In the cards this week: power and compassion

Personal power, that is, and compassion for all

This week's Minoan Tarot cards:

The High Priest: Pay attention to where your abilities lie and what you really want to do with your life, and take action accordingly. Find your personal power and use it to manifest your life path.

Youth of Rhytons: Allow your affection for others and your loving kindness to come through. It will make a difference to those around you.

This deck is my creation, my art. Deck details and lots more card pix here.

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This week’s cards offer us some powerful tools for dealing with everything these interesting times are throwing at us. For the new folks (welcome!), every Sunday I draw two cards from my Minoan Tarot deck to help us navigate the upcoming week. The first card, the one on the left in the photo, comes from the top of the deck. It offers helpful ideas for navigating whatever the world throws at us in the upcoming seven days. The second card, the one on the right, is the “secret treasure": it offers hidden insight into how we can find joy within the chaos, to keep us steady and heart-centered.

The first card I turned over this morning, The High Priest, is all about your personal power and how you manifest it in the world. A lot of us are feeling less-than-powerful right now, maybe even powerless, as chaotic forces swirl around us in the Big World.

I don’t know about you, but these days, I frequently find myself wanting to crawl into a cave somewhere and just sit in the dark and quiet, away from it all. It can be overwhelming. It can feel like I have no agency.

Then along comes the High Priest card, telling me a different story.

The High Priest is all about outward action: how you manifest your story in the world.

It strikes me that even though this card is the one from the top of the deck, even though it talks about outward action, it also holds a secret: that we’re all probably capable of much more than we think we are.

What we think of ourselves - the stories we tell ourselves about who we really are - shape (and limit) what we believe ourselves to be capable of.

The High Priest asks us to rewrite those stories, expanding our horizons and allowing ourselves to acknowledge what we really know, deep down, about our own abilities and desires. This means not allowing anyone else to define us or tell us who we are. It also means that, once we’ve admitted to ourselves who we are and what we’re capable of, we need to take that next step and act on that information.

The High Priest is about action in the outer world, based on inner knowledge.

This week’s second card is also a reminder of who we are, and a guide to the secret treasure that will help us find joy. The big secret: compassion.

There’s precious little of it in the Big World right now.

If I had to describe the Youth of Rhytons as a person, they would be the one who loves everyone unreservedly and without judgment, wears their heart on their sleeve, brings home every stray animal (and human)… I’m sure you’ve known people like this.

(Please note that the face cards in the Minoan Tarot do not represent gendered individuals, but rather, personality traits that can appear in anyone of any gender.)

Now obviously, it’s not practical to literally bring home every stray you find. And there are lots of people doing bad things in the world right now, so it can certainly be difficult to love everyone with an open heart.

But the Youth of Rhytons speaks to our compassion, our ability to recognize our own worth and that of others. Our ability to acknowledge that we’re all connected.

It’s tempting to close ourselves off, harden ourselves to everything that’s going on. But that won’t help us or anyone else.

To paraphrase a famous quote, Be the compassion you want to see in the world.

That doesn’t mean dropping your boundaries or refusing to call out the problematic issues of our day.

It does mean remaining open to seeing each other’s humanity, to experiencing our connections with the natural world, to feeling compassion and yes, even love for others.

The people who are doing so much damage in the world right now have hardened themselves, closed themselves off. Let’s not be like them.

Let’s be fierce in our compassion, in our loving kindness, in our generosity of spirit.

Why? Because adding more compassion to the world is always a good thing. And because together, we are joy!

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You can find the Minoan Tarot here, my books here, and my art here and here. I do apologize, but due to unpleasant activity from trolls, I’ve had to limit comments to subscribers only. I hope you understand.

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 book of modern Minoan myths is now available in paperback, keepsake hardcover edition, and ebook. My Minoan title in the Moon Books Pantheons series is available for pre-order and will be released on 26 August 2025. I’m also an avid herb and vegetable gardener and living history demonstrator (just in case you thought all I ever did was write books and make art).