Tag: card meaning

Adaptable Is Successful

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Some days flow beats fight.

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

Of all the meanings for the Two of Pentacles, adaptability and to a lesser degree multitasking are grabbing my attention.

That brings me back to the same image and analogy that always seems to come with the two of pentacles: dynamic equalibrium.

Pentacles brings the card into the practical real world realm of things. The two card of a suit almost always points to a balance of some sort. Most of the time a unicycle comes to mind. Most of us have seen a clown or performer on a unicycle at some point in our lives, at least on YouTube or TV. We get it how they make those constant small back and forth adjustments with the wheel to keep their balance. When we see it the process is understandable whether we could actually do it ourselves or not.

Today, my science geek intuition takes me back to high school chemistry and dynamic equilibrium across a semipermeable membrane, which isn’t nearly as entertaining of a mental image as a clown on a unicycle juggling bowling pins. But you’ll have that.

I think there is a reason for the nerdiness. It adds an, ahem, counterbalance, to the notion of dynamic equilibrium.

Rigidity isn’t as successful as adaptability.

The whole science thing is about two solutions on either side of a membrane that lets the -oh, let’s say salt molecules – cross the membrane. The water molecules are the same on either side of the membrane – oh, let’s say it is a bag. Imaging a plastic zip bag filled with way too concentrated salt water, sealed and plunked down in a big bowl of plain water. Imagine your goal is to season your water for cooking pasta. You don’t want just plain water, or your spaghetti will taste pasty and bland. Too much salt and you can’t even choke it down.

If the bag of salt water allows salt through, eventually molecular movement will let the salt adapt to the total amount of water and boom…good spaghetti. But if the bag isn’t adaptable enough to allow that salt through…no go with the pasta water. Same with our metaphoric clown. If he is too rigid and doesn’t move his unicycle wheel to adapt his balance then boom…clown down. Movement and adaptation is needed on both obvious and subtle levels to be successful.

Whether it comes from Charles Darwin, H.G. Wells or a Brad Pitt movie, “adapt or die” is the message here.

It isn’t the energy for every day or every situation. Sometimes the right thing to do is to stand your ground and protect those you love who stand behind you.

Other days, it pays to let water roll off the hill rather than plant your flag on it. Today’s energy asks for adaptability and gives us a list of quotes to back it up:

Adam Savage is quoted as saying “follow the process, not the plan” Do what you know works, even if that wasn’t the original plan.

Bruce Lee famously said “Be water, my friend” Today is a day for water that adopts the shape of its teapot. A drop of water falling from a cave ceiling changes it shape to match the contours of the cave floor, but over millennia it builds an immovable column of stalagmite rock.

A little adaptability now can show you the way to success later.

Thank you so much for reading and listening!

I’ll be going on another short summer hiatus in the middle of August so please stay tuned to the blog for more detail. Private email readings and everything is open and available, the same as always until then.

Thank you for supporting the blog & podcast with likes, subs, shares, follows and of your questions and comments. The TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi also supports the production of these free to access Tarot readings.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Only Human

TaoCraft Short Sip is a Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

It’s only human.

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

Today’s card is the five of swords from the Alleyman’s Tarot with art for this card by Sam Dow. This is my new favorite five of swords.

Ever since the Waite Smith Tarot deck of 1909 either created or popularized illustrated minor arcana cards, the five of swords has generally depicted someone striking a pose with swords at sunset. Mark Evans artwork for the Witches Tarot shows a dragonfly flying upward despite a whole frolick of fairies and five swords hanging over it like Damocles’ was having a clearance sale. All of these are heavy on the victory part of the phrase “pyrrhic victory” as they should. This certainly isn’t the full on defeat, stay down there and heal vibe that you see with the ten of swords.

Still, this card can touch an uncomfortable meaning. Life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Mistakes, for example. They are only human. Sometimes our posing at sunset victories come at the price of mistakes. In the Light Seers deck, the figure on the card is holding his forehead with a regretful vibe and a sense of ‘what the heck did I just do’. With this card, the silhouette figure looks like he is sitting in a chair and having a full on sulk. As any toddler will demonstrate, sometimes you just have to stick your lower lip out and have a good pout.

But then comes the trick of it. While you are pouting, you can also be re-assessing. If you learn from your mistakes, a pyrrhic victory is still a victory even when the thing you learn is what NOT to do next time.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. I always appreciate your likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments.

Speaking of comments, the comments have spoken and I’ll be cutting the deck into three stacks and drawing from the right stack for the month of August. We’ll try again in September and see if we can collectively come up with something different.

Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on Ko-fi where the shop, commissions, memberships and virtual coffees support the creation of these blog and podcast Tarot readings.

See you at the next sip!

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Choose your sip

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

A new plan is in motion and you can play a part.

Welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the three of wands from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck.

This card, along with a couple of others, suits August energy particularly well -at least here in the northern hemisphere. The seven of pentacles reminds us to be hands-off and let nature do its thing. The eight of wands is hints at hands that are tied. Things are in progress but out of your control and there is nothing you can do until the penny drops and the arrows land.

The three of wands has an outward appearance of waiting, like the other cards, but with a greater degree of mental alertness and engagement. This card signifies a time of expansion and growth, but with inner attention as much as outward motion. In that sense, it is a little bit like a Chariot light card. It’s akin to the major arcana’s chariot card but less intense. It’s watching your homemade caramel sauce like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t burn. It isn’t slam into the side of a mountain level stuff like the test-pilot chariot card, but it is about being alert and watchful. It’s like chef Anne Burrel says. You can go “from master to disaster” in a few seconds if you aren’t careful.

The three of wands lets us know that stuff is happening. It is a wide horizon, expansive energy. There is plenty of room here to flex your intellectual muscle and emotional maturity. This is a big open mental space where you can fuse logic and intuition into foresight.

Personally, I identify with the “stuff is happening” part of this. I’m streamlining my email readings so people can send their questions and order the reading in one seamless process when you use the commissions menu on the ko-fi page. I hope to have more ebooks coming online as the Fall and Winter progress. I’m working on some options that will hopefully allow me to inflation proof my private reading prices, although I still need your support for this blog and podcast through the shop, commissions, memberships and virtual coffees on the ko-fi page.

Please stay tuned for all of those announcements. BUT for today I have something else in mind. Today is August 1, mid season between summer solstice and the fall equinox, and that seems like an auspicious time, and the three of wands seems like an auspicious card to introduce card cuts into all of my readings.

Cutting the cards is a Tarot tradition. Sometimes it is just a part of shuffling the deck. I like the tradition of cutting the cards and letting the client choose which portion of the deck we use to draw the cards. I’ve done this forever for in-person readings. It really does bring your intuition and your energy into the reading in a more powerful way. Even though the connection isn’t affected by time or distance, when we are working individually at a distance through email readings or collectively at a distance through the blog and podcast, it still helps to forge some sort of connection. Of course the most potent connection is your decision to read the blog, listen to the podcast, or purchase a private reading. Making a connection with an individual reading is easy. In person or online we talk about your question or whatever it is that prompted you to get the reading in the first place. Individual email readings are just as easy. Whenever I see your name and question (or permission for an open reading) in print, that’s when the connection clicks into place.

I’ve been experimenting with making the connection to blog and podcast and you tube readings more personal. You might have seen those in the “You Choose Interactive” posts. It clicked, but not as well as I’d hoped even with embellishments like crystal or shapes or something else to help the choice besides “left, center, or right.”

If individual choice is awkward, let’s try a collaborative choice. You choose. We’ll try left, center anr right again but as a group.

Want to play along? Just put a comment somewhere with your choice of left, center or right. Drop it here on the blog, over on the you tube channel, or on any of the socials (I’ll put links in the podcast episode description). In upcoming videos and posts, I’ll cut the deck into three piles. Tell me whether you want me to draw the short sip card from the left, center or right. I’ll watch the comments, and whenever there is a clear majority, that’s the cut I’ll use for the next week or so in the short sip readings. I’ll put the call out for a new cut, and you can comment your choice again. And so it goes. Even if you choice isn’t in the majority, the whole process is energized by your effort and intentions, making it better for everyone. I wonder what Carl Jung and his collective unconscious theory would say about this exercise? Put a little energy in, get a more energized reading back. Fair enough, right?

Thank you so much for listening. Feel free to take your time, browse the blog, and please leave a comment with your choice of deck stack for the next few readings. Heck, comment about anything in the blog / cast. Or go all out and ask a question! I won’t promise it will all make it into the blog, but all questions are welcome. I look forward to hearing from you soon and I’ll see you at the next sip!

Inexpensive Treasure

We all have at least one – go get yours with today’s short sip Tarot and the Ten of Pentacles

We’ve all got one. Or a bunch. It’s the weekend. Go get yours.

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

We’ve all heard this one before. I’d say this card is a broken record, but since digital and streaming doesn’t have that particular glitch I’ll skip the reference that no one this side of gen X would really get.

The song remains the same. We’ve all heard this one before. Which, in the Tarot and personal growth business, is more of a validation than being a mere cliche.

I like to think that when a card, like today’s ten of pentacles, keeps harping on the same idea, it adds to the meaning instead of diluting it. Things like “money can’t buy happiness” or “little things mean a lot” or “the simple pleasures are the best” are all platitudes and aphorisms for a reason. The generalized truth behind them is potent enough that it is like archetype and aphorism combined. Whatever big word you want to call it, these repeating messages woven through a long time Tarot practice are worth listening to.

Pentacles are associated with the element of earth. They symbolize wealth, money, career, practicality and our relationship with the physical realm. Ten is as large as the number cards get.

In the I Ching, the Chinese “book of changes” which has been used for guidance in a way very akin to Tarot, there is the idea of changing lines. When you use three coins to methodically choose with I Ching hexagram to read, three of either heads or tails is considered a “changing line.” The line in the hexagram is maximum yin or maximum yang. There is an idea in Taoism that anything in its extreme holds the seed of its opposite. If life is always changing and in motion, then I see that as meaning a tipping point. Like that old children’s game – it is a pot so full that one more bean can tip it over and spill into becoming something else.

That is what is happening with the ten of pentacles. Sure, it shows an idealized happy family, pets included. There is a tipping point here – and it isn’t what you might think.

The opposite of maximum coins isn’t bankruptcy. The opposite of the happiness depicted isn’t misery. The tipping point here is from the tangible into the intangible. Of all the contentment depicted in the card and in all those RWS derived decks, none of them are dependent on being rich. Food, water, shelter, basics sustain life. Beyond that, the truly precious things are at once both practically free and unspeakably priceless; people who care about you, a friendly dog wagging their tail when they see you, a little sit in the shade on a hot day or a soft chair near the heater on a cold one.

Innocent or guilty the little pleasures are what the ten of pentacles is talking about today. Think of those photos of President Biden in his aviator sunglasses smiling and enjoying an ice cream cone. That’s what we’re talking about. He is well paid and as powerful as it gets. Yet, how much does an ice cream cone cost? Change from the sofa cushions would close to cover it. Almost anyone can access it. Yet the pleasure the ice cream can bring – that part is priceless and even easier to get. All you have to do is let yourself have it. The ice cream is just the carrier, it’s the delivery method for the happy. Pick your delivery method. It can be any little thing that delights you. It can be any little thing that you have on hand right here, right now. Mine today is my Spotify playlists.

Go.

Go get your inexpensive treasure. Then let yourself have the happy.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. I appreciate you, your follows, likes and any shares you can spare.

The blog and podcast are both not monetized in any way and are supported through your private reading purchases and the TaoCraft Tarot shop and memberships on ko-fi. Thank you for helping to create this (almost) daily Tarot contemplation for everyone.

See you at the next sip!

Peaceful Clarity

It exists. I promise. I’ve experienced it, and it is possible.

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

Today’s card is the Star from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck with artwork by J Star designs.

Guidance is core to the Star card. Navigating by the stars, finding your north star.

This card and today’s energy takes my mind in a slightly different direction.

My first thought at seeing the card was a supernova. Instead of us reaching out to the eternal sky for guidance, the guidance bursts across time and space to reach us.

Oddly, it reaches out with silence, and peace.

It’s like the old critique of Star Wars. There could be no ka-boom when the death star blows up because there is no atmosphere to propagate the sound waves. We couldn’t hear an entire star explode. Supernova are silent.

I was talking with a friend about another kind of science. We were talking about the confusion and misinformation that raged through the pandemic as hotly as the virus did. Real science and solid facts have never been quite able to keep up with the rumor mill. It’s exponentially worse now that the bubble brained rumor mill runs at the speed of cyberspace. The world is a noisy place when it comes to information.

It seems to me that silence is a hint that you are on the right track.

As we’ve all lived and worked through this thing we’ve all experienced, we’ve all developed our coping strategies. One of mine was to find one or two solid, trustworthy experts and listen to them and tune the rest of the B.S. right on out. There is an element of peace in that.

In her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards talks about a certain mindset, a certain mental place found in the act of drawing (or I would add writing or making knitting or creating almost anything) where the world around you falls silent. That peaceful silence is the place where those activities are most meditative. I tried the exercises in the book. It’s true. I’ve been in that silence of creativity that can also be the doorway for clarity.

Intuitively, I keep getting the phrase “silent lucidity” It took a bit of brain racking and few minutes on google to figure out that it is the title of a Queensryche song from the nineties. Never was a fan, an all I remember of the song is those two words, so I’m chalking this one up to intuition and taking it as a validation of today’s card and message.

When a supernova flashes brighter than all of the other stars, when something cuts through the noise of everyday life and brings you a feeling, if not a literal moment of silent lucidity or peaceful clarity, that….

That is something you pay attention to. That is something that can guide you. That is something worth trusting yourself to find.

Thank you all for reading and listening. TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. It puts your message first, not advertiser’s so your kind support on the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page is very much appreciated.

The blog and podcast will be taking a little coffee break on Thursday, July 28. Email readings are open, still no appointment needed, order anytime. The blog & pod will return Friday. See you at the next sip!

Pause, not stop

It’s like the difference between taking a lunch break and quitting your job.

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

Today’s card is the Seven of Pentacles. It picks up on a thread from yesterday’s Ace of Cups. Remember how there was a sense of a seasonal shift in season toward a quieting to balance peak summer. You have to give the seeds time to grow before the harvest can happen.

The same idea applies generally, not just to medieval farmers on Tarot cards. Persistence is important. Perseverance is a key to success.

The other day I was browsing the Psychology Today website (as one does) and stumbled on a review of Angela Duckworth’s book Grit: The Power of Passion of Perseverance by Michael Page. Angela Duckworth is a psychologist who studied the psychology of success. She listed the qualities exemplified by successful people in a wide variety of careers and industries. According to the review, grit was defined as perseverance combined with passion and it was more often present then talent or genius. Grit and persistence topped genius and giftedness.

The seven of pentacles is reminding us to protect our grit.

There is a difference between a pause or a short rest and giving up altogether.

The occasional pause to rest and reevaluate is as essential to success as the passion part is essential to the persistence part to create Duckworth’s grit of success.

Blindly, rigidly plowing ahead keeps us from adapting and it can be a recipe for burnout. Even if you manage to persist through the burnout, you lose the passion that is equally a part of the overall success.

This strikes me as the yang side of the four of swords’ rest and contemplation vibe. The four of swords is inwardly contemplative. This card, the seven of pentacles is more outwardly focused, evaluating and assessing and re-evaluating more than meditative. It’s physically quiet but mentally active. This kind of rest is full of evaluation, planning and mentally preparing for the next step (as opposed to more active preparation advice that you might see with the three of wands)

Pentacles represent our relationship to wealth, career, and the physical realm. It is only fitting that a pentacle card would remind us to preserve a key element of long term success.

Take a pause, protect your grit, then get back to persisting.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! Your likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments are always appreciated!

The blog and podcast are not monetized. Your Tarot message comes first, not advertisers’ but I need your support to create this (almost) daily Tarot content. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where the shop, memberships and virtual coffees all help. Again, thank you.

See you at the next sip!

Introvert hard

The Four of Swords gives us permission for a little self care – or to introvert hard.

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

Today’s card if the four of swords.

The 1909 public domain Waite Smith card is pictured in the blog because following this advice was well underway when I sat down to write this. It’s been one of those days for about a few weeks now.

It’s been yang, so now it’s time to be yin. What goes up must come down. When you push the envelope, you have to haul it back in.

Or to paraphrase somebody on Twitter, if you’re down, stay down there for a minute, look around and recover. You just might find those keys you lost under the sofa last week.

In the Pamela Smith card, the reclined figure has their palm pressed together. Like any good sage or mirror, this reflects whatever we the viewer project onto it. Some might see it at prayerful, but it strikes me as more thought full, with a “things that make you go hmmm” vibe.

Here I am reminded of Benedict Cumberbatches portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, and the similar hand gesture he made when Sherlock entered his “mind palace” memory technique.

BBC image via screenrant.com

Folded hands can hint at outward directed thinking at a diety, or it can be deep inward contemplation, but either way the body rests and the mind is slowed. Either way it fits the four of swords card at least in today’s energy context.

Do you bristle at catchphrases and platitudes about this sort of thing, like rest, self-care or nurturing your inner cranky child who really really needs a nap right now? If you want something that feels a little more gritty & persistent with a can-do attitude, try this: introvert HARD for a little while. Think of napping as an endurance sport. Pretend that finding an excuse to stay in and give yourself a break as a mental acuity exercise. Who says finding and wearing your comfiest clothes isn’t making an extreme fashion statement?

The four of swords and I both wish you a great weekend. Get some rest – or if you prefer, introvert HARD.

Thanks for reading and listening. Your likes, subs, follows I’ll see you at the next sip!

Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. The shop, memberships, commissions and virtual coffees all support the cost to create this unique, non-monetized, (almost) daily Tarot content.

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Easiest Wound to Heal

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Three of Swords: the easiest wound to heal is the one that never happens

Welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Good news! The turbulent energy from the past few weeks has settles just the tiniest bit, just in time to draw…

The three of swords.

Hoo boy. It never stops, does it? On the other hand stopping isn’t good either. Change and turbulence, peace and calm are all different facets of the same big gemstone we call life and any day above ground, as they say, is a good one. With life comes change. With life comes risk. With life comes all sorts of fears and feels.

Classically, the three of swords is a pretty dire looking card. The image of a pierced heart. It is a card of hurt and heartbreak.

It is a reminder to guard your heart. The easiest wound to heal is the one that never happens. Healthy boundaries is key, emphasis on the healthy. Prickly, guarded, disconnected and unapproachable is no better way to live than being an unappreciated doormat. The middle way is, once again, best.

Not to go all Nancy Reagan on it -ewww- but it is ok to just say no. Know your limits. It’s important that those limits aren’t crossed by other people, but it is important that you don’t stomp on them either. That is an easy part to forget in a world of social media and normalized extreme oversharing.

It doesn’t matter so much if the potential harm is from the outside or accidentally self-inflicted, but good old Ben Franklin nailed it again. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The easiest wound to heal is the one that never happens. Mind your boundaries both incoming and outgoing.

Healthy boundaries means keeping the right things out, but it also means allowing the right things in. Sometimes the harm is in the lack. Without the challenge of exercise, bodies become weak. The over-sheltered plant dies from lack of sun and water. Saying yes is as important as saying no. The three of swords is also a reminder to mind your boundaries to make sure they aren’t over guarded causing you to live, act, intend and energize from a place of fear.

Cue Yoda and that thing about fear and anger leading to the dark side.

Ben Franklin and Yoda. Those two will get us through just about anything don’t you think?

Thanks for reading and listening! Your likes, subs, follows, shares, questions and comments are always appreciated.

Please support this non-monetized blog and podcast on the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. The shop, memberships, commissions and virtual coffees all contribute to the web hosting and other costs to create this free to access, (almost) daily Tarot content.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

no appointment needed distance tarot

Turn Around

Sometimes you need to circle around a problem to nab the solution from behind.

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

Today’s card is the Hanged Man. This card is different-looking from the usual Hanged man. You can see the card being drawn in the blog and on the YouTube channel. This particular card was created by Emma Daues for the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck. I uses a cat curled up in a space bubble turning and drifting endlessly to get at the same message as the better known Pamela Smith card. That oblique approach pretty much is today’s message.

Regardless of the deck or artwork you use, the Hanged man most often has to do with stagnation, frustration, feeling stuck, going in circles making no progress.

Circles have been a bit of a theme the past couple of days. Remember how the Page of Wands was circling around to the back and nabbing the point from behind? Today has a little bit of that energy too. Endless space circles certainly captures the stuck, stagnation aspect of the card.

Sometimes the Hanged Man is connected to self-sacrifice or fearless sacrifice. I don’t get any sense of that lesser known interpretation from our space cat at all. Although, I imagine a good sci fi writer could use a self sacrificing bubble cat in space as a story prompt and come up with something.

The main energy today lies with one of the most common messages I get with this. I suspect it is a very repeated idea because it is, in my opinion, the most useful one. This part of the card talks about seeing things from a different point of view.

As you think about problems or decisions turn things around. Turn it upside down. Kick the tires. Take outlandish options out for a spin mentally.

My all time favorite analogy for this energy is an interview I watched on TV once with one of the Disney “imagine -eers.” I can’t remember the gentleman’s name or any exact quotes but the essence of it was they would use physical models of new rides and attractions during the creative development process. A key they would use the model was for specific creative problem solving. If a problem turned up they would look at the physical model from physically different angles. They would stand on chairs and look down on it, sit on the floor and look up at it. I imagine they would circle around it too. A physical shift in perspective could spark inspiration for a creative solution or bring focus to a diffuse, poorly understood problem.

If there is something you are pondering, the Hanged Man reminds you to look at it from all sorts of angles. Circle around, maybe you need to nab the solution from behind. Turn around, see what the problem looks like behind you instead of perpetually chasing it down.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! I appreciate any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions, comments or feedback that you can spare. Comments on the blog are open.

The blog & podcast are not monetized, so we are working for the highest and best energy message, not for advertisers. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. The shop, memberships, commissions and virtual coffees all support the creation of this free to access (almost) daily Tarot content.

Thank you again. See you at the next sip!

Tools of the Inner Trade

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Today: the page of wands and learning along the spiritual path.

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

I’m a big fan of freethinking. I recommend it. Free your mind, question everything and all of that. Those of you who know my background know that I’m a downright expert at parachuting out of organized dogma.

On the other hand, repetition and tradition can be deeply comforting, especially in times where it feels like the world is on fire and evil is winning. For some reason this reminds me of a quote from G.K Chesterton that I found browsing brainyquote.com once. Paraphrasing quote “A warrior fights not because he hates what is before him, but because he loves what is behind him.” End quote.

Forgive me if this is all a little circular and confusing. The energy is like that some days. Sometimes it is blunt, short and to the point like a frying pan in the face. Other times it is like a connect-the-dots puzzle or a Rube Goldberg machine. Today, instead of getting to the point, the energy is circling around and nabbing it from behind.

Page cards are connected with learning. They are the first step in training to be a knight. Historically, they were young boys which brings to mind brightness, curiosity, high energy and unbridled enthusiasm. Wands are associated with fire, passions, the inner world. Today it is particularly pointing toward our inner spiritual path. Part of the circling around to the point is to think about our chosen spiritual rituals and traditions. What is it that we turn to in times of emotional crisis? What is our go-to rock and foundation….it’s almost like the page is waving hello to the Hope card and the “Anchor Rock” post as it circles around to today’s point, if there is one.

The Pew Foundation does scientific, unbiased, highly reliable surveys. Their work on the religious landscape in America is interesting to say the least. It turns out that agnostics and atheists know quite a lot about religion in general compared to most other American adults. You can read more for yourself on the Pew Foundation website HERE. This takes a step closer to today’s message.

The next step after that is the famous Socrates quote “know thyself.”

Here is where we jump the card’s message from behind and wrestle it to the ground.

The Page of Wands asks us to know the tools of our chosen spiritual path.

I’m not talking about religious indoctrination or dogma. I’m allergic to that stuff. You will never hear any of that here.

I’m talking about the rituals and symbols and acts of your personal chosen spiritual path whatever that may be. This is talking about the ideas and philosophies that feed your soul, soothes your heart, lifts you up and makes you happy. If your religion does that for you, cool. This energy is talking about spirituality, which is a very different thing. Sometimes spiritual paths are shored up by ritual and tradition, too. The page is asking us to know our motives and symbolism and rituals and habits along our spiritual path. We are being asked to know the difference between the outward social trappings of religion and the physical realm expressions of our personal inner world. The page of wands is asking us to intellectually know our spirituality in addition to deeply and mindfully experiencing it.

When you are finding your own way in or if you are eclectic and solitary by nature, it is easy to reject tradition as stifling or constricting. The page reminds us to know before we throw so to speak. Knowing something well makes it all the more fulfilling when it is right for you. By the same token, you have to know something to some degree before you can rightly reject it.

Thank you for reading and listening. As the squirrels are raving at the moment, this should be the last late night post for a while. We should be back to posting late morning U.S. eastern time most weekdays. For the moment, anyway.

This blog and podcast are not monetized. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. The shop, memberships and virtual coffees all support the creation of this (almost) daily Tarot content. There is a link in the episode description for podcast listeners. Thank you all so so so much.

See you at the next sip!

Reminder: there will be a short blog, pod, and socials hiatus the weekend of the July 4th holiday. Email readings will be OPEN throughout. You can order email readings 24/7 no appointment needed. Delivery times vary for orders placed nights (eastern time), weekends, & U.S. holidays