Today’s Tarot: Fear and Indecision

Fear and desire are at the root of indecision. We desire to do the right thing. We fear the consequences of doing the wrong thing. We fear harming others with the consequences of our choice. We desire to avoid the responsibility of choosing. We want to avoid the nuisances of minor choices. Fear paralyses.

Consider the alternatives, have a plan B, remind yourself if/when you can reverse directions should you unintentionally make the wrong decision. Think: is your decision (or lack of one) motivated by some desire – including th desire to avoid? Addressing fears about potential outcomes might make a difficult choice little bit easier to make.

New Podcast episode coming soon.

Distance Tarot will be OPEN during the entire month of May, no appointment needed. Delivery may take slightly longer than usual May 13-25.

Summer vacation closures are currently for zoom / phone readings only. Please click HERE for details

The Niggles: Means to an End.

“The Niggles” series of blog posts is about ideas that prickle the psyche. It’s that nagging dry hangnail feeling that intuition puts in the way whenever I haven’t understood a message or if I haven’t given a message that needs to be heard by someone.

Today, the niggly thing is gratitude.

I think it is a misunderstanding, really. Or maybe it’s the toxic-positive version of gratitude. There is a sense in some parts spiritual social media that gratitude is a pathway to achieving something that you want.

“Being grateful for what you have” as a means to an end perverts gratitude. It turns being thankful into something artificial even if the end goal is something very good like happiness, a healthy romance, a feeling of abundance or what have you.

I worry that some things I’ve said or written about so-called soulmates may have been misunderstood. When I said that the best way to attract the love of your life is to be happy with your life as it is right now, I never meant that you have to be grateful for being alone.

But when I said be happy, I meant precisely that. I meant to deliberately find the good stuff in the present moment rather than go through life laser focused on something you don’t have. Think about it. Who would you rather have as your soulmate, a person wrapped in the joy of living, or a person wrapped in worry about the future?

There is a difference between a social convention and a genuine emotion. Yes, by all means, say thank you and be polite even if you don’t feel all that. appreciative. If you spontaneously, naturally, authentically feel that way, then by all means live that. BE grateful with gusto.

Bittersweet by Choice

Like all the cards, there is a yin and a yang, multiple threads of energy and meaning, which is a different thing from a reversed card. A reversed card is one that turns over upside down relative to the person doing the reading. That speaks more to blocked, slowed, complicated or turbulent energy around the card, which isn’t the case here at all.

Either way you look at it, life changes and sometimes those changes suck.

It is bittersweet to walk away from things that once were pleasant and good but have run their course. People, things, circumstances have their time, but that time doesn’t always last forever. Sometimes those things leave us against our hopes…other times we have to take the walk.

Being a cups card, it’s almost automatic to think in terms of relationships evolving or ending. Romantic relationships, close friendships….all kinds of relationships…are important things. But the card can reach much farther than that. It doesn’t have to mean relationships. It can mean saying goodbye to thought habits, physical habits, addictions, comfortable routines, physical objects – anything.

Our feelings about change and releasing old things are as varied as the things we left – or that left us.

My mind goes to a couple of personal examples. For one thing, leaving my parent’s religion was a toxic, gut wrenching experience, but was ultimately a very good thing. Best decision I ever made. If the card was a picture of THAT experience, the cloaked figure wouldn’t be walking away in an air of contemplation, it’s be doing a happy dance like the grim reaper at the end of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. On the other hand, when I left my first job – as bad as the job itself had gotten- I was moping around the last day like the ghost of Hamlet’s father “farewell, farewell, remember me.” While I was thrilled to move on to a new opportunity, I was going to legit miss working with some of the people a great deal. Both situations meant walking away from something gone very wrong, both had a swirling melange of emotions. Both experiences were bittersweet in the moment of leaving, but a positive, even joyous thing in the end.

Such is the message from the eight of cups today. Leaving (or being left by) anything or anyone can be bittersweet, even if the thing in question is terrible and toxic to us. It may be bitter now, but the sweet can come in time.

It’s not 2020 anymore. Things are shifting. Can you feel it? On thing isn’t changing – prices for distance readings when you order through TaoCraftTarot.com. Current prices on the website will remain through December 2021. Order anytime! No appointment needed for distance Tarot

New Etsy fees may force some price adjustments in the shop as the year goes on.

Today’s Tarot: Twinkle On Little Star

I’m not the deck collector some readers are, but I have accumulated a fair few. A favorite is the Heart of Stars Tarot by Thom Pham who very graciously gave his permission for me to share the images (and the ones from his new deck, The Runes of Mannaz) with you.

It’s one of my favorite decks for two reasons. The most obvious reason, of course, is the gorgeous artwork. The other reason is his use of famous characters and scenes from movies and TV for most of the cards. That is just how my brain an intuition works. Pop culture is a wonderful communication tool. Not everyone is familiar with the classic Tarot images, but lots and lots of people are familiar with movies and TV. Movies, songs, TV shows come to mind all of the time when I am reading for clients It works. It communicates the idea of a card in a familiar, relatable way far over and above the classic symbolism of the Marseille or Waite Smith Tarot alone.

For example, when I drew the Star card today, the Madonna song “Lucky Star” from her self titled 1983 album popped to mind and is ear-worming there as we speak. That is in no way paranormal considering how much I like 80s music and the fact that this was one of my favorite albums in its time. But at the same time, it can’t be dismissed out of hand when it comes to understanding the card’s message for today.

Since it’s actually been a long time since I’ve heard the song, I googled the lyrics to see if there were any message hints there. It’s just a nice little bubblegum pop puppy-love kind of thing. The line that caught my attention is “you shine on me wherever you are.” That in turn reminded me of how we all, everyone on Earth, see the same stars in the same patterns. Stars connect us as a unified audience for the night sky as well as reminding us that we are, all of us, connected to the larger cosmos. Stars made the stuff that we are made of – literally. As Carl Sagan famously said, “We are star stuff.”

It’s significant, too, that The Star is one of only two cards in this deck NOT based on a famous character or movie scene. The woman on the card is anonymous, the every-woman or every-man. She is both uniquely individual and she is all of us.

Even with pop culture references, getting to the right message for a client (or blog/podcast/youtube audience takes a few steps. Sometimes, like today, a card will daisy-chain widely different ideas into one cohesive thought.

Lucky star reminds us we are connected, stars shine on all of us wherever we are. The figure on the Heart of Stars card is both unique, unknown, and symbollic of any or all of us. We are individuals, yet deeply connected. We are individuals together. Although the small points of light in the sky might look the same, there are many sizes and types of stars, all at a unique distance from us that is constantly changing. Stars are individuals together in the cosmos, as are we.

The Star, and the domino chain of intuition reminds us that we are each wonderfully, gloriously, beautifully unique and wonderfully, gloriously, deeply connected.

Today’s Tarot: Decide, Walk, Talk

The King of Wands card is the confluence of elemental fire, leadership, and our relationship with ourselves, our inner world. It speaks to our inner passions. There is a strong element of ‘decision’ energy here today. In my minds eye I can see the King talking, announcing a decision, making a pronouncement. The inner passion part reminds me of the idea of “walk your talk.” Live your beliefs. Be your true self.

Before you can do those admirable things, you have to decide what they are.

Before you can walk your talk, you have to decide what to say.

Siri, sort of.

I’m old enough to remember when people wrote letters on actual paper and had actual conversations on landline telephones, so I still appreciate the technology that lets this blog and podcast happen. It warms my Gen X cyberpunk loving heart. I’m also self aware enough to know I’ve got work to do as a media speaker. Dammit Jim, I’m a writer and this automatic thing is going to make a better, more articulate, more entertaining podcast, right?

Right?

I’m not so sure.

Basically, I’m thrilled to bits if anyone reads or listens to any of this. I’ll be doing a full on happy dance if anyone decides to get a reading because of anything in the blog or podcast. But it bothers me that the automated audio doesn’t sound the same as the words sounded in my brain when I wrote them.

My narration may not be Webby worthy – yet – but at least it has more emotional tone and verbal context than the electronic version. It is, after all, human. Humanity is what intuition, clairvoyance, psychology, Tarot and personal development are all about. This tech part is fun as heck and only going to get better as time goes on. But it is what it is, and so is the human side of it all.

I propose a hybrid. When you see “Confession” in the title, you’ll know that’s me recording the episode. If you see “Today’s Tarot” or some other title, you’ll know to expect the cyber side of the podcast.

True to the renegade pirate radio motif, nothing about Clairvoyant Confessional is set in stone. It is naturally evolving to be short, little jelly bean sized episodes. There is no sense holding something like that to a regular release schedule. Text to speech will let me drop content more often, as the inspiration hits. The “confession” episodes will happen less often, BUT they will also be longer and take a deeper dive into the humanity of clairvoyance, psychics, intuition and Tarot. Q&A episodes will always be recorded and never automated.

Did you hear that sound? That was the loud thud of a hint being dropped. If you want to submit a question to be answered in the podcast, possibly in the form of a Tarot reading, just visit the Clairvoyant Confessional podcast page on TaoCraftTarot.com. There is a link in the episode description if you are listening to the podcast. The page is in the top menu for those of you reading the blog.

Thank you all for reading and listening. I really do appreciate any follows, subscriptions, likes, or shares that you can spare. And please, for the love of your own ears, send some feedback or some questions. I can’t read for a question until you ask it.

Thanks again, and I’ll talk to you all when the next jelly bean drops.

Today’s Tarot: Tipping Point

Frank Herbert famously wrote “A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct” which in turn was adapted into the more famous movie line “A beginning is a very delicate time.”

Beginnings, I would add, are also tipsy, unpredictable, even mildly terrifying times.

The Fool depicted as Captain Jack Sparrow is one of my favorite cards from Thom Pham’s Heart of Stars Tarot deck. The character, as played by Johnny Depp, captures all sorts of threads held within the card.

The Fool card isn’t about “foolish” as contemporary language might make you think. Humor and play are certainly connotation within the card. But there is more to this kind of humor than meets the eye. Just like Captain Jack. He turns out to have both unexpected cleverness and ulterior motives. Contemporary stand up comedy is another analogy for the Fool card. Think of comedians who deeply insightful social observations in their humor; Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Fallon, Eddie Izzard and George Carlin to name a few personal favorites. Author Richard Clarke once said that you can tell more truth through fiction than non-fiction. You can tell more truth through humor than you can say outright. Such is the nature of the Fool card.

A beginning is the best known connotation of the card, ostensibly because it has long been the first card in the major arcana part of the deck.

Beginnings are weird. No matter how much you expect them and prepare for them, then there is still a pretty good chance something is not going to go according to plan. Sometimes we think about something, but for some reason we never set a hard start or take the leap. Sometimes that is a by-product of uncertainty, lack of confidence, or outright fear. Sometimes it is a matter of timing. Going back to Frank Herbert, enough time has to elapse and conditions have to be right for the spice mass to reach critical mass and blow. That is why it is a classic Tarot trope for the Fool to be off balance, one footed, or on the edge of a cliff. If you don’t begin something that needs begun, life will often come along and begin you. Maybe that’s why Captain Jack moves the way he does.

copyright Ronda Snow

This is my new beginning: Clairvoyant Confessional is my new podcast available on Spotify, Anchor.fm, PocketCast with more outlets on the horizon. If you would like a private distance session with a podcast psychic – here’s your chance.

Confession #2: Yo-ho

I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession: I like pirates.

Not the real life ones. I’m talking the gnarly haired, eighteenth century, Caribbean styled, Adam-Ant-reminiscent movie, book and TV kind of pirate. I wasn’t kidding when I said Pirate Radio was part of my vision for this podcast.

I know, I know. Pirate radio isn’t THAT kind of pirate. But you have to admit, both kinds have, as J.K. Rowling wrote “a certain disregard for the rules.” Or, as Barbossa said in The Curse of the Black Pearl, “the code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” That’s the cool thing about not knowing anything about the conventions of media or podcasts or any sort of broadcasting. The guidelines can go overboard and I’d never even notice (insert loud SPLASH sound effect.)

Unless and until somebody somewhere out there sends some psychic tarot questions to clairvoyantconfessional@gmail.com, the rando pirate DJ monolog aestheitic will be a big part part of the podcast. I plan to schedule things that way, too. Which is to say there isn’t going to any sort of schedule whatsoever. Just stay tuned, subscribe to podcast on Spotify or Pocketcast or subscribe to the blog on TaoCraftTarot.com. You never know when the SS Clairvoyant Confessional will come sailing through.

That being said, so what if I like pirates? What does that have to do with clairvoyants, psychics, Tarot, intuition, or any of that stuff?

Surprisingly, a good bit. Mainly because both are rich in metaphor and symbolism. A ship’s captain is a poetic symbol of autonomy and authority. Psychics are more like the navigators. We are all the captains of our metaphoric life ships. Think of your favorite fictional Captain. Would Blackbeard, or Barbarossa or Jack Sparrow – or Captain Kirk for that matter – surrender command? Even in their outlandish fictional situations, they owned their decisions, adapted to the outcomes, and stayed in charge. Sure, the navigator may have set the ship’s course, but the captain was the one who decided where the ship was going in the first place.

And so it is with you and Tarot / psychic readings. Yes, readings help you keep a weather eye on the horizon, but you still have the con, you still turn the wheel. If a captain refused the navigator’s advice and get the ship got lost, it wasn’t the navigator’s fault. If a navigator’s course stranded the ship on a reef, the captain was still responsible for agreeing to the directions that got them stuck. The captain was still responsible for getting the ship to port. And the captain would get themselves another navigator. If the captain and the navigator worked well together and got to where they needed to go, then they both got a share of the booty. Whichever way it turned out, the adventure is still under the captain’s command. The same is true for psychic readings. Your choices are still in command. Your choices steer the ship. I wrote the Tarot layouts that I use the most to show and respect exactly that. The 5 and 7 card layouts highlight your choices and the command that you have over the course that you take.

That’s it. That’s the confession: I like pirates because I’m the captain of this merry pirate Tarot ship. There may not be an exact schedule, but there will be some interesting episodes to come as we sail along. Thanks for listening, and welcome aboard.

Arrrrrrrr