Card of the Week: Five of Rods

There is an old saying: A committee is a group of the unwilling chosen from the unfit to do the unnecessary.  And yet, sometimes they can still accomplish great things.

The Five of Rods symbolizes group conflict and struggle, an ambitious agenda or a vital competition.  This could take the form of friendly jousting, unpleasant infighting, overly bold risks for potentially small rewards, or an even larger challenge to authority or established order.  Advancement may still be possible, but it is important to examine the situation from every possible perspective.

Inverted, this card can indicate a dispute that could act as a breakthrough to ending a conflict.  It may involve legal action, or it may be something as simple as refusing to go along with something.

In “The Savage Curtain”, the Enterprise visits a lava-covered planet, from which it receives a transmission in the apparent image of Abraham Lincoln.  After accepting his invitation to visit a suddenly habitable zone on the planet, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are further greeted by famed Vulcan pacifist Surak, then by notorious villains Genghis Khan, Colonel Green, Zora and Kahless.  The rocklike native Yarnek, calling his planet Excalbia, explains that they have all been gathered to study the human concepts of “good” and “evil” and orders them to fight to survive.  At first, Kirk and Spock attempt to negotiate with the other detainees, but after fending off their attacks, resort to fabricating crude weapons to defend themselves and eventually run them off.  Yarnek observes that their tactics are not very different, even if their goals are.