Go with your first impulse or pause the video to think about which card feels right to you. Restart the video to see the reveal and get your reading below.
Sometimes ‘one day at a time’ becomes one minute at a time, one breath, one moment at a time. Step by step, moment by moment, wherever there is life, there is hope. Even the smallest light can make the darkness step back. Shine your light or at least try to borrow some light from the words of others and darkness retreats – always.
PAGE OF CUPS: Find your comfort. Embrace the thing that gives you whatever tiny bit of comfort that you can, now matter how small or seemingly silly. Emotional support corn chips? Stanley-style comfort bucket? Knit a blanket? Stare at a fish in a cup? Whatever it is that gives a moment of respite is the thing that is needed now.
Cups cards are tied to emotions, intuition and the element of water. There is an element of “let the heart lead” if you felt drawn to this card. Whatever your emotions are today, they are valid and natural. As they bubble up, identify them, accept them, deal with them and release them at your own pace and in your own time. A key emotion today is compassion for yourself, just as much as everyone else.
THREE OF SWORDS: It is just as bad as it seems, but remember that action dilutes anxiety. Formulate a clear-headed plan. Just having a plan about what to do next can help, even if that isn’t what actually happens. Taking action and doing something, anything productive can help. Every little bit counts. Take a deep breath. There. You have it. That’s a win right there.
Swords are about both intellect and action. If you feel drawn to this card, it is a hint to let your head rule your heart for the moment. Emotions are raw, nerves are on edge. Setting and protecting your boundaries is important. Swords protect as well as attack – protect your peace.
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Three of Swords: Guard yourself against the thoughtlessness of others, even if it seems unintentional. The holidays can be a time of both love and pain existing in the same person at the same moment. Be kind, but be cautious. Your peace and happiness has the same right to exists as everyone else’s.
Six of Swords: A journey or transition not of your own making may be at hand. If you aren’t satisfied with the answers at hand, keep seeking – continue contemplating until you are OK to move forward again.
Merry Solstice everyone! Thank you for reading. See you at the next sip!
Pick your tarot card for today from the video and get your reading in the post below.
Pick a card, right or left. Pause the video if you need a minute to think about it, but don’t think too hard – follow your instinct to the card that feels like the right on for you for today. As always, this isn’t a prediction, just a read on the moment’s energy to help you navigate better.
As always, tarot readings never tell you what will happen in life, they help you figure out what to do when life happens.
Three of Swords: Pricks and jabs of sadness come into the happiest life. Communicate, honor your healthy boundaries so that the jabs don’t become wounds and so that the wounds won’t linger.
Page of Cups: Moments of absurdity come into the happiest life. Learn to laugh at all of it, even at yourself.
Private Readings by email / recorded video are OPEN, no appointment needed.
Three of Swords: The first step in healing a broken heart is acknowledging it exists. It’s ok not to be ok. You don’t have to be ok. You only need to be. Moment by moment, day by day it slowly gets better. Dharma Drum Mountain gives the best advice I’ve ever seen for dealing with heartache and problems.
Face it
Accept it (accept it is real, not that it is right – more on that later)
Deal with it
Let it go
Nine of Pentacles: It’s a good place. It’s a good day. It’s OK to be OK. You don’t have to be broken. You don’t have to be overjoyed. You might be (or be on the road to being) one of the lucky ones. At the same time, you don’t have to be anyone else’s savior either. You only need to be. The good things around you will take care of the rest.
The Wheel of Fortune: Up or down, we are all riding the same wheel. As the wheel of life turns, your direction up or down depends on which way you look. Shift your perspective and you are suddenly moving toward instead of away from and vice versa.
Even with your choice, this is still a collective energy reading. You get to choose which card was for you, but the card’s message was still drawn from the larger, Zeitgeist, collective energy today.
Choosing to participate at all led you to the three descriptions together. If one of the other interpretations matches you better – that’s OK too!! The process still brought you to a message that resonates with you. That’s what really matters. Keep eyes and ears open and your right message will find you, one way or another.
Want a truly personalized, private, just-for-you reading? Email and recorded video readings are open now – no appointment needed, prices from $5 to $30 total cost, no hidden fees or per minute rates.
Email readings have a picture of your individual real-world card layout. Videos show your cards being drawn. No matter whether I type it or say it – you get the same reading and the same message. It makes no difference to the process if I say it to a mic, type it on a keyboard to tell you live on a phone call. The words are the same regardless of how the words get to you.
Three of swords : Trust must be earned, even when you want to give it easily
Eight of wands: Patience and time can work in your favor. Obstacles and challenges may be slowing you down enough to protect you from something you don’t see coming.
Five of pentacles: It’s not a good time for impulse buys. Wait, be sure first.
And there, the energy steps back. I guess we chalk this week up to a pithy and potent kind of card reading.
Next up is finally starting that behind the scenes series either Wednesday or Friday, depending on how much the squirrels rave this week. Either way, have a good week. See you at the next sip!
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund used with permission (publishinggoblin.com)
It takes a hot, bright afternoon to make you really appreciate the cool shade of a tree, or a freezing night to make you appreciate the glowing warmth of a space heater.
As much as Tarot and Tarot readings are associated with western witchcraft, Taoist philosophy pops up a great deal, especially for a Tarot reader who has an affinity for Taoism like I do.
Sure, you could argue that this is a process of subjective confirmation bias, but I’m not the only one to find overlap between Taoism and Tarot, Reiki and Magick, East and West.
Diane Morgan’s Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao was one of my earliest Tarot influences. Christopher Penczak’s Magick of Reiki landed right lives right beside it, both squarely in the middle of my wheelhouse. I live in the liminal venn diagram space where Taoism, Tarot, Reiki and Magick all meet.
That eclectic, and often solitary mental space can have it’s drama.
Everybody loses their keys, spills their milk, or has some such tiny dramas in their life. It’s normal. That is also where the Three of Swords is pointing today.
The Three of Swords doesn’t have the darkest or most dire looking artwork. Usually it shows three swords stabbing something…more often than not a heart shape…but the heart is red and the background is seldom as literally black and dark as a death, devil, or 10 of swords cards.
Most of the meanings and keywords associated with the Three of Swords are warnings and cautions. It always feels like drama or complications from outside of ourselves. But for all of the heartbreak and betrayal keywords that go with this card, the connection to Taoist philosophy steps forward strongly today. It has to do with everything defining – and being defined by – its opposite. We find this concept in chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching, here in a public domain translation by J.H. McDonald.
“When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created. Being and non-being produce each other. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short define each other. High and low oppose each other. Fore and aft follow each other.”
Basically this is a message of encouragement, and a melange of hanging on and letting go all at once. Let go of that which has become toxic and harmful to make room for the good. Hang on through the dark times because that persistence will make the light all the more beautiful when it comes.
Darkness defines the edges of the light. Light defines the edges of the darkness. Without that contrast we can’t see anything at all.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment and let me which you like better: a card-for-today format or the three cards for the week and weekend revisit format. I’m leaning toward our old friend, the daily meditation Tarot readings. It’s like comfort food and personal growth all wrapped up in one thing.
Social Media Update: With the advent of Threads, I spend most of my scroll time there these days. Threads and Instagram is the best place to actually interact. You are welcome to stop by and say hello. I post on FB, Tumblr, and TikTok, but don’t interact there very much. I will warn you that the Threads account has become a combination of Tarot posts and my ex-birdsite political and religious voidscreaming. But you probably know by now that secular humanism, Taoism, witchcraft, progressive/liberal politics and lgbtdq ally-ship is a big part of who I am and influences what I do here. If any of those things offend you then we wouldn’t be a good match for a Tarot reading anyway. But rest assured, no matter what you see on the Threads feed, I can set all of that aside and channel in the right energy message for you no matter what it says. That is what 30 years of experience will get for you. There are some advantages to being genX years old.
So what does that have to do with today’s card or Tarot at all? That gnarly online energy IS very much today’s energy and card. The growing energy from Monday has arrived. The Three of Swords has to do with sorrow, heartbreak, loss, pain and betrayal. The keyword betrayal steps forward with the most energy today.
This isn’t a good day to be expansive or ebullient unless the feeling is so strong that your happy emotion bubble can withstand a field of needles. The collective energy today feels prickly like trying to hug a porcupine. You may have all good intentions, the porcupine may be filled with love and kindness, but things are what they are. Being true to yourself and being true to your own nature can also mean facing up to hard realities. Your true self and other people’s true self isn’t always going to blend well. You don’t have to like everybody and not everybody has to like you. Oil is a part of nature. So is vinegar. That doesn’t mean that life has to be salad dressing. To borrow a phrase from Joseph Campbell, follow your bliss. But follow it knowing that not everyone has the same bliss.
Some people by their nature are counter to your nature. Deliberate and malicious or not, intended or not, it can feel like a betrayal when you hoped for some sort of relationship, but nature makes that difficult if not impossible.
There may be good intentions all around, but oil and water, bubbles and porcupines still happen. Some days just aren’t made for trying to make square pegs fit round holes and vice versa. This feels like one of those days.
To paraphrase another writer, John Le Carre, betrayal can only exist in the presence of love. You can only betray – or be betrayed by – those whose opinion you care about. You can’t be jabbed by the porcupines that you don’t try to hug.
Here my mind turns to some of those social media threads I’ve been reading lately. With the evangelical support for right wing politicians and the christian nationalist & “dominion theology” growing in our national awareness (and, arguably, growing as a threat to those of us with interests in Tarot or ANY spiritual path other than theirs)
There can be family betrayals, community betrayals, literal danger to vulnerable groups like our lgbtq loved ones. Like the meme says – you can’t say you love me then vote for someone who hurts me.
The Three of Swords reminds us that protecting oneself from real danger is an act of loving kindness too.
Which brings us back to yet another paraphrase of yet another author, G. Chesterson, who said “a [warrior] fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.”
When religion tears apart families and communities the prickly energy splatters everywhere.
It’s hard to hug a heart that deliberately surrounds itself with swords. It’s ok not to impale yourself on the sharp edges.
Thank you for reading. Heavy energy, heavy ideas today. Thanks for contemplating it all along with me.
Next time: Energy path reading for October 9-15.
The Blog and social media will be on a short hiatus October 14-17, 2023. Email readings are OPEN but may experience delivery delays on those days.
It might have immediate blowback, or it might be building foundations or planting seeds that pays off later.
Potential lies in the hands of action.
All of the cards this week are swords. Swords are associated with air and action, intellect, and our relationship with authority, culture or society at large.
The fading energy card is the Page of Swords. Pages are students and learners. With this being in the fading position, it is a clue to a change of phase. It is the end of the beginning. It’s time to put on the big kid underwear and get to work. At some point you have to leave school and do the thing. For many, now is that time. Now is the time to make old efforts pay off, true to the harvest season, lending this card a sense of rapid expansion. The page is supposed to represent a knight in training. Knights can become kings. With these two cards side by side, it gives a feeling of rapid expansion, a rise through ranks, rapid progress after a dely.
Current energy is the king of swords. King cards are protectors and leaders. Again intellect and action mixed. This is a time of head over heart. Kings protect the kingdoms boundaries. This is a hint to set and protect and enforce our boundaries. Insist on respect but give it in equal measure and with equal discipline.
Anything in its extreme contains the seed of its opposite
Rapid expansion can also translate to ‘in over your head’
The growing energy card, the three of swords is a caution against falling prey to your own naivete and inexperience. Know what you don’t know, and know enough to ask for help when its needed to avoid problems. The faster you move, the harder it is to see and avoid pitfalls in time. Heads up. Problems may come at you faster as the week rolls on.
Thank you for reading. Good luck and be careful out there!
Next up: Learn with Me: Lenormand on Wednesday. See you at the next sip!
FREE : Ask me anything and get a Zombie Cat style yes or no reading in the blog
The energy week ahead: Stay frosty, cooler heads will prevail.
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Hello and welcome to the Energy Path reading for July 24-31, 2023. If you are reading this at another time, chances are it is a more personal reading of the path ahead just by virtue of you finding it when you did.
Apologies for the technical glitches last week. It looks like some important edits didn’t make it to the final posts, like the growing energy card. OOPS. No point correcting now that we have moved on to new cards. Like that river we can’t step in twice, energy keeps flowing. So let’s move on to this week’s cards
Fading energy: The Hanged Man
Current energy: Strength
Growing energy: Three of Swords
The Hanged man is back as our fading energy. The hanged man has been hanging around in a number of readings I’ve done lately. I forget exactly when it was or what card it was associated with, but there was a reading here in the blog that gave the feeling and mental image of a plane that had come in for a night time landing on its last flight for the day and was powering down for the night. It even gave the mental image of a stewardess saying goodnight to the final passengers to leave as the pilot was going through a close-down checklist of some sort.
I thought it was a wonderful feeling. Whenever it was a little powering down was just what I needed. Other people I’ve talked to lately are feeling a little frustrated with the pace of things. That powered-down feeling has been around for a while now. So if Hanged Man is fading, that is good news for them. Even for those of us who welcomed a much needed respite, a new influx of energy isn’t necessarily bad. To continue with that airplane image, it feels like the sun is coming up. Even though the rest is over, it feels like a return to routine, nothing overwhelming. “A good day of flying” so to speak.
“Strong silent type” comes to mind with the current energy Strength card. That meme of baby Yoda – Grogu – calmly sipping his soup as an absolutely chaotic battle rages around him comes to mind. Very Zen. Or, like a meditating Samurai, very focused strength. Save your energy for the important things. Work smarter, not harder. Cooler heads prevail this week. Head over heart this week. If you are into 1980s movies, think about the first Top Gun movie. Be Iceman, not Maverick this week.
Which is a pretty good trick when half the world is enduring health-compromising potentially lethal heat.
Sweltering temperatures have always gotten on humanity’s last remaining nerve. As the dog days drag on, there is potentially a LOT of irritability out there. over the next couple of weeks, potentially until mid August. I’m not saying be a doormat. I’m not saying to excuse the BS. The advice here is to just not add to the stinking heap of irritability if you can help it. This vibe is starting a little early this year it seems. I wouldn’t be surprised if things didn’t really break until mid-August or so. Until then the three of swords might be stabbing at everyone’s patience and goading our pettiness.
Thanks for reading!
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Thanks again. Stay chill and I’ll see you at the next sip!
Alleyman’s Tarot Deck used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC. End image: Bitmogi free app
It takes a hot, bright afternoon to make you really appreciate the cool shade of a tree, or a freezing night to make you appreciate the glowing warmth of a space heater.
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
As much as Tarot and Tarot readings are associated with western witchcraft, Taoist philosophy pops up a great deal, especially for a Tarot reader who has an affinity for Taoism to start with.
Sure, you could argue that this is a process of subjective confirmation bias, but there is also a great deal of objective overlap between Taoism and Tarot, Reiki and Magick, East and West, at least when it comes to spiritual things. Diane Morgan’s Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao was one of my earliest Tarot influences. Christopher Penczak’s Magick of Reiki landed right along of side of it, both squarely in the middle of my wheelhouse, both hitting right where I live, right here in Tao Craft. Hence the name. It is a more authentic fit than Modern Oracle ever was. I live in the liminal venn diagram space where Taoism, Tarot, Reiki and Magick all meet.
That eclectic, and often solitary mental space can have it’s drama.
Everybody loses their keys, spills their milk, or has some such drama in their life. It’s normal. That is also where the Three of Swords is pointing today.
The Three of Swords doesn’t have the darkest or most dire looking artwork. Usually it shows three swords stabbing something…more often than not a heart shape…but the heart is red and the background is seldom as literally black and dark as a death, devil, or 10 of swords. Most of the meanings and keywords associated with it are warnings and cautions. It always feels like blockage, drama or complications from outside of ourselves. But for all of the tears and betrayal keywords that go with this card, the connection to Taoist philosophy most jumps out at me today. This idea of everything defining … and being defined by its opposite…begins in chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching, here in a public domain translation by J.H. McDonald.
“When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created. Being and non-being produce each other. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short define each other. High and low oppose each other. Fore and aft follow each other.”
Basically this is a message of encouragement, and a melange of hanging on and letting go all at once. Let go of that which has become toxic and harmful to make room for the good. Hang on through the dark times because that persistence will make the light all the more beautiful when it comes. It will, indeed come, because exactly that change and ebb and flow is an essential fact of life and our existence.
Thank you so much for reading and listening. I appreciate it! I always appreciate any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions or comments that you can spare. Neither the blog or podcast is monetized, so your Tarot message comes first, not the advertisers’ Please support the blog and podcast on ko-fi, there is a link in the episode description for the podcast side of things.
Again and always, thank you. See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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