week 12: shared effort

Cards from The Infinite Door (tarot) with art by Krys Maniecki and booklet by Pamela Love

In short order, this odd deck (The Infinite Door — a tarot, mass market, Sterling Ethos) has become a go-to. I kind of love it, even though a few of the cards (including The Lovers, above) feel like they’re from another pack. I looooove the cardstock and the sorta semi Dalí-esque art. Props to the artist! I love using it and it reads like buttah. 

Anyway, I’ve drawn a cross of five, with the Nine of Cups in the center. I saw this card a few times this weekend, including in a couple client readings. It’s a card that makes a lot of sense. Though it’s often thought of as “the wish card,” nines aren’t easy. It’s the burnout number; the experience of feeling we’re never going to reach the finish line. And given this really underscores that. In fact, we have two nines including The Hermit. We feel alone (Hermit), emotionally spent (9/cups), and as though we’ll never escape the relentlessness of thinking about how life is exhausting is and will always be (8/swords, pentacles). 

The eights, though, take a step back. And that’s important—because it is from that vantage point we’re able to see a littler clearer. The eights represent effort, labor, and in this context that may sound shitty, it’s simply part of being alive. By nature of being sentient, we have to be active. Adding the Five of Wands reminds us that if we want anything to change, we have to keep putting out the energy to make it so. 

What’s fascinating are the cards above and below the Nine of Cups: Lovers and the Ace of Cups. For one thing, we’re not alone—and for another, we’re actually moving toward an emotional reset. 

To provide more context, I drew even more cards, because that’s how we do around here these days. The Nine of Wands with The Lovers might signal exhaustion, but it also reminds us that things are more sustainable when the effort is shared, the energy is shared. Meaning it’s fine of you need a nap, but if you stop doing your part you’re actually letting someone else down—they have to carry both your weights, now. We have a responsibility to keep going and to keep expending the energy that we can, because otherwise we’re betraying our community. 

The Ace of Cups had the Knight of Cups and the King of Swords added—the Knight reminding us that we only get access to this emotional reset if we go looking for it; the King of Swords telling us we’re smart enough to know that. And just to see, I added yet another card—the Page of Swords. This child is far more energetic. So, we’re actually just being a little dramatic; we have more mental energy, anyway, that we give ourselves credit for, and if we can expend that, if we can keep moving toward that reset, keep sharing the load, we’re all going to get to that point sooner. 

We can’t give up just because we’re tired. Everyone gets a nap; no one gets a coma. ​