Update August 2021

Just few quick thoughts:

First and foremost, thank you all for reading the blog, following the socials, listening to the podcast and being so supportive. It means a lot. I hope all the goodnesses and more come back to all who give them

Was in a store yesterday, when there was a giant thunderclap and brief downpour outside. Afterward, for a moment, even that public place was silent. For a while longer it was very quiet. Not a lot of people where there, but there was still an oddly quiet, subdued, almost serene few minutes.

The energy has been a little weird lately, but it feels a little less so today. It feels like a moment of silence, a holding of breath and a turning of moments between seasons. It isn’t quite the drudgery of summer ending but not quite yet the excitement and festival atmosphere that Fall can bring. It is a moment of silence and motionlessness between the thunder and the aftermath. May it be the silence after the storm, and not before yet another.

********

  • Just checked the CDC and Mayo Clinic sites. Community transmission and new case rates in our area are still listed as “substantial” so in-person and party Tarot remains on hold.
  • YouChoose Interactive Tarot posts and the podcast are on on break for a couple of weeks. Distance readings are OPEN. No appointment needed for email. TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com is the fastest way to reach me to schedule a phone or online video call Tarot reading.
  • Because I’m still moderately mind blown over realizing I’ve been reading Tarot for a hot minute that’s lasted 30 years, 7 card email readings are still at a REDUCED PRICE through the website here only. It’s $30 instead of $40, one dollar for each year of Tarot experience I bring to your reading. Offer ends 20 September 2021 (the Autumnal Equinox)
  • TaoCraft Tarot / Clairvoyant Confessional virtual tip jar supports the blog and future podcast episodes. This helps me keep the blog ad-free and open to everyone. Please visit the ko-fi page and see the new membership tiers before they are announced next month too!) #kofimemberships

Today’s Tarot: Squint and Stare

“You reap what you sow” is both the threat of consequences for the bad choices you make and the promise of the good things you give coming back to you. Sometimes you have to stop, lean on your garden hoe, squint and stare at things a bit to figure out which is which.

“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” – Nicolaus Copernicus

“And I know what I know girl. But I don’t know what I know when I know it” – The Kongos

Today’s Tarot: From a Certain Point of View

Deja Vu. Have we just had this card and this energy recently? There is something out there, in the general zeitgeist energies that is a bit of a flashback replay.

I try to be vigilant about blaming my own issues or emotions on energy, spirit, or any of this psychic intuitive thing…true enough, this could be my annual ‘I don’t like August’ funk, but the volume is turned up higher than usual. I’m not sure what or why, but there is some abstract something that feels like March 2020. Yes, I have my own stuff that probably accounts for a big part of it, and no, I’m not going to share any of it here because I’m very protective of everyone’s privacy, but still, there is some something in the ethers that’s ringing the old intuitive-sensitive bell too.

Has anyone else noticed anything like that or is it just my need for another cup of coffee and a nap? Seriously. Comments and email are open.

For whatever reason, this card and its energy today seems all too familiar.

There were a few ideas so equal, it was hard to pick one for the video caption. First there is the boilerplate “it all depends on your perspective” idea. Think about the view from the standing person’s perspective vs the seated person’s perspective on the card. The standing person can see the way ahead is actually clear and can see the landscape fully for what it really is. If the seated person sees anything of the landscape or the water, it is through sharp edges, gaps in a wall of swords.It is very much reminescent of that Obiwan line from Star Wars about what he told Luke being true “from a certain point of view.” or the parable of the blind men and the elephant. Small shifts in perspective can create big changes in feeling and understanding.

Equal with the idea of perspective, the energy idea of obstacles steps forward. Funny thing, obstacles. Seems like you will either crash into them, crash through them, or figure a way around them. If an obstacle is perpetually floating just in front of you, like swords stuck in the canoe you are riding in, is it really an obstacle at all?

YouChoose Interactive Tarot August 9-16

Interactive Tarot videos might be away for the second half of August, but I won’t be. I’m right here and available for email readings anytime. Order 24/7 and I’ll get the reading right to your inbox, usually within 12-24 hours (weekends and holidays are slower) And there is always new blog-only content trickling in. It pays to follow the blog. It’s the only way to get ALL of TaoCraft Tarot content one convenient place.

So I’m not on hiatus one bit.

I’ll be right here winding some things down from summer and spooling some other things up for fall. You can preview some of it now at https://ko-fi.com/taocrafttarot. Your support goes toward webhosting the blog, and producing more posts and podcast episodes.

I am, as always grateful to you for sharing some time with me and reading this. You rock!

Bitmoji

Today’s Tarot: Pound Foolish

“Penny wise and pound foolish” came to mind with this card today. Like any ‘Murican, I naturally thought Benjamin Franklin wrote it, but a little Googling shows that it was actually a phrase coined by Robert Burton, England’s 16th century aphorism machine. He also said stuff about greasy books and proud humble people. He’s worth a look if you are into the quote thing.

If there is an energy vibe to the card at all, it would be something like “quit screwing around with all the woo woo stuff and use your head.”

Reversals, we’ve talked about. It just means the energy or area of life the card evokes is blocked, slowed or problematic. It doesn’t have to mean something negative or bad, it just gives background context to the overall message.

Often these kinds of head over heart messages come from sword cards. Pentacles is close behind with its association with the earth element. That is the feel today…this is a time to be solid, steady, grounded. Not the day for flights of imagination. This is the roll up your sleeves and work part of working magick.

It make sense, too, in the context of Pentacles’ association with money, career, wealth, work, and all aspects of the physical realm. Those sorts of things scream out for logic, and down to earth practicality. In short, this card is telling us to be “pound wise” to paraphrase Burton. This card is reminding us that money matters should always be goverened by logic and knowlegde.

Page cards are often about learning…they were the knights in training. What is it that you don’t know that could be hurting your long range planning, whatever that planning is about…but doubly so if career or money has been top of mind lately. This is a good day to make sure you have all your ducks in a row, cross your Ts and dot your Is and any other proverbs you want to throw in the mix. Look for any gaps in your knowledge that might cost you later, be it monetary or otherwise.

Just a reminder: the quickest way to reach me for questions or scheduling is through email, TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com.

NEW: you can purchase an email reading through my profile link on instagram

Please follow/subscribe to the blog. I’m scheming a few changes for fall, and this linktree/instagram is the first soft release. “Meet Me On The Equinox” as the Death Cab for Cutie song says. That’s when the $10 off special price ends for 7 card email readings (website only) and when I’ll let you in on the rest of the scheming…although I won’t promise it will survive first contact with implementation.

Today’s Tarot: Need Over Want

Classic. Tarot. Vibe.

The readings that make you instantly mad or ignite a smoldering disappointment are the ones that usually prove to be the most valuable in the long run.

Today is one of those cards. The energy brings to mind that old saying “if wishes were fishes we’d all have a feast.” The Queen of Wands today is very much the home and hearth, eat your vegetables, wash behind your ears, do your homework, go the f*ck to sleep kind of maternal nurturing. It’s one of those blunt, tell you what you need to hear, real talk, not going to blow sage smoke up your backside but I got you no matter what kind of ride or die bestie vibes.

The best nurturers of any gender are the people who can see a need and meet it, not placate wants or shovel platitudes. That kind of caring isn’t an easy thing to do, but it is true treasure to receive. Whether we know it or appreciate it in the moment or not.

If the Queen of Wands speaks to you today, think before you nurture: Give what is really needed, not just superficially wanted – to others and yourself.

Card and meme images from the public domain

5 August 2021 ANNOUNCEMENTS:

If you are eligible and still haven’t gotten your vaccine – you in danger.

Talk to a doctor and DO what you need to do to keep you and your family as safe as possible.

The CDC lists Allegheny county with SUBSTANTIAL community transmission. In order to protect everyone (my vaccinated self and family included) in-person services are back on hold until further notice.

BUT the no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is Tarot rolls on. NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED distance readings by email are OPEN and available for order 24/7. Live readings by phone or zoom are also OPEN & available by appointment only – purchase HERE

Please follow the blog for all the latest announcements…and some new non-dire, non-pandemic stuff I have coming up for Fall.

Be safe, be well. -R.

Today’s Tarot: Learn by Doing

“No plan survives first contact with implementation” – unknown

“Follow the process, not the plan” – Adam Savage

“Actually sir, after all these years, I just, sort of, go with it.” – Harry Potter (Half-Blood Prince, JK Rowling and yeah, her anti-trans stance has soured the books for me)

You can read books until the cows come home, but there is no substitute for actual experience, and that includes the experience of explaining something. While it may not be the high stakes intensity of “see one, do one, teach one” in medical training, the same concept applies to most things, including Tarot, intuition development.

Don’t get me wrong. Books are treasures. Reading is invaluable. Especially about things we can’t easily access in the real world. Books open vistas of space and time we otherwise could never experience. Reading, learning, growing are life long things, or at least they should be.

I love writing stuff. But a writer can’t fit what they write to everyone. Even when I write a custom Tarot reading with your own unique card layout, you are still involved. Writers encode information…we as readers are responsible for decoding and implementing the information. Which isn’t always as easy as it sounds. That’s where Adam Savage’s advice and Harry Potters adaptability comes into play. Things never go perfectly to plan, so we have to rely on the processes we know and just go with it. Good or bad, a result will happen. Good or bad, there is something to be learned from what we do as much as what we read.

Then comes Einstein

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” – Albert Einstein

Explain something. That will teach it to you as much as anything. Try to explain it – whatever your “it” is – simply. Writing leads to understanding as much as it demonstrates understanding. Maybe more. Such is the value of blogs and journals. You don’t have to be Hemingway to write. You don’t have to share it or effectively educate other people. Write, teach something. Even if it is just in your imagination, if you learn from what you teach, either through the process or the end product, then it is mission accomplished.

There is no teacher quite like experience. Any topic can benefit from a little learn by doing…especially if that doing includes a little simplification, synthesis, teaching and explaining to help you really wrap your head around the topic at hand.

Today’s Tarot: Apply Liberally

Before you get your underwear in a bunch, liberally in this case is used in its dictionary definition, not in a politically knee jerk one.

In other words “in large or generous amounts”

Justice is a large, complex, difficult, ever-changing topic, and getting more so every day. No wonder in the prediction-oriented early days, the card was simplified as an omen about a literal legal issue. Tarot doesn’t pretend to have all the answers to anything this big, and it certainly can’t predict with certainty the outcome of any legal issue.

It can, however, remind us of key ingredients for Justice writ large: wisdom & compassion. It can hint at how energies are flowing, or alternatively, how to nudge energies in the direction you want them to flow.

Martin Luther King, jr told us that the arc of the moral universe is long but bends toward justice.

From what I’ve seen, it only bends so because of the weight of generations of good people, the weight of untold millions of individual acts of kindness and wisdom pulling it in that direction.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Work Your Magic

New Clairvoyant Confessional is up. Buying your friendly neighboorhood clairvoyant a mug of coffee supports the blog, the podcast and everything else brewing around here.

Zoom/phone tarot by appointment is OPEN! Just PURCHASE -> SCHEDUE -> ENJOY

NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED for email distance Tarot readings. Order 24/7 on the home page.

Stay tuned….you know, follow / subscribe … to the blog to be the first to know when in-person readings return.

Clairvoyant Confessional: Smelly Flowers and Naming Powers

I don’t know why.

It doesn’t matter why, really. I like to name my blogs. Maybe it is my inner sixth grader who wanted to be a journalist pretending to name a newspaper. More likely it is my outer gen-X-er trying to get organized. Even more likely it’s my attempt to pique your interest.

Shakespeare wrote that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Bill was right. You could call it a fantastic fartflower and it would still give off exactly the same molecules that smell exactly the same way as it does when we call it a rose.

The problem is that humans are more than a molecule detector. Our olfactory nerves connect to a brain that is chock full of memories & emotions. If we attach unpleasant memories or emotions to the name, then a fantastic fartflower might not smell as sweet after all. On the other hand, maybe roses really don’t smell all that great but our perception of the fragrance changes because of all of the positive associations with roses like love, romance, beauty, summertime and so on.

I have no training in marketing, but I would guess that it’s much easier to interest people in something named a rose. Which gets back to naming my blogs. A title is a fast, easy way to tell you what the blog is about while hopefully enticing you to read more. I want to sell you on the idea of reading the blog and a good name helps with that, or so it seems.

Marketing and promotion are weirdly uncomfortable if not nearly taboo in spirituality related fields like Tarot. Movies have trailers, and bands promote themselves all the time, but it is different for a clairvoyant. Given all of the scams and grift that have abused the name, it’s no wonder that words like psychic carry more connotations than a word like rose ever could. Practicing our art, promoting our art, and promoting a legitimate artistic business all while trying to stay out of culture war crosshairs is all a very tricky thing to do.

I recently named my blog “Portfolio.” because Tarot is my art, and the blog literally is my portfolio. I use it to showcase both my writing and my Tarot reading skills. Artists take portfolios to job interviews to showcase their work. If you read the blog, and then get a Tarot reading with me, the reading should meet or exceed your expectations because you’ll know in advance exactly what to expect. For a potential employer, a portfolio builds trust in an artist’s work. I hope the blog (and this podcast) will build your trust in my work too.

In 2018 I changed my website, blog and social media name. I re-branded everything from Modern Oracle Tarot to the TaoCraft Tarot. Ever since then, I get caught up in the idea of names about once a year, usually around the Fall anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot’s grand opening. Contrary to the “rose by any name” theory, names can actually be very powerful things.

To manifest anything, to accomplish any goal, you must first name it.

The more clear and precise a goal is, the more clear and precise the outcome can be. By the same token, that high precision limits the possibilities. A more open, adaptable and inclusive goal can increase your chances of a satisfying result. A name helps in both instances. A name can be as broad or as precise as needed. A name can be changed as time goes on. To meet a goal, you have to have one. To meet a goal, it must first be identified.

The power of names is even more evident when it comes to personal growth and becoming a better person.

What is the best part of you as you are right now? What is your very best current trait? Name it. Wrap yourself in it. Embrace that name for yourself at least for a few hours.

Then think of a personal quality that you want to acquire or increase. What would life be like if you were already that thing? Name it. Try that aspirational quality on for a while. See how it fits. You might not need to grow into it as much as you first thought.

After being raised by evangelicals and nicknamed “brainiac” in junior high, it was odd to add the namef “tarot reader” or “clairvoyant” to the list. Once I could identify with those names for some of the things I do, it opened whole new vistas of comfort and authenticity. But that is another blog post from another time. I’ll put links to related posts in the show notes.

Now here is a real challenge.

What label, trait, or quality is the name that shall not be named? What is your own personal Voldemort? What name is a bridge too far? Now, I’m not saying you should cross that bridge or go too far in any respect, but at least look at it. Consider its architecture. For me it took decades….decades…to admit the truth to myself about being an atheist or even harboring an interest in witchcraft. It took a longer time to realize that we don’t have to renounce one label when we pick up another. The human spirit is big enough that many traits and names can coexist not just harmoniously but synergistically. We are more than the sum of our parts. Our better parts shine when we name them and live them.

Whatever you want to be, try saying “I am” then fill in the blank with that thing. Names are necessary for good old fashioned affirmations too.

How does that make you feel? How does it feel to name yourself the thing you could never admit that you are? More importantly, how does it feel to name yourself the thing you’ve always wanted to be?

Name your worst trait and it will step to the front. Name your best trait and it will grow. The labels we place on others and that others place on us can help or hurt just as powerfully. Take care with the names you use for yourself and your fellow humans.

Thank you for listening today and for your ongoing support. I appreciate it more than you know. I always appreciate a good cup of coffee too. Any contributions to my virtual coffee mug supports the free blog posts and future podcast episodes.

Speaking of future podcast episodes, please send any questions you have for a clairvoyant. Ask me anything as they say. I may even do a Tarot reading for the answer. Contact information is on the blog and in the show notes.

This is the end of season 1. Clairvoyant confessional will be on hiatus until mid September. I’d like to say I’ll be using that time to learn how to edit audio files and figure out how to make this a better podcast. But honestly…the confessional will probably be back with the same raw, unedited, amateurish, pirate radio aesthetic that it has now.

I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession. I still don’t know all that much about making a podcast.

Name related posts:

Mail your questions for the clairvoyant to ClairvoyantConfessional@gmail.com