learn with me – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Learn With Me: Oracle Dice & The Accuser

Sometimes that banging you hear is obstacles being removed.

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Oracle Dice & cards used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC. Card art by czarfunkle

It’s called a lithotripter.

Life takes you to some pretty strange places. Writing a blog post comparing an oracle card to a high end medical device was not on my bingo card for today, but here we are. That odd combination is what the collective energy – “spirit” if you will – is using to communicate today.

When we first rolled – drew – something – this die to be one of the seven learning dice, the single face we rolled was “ruin.”

It has all of the obvious parallels with Tarot’s Tower card.

When I first saw the Lord Card for the obstacle die, it was of those “I got nothin'” moments, so naturally I went to the source material, the guidebook, for inspiration. The moral of that story is you won’t always be able to read every little thing purely intuitively. I’m only talking about reading for yourself, I do NOT teach you to read for other people, ever. But that’s a topic for another day. Long story short, when you get nothing intuitively from a card or dice or whatever oracle you are using, it is perfectly valid to combine the silent oracle whatever-it-is (in this case the card/die combo) with other inspiration (the room around you, the song on the radio, the guide book, some other guidebook – anything can help.)

One aspect of the card speaks of wrongful accusations, anything from the dog ate my homework blame dodging to being the chosen fall-guy, the one rejected and reviled by those whom the fall-guy has faithfully served, and maybe still serves.

I get a black sheep of the family vibe there.

Rather than the bringer of underserved accusations and derision, the Accuser can also be the bringer of obstacles. That can be experienced as the doom, gloom, destruction and chaos of the Tower and Devil cards. There is, however, another layer of meaning proposed.

The most important lessons are sometimes learned the hard way, and in doing so that removes self-imposed obstacles and clears the way to better things.

The accuser, as with light-bringer Lucifer, challenges us and blocks us to show us our weaknesses, our ignorance, our undue attachments.

Or, as the adage goes, that which doesn’t kill us can make us stronger.

The Accuser bangs at us and challenges us – but maybe, just maybe, all that banging and destruction and chaos is the sound of obstacles being removed.

A lithotripter uses shock waves to break up a harmful kidney stones into small enough pieces that it can be passed harmlessly out of the body by the urinary system. The kidney stone is crushed and essentially destroyed. Sudden destruction removes the blockage and makes things better in a literal way.

The same is true of The Accuser’s energy. Yes, absolutely, sometimes The Devil, The Tower or The Accuser is a storm warning for us, asking us to take action because bad stuff happens in life and forewarned is forearmed.

Other times, obstacles come our way to make us stronger (spiritual weight lifting?) For we humans, the hard way is the only way we learn some lessons.

On occasion, if we learn well, that banging we hear is actually the sound of obstacles being destroyed instead of our impending doom.

Learn with Me: Oracle Dice, Act With Justice

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think the universe is telling me to stop screwing around and get back to Taijiquan and Qi Gong practice. Maybe not right this second, but you know, more often than lately. In addition to all of the physical and mental health benefits, martial arts is a spiritual happy place for me. I’ve only ever studied Chinese styles. It’s chicken or egg which came first: affinity for Taoist thought or Tai Chi classes, but they both are my happy place. When I’m not in yin magician mode, Yang warrior mode is the place to be. And I’ve noticed a fair bit of warrior archetype energy around lately.

First it was the Ace of Wands over the weekend:

(I really appreciate it when you follow the sage sips blog, follow the socials, like, share etc so you don’t miss any incidental stuff like this…Thanks!)

There is the obvious connection with today’s dice – the action die under the Knight of Action lord card.

The “judgement” face first turned up when we were rolling to find the 7 learning dice out of the 22 dice in the whole set. This die as a whole combined with the lord card is very much a blend of the Knight of Swords card blended with the major arcana Judgement card from the Tarot deck.

The card and the dice truly is active, and spurs action on our part but not movement for its own sake.

Think about kendo and kenjutsu martial arts. In the movies, we see master swordsmen begin utterly motionless as they seem to assess the situation and read their opponent. Even in action -packed movie choriography were we don’t see that element portrayed, things like Star Wars for example, thought is still part of the lore. Jedi knights listen to and follow the Force, even if that part seems to happen instantaneously with the blaster’s bolt.

This is very much the warrior’s discipline.

This isn’t action for action’s sake, doing something, anything just to avoid the feeling of doing nothing.

Don’t forget, listening, thinking, reasoning, judging, feeling are all things to do. Doing those things IS doing something.

And they are key somethings that set the warrior apart from a bar-room brawler. Discipline, thought, training, and self-control are all key. And they are all reflected in this die and card.

I am reminded of the G.K. Chesterson quote “a {warrior} fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.”

In Tarot, swords are associated with mind and intellect as well as action. They represent authority and relationship with society and in doing so connect with compassion. Like the “fierce compassion” in Doctor Who’s “The Witches Familiar” episode.

The art on the card also reminds me of Bismouth Gem in Steven Universe, but I don’t remember the show well enough to make the connection here. I’ll leave that with you to decide if it brings anything to mind or resonates for you. Cool character as I remember, though.

“Actions begin within.”

It can be with the Samuri style stillness before acting in a sword fight. It could be a heart and emotion driven clarity about why you are fighting in the first place (as with the Chesterson quote) or it may be a vague feeling of discontent or a desire for change. Whatever the impetus is, change, action begins within. The brain has to initiate the neural inputs to the muscle if you want to be literal about it.

This die and card is a call to action but also a caution to act well. Act thoughtfully not blind willy-nilly do something for the sake of doing anything. The die-face we first saw looks like the scales of justice and is named judgement and those scales are made of a sword – a very potent combination calling us to thoughtful action and fierce compassion all in one.

Thanks for reading. Next time we’ll revisit this week’s energy path cards and update for the weekend. See you at the next sip!

Learn With Me: Oracle Dice, Collector of Selves part 2

Time is an ingredient for learning.

Deep understanding is seldom instantaneous.

Sometimes you have to abide, sit with something for a while, squint at it and poke it with a stick before you can really integrate and use a new idea.

That is where I am with this die and lord card. Even after sleeping on it after a late night part 1 post, I still don’t have much to offer. I’m still in the squint and poke stage with the relationship die and its lord card, The Collector of Selves.

The basic “card meaning” level symbolism is easy enough. This is the relationship cube. I connect that with the relationship energies of Tarot’s suit of cups. This seems a little broader, encompassing any level of relationship, not just the cup’s intimate ones. This feels a little like the sword’s broader community and collegial relationships too.

My hunch is that it will make more sense once it is in context with other dice and on the reading cloth.

The Collector of Selves is interesting. I didn’t get it right away, but Mr. Asmund writes about masks and social roles a bit in the guidebook. The die talks about multiple levels of realationship between people it seems, but the lord card seems to pull in our relationship with ourselves, which in Tarot I connect to the suit of wands.

See what I mean about the cards adding layers of meaning and nuance?

As I understand it, the card asks us to evaluate the aspect of ourselves that are involved with the relationship in question, whatever level of intimacy or closeness that relationship may have in the bigger picture our lives. He portrays that facet-of-self quality as a mask. What part of ourselves are we showing, what mask are we wearing? How close to maskless does this relationship come?

Is there such a thing as a completely maskless relationship?

The mask we wear for ourselves is often the hardest of all to remove.

Thank you so much for reading along with this learning process. I hope it is helpful to you in some way. Thanks for coming along as I walk my talk about life long learning.

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*Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice used with permission

Learn With Me: Oracle Dice, Collector of Selves part 1

Learn with me: Oracle Dice continues. Now that we have our 7 learning dice, we add another layer of meaning.

I’m presenting and learning the dice the same way that I’ve studied Tarot over the years for two basic reasons. First, I know this methodology works. I’ve used it. Been there and done that. Second, by learning the dice with me you can also get a behind the scenes peek into reading Tarot at the same time. There are parallels here. The oracle creator has created Tarot decks. Really good ones. If you’ve read this blog for a hot minute you know how much I like the Alleyman Tarot. I just bought the guidebook to his previous deck the Normal Tarot because it has the best cover art of any Tarot book ever – but more on that another day.

The oracle dice works so well with this method of learning because it was created by hands familiar with Tarot. The dice have all the depth and insight and use-ability of a 138 card Tarot deck.

Tarot is more than memorizing individual card meanings. There are layers, complexities and nuances. In the past it was called gifted. Psychic gifts are really more a matter of skill and practice. It’s like sports. Almost anyone can learn to play a sport – tennis for example. If someone has a natural gift for tennis, they are never going to get anywhere with it unless they learn the rules and swing a racket. Someone with no natural talent whatsoever can play tennis with learning and practice. The person who put in the time and work and practice would easily beat a person with natural talent who was playing their first game. Combine a small seed of Talent with work and practice over time – that can seem like some sort of special gift. No all of us can make it to Wimbledon, but any of us can certainly bang a ball around at the local park.

This series, this blog can’t teach Wimbledon level Tarot reading. It can’t teach you to read for other people, but you can learn some banging DIY Tarot reading for yourself.

But it take time, and blogging unfolds at a different pace. We could do this face by face together and move on to the next thing four months from now.

I don’t think you need that.

You’ve seen how this works.

Hurl dice at the table, get your hunches, mental images and intuitions about it. Combine that with the reference book and there you have it.

Now we are going to add another layer to it.

Seven Dane Asmund has given each dice its own topic and lord card. The topic is analogous to the the suit in the Tarot deck as I see it. Instead of the RWS Tarot’s four minor arcana suits with 14 cards each and the 22 card major arcana, we have basically 22 suits with six ‘cards’ each. In this second edition of the dice, the nuance is expanded and supplemented with the Lords of the Dice cards. The dice’s “lord” is a sort of symbolic spirit guide or guardian for that dice. The Lord card serves a similar purpose to the artwork on the ace cards of Tarot’s suits. The Ace in Tarot holds the core essence of the suit. By the same token, the lord card gives us insight into the essence of the individual die.

Interestingly, the influence flows both ways. After this, the ace cards feel even more important than they did before. I never thought of them as being potential guides and guardians before. But it works, at least for the number cards. The court cards in Tarot (page, knight, queen and king) have their own thing going on. That too, is a conversation for another day.

But that sets us up for the next little series within the series. We’ve looked at individual dice faces and at the same time chosen our seven learning dice out of the set of 22. Now instead of face by face, we’ll go die by die and look at each dice’s topic and lord card.

There really isn’t a good way to be very random about this, so that makes the active video pretty boring. For this next section of posts, I’ll be working from static photos of each die with its card. For YouTube, I’ll just share the tictok instead of filming the dice roll. It’s just more visually interesting at this point.

Please join me tomorrow when we pick up the “Collector of Selves” in more detail in part 2.

video / photo by the author of Publishing Goblin’s Oracle dice second edition, used with permission.