In the cards this week: Hard Times

Let your passions pull you out of the abyss

This week's Minoan Tarot cards:

Ten of Labryses: Things are about as bad as they can get. What you thought was true turns out to be false. This is hard and unpleasant, but you will get through it, and then it will be time to start fresh.

Lord of Daggers: Go ahead and throw yourself into whatever lights your passions. Others will follow, and together you will find beauty to offset the darkness.

---

You may recognize the Ten of Labryses by its counterpart in the Waite-Smith deck: the Ten of Swords.**

Not exactly the card I wanted to pull on a Monday morning, but here we are.

It’s not the end of the world, by any means. And I can’t say I’m surprised to see this card, given the way things are going these days, both in the Big World and in many of our private lives. So I decided to see what constructive concepts I could find in such apparent destruction.

One of the aspects of the Tarot that I really love is that there’s a hidden tapestry that weaves the cards together, not just the Major Arcana cards with each other and the Minors with each other, but a variety of different cards throughout the deck, layer upon layer. I explored one set of those interwoven layers a couple of weeks ago.

Now we’ve turned up another card that has an interesting connection.

The Ten of Labryses has something of a relationship with the Tower. They’re both about things falling apart, the situation being about as bad as it can be. The main difference between the two is scale: Minor Arcana cards tend to be more limited in scope than Majors, more here and now and less your whole life.

But both the Ten of Labryses and the Tower speak not just of things falling apart. They point to the collapse and destruction as something that needed to happen. Whether it’s a worldview or a relationship or some other physical or mental/emotional/spiritual situation, these cards offer the wisdom that sometimes, the tower needs to fall.

Sometimes, the only way to get the situation to change in the way it needs to points to that old adage: The only way out is through.

So this week, when you’re find yourself clinging to the things that no longer serve you, and the situation collapses in a mess, know that you’ll be able to dust yourself off and step through it to a new beginning.

In the meantime, we can turn to our second card for a hint as to how to handle all the Fun Things this week is liable to throw at us.

The Lord of Daggers is a passionate person, encouraging us all to throw ourselves headlong into whatever lights our fire.

In Interesting Times, it can be difficult to find the energy to deal with all our responsibilities, all the stuff that has to be done on a daily basis. It’s tempting to slip down into apathy, numbing ourselves as a protective measure.

The Lord of Daggers suggests a healthier alternative: give yourself permission to be passionate about your favorite things, or explore new subjects and find new favorites. Choose to spend time on those activities and subjects that fire you up.

Let your passion and enthusiasm for those things fuel your soul and bring you joy.

We all need every little tidbit of joy we can find these days. It is precious.

I wish you a week of passion and joy, and peaceful passages through change.

** For the new folks, the Minor Arcana cards in my Minoan Tarot deck are color-coded by suit so it’s easy to remember what’s what. Labryses, the Air suit, is yellow. Daggers, the Fire suit, is red. Rhytons, the Water suit, is blue. And Horns, the Earth suit, is green.

---

My Substack is free, but I appreciate your support for my work by liking, commenting, and sharing these posts and by purchasing my creations (yes, a writer/artist counts as a small business!). You can find the Minoan Tarot here, my books here, and my art here and here.

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 this summer. I’m also an avid herb and vegetable gardener and living history demonstrator.