Caution vs fear: ADA (Action Dissolves Anxiety) Tarot for Today

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Current energy: Two of Coins/Pentacles. Balance is needed, along with a blend of logic and intuition. Feels connected to real-world money, budget and career.

What to do next: Four of Coins/Pentacles. Balance caution and fear. Avoid impulse or reckless buying, but don’t let fear stop you from making a good investment or needed purchase IF it checks out logically and realistically.

image from the public domain

Today’s Tarot: Frosty Fall

The Five of Pentacles makes me feel sad today. It has tendrils of tragedy, misfortune, and fear. It is one of those things that makes me stop, and as we have talked about before, take a little inventory. Is it me? Is it any sort of real threat? Is there something I’m missing or need to do? Or is this an energy from outside myself, a purely “the current zeitgeist is ringing my bell” empathic feeling. It seems to be the latter. I have to travel for family reasons but there is no logical, physical reason that would explain the card’s vibe. This is a coins/pentacles card. As a reader, not only is it always good to stop and consider if a strong emotional reaction is product of our own psychology (as opposed to a purely intuitive reaction to the card) but the suit of pentacles or the suit of swords points to the real world and cold logic straightaway.

Given all of that, I don’t see any real world, my issue, or logical reason for this visceral sort of reaction to the card other than maybe the continued political news here in the U.S. Maybe I’m reacting to the passing of Justice Ginsburg …but there is so much else so wrong and has been for nearly 4 years now.

The card has more of a sense of more foreboding now that I write this than it did at first blush when I filmed the card-draw video. You all know how writing is a more potent connection to intuition for me than working with YouTube is.

The parable of the grasshopper and the ant comes to mind….as does the squirrels and chipmunks busting around the neighborhood in a prehybernation frenzy. The “Pre-hibernation Week” episode of Spongebob was pretty close to reality from the look of these guys.

Today’s Five of Pentacles gives us the same advice. Fall is a time to harvest and store and budget and take care. It might be a hard winter. I hope I’m wrong, but that hurricane on the horizon feeling is back. If it is wrong…great. If not, be safe and be well.

Please prove me wrong.

Today’s Tarot: Emphasis, Not Error

Earlier this week (in other words, yesterday) the four of pentacles was one of the cards in the YouChoose Interactive reading. The boilerplate interpretation of repeating cards is that we aren’t learning the lesson that the card is bringing. It’s too soon for that to make any sense, especially in a general audience reading like this. One to one, private, individual readings are very different. In an individual session, I dial in to your specific message within the energy at large and translate that into ideas directed toward you as an idividual. These blog readings are like looking at the energy of a flock of birds or a school of fish all moving roughly together but with scattered individual for whom none of this will make any sense at all.

In this situation, we can’t consider a repeating card, especially one that comes two days in a row, to be an unlearned lesson. Humans just don’t learn or integrate the kind of life-lessons associated with Tarot in that amount of time.

In my minds eye I see the red light emoji, and hear almost a video game sort of alert signal, a little like the ‘time is almost up’ sound they make on American Ninja Warrior. I can also mentally ‘see’ a yellow highlighter marker.

For those of you who chose the Four of Pentacles yesterday, this is a double dose. Having the card appear both yesterday and today makes the message all the more important for you. The way the card moved from an option to a full on general audience hints that the message is growing in importnance and urgency, not fading. The message is for everyone now, but with an extra dose for the folks who chose the card yesterday.

The Four of Pentacles can be associated with greed and stinginess. That isn’t the thread of meaning that is so urgent right now. It speaks more to care, carefulness with budget and money. This is not a good time for impulse buys and self indulgence. Practical, low key, stock the pantry kind of energy is around. Think squirrels gathering walnuts for the winter.

Winter, as they say, is coming.

Pragmatic planning is your friend today. Slow and steady very much wins the race. This isn’t a full energy all out emergency. It isn’t a time of euphoria or dysphoria either one. Plodding, methodical, planning, budgeting are all words that come to mind today.


It’s that time of year. Taking the Four of Coins/Pentacles advice, I’m trying to get organized for Fall. Forgive the repetition, but it helps me to triage and prepare if I organize a few basic announcements for you.

First, there won’t be a premium blog after all. All of the blog, all of the YouTube channel is free and open. I haven’t monetized either one. Both the blog and the channel take some time and effort to do, especially since I’m a great Tarot reader but not such a great video media personality. The steep learning curve continues. If you like what you read in the blog, and use it oftern, please consider getting a peronal reading. One card readings are the cost of a coffeehouse latte. Although I wouldn’t object to being paid in my favorite drink, you can’t send coconut vanilla flat whites  through email. If you are so inclined, distance readings are available for order 24/7 no appointment needed on the home page.

Second, I hope you’ll consider following the blog by email along with your favorite social media (say hi on Instagram and Twitter, I actually interact with those) If you follow the blog, you’ll get all of the content. There will be print only posts that do not appear on the YouTube channel.

Third, due to the ongoing pandemic and the oncoming flu season, in-person readings and party Tarot readings are still closed. If you want a live, real-time reading, phone readings are available by appointment with prepayment. Order a phone session just like you would order anything online using the secure paypal button HERE then contact me at TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com to schedule your session.

Fourth, ask me anything! The comments are back open and you are welcome to tell me the kind of content you want to see, or ask any questions you like. I won’t promise an individual reply, but I will answer everything that I can in the blog itself. Any spam or anything inappropriate will be thrown into an active volcano and never heard from again.

Thank you all. Best Wishes – R.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot Reading for August 17 – 22

Pick a card. Pause the video if you would like a minute to decide, the restart the video to see the reveal. Full card descriptions follow below.


Left: Three of Pentacles (Coins). Hard work pays off. It’s just that simple. Not a lot to say here except persist. Sometimes there isn’t a big life lesson, or any large meaning to things. Sometimes you just have to grind out the practical down-to-earth things that need to be done. Stay diligent, and it will pay off later. The pay off here feels less like income or money, but more like hang tight, stay the course, stick to the schedule, “work the problem” as the Apollo 13 movie said. The payoff will be in better timing later, more opportunities later. “Make hay while the sun shines” comes to mind along with “leave the fancy stuff for later”

Center: Four of Coins. This card seems tied to the time of year. It feels like late August doldrums. Like the three of Coins, this isn’t a time for risk, or drama or change. The Four of coins has been read at times as a “secret treasure,” like a small money surprise like finding a forgotten dollar bill in your Autumn jacket. This week’s energy isn’t that. Sometimes it is read as miserly, stingy energy. Today isn’t quite that either. This isn’t motivated by greed, like the miser, Scrooge-y card meanings are. This is smart conservation. This is a week to mind the budget. No impulse buys or extravagant impulses. Austerity is a better word. A little austerity now will make things more comfortable later on.

Right: Justice. This card has to do with reason, wisdom, and using good judgement. It also taps into a conservative, austere energy. This is a time to look before you leap, and wight both sides of a decision, even when you already have a clear opposition to one side. It is a time to let your head rule your heart. Follow the science. Dare I say wear a mask.

Heat of summer lingers. There is a plodding to the finish line feeling to the summer, which feels like it will trudge to the end. This summer doesn’t feel like it will go out with any sort of bang or flourish. It’s hard to see any celebration energy for a while. The transition to fall feels gradual, sliding, fading, barely noticed, but headed toward more comfort, not less.

But get your flu shot. Everyone.

Peridot, the August birthstone comes to mind, as if this August is extra-August-y, as if this August is very VERY peridot.

By virtue of its green color, peridot is associated with the heart chakra. It is associated with physical healing energies and helping the mind-body connection to understand when physical ailments have a strong spiritual emotional component. It has been called the ‘wounded healer’ stone, battlefield medicine and the word “triage’ come to mind here.

Peridots that are more yellowish can also be associated with the solar plexus chakra, confidence and growing wealth.

If you feel drawn to Peridot, research it more on your own. Of the many meanings and correlations for the stone, the one that captures your imagination is the right one for you. This needs to be a personal discovery, not one I can tell you in a blog.

12 Second Tarot: Five of Pentacles (9 October 2019)

“A penny saved is a penny earned.” – Ben Franklin

Care for and maintain your possessions not just for the things themselves but for what they symbolize and what they mean to you.