Failures, obstacles, and betrayals take time to heal even as life demands that healing. The more painful the experience, the stronger the message that this is not the path for you.
You are not your failures, unless you accept them as such. Take them as a message and an opportunity to learn or to change direction then suddenly painful setbacks are just signposts along your way.
Next Step: Nine of Cups
This is a card of community and celebration. Found family heals. Found community supports. Your true tribe is a place of love and acceptance wherever and whoever they may be.
Your true tribe is the people and places that energize you, uplift you, comfort you, and make you feel most deeply at home. Only you can who your tribe is. No one can tell you who your tribe should be.
Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
Pause the video if you need time to think of your question or time to decide which card feels right for you. Restart to see the reveal.
Ten of Swords: Persistence comes from doing something, not from doing the same thing over and over. Taking a minute – or a month – or several – to collect yourself and process the big things that have happened is not a defeat. Healing IS doing something. Healing IS moving forward. Changing directions IS persisting.
Hierophant (Pope in some decks) NOW is the time for spirituality, not religion. Now is the time to follow your own inner wisdom and your personal connection to the universe or the devine, not what outside influences dictate. Follow your conscience to a path of compassion toward others AND toward yourself.
Sage Sips is tarot inspired meditations in the time it takes to sip your coffee
Special shout out to all of the energy sensitives in the US.
What a couple of weeks it has been *insert your favorite interjection or expletives here*
I don’t know about you, but I’m furious. I have a hunch we’ve entered into a crash course on shadow work and have to make fast friends with our dark side so we can survive theirs. Last week was not unicorn farts and marshmallows. Although the energy hasn’t quite stabilized yet – it feels like the pouring rain scene in the Star Wars prequel on that planet where Obi Wan discovered the clone army- it does feel like the storm front is starting to pass and we are beginning to get early glimpses of the aftermath.
Or put another way, the lightning bolt from the Tower card hit, and now we are in ten of swords mode.
I’ve done some private reading, for which I am SO grateful. The individual messages are breaks in the clouds and rays of sunshine in the storm of collective energy. Thank you all. I hope the readings help you as much as it has helped me to put things in a little more perspective.
Perspective looks both ways.
Perspective shows us where we are right now in the grand scheme of things (think World card). It includes our best guess and firm intentions for the future but it also includes lessons from the past that we can use now.
Camouflage is a survival technique seen in nature, and perfectly fine to use as long as you remember what is really underneath. Protection is valid too. Protect, preserve, celebrate and honor the true you, always.
I see you. I appreciate you.
The squirrels rave again. Blog posts are as unpredictable as ever. Private readings by email are always OPEN (even if delivery times vary and even if the superficial appearance changes a bit.)
Stay tuned. We’ll muddle through one way or another.
So much is up to you – it’s your choice what you do with what you are handed. Emotions bubble up, but you choose what you do about them.
Sorry about the shreddy sounding voice and disorganized presentation (there are reasons why I’m a writer type Tarot reader and not a social media influencer) but watch the video, pick a path.
This shows some of my choices for 2024.The YouTube channel is all companion videos showing the real world card draw for the day. The video has short commentary in the description, but the full reading is here in the blog. I don’t like talking on video, so there you are. I hope you’ll watch and read to get the best of both worlds.
Looking at all the rows together we see lots of major arcana and court cards. I think that is hinting at a big energy year. Lots of change, a real roller coaster ride. Plant good seeds, set a good foundation now so our roller coaster ride ends up in a good place.
Top Row – Quartz
Clear quartz is the universal amplifier. It turns up the volume on your connection to universal energies and the effects of other stones and crystals. This may be your year to be the helper. Speak your truth and let it be heard.
Fading Energy: 10 of Swords. I’m guessing that 2023 was a heckuva year for you. This card isn’t hinting that anything dire is going to happen. It’s hinting that it already has. HEAL. Let yourself be down, make a full assessment of everything that has happened so you can stand up again. I always connect this card to the proverb “fall down seven times but get up eight.”
Current Energy: Queen of Swords. This is a card of accepting your power. Give yourself a little dose of confidence. It isn’t arrogant to do the things you are good at doing. If you don’t want to think of yourself as being good at something, then do the things you LOVE to do. Often they are the same thing.
Growing Energy: Strength. This card is just what it seems. Heal from what has happened, get up again, claim your strengths. Confidence and strength can grow as time goes on.
Middle Row – Orange Calcite
Calcite comes in a variety of colors, but the orange calcite here is especially associated with the second chakra, below the navel. Orange is the opposite of blue on the color wheel, so orange calcite can poetically speaking “chase away the blues.” Of all of orange calcite’s properties cleansing and uplifting step forward here.
Fading energy: Judgement. This also gives me the feeling that you center row folks had a heckuva year, but more on the mental and emotional level than in the physical / career realm. Let go of other people’s judgement of you and give yourself a second chance whether anyone else does or not. Humans are a diverse lot. There is someone, somewhere who accepts you just exactly as you are, no judgments or second chances required.
Current energy: Hermit. Nothing is better for letting go of old hurts than a little alone time. Give yourself the space to shut out all the judge-y voices. Set some boundaries, find your one guiding light. When you come out of your hermit cave, a fresh start will be right there waiting for you. Any day can be the first day of a new year.
Growing energy: Queen of Wands. This is a card of self care too, but it has an element of claiming your own time, skills, strengths and powers. The energy feel of this card is very much like the queen of swords and it feels like the queen of wands is standing in as surrogate simply because the queen of swords can’t be in two places at the same time. Putting it in those words, I get a sense that the year may be growing in activity. It could get busy. Whether that heaping plate of things to do is a good thing or a stressful thing is up to you.
Foundation Row – Red Carnelian
Red carnelian is a stone of courage, endurance and leadership. You never know what you have inside until it is put to the test. One way to discover your comfort zone is to step outside of it. But don’t worry, if you can’t step back in to the old zone, it will grow out to meet you. You got this.
Fading energy: The High Priestess. This is a card of mystique and mystery. When mystery fades it often leaves certainty in its wake. This card reminds me of a quote by scientist Richard Feynman “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.” Know with confidence, but question everything with equal energy.
Current energy: Five of Swords. Sword cards often denote action. Now that I think about it, the word aftermath is stepping forward here. The past three years have been pretty unhinged on the macro scale, if not on your individual one too. This card is validating what you feel, but also challenging you to rise to the circumstances. “Yeah, that sucked, but now what are you going to DO about it?” is the vibe.
Growing energy: The Empress. Get back to nature, baby. This is a big reminder to touch some grass this year, literally and figuratively. Somewhere I read about a study where people’s blood pressure came down a little bit whenever they looked at pictures of nature. That isn’t to say pictures of nature cure high blood pressure, but that objective, measurable change showed that we associate nature with relaxation and even that tiny bit of contact was enough to elicit a tiny bit of measurable, physiologic stress reduction.
Whether it is a new computer wallpaper, a walk in the park, a day at the beach or a week long camping trip…anything you can do to connect with nature is nothing but good this year. For goodness’ sake get outside and breathe some fresh air, will you?
And everybody wash your hands, wear a mask when you need to, get enough sleep and eat an occasional vegetable while you are at it.
I wish everyone a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
See you at the next sip!
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Hello and welcome to the Energy Path reading for the week of September 4 – 11. I’m glad you are here.
Change and cycles are still a thing this week, but in a different way. It feels like it has moved from a general environment thing to being more personal advice. The lingering Moon card energy from the past few weeks feels like it has turned a corner, ebb is beginning to flow. The mental image here is outgoing tide, not at all the “slack water” energy from a few weeks ago.
At the same time there is emphasis on change. Now it has shifted to a more intense, personal, evolutionary change more than broad, gentle, slow, tectonic shift natural cycles.
Two other things come to mind, generally.
First, we are responsible for who we are now. Yes, life has been hard. Yes, you have experienced trauma of all sorts. Yet, you can heal, you can rise again, you can overcome. Destruction becomes disappointment becomes release.
It gets better when you get to the point where you can, at last, let it go.
“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” – Alan Watts
Second, as I listen to my favorite darkwave playlist-
If we choose who we are now, why do I and others choose dark, goth-ish, witchy, INTP, neon cyberpunk self-expression.
Yes, I said choose.
We could be all bright and karen and hot girl summer if we wanted to do that – but we don’t.
And we are doing right by ourselves and our souls and for society at large by doing so. I am reminded of the adage that religion is for people who want to avoid hell while spirituality is for those who have already been there. Perhaps the kindest people are the ones unafraid of the dark because they have walked there so often before.
Sometimes, the most revolutionary thing you can do for your shadow side is to admit it exists.
Why revel in what some call darkness? Consider the alternative: false, toxic positivism.
The Ten of Swords truthfully and directly acknowledges our injuries and our circumstances. The figure stays face down and flat to allow the profound change of either death or healing to begin.
This phase is fading. We’ve been down, so to speak, but the tide is turning. It is time to once again rise.
We rise, not fully transformed, but with lingering disappointment. Traces of old experience can cling. Now is a time of contemplation, of coming to understand what happened and is happening. Swords may be intellect and action, with a certain physicality to it all, if not from our physical person then from our social environment. The Five of Cups is about the emotional aftermath of whatever the Ten of Swords represents for you.
Growing energies are the Wheel. This is the change of the death card plus the cyclic nature of the Moon card plus the transformation energy of the Magician card all rolled into one. We are coming to a potent time of change, and a potent time of choosing the person we will be five minutes from now.
We are under no obligation to be the person we were before but we are under every obligation to choose who we will become five minutes from now.
You can read more about that over-arching, cyclic Moon major arcana energy in the Weekend Shift post. There is a new focus today, but that gentle, cyclic, guiding Moon card energy is still with us.
Welcome to Sage Sips, Tarot for your week in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
Against the backdrop of Moon energy, I’m getting succinct, common sense, solid useful advice. Eat your vegetable, exercise, get enough sleep, drink enough water, wash your damn hands and when difficult emotions come around, follow this advice.
Interestingly it is an energy cycle very akin to what we were talking about a few weeks ago when Dharma Drum Mountain’s Four Steps for Handling a Problem came to mind. This is pretty much the same idea except it’s directed toward any strong, difficult emotions.
“You can’t fill an empty cup” is one of the best known Zen proverbs. Usually it refers to ego getting in the way of learning and mindful experience. In this case, the cups cards represent emotion. We can let old traumas cripple and pierce and fetter us, like the ten of swords or we can face them honestly and directly and masterfully, like the King of Cups.
Dwelling in the past isn’t a helpful thing in these cases. Just as Dharma Drum’s Ch’an Buddhism teaches us to let go of a problem once we’ve done all in our power to understand and solve it, today’s reading reminds us to let go of emotions that no longer inform us or serve us.
Full emotional cups that are dumped out unceremoniously dumped without thought or consideration just fill up all over again.
Full emotional cups that stay full beyond their time leave no room for growth or new happiness.
I’m not really sure what it means – it feels way out of context – but I ‘hear’ (meaning the intuitione comes as words or music instead of mental images) “Pour one out for your homies.” To me the vibe is like a ceremony or libation or communion with a symbolic pouring or drinking in honor of spirit or a crossed over loved one or something emotional and ceremonial and spiritual like that.
I wonder, too, if the growing energy Ace of Cups turned upside down is a reminder to pay attention to our spiritual life, our communion with whatever it is that we spiritually revere.
*raises mug of coffee to my spirit guide crew in deep gratitude*
Against the backdrop of last week’s Moon card energy, we are given a glimpse into the cycle of healthy human emotional experience: Feel. Abide. Release. Feel again.
Thank you all for reading. I appreciate your time and attention. Your likes, shares, blog follows, private reading orders, questions and comments are always appreciated. See you at the next sip!
Hello and welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
Before we get to the ten of swords, I want to give you a quick reminder about my winter Tarot reading schedule.
There is none.
It was a nice surprise to have a few minutes to write this. I’m expecting a jam packed schedule between now and January. I’m so, so, so thankful for the text to voice audio blogging that WordPress, Anchor FM and Spotify have available.
And I’m also grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you for reading and listening despite the erratic, random posting non-schedule. I’m cautiously optimistic that I can get back to trying to follow social media best practices after the new year. I’m in awe of all of the wonderfully talented people who create “content” on a regular schedule. I have yet to make that work for Tarot. Energy, intuition and the ebb and flow of life doesn’t give a flying rat’s patootie about posting schedules. Intuition and creativity has its own agenda and I owe it to all of you to go where my real strength lies which is Tarot readings and blog writing, not social media presentation.
Speaking of which, the new “crystal cast” posts that I had planned for Mondays will have to wait until after Thanksgiving, possibly until after New Year, too.
But stay tuned. Right or wrong, accurate or not, Zombie Cat is going to try his paw at a fast and loose Tarot reading for 2023. That cat is a little unhinged (as zombies often are) so whatever predictions he makes – don’t blame me. Look for that in December.
All in all, I still like to think of this utter lack of a schedule gives the blog a little bit of an underground, renegade, pirate radio sort of vibe. I hope you’ll come along for the ride, such as it is.
On top of it all, Elf-con 1 has officially been declared at my house. I got knitting to do and stuff to bake.
So before I have to hop out to shop for flour, sugar and that one last skein of yarn, let’s take a look at the Ten of Swords.
Just to show that spirit and energy operates on its own schedule, here is some context for today’s card.
I had an appointment in the afternoon, so when the morning obligation rescheduled, I had every intention of indulging in a second cup of coffee and a leisurely scroll through Instagram. That’s when I stumbled across one of those social media talents we were talking about earlier. Digital creator Barry Brandon (instagram.com/forallhumans.co aka @queerindigo) posted a video about personal authenticity, the Colorado Springs shootings and a variety of other things. I can’t begin to capture it here, and urge you to watch it for yourself.
When he said “…it shouldn’t be this challenging to exist in one’s skin. It shouldn’t be this challenging to be oneself…” it made a solid landing right in my wheelhouse.
I’m an atheist, Taoist, solitary eclectic witch, Tarot reader and the hardcore evangelical christianity in my family has diminished if not outright severed most of those relationships. But that is nothing … NOTHING … compared to the level of hate and bigotry that the LGBTQIA+ community has to face every single day. As someone who cares very deeply for multiple people in the community, it is absolutely terrifying to even think about everything they face … and meet with such grace, courage and love.
When that ton of emotional bricks hit, I punted the leisurely scroll and followed the intuitive impulse to pull a card and see where that would lead. It led to the 10 of Swords card draw that you can see in the video above (the link is in the episode description as always for podcast listeners) and that led me here.
To my mind, that context and this card are all of the same collective energy in the context of the Club Q shooting this past weekend.
In these times, it is natural and so easy to be furious and terrified and just … done.
We all know the line from Yoda and Star Wars about “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Which, along with the ten of Swords, begs the question of how to deal with hate and anger and defeat and suffering.
There is no easy answer.
There may be no answer at all.
For me personally, the only answer I know is to be the best ally I know how to be, to advocate for gun control and equality legislation to the best of my ability and to urge those I love to be as careful and safe as it’s humanly possible to be while still living their happiest most authentic life.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
In lighter times and easier energy, the 10 of Swords is akin to that old adage of “fall down seven times, get up eight” or “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”
To plan, to act, to be righteously angry, to rebound from defeat and to do so from a place of love is difficult, but it is the most potent lemonade we can make.
Thank you all for listening and reading.
TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot is a contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. If you enjoy them, please visit the TaoCraftTarot ko-fi page where shop purchases, readings, memberships and virtual coffees all support these free Tarot readings on this non-monetized blog and podcast.
Wth the YouChoose Interactive Tarot on the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast you do just that: choose. You choose when to read and watch. You choose which card and how to apply it.
Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
To start the week, let’s do a “you choose” style reading. It’s Monday morning here, so naturally a look at the energies for the week ahead is top of mind. You can use the card you choose to look ahead to any day or any week at any time you see this, or you can use it as a general guidance meditation or get some clarity about a particular topic or question. As alway, you choose.
There is a video of the real world card draw above if you are reading the blog, or on the spotify version of the podcast if I can get it to work. If you are listening to the podcast, imagine a circle, a star and a square. Pick a shape to pick your card. Choose from circle, star or square. You can pause the video or podcast if you need more time to think about it. Then restart to see which card goes with the shape you chose; circle, star or square.
Or, on the blog, just keep reading.
Circle: Six of Wands. Be generous and kind to yourself when it comes to mental and spiritual things. Don’t waste brain cells on worry. Stressful times need balance. If you have been extra active or extra stressed, you might have to deliberately be more quiet or more isolated than is usually your nature to balance things out. The six of wands is often associated with peace after war, calm after struggle. Think of this card as the mental and spiritual equivalent of taking a nap after a hard workout at the gym. The strongest hurricanes have the lowest pressure in the center eye of the storm. Be the eye of the hurricane.
Star: Ten of Swords. When life gets you down, it’s ok to down stay there a minute and gather your thoughts before getting up like the unstoppable melty-metal terminator robot that you are. The point isn’t that you get up in a dramatic martyr-like show of strength. The point is to get up at your best and ready to function at your best despite past failures. Sometimes the point is to get up at all.
Square: Justice. Work smarter, not harder. Detachment, balance, and level-headedness are your friends. The Justice card is a card of wisdom. It’s hard to make really profound, life altering decisions on the fly. Sometimes following your impulse, intuition and gut instinct is the exact right thing to do. If you chose this card – now is not the time for that sort of thing. Now is a time for pondering, intellect and logic. It’s like the six of wands folks just heard: the most powerful hurricanes have the lowest pressures in the center eye. You need to be the eye of the hurricane, too.
Taken together, the energy this week seems to be asking for cooler heads and calmer emotions to prevail. Keep some humor about it all. A little light humor can go a long, long way in diffusing fear and anxiety, so keep some dad jokes at the ready. You just might be the one who needs them.
Remember Hawkeye’s wise observations on the TV show MASH? Use your head, like Hawkeye. This week’s cards remind me of the time he said “If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, then you probably haven’t checked with your answering service lately.”
Thanks for listening! I’ll see you at the next sip!
The blog, podcast and YouTube channel are not monetized and depend solely on audience support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on Ko-fi. Shop sales, commissioned readings, and memberships all support the creation of this free to access Tarot content. Your likes, subs, shares, private reading orders, questions and comments are always appreciated!
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Ten of Swords.
There’s no way around it. The Ten of Swords is kind of a dire looking card. In the classic Waite Smith deck, you have some dude face down on the ground with a whole collection of swords sticking out of his back. That can’t be good.
It’s not.
Nor is it intended to be.
Tarot wouldn’t be a useful life guide if it was all rainbow sprinkles and fairy dust because life itself isn’t a collection of vanilla scented unicorn farts. Stuff happens. Like the three deer that just walked through the yard and past my window. Hello ladies.
Life is random, just like that. And it doesn’t always bring a few sweet natured neighborhood deer.
Sometimes the Ten of Swords is about persistence. Sometimes it talks about energy akin to that proverb “fall down seven times get up eight.” Persistence is not quite the vibe today. Today is more about zombie emotions.
I forget exactly how it came up in the conversation, but a reading for a client recently reminded me of a quote attributed to Sigmund Freud. He said that “Unexpressed emotions never die. They are buried alive and come forth later in uglier ways.” You know. Zombie feelings.
It is also said that doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is the essence of insanity not to mention a good way to create zombie feelings.
Choose your battles wisely. If we persist in just getting up time and time again it not only gets a little crazy from the repetition, it also buries the emotions about the situation in a heap of blind effort.
It sounds crazy, but sometimes you have to face the swords in your back. The first step in fixing something is admitting it is broken, not by burying the broken-ness under a veneer of repeated effort.
Yes, by all means persist, but not like that.
No one is going to thing less of you if you take a minute to get your bearings, asses the situation and figure out something different to try next time. If they do, that’s on them for being judge-y and awful, not on you for being honest with yourself about your situation and how you feel about it.
Take minute, reassess, identify the problems and feel the feels. If you ask me, using the swords in your back to slay zombie emotions sounds like a pretty persistent, get-up-eight kind of thing to do.
Thank you so much for listening! I appreciate you and any likes, subs, shares and follows that you can spare. The blogcast and youtube channel are not monetized, so they depend on your support through your no appointment needed Tarot readings purchases and Tarot Table memberships on ko-fi.
Zombie Cat is back! He lives year round on the ‘no appointment needed’ Tarot page, but he’s front page news during Spooky Season with $5 of a yes/no reading by email. STILL no appointment needed – order anytime, 24/7
Ask Zombie Cat ANYTHING. He’ll make it yes/no and give you the straight answer, not matter what it is. Zombie Cat’s yes/no readings have a 100% gaurantee of containing some words and 50% chance of being dead wrong.
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