The Cardcast
The Cardcast is a quiet exploration of life, one oracle card at a time. In each episode, we pull a single card and reflect on how its message weaves through the everyday — the moments, questions, and patterns that shape our world. No predictions, no prescriptions — just space to notice, connect, and listen in. Whether you're card-curious or card-devoted, come sit with the symbols.
The Cardcast
Self-Sufficiency in a Connected World
The Nine of Pentacles from the Necronomicon Tarot deck reveals profound wisdom about balancing solitude and connection on our mental health journeys. This card with its lush growth, stone pillars, and solitary white rose teaches us that while some inner work can only be done by ourselves, we can still receive vital support from those around us.
• The Nine of Pentacles represents self-sufficiency and personal responsibility for our growth
• Some thresholds in life can only be crossed by ourselves, particularly in mental health journeys
• Recovery from burnout, grief, depression, or anxiety requires personal inner work
• Solitude differs fundamentally from isolation - we can bloom alone without being lonely
• Support systems provide the fertile environment for our personal growth
• Friends who check in, communities that celebrate small wins, and professional help create nurturing spaces
• Balance between sovereignty and support is vital for developing resilience
• Practice identifying one self-nurturing action and one moment of accepted support each day
For more reflections and a closer look at the cards themselves, find me on Instagram @the_cardcast.
For a closer look at the cards, follow me on Instagram @the_cardcast. For more about mental wellness and psychology, sign up for my newsletter at www.natashasheyenne.com.
Thanks for listening!
Hi there and welcome to the Cardcast. I'm Natasha and I'm so glad you're here. Together we explore the art of noticing the symbols, stories and quiet patterns that surround us every day and how they connect to our mental health and well-being. Each card becomes a way to pause, reflect and anchor ourselves more deeply in the present moment. Reflect and anchor ourselves more deeply in the present moment. So take a deep breath, settle in and let's see what today's card has to offer.
Speaker 1:As we step into the question of who comes with us on life's journeys, the Nine of Pentacles from the Necronomicon Tarot deck rises before us. This card, cloaked in green, lush growth and quiet stone, speaks of both companionship and solitude, of the delicate balance between walking with others and walking alone. At its center we see a great stone wheel, partly weathered, partly overgrown, as though time itself has moved across it like moss, across a tomb. Around it stand stone pillars, ancient yet enduring, each crowned with small terracotta pots, each pot holding its own flame of green life. This is not a wild garden, but a tended one. Garden, but a tended one. Growth here is intentional and each plant, each vine, each flower has been placed, nurtured and cared for. And at the base of the wheel, something quiet, almost humble. There's a single white rose that's growing upward from the soil, reminding us that even amidst abundance, even in a garden full of flourishing, the simplest bloom can hold the greatest meaning.
Speaker 1:The nine of pentacles is often called the card of self-sufficiency. It speaks of the work we do for ourselves, the intertending that cannot be delegated or outsourced or shared. The rose does not ask another to bloom for it. The gardener may water, may nourish, but the blooming itself is personal, internal and inevitable. So this leads to our question today, which is who comes with us on these journeys? The truth is, some journeys we cannot share. A loved one can sit beside us, hold our hand, encourage us to take the next step, but there are thresholds that only we can cross, there are shadows that only we can face and there are inner doors that only we have the key to unlock. Mental journeys often live here, healing from burnout, recovering from grief, navigating depression or anxiety. Again, others can support us, love us, surround us with care, but the deep work of shifting thought patterns, of choosing to breathe through panic, of tending to the raw edges of the heart, that belongs to us. Like the rose at the wheel, it is our blooming alone.
Speaker 1:The Nine of Pentacles also reminds us that solitude does not mean isolation. If we look at the card, though, the rose blooms alone. It is not in an empty field. It's surrounded by stone pillars, by carefully tended plants, by an environment that supports its growth. This is the truth of shared journeys.
Speaker 1:We may bloom alone, but we do not bloom unsupported. Companionship can hold space for us, even when no one can walk through the inner threshold. For us, in real life, this looks like friends who check in, asking how's your heart today. It looks like community that celebrates your small wins, the days you got out of bed, the moments you took a walk, the times you breathed through, instead of collapsing under the weight. It looks like therapy, like coaching or circles of trust where you can bring your truth into the light.
Speaker 1:Support may not carry you across the threshold, but it keeps you steady enough to cross, and so this card teaches us two important lessons about journeys. First, that there are some paths that require solitude, and to deny this is to deny the dignity of our own inner work. We must be willing to face our soil, our roots and our shadows. The second important lesson is that solitude does not mean loneliness. We can create gardens around us, structures of support, so that, even when our work is personal, we're not abandoned. The Nine of Pentacles says build your inner garden, but let the outer world hold you too. For our mental health, this balance is vital. If we lean too far into isolation, we wither, and if we lean too far into dependency, we never develop resilience. So the Nine of Pentacles asks us to practice the art of being alone without being lonely, of being supported without losing our sovereignty.
Speaker 1:So I invite you into a reflection. Think of a journey you are on right now. Perhaps it is healing, perhaps it is growth, perhaps it is a transition or a dream you are chasing and ask yourself what part of this journey is mine alone? Where do I need to stand in my own soil, tend my own roots and trust my own blooming? And then ask what part of this journey is supported by others? Who holds the garden around me? Who makes the space fertile for me to grow? Makes the space fertile for me to grow?
Speaker 1:A simple practice you can do to uncover more of this is, each day this week, write down two things. So, first, one action, however small, that you took for yourself, watering that inner white rose and then, second, one moment of support you allowed in a kind word, a shared laugh, a hand reaching towards yours. Over time, you will see the pattern the rose blooms in solitude, but always in a garden tended by connection. The nine of pentacles calls us to honor both connection. The Nine of Pentacles calls us to honor both the sovereignty of our inner work and the companionship that steadies us as we do it. That's it for today's card. For more reflections and a closer look at the cards themselves, you can find me on Instagram at the underscore cardcast. I'll see you in the next episode.
