card meaning – Page 39 – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Today’s Tarot: Raise Your Chalice

This is one of those times where the card feels, to me, to be way out of synch with today’s energy. It just doesn’t capture the momentum of the moment. Something’s off.

Sometimes when this happens I’ll just re-draw the card and take the “off” feeling as my cue that some other message is more urgent or pressing than the first card can convey.

Other times I’ll just let it stand in the hope that it helps some unknown someone somewhere out there in cyberspace. This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about the other day in the podcast:

BUT, as I go along, today’s card is turning out to be less about the card, less about a somebody-somewhere message and more about the Tarot reading process. This is a message for folks on my side of the reading table. Any card could potentially carry this energy thread, not just the three of cups.

The “I don’t know who needs to hear this but….” trope has always made me feel a little annoyed and agitated, but I never understood why until now. Not only is it overused and cliche, but strikes me as a little arrogant self-serving. It is as if the person writing it thinks they have some special, secret, better knowledge than everyone else. Maybe they do, but why not just say what’s on your mind without the “I don’t know who needs to hear this” part? It sounds like a power play over that unknown someone that you think you know better than. You were going to post the idea anyway. It serves no purpose to amp it up like you are some hero messenger from on high going out of your way to drop some wisdom on some poor wretch who doesn’t even know they need helped.

Of COURSE we don’t know who needs to hear it. We are pushing our ideas out into a public forum, not responding to a specific person. If we publish a reading about a particular person, then that flirts with violating their privacy (unless they give conscious consent for the reading to be used that way, which some people have…for which I am very grateful.)

OF COURSE we don’t know who “needs to hear this.” They never ASKED to hear it. That unknown someone out there might not WANT our almighty opinion. Who are we to say what anybody NEEDS to hear whether we know who they are or not? We are interpreters, neither judges of need nor arbiters of truth.

It’s a roundabout way to get there, but this mis-matched energy today is a good reminder of why I want to bring Reiki and medical ethics and professionalism to my Tarot work. In Reiki we don’t do energy work with someone without some level of consent. One of my Reiki teachers once told a story about a time where they saw breaking news on TV. Out of kindness and an impulse to help they sent energy to a person in the live news feed. The energy bounced back hard because it wasn’t requested or wanted. Since then, they use and teach the intent of sending energy unconditionally and without expectation, so the energy can be accepted OR rejected as the recipient sees fit – even in planned distance sessions. I’ve tried to adopt that same stance in Tarot blogging and social media. The Reiki in our teacher’s example was sent out of sincere compassion and a desire to help, not at all intended to be arrogant. The same is true of those “I don’t know who needs to hear this” posts online. But as the adage goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions – and tired social media tropes. There is such a thing as unintended consequences. We may not intend to be egoistic, but our work can still drift in that direction if we aren’t careful. I’m as guilty of that as anyone, maybe more than most.

Sometimes the lines between simple enthusiasm, a sincere desire to help, passionate evangelism and outright arrogance are very narrow. It is up to us to keep our ego in check. It is up to us to respect the universal life energy we read and the ones we read it for, both known and unknown.

That is exponentially true for those of us who have been raised in the American evangelical subculture. Our lives were so saturated with arrogant holier-than-thou pronouncements that it seems normal…but it’s not. Making holier-than-thou arrogant pronouncements is one of those things that a recovering fundamentalist has to be constantly on guard against. It really does have a certain kinship with the way that chemical dependency requires lifelong vigilance against triggers and relapses.

So no, I don’t know who needs to hear this unusual, convoluted energy message today. I won’t presume to think anyone does. I give it without expectation, for you to accept or reject as you see fit. Which is a very freeing, comforting thing on my side of the Tarot reading table. Being right all the time and the inerrant source of higher knowledge must be exhausting.

So let me raise a virtual chalice of thanks to all the many unknown someones out there. We mean well, but we also rely on your discretion and discernment. If we tell you something you needed to hear, great. We are happy to have helped. If not, then thank you for ignoring the BS and hanging in there with this until a useful message does come along. Here is to you, dear reader, for silently, energetically helping us online types to respect our audience.

With style

Today’s Tarot: Something Fabulous This Way Comes

Drag queens are the best

It was years ago, but once I was hired to do Tarot readings for a local theater group’s party. The group included a few drag performers. I don’t know if any of them enjoyed the Tarot readings, but by the time it was all said and done I was happy to my absolute core. The energy in the room was bright and glittering and it was an honor to work with all of them. Everyone there was the definition of fabulous.

If it is OK with them, give a drag queen a hug and return some of the good vibes they so naturally and generously give. It will make your day.

Today’s card reminded me of that experience, which turned my thinking toward joyous, jubilant, glorious, gleeful, authentic self expression.? What would happen if we expressed ourselves TO ourselves with all the exuberance and fun of a drag cabaret?

Some people are natural extroverts and performers. No matter what their art form may be…theater, dance, film, live music….performing is the air that they breath and sometimes their livelihood too. For the rest of us, performance is more stress-inducing than life-giving. But, I wonder, what if we spent a little time expressing our authentic selves in a performance for an audience of one…oneself that is.

How would your day (or evening) be if you allowed yourself a little time to bask in your own quiet, queenly fabulousness. Find one darn little thing that you like about yourself and wallow in it. Amp it up as high the hairdo on an episode of Drag Race and BE fabulous, at least in your own mind just for a few minutes.

Now take that feeling of fabulousness and use it to fuel your connection to life, to love, to compassion, to everyone you care about.

In less time than it takes to paint your nails, something fabulous this way comes.

Today’s Tarot: Protect the Treasure

Today is a blustery kind of day for our card’s energy.

Some skeptics dismiss intuition and its tools like Tarot because the card meanings are vague and inconsistent. They are, but not because they are invalid, but because they are ephemeral. The cards are an ever-adapting look at ever-changing energies from one point of view within the flow of time. They are a localized look at a larger, fluid, energetic, dynamic system. That’s why they guide rather than predict. Saying Tarot is invalid because of inconsistent or vague card meanings is like saying the weather report is wrong because it changes every day.

Tarot is a creative prompt, not an immutable law of the universe.

So which prompt, which card meaning is right for you of all people and today of all days? THAT is where tools like Tarot, runes, numerology, astrology, etc meet their limit. They help us access our innate intuition, but they can never substitute for it. The image that comes to mind is a little like dry leaves in a whirlwind. There is a blustery swirl of meanings and energies here. Only you can know which leaf to grab out of the whirlwind of potential meanings. The word ‘local’ steps forward too. The local energy and mood is the one that needs our attention today. Today the card’s guidance is to focus on the treasure within and to trust your own understanding – even more than usual.

In other words the card’s message today is exactly that to trust and protect the inner treasure of your own good intuition. Intuition is usually the purview of cups cards and the water element, but in this case it is more about the protection (an earth element energy) and solid trust more than talking about the intuition itself.

It’s about the the real world, practical protection and application of your intuition. It’s a meatspace thing to borrow from William Gibson’s writing.

The four of pentacles has a variety of meanings. The four part can be associated with steadiness and stability, like the four legs of a chair or table. That’s where we get the protective, steady, trustworthy connotations for the card. I’m told that Chinese culture avoids fours because the word for four sounds like the word for die (but with different characters and tonal pronunciation) I wonder if that – energetically more than culturally or linguistically – is a connection to the more negative connotations for the four of pentacles like greed, and unwarranted miserliness.

Either way, try to think of the physical space actions that your intuition may need today. Do you need to set some atmosphere to help you hear the quiet whispers of intuition and spirit? Is this the day to get that incense or candle you’ve been saving for a special day? Is this the day to unplug from social media and find some physical quiet in order to feed your inner quiet? Many times we have a tendency to relagate those tangible actions to certain days of the week, or phases of the moon or what have you. Don’t wait. Do for your intuition. Guard it, protect your inner self from any toxic people or energies that may be lurking. The leaf for you from today’s whirlwind of meanings might be to reflect, like a bright coin…reflect or disperse any negative or toxic energies away from you. I suggest Ted Andrew’s excellent book Psychic Protection as well as the protective exercises in Mat Auryn’s recent book Psychic Witch (whether you consider yourself to be a part of the pagan or witch community or not, it is still a good, helpful visualization.) Black tourmaline comes to mind as a protective energy to wear or carry. It’s a do your homework kind of day. Part of the message is that it is up to you to look at the local energies and act to protect your inner energies and intuition if needed.

When the energy start repeating and going in circles like this, that is a good cue that the essential message is complete. I see a bow in deference to your knowing.

This is a start. This is a prompt. Now it is up to you to connect and protect. Connect to your intuition, connect your intuition to your individual real world situation, and protect your energy.

Today’s Tarot: Inner Fire, Outer Flow

To have the flow, you gotta have the fire

Today’s card connects with yesterday’s post, but as much to the “why bother” thread of it as the part about clarity. Even though we are looking at single cards on separate days, it gives you a glimpse of how it works for multiple cards in a single layout. These kinds of connections between cards is where rubber meets the road when it comes to larger Tarot readings. You can memorize individual cards all day long, but when you do a multiple card layout unless you can knit them all together into a coherent message, you are missing a big part of the reading’s value. That’s where experience and a professional reading can come in handy.

Today’s card has a very active, additive sort of energy because of that connection. That’s how it works, in my style of Tarot reading. We start with a foundation and build. Sometimes, there is a yin, inward energy and reading will peel off layers to get to the heart of the message. Even though it is a single card, today has a yang, outward sort of message where layers build to find the totality of the message, a little like the related post “Growing Ogres.”

At the base we have the page of wands. Pages are about learning, a very growth energy in and of itself. Wands has to do with inner fire. Add to that the thread from yesterday. Why bother? Why not languish and float and experience and be? No reason, except that it isn’t our nature. The universe is put together in a slightly different way.

To have flow, you mush have fire.

If there is no energy, molecules don’t move. Absolute zero temperature is defined as the point where all atom lose all physical movement. There are quantum physics things going on, but I don’t pretend to understand any of that. But the high school take away is that for molecules to move, there has to be some degree of heat. For that tiniest bit of flow there has to be that tiniest bit of heat/fire. It is in the fabric of the universe for fire and flow to go together.

Flow is an interesting idea. On one hand it is yang…moving not still, outward, not inward. On the other hand it is yin in that “going with the flow” is passive and takes a certain inner peace to not fight the current – both literally and figuratively. Hence my admiration for surfers and surf culture despite being a land locked suburbanite. Flow is a very Taoist thing, encompassing both yin and yang. Flow is in our nature, so having direction and energy is part of our nature.

So yes, bother. That’s what the quote from FL Lucas yesterday meant by “take trouble.” Take the time and go to the trouble and bother to find your clarity, go in your direction, walk your talk, grow, flow.

Learn your direction. Gain your clarity. But the other half our nature is to follow the flow that clarity and understanding dictates.

Life and movement go hand in hand. It is our nature to have inner fire and outer flow.

Today’s Tarot: Clarity

They used to call a half caf skim milk latte a “why bother?”

Good question, and not just about coffee (she says as she sets down her double shot)

Don’t get me wrong…not every single solitary thing in life has to have a point, purpose or goal. Just being, abiding, enjoying is reason enough for anything. At the same time, life without some degree of point, purpose or goal leaves one languishing in a sea of ennui.

Sips

With anything that you do a lot or a long time, in my case Tarot, it pays to revisit the point, purpose and goal of it every now and again. What’s the use of Tarot? What good is it doing anyone? Why bother?

I think the answer is in the reason why we ask questions like this: clarity.

If something is going to have a pointed, productive goal-oriented role in our life, we have to have clarity about what that goal or purpose really is. The purpose of Tarot is to gain clarity. An yup, that is rooted in the same ‘clair’ as in ‘clairvoyant’ which literally means clear sight ability. We use our intuition and the mental-imaginative echoes of our senses to cut through the noise of daily life and all of its twist and turns – expected and unexpected alike.

A number of cards have the quest for clarity at the forefront of their meanings and connotations. The seven of cups, for example, points out times of decision paralysis, an abundance of choices and the possibility we are overthinking things. The advice has an outward, yang quality. The advice is to gain clarity by simplification. It is an active solution, to go out and cut away the unnecessary.

Here the energy is more yin, zen and passive. Sometimes these solutions are more challenging when other needs are pressing, like a job, income, or general frustration. With the two of wands we find clarity by waiting, watching. It is advice straight from the Tao Te Ching: In a river or pond, churned up water is cloudy, but if it is given time and allowed to be quiet the mud will settle out. The water becomes clear.

When you read for yourself, you can read the cards for clarity.

When you read the cards for others, you read in service to clarity, namely helping them to find theirs.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Make Happy

NEW: $1.00 Tarot sale…get a five or seven card Tarot reading by email and pay 1.00 for each year of Tarot reading experience that I bring to your reading. Special price available until the autumn equinox, September 20, 2021

Pedantic Pointer Fingers

NEW! This post is now a Clairvoyant Confessional podcast episode!

“It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory.”
Bruce Lee

I’m not a collector by nature, but I’m convinced that professional Tarot readers should have multiple Tarot decks and plenty of books about them. Sure it is a good excuse to indulge in something we already love but decks are, after all, the tools of our trade. Mechanics use more than one size of wrench and your phone has more than one app, doesn’t it? Owning multiple decks isn’t only fun, it has practical application.

It’s said that two heads are better than one. More decks are like having more heads. Different decks mean different artwork and different insights from the guide book that typically comes with them. You can draw from all the different decks you’ve used over time to give your client deeper insights regardless of the deck you are using at the time.

Let’s consider the High Priestess card that I drew a few days ago. To paraphrase Edward Waite, the Justice card is a “spiritual mother” who interprets rules and dogma in a more spiritual way. In keeping with Tarot’s roots in the deeply Catholic culture of medieval France and Italy, Waite’s interpretation calls to mind a Saint-like or Mary-like spiritual role for the card.

Contrast that with the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell. It is one of the decks in my small collection and this is a photo I took of the Justice card used here under the ‘tarot education’ permissions granted on Llwellyn.com

Moore interprets the card as symbolizing something that can only be understood by direct experience. This in turn reminds me of an Instagram post by author Mat Auryn that talks about witchcraft is considered a mystery tradition not because it is a highly guarded secret, but rather because it can only understood through direct wordless experience. Both versions of the card together reminded me of the Bruce Lee quote. Anyone can point to the sky, but only you can experience the beauty of the moon for yourself.

The different cards combined with the quotes that they brought to mind all point toward an important core idea: spirituality is a direct, individual experience rather than external dogma or the product of didactic training. Among many other things, the Justice card reminds us of great mysteries and the way to experience them is directly, for ourselves. Look to the moon, not to pedantic pointer fingers.

This episode is based on the TaoCraft Tarot Blog post by the same name. There is a link to the source post in the episode description. If you have any questions about Tarot, intuition or, well, just about anything please let me know. Questions will be chosen at random or by the Clairvoyant’s caprice to be answered on air, maybe with a tarot reading. Contact information is in the episode description too.

Thank you so much for listening! See you on the print side and see you next time in the Clairvoyant’s Confessional.

Having An Idea

Inspiration is a funny thing.

I’m a TED talk junkie. Not that I watch a lot. I’m an encouragble multitasker and tend to let TV be audio wallpaper. But not TED talks. Those get my full attention, so I don’t watch them as often as I’d might otherwise.

One of my favorites is by author Elizabeth Gilbert speaking about creativity:

And that search has led me to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. So stay with me, because it does circle around and back. But, ancient Greece and ancient Rome — people did not happen to believe that creativity came from human beings back then, OK? People believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reasons. The Greeks famously called these divine attendant spirits of creativity “daemons.” Socrates, famously, believed that he had a daemon who spoke wisdom to him from afar. 06:44

The Romans had the same idea, but they called that sort of disembodied creative spirit a genius. Which is great, because the Romans did not actually think that a genius was a particularly clever individual. They believed that a genius was this, sort of magical divine entity, who was believed to literally live in the walls of an artist’s studio, kind of like Dobby the house elf, and who would come out and sort of invisibly assist the artist with their work and would shape the outcome of that work. 07:14

So brilliant — there it is, right there, that distance that I’m talking about — that psychological construct to protect you from the results of your work. And everyone knew that this is how it functioned, right? So the ancient artist was protected from certain things, like, for example, too much narcissism, right? If your work was brilliant, you couldn’t take all the credit for it, everybody knew that you had this disembodied genius who had helped you. If your work bombed, not entirely your fault, you know? Everyone knew your genius was kind of lame.
Elizabeth Gilbert

I don’t claim to be a creative genius, but some rare sometimes ideas will drop in that feel like they have been tossed there from from some outside source. It’s different than deliberately doing a reading or listening to intuition on someone else’s behalf. It’s random, unexpected, otherworldly-feeling and worthy of attention. It’s closer to the Tower card than the Four of Swords in that respect. Ideas like that feel especially important when they are sparked by one source but seem to connect to something wildly different. This morning, for example, connected an online article by Christopher Penzack about the symbolism of mountains with the memory of a 1970s TV commercial.

Most of you are probably too young to remember the lifesavers candy commercial where a guy climbs a frozen, isolated mountain to ask the guru on top to define the meaning of life, which of course, is pepp-o-mint lifesavers. It is like the part of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series where the most advanced super computer Deep Thought calculates the answer to the ultimate meaning to life, the universe and everything is actually 42. There was a snapple commercial with the same sort of trope where a guy goes to a farm, seemingly in remote China, to ask an elderly man how white tea is made…”you find the small young leaves, and you pluck them” … or something like that.

Climbing a mountain or traveling to somewhere remote and exotic is the classic symbol for spiritual growth and development. Both are really hard work. Outside of the comedic and marketing value, there is a real grain of truth to ‘climbing the mountain’ only to find that the mystic guru sitting on top is simple, pragmatic, and just like the rest of us.

Does that mean it wasn’t worth the climb?

No. Not at all.

THAT realization, the understanding that mystical gurus are like us and that we are like mystical gurus is in itself a great treasure. It’s worth the climb to discover the magic in the mundane. It’s worth the climb to realize that you can be your own mystical magical wise guru teacher person.

Green tea and peppermint candies are pretty good things to find too.

Confession #5: I’m Proud of You

All are welcome here: A few June thoughts from an lgbtquia ally and recovering fundamentalist

New and improved podcast version of the post by the same name earlier this month.

TRANSCRIPT:

I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession. I’m proud of you.

I’ve re-written this episode at least two dozen times.

One version even started with an Eleanor Roosevelt quote. Something about doing what’s right because you are going to be criticized anyway.

This sort of thing happens in Tarot. Working with your intuition WILL help you find a better understanding of things, but sometimes it will kick you out of your comfort zone in the process. This particular card reading has been pushing my buttons for days.

Today’s podcast episode is based on a single card, daily meditation reading from the TaoCraft Tarot blog earlier this month. There is a link in the show notes if you want to read my original semi-unhinged rant.

When I drew the Four of Wands card, the words “quirk” and “celebrate” stepped forward immediately. Here, the word quirk carries a very positive energy and points toward anything that makes you unique or is a key part of your individuality.

“Celebrate with pride” is still the top level energy message.

I’m recording this in June. You don’t have to be a psychic to connect “celebrate with pride” to Pride Month.

But there was a secondary message underneath that one. The mental image that came with it reminded me of the ‘river of slime’ in Ghostbusters II.

I recognized the energy immediately from being raised evangelical in the american south, but it’s really hard to describe the FEEL of it. It helps that there have been several reputable news reports about evangelicals because of their overwhelming support for a certain former president.

Based on my experience and what I’ve seen through my family, the news reports are fairly accurate. I searched for a few recent ones and put links in the show description [below] if you want a better sense of the energy. If it seems like I’m picking on Southern Baptists, I am. That’s my parents’ church. White evangelical baptists are what I know first hand. But never mind my background. REAL experts are saying hate crimes are on the rise. I think this part of the card message serves as a reminder to please stay safe and reach out to reasonable people for support if you need it.

Dogma about the word “pride” is one of about nine thousand ninety-nine hundred and eleventy-one reasons why I ran screaming from evangelical religion. They, and others, turn the simple word “pride” into something terrible.

I’m guessing the “pride” they talk about is something of a language artifact. Language shifts and evolves over time, even when some belief systems don’t. Bronze age manuscripts filtered through medieval translations and then bent to contemporary ends equates “pride” to unbridled ego. In a world before psychology, it makes sense that a mental state like that would be described with commonplace words. Words that WE are familiar with, like ego and narcissist didn’t exist back then. “pride goes before a fall” for example. Out of control narcissism can lead to poor choices and bad stuff happening.

In any case, it’s a shame that newer, healthier connotations for the word pride are sometimes haunted by old, derogatory ones.

Looking at the card, I was reminded of being a kid and hearing all of the adults quietly supporting Anita Bryant, the loudly anti-gay peanutbutter lady from the 1970s. This part of the message reminded me of how evangelicals STILL feel about pride month and all of the bigotry, racism and overt homophobia that was the number one reason why I quit that religion so long ago.

Did you ever notice how evangelical preachers have a tendency to yell during their sermons?

Imagine.

Imagine how it would feel as a teenager to hear them literally raise their voices against quote/unquote “the homosexuals.” It was heartbreaking for me to hear it when I had – and still have – good friends in the lgbtqia community.

Imagine.

Now, imagine what that experience would be like if you were young and IN the community.

The Four of Wands is about public cultural celebrations. The Four of Wands is about lifting each other up.

Authenticity is something to celebrate. People living their truest lives is a profoundly happy thing.

A lack of self esteem can make us more prone to prejudice. Studies are starting to show that putting other people down really is a self esteem boost for some people.

On the other hand, self acceptance is jet fuel for empathy. Self confidence makes compassion for other people so much easier. Compassion for other people supports their self esteem which in turn seeds more compassion and so on and so on. Pride not only ISN’T a sin, it arguably can make the world a better place.

Pride month is a lesson for all of us. It’s hard to hate other people when you make peace with your TRUE self first.

Those of us with privilege are exponentially more responsible to protect and celebrate and uplift Pride Month. I used to think that my experience of leaving evangelical religion and coming out atheist gave me a tiny glimpse into what it is like for the lgbtqia community on both sides of the closet door.

But no. Just, no.

As an ally, pride month doesn’t have anything to do with me. For an ally, Pride Month is about being proud of other people. It’s about being proud OF people I care about.

Whatever your situation, if you are living a kind and authentic life – I’m proud of you.

Celebrate who you are. Celebrate everyone. Just be careful that the celebratory kind of pride doesn’t slip into the ego kind of pride. The supportive kind of pride is something for every month, not just corporate advertising during the month of June.

I post rainbows and celebrate WITH you this month because I’m proud OF you and proud of who YOU are.

All are welcome here.

This episode is dedicated to a still-quiet loved one and the memory of Roger Harmon, florist, businessman, and one of my first and best friends south of the mason dixon line.

Thanks for listening. I’ll see you on the print side and I’ll see you next time in the clairvoyant’s confessional.

Based on the wordpress blog: https://taocrafttarot.wordpress.com/2021/06/09/todays-tarot-im-proud-of-you/

Bibliography / Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/12/23/black-pastors-break-southern-baptist-critical-race-theory/

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/racial-tensions-simmer-southern-baptists-hold-key-meeting-78220643

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/southern-baptists-divided-over-politics-race-lgbtq-policy-n1258492

https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-southern-baptist-convention

Click to access 10.1.1.475.9865-23wmgsq.pdf

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/anti-transgender-hate-crimes-soared-20-percent-2019-n1248011