Learn With Me: Oracle Dice, The Crone of Summer

Sage Sips blog is a contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee

I don’t know much about Dungeons & Dragons, but I’d call this character chaotic good.

This is a really lovable card, and it’s tempting to join the chaos, but I’m in full sun-avoidant deep shade forest baby Grogu sipping soup and calmly watching the mayhem unfold mood. You don’t always have to participate in order to appreciate.

Let’s stay methodical this week.

Tarot, or any good intuition enhancing too, has layers of meaning just like ogres and onions.

The first we looked at a single face from the dice – analogous to drawing individual cards for a Tarot layout. By randomly rolling seven times we selected 7 “practice dice” out of the 22 dice set to work with as we get to know the Oracle Dice. Learning the oracle dice parallels the way I learned Tarot. I’ve distilled YEARS of trial and error into this step by step thing we are doing. I’m learning the oracle dice this way because I KNOW this way of learning and reading oracle tools … any intuition helper…works. I know it works well because I’ve been doing it for a hot minute. Longer than I care to admit most days.

You get the idea about the individual faces and how to look at those.

Now we are going through our practice dice one by one looking at it from the die cube meaning. The Oracle Dice’s creator, Seven Dane Asmund assigned a name and meaning to each of the 22 dice (one of which is a cool 12 face die) In this edition, he also created a card with the “lord” of each of the dice. The “lord” in this case is a parallel to the suit in Tarot. The “lord” is the essence of die’s meaning, its guardian, its protector, sort of the ace, king and queen all rolled into one.

Today’s die is “summer” depicted as the “Crone of Summer.” It’s perfect that the image on the card includes gold coins because this card encapsulates much of the same energies as the suit of coin (pentacles) in Tarot. There is easy, almost careless generosity around it. It is so fully and unabashedly about the physical realm that it rises above the physical realm and becomes something more esoteric, much as the ten of pentacles (coins) is so fully prosperous and abundant that it points to the intangible treasures of love and happiness that money can never buy. Such is the effusive joi de vie embodied by the crone of summer.

You know how I see the world through Taoism colored glasses

The dots in the yin yang symbol represent the idea that anything in its extreme holds the seed of its opposite. We see that in the ten of pentacles and the Crone of Summer. The physical realm taken to its extreme can hold the seed of its opposite. In excess creation lies the potential for destruction. In excess possession lies the potential for generosity and so on.

When we move on to the next layer – combining dice – when the summer die rolls in, think of it in unabashed and golden terms like full throttle summer and an exuberant generosity of self and spirit

Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate your generosity with your time.

If you ever want a private Tarot reading, please think of me. The free Tarot and other content here on the Sage Sips blog and on Sage Words Tarot social media is fueled by your reading purchases, your memberships and lots of coffee (both irl and the virtual kind on ko-fi)

Your likes, follows, shares and comments are always greatly appreciated!

*Publishing Goblin‘s Oracle Dice used with permission

Chaos Upside Down

What is chaos turned on its head? Order, organization, and focus maybe?

Life is unpredictable enough. There is enough change without adding impulse to the mix. The energy today isn’t supporting impulse.

More on the members blog…

Craving for Sameness

TaoCraft Short Sip blog & podcast episodes are Tarot readings for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

I get it.

I kind of feel the same way myself.

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

The Tower card is about chaos, suddenness and the unexpected. It sums up the past several years of politics and pandemics better than any other card I can think of at the moment. Today the Tower is reversed, which begs the question of what do you get when you turn chaos on its head?

Sameness.

Sudden change and chaos has its benefits, believe it or not. There are reasons for that proverb that there is opportunity in chaos. There has to be a bolt of lightning before you can catch it in a bottle. Chaos often forces us to the top of the tower to gain perspective and get above the fracas. Chaos can force us to be mentally and emotionally agile. Change forces adaptability which is in turn a path of evolution and survival.

No energy is – or should be – forever.

Change is part of the fabric of the universe. The universe is expanding. Stars go nova. Mountains weather. Tectonic plates shift.

But sometimes enough is freaking enough.

Too much change for too long can take a toll on the human psyche. Just as bodies need rest, mind and emotion needs respite before change turns into chaos turns into full on stress.

It is normal and natural to crave sameness after a time of stress and upheaval. That is a warrior, protective energy. “Protective” is the key word here. Craving sameness and a respite from stress is a matter of protecting the good parts of reality and right now. It is a matter of protecting peace and quiet but NOT a matter of regressing to an imaginary past dreamed through rose colored glasses.

And of course, the other extreme is not a good thing either. Too much sameness breeds stagnation and decay.

Here again we see the mind-bending, paradoxical but repeatedly repeatedly proven true interplay of opposites from the philosophy side of Taoism. Anything in its extreme fosters the seed of its opposite. Too much stress and change fosters a craving for sameness. Too much sameness fosters a craving to shake things up with a little chaos. Chaos which, in due time, gets turned on its head back into sameness.

Thank you for reading the blog and listening to the audio version aka podcast. I appreciate it. I also appreciate any likes, subs, follows, shares, questions or comments that you can spare.

See you at the next sip.

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Ride the Upside Down

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: the King of Swords teaches us to surf the upside down.

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

Today’s card is the King of Swords, in reverse.

This big, slide prone Alleyman’s Tarot deck seems to like reversals. They feel the same and have the same message energy as reversals with other decks, despite being more frequent. That being said, the reversals with this deck seem to still be significant, despite being more frequent. So far, I haven’t gotten any of those “meh, it’s random, just turn it over and go on moments” like we’ve talked about before when it comes to reversals. This feels like turbulent energy more than an outright blockage.

Swords are air and intellect. Kings are leaders. They are in charge. Put those two together and you get a dispassionate, cool headed energy. In his interpretation of the card for the Alleyman’s Deck, Seven Asmund points out a sense of orderliness about the card.

Some people blame it on our view of Mercury in the sky. Some people blame it on a full moon. Hard data debunks any correlation between moon phase and human behavior, but my days working inpatient psychiatry begs to differ. Whatever the cause or irrational correlation, we are nevertheless left with the reality that life is messy. Things get irrational, chaotic, problematic, and way out of our control sometimes.

To quote the essence of Taoism according to the 1980’s T-shirt about world religions: shh -stuff happens.

I keep getting mental images of a knight in armour or the king of swords on a surfboard. Surfing is an apt analogy for today’s card. You can’t control the ocean. You can line up and order every wave that comes to shore.

If the king of swords in reverse hints at chaos, you can surf the wild changes. Chaos may reign, disorder may abound, everything may be outside of your control, but you are still in perfect control of you and your response to the upside-down-ness of it all. If you can’t control the wave, surf it in to shore. If you can’t turn things right side up, ride the upside down until it turns on its own.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. Your likes, subs, shares, virtual coffees, questions and comments are always, always, always appreciated.

Neither the blog nor the podcast are monetized and depend on your support. If you enjoy these blogcasts, please visit the ko-fi page (link below or in the episode description. Proceeds from there contribute toward creating the free to access Tarot content here.

I need to do a little real life upside down surfing myself, so short sip will return on Friday. Have a great week everyone!

Today’s Tarot: Chaos Around the Corner

At some point, even chaos turns a corner.

There is no way to predict what will come. I’ve been telling you for years…decades…that isn’t what intuition and Tarot does. Once again for the kids in the back row…Tarot doesn’t tell us what will happen in life. It helps us know what to do when life happens.

Chaos comes, but then it changes. That’s not just the nature of chaos itself, that is the nature of life itself. Chaos can come and go quickly, or it can put its feet up and camp on the sofa for a good long while. Even when chaos stays, our response to it can. Humans … you … are incredibly strong, resiliant, and adaptable.

The unpredictable and frightening parts of life will always be there. Unpredictable, dangerous and frightening times will always change for both the better and the worse. So can we.

“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”
– Alan Watts

12 Second Tarot: King of Wands

Be the eye of the hurricane.

You are in charge of your inner world. The outer world may be chaos…or frustratingly slow. However the physical realm may incite your inner passions, your inner King can lead those intense emotions, focus them, inspire them to new directions and keep things cool.

Eternal Balancing Act

2coins

Diane Morgan’s Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao is for all the obvious reasons, one of my all time favorite Tarot books.

I first read Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao early in the 2000s, at the beginning in my professional Tarot career, just as I began reading for online services like Advice Trader and Allexperts. I’d been reading Tarot and oracle cards (Medicine Cards by Carson and Samms mostly) for nearly 10 years by that point. I’d been interested in Taijiquan (Tai Chi) and Taoism even longer than that.

Of all the cards in the Tarot deck, the two of Pentacles / Coins is arguably the most emblematic of all that Tarot and Taoism share. We short hand the card as balance, but it is more of a juggling act than that. The balance here is large and moving and dynamic. Balance alone can be static, like a stack of zen stones, or a scales showing accurate weight.

balancing-stones

That is balance, but there is also what science calls dynamic equilibrium.  The classic example of dynamic equilibrium is a permeable membrane between two solutions. Think of fresh water and salt water divided by some sort of plastic wrap with tiny holes in it. The molecules on both sides are always vibrating and wiggling around (that is heat, so let’s imagine this is all happening at room temperature, not absolute zero.  Even a polar vortex isn’t that cold.) Over time the water and salt molecules wiggle through the holes in the membrane until there is the same concentration of salt and water on both sides. Once that happens, the molecules don’t stop jiggling and juggling around. It is still room temperature, there is still heat and molecule movement going on. If you follow individual specks of salt, they may be moving the whole time, one side to the other. Same for specks of water. In spite of the little specks dancing around, the total amounts of each stay in balance on both sides. The little buggers move…it’s dynamic. The whole system, the whole tank of water, keeps its balance of salt and water concentrations…it is in equilibrium. That kind of balance is very much a part of the 2 of coins. The artwork in the card on most RWS decks hint at movement, the man walking and juggling , a woman bicycling (Steampunk Tarot) a tightrope walker (Robin Wood Tarot) even someone standing on their head (Quantum Tarot) The two of coins reminds us as much of dynamic equilibrium as a static balance. The sideways figure 8, the infinity symbol, is often used as part of the cards image to indicate that balance. It also shows us just how big the water tank is. The system that is in dynamic equilibrium is nothing less than the whole darn universe. Sure things are going to get very out of balance, if not downright wonky in our individual part of the cosmos, but infinity wide, things unfold as they should, according to their nature.

Which is all a very Taoist like way of looking at it. The Taoist point of view values that kind of big picture dynamic equilibrium. It values balance in general…static and moving…and is more than willing to consider the Tao, the everything and then some, in finding that natural moving balance. Harmony of opposites is another, easier way to put it. The well known yin yang symbol that is emblematic  of the philosophy is actually intended to be in motion. The dots are the seeds that grow into their opposite. If you look just at the yin or yang, the black or white, each part is always growing, shrinking, turning. Yet, within the circle as a whole, even among all that movement, there ends up being balanced, equal amounts of black and white, yin and yang.

3daniyinyang

That is the energy flow the two of coins can help us to find. The two is always about balance. Is it static or dynamic? What kind of balance do we need? Are we looking at one little jiggly speck of salt in the water and feeling out of balance? Would it help to look for larger, moving systems when we look for balance in out lives or would it help to look for the little but very stable balance points like stacking Zen rocks? How do you know? The balance is of opposites, remember? The dots are the clue. In each lies the seed of its opposite. If you have been focusing on static stable balance, but it isn’t working, take a step back and look at the big picture, moving systemic balance. If the system seems chaos and everything is flying apart…look for anchors. Look for the solid, stable, static parts on which to build some balance.

Stones and yin yang images from the public domain. Jimmy Neutron property of Nickelodeon via youtube.com.