YouChoose Interactive Tarot 9/6 – 9/12/20

Hi again! Hard to believe it is time for another weekly reading. Funny thing about this year. Small bits of time seems to fly, but looking back over the year it seems to be about a decade long. Time is as fluid in perception as it is relative to speed it seems. I hope you’ll take a peek at the special offers page and keep an eye out for the (rapidly becoming annual) hello posts. September 2018 was the beginning of Modern Oracle Tarot’s (and Tarotbytes blog’s, and Quirk & Flotsam etsy shop’s) rebranding process. October 31, 2018 was the grand unveiling of TaoCraft Tarot that brought everything under the same conceptual cyber roof. This year, I’m celebrating TaoCraft Tarot’s second anniversary all the way through re-branding season with a digital one card InkMagick reading giveaway through midnight on Halloween. Fall has a sense of newness: a new school, a new season, a new name. It is very much a vanity project, but over the next several weeks I’d like to reintroduce myself and the foundation ideas behind TaoCraft Tarot to all of you and to the newer subscribers on the YouTube channel. But now for THIS week:


Left: The Hermit. A major arcana card, if you chose left, you are being pulled toward a path of higher energy. This week is headed toward some spiritual OOMPF that may be more feeling than physical manifestation but just as important. There is a strong mental image of a compass here, which inspired the post title. There is a feeling of active navigation. This card doesn’t imply that you are lost or going in the wrong direction, but rather empowers you to SET your direction. Fall and Halloween season are, for some, the new year season as well. The feeling is less nostalgic than the January new year season tends to be. You can be retrospective then…the advice here is to “tee up” the end of 2020, set yourself up to end strong. You have everything you need to do that on the inside. Even if you are young, you have the experience you need (from spring of this year if nothing else) to set your direction for Fall. Your inner light is your best guide. Quiet time brings it to the surface: a long job, a cup of coffee with some music, a bubble bath, meditation – whatever works best for you.

Center: 7 of Cups. A minor arcana card, no red lights or sirens around this week. More minor nuisance kind of feeling here. It is a gift to have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to options. Don’t overthink, don’t let the decision paralysis get you. Here I get the mental image of Luke in the ice cave, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath and just reaching out to get his light saber. Similar feeling here. Listen to you inner vision, let your heart lead the way. Quiet is key for you, just like the Hermit card, but in a more internal than external way. Quiet the chattering monkey mind to let your heart (and gut instinct) speak.

Right: Ace of Swords. Remember that ice bucket challenge that was going around several years ago? That comes to mind as symbolic of this card’s advice. It is the exact flip-flop of what the seven of cups is saying. Follow your brain. Try to keep chattering monkey guts and emotions in check and let cool reason and intellect guide the way. It may feel unfeeling, cold and calculating – but cooler heads prevail and set things in a much better direction. Step away from the social media…this is NOT the week for hot takes on the first thing that fries your cakes. Stay frosty for a better outcome.

image via free Bitmoji app

YouChoose Interactive Tarot Aug 30 -Sept 5

What do you think? How do you like this combination of watching the card draw on a video instead of a series of still to choose your card? I’m still more of a writer than a yootoober, but let me know which you like better, photos or video. Thank you to everyone for all of the likes, shares, subs, blog follows and everything. I really appreciate it. If you let me know what kind of Tarot content you want, then I can create it. YouTube is turning out to be a more interesting element in this than I expected. But please, let me know what interests you, what topics you want. Comments are open again! You ask, I read.

For today, pick a card. Watch the three cards being drawn, then choose the one that draws your eye or holds your gaze the most. If it all seems the same and you need a minute, feel free to pause the video then restart it to see the reveal.


Left: Seven of Cups. Cups are associated with the element of water and with intuition. The energy for this card for this week is more aligned with this older alchemical understanding than with the more contemporary notion of understanding the four suits as symbolizing your relationships in life, in the case of cup your most inner circle of human relationships (romance, marriage, family etc.) Looking through the lens of intuition, the seven of cups advises you to listen to your intuition and try not to over-think things. The energies might be a little prone to circular logic, or logic being overwhelmed by detail and possibilities. When faced with a complicated choice, give your heart and intuition a chance to help you navigate through all of the smoke and the noise

Center: The Emperor. The energy here is not about a power trip. The energy here is closer to “nobless oblige” or in the words of Stan Lee “With great power comes great responsibility.” Or in the words of one of the many Tao Te Ching translations “To master others is strength, to master oneself is true power.” The Emperor is, as you might expect, associated with power – in this case power associated with protection. Where do you need protected? Where can you help protect others? What are your strengths and weaknesses, and how can you productively use the strengths while shoring up the weaknesses? How can you make mutually beneficial alliances? Everyone wearing a mask to keep everyone safe springs to mind.

Right: Four of Cups. Emotional currents move in their own time. Don’t place expectations on your feelings…feel them. It isn’t a test. It isn’t a race. Your time to heal is uniquely your own. I’ve seen this card a lot lately, and I really think it has to do with persistence, not failure; continuation not an end result. The journey really is more important than the destination and how fast you get there this week. The time it takes to get your arms around emotion…especially feelings of loss or grief…goes according to nature, not our arbitrary clocks and calendars.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot July 11 -18

Pause the video if you need a minute to choose your card. It isn’t a hard and fast prediction. It is just a thought to guide you, a light that shines in dark corners where you might otherwise missed something kind of cool. So no pressure. I don’t add crystals and trinkets and make the YouChoose pictures all instagram pretty for a reason. Those things help intuition and make the choice more pleasant, but this is swinging a weighted bat in a way, for those of you who want to give raw intuition a little more of a workout. In a plain picture like this, you have to follow your heart as much as your eye to the right card.

Left: Seven of Cups There are two seven cards in this weeks group of three. I’m choosing to see that as good luck and a bit of hopefulness for everyone this week. Goodness knows we Americans could use some of that. But this card is also permission to take it easy on yourself. Go easy on the decision making and embrace the KISS with both arms. Keep it simple. Cut to the chase. Brush away every bit of the minutae and get to the heart of things and the path will become crystal clear.

Center: Seven of Wands. This is the second of our two 7 cards this week. I’m still going to deliberatly choose to hold space for something good to come along this week, even if the sh*tshow continues unabated here in America. In fact, digging deep in our comic / geek / sci fi culture is just the thing this card is giving for advice. There are going to be challenges, but they are deal-able, especially if we do it with a little style. This is the week to channel your inner Deadpool, Ironman, Spiderman, Star Lord, Captain Mal, Han Solo or whatever other wise-cracking antihero you have lurking in there. You can save your world with two swords and warp factor 9.

Author unknown, presumed public domain

Right: Three of Wands. Watch and chill. No, I don’t mean Netflix. This is a wait until you see the whites of thier eyes, everyone stay frosty kind of watch and chill. This isn’t a moment to act, but rather watch for the just-right moment to act with precision and impact. Think cat. Think watching, ready, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.

Meta: I’m a gestalt kind of gal. Maybe that’s why I’m good at this Tarot thing. The more big-picture I can understand things, the happier I am. Taking all three cards as a whole, the energy is flowing toward a state of relaxed but awake and ready. Don’t stress, just deal, roll with it. It reminds me of paramedics and other rescue types. One of the best bits of advice I ever heard from one of them, back in my hospital days: “Prepare for the emergency and the emergency goes away.” True. Worrying never solved anything. My martial arts days taught me that a relaxed punch is faster than a tense one. That’s true too. If you are relaxed knowing that shot in the arm is going to pinch a little, it may not hurt at all. Staying chill is the path to overcoming whatever life throws at it. It will be ok, so have some fun along the way.

You Choose Tarot for 22 Jan 20

Right: 6 of wands. Sometimes you have to fight the war to find the peace on the other side. Protect your boundaries.

Left: 5 of Pentacles. No need to deny how difficult it is. If times are tough, face up to the fact that they are. That doesn’t mean you have given up hope. Admitting you are cold doesn’t stop the first spring flower from blooming through the snow.

Middle: 7 of Cups. A good time to choose. This present moment is the axel around which the wheel of the future spins. This is where you make the choices that steer your path where you want it to go.

You Choose Tarot (7 Dec 19)

Left: Four of Cups. You don’t have to take your feelings out on other people to express them or honor them. Have a good pout. Sit and snarle at the air. Have a good cry. FEEL you feelings for a little bit. It is surprising how quickly they move along on their way once they have been heard and acknowledged. Both people and emotions want that same simple thing; to be heard and acknowledged.

Middle: Ace of Swords. Today is an updraft for some folks. Rise to the occasion. If a brilliant insight or creative idea hits, roll with it (or at least write it down.)

Right: Seven of Cups. Don’t be paralyzed by fear. It is ok to go slow and think through overwhelming options, but at some point the reasoning transforms into fear. Choose before that happens

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2018 Was Weird

7cupstree2018

2018 was weird.

There have been bouts of odd, uncomfortable energy plus lots of weird politics and empaths all around were having their resonant bells rung on a regular basis. Even the usual holiday zeitgeist seemed surprisingly laissez fair this year. The annual Elfcon frenzy could barely flog itself up to a level 4, but I’ll blame that on our newly emptied nest. With no little ones around, all-adult Christmas by comparison really is reduced to alcohol consumption and defending raw cookie dough on social media.

On an energy level, 2018 was filled with groanings of fatigue from the past and early rumblings of transformations yet to come. It would be nice if I could give you some easy Tarot, numerology, astrology, or other mystical explanation for it all, but I got nothing. Even here in woo woo land, stuff just happens, no matter how much we use our magic and intuition to navigate our way through said stuff.

This is a prime example. I pulled a card on Christmas Eve in the hope of finding inspiration for a happy little holiday greeting to post here. Out pops the 7 of cups. The seven of….what the actual wuuut?

Clearly, the energy of the card is about the new New Year and didn’t want anything to do with happy little Christmas greetings. OK. Cool. I can let it sit, abide with it until today. Like any good case of the niggles, this card wasn’t going anywhere.

The first and strongest mental image to come through was all shades of blue and white and gray, like blue skies and snow. But instead of snowflakes, the blue background was strewn with shards of clear plate glass, all with pointy edges, all irregular shapes, all different sizes. The message that came through loud and clear was CHOOSE YOUR SHARD. I think that means this:

2018 was shattering for many people. If it was a good year for you, bless and enjoy. This card and this message is for those who walked a rockier path this past year, if not literally, then emotionally.

Paradigms, self images, expectations, hopes, dreams, self doubts, fears; all sorts of things have been shattered this year for good or for ill. 2019 is not going to let us go back. Pick a piece. Choose your shard. What piece of the old you, the old way, is good enough to bring forward. What piece is your souvenir, your lesson, your cornerstone for the new? All the pieces can’t be put back together. We have to choose what, if anything, is worthy of time and attention. Like any piece of broken glass, that trough-put asks to be handled with card.

The phrase “through put” especially grabs my attention here. It comes from an episode of my favorite show “Mythbusters” when Adam wanted to put the mangled burned face of the old crash test dummy onto the new one as storytelling “through put” or continuity. A thread of the past that puts new things into perspective, and makes the whole story make sense. As shattered at things may have gotten in 2018, the new year 2019 demands it’s through put. It is about transformation, not obliteration. It asks for re-working, not abject discarding. And that is a lovely thing.

If through-put is demanded, that means the original, albeit changed thing had value. Whatever is being transformed has worth, and importance in its original form, or it wouldn’t be so needed now. It feels as if a time of transformation is coming, but one that must be rooted, real, connected to the past and built to last.

The seven of cups is often associated with choosing, and having many options. There is a caution here to not fall prey to “decision paralysis.” Yes, you have options, but take care not to dither or over-think. This is also a lesson in deep knowing. And deep experiencing. Plan, but live. Do, but be.

“Do be do be do” – Sinatra

Never forget to have a little fun along the way too. Part of disruptive energies like this past year is to remind us of what we have forgotten or neglected. Too often that something is laughter and kindness and fun. I hope that a lighter heart is part of the shard we all choose to bring forward into the new year.

Things may seem broken or in need of breaking, but choose a shard, big or small to bring with you as you build something new, something better. The advice is to not try to put it all back the way it was, that would be an impossible waste. Don’t dither or over think your shard choosing. If you mind doesn’t know, your bones will. Deep knowing is there if you take a quiet moment to listen for it. After all this IS a cups card, associated with water, intuition, and deep knowing.

2018 was weird.

That doesn’t mean 2019 can’t be transformed into something better.

Wishing you wonderful transformations and a happy new year!