How Goes the Fight? The Five and Seven of Wands, the Five and Knight of Swords

(Based on the representations found on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.)

Perhaps it’s predictable that, in writing about conflict, I turn to the wisdom of Sun Tzu. The Art of War, while essential reading for college students, heads of state, and military generals, may offer wisdom to Tarot readers as well.

I revisited the text before writing this, thinking how germane many of Sun Tzu’s aphorisms were to the Tarot’s “conflict cards.” These are the cards that portend to constructive or destructive outcomes when we metaphorically “cross swords” with others.

Sun Tzu’s aphorisms, like “All war is based on deception,” and “The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness,” remind us that victory is predicated on understanding the complex intersection of risk, psychology and opportunity. Judgment is critical, too, and the Tarot cards discussed below offer glimpses into how ours may be flawed or remedied, depending on the situation at hand.

Among Sun Tzu’s five essentials for victory, the first could be reduced to the pithy encouragement with which we are all familiar: pick your battles. This sage advice goes a long way, particularly when wars can be fought as much with weapons as with words. The battlefields of our day-to-day lives can range from boardrooms to marriages to negotiating bedtimes with children, and knowing where to draw the line can be difficult, depending…