ACE OF DISKS: (COINS, PENTACLES) Even if it doesn’t look like what you expected on the surface, even if it isn’t exactly what you hoped for, a surprise opportunity is still an opportunity. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good, and know when to take yes for an answer.
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
I like value. It’s taken a long time, but I’ve learned that more “bang for your buck” is a good thing and that bang isn’t always volume. Sometimes the bang is quality.
Quality is a hard thing to define when it comes to spirituality and entertainment. For someone who resonates with this work it has value akin to art and therapy.
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
Like I’ve said in PeaceTarot and a bizillion other times, a daily one card meditation is the bread and butter and workhorse and utter delight of learning to read Tarot. And, I’ve found, of living Tarot too.
It’s one thing to learn a skill or philosophy or spiritual practice. It’s another to live with it every day and let it become part of your skin and bones and morning coffee.
The best way to build a relationship with anything like this is bit by bit, day by day. Kick the tires. Test drive it. Take it on a shake down cruise. Lean on it. If it holds you up in troubled times, it will help shine a light on the good times too.
It’s not a religion, it’s nothing special.
In Chinese style martial arts its call gong fu…diligence and practice and work over time resulting in masterful skill. Tarot is the same. Anyone can read them. We all have innate, natural intuition and psychic ability. But it takes diligence and practice and work over time for it to become deeply useful – to become a part of your life and spiritual practice.
Pentacles speak to just that kind of work. Pentacles are aligned with the Earth element and are about exactly this kind of real-world, rubber-meets-the-road work. That is the suit’s window on it’s common meanings: work, career, wealth, and the physical realm.
When you add the images, words, music, sound that imaginatively come to mind, it nudges us toward the best key words to use for the card for the day at hand.
In this case I ‘hear’ the TING sound effect of something metal being hammered – like railroad spikes and railroad building sounds from old western movies.
It’s like movie Esperanto for hard physical work.
The hand holding a gold coin has a TA-DA! feel about it.
Put them together and work TA-DA! has results. In other words, the energy supports a productive day at hand. If it’s late in the day when you read this, no matter what kind of day it has been, do what you can to set up tomorrow to be productive.
And there the energy steps back.
Stop back tomorrow: Another one card like this tomorrow than on Thursday (hopefully, fingers crossed) we’ll do a Choose Your Card video.
PAUSE the video
PICK your card
RESTART to see the reveal
READ about your card below the video
The Fool: A week full of opportunity and new beginnings
Ace of Pentacles: The more grounded and balanced you can be, the more you efforts pay off
The Devil: Don’t panic. Use calm, common sense to stay on the safe side. Not the time for unnecessary risk
If you picked one of the two major arcana cards, that may hint at a high energy time near by. Both cards have a “shields up” cautioning energy. The Fool may be stressful in a good way. A lot of opportunity and business on your plate is still a lot on your plate, so take care to manage your stress even if the pressure is on because of very good things happening.
The difference between the two majors is The Fool feels an “it might be stressful and busy but worth it” feel. The Devil on the other hand is a “pull back” “be cautious” sort of energy. If you chose this card, take it extra easy this week.
The Ace of Pentacles is an all-good energy. Prosperous, but low-key. Not really any cautions to take it easy. I ‘hear’ “Things unfold but gently.”
When I say ‘hear’ in a reading, that’s shorthand for clairaudient intuition. It means the intuitive message takes the form of words, sound or music. Instead of a mental image, it’s mental words or sounds. I’m not hallucinating, honest. Intuition if often much like imagination with a purpose. Remember your favorite song – that memory gives you a sense of what clairaudient intuition is like.
Thanks for taking a look.
What do you think about this format? Comments are open and I’m on Instagram and Threads every day. (@sagewordstarot for both)
Wednesday I’ll post a collective energy example reading using the new “My Tarot Valentine” layout. I’d really like your feedback about that too. If you like it, it can stand as a regular “love and romance” themed reading. If no one voices and opinion, I’ll make it a seasonal thing. What say you?
With these fresh cards, it finally feels as if we have moved past the focus on cycles and change and ebbing and flowing. No Moon card or tide images today.
In one sense it feels like we’ve cycled back to that still, “slack water” image that came through a few weeks ago when the big Moon card energy first appeared, but it isn’t “slack” at all, really. It feels more like alert, deliberate, poised, ready-to-move stillness. It is a liminal energy, and the word balance doesn’t quite capture it. It isn’t the dynamic balance or back-and-forth balance that we see in the Temperance and Two of Pentacles cards. It feels more like a flat out, steady, matter-of-fact “BOTH” It isn’t balance or tension between opposites, it is the steady presence of diverse things without tension among them, without a need to balance. That “coexist” bumper sticker comes to mind.
Oxford Language defines liminal as “occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.” The “both” part is key here. Not balance, not cycle, not give and take – flat out all of the above, all at the same time.
It is interesting that we have two aces and one major arcana card. If this was a ‘yes or no’ kind of just for fun reading, it would be a plain YES. We all know Tarot doesn’t really work that way, but I think yes or no readings can be helpful in limited situations. Usually in minor choices where the options truly are equal and the situation is something that could be decided by an actual 50-50 random chance coin toss. Yes/no readings are exactly that – a coin toss, but with slightly more food for thought from three randomly selected Tarot cards adding their two-cents to the conversation.
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September 11 – October 31 2023
Ask a yes/no question in the blog comments to get a FREE “Zombie Cat* yes/no Tarot reading in an upcoming blog post.
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The fading energy is the Ace of Cups. This is a card of creation, creativity and emotions. The current energy is the Ace of Pentacles. The real message is in the two side by side more than either one fading or growing individually. Here is where that liminal both-ness we were talking about earlier is strongest. It isn’t head over heart or emotions over intellect…it is BOTH in generous measure. Think “emotional intelligence.” These two cards together give an energy that is alert, engaged, feeling but thoughtful, active and effective – all at the same time. The two together are an extraordinary foundation upon which to build.
The growing energy, the Magician, is exactly that building process. The Magician is about transformation and manifestation – not just sitting and wishing. In “as above so below” the below is your part of the deal, your end of the table to lift. You do your part in the practical-pentacle part of life, and the universe helps the emotional-energy-spiritual-psychic part. Neither half is better or worse or more important than the other. It isn’t even a see-saw balance of the two. It’s both, all at the same time. The Magician’s magick is about having a foot firmly planted on each side of the “as above, so below” equation.
That is what makes up liminal spaces and energies and that is what makes up our energy flow for this week.
At least as it stands now. Please come back Wednesday for another “Odinsday Oracle” post and Friday for the Weekend Update where we’ll take another look at the Magician, our growing energy card to see how it unfolded during the business week and what, if anything, there is to see about the weekend.
Thanks for reading. See you at the next sip!
*Meet Zombie Cat: This cartoonish alter ego does all of my yes/no readings. Tongue in what’s left of his cheek, Zombie Cat readings have a 100% guarantee to contain word and a 50% chance of being dead wrong.
Cut through the noise of social media and the static of online Tarot posts to get something a little more personal. You choose your card and get it’s interpretation.
Welcome to YouChoose Interactive Tarot on the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
This post works just like the name says: you choose. You choose your card and you choose how to apply it. It’s Monday morning where I am right now, so my mind is drawn to the flow of energy for the week ahead. Overall it feels like a time to rest and contemplate. This feels like a time to gather your energy and regroup, recover from recent efforts or as “Bob the Writing Cat” on instagram often says – to “gird your loins” because it is Monday and the week is coming.
But, of course, it could be something entirely different for you.
If you are listening to audio only on the podcast, there is a link in the description to the blog post where you can watch the youtube video and see how all this is playing out with the real-world card draw. I’ve added the shape cards as a reference to make it easier to imagine and to pick a card from the audio only, but if seeing it would help, the visual is here for you.
First things first. Let’s choose. I’ve shuffled the Tarot deck and picked three random cards out of the five shape cards. Today we have square, triangle and wavy lines.
Choose a shape. Take a minute, take a deep breath. If you are watching the video, pause if you need more time then restart to see the card reveal. If you are listening, imagine the shapes. Choose the one that feels right for today; square, wavy lines or triangle.
Square gets the Four of Cups
Triangle get the Ace of Pentacles or Coins
Wavy Lines gets the Four of Swords
Four of Cups feels like validation. People are closed as it seems. Lines of communication are not flowing well, but it is temporary and it’s ok. It just isn’t a time to push on the giving or receiving in. If others are up in your grill but you need them to step back and wait a little, honor that feeling. If you are the one trying to get the message through and other people just can’t get the message or seemingly won’t listen honor that too. It just isn’t the time. Let them have their moment. There is no sense in beating your head against the wall. This isn’t a good time to push or be too assertive any more than it is a good time to be imposed upon.
The Ace of Pentacles feels like a good news is on the horizon card. It feels consistent with the physical world, money and career vibe that is traditionally associated with pentacles. It’s no wonder some decks call them coins instead. This feels like payday in a small way. It feels like getting a return on work already done, time already invested. Time transforms. Things are coming back around, but it feels like it is in unexpected but valuable ways. It feels like a transformation toward something very different but more valuable to this moment. The mental image is a diamond. Diamonds are made of carbon, but elemental carbon is a very different thing when it isn’t in the high pressure crystal lattic form we call diamonds. Don’t overlook the diamond that is coming back from the carbon you gave a long time ago. If you gave grape juice, don’t walk around looking for more grape juice when you are being handed a glass of wine.
The Four of Swords really captures the essence of that rest, repair, regroup energy we were talking about earlier. Swords cards and knight cards carry a sense of activity and motion and doing. This card balances that. It is the yin to the knight of swords yang. This card is all about rest, but rest with an active purpose. This is resting deliberately so you can be at your best during the next battle, the next active time that is going to come. For those of you who picked this card, rest and contemplate fast. I have a hunch the restful, contemplative mode will shift for you before it does for everyone else.
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Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
Today’s card is the Ace of Pentacles.
The energy here is hopeful and optimistic. It feels like the odds are definitely in your favor today.
It also reminds me of the often quoted, perhaps over quoted bit of wisdom from Wayne Gretsky that “you miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.” Which in a way begs the question of why. Why would you not take the shots life presents to you? Why wouldn’t you go all Alexander Hamilton all over it and, to paraphrase Lin Manuel Miranda, go boat on fire into the room where it happens and refuse to waste your shot.
Fear is a good thing.
I’ve done this. Maybe you have too. An opportunity comes along and a bucket of ice water tips over in your gut and suddenly you don’t want to take that shot so much after all. It is a weird experience to want some for a long time and be on the verge of getting it, then instead getting a sudden burst of fear. Sometimes that’s ok. Fear keeps us out of stupid dangerous situations. I’ve bailed out of opportunities, regretted being a big chicken, and later was very glad that the sudden burst of unexplained intuitive fear saved me from my own stupid self.
Impulsive, mercurial actions are more closely aligned with the element of air, and so the suit of swords. The pentacles are associated the element earth. Pentacles remind us of being grounded, solid, balanced and practical. The Ace of Pentacles gives a feeling of reassurance – it encourages us to go all Hamilton over the opportunities that come along today or the near future as long as there is no real-world logical reason to give it a hard pass. The Ace of Pentacles gives us the green light to move forward with new opportunities but also reminds us not to abandon practical matters in the process. If ice buckets are there, if you are feeling uncertain or suddenly afraid of success, listen to that. Sometimes when things are moving fast your gut works faster than your brain. But all things being equal, all things being logically safe, all things being intuitively clear, when the Ace of Pentacles shows up then take your shot on goal with confidence.
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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.
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The Ace of Pentacles could be called the essence of things.
On the top layer you have success, abundance, and all the positive top-line meanings.
For all the attention that is given to court cards, the aces fascinate me. They speak to that simplicity that is so near and dear to Taoism’s heart. They are about the essence and nature of the minor arcana suit, in this case pentacles (coins in some decks.)
Pentacles are associated with the earth element. They are our relationship with the physical realm, tangible, practical things. Which begs the question of what is the essence of those things? What is the nature of stuff?
I’ll leave that to physicists, which is fascinating as heck, especially once you start getting into the whole Schrodinger, Heisenberg quantum thing. Especially for someone like me who can’t even explain why its bad if the lights dim when the refrigerator comes on.
For our purposes, let’s look at the role stuff plays in life. Of course, now my mind is stuck on the old George Carlin bit…
I’m talking functionality. We want stuff. It pays to know what you want. Achieving, manifesting (however you want to look at it) works better when you have a specific and clear vision of what you really want. If you get to the essence of it, then window dressing and expectations are less likely to get in the way. When you work from a place of simplicity and essentials, the things you REALLY want can take a multitude more forms, and have a multitude more ways to find a way into your life.
That’s wants. Today’s card is, energetically, talking about needs. Physical need is the example, but the energy idea can be extended to mental, emotional and spiritual needs too.
This feels like a moment in time, but possibly an important one. Just for a minute, just for today, what is a literal need. An immediate, pressing, life-depends-on-it need.
Your next meal.
Your next drink of water.
Your next breath.
Now give it your full attention and gratitude as you meet that need. Try it. Just once. Just for today.
How does that feel?
Today’s Tarot card is available as a blog post, a Clairvoyant Confessional episode, and on YouTube Shorts.
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