The Nine of Swords as Intentions: To Worry About It, Rather Than Act

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Nine of Swords as intentions is a plan rehearsed at three in the morning and never carried out. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Nine of Swords as intentions that are consumed by worry. In an intentions position the card suggests the person thinks about you constantly, fears the worst, rehearses what they would do, and does not do it. The intention is real and it is being eaten by anxiety. Nobody loses sleep over a person they intend nothing toward.

This is the figure sitting up in bed with head in hands. They intend something. They intend it most at three in the morning, when nothing can be done.

The Nine of Swords upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Nine of Swords guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with anxiety, hopelessness, trauma and nightmares. 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 Nine of Swords 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 Nine of Swords as a person whose plans toward you have become fear: that they will lose you, that they have ruined it, that they are not enough, that you will leave. The intention to act is strong and keeps being overtaken by dread, which makes it hard for them to carry out and hard for you to read.

What I would not read into it is that the fear is about something real. The swords are on the wall. The person's anxiety may have very little to do with the actual state of things between you.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the person will act, that their fear is about you rather than their own history, or that reassurance from you will reach them. 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 Nine of Swords reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Nine of Swords as intentions describes the night ending or the fear going underground: a person whose anxiety is easing enough to intend something and act on it, or one who has stopped talking about the worry while it carries on beneath and keeps the plan frozen.

In your own question, ask whether the person seems calmer and more able to act, or whether they have gone quiet in a way that suggests the fear went underground. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Nine of Swords as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Nine of Swords as intentions can suggest they lie awake about you, about what went wrong, about whether to reach out. That is caring, and it is caring in a form that rarely leads to action. Anxious people rehearse reaching out and then do not. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Nine of Swords as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes someone who intends to approach you and is frightened by it, often because of what happened last time. Steadiness helps. Drama, even happy drama, feeds the fear.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for worry that leaks: over-apologising, anxious check-ins, assuming the worst about a slow reply, needing reassurance and being embarrassed about it. A Nine of Swords intention looks like a plan with the volume stuck on fear.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, the fears the person has expressed or shown, and what you can honestly offer by way of steadiness. The third note is the only medicine a card can point to.

For comparison, the Eight of Swords as intentions and the Moon as intentions describe different intentions. The the Nine of Swords card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Nine of Swords as timing and the Nine of Swords 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.