those meanings as the shape of their plan rather than as a promise about what they will do. Feelings and intentions are different questions; the Five of Wands as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The general card meanings at Biddy Tarot are a useful second reference.

Upright, I read the Five of Wands as a person who intends engagement without commitment: to argue with you, to tease, to compete for your attention or against it, to stay in the field without picking a side. There may be real interest under the friction. There may also be several people in the field, and the person intends to keep it that way.

What I would not read into it is tenderness or a plan. The Five of Wands intends the contest. If the contest resolves into something warmer, that is a different card.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the friction is attraction, that the person intends to settle anything, or that you are the only one they are sparring with. No card lets a reader see another person's plans. What a card can do is describe the kind of intention that fits the person's behaviour, and give you something to check against what they actually do.

The Five of Wands reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Five of Wands as intentions describes the contest ending or going underground: a person who intends to stop fighting with you, which may mean warmth or may mean withdrawal, or one whose rivalry has gone silent and resentful. It can also describe someone who intends to avoid conflict at the cost of honesty.

In your own question, ask whether the person has become easier and warmer with you, or whether they have gone quiet in a way that feels like a grudge. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Five of Wands as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Five of Wands as intentions can suggest they intend to keep sparring: argument, competition, point-scoring, a refusal to let it be over. That is engagement, not affection, and it is not a plan to return. Exes who are finished do not bother to spar. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Five of Wands as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes interest showing up as challenge: they intend to tease you, debate you, compete with you. It can be a lively start. Watch whether the sparring ever softens, because sparring that never softens is just sparring.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for combative engagement: they seek you out to disagree, they cannot let a point drop, they are more animated with you than with anyone. A Five of Wands intention is visible as friction with attention in it.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, what the person actually spars with you about, and whether there has been a single soft moment between the rounds. The third note tells you whether there is an intention in the fight.

For comparison, the Seven of Wands as intentions and the Knight of Swords as intentions describe different intentions. The the Five of Wands card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Five of Wands as timing and the Five of Wands as a yes or no cover the other questions people most often ask of it. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.