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TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: creative problem solving and the 8 of swords
Thank you for watching, reading, and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Eight of Swords.
When you are between a rock and a hard place, the choice may not be between options as much as the method of choosing. Choose whether to let your heart or your head lead the way. With that clear in your mind, there is a better chance that the rest will fall into place. Or at least give you a little extra confidence in the the decision that you made.
Albert Einstein is credited with saying that doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Today’s card hints at that a little bit. There is a feeling of changing things up. If you tend to be logical, try following your emotions. If you feel overwhelmed by emotions, then use cold logic. You might have to get creative with your decision making process as much as the solution to the dilemma itself.
One of the consistent messages I get with the Eight of Swords is creative problem solving, which connects with Pamela Smith’s 1909 artwork that we see here.
For those of you listening on the podcast, there is a video showing the real world card draw for the day at the top of each short sip blog post and on youtube shorts.
The Eight of Swords in this decks and the many decks based on it all show a figure surrounded swords, bound and blindfolded, often with a shore line or some transition behind them. There is often a feeling of being trapped, of being between a rock and a hard place with no good options.
That’s where the creative part of creative problem solving comes in. It may come down to using your unbound bare feet to take the risk of injury sense your way forward, but that is a way forward nevertheless.
If you are caught between terrible options, it may help to have a reason ready in your pocket to justify why you chose what you chose, even if that rationale is for yourself and no one else. Knowing that you mindfully and deliberatly followed your heart or followed your logic isn’t going to magically make the decision for your, but it can help set you up to learn from the experience if it was a mistake or set you up to repeat the process if it is successful.
Your purchases of private readings, “buy me a coffee” & membership tiers on ko-fi and shop purchases all contribute toward creating this free-for-everyone Tarot content. Your likes, subs, shares, follows, comments and questions are all appreciated too.
Happy Year of the Tiger & Happy new podcast!
Happy year of the tiger 2022!
The year is full of new ones, depending on which calendar you use. I like the lunar one because fish and noodles and sticky rice balls oh my!
As I understand it, one of the many marvelous traditions surrounding the lunar new year (in addition to the food) is that you clean the house before the new year to symbolically sweep out old negativity and misfortune After that, you don’t sweep or clean for the first days of the new year so you don’t accidentally brush away any new and good luck coming in. Any excuse to skip housework for a few days is good fortune in my book. It’s out with the old, in the new. I wonder if it works for podcasts.
I loved doing the Menage A Tarot podcast with David and Kate. After its seemingly permanent hiatus and my rebranding from Modern Oracle to TaoCraft Tarot was finally done, “Clairvoyant Confessional” dropped into my lap as an idea for a new podcast. I don’t have the skill or the software to do it myself, so when the WordPress & Anchor FM connection launched, I jumped at the chance to bring “Confessional” into reality.
But, as it turned out, making a good monologue driven podcast with a pirate radio, Delilah after dark sort of feel was harder than I thought it would be, even with these super easy to use tools. And, as it also turns out, monologuing like a super villain isn’t as much fun as you might think. It gets really old really fast.
In keeping with lunar new year, I’m sweeping out the old style podcast once and for all. Yesterday was one last confessional pirate radio monologue before going full cyberpunk and letting Siri’s second cousin Remy do the talking because dammit Jim, I’m a writer not a narrator and can make very long complex sentences like this one.
Rather than chasing a nifty idea with mediocre execution, I want to give you the best of me and my actual clairvoyance by changing – not ending – the podcast. The podcast will be the audio edition of the blog, which includes short sip (almost) daily Tarot, You Choose Interactive Tarot, and bigger reads like the upcoming Oracle’s Toolkit series. And, if any of you can work up the courage to submit a question through the blog comments or social media, I’ll answer your question in the blog and podcast. Instead of “I have a confession” this could be a “Real Tarot for Real People” kind of blog and podcast. Ask me anything. I’ll post some sort of answer, maybe even one with a Tarot card or two or a few.
You can listen to the final confession HERE
Thank you to everyone reading or listening. I appreciate you and I’m glad you are here.
I also appreciate any likes, subs, shares, follows, or Tarot Table memberships you can spare. Your support through the purchase of private Tarot readings and the “buy me a coffee link” goes toward the creation of this free-for-everyone Tarot content.
This is why the podcast is going cyberpunk. Put so much time into doing a self-narrated podcast that I need to skip this week’s Sunday Tarot Turnover.
Instead, I give you….Confession #9, Sipping the Right Stuff.
Transcript:
I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession: my stuff ain’t right
Hi everyone. My name is Ronda. I read tarot, write stuff and make things.
The idea of “pushing the envelope” was made popular by Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff and the movie by the same name back in the 80s. It’s still part of the American vernacular. We’ve all heard of pushing the envelope, although it has come to mean challenging ourselves and stepping outside of our individual comfort zone rather than putting lives on the line to test the physical limits of a new aircraft.
In the movie Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper talks about the pilots still “out there somewhere…pushing back the outside of that envelope and hauling it back in.”
Everybody loves to talk about pushing the envelope. Nobody ever seems to talk about hauling it back in.
That’s an important part too. As I understand it a SUCCESSFUL test program is one that ends with a live pilot, an intact airplane and usable data, not a hollywood style fireball.
Which in a way, begs the question of how you define success? Success isn’t always expansive. Sometimes quality really is more important than quantity.
Which brings me back to the stuff I’m putting into this podcast. I’m not so sure it has been the right stuff.
It’s been a stretch. Starting a podcast at all was way outside of my comfort envelope. A rambling pirate radio persona like the movie Pump Up The Volume was more fun in theory than in practice. It pushed the envelope to give Clairvoyant Confessional a try. But it is time to haul the envelope back in. I’m not pulling the plug on the podcast, but I am making a change in style and aesthetics.
One thing I’ve learned from this test flight is that podcasts are valuable and fun BUT it really is about the conversation and chemistry like we had on Menage a Tarot, which, btw, is still available on itunes if you’d like to give it a listen.
I still want to offer something to the podcasting environment for anyone who is interested in Tarot and Tarot readings. BUT I also learned that vocal performance is not my strong suit. So here is the deal: the pirates and test pilots are going cyberpunk.
Thanks to the brilliant text to speech conversion available through wordpress and anchor fm for better or worse I’m letting technology take over the narration.
Clairvoyant Confessional is now the TaoCraft Tarot podcast and serves as the audio edition of the TaoCraft Tarot blog.
By letting Siri’s second cousin Remy take over the speaking part, I can put my energy into the writing part so I can give all of you the best of me and my actual clairvoyance.
Thank you for listening to Clairvoyant Confessional and its new incarnation as TaoCraft Tarot podcast. I hope you’ll stay tuned for the short sip nano-episodes that give you Tarot guidance for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee as well as the slightly longer episodes like the YouChoose Interactive readings.
As always, thank you for any likes, subs, shares, or follows that you can spare. As always, helpful links are in the episode description.
Also a special thank you to dinosoul for giving permission to use their song dimension as an outro for the past several confessional episodes.
Thanks again for listening. I’ll see you on the print side and see you at the next sip.
I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession: my stuff ain’t right
Scratch oniep
Hi everyone. My name is Ronda. I read tarot, write stuff and make things.
The idea of “pushing the envelope” was made popular by Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff and the movie by the same name back in the 80s. It’s still part of the American vernacular. We’ve all heard of pushing the envelope, although it has come to mean challenging ourselves and stepping outside of our individual comfort zone rather than putting lives on the line to test the physical limits of a new aircraft.
In the movie Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper talks about the pilots still “out there somewhere…pushing back the outside of that envelope and hauling it back in.”
Everybody loves to talk about pushing the envelope. Nobody ever seems to talk about hauling it back in.
That’s an important part too. As I understand it a SUCCESSFUL test program is one that ends with a live pilot, an intact airplane and usable data, not a hollywood style fireball.
Which in a way, begs the question of how you define success? Success isn’t always expansive. Sometimes quality really is more important than quantity.
Which brings me back to the stuff I’m putting into this podcast. I’m not so sure it has been the right stuff.
It’s been a stretch. Starting a podcast at all was way outside of my comfort envelope. A rambling pirate radio persona like the movie Pump Up The Volume was more fun in theory than in practice. It pushed the envelope to give Clairvoyant Confessional a try. But it is time to haul the envelope back in. I’m not pulling the plug on the podcast, but I am making a change in style and aesthetics.
One thing I’ve learned from this test flight is that podcasts are valuable and fun BUT it really is about the conversation and chemistry like we had on Menage a Tarot, which, btw, is still available on itunes if you’d like to give it a listen.
I still want to offer something to the podcasting environment for anyone who is interested in Tarot and Tarot readings. BUT I also learned that vocal performance is not my strong suit. So here is the deal: the pirates and test pilots are going cyberpunk.
scratch
Thanks to the brilliant text to speech conversion available through wordpress and anchor fm for better or worse I’m letting technology take over the narration.
Clairvoyant Confessional is now the TaoCraft Tarot podcast and serves as the audio edition of the TaoCraft Tarot blog.
By letting Siri’s second cousin Remy take over the speaking part, I can put my energy into the writing part so I can give all of you the best of me and my actual clairvoyance.
Short dimension
Thank you for listening to Clairvoyant Confessional and its new incarnation as TaoCraft Tarot podcast. I hope you’ll stay tuned for the short sip nano-episodes that give you Tarot guidance for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee as well as the slightly longer episodes like the YouChoose Interactive readings.
As always, thank you for any likes, subs, shares, or follows that you can spare. As always, helpful links are in the episode description.
Also a special thank you to dinosoul for giving permission to use their song dimension as an outro for the past several confessional episodes.
Thanks again for listening. I’ll see you on the print side and see you at the next sip.
Thank you to everyone who supported the Clairvoyant Confessional incarnation of the podcast.
Your purchase of email Tarot readings combined with the “buy me a coffee” virtual tip mug, ko-fi memeberships to the “TaoCraft Tarot Table” and purchases from the ko-fi shop all support the creation of the free-for-everybody Tarot content.
Today’s card is the Ace of Pentacles
Pentacles are related to the physical realm. Often it connects to career and money energy. Other times it is more abstract, pointing toward a need for practical action. The ace, of course tends to care a sense of newness and promise. The classic interpretation is that good fortune is coming.
Intuition speaks in whispers and symbols. Sometimes it speaks in mental images and pop music references. That’s how it is working today. As I look at the card, I get the mental image of the spider web emoji and am reminded of the 1980s song “patience” by Guns and Roses. I don’t think it has any connection to any other lyrics or meaning behind the song. It feels like a way to emphasize the word “patience.”
It reminds me a little bit of the Neil DeGrasse Tyson quote that “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” Neither is obligated to meet our expectations or our timetables.
It also reminds me of the advice to be kind, because we never know what another person might be going through.
Putting all of that together, take heart. Good things can come of it all. Be patient. Everything is connected, and there is much we don’t know about other parts of that web of all things.
I appreciate you. Thank you for being here.
Thank you for watching the Short Sip real-world card draw on YouTube Shorts and on Instagram reels.
A longer card reading follows the card draw on the TaoCraft Tarot Blog and in audio on the TaoCraft Tarot Podcast
Ko-fi “Tarot Table” memberships, the virtual tip jar coffee mug, and private email Tarot reading purchases all support this free-for-everyone Tarot content. Your likes, subs, shares, and follows are also appreciated.
Thank you for listening, watching and reading TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your favorite beverage. Mine is coffee. Thank you all for your support through the virtual coffee tip mug, and all of your likes, subs, shares, and follows. I appreciate you and I am glad you are here.
Today’s card is the seven of pentacles:
Typically, the pentacles are work, career, practical real-world related ideas. Today the energy is more thoughtful than usual. Overall, it feels connected to the Hermit energy that came through for the Quiet Night post a few weeks ago. I’ll link to the blog post in the show notes for those of you listening through the podcast.
Speaking of the podcast – I’m really loving this text to speech automatic conversion thing wordpress and anchor fm has going. It puts the best of me – my writing – into the podcast. I know some people don’t like the robot voice, but I’m just cyberpunk enough to enjoy letting Siri’s second cousin Remy do the heavy lifting with the narration thing.
But back to the seven of pentacles
When I was very young, my father was manager of a local retail store in a small Appalachian town. Other than a mechanical cash register I don’t think they had calculators much less any sort of computer. Every January, it was common for businesses like that to close for a few days in January to take inventory of all of their goods and to go over the books and reconcile everything and who knows what all. I just remember it was a lot of work and a few very long days for dad. They always had inventory clearance sale to get as much stuff out of the store before starting that whole process. That was always a big thing, It’s how I got my favorite mickey mouse umbrella. Yay clearance sales!
There is a little bit of that kind of energy here.
Tarot cards, especially these one card daily meditations, are more helpful when they are put into context.
In a larger, multiple card layout, you get context from the client’s questions and concerns combined with the layout as a whole. That’s why multiple card layouts are more difficult and time consuming to do. Not only do you have more individual cards to interpret, but you have more connections and context to knit together too.
In a single card draw, you can get context from purely intuitive cues, but also, as is the case here, from the environment around you. My attention is drawn to the cold weather, the snow I can see out the window, the time of year, and that memory of inventory time. The context for this card is, in a way, the time of year.
All things considered, I think this card is telling us it is inventory time.
If the part about clearance sales and mickey mouse umbrellas appeals to you, then yes, maybe it is time to clean and clear and let go, as is traditional at new years, including next week’s lunar new year.
Happy Year of the Tiger by the way.
I see a greater energy flowing toward the inventory part. It is a very introspective energy, again it feels similar to the Hermit energy. Today feels like a good time to stop, take a deep breath and take account. What is the realistic situation around you? What are your hopes and aspirations, really. When you dig down to the root of it all, what is the cause, what the reason behind what you hope and dream and do. What resources do you have at hand? What seeds do you need to plant? What seeds do you need obtain to plan to plant later when spring comes?
It’s not a time to beat up on yourself for falling short of goals. But it may be time to make new ones. Sometimes you have to count your ducks before you worry about getting them in a row.
A deep breath and a little mental quiet time can help figure it all out.
Thank you again for reading, watching and listening. See you at the next sip!
Hello everyone and thank you for reading and listening to the TaoCraft Tarot blog. This is a post from 2020 before the podcast started, even in its original Clairvoyant Confessional form. I’ve edited the post a tiny bit to make it more podcast friendly, but I’m still not sure how well it will convert to audio. But if you’ve listened before, you know that I’m a terrible narrator, so Siri’s second cousin Remy is still going to do a better job for you, wonky pronunciation and all.
The card for this November 2020 post was the Queen of Wands. Here we go.
I dunno
Life is a mystery.
Some would say its like a box of chocolates. Others of us might lean more toward a word that sounds like bit snow. Chocolate or otherwise, sometimes you just don’t know what is going to happen or where it is going to splatter.
Not knowing is part of life, and and it is unnerving as heck. Nobody likes it.
Trying to cope with the unknown comes in different forms. One way is to try prepare for it and make contingency plans as best as you can. It is warm and comfy to wrap ourselves in that kind of logic. If X happens, then I’ll do Y, but if A happens then I’ll do B, if C happens then –
have mercy….
I don’t blame people for wanting predictions.
Predictions, however, are uncertain in and of themselves. They only push life’s uncertainty back a step and hold it at arm’s length until facts and reality set in. Advice and guidance are more effective. Rather than a prediction that still might or might not materialize, guidance adds a degree of information, a tiny bit of knowing that increases both our comfort levels and our ability to make contingency plans.
Imagine driving on a long road trip, and not quite knowing where you are. But ah-ha! A little sign on the side of the road lets you know that you are on highway I 79 going north. If you keep going straight you’ll get to Lake Erie, as long as you don’t have an flat tire or get stuck in a surprise snow storm or something. If something unexpected happens, you can look for more signs to help. So of course, you should start with the logical, practical things. In this analogy that would be putting gas in the car, making sure your cellphone is charged, dress for the weather and such. Tarot readings are to life what gps is for a highway trip. It can’t predict what will exactly happen along the way, but it can give you an idea about the direction you are headed and the conditions ahead.
Other than a chance to practice facing our fear of it, is there any value to the unknowns in life?
I think the mysterious and unknown is our portal to meaning and spirituality.
The mysterious and unknown are key to defining spirituality. As I see it, spirituality is how we, as individuals, deal with and engage with the mysteries of existence. Spirituality is the diametrical opposite of religion. Religion is concerned with the social group. Religion strives to make the unknown into something that is known and in turn impose that understanding from the outside inward. Spirituality is concerned with the individual, and is purely internal. Spirituality expresses from the inside out, rather than impressing from the outside in. Spirituality makes the unknowable – not into the knowable – but into our friend.
It is ok not to know everything. It is ok not to have easy answers to everything. If the journey is more important than the destination, then the contemplation of the mysterious is more important than the comprehension of it.
I make meditation beads. I made one for myself recently. I have no idea how many beads are on it. I just strung however many beads were in a loose package. It’s not a size of bead I typically use, so there was no easy guess how many wound up on the strand. I could have counted them, but I chose not to. I could count them now, but I still choose not to. That mala stands as a symbol for me of the mysterious parts of life. Because it is unknown, but could be, it symbolizes a tangible connection to the mysterious. It is a reminder that the unknowns in life are something to work with rather than eradicate.
It’s OK to not know everything, even if it is a little frightening.
As Frank Herbert wrote in Dune:
“I will not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that leads to total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will allow it to flow around me and through me. When the fear has passed, I will turn my minds eye to the path where the fear has gone and only I will remain.”
Thank you all for reading TaoCraft Tarot blog and listening to the podcast. Your questions and comments are welcome on both platforms. I’m glad you are here, and I appreciate you. Any likes, subs, shares, follows and virtual coffees are also greatly appreciated. There are links to all of the formats in the blog post and in the episode description.
Short sip Tarot should be back tomorrow. See you at the next sip!
Alan Watts quote with the nine of swords tarot card
Or, as I see it, opening to life in all of its emotions risks experiencing the greatest heartaches, but to do otherwise is to risk missing life’s greatest joys.
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee. Today: Nine of Swords
Apologies to podcast listeners. Due to a technical glitch, yesterday’s “You Choose Interactive Tarot” didn’t go out through the podcast after all. It is available on the blog for anyone who is interested. Link is in the episode description.
Today’s card is the nine of swords.
Like most cards, it has several threads of meaning. Today two threads are stepping forward, universality and direct proportion.
Experiencing some degree of worry and anxiety is never easy, but it is ubiquitous. It is pretty much a universal experience. There is an adage attributed to everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Alexander Graham Bell to the Positive Mom blog and back again. It has long been said that “if you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.” Just look at babies learning to walk. The greatest among us took a few plops on the old diaper at that stage of life. Or as Thomas Edison actually said, “I never failed at making a light bulb. I just discovered 99 ways NOT to make one.” It is just the human experience. There is no walking without a few falls and there are no light bulbs without a hundred not-lightbulbs. In the words of the R.E.M. song, “everybody hurts, sometimes.”
Alan Watts gives us a hint at the other thread of meaning. He reminds us that “we cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.” That shouldn’t deter us from experiencing life any more than a small sit-down should deter us from walking or a blown light bulb should deter us from finding a light.
If we experience life through a pinhole then worry comes as pinpricks. But pleasure can be unsatisfyingly small in proportion. Worry and anxiety can be artificially large sometimes. The hopeful side of the nine of swords is that on the other side of worry, relief can come in equal measure.
Thank you for watching, reading and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. If you enjoy these blog posts and nano episodes, please like, subscribe, follow and share.
Thanks again….see you at the next Sip!
You choose: you pick the card, you decide how to apply it, and then get today’s reading the for your card.
This week the overall energy seems to focus on doing things, but for different reasons.
Ace cards have a thread of beginning energy (although not with the same wattage as the Fool card from the major arcana.) They also typically carry the essence of the suit, which is what draws my attention in this instance. Pentacles are connected with the physical realm, often career, work, or wealth. Today feels like the physical realm in general with the advice to engage with the physical realm to rest the mind. Think in terms of a long jog, or the classic hot shower where genius ideas are born.
Swords and knights are action. Swords are also connected with the element of air which in turn points to mind and intellect. If you chose the knight of swords (no spoilers! you’ll have to watch the video and pick a card to see if this one is yours) then the energy for you is also flowing toward doing and action, but something that combines doing and thinking, as you might with following a pattern or recipe or anything new really.
Cups cards connect to the element of water, intuition, emotion, and closest relationships. This is also doing oriented. but working with friends. Not so much working on a career or physical-realm task as the other cards, but actively polling your brain trust. It feels like the thing to DO is to poll the audience so to speak, to reach out to trusted friends. The idea of “two heads are better than one” will serve you well – especially if the other head is someone you have a good relationship with.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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