In the cards this week: endurance and joy

We can do it!

This week's Minoan Tarot cards are looking good!

Nine of Daggers: You do indeed have the stamina, endurance, and strength of character to reach your goals no matter what obstacles lie in the way.

Ten of Rhytons: You have beautiful, joyous relationships with people you care about. Let that joy fill you up and hold you steady no matter what happens around you.

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This morning’s cards put a smile on my face as soon as I turned them over. We’ve been treading water for a while, just getting by, doing our best in the face of all the issues these Interesting Times are throwing at us. I’m glad to see some positive messages in today’s cards.

This week’s first card is reassuring: We do indeed have what it takes to get through it all. There’s a sense in which the Nine of Daggers is the “lowercase” version of the Strength card; it resonates with many of the same concepts.

Back in the Dark Ages (ha!) when my first Tarot teacher had me come up with my own personal keyword for each card in the deck, the one I chose for this card was steadfastness.

There are multiple angles to this idea, all of them helpful in any era but especially buoying right now. This card speaks to the strength you don’t know you have, but that you discover when you’re pushed into a difficult situation. It also represents the ability to safeguard yourself, become aware of danger ahead of time, and prepare accordingly.

This angle leans into the concept of intuition, which is usually categorized as a Water suit (Cups, Rhytons) quality. But I think intuition, that inner voice, can be applied to any of the suits in different ways. Here, it’s that Fire-based gut feeling that spurs you to action.

This card’s ultimate message is to keep on keepin’ on, no matter how long or twisted the path appears to be. Because we’ll get there in the end.

This week’s second card is the secret joy that will help us keep on keepin’ on: our deep relationships with the people we care about.

It’s all about family. That’s the strength that keeps us going, the fuel for our Fire, the salve for our wounds.

Family has many different looks. It can be your close circle of friends, your biological or chosen family, your spiritual group… any collection of people with whom you have deep, meaningful, long-term ties.

Our connections with each other on the ground, at the grassroots level, give meaning to our lives regardless of what’s going on at the national or international level.

Those connections feed our souls, and they also provide us with practical resources when we’re having difficulties.

There’s a story I’ve heard in several different variations, but the basic version goes something like this:

A person dies, and their spirit is being shown around the afterlife by a guide. First they’re shown a place where a group of people is sitting around a large pot of food. They’re miserable, sitting in silence, each one separate from the others, and they’re starving.

The spirit asks the guide what’s going on and why the people are so miserable.

The guide explains that the spoons that are available here are all so long that even though it’s possible to get a spoonful of food from the pot, it’s not possible to put the food in your mouth. So all the people are perpetually hungry even though there’s plenty of food.

The guide then takes the spirit to another place, where there’s another group of people sitting around another large pot of food. These people are visibly well-fed, cheerful, chatting with each other, sitting close together, occasionally hugging each other.

The spirit notices that this place has the same ridiculously long spoons as the first place, but here, the people are happy and not starving. The spirit asks why this is so.

The guide responds: Here, the people have learned to feed each other.

Let’s feed each other, shall we?

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About Laura Perry

I'm the founder and Temple Mom of Ariadne's Tribe, a worldwide inclusive Minoan spiritual tradition. I'm also an author, artist, and creator who works magic with words, paint, ink, music, textiles, and herbs. My spiritual practice includes spirit work and herbalism through the lens of lifelong animism. I write pagan / polytheist / magical non-fiction and fiction across several different subjects and genres. My Minoan title in the Moon Books Pantheons series is now available for pre-order and will be released on 26 August 2025. While that process percolates along, I’m finishing up the illustrations for a book of modern Minoan myths which will be released on 21 June 2025. I’m also an avid herb and vegetable gardener and living history demonstrator.