Temperance as Intentions: To Take the Middle Path, Slowly

Written by Chaya the Medium.

Temperance as intentions is a plan poured carefully between two cups. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed.

If you want the short answer, I would read Temperance as intentions that are balanced, patient and moderate. In an intentions position the card suggests the person means to find a middle way with you: to blend what you each want, to keep the pace sustainable, to avoid extremes. The intention is sound and it is not dramatic. If you wanted a grand plan, this is a careful one.

This is the angel pouring between two cups with one foot in the water. They intend the mixture. They intend not to spill.

Temperance upright as intentions

Tina Gong's Temperance guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with balance, moderation, patience and purpose. 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; Temperance as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The Major Arcana overview at Biddy Tarot is a useful second reference.

Upright, I read Temperance as a person who intends harmony: to compromise, to meet you partway, to let things develop at a measured pace. They are not planning to overwhelm you or to be overwhelmed. They are planning to keep everything in proportion, and that includes their own feeling.

What I would not read into it is urgency or passion. Temperance intends a sustainable blend. If the question needed heat, the card is saying the person intends warmth instead, and the two are different.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the person intends more than a balanced friendship, that their moderation is not caution, or that the blend they have in mind matches the one you want. 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.

Temperance reversed as intentions

Reversed, Temperance as intentions describes balance lost: a plan that swings between too much and nothing, an intention to keep you at a careful distance disguised as moderation, or a person so busy balancing that they never commit to anything. It can also describe someone who intends to fit you into their life and cannot without something else overflowing.

In your own question, ask whether the person's warmth comes in surges and droughts, or whether they seem unable to blend you into what they already have. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

Temperance as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, Temperance as intentions can suggest their intentions toward you have settled into something calm and proportionate: goodwill, perhaps friendship, a measured peace. It does not usually describe an intention to return, and when it does, the return is intended slowly and carefully. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

Temperance as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes an even, patient intention from someone who wants whatever this is to be sustainable. Match the pace. Temperance responds to steadiness and is put off by intensity it did not ask for.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for consistency and proportion: the same warmth on Monday as on Saturday, gradual inclusion in their life, no promises made faster than they can be kept. A Temperance intention is visible in its evenness.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, how even the person's intention has been over the last month, and whether a slow, balanced plan is one you can be happy with. The third note is honest about you.

For comparison, Strength as intentions and the Star as intentions describe different intentions. The Temperance card meaning page covers the card in full, and Temperance as a person and Temperance 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.