Tag: daily meditation tarot

Hauling the edges back in

Sometimes a line from a movie lodges in my brain and sort of lives there for a while until it proves to be real-life useful idea. I use them here in the blog all of the time: “Work the problem” from Apollo 13, Curly’s “one thing” from City Slickers, and now one from The Right Stuff.

I don’t even remember this one exactly. Writing a blog and professional Tarot was over a decade away and not at all on my radar when I first watched the movie and heard the line. I think it was Pancho, in the bar scene where Chuck Yeager had his cameo, but she said something about test pilots “pushing the edges of the envelope and hauling them back in again.”

Everybody seems to love the first part. We’ve all heard about “pushing the edge of the envelope” since the movie was released way back in 1983. Nobody seems to remember the “haul it back in” part. It’s just as important. If you have all intense bright light you can’t see any more than you can in pitch dark. Or as somebody said, “any landing you walk away from is a good one.” You can’t walk away from a landing if you don’t have one. As laudable as “pushing the envelope” may be, the things you learn at the edge serves no purpose if you don’t bring them home to use.

The 4 of pentacles has a reputation for meaning miserliness or greed. Or it can be a reminder to be careful with the budget. I’ve seen it interpreted as a protected, hoarded or very secret treasure that isn’t shared. Today is one of those days where the card is hinting at a bigger message, a half-bubble off of the strings of keywords attached to the card. This is one of those days where a purely intuitive connotation steps to the front. Pay attention to those whenever you do a reading. Energy and spirit really have something to say when that happens.

Be yin. Today is a day for hauling the edge of the envelope back in. It isn’t a day for pushing or striving or extravagance either literally with money or spiritually or emotionally.

It is a good day to rest and abide, and integrate, and learn how to live and use the things you’ve learned. It’s a little like the spiritual equivalent of putting away the groceries you’ve brought home. It’s time to put your spiritual learning into it’s real world place and start using them. There is a careful deliberate feel about it. Protect your spiritual treasures by solidifying them, living them. It’s a good day to turn off the afterburners and bring this Monday in for a landing.

“If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing.” – Chuck Yeager

PeaceTarot: Introduction to the 1st ed.

PeaceTarot is available as a downloadable ebook in the Taocraft Tarot Shop

Copyright Ronda Snow 2020 All rights reserved

I almost didn’t write #PeaceTarot.

It was an idea born out of tragedy, and there is a certain discomfort in writing a book inspired by stories of loss and violence. It feels a little like taking advantage of a disaster, even though the core idea is to help and comfort. Even so, every time I would chicken out, the Muses would take a deep breath, then start whacking me over the head with the idea all over again.

The notion of #PeaceTarot first came around after the September 2012 attack on the American Embassy in Bengazi, Libya.  As bad as that was, it was even more discouraging to hear politicians and presidential candidates try to turn those events to suit their own self-serving ends. Their rhetoric was verbal violence heaped on top of violent tragedy.  What could one unknown blogger do to speak for peace when some of the country’s most powerful people seemed intent on the opposite? I reached for the one thing literally at my fingertips: the Internet. I posted tarot meditations on Twitter with the hashtag #PeaceTarot and asked other tarot readers to do the same. Some friends picked up the challenge, but after a few days hashtag idea faded along with the headlines. It didn’t trend one bit, so I just chalked the whole thing up as a nice try.

After the mass shooting of school children in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012, #PeaceTarot came to mind again. Several friends of mine were genuinely upset by the news.  It was a loss that touched every parent in the nation. Maybe this time #PeaceTarot needed to be something more than a few ephemeral tweets. Maybe Tarot could be a source of comfort for anyone moved to emotion after a tragic event, no matter the circumstances. After all, that is what Tarot and psychic readings are really all about. Readings help us understand our situation, ease emotions, and find a way forward – plus maybe find a little inner peace along the way.

Day after day, violence continues; Shootings, bombings, chemical weapons being used and hostages being taken. #PeaceTarot demanded to be written, and for better or worse here it is.

If one person can find one moment of serenity in these few pages, then this book has served its purpose. That one person and that one moment contributes to the sum total of peacefulness that exists in the world.  Peaceful thinking and calm emotions change the choices that we make. When we choose differently, then we can literally change our future. Thought by thought, moment by moment, we all can contribute to a more peaceful world for everyone.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Navigate

Video from the TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel

Left: OK here is today’s pandemic pep talk. More change is on the horizon. It’s a crazy time if you look at things globally or if you are out there in the thick of it doing important work, but everyone else is being asked to hibernate. Hibernators have it easy. Like a bear that was forced to wake up too soon, or a bear asked to hibernate in the summer, you may feel a little off kilter or out of the natural cycle of things. Plod along, grind it out, just keep on staying in your cave and washing your paws. If things can change TO this, it can change FROM this sooner or later.

Center: Ten of Cups. My attention is drawn to the sudden hops that actual grasshoppers make more than long and varied symbolism of grasshoppers that Mr. Andrews writes about in “Animal Wise.” In fact, the energy around this card today reminds me more of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh than a grasshopper. It is also like a gentler version of the “remember to play” aspects of the Fool card that we sometimes see, too. Play hopscotch in the driveway. Spend a little quality time staring out the window. Play a game of Twister. The big picture perspective of the world is still pretty scary, but it is perfectly ok to zoom in to some personal moments. Have a minute of fun and several long minutes taking in and sending out love across the distance. Love can leap anywhere.

Right: The Star. Firefly eh? Good TV show that. I recommend it. But this card reminds me of a different reference. One of my favorites. You’ve heard it before, but it must be a good moment because here it is again all these decades later. Anyone remember “City Slickers” with Billie Crystal and Jack Palance? You could call this idea Curly’s Finger. There is one thing that makes sense out of life … the trick is figuring out what that is. Figure out the one thing that makes sense of it all and you are ahead of the game. It’s only THE one thing if it is YOUR one thing. What makes sense of it all for you? Follow that. Follow the north star, not the finger that points to it.