The Five of Pentacles as Intentions: To Stay Outside, Believing They Are Not Welcome

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Five of Pentacles as intentions is a plan made in the snow. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed, and why the window matters.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Five of Pentacles as intentions shaped by lack. In an intentions position the card suggests the person wants in and does not believe they are welcome, or feels they have nothing to offer, or feels abandoned by you, and so intends to stay outside rather than knock. The intention is self-excluding. The lit window in the picture is right there.

This is the two figures in the snow passing the church window. They intend to keep walking. They do not believe the door is for them.

The Five of Pentacles upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Five of Pentacles guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with need, poverty, insecurity and isolation. When the card lands in a position that asks what someone intends toward you, I read those meanings as the shape of their plan rather than as a promise about what they will do. Feelings and intentions are different questions; the Five of Pentacles as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The general card meanings at Biddy Tarot are a useful second reference.

Upright, I read the Five of Pentacles as a person whose intention toward you is held back by a sense of unworthiness: they would come in, they would reach out, they would ask, and they are certain they are not good enough or not wanted. It may be love wearing shame. It may be a sense of real rejection. Either way, they are planning to walk past the window.

What I would not read into it is indifference. The figures in the snow are not walking away from warmth because they do not want it. They do not believe the door is theirs.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm you have excluded the person, that their sense of lack is accurate, or that opening the door would be enough to bring them in. No card lets a reader see another person's plans. What a card can do is describe the kind of intention that fits the person's behaviour, and give you something to check against what they actually do.

The Five of Pentacles reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Five of Pentacles as intentions describes coming in from the cold or hardening against it: a person who has started to believe the window is for them and intends to try the door, or one whose sense of exclusion has become bitterness and who intends to stay out on principle.

In your own question, ask whether the person has recently let themselves be helped or welcomed, or whether they have turned feeling left out into resentment of you. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Five of Pentacles as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Five of Pentacles as intentions can suggest they feel cast out, abandoned, left in the cold by the ending, and intend not to come back even if they want to, because they do not feel worthy of it. People in the snow rarely knock. If you want them in, the door opens from inside, and that is your decision. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Five of Pentacles as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes someone who intends you and feels they do not deserve to, or that you are out of reach. Warmth and plainness help. Being impressive makes the window look higher.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for self-deprecation and hanging back: not asking for things, assuming they are a burden, surprise at kindness. A Five of Pentacles intention looks like someone standing in the cold who wants in.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, the ways the person has shown they feel outside or unworthy, and whether you have, without meaning to, left the door closed. The third note is worth looking at honestly.

For comparison, the Nine of Swords as intentions and the Six of Pentacles as intentions describe different intentions. The the Five of Pentacles card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Five of Pentacles as timing and the Five of Pentacles as a yes or no cover the other questions people most often ask of it. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.