The Nature & Temperament Motivation

What Nature & Temperament looks like in an animal

The self-directed path. This animal lives by its own nature first: it decides when to come, when to be touched, and when it has had enough. Confident and self-reliant, it entertains itself, handles being alone better than most, and rarely performs for approval - which can read as aloofness when it is really just self-possession. Force and repetition drills work badly here; choice works. Offer the invitation, let it accept, and it will come to you far more often than if you had insisted. Its temperament stays remarkably consistent across its whole life: an easy-going one stays easy-going, and a particular one stays particular.

What Nature & Temperament asks of you

And this is the half that is not about the animal at all. A person's mandate asks something of the person who has it; an animal cannot act on its own — it cannot go and find work, practise being alone, or seek out better company. So every one of these six asks something of the keeper instead.

What this one asks is that you stop trying to win. An animal on this mandate is its own reference point and was never going to be talked out of that, so every plan built on changing who it is will fail slowly and expensively, and the failing will look like stubbornness rather than like a bad plan. The work is yours: find out what this creature actually is, and then arrange the household around it instead of against it. It goes wrong in two directions. The commoner one is years spent training against the grain — the same correction, the same result, a widening gap between you. The rarer one is surrender dressed as acceptance, where nothing is asked at all and a self-possessed animal is left with no structure to be self-possessed inside. Working well, this is the easiest of the six to live with, because what it does today is what it will do in four years and you can plan on it.

The human reading of the same mandate is self-knowledge. This one is instructions, which is the whole difference between the Inner Persona mandate and this page.

Nature & Temperament as a palace, and as a Motivation

Every animal has all twelve palaces and exactly one Motivation, and a Motivation is always one of six particular palaces seen in a larger role. So the Nature & Temperament palace describes one part of an animal's life, and this page describes what it means when that part is the thing the whole life organises itself around. Reading the pair is the fastest way to see the difference.

A pet reaches both at Bond Level 3, one rung later than a person, because its first two rungs go on species and breed and then on birth year. Nothing else arrives with it: there are no Karma Credits, no Vessel Stats and no Difficulty reading on a pet ladder at any rung.

The other five mandates

A chart returns one of six and never a blend of two, so the five below are the alternatives this one was read instead of.

• Bloodline & Luck— path of lineage and luck
• Play & Purpose— path of work and purpose
• Socialising & Impressions— path of roaming and meeting
• Territory & Treats— path of food, treats and treasured things
• Affection— path of the bonded pair

Frequently asked

What does the Nature & Temperament Motivation mean in an animal?

The self-directed path. This animal lives by its own nature first: it decides when to come, when to be touched, and when it has had enough. Confident and self-reliant, it entertains itself, handles being alone better than most, and rarely performs for approval - which can read as aloofness when it is really just self-possession. Force and repetition drills work badly here; choice works. Offer the invitation, let it accept, and it will come to you far more often than if you had insisted. Its temperament stays remarkably consistent across its whole life: an easy-going one stays easy-going, and a particular one stays particular.

What does the Nature & Temperament Motivation ask of me as a keeper?

What this one asks is that you stop trying to win. An animal on this mandate is its own reference point and was never going to be talked out of that, so every plan built on changing who it is will fail slowly and expensively, and the failing will look like stubbornness rather than like a bad plan. The work is yours: find out what this creature actually is, and then arrange the household around it instead of against it. It goes wrong in two directions. The commoner one is years spent training against the grain — the same correction, the same result, a widening gap between you. The rarer one is surrender dressed as acceptance, where nothing is asked at all and a self-possessed animal is left with no structure to be self-possessed inside. Working well, this is the easiest of the six to live with, because what it does today is what it will do in four years and you can plan on it.

Is this the same as the Inner Persona Motivation for a person?

It is the same cell of the same cast chart, and it asks something completely different. A person's mandate asks something of the person who has it — that is what a Motivation is for them. An animal cannot act on its own mandate at all: it cannot go and find work, practise being alone, or seek out better company. So every one of these six asks something of you instead. The human reading is self-knowledge; this one is a set of instructions.

When can I read my pet's Motivation?

At Bond Level 3, which is one rung later than a person reaches theirs. An animal's first two rungs are spent on species and breed, and then on birth year and gender, so the birth hour that actually casts a chart is the last thing it is given rather than the first. There are 6 mandates in total and a chart returns exactly one, never a blend — the other 5 are Bloodline & Luck, Play & Purpose, Socialising & Impressions, Territory & Treats, Affection.