Give It a Rest

The Five of Wands can be a card of many hassles. Not great big problems, but the niggly little things that kind of tap away at you—irritating but not life threatening. These hassles can come in the form of little events such as being held up in traffic so you’re late for a meeting, stubbing your toe on the leg of the bed, pouring out a bowl of cereal to discover that someone finished off the milk before you got there, that sort of thing.

On the other hand, there could be some interpersonal conflict or rivalry that may be present at the same minor level of annoyance.  Maybe someone is trying to get one up on you at work by coming up with a solution to a problem you’re working on before you get a chance to. Or this energy might show up in the way small children can fight over everything and nothing. For example, our three-year-old twins quite like the Sky advertising brochures, and will each try to take a brochure off the other when one comes in the post. If there are two identical brochures, they will still fight over one of them.

I’m thinking of a high profile project (internally at least) that I’m currently working on. It is not related to the automotive industry, but for the sake of example and confidentiality let’s say it is.

There are two groups pouring their energy into the project, and each group seems to be going off in a different direction with little regard for the other. The marketing group is preparing a customer demo of the vehicle. The development group has been instructed to come up with a light, interim version of the vehicle that will hit the streets in March. The full version will be out in June, and will be something like a BMW. The March version will look more like a Robin Reliant, with three wheels. Both will get you where you’re going, but one will do it more reliably and elegantly than the other, and come with more options.

Yesterday we saw the demo from the marketing group where what they were planning to show people was a bit closer to a hovercraft, which did look really cool. Of course, backstage the hovercraft was being supported by a forklift.  As you can imagine this sparked an animated debate, at the core of which was the question “why aren’t we all a bit closer to being on the same page”?

Well that was yesterday, and sometimes these little rivalries, intentional or not, can put things in perspective for all concerned. Today the Five of Wands is reversed as if to say, “Let’s just stop working against each other and see if we can find some common ground. Ultimately, using our energies at cross purposes is not going to get the job done or impress anyone”. (i.e. clients).

On the other hand, the reversed Five of Wands can indicate that you have a tendency to avoid conflict, which for a lot of HSPs is one of their favourite hobbies, as I can tell you. But as I hope I’ve shown above, some conflicts are best avoided.