Dance

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is “The Performer” from the Alleyman’s Tarot by Publishing Goblin LLC used with permission.

This is one of the cards I’ve never seen before, and just like always I try to read it before going to the deck’s guide book. When I haven’t seen or read the card before, I approach it just like reading a pip card like we talked about with the two of disks recently. Going into this card cold is the best of both worlds. There is a picture with lots of intuitive prompts, but no preconceived theme to box in the interpretation.

Too bad I got nothin’.

My first thought was “violin guy” and that was about it.

With a little more staring and contemplation, something I’d read finally came to mind from my old natural health reading. I can’t for the life of me remember much less cite the source, but I once read that it was a common thing for indigenous healers to ask when the patient stopped dancing.

It times the illness. It gives insight into the illness through the lens of mind-body connection. Western medicine (however begrudgingly) acknowledges that perceived mental stress can affect physical health. They also admit the benefits of exercise and activity. The mind-body connection flows in both directions. Poor physical habits and lifestyle can have a negative impact on mood just as much as stress can worsen disease. The converse is true. Healthy interventions on either side of the mind-body equation can benefit the other side of the equation.

Dancing is more than just physical activity. It is art and self expression and one of the most joyful things a human can do. I remember seeing interviews with Desmond Tutu when Apartheid ended in South Africa. He said he must dance with the rest of his people in his joy. Recently, on social media, I saw a post about the oppression of Native American culture in the past and how the person in the video dances now for all those who could not before.

No performance, no dance is empty unless we make it so. Even if we dance alone, we dance with our own humanity. Don’t stop dancing.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! I appreciate your time and attention. Any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions or comments you can spare are greatly appreciated too.

The blog and podcast are not monetized in any way and depend on audience support. All private readings ordered on the blog website, memberships, and proceeds from the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi all help me to create and produce these free to access Tarot readings for everyone.

Thank you again. See you at the next sip!

Tarot Turnover: Embrace the Absurd

Tarot Turnover learn to read Tarot/intuition building mini exercise now up on the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page members only blog.

Each month Tarot Table members receive a three card “path through the month” reading through the ko-fi blog, monthly newsletter, intuition building exercises, and members-only special offers.

Patrons of the Tarot Arts get a seat at the Tarot Table with all of that tier’s benefits PLUS you can request a personal, individualized one card Tarot reading (by email or ko-fi direct message) up to three times per month. Customized folk art only, does not predict the future (but you knew that.)

NEW membership option if you are more interested in Reiki. The “Reiki Retainer” (an idea shamelessly stolen from brilliant wonderful animal light worker Pip Miller. Please contact her for help for your furry family members!) I only work with homo sapiens type of large primates (aka human type people) but this tier gives you a free preview of my upcoming ebooklet “Sending Stones Reiki” and/or a copy of the “Sending Stones user’s guide” when you join then you may request distance Reiki sessions at no additional charge up to two per calendar month. I am a Master-practitioner certified in the Traditional Usui style for 22 years.

Silence

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: add power to your words with the power of silence.

Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here

Today’s card is the two of disks from the Alleyman’s Tarot originally from the Serravale-Sesia Tarot.

This is a presumably public domain card from 1880s Italy. It is an interesting contrast to the better known Waite Smith Tarot and shows the difference in working with a deck that has only pips and a deck with complex narrative images on the numbered minor arcana cards.

Image cards and pip cards function the same way within a reading. Both are two paths to the exact same destination. They both take us to the message for everyone’s day, for our client or for ourselves. The emphasis shifts a little bit between the two types of cards, however.

With images, as we see in the RWS cards, there is a rich supply of detail to prompt your intuition. Despite the many prompts, all of them are thematically tied to the overall image and card meaning. Picture cards can lend themselves to a little more specificity, clarity and context.

On the other hand, pip cards give your intuition free reign. Pip cards are not bound by details or images, although they retain the same general conceptual meaning as an image card. This two of disks talks about balance much the same as the RWS two of pentacles .

Coins, pentacles or disks all refer to the same suit of the deck and you will see the terms used interchangeably. I tend to say coins because that was the name used in one of my first decks and it’s an old habit by this point. Coins are associated with the element of earth and ideas about work, career and money. From a more contemporary perspective it helps to think of coins as our relationship with the physical world. The suit has a very practical down-to-earth vibe generally speaking, so it all fits.

More than the number two cards of the other suits, the two of coins symbolizes balance. Usually it’s a very dynamic balance, like a unicycle rider who constantly makes small corrections and movements in order to balance upright. The taijitu, the yin yang symbol, is another example. The black and white parts of the circle are comma shaped instead of q straight line half to show motion and a dynamic interplay of opposites.

Today, the balance is more akin to the unicycle example. The message has a subtle, nuanced quality to it. It isn’t black and white. It is dynamic and speaks to the way we move through life.

In a way, it is just how human brains are wired and how our brains deal with the onslaught of sensory input from our environment. You get used to things, and they don’t get the attention commanded when something is new or changes. It’s like a busy caretaker tuning out a chattering preschooler a little bit. The message for all of us adults is the same. If you want to be heard, if you want your words to carry power and command attention, use them sparingly. As Mahatma Ghandi said “speak only when it improves upon the silence.”

Outside of a Medieval monastery, it is hard to go through life not saying anything. Communication is essential. In our wired, cyberspace connected world, we often forget the necessity of silence. When TMI takes we are immersed in too much information the tune-out-the-toddler reflex kicks in. We become numb to the input.

It’s a balance between communication, self expression, and losing your words to the noise. Nothing makes your words more powerful than the silent spaces in between.

Thank you so much for reading and listening.

The blog and podcast are not monetized and rely on audience support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi and consider becoming a Patron of the Tarot Arts. The proceeds from ko-fi and private readings through the blog website all contribute to the creation of this free to access Tarot content.

See you at the next sip!

May the 4th be with you – because the force already is

no need to wish that the force be with you – because it already is.

Reiki has crossed my path lately.

That’s not entirely accurate. Reiki IS my path. Or at least a good chunk of it. Or one thread of the braid of it. It’s hard to describe. So let’s back up a few years.

I’ve been told that it is good to re-introduce yourself every now and then. Let me reintroduce you to the Reiki side of Tao Craft.

You know the Tarot part well, even if you have been following along just a short time. Ebooks and mala style meditation beads part of things are pretty self-explanatory for sale ko-fi shop and Etsy shop respectively.

It may seem a little odd to have Tarot and Reiki living in the same cyber space. Reiki and Tarot are actually connected at a fundamental level. The Venn diagrams of Reiki, Tarot and magick overlap so much as to practically be a circle.

It might not make sense at first glance. I mean, sure, Tarot is so associated with all the various forms of magick and witches that it is pretty much assumed that if you read Tarot you are a witch and vice versa. But Reiki? What does Buddhism influenced love, light, and lotus flowers have to do with Tarot and magick craft?

As the name TaoCraft implies, it has a lot to do with it. Whether you use eastern or western terminology, Taoism and Tarot, Magick and Reiki all spring from the same basic substrate of universal energies.

As a quick explanation in terminology, Reiki specifically means a method of energy wellness developed in the 1920s by Micheo Usui of Japan. Other methods of energy healing have come to be called Reiki just like the brand name band-aid has come to be used interchangeably with any adhesive bandage. Some newer energy systems identify as being derived from Usui’s work and so identify as a type of Reiki like (if memory serves) Karuna Reiki and the like. Other energy styles and systems may have started with Reiki but split off to differentiate themselves entirely from the traditional Usui system and take on wholly different names. That can happen on an individual or organizational level and doesn’t imply that the system is any better or worse than Reiki, just that it is a different thing all together. In addition to that you have other energy systems that have always been separate and distinct from Reiki since their inception. As I understand it, Johrei is a similar but religious Japanese discipline that grew in parallel to Reiki during the 20th century.

To be clear, whenever I say Reiki (pronounced “ray key”) I specifically mean the Usui system. I use “energy healing” or “energy wellness” as an umbrella term for all similar healing and wellness practices.

My training and certification is in the Traditional Usui style. I studied first and second level training with Karon Mellon of Sewickley PA in the mid 1990s then repeated these levels and progressed to the master-practitioner level under Master Thom Beardshall of McMurray Pennsylvania in 2000.

I don’t feel particularly drawn to teaching Reiki outside of writing about it. I’m a practitioner and, like Tarot, my strong suit is distance work. For the past four years since the TaoCraft Tarot rebranding, I’ve been focusing on distance Reiki and developing what I call “Sending Stones” distance Reiki sessions. I do call it Reiki because it is a Usui method distance session in accordance with my training BUT with the added embellishment of holding a selected stone or crystal to enhance the ambiance and enjoyment of the session. This is no different than the way many Usui practitioners embellish in-person sessions with music, incense, candles or aromatherapy.

There is so much more to say about Reiki. Far more than any one blog post can cover. So I’ll give you a little homework instead.

To see what the Reiki part of TaoCraft looks like, just click the Reiki tab at the top of the page on the blog, or in the menu if you are viewing the website on a mobile device. There are lots of updates planned, so I hope you’ll follow the blog or podcast to hear about those as they happen.

Based on all I’ve learned over the years plus my personal experience learning Reiki, I am firmly in the camp that says the only way to learn in person and over time. Humans don’t flip switches. It’s not like installing the latest update to you phone’s operating system. Human physiology and psychology takes a little time to fully integrate to a new outlook. It takes time to fully incorporate and keep new energies and new thought habits and new habit-habits. Our eyes are not our only sense. You need to have the tactile experience of feeling energy and the change in your hands. The attunement … I’ll call it a ritual for lack of a better word…is a powerful initiation that must be experienced first hand.

Common wisdom teaches us that low, slow burning fires last the longest. That isn’t to say that doing all three levels of Reiki training in one weekend will cause them to flame out and go away. There is, however, a difference in quality. To put it in culinary terms, it’s like the difference between a cheap fast food hamburger and a slow smoked brisket. It’s like the difference between warming up a can of beans and pot of authentic New Orleans red beans that have been bubbling away in a slow cooker all day. Once attuned always attuned seems true. Achieving an enduring high quality experience of Reiki in your life (whether you treat others or not) needs a sweet spot of time between level attunements. The goldilocks zone of time between attunements seems to be 7 to 21 day. It’s enough to adapt and embrace and use and live your new energy level from the last attunement, but no so much time that your attention fades and you start to lose readiness for the next attunement.

But that’s just me. Like Tarot readers and Magick practitioners, there are as many schools of thought about it as there are people living it.

That being said, I don’t encourage anyone to learn Reiki in a single weekend or solely from books or videos. The makers of the world will understand this part: Sometimes you just have to get your hands on it and DO something to really, really understand. That is even more true for something like Reiki that you don’t just know, that you don’t just DO, but can become a way of life.

Doing and living implies continuation, movement and change. Just like science and mainstream medicine, there is always something to explore, improve and learn in Reiki too. That’s where books come in.

Back in the day, when I was studying for my Doctor Doofenschmirtz style remote learning Ph.D. with Clayton College of Natural Health, Reiki: Universal Life Energy by Bodo Baginski was the first book they assigned for the energy medicine class. It is a classic and a good read if for no other reason than Bodo Baginski is probably one of the coolest, most Hobbit like author’s names I’ve ever seen.

After that, I suggest anything and everything by Walter Lubeck and Frank Arjava Petter, especially as one moves from second level to master or master-practitioner levels. Once you have a basic understanding and basic attunements these books increase your level of proficiency. Reiki Fire and Petter’s books are particularly important for those who come into Reiki under the Takada lineage and who are very invested in the Christianized version of Reiki History. While this version was utterly necessary in its time, and may well be the only thing that preserved Reiki in a time of great bigotry and the internment of Japanese American citizens, it is equally important for we 21st century practitioners to know and understand Reiki’s actual, documented, Buddhist roots.

Christopher Penczak’s Magick of Reiki from 2004 is number one on my personal list of must-read Reiki books, but only if you have an established foundation in Reiki, magick, or both. While it is an engaging, absorbing, clear, easy to understand read, the real heart of the subject matter is a bit esoteric. I didn’t discover the book until fairly recently, so I’ve only engaged with it from an experienced practitioner’s point of view. Even after all these years, I gained much from it, especially on the magick side of the equation where my experience and learning is less.

His explanation of physical versus spiritual Reiki is a crucial utterly essential understanding for any Reiki practitioner, especially here in America. I urge anyone interested in Reiki to read this book if for nothing else but the page explaining this important concept.

Count me on the spiritual side. My dissertation argues that Reiki does indeed have physical benefit BUT through the mechanism of the mind-body connection and through mitigation of the detrimental effects of psychological stress. When Reiki improves stress it improves all the physical things that the stress was making worse. Reiki does have physical benefit, but not in the mainstream allopathic mind set of ‘do this to fix that’. Reiki works in the holistic model of improving total functioning and wellness, not just ameliorating a single symptom or isolated disease process. Reiki shifts the mind part of mind-body wellness from a detrimental stress mode into either a neutral or supportive role, in essence getting stress out of the way so that the body’s natural healing abilities can function at their best. If you are interested in the statistics and references, Reiki and Relaxation is the ebook friendly pdf version of my dissertation.

Having a clear idea of the kind of Reiki you want to practice improves your practice.

Again, I work from a spiritual/emotional healing point of view with my Reiki practice. In the beginning, because of my medical background, I tried to work from the physical model and bring Reiki into the mainstream.

It doesn’t work. You wind up whittling away so much of Reiki in order to fit that square peg into an unyielding juggernaut of a round hole that after a while it does a disservice to both the client and to the practice of Reiki writ large…

to be continued

Seed

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

Hello and welcome to Tao Craft Tarot blog and podcast

Today’s card is unique to the Alleyman’s Tarot and was created by Seven Dane Asmund for the deck.

I connect the card to the High Priest as it is portrayed by Dugan & Evans in the Witches Tarot. It also brings to mind lovely artist and Tarot reader Johanne Denelli. She first helped me see the Pope / Hierophant / High Priest card as anything other than a pure nemesis (because of its strong religious portrayal in early decks like the Marseille and Waite Smith decks.)

I think the non-dogmatic, keeper of culture, kindly teacher, teller of stories around the campfire aspect is what the artist intended for the Tradition card.

Today, however, the card also brings to mind the silent meditation protests of Buddhist monks in Myanmar and other countries over the years.

Traditional does not equate with blind adherence and eternal sameness.

Human beings who grow, learn, evolve, and change is in itself a tradition of sorts.

A tradition of compassion and justice can spark revolution when hate and injustice flourishes. In that context, tradition is to be honored and can be the seed of revolution.

But what if your given history and tradition is the one causing the injustice? How do you honor your traditions and ancestors when your ancestors were a herd of jackasses?

In that way too, tradition carries the seed of revolution when it becomes the spark for opposition and becomes a call to action as something to be ended or at least profoundly changed.

Today the Tradition card is asking us to use our traditions to take us to a place of compassion. It can become a connection with our fellow humans and our core humanity either by honoring our traditions or abandoning them, whichever path is the right one for the individual.

Thank you for reading and listening. I always appreciate your support through likes, follows, shares, questions and comments.

If you enjoy the blog or podcast, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fil to support their creation and production. Private email readings ordered through the blog website also helps to produce this Tarot content for everyone.

Thank you again. See you at the next sip!

Attention Span

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee which is good if that is all the attention span we have on a … what day is it?

Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the Chariot in reverse.

This is one of those times where changing a card’s meaning into its opposite like the old school Tarot readers and taking the reversal to mean blocked, turbulent or complicated energy both take you to pretty much the same place. Both speak to having decreased attention. No insult to goldfish and hamsters, but they shouldn’t fly supersonic aircraft.

Neither should humans, metaphorically speaking, when they are tired, sick or otherwise have no attention span to speak of. I’m not a pilot or flight surgeon so I can’t really say what the parameters for safe flying really are. Again it’s a metaphor. It’s an interesting, attention-getting way to talk about knowing your boundaries, knowing your limits and working with them intelligently.

Brace yourself for all of the Tom Wolfe, Right stuff analogies that I love to bring to Chariot card readings. The difference is that today’s energy isn’t about being in the moment, focus, pushing the envelope or hauling it back in.

Today’s energy is about being in no fit mind space to do any of that stuff.

No one can be one hundred percent one hundred percent of the time. It’s just not how the human species is hard wired. If you look at it from the cosmic perspective it is a wonder we have any attention span at all. It is a huge wonder that we exist at all much less pay full attention to that existence.

Instead of pushing the envelope, sometimes you need to reinforce it.

Or at the very least know where your envelope is.

Socrates advised to “know thyself.” Part of knowing thyself is knowing thine limits.

It might be upside down, but it is, after all, still the Chariot card. Pay attention but this time pay attention to your fork limit. Know when you are done. Pay attention to where and when you need to hand the command seat off to a co-pilot. Know when to bring things in for a landing.

Know when to push the envelope and know when to turn tail and run from it.

You are doing everyone a favor when you do that, really. Not only do you keep yourself in good working order to fly another day, you spare other people from cleaning up the mess of your crash site.

Take care of yourself. We need you. Together we are stronger.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! I really appreciate your support, likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments.

If you enjoy the blog or podcast, please visit the Tao Craft Tarot ko-fi page and consider getting a seat at the Tarot Table or becoming a Patron of the Tarot Arts. Members get exclusive content (including the ‘pathway through the month’ three card Tarot reading on the members-only blog. The May 2022 edition will be available later today)

Proceeds from the sale of PeaceTarot ebook in the ko-fi shop will be donated to Doctors Without Borders USA throughout this year.

No appointment needed, private email readings are available HERE

Thanks again, and see you at the next sip!

Sunday evening cuppa tea

It’s hard to believe, but I’m not all coffee all of the time. In the evening when the day is winding down, I switch to tea. Unpaid spontanious fan-girling: Celestial Seasonins is a favorite. Depending on the weather and time of year, it might be cinnamon-y (like Bengal Spice) or something fruity and zing-y like Red or Wild Berry Zinger, although I have been into GV Strawberry hibiscus lately too.

Before I curl up with a good book, wanted to pop in to let you know that the Tarot Turnover intuition exercise is up on the ko-fi members blog.

The Path through the Month reading will go up tomorrow morning.

Tarot Table membership includes a monthly newsletter, three card members only tarot reading only on the ko-fi blog, and random special offers.

Have a good evening everyone! Cheers!

Be careful what you ask for

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee, Today The Lovers card reminds us to be careful what we ask for, we just might get it.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

A few days ago, I put a few announcements just in the print blog with summer hours and how things stand now, in essence it was a post for me to get my proverbial ducks in their proverbial row and that we should all read it quick because my ducks are a bunch of anarchists and lining them up is closer to herding cats.

It turns out that today is one of those crazy duck kind of days, so no reels, shorts, or tiktoks. It’s also a lesson in being careful what you ask for. It’s true that you just might get it.

That’s what the Lover’s card is really about. Sure, there is a lot of steamy romance misconceptions about the card out there, but that’s not the core of it. If you want the get-married card, look for the two of cups. If there is a relationship connection with the lovers card I’d put it in the realm of pure lust, playing the field as the saying goes, and figuring out what you really want from your love life but not about an enduring healthy relationship with any one particular person.

That being said, the Lovers card has application in any part of life. It is about deepest desires. Do you want a long term committed relationship or do you want insert-any-warm-body here companionship? What do you want from your job: a paycheck or fulfilling work or some combination of the two? The same thing applies to anything you want in any facet of life. Sometimes it is all one giant multiple choice test question. Do you want this, that, both or neither.

Deciding what you really want is a critical first step in getting it.

In my experience, it usually turns out to be one of those little bits of both , middle way, yin and yang together solutions. It’s what puts the Tao in Tao Craft Tarot.

There are, however, times when things get black and white. Usually it is the bald faced goodness, yes or the oh-heck-no answers that spark the strongest emotional response. That response can be as telling as the card or the reading.

If you get a white hot flare of anger or rejection when you see a card or get a particular answer in a reading, that tells you what you really want. That tells you that you already knew the answer to what you want or you wouldn’t instinctively reject the card so hard.

If you know what you want, it is easier to get it. If you know what you really deep-down want, then you can’t kid yourself about it. If you know what you really deep down want, you can’t sugar coat the hard parts or BS your way through it.

That’s why the Zombie Cat yes/no layout is far and away one of my favorites. I use it for myself as much as any other, maybe more than any other. It echos the I-ching three coin readings. It can be a clear frying pan to the face kind of reading. It lets you know when to stop screwing around and come face to face what you really want and the buried decisions that you have already made for yourself. The i-ching notion of “changing lines” which are lines that are SO yin or SO yang they can easily tip into their opposite. That’s what the dots in the yin yang symbol are about. Each thing, in its extreme holds the seed of its opposite.

If you read the cards individually in addition to the top level yes or no answer, you can get a lot of nuance and guidance out of the whole thing. The Zombie Cat part makes it light and fun and snarky and playful in the process. I use it all the time as an ice breaker when I am doing fortune teller entertainment at events, like the one at CMU recently. I’ll sit and do yes-no readings for any silly little thing that pops into my head, like will the Pens win the Stanley Cup this year. The answer is always yes to that one, by the way, whether the cards say it or not because this is Pittsburgh and they are the Pens, after all. On an energy level, it sets the right playful, entertainment vibe for a “fortune teller booth.”

The Lovers card asks us to take a hard, honest look at what we really want. The yes or no layout is a good tool to help gain that focus and clarity. That’s the be careful part.

If you tweek the old adage to say be CLEAR about what you want BECAUSE you are PROBABLY going to get it, then you are suddenly living in a whole different universe and it is a pretty good place to be.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. See you at the next sip!

The blog and the podcast are not monetized and depend on audience support. If you are enjoying these Tarot readings, please visit the Tao Craft Tarot page on ko-fi and consider becoming a Patron of the Tarot Arts to get exclusive content and members-only special offers. Peace Tarot is a short ebook about daily meditation Tarot. Proceeds from the sale of Peace Tarot in the ko-fi shop will be donated to Doctors Without Borders USA during 2022. Both ko-fi proceeds and private readings ordered on the blog website support the creation of the blog and podcast.

Of course, your likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments are always, always appreciated!

As The Ducks Stand

Just getting my ducks in a row. Check it out before they move again, the little anarchists.

It’s been said that writing is as much for the writer as the reader. That’s certainly the case for this post. It’s mostly to help me get my proverbial ducks in a row with some links in case you are interested. Just keep in mind, my ducks are anarchist little bastiges that don’t stay lined up for long.

public domain
  • Summer hours don’t matter: you can order Distance Tarot by email (my specialty!) any time 24/7/365 on TaoCraftTarot.com. Expect 2-3 day delivery for orders placed nights (eastern US) weekends, US holidays or announced in-person closures. Orders placed on a routine work day deliver to your email within 8-12 hours in most cases.
  • In-person individual and party Tarot are both OPEN but with a reduced schedule and service area compared to the pre-pandemic before times.
  • Memberships are OPEN. Members get exclusive content and members-only special offers. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page for details.
  • Ebooks have moved from Etsy to ko-fi and are now “pay what you want” with a small minimum.
  • Email readings are on ko-fi too under the “open commissions” tab. Moving a few things from one shop to the other saves listing costs and helps me keep prices stable and low as possible.
  • Mala and jewelry will stay in the Etsy shop.
  • Natural Health online tutorials are OPEN by video call only. In-person Natural health for individuals remains closed.
  • Small group Natural Health workshops are available by special arrangement. Please contact me for details.
  • Thursdays and Sundays are down time for the blogcast and social media, give or take a little.
  • In-person Tarot will be closed April 28 – May 2, May 12 – May 17, June 22 – June 27. Stay tuned for other updates, and remember email Tarot is ALWAYS open to order, with some fluctuations in delivery times.