TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: The Moon and psychic tidal flow.
Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blogcast. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Moon from the major arcana.
Major arcana cards, being what they are, have more threads of meaning and are often a balance of heavier opposites than we see in the minor arcana.
The moon is associated with spiritual journeying, wisdom, intuition, psychic ability, dreams. Ted Andrews, in his Animal Wise Tarot deck, also ties in changing, communication and guidance. The point about change captures my attention today.
The Moon card is very much tied to the element of water and its connotations and its ties with the suit of cups. I feel like the Moon is connecting with the Queen of Cups card a little bit. The literal moon’s gravity reaches into the depths of the ocean and pulls it all into high tide. The Queen of Cups is said to be looking into her cup of water to pull spiritual knowledge from the depths of the human psyche.
There are psychic tides as much as there are literal ones. Our intuitive energies ebb and flow as much as physical ones. Self care extends to the spirit as much as to the physical. Sometimes tides surgh and we are called to speak our truths from rooftops. Sometimes they ebb and time comes for us to take in rest and comfort in the truths of ritual and shouted ideas of others.
Listen to your inner spiritual tides as well as the demands of corporal being. The Moon card is a call to your spiritual tidal flow the care and attention that it needs today.
TaoCraft Tarot Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: Conquest through surrender with the Death and Hawkmoth cards
Welcome to Tao Craft Short Sip. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is a new one for me. It is the Hawkmoth card created by Literal Crow for the Literal Crow Tarot and used here in the Alleyman’s Tarot deck.
This is a new card for me. So far this has been one of the most easily readable decks I’ve owned yet. Maybe it’s because it’s Monday, but I had to look this one up to even begin. The Alleyman’s notebook begins by connecting this to the death card and the life cycle of insects. Like the death card, this card is about change but with less foresight.
It reminds me a little bit of insect related quotes.
I’m not sure who actually wrote it, but the Morticia Addams character said “Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.”
Author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach wrote “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly.”
One of my favorite quotes lately is related, but thankfully leaves out the bugs. Adam Savage reminds us to “follow the process, not the plan.”
In essence, change is inevitable. With the death card, the change is a foreseeable, knowable thing. I’ve seen the death card most often at bachlorette parties of all things. Not because marriage is death or any such 1950’s tropes like that. It’s because marriage is a life altering change. You’ll never be an unmarried single person again. Even if the marriage ends you are not single again, you are divorced or what have you. The death card speaks to a known, forward looking albeit life altering change. The quality we assign to the change is beside the point. Marriage is a perfect example. The old single you is gone forever, but old dies to make way for something wonderful.
I think the Hawkmoth card is less deliberate. It is about a change that blind-sides you. It is about blurry, unplanned, undirected change. If the Death card walks up and lops your head off, the Hawkmoth card is change by a thousand paper cuts. It is about long term, gradual, almost imperceptible molding of a new you.
For a new you to emerge from that process, it takes a degree of surrender. In a cave, stalagtites and staligmites don’t fight the dripping water, they surrender to change and process that builds them up and makes them strong.
Some changes require our evolution. Some changes require that we surrender to them in order to conquer the greatest challenge of them all:
ourselves.
Thank you so much for listening!
The blog and podcast are not monetized and depend on your support. Please join me at the TaoCraft Tarot Table or become a Patron of the Tarot Arts for exclusive content, monthly newsletter and member-only special offers. Click HERE or see the link in the episode description for details.
Of course, your likes, subs, shares, follows, private reading orders, questions and comments are always, always appreciated!
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: Strength from the major arcana and revisiting reversals
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it take to sip from your coffee.
Today’s card is Strength from the major arcana, inverted.
This is another good chance to give my standard issue speech about inverted or reversed cards. Reversed cards are ones that turn over upside down relative to the person doing the reading.
The relative to the person doing the reading part is, to my thinking, much more important than the upside-down, reversed or inverted part. The card is perfectly fine as it lies. I don’t mean to go all Obi-wan on you, but the reversal is specific to a certain point of view. To the person across the table, the card is right side up. The card is the card, the only difference is how you look at it.
The tradition is to change the meaning of a card to its opposite when it turns up reversed. Usually that so-called opposite is really the darker, less socially popular, or negative side of the card.
As I see it, that flip flop in the meaning runs the risk of letting a certain toxic positivity leak into our readings. Right side up cards are a bit easier to read from a pure physiologic, visual standpoint. I don’t know about you, but I have an innate bias toward right side up cards, just as a matter of identifying what the heck you are looking at.
Depending on where you stand in the room, all cards are always right side up or upside down. All the cards are always everything and that is part of Tarot’s inherent value. Tarot has value in the way it opens our mind and our thinking to all the possibilities, even the hard to look at upside down ones.
All the cards are everything all of the time.
My favorite quote from the original 90s version of the movie The Craft is from the scene where the bookstore owner explains the nature of magic and spells to the protagonist Sarah “True magic is neither black or nor white – it is both because nature is both. Loving and cruel all at the same time … the only good or bad is in the heart of the witch. Life keeps a balance on its own.”
Connect that to the yin-yang symbol and Taoist philosophy and you know why I named this website and podcast what it is.
So if reversed cards don’t represent a thing and it’s opposite or some sort of positive vs negative duality, what do reversed cards tell us?
Sometimes, nothing.
I read reversed cards as meaning that there is something up with how the card’s meaning is being used or manifested in life. There is something blocked or turbulent or glitchy with the energy flow that the card and its position within a layout represents.
Author Scott Cunningham is known for saying “The feeling is the power” If you are feeling strong today great! Have at it!
If not, that’s fine. No one has the capacity to be perfect every moment, and we certainly don’t feel that way every moment.
The Strength card always has an element of trusting yourself. If you are feeling strong, then you have to trust it to use it. If you are not feeling strong, then you still have to trust yourself. It is a matter of trust that your inner strength is still there, still fully functioning.
Do the thing. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to enjoy it. You don’t have to act happy about it when you aren’t. You can, however still do what needs done because your strength is more than it feels.
Thank you for reading and listening!
The blog, podcast, and youtube channel are not monetized and depend on your support. Please visit the TaoCraftTarot ko-fi page to become a member of the TaoCraft Tarot Table and be a patron of these Tarot arts. Of course, your likes, subs, shares, follows and reading orders through the blog website are always, always appreciated.
Cut through the noise of social media and the static of online Tarot posts to get something a little more personal. You choose your card and get it’s interpretation.
Welcome to YouChoose Interactive Tarot on the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
This post works just like the name says: you choose. You choose your card and you choose how to apply it. It’s Monday morning where I am right now, so my mind is drawn to the flow of energy for the week ahead. Overall it feels like a time to rest and contemplate. This feels like a time to gather your energy and regroup, recover from recent efforts or as “Bob the Writing Cat” on instagram often says – to “gird your loins” because it is Monday and the week is coming.
But, of course, it could be something entirely different for you.
If you are listening to audio only on the podcast, there is a link in the description to the blog post where you can watch the youtube video and see how all this is playing out with the real-world card draw. I’ve added the shape cards as a reference to make it easier to imagine and to pick a card from the audio only, but if seeing it would help, the visual is here for you.
First things first. Let’s choose. I’ve shuffled the Tarot deck and picked three random cards out of the five shape cards. Today we have square, triangle and wavy lines.
Choose a shape. Take a minute, take a deep breath. If you are watching the video, pause if you need more time then restart to see the card reveal. If you are listening, imagine the shapes. Choose the one that feels right for today; square, wavy lines or triangle.
Square gets the Four of Cups
Triangle get the Ace of Pentacles or Coins
Wavy Lines gets the Four of Swords
Four of Cups feels like validation. People are closed as it seems. Lines of communication are not flowing well, but it is temporary and it’s ok. It just isn’t a time to push on the giving or receiving in. If others are up in your grill but you need them to step back and wait a little, honor that feeling. If you are the one trying to get the message through and other people just can’t get the message or seemingly won’t listen honor that too. It just isn’t the time. Let them have their moment. There is no sense in beating your head against the wall. This isn’t a good time to push or be too assertive any more than it is a good time to be imposed upon.
The Ace of Pentacles feels like a good news is on the horizon card. It feels consistent with the physical world, money and career vibe that is traditionally associated with pentacles. It’s no wonder some decks call them coins instead. This feels like payday in a small way. It feels like getting a return on work already done, time already invested. Time transforms. Things are coming back around, but it feels like it is in unexpected but valuable ways. It feels like a transformation toward something very different but more valuable to this moment. The mental image is a diamond. Diamonds are made of carbon, but elemental carbon is a very different thing when it isn’t in the high pressure crystal lattic form we call diamonds. Don’t overlook the diamond that is coming back from the carbon you gave a long time ago. If you gave grape juice, don’t walk around looking for more grape juice when you are being handed a glass of wine.
The Four of Swords really captures the essence of that rest, repair, regroup energy we were talking about earlier. Swords cards and knight cards carry a sense of activity and motion and doing. This card balances that. It is the yin to the knight of swords yang. This card is all about rest, but rest with an active purpose. This is resting deliberately so you can be at your best during the next battle, the next active time that is going to come. For those of you who picked this card, rest and contemplate fast. I have a hunch the restful, contemplative mode will shift for you before it does for everyone else.
Thank you for reading, watching and listening to TaoCraft Tarot blog, you tube channel and podcast.
I’m not monetized on any of these platforms and this free to access Tarot content 100% relies on your support. Please visit the new, expanded TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page to see all the ways you can be a patron to the Tarot arts. I appreciate any likes, subs, shares, blog follows, reading orders, or shop purchases that you can spare to help me keep this project going. Thank you.
Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is Judgement.
If you have read the blog for a while, you probably already know this card is one of my nemesis in the deck. Both Judgement and the Hierophant as it is drawn in the RWS deck is a little trigger-ish. Luckily it isn’t the religious judgement day aspect of the card stepping forward here.
On the other hand, who the heck uses the word “begets” outside of Shakespeare and the old Testament? The phrase “Harshness Begets Chaos” just dropped into my head when I turned the card this morning, so I’ll roll with it. It must mean something to somebody out there in cyberspace.
I’m not the only one, by the way. When I say “dropped into my head” it refers to that pop of an idea that cartoons used to show as a light bulb turning on over a character’s head. My husband and our martial arts teacher call it “getting the download.” So when the muses, or spirit or intuition or your higher self or whatever you want to call it drops an idea into your head through your crown chakra like a fed ex delivery with an attitude, pay attention. It probably means something one way or another.
“Begets” is an odd word. So let’s say that harshness…or in the context of this card….harsh judgement results in chaos. It can be shattering to a young or vulnerable person. The word shattering also comes to mind. Although the artwork on this particular card is fluid and the word melt would be better than shattered, hard sharp edges of shattered emotions better describes the feelings that harsh judgement can evoke. On the card, the clear eyed image of a bird melts into poorly defined shapes and swirling colors.
It is beautiful the way the artist connects Judgement to a blue jay and, as the Alleyman’s notebook points out, a rising energy not unlike that of a phoenix rising from the ashes. This is where this newer card and the older RWS card overlap. Even within the religious imagery there is a notion of second chances, or rising up from a bad situation. If you have been on the receiving end of bigotry, or judgmentalism or shattered by other harsh circumstances, this can be seen as reassurance that you can rise from that. Know that you are seen by the universe.
The clear eyed bird sees those who can rise above. The clear eyed bird sees those who would tear down.
Ted Andrews associated blue jay energy with the Two of Swords and “the right use of power.” That is where today’s card veers from judgmentalism into judgement as in good judgement or use your own judgement.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Use your judgement when to be strong and when to be gentle.
But remember, the two are often the exact same thing.
Thank you so much for reading and listening! Thank you for all of your likes, subs, shares, blog follows, reading orders, questions and comments. Comments are open on the blog, so please let me know what you think, and what you want to see and hear in the blogcast.
Speaking of the blogcast, please visit the expanded TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. It has a shop, exclusive member content, a way to order custom commissioned work and is so much more than just a virtual tip jar. Please take a look and support the blogcast.
The blog and podcast will be quiet for the next four or five days, but I’ll still see you at the next sip. Have a good weekend!
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today, the four of wands and sacred liminal space.
Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the four of wands, once again from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck compiled by Seven Dane Asmund, used here with permission. This card was made by Casi Cline.
The interesting thing about this particular card, is its emphasis on the structure in the foreground while the celebrations behind it are smaller and more distant than in the Pamela Smith art or in many other decks.
Very often the four wands are depicted as four posts or poles holding a garland or cloth in a way that is very akin to a Jewish chuppah wedding canopy or the sukkah from the harvest festival. In the recent “One for the Black Sheep” post, we saw this exact card only in reverse. We talked about the four of wands connecting to community celebration. Today a different energy steps forward. This is about liminal spaces, about sacred spaces, about thresholds.
While this card has a sturdier, gazebo sort of feeling to the structure in the front, I like that the front structure is typically presented as something light, temporary and largely symbolic. Sacred space doesn’t have to be Winchester Cathedral. Sacred space can exist, or be created anywhere. To my mind, home altars are far more significant and powerful than large uninhabited stone buildings.
The sacred space depicted on the four of wands is also a liminal space, meaning a place of transition. You don’t need stone walls because you ideally aren’t going to be for a prolonged amount time. Time becomes part of liminal of space. Going back to the home altar – it isn’t a spot you stand in long. It is a transition space and time into and out of connection with your spiritual practice. Time in a liminal space is often short, but important.
Today, the transition seems to be moving toward something very positive. Like a lot of readings over the past two years, I associate this with the global pandemic and the general zeitgeist energy that goes with that. Of course, the local vibe here in the eastern US steps forward the strongest.
Based on the last batch of publicly reported data I’ve seen – hospitalizations, deaths, waste water assessments and the like….I’m cautiously optimistic. I hope there is a celebration when we are fully past this, but I suspect it will be small and tempered. It will be a survivors celebration. Or at least I hope so. I hope everyone appreciates the magnitude of all that has happened and gives due respect to the multitudes who didn’t make it to the other side of the threshold with us.
The bonfire in the artwork very much brings to mind the summer solstice. Summer solstice is very much a social time and an auspicious time for parties. I went to a party once on the day of the solstice and we jumped over a bonfire. It was raining, we were indoors, and the bonfire consisted of a lit candle. But never sell symbolism short.
It was early days in my transition away from my evangelical upbringing. It was thrilling to be doing something so overtly Pagan, but beyond that, the feeling of magic and community was palpable. That tiny little candle delivered on what alternative spirituality was cracked up to be. This was one of the first of many experiences where non-christian spirituality walked its talk. It held up in actual practice in a way I’d not experienced before.
Sure, this is all major projection on my part. It’s almost Easter, my “I quit” anniversary from Christianity. But I also sense a strong transition energy out there that any of us can tap into. What do you want to change? My thoughts go to a social media Tarot reader who was talking about sobriety in a recent podcast. That takes courage – all good vibes to you fellow Tarot person from a rando fan on the internet. But that is the level of transition that is stepping forward here. It has a touch of the Magician card here too. While the Magician often has an element of outward, physical realm transformation and manifestation, today’s card has a feeling of profound inner transformation.
This is more than a beginning. This is next-level, next-phase energy. This is fully stepping into and fully engaging with your personal growth in a serious way. This is the threshold to a new day, a new party, a new bonfire, and the fullness of your light. As we celebrate the of day of longest sun on the solstice, it can be the time to fully show the new you that you have, through this sacred transition space and time, become.
Thank you so much for reading and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot.
None of these readings are monetized, and depend on YOUR support. Ko-fi is a way to support artists you love with many more options than other patron platforms. On the TaoCraft Tarot Ko-fi page you can commision private readings, make “buy me a coffee donations, purchase ebooks for immediate download. Check out the benefits and exclusive content you get with the membership tiers – if you ever wanted access to a Tarot reading without waiting for an appointment, this is your chance. Your likes, subs, shares, follows, and private reading orders on the blog website are always, always appreciated too!
The Battle Card from the Alleyman’s Tarot reminds us to have a plan when it comes to stress. TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.
Hi and welcome to Tao Craft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.
I’m continuing to explore the Alleyman’s Tarot deck with thanks to its creator Seven Dane Asmund for giving permission to use the deck way back in the early days of the kickstarter. The Battle card is from the strange arcana and was originally created for the Strange and Eternal Tarot by Cosmic Butcher.
This deck is definitely resonating with the part of me that was an art minor in college lurking around the studio soaking up the artist vibes. These guys have it by the bucket.
This is also pushing my martial arts buttons, big time.
The distinction of warrior vs soldier comes to mind. With that comes the idea of not only discipline but preparation. It is said that you fight like you train. The implication is that you train 100% focus and effort, as if your life depends on it because someday it might.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but I am in no way talking about actual physical violence or conflict.
I’m talking about stress management.
Life gets contentious sometimes. Life gets stressful in both real and anticipated or imagined ways. What are you going to do when it does?
That’s why people talk about a daily meditation practice. If you practice staying chill on a regular basis, then when things heat up, the chill kicks in reflexively. You almost don’t have to give it a second thought, like muscle memory only for your emotions and for your brain.
Raw life experience gives you that practice the hard way. Daily practice -or at least some level of forethought and advance preparation – makes you more resilient and stronger when the stressful times come. And they always do.
Author Carlos Casteneda is credited with saying “We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”
If this card resonates with you today, take a minute. Think about what calms you. What makes you emotionally and mentally strong and resilient. Then do it. Practice it. Train it. Have it at the ready in your pocket. Have a plan. Such is the way of the warrior, both literal and spiritual, who is ready when the battle comes.
Thank you so much for listening! Your likes, subs, shares, follows, reading purchases and support through ko-fi memberships are always appreciated. There are clickable links for more information in the blog and in the podcast episode description.
To learn how to do daily DIY Tarot one card meditation readings as a way to introduce some low stress peaceful moments into your day, my how-to ebook Peace Tarot is available as an instant pdf download. All proceeds from Peace Tarot sales in the ko-fi shop during 2022 will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.
To learn more about Reiki as a relaxation technique, Reiki and Relaxationis also a downloadable pdf ebook on that same page or visit the Reiki page on the website for more information.
a free intuition building exercise to practice your one card meditation
urgh.
Just for the record, I’m very pro universal health care.
I’ve been all day insurance wrangling, sitting in waiting rooms and (after spending too many contentious adversarial years with a certain personality mis-matched primary care physician) feeling defensive, stressed and on-guard. Everyone today was so freaking nice – not at all what I expected. And all just for routine maintenance for my weirdo rare-ish genetic thing. I could be Storm. Or Blink. Or Cypher. Or Professor X. Or something. But nooooooo I get to be Clot Woman. Sheesh.
I just don’t have it in me for a reading today, much less the youtube & podcast thing, even with text to speech. I know I said I’m shifting the Turnovers to be a membership* feature, but how would y’all feel about a bonus flip flop? I’ll sip the coffee, and you read the card. Pick the meaning that best suits you. If you have any questions, the professors door (aka the comments) is open
If you want to learn how to do one card daily meditation readings for yourself, it’s covered in detail in my ebook PeaceTarot available for instant pdf download in the ko-fi shop. As a double extra bonus, all proceeds from the purchase of PeaceTarot from the ko-fi shop in 2022 will be donated to Doctors Without Borders, who are giving medical care under the truly worst conditions and aren’t sitting here b*tching about our meat-grinder juggernaut price-gouging money-grubbing American healthcare system.
Tarot Turnovers is a good way to practice. Unleash your intuition. Today’s random card is….
long range planning
scouting, observing the situation
launching a new phase of a project
bright future
good prospects, your ship will come in
expansion, new frontiers
what does your instinct tell you?
what images come to mind as you look at the card?
any songs, tv, movie or book references pop to mind?
So what do you think?
*Tarot Table memberships include: three card members -only “pathway through the month” reading, newsletter, exclusive Tarot Turnovers not available in the free blog, members-only special offers and giveaways, and one private “Path through the year” Tarot reading by email when you join.
**NEW “Inner Circle” membership level – get your seat at the Tarot Table with all of those benefits PLUS a private one card Tarot reading by email whenever you want up to three per month. Join HERE
Page of Pentacles: Cleverness saves the day. TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the page of pentacles made by Eli Norvell for the Alleyman’s Tarot deck pictured above. If you are listening on the podcast, there is a link in the episode description if you want to take a peek at a super fun card. It has a sort of anime, kawaii, bubbly cuteness about it.
Today’s reading actually started yesterday, but it still feels relevant. As always, use your own feelings and discernment to decide if the card applies to you or not. That’s the difficult thing with these blog and podcast readings. It can’t be all things to everyone. If something is on your mind or giving you the feels and this reading doesn’t hit the mark, by all means please consider drawing a card for yourself or consulting with someone like me to get a more personalized reading. So if this helps – great! If not, don’t be discouraged. Keep looking. Your guidance is out there, somewhere, even if it takes some thinking and pondering and contemplating to get to it. That’s why the person getting a Tarot reading is sometimes call “the seeker” instead of “the sitter.”
Just after drawing this card yesterday morning, I got a call from my relatively new part time job at the local library. I love to write, so spending a few hours a week up to my eyeballs in books is a natural fit. It is a small place that our family has enjoyed and supported ever since we moved here years ago. Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity to spend time in one of my favorite places AND make up some income from closing in-person Tarot during covid. When there was an unexpected staffing need, I was so there.
The Page of Pentacles is about newness and opportunities. You could take it to mean that the card predicted that I would be spending the day with my new opportunity half an hour before the phone rang. I wouldn’t mind imagining that I’m that good of a movie grade psychic but that’s not how any of this works. That’s not the message of the moment – yesterday or today.
I may not be TV style psychic, but my intuition is, however, clairvoyant. That means it works with mental images. It is also clairaudient, meaning it works with mental sounds and words. And, as you who follow the blogcast know, it also works heavily with pop culture references – mostly references filtered through my Gen X lens.
To go along with the cute, bubbly, almost anime-like artwork on the card, I was reminded me of an 80s pop song.
This shows a little bit how intuition works through a daisy chain of associations sometimes. Critics say this is stretching, or reaching or fishing for answers in the vein of psychic “cold readings.” When you are reading in person for someone else, it can certainly seem that way. We can talk about cold readings another day, but for now let’s look at one card meditation readings for yourself. How is searching for connections within your own mind something wrong?
It isn’t
It is prompt. It is a structured way to think things through. It is a topic for contemplation. THAT’s what Tarot is all about after all. No matter if you are reading for yourself or getting a reading from a pro, Tarot is food for thought. Sometimes that thought process takes a few steps. Sometimes food for thought takes a few steps to digest.
Ok, back to this intuition daisy chain.
The early 80s Culture Club album “Kissing To Be Clever” came to mind as did the scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone where Hermione talks about “books and cleverness.” The word “clever” seemed to be the thing grabbing my attention through this card.
Learning, training, books and cleverness is a concept we see in any of the Page cards. Pentacles bring the page into the realm of groundedness and practicality. Put the two together and that says life hack to me.
This feels like an advice card, reminding us to work smarter, not harder. Look for the life hacks that really work. Let practical experience teach you and make things better next time around.
Yesterday, I posted an announcement that I wouldn’t be doing this episode right after the YouTube short and Instagram reel like usual. That post led me to another piece of life hack advice: have a plan B
Sometimes you have to drop back and punt. Sometimes you have to adapt. The universe provides, but it provides what you need not necessarily what you want or expect. Look for some life hacks, develop a plan B for when life throws the unexpected at you.
And if you can do it all while cute and clever – then bonus points to you!
This podcast is not monetized and 100% relies on audience support. Your private emial Tarot readings purchases through the blog website and Tarot Table memberships all contribute to creating this unique Tarot content. There are clickable links in the blog and in the podcast episode description. Your likes, ratings, subs, shares and follows are always greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much for listening. See you at the next sip!
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: fear of the unknown and the annoyed shower cap lady.
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.
When this card turned over, my first and only thought was “what the actual heckin’ heck is that?”
It’s got a horse, a sword (or maybe it is a stick) and a pissed off looking woman in a shower cap. Queen of swords maybe? Knight of wands? Bad hair day card?
At first, I didn’t even know what the card was much less what to think or say about it. Which, I think, is the message. The words “fear of the unknown” popped to mind. Which makes logical sense because I wasn’t sure if it was a knight, a queen, a sword or a wands card.
For a flash, I had a snowballing moment of fearful not-knowing. Not knowing the card means I’ll write a terrible post, so I’ll never get paying work as a Tarot reader ever again, which means decades of effort goes down the drain because I’ve wasted my life on woo woo spooky shit and oh-my-god-we’re-all-gonna-die.
That, my friends, is a living example of psychological stress and exactly what Tarot and mindfulness is designed to help.
Sometimes, the best thing you can know is that you don’t know. It prompts you to prepare, think, act and adapt.
Sometimes the worst thing you can do is let fear of the unknown drag you into dwelling on the future instead of being mindful of the present reality.
Fear of the unknown isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Fear unbridled puts your heart in prison. Fear utilized sets you free. As has been attributed to all sorts of people from Mark Twain to President Roosevelt quote courage is not the absence of fear but rather the ability to act in spite of it end quote.
Turns out all I needed to do was walk into the next room and pick up the deck guidebook and do a little googling. Looks like we might survive after all, folks!
On a small scale that’s exactly the kind of thing that goes with the Knight of Swords which is what shower cap chick turned out to be.
The Cary-Yale visconti tarot deck published by US Games in the 1980s is made up of reproduced images from a 15th century partial Tarot deck. According to author Stuart R. Kaplan as quoted by google books, the original deck is in the Cary card collection in the rare books and manuscripts library at Yale University. New cards were created to fill in the missing cards and create a full, functional deck. I don’t know if this particular card is original or a fill-in, but Kaplan also points out that the court cards in the original deck is a mixture of male and female figures, which is interesting for the time period. I don’t know about the shower cap, but it turns out that it really is an annoyed looking woman on a horse. The way she is holding the sword reminds me of an internet meme of Qui-Gon from Star Wars jumping up and drawing his light saber with the caption of “When you are home alone and you hear a noise”
Seven Dane Asmund writing as the Alleyman interprets the card as sudden opportunity, rapid movement, advice to take advantage of sudden opportunities or you could miss it. This is spot-on for the Knight of Swords imagery in every other deck I’ve seen.
So NOW what do we do? Is there anything that reconciles the Cary-Yale image and the flash about fearing the unknown with the typical daring imagery of the knight of swords we see in so many other decks?
I think the idea of being on guard combined with taking advantage of sudden opportunities builds the bridge between this very old card and the common modern interpretations for the knight of swords.
If fear of the unknown paralyses us, and keeps us from acting, then we might miss key opportunities. If fear of the unknown takes us into a new situation prepared and alert and ready to make the most of a sudden opportunity, then fear of the unknown has served us well.
Just don’t forget to take your shower cap off.
Thank you so much for reading, watching and listening.
The TaoCraft Tarot blog, podcast and youtube channel are not monetized and depend solely on audience support. Your reading purchases and ko-fi memberships contribute toward creating this unique Tarot content. Links to them are clickable in the blog or located in the podcast episode description.
Your likes, subs, shares, and follows are always appreciated too!
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
You must be logged in to post a comment.