Leo Decan 1: Strife
The Five of Wands With The Great Work Book
The Lord of Strife
The first decan of Leo is represented by the Five of Wands, often referred to as the Lord of Strife. This particular card represents the 13th decan of the solar year. In this informative article, you will discover a wealth of insights covering all of the relevant sections in The Great Work Book that pertain to the first decan of Leo and the Five of Wands, along with valuable information for incorporating color into your practices and calculating one’s birth cards.
The Five of Wands from Rider-Waite, Thoth, and Golden Dawn Tarot.
The Five of Wands & The Minor Arcana Journal
Each tarot card relates uniquely to astrology and the Tree of Life. The Great Work Book provides two journal pages with a fill-in sidebar for each card. These sidebars feature space for common associations, but there are many more to discover. We recommend using the bullet journal section to create a grid of personal connections, while the lined journal page is for divinatory meanings, card descriptions, and personal reflections. Additional correspondences can be found in Aleister Crowley's 777 from Weiser Books and other books on our Recommendations Page.
Below are the astrology and Tree of Life correspondences for the sidebar in The Great Work Book’s Minor Arcana Journal page for the Five of Wands.
ASTROLOGY
ELEMENT: Fire
DECAN DEGREES: 0˚ - 10˚ Leo
DATES: July 23 - August 1
RULING PLANET: Saturn In Leo
MODALITY: Fixed (Optional Information)
QABALAH
SEPHIRA: 5 Geburah
MEANING: Strength/Severity
YETZIRATIC TEXT: Radical Intelligence
WORLD: Atziluth (Fire)
WORLD TYPE: Archetypal (Fire)
COLOR: Orange
The Great Work Book's Minor Arcana Journal, Page 172: Correspondences for the Five of Wands, Strife.
The Five of Wands: Birth Cards and the Decans
There are a total of five cards in a tarot deck that are connected to one’s birthday. By mapping the tarot to minute subsections of each Zodiac sign as well as larger seasonal cycles, these five cards present a unique tarot narrative for each person. This narrative can provide insights into your personality, life path, and potential challenges, making it a valuable tool for self-discovery and personal growth.
The Great Work Book’s Astrology & Tarot section walks you through fill-in activities that begin with simple Astrology concepts and, by layering correspondences, conclude with mapping all cards to an Astrology Wheel. Once your wheel is completed, you have a permanent reference sheet for looking up the five tarot cards related to any day of the year.
Completed Astrology Wheel from The Great Work Book highlighting the cards of the first decan of Leo.
The Five of Wands & the Color Wheel
When we explore the astrology of the decans, we can use Zodiac signs, elements, and ruling planets to discover a unique color set for each of the thirty-six decans of the solar year. These astrological color sets can be found by using the Color Wheel of the Golden Dawn.
The chart below is for color only; a Zodiac sign sharing a color with a planet doesn't imply planetary rulership.
The Color Wheel of the Golden Dawn showing the colors associated with the first decan of Leo.
Saturn is the ruling planet of the first decan of Leo. On this color wheel, Saturn is paired with the color INDIGO. The combination of RED from the Element of Fire, the YELLOW of Leo, the ORANGE of the Sun, and the INDIGO of Saturn creates a palette of very bold colors that can be seen in both the Thoth and Rider-Waite Tarot.
ASTROLOGY COLORS
ELEMENT: Fire = Red
ZODIAC: Leo = Yellow
ZODIAC PLANET: Sun = Orange
DECAN PLANET: Saturn = Indigo
See if you can use the above color wheel to find these associations.
The Five of Wands on the Tree of Life
Mapping tarot to the Tree of Life reveals interesting connections that help us create a deeper narrative linked to our birth date. The Tree shows relationships between elements, planets, astrology, Hebrew meanings, and colors. The Great Work Book is carefully crafted to serve as an easy-to-use resource for all this information, enabling students to explore and deepen their understanding of these mystical subjects.
Finding and understanding tarot color correspondences can be challenging. The Great Work Book features a detailed reference section that includes the complete Golden Dawn Color Scales, along with charts for symbols, Hebrew letters, and tarot comparisons. Its Qabalistic Color Chart reproduces the Golden Dawn Color Scales and adds associations like element, tarot suit, Hebrew, and qabalistic position to help you identify the colors for any tarot card.
All Minor Arcana correspond to the Tree of Life by their number. The Fives relate to the Fifth Sphere, Geburah. The Wands, associated with Fire, are represented in the World of Fire, Atziluth. In Atziluth, the color scale is called the KING SCALE.
So we say: Atziluth of Geburah. In simple terms, this means the Element of Fire in Sphere 5 or The Five of Wands. The fifth color of the King Scale is listed as ORANGE. You can easily find ORANGE mixed with the RED of fire in all three cards.
The Five of Wands, Strife, and its color palette based on the Golden Dawn Color Wheel and Color Scales. Decks: Rider-Waite Tarot, Thoth Tarot, Golden Dawn Tarot.
In the tarot, it is often a practice to bring the pure colors from the PRIMARY or first of the Four Worlds (Fire, Spirit) into the art of a card. Since we are already in the KING SCALE of COLOR, the PRIMARY COLOR is the same, ORANGE.
Since the tree's forces move downward, it is also common practice to include the influencing color from above in the same color scale. The Threes are situated directly above the Fives on the Pillar of Severity. This color is listed as CRIMSON in the Golden Dawn Color Scales.
CRIMSON and RED are often indistinguishable from one another in the same palette.
Another technique is to use the color of the Court Card Element from the same Pillar on the TOL. This color is BLUE, as the Queens of the Tarot are connected to the Element of Water and mapped at the head of The Pillar of Severity. Blue is found in all three cards.
Thank you for taking the time to visit Numinous Press! We sincerely hope you find our carefully curated articles both informative and enlightening as you explore the fascinating realms of tarot, astrology, qabalah, occultism, and esoteric philosophy. Logging your journey into these mystical subjects begins here!