Timeflow Layout

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Tarot isn’t about predicting the always changing future. Tarot is about navigating and adapting to the future. Tarot doesn’t tell you what is going to happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

2021 is HERE. Now what?

Everyone and a monkey’s uncle are all making resolutions, breaking resolutions, swearing off things, going on diets, declaring their word for the year. I have questions.

How does a resolution fit into the big picture, connected everything in life? Is it a temporary goal or a permanent lifestyle change? Why do something new for the new year at all? What if you aren’t organized enough to drum up even a poorly thought out hot take new year resolution? Do these start-of-year resolutions really fail, do we really give up on them, or is it really just a sign of adapting to evolving circumstances? What if….seriously….what if resolutions don’t last long because they weren’t the right resolution to make or just weren’t needed in the first place?

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems to me it is less about the details of the resolution itself, and more about the process that the new year milestone triggers: evaluate -> adapt -> execute. Resolutions might just be a little frivolous fun and a new year tradition of sorts. That’s cool. If that’s the case, then it is no big deal when they don’t work.

But if you make a serious resolution, it’s because you’ve identified something to change. It might be a problem to fix. It might be a goal to work toward. It might be a consequence to avoid. Whatever the specifics may be, the bottom line is you have evaluated the situation and found something you want to change.

A martial arts teacher once said that if you keep doing what you are doing you will keep getting what you are getting. If you evaluate things and like them and want to keep them…cool. Just keep up what you are doing. If you take that look, and find something to fix, change is necessary. You have to adapt what you are doing to go in a new direction.

Easy right? I don’t think so. I’ve never found it to be that easy. Humans are pretty complex creatures. No one change is all it takes. It is a process, and we usually are juggling several processes at once. It isn’t about just a one-off resolution one time in a year. Solving problems and improving life is a multi-step process. Along with evaluate, adjust and execute, sometimes you have to throw prioritize into the mix too. That’s where the “TimeFlow” reading can help.

In general, Tarot is broad and intuitive, which allows it to be holistic. It can help you see which area needs attention, and where to focus your energies. This layout helps put things into first things first order. Not to get all yin/yang and such again, but it is a balance. Tarot, like life, is big picture and holistic but this particular layout helps you see the smaller, more manageable steps within that whole. It helps you find both the one resolution and see the whole process, both. It is helpful any time of year, or multiple times per year. Or at least I’ve found the structure useful. I hope you will too.

The TimeFlow layout has 4 cards:

Let It Rest: A watched pot never boils as the old adage goes. Some of the best food has simmered in a slow cooker all day. Good things can take time. This card symbolizes an area of life that needs some time to simmer, time to develop, maybe a little time left to it’s own devices. This card let’s you know when something needs less time and attention from you, and is often a validation that it is OK to back-burner an area of life and come back to it later. It shows where you have put too much time and energy unnecessarily.

Let It Go: The key word here is GO. This is a spring house cleaning sort of card. This hints at something that can be taken to the curb next trash day. It might be something minor (throw out those dead batteries in that one drawer) or it might be major (no, your ex isn’t coming back, so move on) but either way it is a clue to disengage your attention and energy. It shows where you may have been wasting time, energy and emotion.

Que It Up: Timing, they say is everything. I have no idea where the adage came from or what it is originally about, but in this context it is about energy flow. Sometimes the wind is at your back and things flow easily. Other times you are fighting the currents, stuck, stagnant and going nowhere. This may be something that was rested in a previous reading. This may be something where, as another adage says, the tides are turning. This is an idea or action whose time has not yet come, but is worth investing some time and attention because soon the flow and tide will be right. Or if you are more baseball minded – this is the energy and idea that is in the on-deck circle. Don’t let it rest totally, but get ready, but this thing’s time is coming.

Let It Roll: This is a clue where the energies are flowing. This is the thing whose time has come. This card is a hint at the priority issue where your most focus attention and energy is most needed.

When I do these readings, it has the same general pattern opening and intuitive summary closing as all the other layouts, to general intuitive impressions, crystal energy and/or aromatherapy suggestions to come through.

If you would be interested in trying this layout, it is available on the home page HERE for $20 with secure PayPal checkout. For fastest service, please use the “contact merchant” button or send an email to taocrafttarot@gmail.com with any topic, question or request an open reading.

Plan 21

I have a theory.

You have to HAVE a plan before life, circumstances and general random crap can blow it all to pieces. Life can get pretty Darwinian sometimes. Adapt or die. But you have to have something TO adapt. You have to be in the water before you can go with the flow. Plan/adapt, yang/yin: I doubt anyone is surprised to see me go kind of Taoist with all of this.

My original plan lasted all the way through 9 am yesterday. So step one is declare time and calendars to be merely arbitrary (they are) and just roll all of this out now instead of a nice, neat Monday morning. This is my general game plan for 2021, subject to change. Everything is, subject to change that is.

  1. Video/blog combos twice per week: YouChoose week ahead on the weekend (or early Monday morning) and Today’s tarot on Wednesdays
  2. One card Tarot readings on the blog other days as often as possible, with longer reads sprinkled in as the inspiration (or reader questions) hit.
  3. No more cutesy pants marketing promotions. The prices are very affordable and the quality of the readings are high. What I offer is a solid value as it is. I’m good at this. I love doing this. I’m here to help. Let’s do some Tarot together.
  4. 20% of the proceeds from all one card distance Tarot readings by e-mail will be donated to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank throughout the year.
  5. No more seasonal shenanigans. All the readings I do are available all of the time. You can find a price and layout to fit any budget, mood or question, all on the home page.
  6. Announcements weekly in the youchoose posts, or in the blog / Twitter for emergencies/cancellations
  7. Expect delays nights, weekends and U.S. holidays.
  8. In-person sessions and parties will remain closed until the Halloween season 2021
  9. Comments and social media are OPEN. Talk to me people! Let me know the kind of content you like, don’t like and want to see and I can, you know, adapt. (comments are still curated and spam is still obliterated in a blinding flash of hellfire)

That being said, let’s DO this thing.

The energy IS different than it was last year. I still get the mental image of the U.S. map with lot’s of little tornadoes all over it, but they are fading. I also get a dry, windy ‘aftermath’ feeling, like a scene from a disaster movie, with a feeling like coming out of the storm shelter with a rock in the pit of your stomach as you see the damage, and start to process what just happened and that it was just as bad as it seemed. Or maybe that is just my gut twisting when I hear how many people traveled over the holidays. We’ve turned a sort of corner, but now comes damage assessment, realizing the losses, and the first inklings of the beginnings of the beginning of recovery. Don’t put away your chaps just yet. There is still plenty of Mad Max style dystopian post apocalyptic energy out there. They aren’t kidding. It is probably going to be a dark-energy winter, at least locally (U.S. vs global) Spring and summer have that ‘aftermath’ feel. I feel pretty optimistic about Fall, although I usually do since it is far and away my favorite time of year.

Nature is adapting, but it is also cycles. No new forward looking new year planning is complete without a little retrospective. Thank you all for reading, following, commenting, liking and making this all worth doing. I’m grateful.

Today’s Tarot: No Grinchy Grudge

Connect to the life inside a task, connect to the fun and joy of a thing and it becomes easy. Begrudging what you do for others adds a ton of weight. Whatever you may do for others, there is something somewhere for. Cook a meal and you get something to eat too. Arrange a game for the kids, and you get to play too…or a moment to take deep breath while they do. “Either way, what bliss!”

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Merry Happy Everything

Happy Merry Everything!

If the worlds belief systems were Venn diagrams, there would be a lot of overlap this time of year. Light overcoming darkness, the triumph of human spirit over adversity, days literally becoming longer are core themes within every solstice season celebration. As I see it, that is where attention and energy and celebration are best focused – on the shared, universal, deep, primal underlying humanity of it all. Although you won’t see me turning down any mulled wine or Christmas cookies regardless of the reason they were made. It makes happy to know the fixins for some soft gingerbread cookies are waiting in the kitchen. And yes, the lights are lit on the tree even though it is broad daylight just because.

Not much by way of announcements. Email readings are open for the holidays. Order anytime 24/7. Am also working on some “Mindful Moments” bracelets to photograph and list in the shop

Before we get to this week’s cards, Happiest Holidays to everyone, everywhere. Wishing you health, safety and prosperity at the solstice and all the year.

Left: Page of Cups. One of my favorite cards 🙂 Traditionally, the fish in the cup is said to represent the mysteries of the deep soul and psyche. I like the playful happy quality the artwork takes on with the Witches Tarot, used here. Mark Evans’ artwork is far and away some of my favorite. The Pamela Smith artwork gives the card a sort of conversational quality. When you think about it, having conversation with a fish in a cup is a little bit absurd. Roll with it. See the humor. A spoonful of humor brings out the light in almost any situation. If you can’t see beyond the mystery or the misery of a situation, maybe find the humor in it if you can instead.

Center: King of Pentacles. Any day above ground is a good one, any little thing is a win. Have toilet paper? Win! Scraped together dinner? Win! Found a moment for a cup of coffee (or a beer, or whisky) Win! Things held together with bubble gum and baling twine are, nevertheless, together. Make the most of what you have on hand then lead your merry band of misfits (a bit of Robin Hood energy here) into a place of celebrating and enjoying whatever-it-is that you have. If you are the one who popped the top off of the can of spam, you still are founder of the feast and qualify to enjoy the moment as much as anyone. Whether other people follow your lead or not, whether there is another living soul around or not, make the most of what you have and enjoy the celebration. Make merry in your heart, just like that big old red clad ghost of Christmas present in that version of “A Christmas Carol” that always seems to be on TV this time of year. Cheers to you!

Right: The High Priest. This is one of the major arcana cards I tend to wrangle with a bit. And it is one of the other reasons I like this deck so much. The Marseille deck among others calls this the Pope, which makes sense given the Catholic church’s dominance in the countries where Tarot first evolved, Italy and France. Pamela Smith’s classic artwork for the card fuels that specific religious association and imagery despite using the more general term Hierophant (defined by Oxford Languages as “a person, especially a priest in ancient Greece, who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles.”) The name High Priest is, in my opinion, much more in keeping with the Hierophant name and the intent of the card. I’m going on about the hair splitting semantics because it makes a point about the cards energy for the week.

Vesak, Hannuka, Diwali have all happened recently. Today is the winter solstice and Yule. Secular and religious Christmas, Festivus, and the start of Kwanzaa are coming up this week. Sure, it’s never good to slavishly follow traditions if they have become detrimental. There is something laudible about making up your own, or bending old traditions to suit new beliefs and circumstances. By the same token, there is no reason to discard old established traditions if they are harmless, meaningful or a comfort. If there is any little tradition that makes you feel comforted or happy then yes, if at all possible, indulge. In the middle of chaos and crazy is precisely where repetition and tradition does the most good.

Whatever your Holiday, wherever and whenever you celebrate – or don’t – I wish you a safe and happy week. Merry Happy Everything!

Devil in the Delights

public domain

It’s not the most cheerful card.

Intellectually, I know better. Still, when I draw cards for the blog this time of year, it’s generally from a place of celebration. I love this time of year. October through December is the cinnamon flavored everything BEST.

The old trope about needing the dark to see the light blah blah balance, not our judgement to make, blah. The energy here is nowhere near that nuanced.

Shit happens and it sucks. Life doesn’t stop for the holidays. Reality can slap us in the face any time, but this year seems particularly adept at it *gestures to American politics* Yes, by all means don your matching pajamas, and raise an eggnog to your chosen holiday.

If you are not having such a good time, if you are broke, broken, or brokenhearted, know that we see you. We are with you. Tarot readers stare down the barrel of cards like the Devil, Death, the Ten of Swords, the Three of Swords and so on and so on – at all times of the year. Tarot gets in all of our faces sometimes and reminds us that life gives downs to go with the ups and, thankfully, vice versa. The calendar never dictates whether life is headed up, down, or in a level groove / rut.

You, your heart and mind dictate it.

It’s OK to be in pain when life hurts. It’s OK to be happy when it is all good. It’s OK when either one – or both – of those things happen at the holidays.

Open For The Holidays!

  • New! Ask me anything. You ask, I answer in a blog post. (don’t worry – no names or identifying information is ever used)
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Todays Tarot: Horizon

Keep a weather eye on the horizon, or so the pirates say.

At least that’s what they say in the movies, sometimes. Horizons are special, like any doorway, transition, or liminal space. The horizon is the visual boundary between earth and sky, between far, and too far to see.

The Two of Wands connotes just that kind of watchfulness. It isn’t change in progress like the Wheel, it isn’t foreboding, but much more like a routine boarder patrol, just keeping a casual eye on things. In today;s case, the energy is even more hopeful than that. It is more of a positive connotation, like waiting for success to come, like waiting for a package that you know is out for delivery, literally waiting for your “ship to come in” as the saying goes.

It resonates with this time of year. At the turn of the year and the winter holidays, we always seem to take a collective look back over the year and at the same time turn a hopeful eye forward. Next year can’t suck as bad as this one, can it?

And so we eye the time horizon with hope.

Sometimes a joy, sometimes a sadness, sometimes a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, right now is the eternal horizon. Right now is the boundary line and liminal space between past and future. Today is a good day and this is a good time of year to stand, quietly watch, and keep a weather eye on it all.