The Nine of Wands as Intentions: To Keep Going, Guardedly

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Nine of Wands as intentions is a plan to not walk away, held with a bandaged head. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Nine of Wands as intentions that are persistent and wary. In an intentions position the card suggests the person means to stay, to keep going with you, while watching for the next blow and braced for it. The intention is loyal. It is also tired, and it comes with scar tissue the person did not get from you, or did.

This is the bandaged figure leaning on a staff with eight more behind. They intend to hold the line. They intend to hold it one more time.

The Nine of Wands upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Nine of Wands guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with resilience, persistence, boundaries and the final test. 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 Wands 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 Wands as a person who intends to stay in it with you despite being hurt: to keep showing up, to keep the boundary, to get through whatever the last test is. They are not planning to open up quickly. They are planning not to leave, and for a Nine of Wands that is the declaration.

What I would not read into it is ease. The Nine of Wands intends to endure. If you need the person to relax, the card is telling you that relaxing is not in their plan yet, and asking them to feels like another test.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the person's wariness is about you rather than their history, that it will ease, or that they will ever fully lower the staff. 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 Wands reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Nine of Wands as intentions describes a plan to give up at the last fence, or a defence so total that no intention toward you can get through it. It can also describe a person whose intention to stay has become stubbornness, holding a position they no longer want out of pride.

In your own question, ask whether the person seems close to simply stopping, or whether they see threats in things that are not threats. 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 Wands as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Nine of Wands as intentions can suggest they still intend something toward you and are heavily guarded against it, braced for the hurt to come again. That is not a closed door. It is a door with someone leaning against it from inside, and only they decide whether to step away. 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 Wands as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes someone who intends to stay interested and is carrying old injuries into it. Patience and consistency are the only things that work. Every kept promise takes a little weight off the staff.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for guarded persistence: they test you, they flinch at small things, they stay. A Nine of Wands intention looks like someone who expects the worst and keeps turning up. The turning up is the intention.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, the ways the person has stayed despite being wary, and the things you have done that might have felt like a blow even if they were not meant as one. The third note helps more than another card.

For comparison, the Seven of Wands as intentions and the Ten of Wands as intentions describe different intentions. The the Nine of Wands card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Nine of Wands as timing and the Nine of Wands 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.