Tag: coffee

Conquest Through Surrender

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!

See you at the next sip!

Wait a minute

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today, The Wheel – if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the Wheel of Fortune from the major arcana.

Have you ever watched the card’s namesake game show? It’s fun. I especially like watching the YouTube channel “Game Grumps” when they play. It seems like everybody always watches the big blace bankrupt wedge on the wheel.

It’s a perfect example of what the card is talking about. Watch sometime. The black bankrupt or the shine big prize moves away from the contestants and back to them again as the wheel spins.

And spin it does.

The card is talking about exactly that. Everything changes. Dead bodies decay, mountains were once under seas, and it is springtime.

Like I was told when I first moved to Pittsburgh, if you don’t like the weather – wait a minute.

If things are good cherish them. They can and at some point will change. If things are bad, they can and will change too. What goes up must come down, but that means what goes down must come up too. Given enough time life and the universe will find its own balance.

Thanks for listening!

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Your likes, subs, shares, follows, no appointment private reading orders, Tarot Table memberships, questions, feedback and comments are always, always appreciated.

See you at the next sip!

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Rest and Contemplate

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.

https://youtu.be/OHkR9YXdeNQ

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.

See you at the next sip!

Bonus flip

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

Cute and Clever

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!

Fear of the Unknown and the Shower Cap Lady

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!

See you at the next sip.

It’s Not All That

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today is the 6 of cups and the monday gremlins

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.

Todays card is the six of cups.

I’m still getting to know this new Tarot deck. The Alleyman’s Tarot is full of surprises. I wasn’t expecting a Japanese influenced card, but enjoy this one. I’ve always liked anime. I’ve been watching it since around 1970 when my kindergarten self was fangirling Kimba the White Lion. There is something vaguely Inuyasha about the energy today.

It’s a good one for a Monday too. As the workweek starts and the weekend ends, our thoughts sometimes turn to the serious and the ponderous. Mondays aren’t usually a play day.

This energy is asking us to lighten up a little bit. It ain’t all that. The advice is not to build things up to be bigger than they really are. The classic RWS deck shows children playing in a field of flowers.

Mondays often are not a field of flowers. Life can be full of annoyances any day of the week. Mondays are just another day. Nuisances are just another part of being alive on plane Earth. It is what it is but not more than it is.

By the same token, just because something is pleasant and easy doesn’t mean it is somehow lesser than if you struggled or it was unpleasant. It is what it is but not less than it is.

The Six of Cups reminds us to, even in the face of Mondays, and annoyances and inconveniences, and things that happen astonishingly easy, to stay chill and roll with it. It’s not all that one way or the other.

The card was originally made by Buboplague for the Yokai Yochi Tarot deck. A fast and superficial google shows that yokai are mischievous spirits from japanese folklore. As playful as the card looks, broken umbrellas with legs are vaguely disturbing too. It makes me think of how “gremlins” from the movie have come to mean any unexplained glitches like “computer gremlins.” The Alleyman’s Notebook describes the card as innocent joy, just like the RWS interpretation. It too reminds us to have a fun like a child despite all the adulting we have to do.

Thank you for reading and listening. Any likes, subs, shares or follows you can spare are always appreciated. Private email Tarot readings through this website and Memberships on Ko-fi.com support the creation of these free Tarot posts and podcast episodes.

See you at the next sip!

Part of it All

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today The Alleyman, a Carl Sagan quote, and the Seven of Bells Tarot Card

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

Today’s card is the seven of bells from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck and originally from the Floetner deck. The Alleyman’s Tarot is used with the permission of its creator Seven Dane Asmund. To learn more about Seven’s work and what is rapidly becoming my new favorite deck please visit the link below or in the podcast episode description. Yesterday, I posted a short first impression of the deck on the blog. I’ll put a link to that in the podcast description as well.

As an exercise in learning the deck, I’d like to use it for our daily short sip readings. I’ll give you my first impression purely intuitive reading from the card and then I’ll go to the guidebook written meaning and let you decide which resonates more for you on whatever given day you read or listen to this. To take a phrase from the Alleyman Podcast – it will be a collaboration, with the Alleyman’s blessing.

Not to mention that fits my lazy girl M.O. – I won’t have take the time to read the guidebook ahead of these first look. Doing an intuition-only first-look reading like this before reading the guide book page only goes to show how readable this deck and this deck’s concept really is.

When I drew this card, my attention was drawn to the central figure and the similarity between the figure’s texture and the rocks and surrounding ground. It reminded me of the Taoist principle that we are an inseparable part of the larger whole. Carl Sagan said that the Cosmos is “all that is or was or ever will be.”

That. Includes. Us.

Just like the cliche joke about the Dali Lama asing the hotdog salesman in New York to make him one with everything.

We are integral part of our life and circumstances. Because of that deep connection, we can impact it just as it impacts us in that eternal dance of cause and effect.

The notebook talks about this card representing a feeling of being trapped by circumstance and expectations, quote “you have been made into something other people need you to be” end quote. The guidebook agrees that you can shake off this dried-mud entrapment. You can return to feeling more yourself if you quote “find what made you this way and confront it” end quote.

To put it all together, it may be a sudden change or move at a glacial pace, but we can use our deep interconnectedness with the universe and we can use cause and effect to break free of what others expect of us and begin to be true to our expectations of ourselves instead.

Thank you so much for reading, watching and listening. There are companion video shorts on YouTube that show the Short Sip cards being drawn. Neither the videos or the blogcast are monetized so they rely on your support. Purchases on the blog website and monthly memberships through ko-fi all contribute toward creating this (almost) daily Tarot content.

Your likes, subs, shares and follows are always appreciated.

See you at the next sip.

For more information about The Alleyman’s Tarot and Seven Dane Asmund’s other work please visit Publishing Goblin, llc

Choose Wisely

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot guidance for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today the Seven of Cups helps us to choose wisely and with a little less stress.

Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot guidance for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s Card is the Seven of Cups.

Right away the pop culture reference popped in with our idea for today.

I don’t know if it was a deliberate choice on the part of the director or the set designer, but there is real resemblance between this card and the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where there is an array of cups and Indy has to choose the true holy grail from among them and the ancient knight guardian says that “He chose …. wisely.” So naturally I’ve been intoning the “chose wisely” line and movie reference since watching the movie 1990 -ish.

Indy’s father’s life was on the line. So was his given the giant side effect demise of the bad guy who “chose poorly.” It was a dire, emergent, irreversible choice to be made. Luckily most of us don’t face that magnitude of circumstances in the choices that we make.

Despite the visual similarities, there are circumstantial differences between the energy today and the drama of the movie. Most of the time we aren’t going to POOF and loved ones die because of the choices we make.

There might not be special effect poofing, but choosing poorly can lead to bad things happening. It’s the fear of those consequences that can turn decision making into an anxiety riddled, brain-locking experience. That emotion driven reaction is all the worse when logic leaves us in the lurch. When logically, factually all things are equal it is easy to fall into over-thinking things. That’s where perceived stress comes in, even if the danger isn’t particularly real. We may feel like we are going to be special effects poofed if we choose poorly even if there is no poofing involved. This is where a little stress management and stress reduction comes in handy. Tarot can help. Tarot can help tip those all-things-equal scales one direction or another and help you make a choice a little more confidently. Or, as is often the case with the seven of cups, Tarot can help you get past the logic and overthinking. Tarot can help when it comes time to use your intuition and follow your heart when making an intimidating choice.

Decisions are important. So is staying chill and remembering that if we screw up, chances are we will eventually get a whole new set of choices to make. We may not get to make the exact same choice over again, but we can make new choices that can nudge things in new direction.

We may not choose wisely this time but we can try to choose again all the wiser next time.

Thank you so much for reading and listening!

Thank you for listening! They’re not monetized, so please support this blog and podcast through your likes, subs, shares, private email Tarot readings and Tarot Table memberships on ko-fi. 

See you at the next sip!

Controlled Burn

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: the King of Wands and the controlled burn.

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

Today’s card is the King of Wands.

The connection between the whole suit of wands and the classic element of fire steps forward this morning. My attention was particularly drawn to the salamanders on the tapestry or throne behind the king in the classic Pamela Smith artwork we see here. There is no doubt in my mind that the artist used them and the little guy on the ground to signify the elemental connection with the cards.

The myth of salamanders as fireproof inhabitants of hearth and flame is a whole thing in itself. Books have been written about elementals and nature spirits and such. That’s not quite the point here. It’s interesting that the artist draws the salamanders on the throne as curled in a circle, nose touching tail, just like the classic Ouroboros symbol with a snake or dragon biting their own tail. The Ouroboros symbolizes wholeness and infinity and the cosmos among other things, akin to the simple enzo circle in Zen philosophy. Books have been written about that, too, and it’s not quite the message for today either.

When I first noticed the salamander motif, for just the smallest tic, just for a split second, I thought it was a yin yang symbol which in turn reminded me of the Tao Te Ching’s advice about leadership. Lao Tzu was not a fan of micromanagement. To paraphrase “when a good master governs, the people hardly know he is there.” That is closer to the energy today.

Another way to say it might be “Slow your roll, Karen.”

Don’t be a doormat, certainly, but a little diplomacy might be go a long way.

When gasoline explodes in small amounts inside an engine cylinder, we go far. When gasoline explodes in large amounts outside of an engine, we get disaster. When a campfire toasts marshmallows we get a treat. When a wildfire starts from a campfire, destruction follows.

I’m also reminded of the character Ang learning firebending in the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The scene particularly comes to mind were he is given the exercise of lighting the center of a small leaf and controlling the small ember so it only burns to, but not over, the edge of the leaf. Later, in a burst of enthusiasm and carelessness, he accidentally burns his friend Kitara’s hands. Ang then refuses to ever fire bend again which in turn leads to its own set of problems.

It serves no one to extinguish your passions. By the same token passions that burn out of control can lead to disaster. Passion with discretion, passions with a controlled burn can light the way to something better.

Thank you for reading and listening.

The blog, the podcast and the companion videos on YouTube are not monetized and rely on your support. Your likes, subs, shares, Tarot reading purchases through this website and Tarot Table memberships on ko-fi all help me to create this unique Tarot content. Thank you.

See you at the next sip!