In the cards this week: Fire and Water

Dealing with our inner and outer worlds

This week's Minoan Tarot cards:

Five of Daggers: Obstacles, complications, and difficulties. Nothing unexpected for these Interesting Times, really. But they are made far worse when we reflect our own fear and anxiety onto the situation. So take a step back and take a deep breath. These bumps in the road will smooth out as we go along, but only if we face them honestly.

Priestess of Rhytons: Lean into your intuition and empathy, and let them steady you. While your relationships with others are important, a healthy relationship with your own emotions is paramount.

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Fire and Water. A pair of opposites for our unbalanced world, to help keep us in balance.

More years ago than I care to admit, I learned to read Tarot from the woman who was my first priestess. Among other helpful hints, she suggested that I choose a keyword for each card as a sort of “doorway” into each card’s meaning. Not a word from the little white book (or larger companion book) that came with the deck, but a word of my own choosing, one that made sense to me and encapsulated the concepts the card was trying to get across in a reading.

Our first card for this week is the Five of Daggers, one of the Fire suit cards (note how the background is red to help you remember which element the suit is associated with). This card in my Minoan Tarot deck corresponds to the Five of Wands in the Waite-Smith deck.

You know, the one that’s often meme-captioned with the words “stupid tent.”

For this card, I chose a personal keyword that’s a bit more colorful than the ones I picked for the rest of the deck: clusterfuck.

That’s certainly how the Big World feels right now, isn’t it?

But what the Five of Daggers points to, as much as the idiocy going on around us, is the fear and anxiety going on inside us.

It can be challenging to maintain a sense of inner calm in chaotic times. I’m no Ascended Master, and you’re probably not one, either. But we can take a few moments to check in with ourselves and make sure we’re not spiraling into more darkness than our individual situations warrant.

It’s not the literal end of the world, even though some days Ye Olde Amygdala (the emotion/fear center of the brain) wants to insist that it is.

This is definitely a time to be taking lots of deep breaths and using whatever anxiety-relieving methods you’ve found work for you. Don’t let the noise of the Big World convince you that it’s worse than it is (it’s bad enough, but again, it’s not the end of the world). And don’t let the anxiety spiral until you can’t function. Be on the watch for it, catch it early, and do your best to deal with it. Find support among friends and family. Get professional help if necessary. Make your mental health a priority, if it isn’t already.

Then we can turn to our second card to help us deal with the onslaught and find, perhaps, a bit of peace and maybe even some joy.

The Five of Daggers points to fear and anxiety, while the Priestess of Rhytons leads us to pay attention to our intuition and empathy.

Our connections with each other are important, but equally important is each person’s connection with their inner self.

Stay grounded and centered, using whatever method works for you. If you don’t have a method, do an online search for “grounding and centering” and try out a few different things until you find the one that clicks. For some people, guided visualizations and other mental techniques work well. Other people need something more corporeal, like yoga or tai chi.

Once you’ve found what works for you, do it regularly. It’s worth taking the time to do it, because it will make the whole rest of your life that much more bearable, and maybe even enjoyable.

Then tune in to your inner voice. It knows what’s really going on. It’s the steady hum in the background behind that screaming anxiety. It’s at your core, and it will keep you solid and grounded and connected with yourself — and with the divine, if you’re into that sort of thing.

No matter how loud the big world is, keep focused on your inner voice, your intuition, your heart center. Doing that is like the mental/spiritual equivalent of listening to a single person talking to you in a loud, crowded party: It takes practice, but eventually you’ll get really good at it.

And being tuned in to your own heart center can then help you connect with others in an authentic way. Your groundedness will help others stay grounded. Your empathy will help them be more empathetic.

It ripples out, slowly and gently, one person at a time.

We’re all in this together.

I wish you a week of inner steadiness and calm.

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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 working on an illustrated book of modern Minoan myths which will be released this summer. I’m also an avid herb and vegetable gardener and living history demonstrator.