Tag: energy

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Changing for Fall

The short summer hiatus is over.

YouChoose is back from a short summer hiatus with a slight tweek

The three card ‘pathway layout’ and the first three pathway related cards of the 5 and 7 card layouts have already shifted from a time focus (the old past-present-future related position meanings) to a more timeless energy focus.

I’m making the same shift in focus as I read the interactive cards, too.

We all know that the internet is forever. Instead of reading for a particular day or week, if I focus on right-here and right-now instead of a particular place in time, it might make the videos more time-less by focusing on the present moment.

I’m very thankful and glad that some readers have found and like some older posts. Thank you all. If someone comes across this post after the coming week. By focusing on the now takes this reading outside of linear time because now is the only time that there is.

The part where you choose is still the same. Pause the video if you need a moment, then choose a card. Then restart the video (or just let if go if you choose quickly) and listen to the reading. It still comes out a little time referenced, a little focused on ‘today’ but today could be…should be and will be…right for your day, whenever that day may be when you watch the video or read this post.

Part of the reasoning behind the podcast and partial youtube sabbatical was social media was getting a little noisy, energetically speaking. Too much horse puckey even for me.

Which is a good reason for NOT changing the choice / interactive component. Being able to choose your own card, even for a broad blog-post social media kind of reading, cuts through the noise. You know that the message is for you. The randomness surpasses the coincidences if that makes any weird sense. What are the chances of you choosing that video out the bazillions on the internet and choosing that one card of three on any given day? Sure, if you follow the blog and read new posts as they come out that reduces the random chance element, but hopefully it will have meaning or give a little inspiration just the same.

Please enjoy. I hope you like the little change. All comments and feedback are welcome. Happy Fall!

Today’s Tarot R & R

Maybe it’s a message for me as much as anyone else. But that’s how these things often work. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? My intent is that the blog will help somebody out there somewhere at some time or another, whenever they happen to see this. At risk of sounding like Prince lyrics, the whole point of Tarot is to help any and all of us get through this thing called life

The Four of Swords ties in to several energies that have already stepped forward lately. I still get a strong mental image of the different color flecks in stones from this weeks interactive reading Speckles. It feels like we are at long last getting a respite from the communal, zeitgeist energies that have so strong for the past year or so. It isn’t so much that we are being asked to stay in our lane and stick to our knitting – but rather the communal energy has disengaged and left us to our own devices. It is almost as if the universe has given us a day off to have a play date with ourselves. We are a collective of individuals. There is beauty in diversity. In a very gentle way, today feels like permission to get down with your bad self in a sense, whatever level of frenetic or zen energy that may be for you.

There is also the idea of lifelong learning (Growing Ogres) It is a mark of excellence in any profession. It seems the best of the best are always learning, evolving, growing new onion layers and letting old ones fall away. That’s what a sabbatical is; an opportunity for professors to study more stuff.

It doesn’t have to be forever. A break in the energetic action is a very different thing from being stuck or stagnant or lazy. It certainly isn’t a sign of failure. In Reiki, the five core precepts (letting go of worry, letting go of anger, working honestly, being grateful, being kind) are focused on the present moment. “Just for today” is a liberating, enabling, empowering thought. Just for today, take the Four of Sword’s advice. Just for today, get some rest. Just for today, give yourself a break and work on something else. “Respite”and “Sabbatical” doesn’t mean be unproductive. You can rest one thing while doing something else. Or not.

“Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted”

John Lennon

Cardless: Thoughts on an anniversary

What a year.

Perception of time is so fluid and so individual it’s no wonder humans created clocks and calendars just so we can navigate our way through the tine drop of time we are given for our lifetimes. If nothing else, the year of the pandemic has taught us that. After all it’s been blursday the 363rd of Marchish for about three years now, hasn’t it?

Let’s set the cards aside for a moment. I have an interesting intuition flexing exercise for you: Look back over the past year since the global Covid-19 pandemic was declared, but look at it exclusively through the lens of intuition. What were your intangible, intuitive perceptions over the course of that time? When and how did you become aware of them? What did life look like intuitively to you in January 2020? March 2020? Summer solstice? Fall equinox? At the American election? The holidays? January 2021? How did the intuitive feelings connect to actual events as they unfolded? Did you learn anything about your intuitive perceptions in the empathic pressure cooker that was 2020? Seriously, I’m interested in your meta-assessment of your intuition this past year (stay private – you don’t have to share details) The comments are open if you’d like to add your two cents to the topic today.

I live in the eastern United States. The cultural zeitgeist energies and emotions were so strong last year that looking back at the intuitive landscape has a certain tangible quality, almost like the memory of actual events. In my mind’s eye, I can still see the mental images of a U.S. map with little black tornado shapes spinning and wiggling and moving around all over the map. I remember the image of the ocean with a hurricane on the horizon. I remember a shimmering iridescent soap bubble or force field whenever setting empathic boundaries came into the conversation. I remember the image of survivors peeking out of storm wreckage. I remember the map again with the little tornadoes fading to grey.

Part of me wants to take pride in how well the images matched the events that unfolded after – I’d call the insurrection riot a hurricane among many, metaphorically speaking. It feeds into the cassandra complex my ego has brewing. Actually, it was just a clear-eyed view of energies that were current at the time of the mental image. It was in no way prophetic or predictive, just as Tarot and intuition always is. It helped me to do good readings for clients. It helped me know when to feed the spiritual side of life and when to stick to my knitting (literally) and take care of practical things. Sensitivity to energy helped me to ease up on the spiritual stuff (especially when it was getting way too judge-y and taking on a fearful edge) That is exactly what Tarot and intuition is supposed to do both in ‘normal’ times and times of extreme duress. It gives a read of where we are and suggests a better way forward. Tarot and intuition didn’t predict a damn thing in any of this. Still, intuition worked. We all have it. You can use it too. All you have to do is take the lid off and give your ESP a little bit of TLC. (Of course, me and my ego are happy to help you in that process)

If it is any consolation, though, the image today is a clear map and the wreckage is gone. My attention is drawn to the physical (perhaps another aspect of all the coins/pentacle cards that have turned up during the past year) There have been storms and fires and floods and accidents the same as any other year. Those literal changes and disasters increase the pandemic disaster exponentially for those who experience those losses too. The change is even more heartbreaking and profound for those who have lost loved ones. The fortunate rest of us, whose closest loved ones and physical environment is as intact and unchanged as it would be after any other year can take consolation in that. Look out the window. For the vast majority of us, the streets and houses are all the same as last year. What we DO and how we do things has changed quite a lot. Sure, there are plastic shields and hand sanitizer dispensers in the stores, but for most of us all of the physical infrastructure of our lives has been left untouched by the pandemic year.

I have another suggestion for today. Find something familiar. Any tangible thing that is the same as it was in the before time. A place. A park. Your home. Your backyard. An article of clothing. A favorite song. A coffee mug. Anything. Drink in the familiarity. Ground and center yourself around that. Life, attitudes, energies – many things have irrevocably changed in the past year. Soak up some comfort and courage from the stuff that hasn’t.

On second thought, maybe Tarot does have a card for this. It is one of life altering change, some tragic but some also for the better.

In memory of those lost. In gratitude for lessons learned.

public domain card image

Today’s Tarot: Dam it

Or more accurately, don’t.

Accidents happen. Poor choices are made, more often than not unintentionally. We wouldn’t set out to hurt anyone, but sometimes we are less careful with ourselves than with others.

There are some times, hopefully minor ones, where we are our own worst enemy and our self sabotage is our own damn fault. I have a theory that is the precise time when obstacles are a potent spirit message and life lesson.

When the challenge comes from things outside of us, all of the adages and advice about persistence come into play. When the obstacle is our own doing, then it is more a matter of beating our own head against our own wall until we get our own clue.

The feeling with the card today is not really preventative. It feels like the message is about something now, something in progress, something where the cosmos is telling us to knock it off already. Where are you putting on the brakes (or building a dam) when you need to go with the flow?

I’ve discovered that I like making playlists. Not going to put the brakes on that just yet. Here is another one for your enjoyment: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6hDnolAabh3u3g4vcGpS68?si=19ee6787bdcd47be

Today’s Tarot: A Little Ruckus

Into every life a little ruckus must fall

This card doesn’t feel cautionary at all. If anything, it is encouraging us to jump in. The idea here isn’t combativeness or a conflict based on an external threat, but rather teamwork and mutual problem solving. The energy is basically “healthy competition.” I’ve don’t have any personal experience with team sports but I’d describe the feel here more like a scrimmage or an intramural tournament sort of thing rather than out and out competition with other teams.

Practice makes perfect as the adage goes. There is also a bit of a fire drill feeling here. No actual threat at the moment, but practice and prepare the tough stuff as well as the easy. A paramedic instructor once told me “prepare for the emergency and the emergency goes away.” Preparation and knowing what to do turns an emergency into just something you have to do, just really fast.

Ruckus is going to happen. A little practice, training, and healthy competition takes some of the scary out of it when it does.

Reminder: no appointment needed for distance Tarot. Order any time, 24/7.

Email tarot includes a photo of your unique cards (I shuffle, draw the cards and take a picture just as if we were in the same place together). You can then read the card interpretation. With video distance by email, the link to the video comes by email (the file is too big to attach to email directly) you see the card draw and listen to the interpretation. Both include the “psychic summary” with crystal and aromatherapy suggestions. Both email and video distance readings are available on the home page using secure PayPal buttons to purchase. For fastest service, please send your name, and topic/question/open reading request by email or by using the “contact merchant” button at checkout.

Plan 21

I have a theory.

You have to HAVE a plan before life, circumstances and general random crap can blow it all to pieces. Life can get pretty Darwinian sometimes. Adapt or die. But you have to have something TO adapt. You have to be in the water before you can go with the flow. Plan/adapt, yang/yin: I doubt anyone is surprised to see me go kind of Taoist with all of this.

My original plan lasted all the way through 9 am yesterday. So step one is declare time and calendars to be merely arbitrary (they are) and just roll all of this out now instead of a nice, neat Monday morning. This is my general game plan for 2021, subject to change. Everything is, subject to change that is.

  1. Video/blog combos twice per week: YouChoose week ahead on the weekend (or early Monday morning) and Today’s tarot on Wednesdays
  2. One card Tarot readings on the blog other days as often as possible, with longer reads sprinkled in as the inspiration (or reader questions) hit.
  3. No more cutesy pants marketing promotions. The prices are very affordable and the quality of the readings are high. What I offer is a solid value as it is. I’m good at this. I love doing this. I’m here to help. Let’s do some Tarot together.
  4. 20% of the proceeds from all one card distance Tarot readings by e-mail will be donated to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank throughout the year.
  5. No more seasonal shenanigans. All the readings I do are available all of the time. You can find a price and layout to fit any budget, mood or question, all on the home page.
  6. Announcements weekly in the youchoose posts, or in the blog / Twitter for emergencies/cancellations
  7. Expect delays nights, weekends and U.S. holidays.
  8. In-person sessions and parties will remain closed until the Halloween season 2021
  9. Comments and social media are OPEN. Talk to me people! Let me know the kind of content you like, don’t like and want to see and I can, you know, adapt. (comments are still curated and spam is still obliterated in a blinding flash of hellfire)

That being said, let’s DO this thing.

The energy IS different than it was last year. I still get the mental image of the U.S. map with lot’s of little tornadoes all over it, but they are fading. I also get a dry, windy ‘aftermath’ feeling, like a scene from a disaster movie, with a feeling like coming out of the storm shelter with a rock in the pit of your stomach as you see the damage, and start to process what just happened and that it was just as bad as it seemed. Or maybe that is just my gut twisting when I hear how many people traveled over the holidays. We’ve turned a sort of corner, but now comes damage assessment, realizing the losses, and the first inklings of the beginnings of the beginning of recovery. Don’t put away your chaps just yet. There is still plenty of Mad Max style dystopian post apocalyptic energy out there. They aren’t kidding. It is probably going to be a dark-energy winter, at least locally (U.S. vs global) Spring and summer have that ‘aftermath’ feel. I feel pretty optimistic about Fall, although I usually do since it is far and away my favorite time of year.

Nature is adapting, but it is also cycles. No new forward looking new year planning is complete without a little retrospective. Thank you all for reading, following, commenting, liking and making this all worth doing. I’m grateful.

Comfy is good

Get comfy.

The comforts of home is something no in-person psychic or Tarot session can give. It’s like the whole Schrodinger thing. An observer just observing changes the whole thing. Sort of. Or something like that.

No matter how it is done, a live spoken reading can never have the mind to mind impact of reading your message at your leisure and in your greatest comfort. Calling this a READING is no accident of language. It’ a cosmic hint as I see it.

If you go to a psychic, then you have to put on your shoes and your public face. No matter how familiar, homey or welcoming their workspace may be, some degree of social conditioning kicks in – on both sides of the Tarot table. Even if the psychic comes to your home or party, the same idea applies. With a stranger in your home, you are in a different mind space than you would be under everyday circumstances. The message given by spirit is identical to any other format, but the way the message lands in your mind and heart might just be a teeny tiny bit different because of those social filters. It brings another person into the system, just like peeking in the box adds an observer into the system and interacts with the results of Schrodinger’s thought experiment. Or it least that is my meager understanding of it.

Social isn’t bad. Having another person affecting the system is in many ways the whole point of it. If you could figure this out on your own, you wouldn’t want a reading in the first place. Two eyes see with greater depth and clarity than one (related post: “Parallax“) In-person readings meet a basic human need for human interaction that written readings can’t quite replace. Phone readings fill that roll too. They are live, real-time, fill a social need while being covid safe. In-person work is valua ble, which is why I plan to bring them back on a part time basis for Halloween 2021, depending on how the vaccination distribution goes.

A Tarot reading that you actually read is something entirely different, and something very special.

With a distance Tarot session…be it email, video, or handwritten pen, ink and paper…there is no social filters, no schedule, no expectations. The words from spirit stream to you directly, in whatever cocoon of comfort and privacy that you choose to create. Wear your comfiest clothes. Listen to your favorite music. Grab your favorite bevorage or snack. When you engage with a distance reading in your own way, in your own place, in your own time, you engage with spirit from a place that is most fully and authentically youriself. You engage with energy and spirit on an more intense and mentally intimate level.

It’s that elfcon time of year. Even staying home, scaling down, and celebrating inside of your own four walls, why add to the season’s to-do list? Why tie yourself to a scheduled phone call when you can take in your reading in a time and a place and a way that suits your schedule best?

Intuition has a comfy bias. In my experience, the most powerful messages are given when we are both deep inside our comfort zones, with the cozy turned up to 11. On my end, coffee and fuzzy slipper socks will most likely be involved.

Spirit is everywhere. Energy is everywhere. Where we are relative to each other makes no diffrrence at all. The connection to that everywhere-energy and everywhere-spirit is strongest when we connect to it from our respective places of comfort and confidence.

Order a reading any time you like on the website home page. All of my layouts are available all the time now, at the lowest price possible. Please scroll down through the whole list here. It’s the widest variety of layouts and prices anywhere that I know of. I’m confident that you’ll find something you are comfortable with.

Wishing you all a cozy evening.

The Year Ahead: A Chat With Zombie Cat

Here in the U.S., literally at the exact time as the election results were being announced in favor of President-elect Biden, Trump’s lawyers held an inept and thoroughly mocked press conference at “Four Seasons Total Landscaping” a lovely garden supply place nestled between an adult bookstore and a crematorium. Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up. Internet hilarity has, of course, ensued. As a result I can hardly look at the word “seasons” and keep a straight face. The “Seasons of the Year” layout name had to go. I offered to give a reading to the person who could come up with the best new name for it. Know how many people participated? None. Zero. Nobody.

*sips hot cup of schadenfreude*

I’m over it.

Not the laughing at the fall of the worst administration in U.S. history part. THAT is actually pretty entertaining. I’m over finding some cutesy-pants name for the layout. “Year Ahead” says what it is. Clear, straightforward, it works. I’m also over trying to “market” what I do here. I am a wise, skilled, experienced psychic. I’m here if you need me. I’ve done my part: Made my presence known, put things in order, and put a candle in the window metaphorically speaking. The sign on the cyber-door says open.

Beyond that, I can take a hint. None of the promotions have ever really connected with people. It feels like all the giveaways and special offers come from a place of fear and worry. I like to imagine I had a chat about the whole marketing thing with my fictional, snarky, dgaf alter-ego, Zombie Cat.

We’re both over it.

It’s just not the right vibe for this place. TaoCraft is about authenticity, simplicity, honesty, compassion – all the treasures that a Taoist influence has to offer. All of the layouts are now available all of the time, including Zombie Cat’s yes/no. The prices are as low as I can afford to make them – all of the time. It’s a fearless, solid, steady, and reliable energy. Really good Tarot needs that kind of environment.

Tarot is a respite in an emotional storm. Tarot is a light bulb over your head just when you thought you were all out of ideas. You can’t build those things out of solicitous, cutesy-pants, attention seeking energies.

If you want real, genuine, honest, skilled, experienced…and yes, affordable…Tarot guidance, I’m here for you. Normal pants and all.

Distance Tarot including the Year Ahead and Zombie Cat’s yes/no layout is available for order anytime, no appointment needed on the HOME PAGE

Your local weather

Instead of trying to stop the rain, open an umbrella

How is everyone doing?

I live in Allegheny County Pennsylvania, which has been in the news a little bit during the past couple of days if you follow the U.S. presidential election. I’m one of those by mail votes for each and every democrat you’ve been hearing about.

The actual weather has been very pleasant the past few days. Even for someone who likes rainy days as much as I do.

The energy environment has been a whole other story.

I like to think I usually have a pretty clear idea what is my internal emotional state and what is vibes from the external energy environment. I absolutely believe that kind of boundary awareness and boundary setting is important if you are going to work as a professional psychic of any type. Yesterday, the energy even kicked my black belt level boundary setting backside. Between my own fury at the thought of the fascist, racist, theocrats winning, and being in the bulls-eye of the racist, fascist, theocrats’ energetic fury that we might be the ‘democratic stronghold’ that would ‘steal the election’ from them. I’m not exaggerating when I called it a radioactive brew yesterday. It felt exactly that toxic. I can’t imagine how it must have felt to extra sensitive empaths.

Today is remarkably different. I’m biased, I’ll admit. After a lifetime, my patience has worn thin with that crowd. Maybe it is my biased optimism that the right side might win after all. It might be pride that my one little vote is one of hundreds of thousands making a difference. Maybe it is pride in my state and city. Maybe it is because I’m team Sheetz (Pennsylvanians know) Maybe it is the extra cup of coffee, but I actually feel like we are turning an energy corner.

This explains the coming storm images from the past couple of months. The virus is going to be bad this winter, and it is going to be a weird holiday season, but those are the outer bands of a passing hurricane if we get back to sanity and science.

So true to style (and profession) I pulled a card to see where the energy may be turning a corner TO.

card image from the public domain

The Nine of Cups is simple straightforward: calm the fuck down and enjoy the holidays. While I get it that is a message aimed right at me, if it feels right for you, it’s for you too. Nine of Cups is the Thanksgiving, family celebration, food and festivities THAT kind of tradition sort of card. So we can all take a deep breath, grab our jar of cinnamon and have at it.

So that’s the energy weather here at vote counting PA west. How are things with you? If you are outside of the U.S. (lucky you) how is the energy feel where you are? If you are inside the U.S. what is your sense of things? Feel free to comment about your ENERGY weather, not a political rant. If you post anything hateful or angry I will block you before you can say maga.

You may noticed that I staked out my turf, and defined my philosophical boundaries over there in the right column (and in the philosophy page of the “about” menu item.) That is nothing more or less than protecting the energy of this cyberspace. If those things offend you, I won’t be offended if you unfollow me. If you don’t mind (or hopefully agree with) these things, I hope we can work together. Tao is in the name because this place is about being true to nature and authenticity. That includes you too. It is important for you to be your authentic self. Everyone has the right and responsibility to protect their own energy boundaries from the general energy environment. At the same time it is not acceptable for anyone to force the shared general energy environment to change to fit their individual boundaries. Think of it as opening an umbrella, not trying to stop the rain.