Tag: daily meditation

Today’s Tarot: Hanging Around

Public Domain

In Carl Sagan’s fiction work Contact, Ellie Arroway is a scientist involved with SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intellence (which is a real thing.) In it, at one point, she considers not only the vast distances between Earth and other potential homes to intelligent, communicative life, but also the role that time inherently plays. Obviously, it take a heckuva long time, even at the speed of light, for one side of message to get from there to here and vice versa. What if there is also a vast difference in lifespan and local experience of time. A few days to us is a lifetime to a fruit fly, and many generations to a germ. As she was driving she noticed crack or bumps in the road at fairly regular intervals. What if, she wondered, the pulses in a signal came so slowly, so widely spaced that we didn’t even notice the signal, with each blip of the message just being dismissed as an anomaly.

Makes me wonder if the universe isn’t really teeming with intelligent, communicative, technological life but each at such widely disparate time scales, that nobody can connect with anybody so that everybody thinks they are the only ones…but that something for another time.

The same phenomenon can happen when it comes to our interaction with Tarot, or any form of esoteric guidance, even pure intuition. Sometimes the whole idea gradually unspools over days, weeks or months until finally the last piece falls into place. If we miss a piece, the message goes on until finally the “ah-ha” happens.

A single card daily meditation practice is an excellent way to get a feel for this among many other things. Not only do you get a specific read of the energy for that specific day, you can see patterns emerge over the course of days, weeks, even years. My personal example of that is the strong presence of pentacle cards during the first part of the pandemic and the evolving intuitive images of the U.S. map with all the little tornadoes and the hurricane on the horizon that both reflected the overwhelming cultural zeitgeist energies that were so strong during 2019 & 2020.

What say you empaths? Has the cultural and environmental energies stopped ringing your bell quite so hard? I think that is the impetus behind the speckled stone image. Boundaries are firmer, individual concerns are at the fore and the existential political crisis (at least locally here in the US has dropped into the background somewhat.)

Today’s card connects to yesterday’s Four of Swords card which connected to previous readings. There is a continued thread of change & rest themed energies.

The Hanged man connotes stagnation, but this energy hasn’t been hanging around long enough to take on that interpretation. Hanged Man can also mean surrender, changing your way of looking at things – it can take on exactly the wait, don’t push, change what you are doing, rejuvenate, and contemplate energies we’ve been seeing. My hunch is that this kind of energy is going to be around for a while since we’ve seen it in a multi-day pattern like this. Astrology might ascribe this to some planet in retrograde or something. I don’t know anything much about astrology, so I attribute this to a yin phase, a time of quiet, of taking in, minor adjustments. It is a time of plugging in to recharge in whatever metaphoric sense you want to give the phrase.

If there is a message specific to today, I sense “patience.” Not everything unfolds at the pace we want or expect. There are reasons patience is considerd one of the great treasures of Taoism. Just like messages from aliens, life unfolds at its own natural pace, not according to our wishes.

“The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you”

Neil DeGrasse Tyson via brainyquote.com

Function & Finesse

Throwing a ball isn’t difficult to do.

Almost anyone can do it, one way or the other. Tossing something is a skill we all learn at such a young age, that we almost never give it a second thought. We can throw any little thing and have it land somewhere. If we are going to put the wadded up paper in the garbage can from 6 feet away, it takes a little more thought and focus but is the same basic body mechanics as any throw. Still, it isn’t major league baseball, either.

This is another way of saying one of the things I was rambling in circles about in “Growing Ogres.” Reading Tarot for yourself is easy to do. I can teach you in a 90 minute workshop, or in a short ebook. Doing a single card draw for yourself is the throwing equivalent of tossing your socks in the general direction of the clothes hamper.

Every card you add to a layout increases the level of difficulty. Not only are you dealing with the card’s assigned meaning combined with direct intuitive input, you add each card’s position meaning within the layout PLUS the way that the cards connect to each other to read the layout as a whole (not just a series of card + position meanings). With each added position, with each card increase in a layout’s the complexity increases. I don’t know if increasing exponentially is the right way to describe it, but it’s close. We are still talking about reading for yourself, so we are not talking about landing on Mars. Still, the food for thought from a multi-card layout can be a lot to digest. It’s moving up in difficulty from tossing socks to playing trashcan paperball, to little league, to a full on juggling act where the balls can fall down very easily.

Reading as an amateur at no charge IS an exponential increase in skill from the sock tossin’ DIY daily meditations. We are talking full-on March Madness, college playoff level ball handling. Not only do you have the multiple cards in multiple positions to knit together, you have the added layer of language that falls over the whole thing. It’s one thing to understand a card’s message and symbolism inside our own head for your own self, but it is a whole other enterprise to communicate those things to another person in a way that they can understand.

Reading professionally is playing hard ball with the big boys. When you do that, you are going to the show. Professional is professional whether you are throwing card or throwing balls. You not only have the basic card meaning, your intuitive impressions, they layout position meanings and the interconnection between the cards, when you go pro you have ethics and business practices to consider.

We all have perfectly good intuition. We are all “gifted” psychics. It is as much a matter of learning, practice and technique as throwing a baseball. We can all toss one. Not everyone wants to put in the work to get really good at it. Natural talent can play a part, but I’m not sure how much of a factor it really is. Not everyone has the drive, desire, natural ability, luck and opportunity to be a professional athlete. Or mechanic. Or doctor, or lawyer or therapist or grocery bagger or Tarot reader or professional anything-you-can-name.

If you can functionally do something, and you are happy with it, by all means do it for yourself. I think it is laudable. I like to make things. I could buy a sweater, but I have the ability to knit one for myself and I don’t mind the wait and less-than-professional result. But on the other hand, I like to listen to music. I probably could functionally learn to make amateur music for myself, but I don’t want to. I want to listen to music made by artists with talent and finesse as well as basic functional skill.

We all have intuition. It is, I believe, a natural function of the human psyche just like throwing a binkie on the floor is a natural function of being a human baby. Using Tarot cards to access that normal intuition is like learning to aim that binkie toss. Time, practice, technique, desire and sprinkle of luck and talent can give the intuitive function a good deal of finesse.

Learn to do DIY daily meditation single card Tarot readings with PeaceTarot, available in the TaoCraftTarotShop on Etsy.

copyright Ronda Snow, all rights reserved

Whisper to the Ethers

Worry, anxiety and fear comes to us all, some more than others. It isn’t an emotion to be ignored or belittled. If the risk and problems match the emotions, plan and act to ease them. If the emotions far outweigh the actual situation, that too is a call to action. The action is to understand and when needed to reach out, to speak. Share the weight of it. Even in the alone times, whisper to the ethers, and the web of the world will hear.

My Tarot Valentine 2021: Two Hearts Can Be Better Than One

No video today…having some issues with the YouTube upload. If I can get it to work, I’ll add the video later below. Before we move on to the card, what do you think of the video / written post combination? Comments are open now, so don’t hesitate to speak up (unless you are speaking in spam.) What do you like about the blog? Hate about it? Let me know what kind of Tarot content you want to read, and I’ll do what I can to create it.

I like the authenticity the videos lend to a post. You can see the card drawing itself. You can see that this is a real, random card draw for the post. It gives a visual, relatable window into the Tarot process over and above a static card image. Because of the large file size, it isn’t practical to do this with full, customized distance readings, but for these general audience, short, one card meditations, the blog and YouTube videos (usually) play well together. By that same token, the written blog gives us the space and pace to explore the card with more depth and thoughtfulness than video will tolerate. I can take a few seconds to stop and listen to spirit and intuition while I’m writing. Those few seconds of dead air in a video are a long boring eternity. I like to think that this combination is the best of both mediums.

Other days, like today, are in full “dammit Jim, Imma writer not a yootoober” mode. If I have to re-shoot a video, then the random part of the draw gets lost unless I draw a whole new card, which is easy enough to do. Other times, like today, the first card has something to say. The King of Cups wants to be heard, so I’ll listen despite the technical glitches both in filming and uploading. And no, it isn’t friggen’ Mercury.

Actually, it is a short, simple, straightforward message.

Talk it out.

Relationships are important things. They are hardwired to connect outwardly, and by their very definition and nature connect to other people. Relationships are not something that can be sorted out if they are a swirling jumble inside just your own head. If, for whatever reason, you are not able to talk it out with the significant other in question, then a sounding board of some sort is really helpful. Yes, by all means, talk, text, write, send smoke signals, do anything and everything you can to communicate directly with the other person in the relationship. If that isn’t possible, then talk it out with somebody. At the very least, talk it out in a journal. Turn the self-talk outward be it with pen and paper or be it talking with a trusted friend or family or therapist or psychic or what have you. The process of talking it out, the process of verbalizing or writing it all out may be exactly the process you need to make sense of it all. Have a heart to heart chat with your pet. Organizing your thoughts and feelings and channeling them through your language centers might just be the bridge from feeling to knowing that you need. It is the switch that makes the light bulb click on.

This has nothing to do with traditional interpretations for the card. It is pure intuition in the context of this “My Tarot Valentine” series, but the advice here is also to talk about any big changes in a romantic relationship before your make up your mind and begin the conversation with your love interest. It has that ‘I don’t know who needs to hear this, but it feels important for someone out there’ feeling.

It feels like it is important to talk out the relationship, and any changes you have in mind, yes, but before you act, talk to someone trusted who is older than you and of the same gender as the significant other in question. I ‘hear’ “slow your roll.” Clairaudience is like clairvoyance, except for me when I say ‘hear’ it means that the intuition is in the form of words instead of mental images. I can teach you more about that another time (watch this space!)

But to stay on message…relationships connect outward, so if you have any concerns about a relationship, process it outwardly. Don’t keep going in emotionally charged circles inside your own head. Write it out in a journal if nothing else. Change to a relationship in terms of this card today holds no judgement. It can be good or bad, depending on your individual situation and needs. Whether you are thinking of popping the question or cutting the cord, talk it out with someone you trust, someone who wants the best for you who is a friend or relative (someone who is NOT invested in the outcome except for your happiness) Talk it out with someone older or wiser, preferably someone of the same gender as your significant other. I don’t know why that part, I’m just trusting the intuition there.

And there, as I always say at the end of a reading, the energy steps back.

Technical gremlins are afoot.

So are some changes for spring. I’m not going to give a “hard opening” for a new distance reading that I hope to develop. I’m hoping to announce a big change for the spring equinox. Please go to the right side of the page (or scroll WAYYYY down if you are on mobile) and follow the blog so all new posts, video or otherwise, will come right to you inbox along with the big announcement. Well, not that big. Think cool, new and improved. Nifty and fun even. Stay tuned!

Wear Your Experience

Daily meditation style one card tarot reading with the nine of wands.

“Wear your experience, you’ve earned your scars.” comes through here.

It isn’t to say wallow in past experiences or let past injuries dominate your mind now. There is a difference between release and denial. We can’t deny extant fact. Our experiences don’t disappear. They are part of the path that brought us to where we are now. They are in part of us. The difference lies in how those things are integrated. They are part of us, yes, but what part, how big of a part and what part that part plays in our current life are malleable.

I also relate this to a mental image that came through near to New Year’s Day. The swarm of small tornadoes across a USA map outline is still there, but not as strong, as if the lines are drawn in grey instead of black. The sense of taking stock, of crawling out of the wreckage to begin to survey the damage is starting to strengthen. Here I mentally/intuitively ‘hear’ the song “Beyond Thunderdome” by Tina Turner from the movie of the same name. In particular, the lyrics “Out of the ruins, out of the wreckage, can’t make the same mistake this time” come to mind. Granted, this is one of my favorite movies and songs from the mid 80s, but it fits this time, and this energy.

Whatever your Thunderdome has been, you don’t have to live in it. Walk out and walk free, move beyond it, but own the fact that you were there.

Today’s Tarot: Slow & Steady

Time is a thing.

Time is woven into the fabric of the universe. How we measure it and talk about it, however, is made-up and arbitrary. A necessary arbitrary, to be sure. We need that common touchstone to communicate. It’s a whole wibbly-wobbly Doctor Who kind of thing. If you invented a time machine, it would have to be able to move, too, or else the Earth would rotate right out from under you while you were gone.

Time is a thing, and setting arbitrary measurements for it are a necessity, but it doesn’t have to be an stress or an enemy. There is a yin and yang too it, and ebb and flow to it. Yes, Eistein showed that time is relative to speed, literally, but there is also fluidity within our perception of it. Psychological stress can be described as feeling time-pressure equally across all tasks. Everything is a coming-in-hot emergency.

The Two of Wands reminds us that nah, it’s not.

Full speed ahead mach 2 overdrive 24/7 is a problem waiting to happen. When this card comes along, it’s time to cool your jets. Look, listen, wait, think. Those are things too. Those are things that need doing as much as anything else. A quality journey is a win as much as getting to your destination is a win.

Putting pressure on yourself is counterproductive in today’s energy. Allow yourself, your projects, your goals, your hopes have the time they need. A turtle doesn’t need to run to live well. Thoughtful persistence is as beneficial as outright speed.

Today’s Tarot: Emphasis, Not Error

Earlier this week (in other words, yesterday) the four of pentacles was one of the cards in the YouChoose Interactive reading. The boilerplate interpretation of repeating cards is that we aren’t learning the lesson that the card is bringing. It’s too soon for that to make any sense, especially in a general audience reading like this. One to one, private, individual readings are very different. In an individual session, I dial in to your specific message within the energy at large and translate that into ideas directed toward you as an idividual. These blog readings are like looking at the energy of a flock of birds or a school of fish all moving roughly together but with scattered individual for whom none of this will make any sense at all.

In this situation, we can’t consider a repeating card, especially one that comes two days in a row, to be an unlearned lesson. Humans just don’t learn or integrate the kind of life-lessons associated with Tarot in that amount of time.

In my minds eye I see the red light emoji, and hear almost a video game sort of alert signal, a little like the ‘time is almost up’ sound they make on American Ninja Warrior. I can also mentally ‘see’ a yellow highlighter marker.

For those of you who chose the Four of Pentacles yesterday, this is a double dose. Having the card appear both yesterday and today makes the message all the more important for you. The way the card moved from an option to a full on general audience hints that the message is growing in importnance and urgency, not fading. The message is for everyone now, but with an extra dose for the folks who chose the card yesterday.

The Four of Pentacles can be associated with greed and stinginess. That isn’t the thread of meaning that is so urgent right now. It speaks more to care, carefulness with budget and money. This is not a good time for impulse buys and self indulgence. Practical, low key, stock the pantry kind of energy is around. Think squirrels gathering walnuts for the winter.

Winter, as they say, is coming.

Pragmatic planning is your friend today. Slow and steady very much wins the race. This isn’t a full energy all out emergency. It isn’t a time of euphoria or dysphoria either one. Plodding, methodical, planning, budgeting are all words that come to mind today.

It’s that time of year. Taking the Four of Coins/Pentacles advice, I’m trying to get organized for Fall. Forgive the repetition, but it helps me to triage and prepare if I organize a few basic announcements for you.

First, there won’t be a premium blog after all. All of the blog, all of the YouTube channel is free and open. I haven’t monetized either one. Both the blog and the channel take some time and effort to do, especially since I’m a great Tarot reader but not such a great video media personality. The steep learning curve continues. If you like what you read in the blog, and use it oftern, please consider getting a peronal reading. One card readings are the cost of a coffeehouse latte. Although I wouldn’t object to being paid in my favorite drink, you can’t send coconut vanilla flat whites  through email. If you are so inclined, distance readings are available for order 24/7 no appointment needed on the home page.

Second, I hope you’ll consider following the blog by email along with your favorite social media (say hi on Instagram and Twitter, I actually interact with those) If you follow the blog, you’ll get all of the content. There will be print only posts that do not appear on the YouTube channel.

Third, due to the ongoing pandemic and the oncoming flu season, in-person readings and party Tarot readings are still closed. If you want a live, real-time reading, phone readings are available by appointment with prepayment. Order a phone session just like you would order anything online using the secure paypal button HERE then contact me at TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com to schedule your session.

Fourth, ask me anything! The comments are back open and you are welcome to tell me the kind of content you want to see, or ask any questions you like. I won’t promise an individual reply, but I will answer everything that I can in the blog itself. Any spam or anything inappropriate will be thrown into an active volcano and never heard from again.

Thank you all. Best Wishes – R.

Today’s Tarot: Discovering Diamonds

Today is a good example of why just memorizing card meanings isn’t enough.

Tarot cards are nothing sacred, nothing independent from ourselves. They are a tool – and a damned useful one – for accessing our own intuition and insight. The cards trigger the mental images, sounds, words or other mental-sensations or emotional feelings that typically carry the core message. Tarot readings are most powerful when you combine the classic card meanings with your own intuitive read of the energy of the moment. The first is a root, a foundation. The second is drawing from that root to meet the need of the moment.

Learning structured meanings for the cards is the beginning, a necessary gateway to using cards intuitively. Today we begin with one (of many) classic, well known meanings for this card: creativity. Generally the Ace of Cups is associated with inspiration and new ideas. Of the many meanings given for the card, creative inspiration is the one that most captures my attention today. The idea of creative inspiration (think Muse) is supported in the artwork. Think of the water pouring into the cup as new ideas being poured into your creative mind and expressive talents.

On the purely intuitive side, I get the mental image of a graphic of a human brain, like one of those pleasant, artsy 3d-ish graphics they have in memory support supplement commercials. I could “see” bright points, like diamonds scattered across the image connected by thin silver, shiny threads and “heard” the term “neural network.”

And no, I’m not hallucinating. This is all very much just the product of inner, mental imagination. Sometimes internal mental processes are best communicated in simple, spiritual, even primitive language. Saying ‘see’ is the best way to describe intuition (or energy, or spirit, pick your vocabulary) coming to mind in the form of images of things. Saying ‘hear’ is the best way to describe when intuition presents itself in the form of words or sounds.

Tarot is both literally and subtly symbolic. Sometimes the two daisy-chain together to give the card’s meaning, just like words chain together to form a coherent sentence idea. On the card, the literal image of water pouring into a chalice can symbolize an outpouring of inspiration. Combine that with the diamond-like ‘neural network’ and it reminds me of something I read once…not sure where….that creativity is not so much a function of making something totally new as much as it is a function of discovering new and novel connections between things that already exist. In some sense, that process of making new connections is the root of all creativity. Science is not the only human endeavor where we stand on the shoulders of Newton’s giants. We have to make things out of the resources at hand. Creativity can find new whole new resources or it can make new things out of what is already there. Both count.

So let’s find the diamonds and connect the dots for today.

Advice message: Today is a good day to follow your creative impulses. Don’t let a good idea spill away.

Caution message: If it isn’t a part of your livelihood or an absolute necessity, don’t force yourself into creativity. The best ideas are spontaneous. If it isn’t happening, wait for inspiration.

Validation message: Yes, that idea is as good as you think. Roll with it.

Working from intuition, these suggestions are inspired by, not traditionally associated with, the Ace of Cups:

Book suggestion: “Every Tool’s a Hammer” by Adam Savage

Aromatherapy: Lemongrass, bergamot or citronella

Crystals: Rainbow fluorite, iolite, amazonite (crown and throat chakras, inspiration and communication)

Affirmation: I see connections clearly and take inspiration from them.

A few quick announcements:

The premium blog won’t be happening after all. The entire blog is FREE, the specials and giveaways are for everyone, and the YouTube channel is still not monetized. That being said, any likes, shares, blog follows, social media subs and follows and reading orders are always greatly appreciated!

I need your help in another way too. The slo-mo ask me anything is going to happen under a different name. Zombie Cat wants to hibernate for a while. He’s just not that into it if people aren’t asking questions. If you have a question for the new look AMA, please leave them in the comments below or on YouTube, Instagram or Twitter (I won’t see it if you use FB or Tumblr. My content is there, but I don’t interact with those platforms)

Ragged Reality

Reality may not be pretty. “Think positive” some say. What about about being positive things are bad? A problem can not be solved unless you accept that it exists. A problem can not be solved well unless you see it as it actually exists and understand the resources that are available. Problems aren’t the problem. Avoidance, denial, minimization, projection, fear, anxiety, anger, hatred, resentment; these things are problems.

Constantly playing the victim and eternal pessimism are asking for a problem. Denial and Pollyanna positivism are asking for a problem.

Staring reality in the eye, rolling up your sleeves and getting to work is asking for a solution.