Tag: Alleyman's Tarot

Year Ahead, Halloween 2025

Clocks and calendars are arbitrary things.

I like this layout because it takes a big-picture view of the path ahead but applies to any point in time. It starts the path with the ground at your feet, and moves forward step by step, season by season.

I like to read right to left, as with the past-present-future parts of the layouts I learned from Medicine Cards by David Carson and Jamie Sams. That, plus Ted Andrews’ writings, plus Diane Morgan’s Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao have all formed the foundation of my intuitive work and Tarot reading. That foundation has proven utter solid and reliable, every damn day since 1992.

I wrote this layout to follow that right to left pattern and have used it for myself and for clients for I honestly don’t remember how many years now. Starting with the bottom row, the most right hand card is the current season – in our case today, Autumn. Then it goes across in order of the coming year: Winter, Spring then Summer. Each card gives a sense of the energy ahead and its ebbs and flows. Each card is guidance how to best navigate the foreseeable energy of that particular season. Generally, I connect the season to astronomy, using solstice and equinox rather than months. The boundaries of energy aren’t clearly defined and blur and blend one to the other as time passes. Intuition and spirituality doesn’t happen on a schedule.

Just as Neil DeGrasse Tyson once said that “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you” the universe is under no obligation to happen according to our expectations, clocks or calendars.

You are just as free as the universe.

You are under no obligation to understand or to feel any particular thing at any particular time. The kindness you show (or don’t) is your only accountability. Alan Watts reminds us that “you are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” Your understanding and experience flows through time, so this kind of reading is not a defined road map

Or as I’ve said for years now – “Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life, tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.”

The top card is guidance or some sort of theme for the coming year as a cohesive whole.

I’m going to write this as if it was a private email reading – the only difference would be that private readings get a photo or your unique, individual real world card layout instead of a YouTube short of our collective cards.

Our collective cards today:

  • Autumn: Ten of Cups
  • Winter: Six of Inking Balls (akin to pentacles, but not quite)
  • Spring: Strength
  • Summer: The Hanged Man
  • Year: The Star

General Pattern

There is a gentle start immediately ahead with two minor arcana cards, but then stress, energy, change and life in general picks up steam with three major arcana cards in a row. Current chaos continues in general but with a steady plateau for a little while during the colder months in the northern hemisphere. Here I get the mental image of ice on the Potomac river in Washington DC…take that how you will. Whatever your politics, there are some pretty parks and places in the district. The sense of cold and still winter air is pleasant and peaceful, more than polar-vortex stressful. I get a sense of melancholy. Honor the feelings of this coming year. Life is enough of a struggle without doing combat with your own emotions. Acknowledge them. Work with them. Let them be what they are while you do what you need to do to take care of yourself and your loved one. You are under no obligation to happy or joyful when you aren’t. Neither are you under any obligation to be sad or stressed when you aren’t. No one can drive away with your happiness. Your emotions are you own. To paraphrase Eleanor Roosevelt, no one can make you feel any particular thing without your consent and cooperation.

Autumn

The Ten of Cups is nothing but good. Think of all the traditional harvest images. Listen to us old people. Those “old fashioned” (albeit over idealized) cost less and didn’t enrich big corporations and the fascist oligarchy that is trying to get us all killed. Revive depression era traditions … or whatever is meaningful. This is the year for sentimentality and authenticity far, far over spending and commercialism. Cue Linus’ speech from the Charlie Brown Christmas special (minus the religious stuff if you are so inclined) Don’t spend a penny on black Friday. And yes, this is promoting my political agenda. Go promote your values in your own way in your own social media or blog or however. This is a season of authenticity and emotion. Be true to yourself and a satisfying holiday season is very possible.

Winter

Like pentacles, this unique card from the “Strange Suit” of the Alleyman’s Tarot deck is focused on career, wealth and the physical realm. It picks up on the thread of authenticity and quiet austerity that begins with the Fall card.

It asks us ‘is it worth it’?

Are you working and achieving, or over-striving to achieve and Pyrrhic victory. Curate your resources carefully. Effort can turn into drowning easily. Take great care not to bite off more than you can chew. Take great care not to pay too high of a personal life price for a tiny financial gain. Curate your time, attention and emotion as carefully as your financial budget.

Spring

I’m rooting for the lion on this card.

Look closely at the picture on the card. Who you identify with or who you feel drawn to says everything.

Are you the wild-eyed judgmental zealot imposing his will on wild nature, or are you the grace and power of your inner nature throwing off the oppressor?

Choose your side.

Summer

The Hanged Man is a classic symbol of slow progress if not outright stagnation. It may be a welcomed rest after the brief but intense skirmish-like if not outright battle-like energy of the spring. This may be the exhaustion (more than calm) after the storm, but also much needed down time to pick up pieces and bind wounds after difficulty. I mentally hear cicadas and see bright blue skies and intense sunshine. I ‘hear’ “August” and “Doldrums” and feel a tense anticipation of some big event to come (the ’26 election?)

Again a vague reference to the great depression. I am reminded of Lange’s famous Migrant Mother photo from the 1930s. John Steinbeck pops to mind. I don’t logically know why the depression era references, and can’t quite pull in what spirit is trying to say. (Personally, this is referencing my Grandmother) so I leave it to you to see if these references have any meaning for you.

Whacky cake comes to mind too – check out Dylan Hollis’ videos about vintage and depression era recipes. Max Miller’s Tasting History too. Great stuff, that.

Year Ahead

The Star is about guidance. It is about finding a fixed navigation point to guide you through this coming year. Before spring, it is CRUCIAL that you find some mental or emotional anchor to keep you oriented and steady as possible. It might be your religion or philosophy. It might be some habit or practice (meditation, yoga, golf, walking, reading, whatever it is that makes the world seem just a little more sane for you). Making and keeping some small routine in your day is important self-care. Craft a bedtime or wake-up ritual and routine for yourself like you are a five year old and stick to it. Create your own stability wherever you can.

Summary

At this point in the reading, I usually give any colors, crystals or aromatherapy that comes to mind. Usually that is very personal to the person I’m reading for. This may be a general reference to the upcoming holidays, but I see pine and pine cones, with that fragrance. Pine and eucalyptus essential oils diffused in a room can help with garden variety head colds and are thought to be very healthful.

I see both clear quartz and rose quartz. That’s not for everyone, but it will resonate with someone.

Now that morphs into sandalwood fragrance and malachite energy. Rose quartz and malachite are heart chakra colors, for whatever that is worth.

I ‘hear’ “heal your heart” – whichever crystal most appeals to you, it can help ease wounded emotions.

And there the energies step back.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a full sized reading in action. It’s for the collective, so it might be on target for some and a total miss for others – but hopefully some piece of it was helpful to you.

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Members get one free individual, private reading by email per month plus exclusive content on the ko-fi blog that isn’t found on the all-free, no-paywall blog here.

Email readings are affordable ($10, $15 and $30) and get the full benefit of both my writing experience and my 30 years as a Tarot reader.

That’s it. No bells, no whistles, no drama – just me and my cards typing what I would say to you in person. Tell all of your introvert and book loving friends. These readings are perfect for them. And for anyone who wants to try a reading without a lot of cost or effort. This is the perfect Zen, calm, low battery, out of spoons, stress free, relaxing, low key reading for anyone.

Happy Halloween everyone! See you at the next sip!

Action Eases Anxiety: Nothing is something to do

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Some say anxiety is from thinking too much about the future. We can’t predict the future but we can make plans and, more importantly, take action to help create the future we want. Psychic predictions aren’t much of a thing, but cause and effect is a proven, real and powerful thing. Tarot is very much that – it is a tool to help you understand what is going on here and now, and helps give you ideas about what to DO. Those ideas and those actions create the future, not predict it. Those ideas and actions help ease anxiety.

In this layout, the left card reflects the current situation, the current energy. It helps us understand what it is that prompted us to want a Tarot reading, or scroll a Tarot blog, or watch the social post that brought you here, or whatever the case may be.

The next card suggest a good next step. It is an idea what to do now about the energy that is happening now. That one idea, that one next step, is all it takes to interrupt that habit of letting your mind live in the future and stop the spiral into anxiety, even its just for a little while.

Coming in October: Sage Sips blog on TaoCraftTarot.com will be partnering with the “How To Holistic” blog to bring you more stress relief options. The Ebook “Reiki and Relaxation” and pay-what-you-want distance Reiki sessions to the Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot Ko-Fi shop.

KING OF CUPS: The king of cups is about both literal and spiritual guides and mentors. Cups cards are connected to the element of water. Because of that, they are also connected to intuition, emotions, and close relationships (including family, close friends, not just romance)

The message here is that you are not alone. You are connected to all that is. You are part of the Cosmos at the grandest scale. You spirit-world companionship is at your side at the very least. On a more practical scale, this isn’t a time to go it alone in the mental and emotional real world either. Read, listen, learn, ask for advice. That takes courage. That is why this kind of mentorship and learning is connected to the KING card. Be brave enough and wise enough to know that you don’t know everything and go get the knowledge that you need.

HANGED MAN: This card has two very different traditional meanings rolled into one card. On one hand it is about stagnation, or at the very least, feelings of frustration at the pace at which life is moving. Your mental/emotional/biological clock is ticking at a faster pace than things are naturally moving. The message here is basically cool your jets. Let things unfold. Time is key, and some things can only happen with time. You can’t ferment fine wine …or even a mason jar of pickles…in a day. Time is a crucial ingredient right now.

The other meaning for this card is ‘fearless sacrifice’ or ‘self sacrifice’ The sacrifice that must be made here is your expectations. Give up the when. Throw yourself on the alter of being patient.

Sacrifice your expectations and impatience to allow room for either real world or spiritual guidance (or both). Find your mentors. Spirit guides don’t work on a time clock. It takes time and quiet to hear spirit’s whispers. Moving at a fast pace makes it all hard to hear.

Thanks again for reading. Hoping to get a ‘weekend oracle’ ready for you Friday. See you at the next sip!

Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC. Check out Seven’s latest Tarot project HERE.

I totally judged this book by its cover

For September and October, I’ve decided to indulge in one of my favorite Tarot decks, The Alleyman’s Tarot and explore one of my newest ones, The Normal Tarot, both by Seven Dane Asmund of Publishing Goblin LLC who kindly gave permission to use his decks here in the blog.

My unboxing and earlier posts have all of the requisite fangirling about the Alleyman’s deck, which after a few years of using it is STILL a masterpiece. This deck (including the premise and lore built around it with the podcast and more is like a Stradivarius in the hands of master violinist. I know that sounds like a brag, and it is. I’m that good, and it is too.

When the chance came to 7DA’s first (I believe) deck, I didn’t hesitate, largely because the guidebook cover was love at first sight – a line drawing of a skeleton, cards and the title How To Normal Tarot: Staring into the Seething, Unknowable Chaos of the Universe for Fun and Profit.

That pretty much sums up Tarot work. Some folks really, REALLY don’t like the unknowable part. They want pat, canned platitudes and answers that they WANT to hear (not the guidance they NEED to hear.) Predictions are 1. impossible and 2. baby food for unready souls.

I’m not here for that. If you want “accurate predictions” you need to go find another psychic.

I’m here to give you a hearty soul-meal and some navigation tips for the seething unknowable chaos.

If you are ready for that ride, if you want to experience the wisdom that Tarot really offers, come along.

In September and October, I’ll be using the Alleyman’s Tarot deck for the Week Ahead choose your card readings and the Normal Tarot deck for our Weekend Oracle posts, simply because the deck isn’t a RWS clone. For the members only posts over on ko-fi I’ll post some longer-layout readings following (or inspired by) the layouts in the guidebook.

So fill up your metaphorical coffee (wine/tea/whatever) cup and come sip and stare into the chaos with me.

See you at the next sip

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Card: Death from L’oracle Des Dames as seen in the Alleyman’s Tarot deck

Choose Your Card: Eclipse Day Tarot Reading

Sage Sips Blog is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee

YOU CHOOSE:

Your choices are everything. They are the cause that brings your future into effect. Tarot helps to guide those choices so you can make good ones.

Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life. Tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

Death: OF COURSE this is your eclipse day card. Eclipses symbolize change and transformation. That is exactly what the death card is about. Only an empty cup can be filled. Let the old and toxic go and welcome the new and better in.

Five of swords: The price of victory is too high. Is this really a hill worth dying on? Redefine your goals. Work toward a victory that makes sense. You don’t have to prove your point based on blind principle.

High Priestess: Magic and spirituality come only from within. Yes, it really is nothing more than the moon’s shadow. The magic and mystery is up to you to feel and find. music via youtube shorts Allyman’s Tarot Deck used with permission @publishinggoblin1072

Just say no

Get a free Zombie Cat yes/no Tarot reading posted in the blog if you leave a question in the comments below.* Offer ends midnight on Halloween, 10-31-23

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I low key despise insipid platitudes.

But I will, begrudgingly, admit they sometimes have utility.

Most of the time, pithy little adages are either a shorthand reminder of something bigger. They also can also be empty headed, hollow, shallow and avoid the depth and complexity of a situation.

The Reagan era “Just say no” campaign was exactly the latter.

But today, in a vastly different context, it actually has a little bit of utility.

Today’s card is the six of inking balls (“Holy inkballs, Batman!) from the Strange Suit of the Alleyman’s Tarot deck (Jost Amman Deck, Museum of Tarot and Playing Cards)

The artwork says it all about this card. It asks who is the dunk-er and who is the dunk-ee and that it probably doesn’t matter because everyone is getting drenched anyway.

At heart, the card is about feeling overwhelmed. When you feel out of control, or just way out of your depth, who put you there? Or, more importantly, how do you prevent winding up there the next time?

Just say no has a place. It isn’t in dealing with the complexities of chemical dependence but it has everything to do with setting healthy boundaries.

You are allowed to say no. Just plain no. If it makes you feel better to give some explanation or excuse, go ahead. But you have every right not to overextend yourself. You have every right to take care of yourself, regardless of what other people’s wants, needs, or rampant self-indulgence may be.

If you don’t say no, or allow no to be said to you, then things can get real inky and real messy real quick.

Thanks for reading! There are just 48 hours left to get your 2023 FREE Zombie Cat Tarot reading in the blog by leaving a question / comment here on the blog. Free Zombie Cat offer ends midnight eastern time 10-31-23.

See you at the next sip!

*all policies and disclaimers apply. All readings are for spiritual practice and personal enrichment, they do not predict the future.

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

Odinsday Oracle

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Odinsday? Odin (Woden) is the source of our name for Wednesday. Plus I have an irrational like for alliteration. On Wednesday (generally speaking, barring last minute squirrel rave changes) I’ll post a reading from an oracle card, or in this case, one of the unconventional or expansion pack cards from the Alleyman’s Tarot. I plan to combine the Alleyway Oracle cards when they arrive with this portion of the Alleyman’s deck. That will give me one huge Alley based RWS -ish Tarot deck and one huge oracle-ish deck. You’ll probably see both a lot because the Alley aesthetic that Publishing Goblin has created with all of the “alley” cards to day remain my favorite to date.

“Learn With Me” posts will take the place of oracle posts on Wednesdays if one of those series are in progress.

Next Wednesday, September 20th, we’ll start a new series featuring the Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler copyright 2021 © year Lo Scarabeo srl, via Cigna 110, 10155 Torino, Italy. All rights reserved, used by permission.

See you at the next sip!

Odin’s Day Oracle

Oracle Card for Wodensday

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This post is inspired by three of my many favorite things: Alliteration, the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck and the book American Gods by Neil Gaimon

In the book, “Mr. Wednesday” is, or at least is a reference to, Odin (also spelled Woden) for whom Wednesday is named. If I’m not posting some sort of “learn with me” post on Wednesdays, I thought it might be a good time to look at oracle cards (which you read the exact same way as you read RWS Tarot or any cards) or other oracle / guidance tool like pendulums or charm casting, or I Ching or bibliomancy or any of the other untold number of such techniques. In other words, Wednesdays and Fridays are pretty wide open. Mondays are earmarked for the energy week ahead readings. Thor…Thursdays get the newsletter. If weekends get any blogging at all, it will be over on Sage’s Other Words on who-knows-what topic.

Seriously, it could be anything. I hope you’ll follow both blogs, but I’m always grateful for anything you read here or there. I’m also grateful for any likes or shares you can spare. Nothing I do online is monetized and all of this free content depends on your private reading orders, memberships and virtual coffees over on Ko-fi.

Now, back to the card with the name I have no earthly idea how to pronounce. I’m going with the name in the guide book “King of Flint.”

When I saw the art by Chicome Itzcuintli Amatlapantli. My impression was immediately “The Power of Myth” … also a favorite book.

The primary influence for the image is clearly mesoamerican, but also feels like it has elements of a Medieval knight in armour and a classic Samurai. Warriors are warriors I suppose.

The energy I’m getting feels disconnected from the meanings described in the guidebook about winter, snow, justice, judgement, swift and emotionless execution. In addition to being an amalgam of cultures, the card feels like an amalgam of Judgement, Justice, plus the King and Queen of Swords from the classic Tarot deck.

The energy I sense is more like a Shaolin Monk. Combat-able, certainly but guided by something much more spiritual and abstract.

And I do mean spiritual, not…not…never…in no respect, religious. This is not about that faith without works trope because faith is the farthest thing in the world from this energy. This is in no way about “faith” in anything that originated externally.

This is about a deep and abiding trust in one’s internal spiritual and philosophical compass. This is about trusting your inner knowing and claiming your power in a big way without emotion getting too much in the way.

The myth, the outer cues are inspiration.

The power, however, is in your hands.

Myth has power because it can inspire action.

Warriors act, but they act wisely and with a great deal of self control.

“A [warrior] fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him” – G.K. Chesterson

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

Groot With Jingle Bells

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Today’s card is the Seven of Bells, from a woodcut print for a deck of sixteenth century playing cards by German artist Peter Flotner. This particular card is part of the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck, used with permission of Publishing Goblin LLC

On seeing the card, my impression was a clear, urgent single word.

Wait.

In all fairness, it is Wednesday morning as I write this and you could chalk this whole thing up to a rampaging case of the mid-week blahs. In fact that might be the whole point of it. A case of the midweek blahs might be a message to wait, to indulge in some stillness. If you ever feel hugely UNmotivated, listen to that feeling. Understand it and adjust accordingly.

This very much feels like a continuation of the energy from our week-ahead reading two days ago. It’s still an introvert’s energy paradise, but I’m getting a small sense of how an extrovert might be feeling a little restless today.

Still, I feel like the message is crisp, clear and succinct. It feels like a command to stop, be still, and wait. It feels almost like a being held still or caught in a science fiction tractor beam or force field. I hear the phrase “enforced stasis” Lots of science and science fiction words and images are coming through today.

Now I get the mental image of an old school mario video game. I don’t know if you have ever played a video game with those swinging or jumping obstacles. Running flat out at full speed will get you knocked down every time. The trick is to wait. You have to make your run in short bursts or to time the jumps just right.

Have you ever heard of psycho neuro immunology? Is that still a thing? It was in vogue back in the 80s during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Basically it is modern scientific medicine finally taking a side eye look at the ancient mind body connection and who would have guessed – lo, and behold! Stress impacts your health and can legit affect immunity. Shocker, eh? By measuring T cells and cortisols and all sorts of technical stuff that I can’t remember , mainstream medicine figured out a thing that holistic wisdom has known all along: if you don’t get rest on your own when you need it, Mother Nature will step in and make you rest through a cold, or flu or something. Go down for a nap or be taken down for a week. Taking care of yourself mentally and physically isn’t going to 100% prevent or cure infectious diseases, especially not very serious illnesses like AIDS or Covid, but it can help your immune system do its thing when minor things come along.

So wait.

Stop.

Be still.

Listen.

I’m taking this one personally. It has been a busy couple of months here in the cyberspace as TaoCraft Tarot was renamed to Sage Words Tarot, I finished & uploaded TaoCraft Portfolio (the free behind the scenes ebook) and the Tarot Table subscription blog was changed, updated and changed again. It is seriously time to stop mucking around with all of this. I hope you’ll visit the links in the podcast episode description or browse the blog website or browse the ko-fi page. Comments are open on the blog and DMs are open to supporters on ko-fi. I really hope that you’ll take a look and tell me the features you like, don’t like and what you would like to see in the future. I’m listening.

I think that may be part of the “pause” or “wait” energy that is coming through this week. Listening is part of the stillness and quiet. You can’t listen to other people when you are chattering nonstop. I have things situated so that it suits my needs. It has come to the point of simply letting you know what I have to offer and if it resonates with you then great! Let’s get to work! But if it doesn’t, no worries. There are a lot of us sincere, trustworthy psychics out here – someone is bound to match your vibe. You keep looking for what you need. And as the seven of bells suggests, I’ll keep listening for what is needed.

The figure on the card seems to be made of wood, like Marvel’s Groot surrounded by jingle bells, or maybe Treebeard from Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings or the Tree people of Cheem from Doctor Who – only centuries before any of those characters were created. Actual trees that aren’t science fiction humanoids are living beings, after all.

Listen to the wind in the trees. They may be listening back.

Seven Dane Asmund, the Alleyman’s Tarot creator connected this card to change – both changing to meet the needs of others AND more importantly reminding us that we can change back to our true selves.

Here I am reminded of the Face Dancers from the original Dune book series by Frank Herbert. Face Dancers were shape shifting assassins who could take on any person’s appearance and never showed their true form while on assignment. Take out the assassin part and we all do a little bit of behavioral face dancing. To one extent or another we adapt our language and behavior to the situation. I think the connection to the card comes from the idea of a strong inner core. Like an oak tree or towering pine, our authentic self can remain still, quiet, and strong no matter how our branches sway in the wind. Still, quiet and strong, our true selves wait for us to return no matter how our outer social face dances.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. See you at the next sip!

If you enjoy this free Tarot content, please consider a private Tarot reading, subscribing to the members blog or gifting a virtual coffee on the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi page. Links are in the podcast episode description or click the white coffee mug on the blog page.

Introvert Paradise

In this Pathway through week Tarot reading, introverts and extroverts are two sides of the same important energy.

With an emphasis on individualism and alone time, this week’s energy is an introvert’s paradise. Extroverts might have a tougher time ahead and need to go out of their way to stay and feel connected.

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Podcast where you get Tarot contemplations for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

I’m Sage and I’m glad you are here. Thank you all for reading and listening. Personally, I’m thrilled for this kind of energy to come along. After changing the blog and podcast name and all of the re-arranging and updating that’s been going on since the new year began, I’m glad for a little low key time to recharge the batteries a little bit. I hope the respite is as welcome for you.

The cards are less chatty this week and the intuition is back to the typical visuals. First thing that comes to mind is a map of the US with no state lines on it, just an outline with red and blue dots on it, like a new graphic of some sort. I’m not sure exactly what else the visual might be trying to say, but my hunch is that it is pointing to individuality, like the individual dots. It’s a strange way to think about it, but that meme that has been so popular with Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal seems to have planted a seed with the music. The lyrics “Make your own kind of music, sing your own special song” may have planted themselves deeper in our social media loving psyche than we realized.

Unless you accept and include the diversity of everyone else on the planet, in your individuality you will walk alone.

For some alone time is a treasure, that allows us to rest from the drains and demands of life.

For others it is suffocating, isolation from the collective energy on which they thrive.

The energy this week is asking two things of us.

First is to know our own source of strength. If you are the type to need a little down time away from other people in order to rechard, that quiet is essential this week. If you thrive on unplugging for a while, then by all means do that. This isn’t the week to push outside your comfort zone. This is the week to build and protect and strengthen your comfort zone. By the same token, if you thrive on connection, this is the week to ensure that connection for yourself, yes, but also as a kindness to others who might be feeling over-isolated.

Second is to protect your energy. If your energy comes from connection, focus on those in particular. Protect your connection to groups and other individuals. The quality of connection is the important thing. Heath is the emphasis in both directions of the connection. Make sure your relationships and connections are healthy and not dependent or narcissistic or draining.

For those who thrive on disconnecting, do that. Protect your energy in total. Shields up, let it go. My go to reading recommendation when this energy comes along is Psychic Protection by Ted Andrews. That, and his earlier book The Healer’s Manual are two of the most useful books I’ve ever read. Taking care to guard and protect your energy feels especially important for the introverts among us.

Whatever your energy style – no matter whether you thrive on making connections or disconnecting, no matter whether you thrive on a rave or listing to rave music alone, whatever your recharging style may be – honor that style. Protect that energy because that will help you have the clarity to see your way through the path ahead. There is so much potential, so many choices and options for you if you let yourself be true to yourself.

Imagine this. Imagine a hall of mirrors where the reflections in the reflections seem to go on forever. Now imagine a crowd of people all dressed alike in that hall of mirrors. How do you see your way forward if you force yourself to be like everyone else? With that image we go from introvert paradise to introvert hell. That’s why the be true to yourself part is important. It is one good way to find your way forward in a dizzying array of energies and possibilities.

Here I get a sense of this crowded mirror room requiring us to adopt an attitude of radical and fierce compassion for others, for diversity and inclusion. There is room and reflections and possible paths for us all.

That’s the purely intuitive read of these cards that are from The Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC who graciously gave me permission to use the deck in my blog and social media.

The cards today are not traditional Tarot cards, which gives a sort of ‘time out of time’ or ‘time apart from the rest’ feeling.

The first card, the Hole is by Seven Dane Asmund, I’m guessing created for the Alleyman’s deck.

It speaks to the unspoken, the deduced and implicit. It highlights the missing. It is, as I see it, the arrow pointing to the things that are conspicuous in the absence.

There is a scene in one of the Star Wars movies where Qui Gon is was told of a planet, but can’t find it. So Yoda (and his class of younglings) pull up the star system where the mystery planet was supposed to be, but nothing was where the planet was supposed to be. What WAS there were aberrations and irregularities. The planets that were on the moving 3D map were moving as if a planet was there. They found the missing, or actually erased, planet by the evidence left behind where it was not. Qui gon proved the theory true by going there, to the place where the planet was calculated to be based on the movement of other things around the empty space.

As convoluted as that sounds, that is exactly the plane Neptune was discovered in our own star (solar) system.

Uranus was wobbling weird so scientists used Newton’s laws of gravity to calculate where another planet should be based on how Uranus was moving around space we thought was empty. We couldn’t go there yet, so they looked at the spot through a telescope instead and BOOM – hello Neptune. (source nasa.gov)

And such is the power of the empty, the hole, the alone. Introverts thrive on it. Extroverts need a little sip of it every now and then.

The Hole and The Comforter are less fading and current energies so much as they are opposite sides of the same, equally strong current energy. I don’t get the sense either is going to fade either time soon. Again I get the feeling the major message is to know which side of things is best for you and do that. Do that big time.

The comforter is all about the power of connection, of comforting ourselves through connection and the comfort of helping others through our connection with them. This card is urging us to celebrate and cherish, protect and strengthen all of the healthy connections in life or forge new ones if needed. This card was originally created by Natasa Ilincic for the Compendium of Witches Tarot.

The creator of the Thing among Reflections card is supposedly unknown, although I suspect it is the deck creator’s work. He reads the card as a vaguely disconcerted feeling that something is wrong or off. This card hasn’t turned up very often for me so this being a new (to me) card gives it that exact feeling just from its unfamiliarity. It feels more than the embarrassment of riches feeling that the many choices we see in the seven of cups card. This is about so many potential outcomes that it is disorienting and overwhelming. If the seven of cups is a big restaurant menu level of many choices, this card is multiverse, hot dogs for fingers, Everything Everywhere All At Once level of many choices.

Knowing yourself, being yourself, and knowing the best way to protect and recharge your energy will help us through a hall of mirrors if and when we walk through one.

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Thank you so much for reading and listening! See you at the next sip!

Same Courage, Different Direction

Changing direction in the face of fear is not the same as being stopped by it.

Go prefrontal cortex! Go! You can do it!

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

Today I picked up the Allyman’s Tarot Deck and drew the Undaunted card. This is the first time I’ve drawn it. Over six months into using this gorgeous deck, and I’m still discovering cards. I still haven’t gotten around to reading the guidebook. I haven’t finished that Chuck Wendig library book that is due next week either, so Mr. Wendig and Mr. Asmund are in good company together. I’ll read about the Undaunted card in a few minutes after I get this started. Who knows? This might even post before noon for a change. Let’s see.

I love this card.

Color on black is my favorite look and blue is my favorite color so this was an instant favorite on first glance aesthetics alone. To me, undaunted, connotes courage and level headed reactions to adversity. Go prefrontal cortex! That’s the area of the brain that lets us do that sort of thing. If I were to connect this card to a classic Waite Smith card, I’d be the knight of swords, but this has a different tone and direction. The knight is active, fast, now, self-confident. I associate the knight of swords with someone yelling “Geronimo” and diving right into a situation. Undaunted is strong and self confident, but undaunted is also less about galloping straight in and more about being inexorable at any speed and in any direction.

Confidence and action upside down reminds me of fear, anxiety and reticence. Fear and anxiety exist for a reason, however. Evolution drummed it up as a way to help keep us alive. I think we are meant to do something when we are afraid. It might be fight. It might be flight. Either one is still doing something.

Being undaunted isn’t about being an unstoppable juggernaut in one single direction. It is about moving and doing and trying regardless of circumstances, even when those circumstances require some finesse and change and adaptability. Changing what you plan and do because of fear is not the same as being stopped by it. Changing because of fear or anxiety isn’t failure. It’s adaptation. It’s survival.

Ok.

I’ve had my say. Let’s see what the deck creator has to say. Where is that guidebook?

Here we go – this card was created by Shan Bennon, by the way. Undaunted in reverse, page 133 of the Alleyman’s Tarot guidebook “a hidden creature unwilling to show itself for fear of being known.”

Hiding. That’s doing something. Sometimes it is both tactical and strategic to lay low. Watching, waiting, analysing, planning, changing direction…all of those things are doing something, even if it doesn’t look like our stereotypical notion of full gallop ahead courage.

Even when that something is watch and wait and hide and feel and just survive, doing something in the face of fear or anxiety makes you undaunted.

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Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC, used with permission.

Video music “Modern Crusaders” by Enigma via YouTube Shorts

Podcast intro and outro music “Daylight is not for Owls” by Owltree used under attribution non-commercial no-derivative creative commons 3.0 international license.