Tag: ace of cups

Feel the Feels

from the archives

What’s in your cup this morning?

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

The Alleyman’s Tarot deck was extra rowdy this morning. It was sliding out of my hands and spewing all over the table after just one shuffle.

Today’s card is the Ace of Cups.

I’m sure it is just because of the great finish on the cards and the fact that I’m not exactly little miss coordination this morning, but it seems like chaos is part of the message today.

Cups have to do with the element of water, so you have all of those metaphors. Of all the properties of water, the movement is what comes to mind. It’s the “water can crash” part of Bruce Lee’s famous “be water my friend” interview. Cups also traditionally symbolize emotions. Another way of understanding the suit of cups is our closest relationships. Nothing touches our emotions like love, romance, marriage, family, children – all of our closest relationships.

The ace always touches on the essence of a suit. The ace of cups today is pointing square at our emotions and emotional state.

It is, after all, storm and hurricane season.

A couple of years ago, at the end of 2019 when the pandemic hadn’t fully hit, I did a series of readings. It seems like the energy environment was ringing everybody’s bell – hard. I must have had at least half a dozen different people say that they were having intense emotions or anxieties that they couldn’t explain which drew them to the reading. In some ways it’s hard to believe that is already two and a half years ago, almost three. In other ways it’s hard to believe that it has been ONLY two and half years ago.

Still, time has passed and that particular storm of emotion and energy has passed right along with it.

The same advice still applies, however.

I’m not talking about true mental health issues here. Those deserve respect, and the skills of a professional. Tarot isn’t for that. It can help, certainly, but Tarot is excellent for coping and gaining insight into normal ups and downs that we all experience at one time or another. Tarot helps all of us surf the crashing waves of human existence.

It’s like the extra slippery-slidey Alleyman’s deck today. Sometimes life just gets chaotic energy sometimes. Over on my personal blog “Sage & Stuff” I call it the squirrel rave after that internet meme that says “I don’t have ducks, I don’t have rows. I have squirrels. And they are having a pagan rave.”

When you are in the middle of a squirrel rave or a hurricane or life’s crashing waves or whatever metaphor you like, the ace of cups is reminding us that our emotions are still our own, regardless of the surrounding slippery crashing chaos. You don’t have to take on the energy and emotions around you.

For some people that is easier than for others. We all have our own unique levels of empathy. We all have our unique levels of stress tolerance. We all have our own individual skin thickness when it comes to stress and emotions.

Which reminds me of a pediatrics lecture I heard a very long time ago where the doctor quoted some sort of old adage along the lines of “some kids are carrots, some kids are eggs. If you put one in hot water it goes to mush, but the other just gets hard boiled.”

Whenever a wave of emotion hits, especially if it feels out of character for you or feels disconnected sometimes it pays to do a little bit of an empathy check or an intuitive sensitivity gut-check.

This is one time where we can bring imagination, visualization and the mind-body connection into play for our benefit.

Imagine this:

Think of something that you can imagine to be protective. This is imagination, so it can be anything. Imagine a shield of energy like a comic book superhero. Imagine a wizard’s invisibility cloak. Or a Faraday cage that real-world screens out electromagnetic signals. I like to think of it akin to Violet’s shield power from the Incredibles Disney-Pixar movie. Imagine you are surrounded by whatever force field invisibility cloak fortress-of-solitude symbol that you chose.

Then do an emotions check. With that protective visualization in place, what are your emotions now? Is that thing you’ve been feeling quieter now, as if it was something outside of you that has been pushing your buttons? Or is it inside your super-shield with you?

It is easy to shrug off difficult emotions and blame it on things like being empathic or mercury in retrograde or whatever. It’s natural to want to keep difficult emotions at arms length at least until a situation settles down or we heal enough to actually deal with them.

There is an up side to it. Sometimes the emotions really are out there and once you sort that out you can get back to being the laid back zen low pressure center of the hurricane.

Sometimes emotions are the tempest in a teapot, all yours to deal with. Sometimes emotions are a storm warning vibrating to let you know what the energy environment holds. The still waters inside your cup are still yours to keep no matter what is on the horizon. Both take courage to keep the cup strong. The emotions inside the cup are your feels to feel either way.

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See you at the next sip!

Quick Sip: What they are

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Feel what you feel. Emotions are what they are. They come. They go. They are valid while they are here, but it is OK to let them flow away as easily as they bubbled up.

Be gentle with yourself and kind to what you feel today.

Action Eases Anxiety (9 Nov 25)

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The “Action Eases Anxiety” layout was inspired by Buddhist philosophy (I HIGHLY recommend Dan Harris’ Substack) and my “Learn With Me” series about Lenormand Tarot.

The layout is like a sentence…a noun and a verb. It represents the current energy, then what to do about it. It isn’t a prediction or a quick fix, but making an action plan like this takes the edge of worries. Any tarot reading can help us focus on the moment at hand, not what may or may not happen in the future. That in itself can help ease worry.

What it is (left card): Ace of Cups, reversed. Something is leaking or spilling. Where are your emotions being spent uselessly? Where is your creative energies being wasted? What fucks are you giving that would be better not to give, or to at least give somewhere else?

What to do (right card): Ten of Wands. Put down responsibilities that aren’t really yours. Remember that you can show the way, but you can’t walk through the door for someone else. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. Your happiness is your responsibility, no one else’s. No one can give it to you, but equally, no one can take it from you unless you give it away.

Thanks for reading and watching! See you at the next sip!

Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permissions Publishing Goblin LLC

Q&A: Did I make a mistake?

This is a yes/no layout that the recipient allowed me to share with you, so you can see what an email Tarot reading with me is actually like. Instead of a video (that I for the blog) email readings get a static photo of your unique, real-world card layout.

Q: I got a reading with you almost a year ago. The reading said it was a good time to think about a job change. Not long after that, I got an unexpected job offer and took it. It seemed like the right thing to do and everything seems to be going well, but some doubts are starting to creep in. Did I do the right thing?

A: First of all thank you for letting me share your reading with the blog. It is such a positive energy and we could all use a little boost of good news these days.

And positive it is!

This is the most definite YES! energy that I’ve seen in a while. Usually, even in these “Zombie Cat” yes/no readings there is a lot of fluidity and emphasis on the power of choice.

This reminds me of that bitmoji where the energies and your spirit guides just sip a coffee and say YUP.

I apologize for this being a short reading. It always feels like these concise clear answers are too easy, that I’m not giving you your money’s worth. I hope the ‘yup’ is as valuable and reassuring as the energy feels on this end. It feels surprising too. If you ever had any doubts about your personal power, your path of magick, you can set those right on to the side. You are in a good place. All the effort has been worth it and people are starting to see all you’ve put into your growth and building good things for you and your family both in terms of real world, tangible things – but even more importantly for the positive esoteric energies that follow you around like your favorite perfume.

As you probably remember, these yes/no readings work a little like an I ching coin toss. Two aces = yes, but three aces mean a yes that can be easily tipped over to the opposite if you choose to do so. In this case, you are solid, which I’m guessing is just the news you wanted to hear.

Going card by card after the basic answer –

Ten of Cups is just as good as it looks. Cups are symbolic of closest relationships (as well as the element of water, intuition, emotions) This shows that the choice you made is good for you and your family, which you have always said is your number one priority.

Ace of Pentacles is as job related as you can get for this question. Pentacles are Earth, real world, career, finances. This is pure reassurance that work will work out ok.

Ace of Cups moves its focus from family & relationships to the water & intuition realm of the suit. Your instincts were right on target. Again, huge validation energy here. Doubts are normal. Stay on the lookout for any real problems emerging, certainly, but don’t get stuck in the past. The energy is very forward-looking at the same time it is reassuring.

I see blue…like a lighter gemstone, along the lines of blue lace agate or apatite. But that being said, I also feel pushed to say wear whatever crystals make you feel as powerful as you are. Lapis Lazuli steps forward too. In fact that is overtaking the lighter. Lapis, definitely lapis. I’m getting the usual woody scents like the meditative ones that usually come through for you. This time it is a little sweeter like copal or frankincense.

A quick flash of crossed over loved ones of an older generation – parents or grandparents. I ‘hear’ “honor the ancestors” but it is Dios De Los Muertos season. Now the taste of candy, like a vanilla taffy. Does that have any meaning for you?

Again Dia De Los Muertos (I hope I’m spelling that right) images.

And there the energies step back.

I hope that puts your doubts at ease! Gurrrl – you are SO on the right path!

Thanks again for letting me share such a cool-feeling reading!

Cheers and best wishes

A little sip of happy

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The fun way to do this is to pause the video, choose your card, restart for the reveal. Or read everything, then choose. It doesn’t matter, because it is still YOU making a choice. Take the message for your own or leave it. It is all up to you.

Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life, it helps you know what to do when life happens.

SEVEN OF SWORDS: Cut your losses. Don’t throw good money after bad. Work smarter, not harder. Intellect is your friend this week. head over heart for now.

ACE OF CUPS: Happiness or ease comes like a cool drink of water. It is ok to allow yourself a moment of peace and contentment. You are the only one who can. Deck: Black Cats Tarot by Maria Kurare copyright 2013 all rights reserved, used with permissions via llwellynpublishing.com

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Sit Still

Sage Sip meditation with the Ace of Cups

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“If turbid waters are stilled, they will gradually become clear.”

Tao Te Ching, Victor Mair translator

It is hard to see the way forward when emotions are running high. The suit of cups, in addition to close romantic or family relationships, symbolizes emotions in general. Cups are connected to the element of water, so water analogies are common, especially here with the Ace. Ace cards carry the essence of the suit. Today, the energy is more akin to water-emotion energy than its water-intuition connotations. Water can be the depths of our human psyche but also deep emotion.

Churning water stirs up all sorts of dirt and debris from the bottom of a stream. Stormy waters are dark. Raging rapids and a broad ocean is far beyond our ability to still them. Sometimes, as with real storms, we have to metaphorically take shelter until the storm passes, and the waters become quiet.

Still waters run deep it is said. We have more emotional resilience and maturity after the reflex response has passed and we’ve calmed down. When churning water becomes still, all of the dirt, sand and silt can settle out of it. Emotions settle down, debris settles out of water, both become more clear.

Nothing about this energy is suggesting suppressing or artificially quieting emotions, any more than it suggests you could (or should) stop a hurricane. By the same token, it isn’t suggesting that we should let emotions rule and ride the pure impulse of the emotions roughshod over the whole situation, either.

There is a middle way.

Sit still. Feel the feels however painful and difficult they may be. Abide your time. Waves can’t stay high unless energy is added to them.

Don’t feed the upset.

Sit still.

Just as gravity and friction and time will eventually quiet a stirred up cup of water, as long as you don’t keep stirring the cup, emotions can naturally get quiet too.

Hurricanes are an apt analogy too. On the leading edge, winds are high. Things caught up in the storm and pushed by the wind cause damage. Go to shelter. From the quiet eye in the center of the storm you can see what you need to do next.

The song “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House comes to mind with the lyric “trying to catch the deluge in a paper cup.” Let the deluge pass, and your paper cup can be filled in a puddle instead of destroyed by a wave.

Or, in the words from The Crow starring Brandon Lee – “It can’t rain all the time.”

Sit still, abide. It’s hard – but this too will pass. Stillness results in the calm and clarity you are looking to find.

Ace of Cups: Have enough love

Have enough love to forgive yourself for who you used to be.

“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”

Alan Watts

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Pour

Tarot helps you pour more than your next cup of coffee

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”Only an empty cup can be filled” as the proverb goes.

Cups in Tarot has to do with emotions in general as well as emotionally close relationships; sometimes romance, sometimes family, sometimes found family – any relationship. Today, the energy is focused on the general side more than a specific relationship side of the card.

The Ace of Cups today is reversed. Different readers deal with reversals in different ways. I always start with an intuitive gut-check. Does it feel significant or is it just a coincidental by-product of shuffling and handling the card deck? If it feels coincidental, I just flip it upright and keep going with the reading. Today it feels meaningful, so it stays upside down.

In a larger card layout a reversed card can mean that whatever the layout position is about is blocked or turbulent or troubled somehow. In a one card reading, it isn’t that the card takes on an opposite meaning or is somehow bad or negative – it also points to a problem or blocked/turbulent energy flow. In a one card reading it might be a little harder to pinpoint the area of concern.

Of course, here, we are working with general collective energy. It’s a mood, not a crisis.

“Emotionally drained” comes to mind.

So does “catharsis”

The analogy between water in a cup and important emotions is a particularly apt one in this case.

Water left stagnant in a cup can become contaminated, dusty, undrinkable. Ignored emotions can also grow unhealthy. Pouring out, experiencing and coming to terms with emotions is difficult. It can make you feel exhausted and drained in its place. That is the benefit of a little harmless catharsis (have a good cry, vent into the void of a journal, play your favorite song just a little too loud, go for a run, take a long walk)

Emotionally drained is probably better than emotionally toxic.

Only the empty cup can be filled.

May your cup be filled with healing good things.

Next up: You choose card of the week for Feb. 19 (tomorrow)

See you at the next sip!

Let the Imagination Flow

Daily meditation tarot reading with the ace of cups

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Imagination speaks many languages, and goes by many names. So does intuition. You could say they are twins.

Imagination is the portal to your intuition. Intuition enters our consciousness through the doorway of our imagination.

Imagine something. Imagine anything. Conjure up anything – a sight, a sound, a memory – anything. Psychic Chris Fleming uses the example of an elephant in a shower when he teaches about psychic ability and intuition. Let’s use that as an example. We had an email conversation once a long time ago. He said I could use his teaching point if I gave him credit. So here we go.

Imagine an elephant taking a shower.

Now what form does your imagination take? Is it a realistic elephant in a river spraying water on itself through its trunk? Or is it a cartoon elephant standing on two legs in a human shower and a gigantic towel wrapped around its waist? Is it a memory of watching Dumbo as a child? Or is it music that reminds you of elephants in a circus? (or my favorite, the song by Tame Impala)

Imagination is telling. By letting our daydreams and earworms flow, the intuitive answers you want just might come along for the ride.

Ace cards carry the essence of the suit. Today, the ace is carrying the water element association for cups, which is symbolic of intuition and deep spiritual wisdom (why, some say, the King, Queen and Page of Cups are typically portrayed near oceans. Deep water = deep wisdom & deep insights.

Most of all water flows. Let the imagination happen.

Thanks for reading! Next up, more Learning and Lenormand! See you at the next sip.

Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund all rights reserved, used with permission.