The card/collage for the Five of Wands involved a fair amount of struggle, aptly enough. It didn’t help that I’m fighting a cold, my head floating somewhere off-center. Ugh.
Anyway, as usual I started with a randomly drawn card from the Cosmic Tarot …
What caught my eye, aside from the fighting with non-lethal weapons, was the stone-y foreground, the violet tinged sky, and the wooden fence separating the two. Not my favorite card, but then again, Fives are known to be challenging.
Since Wands are represented by wildflowers and butterflies in my Texas Tarot imaginings, I wanted to use Antelope Horns milkweed, with its star-like buds and five-pointed flowers as the basis for my card/collage. But as I looked through the blog, I found waaaay too many good images and unable to choose, I printed waaaay too many of them …
which turned into a muddled mess that I didn’t bother to glue down …
I slept on it instead, letting the words in the books work their magic …
78 Degrees: “an exciting struggle, eagerly sought after … fighting, but not to hurt each other … they seek not to destroy”
Kitchen Table Tarot: “competition”
The Creative Tarot: “your life is not in danger … it is productive … you’re not ready … you haven’t found excellence yet … you should make sure everything is the way you want it”
I woke up wondering how I might use the four stages of milkweed development plus the hungry caterpillar as metaphor for the five wands, for competition that is not fatal, but instead leads to a new way of going for all involved.
This is where I ended up …
and I’m thinking it will make a good pairing with a future Major Arcana card featuring the Monarch butterfly. Stay tuned …
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 
love your take on the five of wands!
LikeLike
Thanks Mo … making it “my own” will hopefully help me “get” the cards in the future
LikeLike
Commenting with zero knowledge and understanding, just to say the in card from your deck, the wands look like matchsticks to me…giving me the idea that this ‘fighting’ lights a fire in one another. Why, mmm…perhaps to inspire or encourage that growth or betterment you speak of, through competition.
LikeLike
I think that’s exactly the point of the imagery … to trigger unique associations
LikeLike
You are getting really good at this very quickly! Is delight every day and love that you break down your process to give us insights concerning your sleep-on-it process. This kind of thing is so nourishing and inspiring to me.
Think the Cosmic 5 of Wands has a very West Side Story vibe to it. Hostility and aggression made non-lethal because it was danced-out.
LikeLike
I love your take on the Cosmic 5 …
LikeLike