April 13 -19, 2026
Erika Robinson, a Tarot and Lenormand expert, said something really interesting in an interview. Contrasting Tarot and Lenormand, she pointed out that you could do an entire Tarot reading from a single Tarot card; but with Lenormand, you cannot. The Lenormand cards, she reminds us, are meant to be paired or grouped together as a unit or system. The difference between the Lenormand and the Tarot is that with Lenormand, in Erika Robinson’s word, the cards present as narrative “sisters.”
Record scratch: back to that “single card Tarot reading” thing. I usually pull single cards for simple direction, yes or no answers, or themes. I was immediately challenged to make a week out of one card, rather than the usual five or six, still with the traditional Lenormand reading to add more details.
The card for this week is: 5 of Wands, reversed. (Oh yeah, of course it would be reversed. Of course! Everybody saw that coming.)
Let’s go Erika-style on this card, remembering that I read intuitively (so my take on the cards may differ from what you will read in many Tarot dictionaries.) Numbers first: it is a five. There are ten numeric cards in each suit, and then four court cards. Five is smack in the middle. What happens in the middle? Of anything? Fatigue, yes? Doubt. Boredom. Evaluation, definitely, when we try to figure out if things are going well or need alteration.
I don’t think I’ve ever started something and, midway through, felt like I could continue to plod along exactly as I had at the start. By the midpoint, even in familiar territory, we refine our process in order to go faster, more efficiently, or just gain a little extra momentum to get to the finish line.
So that makes the Five cards in the Tarot suits particularly pivotal; go forward, go backward, change nothing and drift. But even to say, “I’m going to continue as planned” is exercising an option.
Fives are decision cards. You don’t skate through a five. And it is reasonable to figure that the decision will not be without difficulty or conflict, because five doesn’t divide neatly into even sides, and we have to have even sides to reach a compromise position.
If the sides aren’t even, there is a thumb on the scales in any negotiation. Five energy requires attention, deliberation, and often bravery.
This card is in the suit of Wands, which I usually write as this: Wands/wants. Does that tell you immediately what you need to know about this specific station on our Tarot radio dial? We can do without all the stuff involved in Wands/wants; it’s not food, money, and shelter like our sturdy Pentacles suit.
Wands employ our imaginations. This suit is marvelous that way, because the “what if” promptings in life force us to go outside of the usual routine. We’d all be robots if we did not have desires, wishes, daydreams, and yearnings beyond ourselves. The balancing point with Wands/Wants is the ability to tell the attainable from pure fantasy.
When the goals are attainable, Wands is a cozy partner of a suit; but when we lose discernment and just keep piling things on, Wands show us the flip side of this energy, and that’s burden and burnout.
Five of Wands is the hard realization that we have to reevaluate what we have chosen, and decide how to go forward with what we will continue to carry. How much better our Wands/wants journey would be, if we paid attention to Five of Wands when the issue first surfaces, instead of slogging ahead and getting into the messier frequencies of the latter half of these cards!
So in that way, although Five of Wands is traditionally presented as a difficult card of conflict, battles, and possible defeat, I don’t read it that way at all. Five of Wands is strategic and if respected, will save us so much trouble down the road.
As our one card reading about the energy affecting this week, Five of Wands is presenting a good opportunity to take action before things get too heavy, right? Oh but wait. This card is reversed.
THANKS FOR THAT.
But even reversed cards serve a purpose. The energy that would normally fuel this card, as I described it above, is simply not available when it is reversed. Dead battery. You can shake that flashlight all you want, it’s still not going to magically come on.
If we shove away with both hands the opportunity Five of Wands brings us, we (most importantly) miss any option to change course or make decisions about things we chose to take on, get into, or explore. We are not supported in any attempt to make amendments, so that is off the table for this week.
What we should not do is anything to make the situation worse. The time for talking is over. Hands off. Let it ride, for now. That’s it, that’s our dominant energy for this week. Situations can’t be fixed right now, so back away and let them bubble.
So that we will recognize it when we see it, the Lenormand cards offer this in response to the question, “How will the situation referenced by the reversed Five of Wands play out as we stand back and watch?”
- Scythe
- Whip
- Stork
In Erika Robinson’s excellent book on Lenormand (The Language of Lenormand) she writes this, I kid you not, about the Scythe, “The Scythe brooks no debate.” Aha! Well, there’s our dead in the water reversed Five of Wands energy, not allowing for discussion, negotiation, or compromise that could lead to a way out.
The Whip, paired with the Scythe and considered in context with our Tarot reading, indicates extreme harshness. The Stork is positive change. WHAT?
This: A decisive blow, domination, and then positive change.
When the hammer drops this week, if this energy does indeed insert itself into your life, let’s take that reversed Five of Wands as guidance to stay well out of the way, indeed! Reversed Five of Wands is a divine caution to not run toward danger, but to let the professionals handle it. The time for negotiation and win-win scenarios is off the board, and serious consequences are coming down – with the promise of something better to follow.
We’ll see what happens. Obviously, I am thinking of global conflicts and in that a regular citizen does not have much power, but has to trust those in leadership with expertise and training to figure out when to act decisively, if other options have failed. So in that way, we do have to step back.
But what if this scenario comes about closer to home? I debated about whether this reading meant a call to action where a person might have to step up and bring an end to a personal conflict; but that reversed card, y’all. I’m sticking with my intuitive read, and saying (for this week, at least) to stand down and see how things play out.
