Do you wanna get this done or just show off?

Tarot of the Hidden Realm (Moore and Jeffery 2013)

It's the 5 of Wands but these faerie kids are not hitting each other with sticks. They're climbing a tree. So where's the conflict?

True, the faerie-lings aren't hitting each other, but they aren't helping each other, either. They are all trying to climb the same tree, but each is doing it by himself, oblivious to the others (well, the one guy seems to be smirking at the kid who looks like he wishes he'd never climbed this far and wonders how he can get back down, but other than that, most of the others are just climbing upward.)

If these five worked together, they could no doubt quickly come up with a cooperative way to get them all to the top of the tree easily, safely and systematically. But they're not working together, they're just bashing away at the task individually. See?

Wands are the element Fire, representing motivation, individualism, conscious pursuit of personal development -- all good things. The number here is Five, representing uncertainty, adversity, activity, movement, crisis, shifts. So Five of Wands is going to represent action in crisis, personal growth in adversity or uncertainty. I think we associated Five of Wands with 'conflict' because the RWS card shows five boys hitting each other with sticks, whereas perhaps the essence that was meant to be depicted was actually something more subtle.  

Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot asserts, 'This is a card of going through the motions of activity but not actually getting anythign done. The characters are young and full of show, but all is not as it seems. Waite says it is "mimic warfare" and "imitation". In a reading, it would say to not be impressed by what appears to be happening; it could merely be for show' (Katz, 248).  Okay, so are the kids here mostly showing off for each other, and really don't have any grand desire to climb a tree? Probably. It's likely to be one of these double-dog dares (and I bet the mean-looking kid hanging from a branch near the bottom started it -- he probably won't go far before dropping out of the tree, laughing at them all and running off home!)

I guess this card could be telling me to be careful today to look out for false conflicts, petty squabbles that could just be idle posturing. Also, find ways to work together to achieve a goal -- if it turns out to be a goal you even want to achieve, and not something you may have been goaded into.