intuition – Page 6 – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Sugar Devil

You can’t sugar coat this.

It’s just one of those gnarly sh*tshow kind of years. All politics aside for the moment, there has been a lot of funky mojo energy out there. We’ve talked about it through the past several months and made friends with the word “zeitgeist” along the way. It started with multiple, multiple clients who never thought of themselves as intuition sensitive or empaths. Time and again readings were saying that the anxieties they were feeling were actually a resonant response to the outer energy environment. The advice was to to reinforce their boundaries, to do something protective. The 2020 funk started ringing those assorted psychic and empathic bells as early as January and February. Then came the avalanche of pentacle cards telling us to hunker down, get our proverbial ducks in a row, and pay attention to the physical realm nuts and bolts of things. For those of us lucky enough to be able to work from home, paying attention to the physical realm while staying home day after day after day wasn’t exactly helpful advice – at least not on the surface. Dig a little deeper, and we were being called to wring enjoyment out of the simple things, to recapture the things that delight us, and remember that little things really do mean a lot. That, in turn, inspired the “Kitten Whiskers” off topic series of “my favorite things” posts this summer (more of those to come, btw)

The energies have shifted recently. The boundary challenging, empathic bell ringing quality has abated. The focus-on-the-physical, avoid life altering decisions if possible, enjoy-the-little-things-while-you-can energy has become the spiritual retreat many of us expected at the beginning. Ready or not, we were thrown into a cocoon by worldwide crisis. Now, we are facing a new crisis. This time it is internal. NOW is the time for that spiritual introspection and evolution. NOW is the time to decide our path forward. We were chucked involuntarily into a cocoon. Now we are being forced to decide how, and in what form we will emerge.

No matter what the external lockdown orders may or may not be, the time has come for that spiritual retreat. Just because you are permitted to go out doesn’t mean have to do it. When we do emerge, are we going to bring the same hate and prejudices out with us that we took in with us from the before time? Are we going to face what we’ve avoided both out there in the world and within ourselves?

That is where the Devil card comes in. It isn’t a prediction of doom. I still get that mental image of a storm front on the horizon. Actually, that distant hurricane image is honestly starting to look like a tornado of sand and glass at our doorstep ready to grind everything flat if certain people and forces prevail. But that isn’t today’s Devil card.

In this case, the Devil card is reminding us that some people have come out of the cocoon a good deal worse for the wear. This is our reminder that the sh*t is still storming and there are dark forces out there. It really isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. We are leaving the cocoon and entering the crucible.

One of the greatest things about the Devil card is the reminder that it serves. Yeah, things may suck, they may continue to suck for a time to come, but we can nevertheless do SOME thing to make the world a better place in spite of the general suckishness. Volunteer. Protest (with a mask, outdoors, standing apart) donate, vote a straight blue ticket come November. Be at peace for a moment. Even just one little moment. Even at that, you have added a moment of peaceful energy to a world that really needs it right now.

Today’s Tarot: A Coin Out of Your Ear

Today’s card reading is less about the card and more about the reading process itself. Today’s message shows how there is more to reading Tarot than just memorizing rote card “meanings.” It’s a skill anyone can learn, but it takes some actual time and effort to get the hang of it. It isn’t a personal shortfall if you leave it to professionals. You can learn, grow, and benefit from getting a reading just as much as doing one for yourself and vice versa. Just because I’m able to learn to change the oil in my car doesn’t mean that I want to learn it or in a million years ever would do it. So the professionals get that job. That is what they are there for, right? Same with Tarot. If you don’t want to be bothered learning how or if you need a hand with a reading you’ve done on your own, get a pro opinion. No big deal. That is exactly why I’m here; to help.

Intuition takes everything to the next level.

Like it says in the video, the Four of Pentacles is one of those cards that seem to have two threads of meaning. Sometimes it is a bit menacing, and can indicate greed, stinginess, a need to protect your finances. Other times it has a lighter feel. That lighter side can be an indication that the need to be on guard is only temporary, or can hint a very minor money surprise, like finding forgotten a dollar bill from last winter when you put on your coat the first time next fall.

Every deck varies a little bit in how they represent the energy of the card. The artist might show more of the greedy, miserly, on-guard energy or more of the kindly, it’s temporary, little surprise, a sort of “be careful with your money now, and life will pull a coin out of your ear later” kind of vibe.

So how do know which thread applies to the reading at hand? If you have a choice, how do you know which deck to use in order to best capture the energy of the day?

You don’t know.

That’s where intuition comes in. Follow your hunch about which deck to use. Use the deck that feels right or ‘speaks’ to you that day. The message will find its way through.

Listen to you feelings, and the quiet whispers. If something on a card grabs your attention, follow it. If something feels wrong, trust that too.

For example, let’s say the energy for your day is the ‘mind the budget now, things will be better later on’ kind of message. Intuition may take you to a deck with a lighter-looking card, like the Heart of Stars Tarot on the right (featuring the resourceful but kind Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.) What if your only deck was the gruffer looking Four of Pentacles from the Witches Tarot on the left? Would that necessarily lead you to the harsher, not-quite-right interpretation? Not necessarily. You may get a feeling of something being wrong. That something-is-wrong-here feeling might nudge you to another or lesser known interpretation of the card. Or intuition may nudge your perception of the card image away from gruff Scrooge toward a protective Grandfather feeling. Either way, giving credence to your imagination, accepting the subtle as valid and honoring your feelings helps the better message to find you.

In the beginning it may feel like you are just pulling made-up crap out of your a…..back pocket. After a time, as your skill and comfort with intuition grows, you find that you are really pulling gold coins out of thin air.

Today’s Tarot: Now Is The Time

Writing a blog and doing a general audience Tarot reading is both challenging and interesting. I’m sure the process is different for everyone who takes on Tarot blogging and YouTubing. For me, it starts with a general intent that the card (or whatever topic) post is helpful to somebody, somewhere, sometime. Once a post is chucked out there into cyberspace to drift forever “today” or “the week of” can become any day or any week. You have to start someplace. Even though I do the reading looking at a particular day or week, there is a background energy that knows the ideas in the post can cross paths with anyone browsing around at any time. The algorithms work in mysterious ways. The best way I’ve found to work with that baseline, background energy is to let it be, and trust that people and ideas, internet readers and internet readings when the time is right. Trusting that the message will get where it needs to go whenever it needs to be there is at the core all genuine readings, regardless of format. Readings are a leap of faith in both your intuition and the message it relays.

2020 has been a challenging energy environment to say the least. It has required a whole new level of awareness when it comes to background energies, boundary lines and the general shape of things. This year has forced a greater awareness of that boundary line between internal emotions and external energies. It has forced a time and place awareness that has never really been needed before. It’s fascinating to be aware of where an energy is coming from and where it is directed, all against the backdrop of trusting the message to get where it needs to be in all of cyberspace and forward looking time.

For this card and this moment, here, now, with you reading this, the message is exactly that…”now is the time.”

That is the global anyone anytime message. If something has been on your mind, this is the “ready, steady” with “go” on the near horizon. This is the time to take your place on the starting line and take your stance. The race begins momentarily.

Layer one is the most vague general intent. The next layer is the sense of final preparation and a sense of urgency to watch and listen for an emminant signal to begin. Why not the Fool card you ask? This has an air of seriousness that the Fool card does not. Also this us an embedded beginning. This feels like a beginning of a new phase within a larger process.

As a final overlay, there is a regional variant. There is a sense of the card coming through that is specific to the pandemic, specific to the United States. That energy can be described as “hearts are laid bare”.

It reminds me of a scene from the book and movie Dune. “Our test is crisis and observation.” The past three months have been, to one extent or another, crisis. Now observe. Hearts are laid bare. We have shown who we truely are. All of us. Including you. Some are affible and adaptable, making jokes about pets and pajamas and zoom meetings. Others are heroic, doing both the extraordinary and the commonplace to keep the rest of us safe and alive.

Still others are angry, bile-spewing, self involved, arrogant and callous.

Now is the time for all to see. There is no pretending. There is no hiding. There is no middle ground.

People wear their heart … or abject lack of it … literally on their face.

The past months of the pandemic were not a time for big decisions, not a time for spiritual deep dives. We needed to take care of the basics first. Energies have shifted. Something has changed.

Now is the time. Now is the time for introspection and spiritual deep diving. Now is the time for the path-defining choices. Now is when we must stare ourselves straight in our soul and decide who we are and who we are going to be from this time on.

Gift of a Lifetime Wrapped in a Pen

Sallie Christensen, one of the most skilled and gifted psychics I’ve ever met, once told me that “A thought is powerful, the spoken word is more so, but the written word is the most powerful of all.” That one sentence was a gift of a lifetime wrapped in a pen. In essence, she had handed me a magic wand.

I had that reading with her in the early 1990s, roughly around the time I’d started exploring oracle cards with Tarot soon to follow. That adage has proven true time and again in the decades since.

Journal writing is a powerful thing. I suspect those years of journaling is the reason why I can communicate messages from spirit as easily through pen and keyboard as through speaking. Written Tarot is definitely more sophisticated, since live sessions don’t have edit buttons or grammar check. Speech may transmit ideas quickly, but writing is a superconductor. Hearing is here and now. Even recordings have a sense of immediacy. Writing transcends space and time. It’s the closest thing we have to telepathy. When I write something and you read it, the message from spirit is communicated heart to heart and mind to mind with none of the mechanics of speech or hearing in between. Hearing happens at Mach 1, the speed of sound. Reading happens at the speed of light.

As Carl Sagan wrote:

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”

Written Tarot is potent to both give and receive. The experience of reading something that resonates with you spiritually is very similar to the experience getting an intuitive message directly from spirit. Reading anything that is spiritually resonant, be it books, letters, Tarot cards, blogs or emails, is a breathless melange of emotion, empowerment, and enlightenment. Many books have been like that for me, Ted Andrews’ and Christopher Penczak’s in particular. Perhaps written Tarot can capture some of that experience for you.

Intuition happens inside of your head and heart. It is an entirely subjective experience. For me, the internal process of writing is more closely aligned to the internal intuitive message itself. The flow from spirit to written language is immediate and effortless, while putting things into spoken words takes the tiniest bit more thought and effort. In wireless terms, spoken words work at 4G while my writing operates at 5G or above.

How you enjoy taking in the words and messages of a session is another story. If you like to read, written Tarot is as comfortable as breathing. It doesn’t matter if the actual thing you read is a computer screen or a piece of paper. The experience of reading your message is equally intense regardless of media.

In-person Tarot readings are wonderful, mind expanding, heart warming, and sometimes life changing things…just like the session I had with Sally when we talked about journal writing.

An email or handwritten paper Tarot session is its own kind of mind expanding, heart warming and life changing experience … just like reading the Andrews and Penczak books.

All of that being said, I’m hoping this will let you feel confident in ordering Distance Tarot. While this post is a glimpse to the writing process on my side of the table, the message is the same no matter how you prefer to receive it, written or spoken, email or live. It’s just a matter of deciding which experience resonates with you.

This one is for all of the book lovers. I’m working on a second edition of PeaceTarot. Both editions teach you how to do DIY daily Tarot meditations even if you don’t have a Tarot deck on hand. The second edition adds expanded, pandemic-era card meanings for all 78 RWS Tarot cards.. During the caronapocolypse, we have all been making do with stuff on hand. As life “re-opens” I hope we can carry a little bit of that ingenuity with us. In the spirit of that resourcefulness, I want to upcycle some second quality paper copies* of PeaceTarot and hand customize one just for you. I’ll write a one card reading just like the kind of readings the book can teach you to do PLUS include a sigil element (or sigil glyph or psych-a-doodle or whatever you want to call it) crystal energy and aromatherapy suggestions, an affirmation, add whatever else comes to mind AND use my favorite schmancy glass dip pen. There are a limited number available. All you really pay for is postage and handling. The “graffiti edition” PeaceTarot with custom handwritten one card Tarot readings are available in the shop HERE.

*First edition, single side print, side staple bound

Just a quick reminder: Distance Tarot is always OPEN, with phone readings by appointment. Even though our area is partially out of lockdown and starting to re-open for retail business, in-person individual and party readings will remain closed until a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available.

Tarot, weather and the skies above

My quarantine binge is Twin Peaks: The Return. I was a big fan of the original series, but for some reason just never found time for the continuation. Then along comes David Lynch during the lockdown with….the weather. His weather reports from his home by looking out the window with a visibly steaming cuppa coffee on his desk has to be the coolest new thing on the web right now. (Don’t @ me you droves of Animal Crossing players) It is just so…David Lynch. It’s like having Gordon Cole as your own private forecaster. At the same time, I’ve been adding a few new brainwaves to the website. Mash those two things together and I get this:

When we do a psychic reading it is like giving a low tech weather report.

We use our brains to process a certain information and output it in some format or another. Imagine you are looking out the window and someone asks you “What color is the sky?” When we do that, we aren’t literally taking atmospheric conditions into our skulls. We are getting information carried on electromagnetic energy in the wavelengths of visible light. It doesn’t matter if we say “Blue” to someone standing next to us, or shout “grey” to someone in the next room or write “moonlit” on a piece of paper. The method we use to give out whatever we saw doesn’t change the color of the sky and it doesn’t change the electromagnetic way that the information entered our consciousness. Sure, you could get all pedantic and complex about this (or any) example by talking about perception, language or whatever but that form of output doesn’t change the essential incoming message. It doesn’t matter if you say it, shout it, write it, or tap it out in Morse code; a blue sky is a blue sky. It doesn’t matter if you say it, type it hand write it, or tap it out in Morse code; a Tarot reading is a Tarot reading.

Intuition doesn’t have a literal physical sense, like sight. Intuition doesn’t (as far as we know) have a specific carrier energy, like electromagnetic energy in visible light wavelengths. Intuitive readings are a dream-like echo of that same process. Information comes in, we give it out. We look and listen to our intuition, then we say or write the message to the other person. The method we use to give out the information doesn’t change the information coming in.

Right now is is overcast, breezy I drizzling rain. I love this kind of weather.

Hello from Pandemicland

Lordy.

Being from a medical background, the old B.S. Med. Sci. part of my brain has been following Covid-19 medical reports, including unexplained hypercoagulability, unexpected pulmonary thrombosis only discovered at autopsy, silent hypoxia in the presence of near normal CO2…and that a second wave of sars-cov-2 is expected to hit right at the start of typical flu season AND be worse than the initial wave we are having now.

#holycrap! #staythefuckathome #washyourdanghands

I won’t bore you with my medical history, but long story short, in-person sessions are closed until somebody squirts a vaccine in my arm. Anything else would be A. crazy and B. irresponsible.

THE GOOD NEWS is that we still have distance readings. Truth be told, I do my best work that way. Typing on a keyboard is like a broadband download right from my intuition. I can do deep dives into the spirit message without the really awkward social silences that would happen if I did that in a live session.

Deep dives aren’t for everyone. If you want something a little lighter, warmer and chatty…video readings are a great option. You get the conversational style of a live reading but with the no-appointment convenience and reduced cost of distance work.

Or, if you want the full live reading experience – phone readings are back! Just like those old school psychic friend phone readings…but without the triple digit surprises on your phone bills, per minute charges or connection fees. We are going to do this the modern way:

Buy the session with the paypal button HERE
Schedule the session HERE
Call at your appointment time (by phone, Skype or Hangouts)
POOF! Done! Live reading!

I’ve also updated the website with mobile users in mind. It’s all up front and obvious at the top of the landing page reducing amount of scrolling and rummaging around the menu.

FREE “digital InkMagick” one card readings by email are still available on the special offers page

Did I mention stay home? Email reading prices are $5 off for the duration of the stay at home order or April 30, 2020 whichever comes first.

Stay tuned for more YouChoose Interactive Tarot. I want to give you more POOF for your time out of those, too. Instead of random interactive readings by day, look for them on Sundays or Monday morning to serve as a look ahead to the week to come. Other videos will be the usual “Today’s Tarot” one card meditation style.

Other good stuff in the works, stay tuned, and as they say “watch this space”

Now go wash your hands.

Stay safe and be well – Ronda

“I kinda like it in here. It’s private.”

Mythbusters was on TV. I needed that.

One of my many, many favorite moments from the show is the time when Jamie was wearing a silver fire suit. You couldn’t see see him through the face mask at all, only hear him deadpanning “I kinda like it in here. It’s private.”

Here is why that moment comes to mind:

If you work with energy, intuition or do professional readings there are times when you need a mental fire suit.

If you want a real deal, deep dive, time tested and reliable resource on the topic, go get yourself a copy of “Psychic Protection” by Ted Andrews. It is far and away the best resource I’ve ever read about healthy psychic work, bar none. But for the purposes of our little blog post, there are two basic concepts I want to focus on: Empathic sensitivity and Zeitgeist sensitivity or energy resonance.

As I understand it, empaths feel other people’s emotions as if they were their own. The boundary between their own true feelings and the feelings of other people is often thin, blurry, or difficult to find. Very sensitive empaths regulate this through proximity. They know (or can learn) their boundaries and respect their limits. When emotional levels become too intense or overwhelming they exit the situation. Highly sensitive empaths are careful where and how they engage with crowded environments like bars or shopping malls for example. I know of two very skilled, very wise, very kind psychic readers who are selective about where they go and how long they stay in busy public places. It’s not in any way the product of anxiety or agoraphobia. It’s pure self care. It takes time, experience and a great deal of self awareness for these high vibration folks to learn where their boundaries are and how to manage them.

For those of us who are generally energy sensitive, but not emotionally empathic, it is quite a bit easier to see that boundary between our own emotions and general environmental energies. I like to think of it as zeitgeist sensitivity or energy resonance separate from any empathic process.

Zeitgeist means the general mood of a time or a cultural phenomenon. In my experience, this is the energy we tap into when we post a general reading for a blog or on social media without a specific individual in mind. The cultural mood of the time, the zeitgeist, is the general-public parallel with the higher self, spirit guides or divine that we sense in an individual Tarot session.

In times of great emergency like the current pandemic, the cultural energy is so strong, so ubiquitous, and so pervasive that the lines become blurred even for those of us who are not usually empathic. It is helpful to think of this like resonance from physics. Think of the tuned bells in a hand bell choir. If you strike a tuning fork and hold it very close, a bell tuned to that some note could in theory vibrate along with it. If our intuition is sensitive to cultural zeitgeists then we can resonate with that environmental energy. The general zeitgeist, through resonance, rings our bell too.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a giant bell-ringer for everyone. I worry for our very empathic friends. There is very real danger, illness, grief, and hardship out there. I can’t imagine any sane person who is NOT experiencing SOME level of adjustment. Imagine feeling the real things we are all facing, plus the emotions of others on top of it all. For those of us lucky enough to be safe and well at the moment, it still might be a good idea to get our mental fire suit out.

In order to do our best readings for our clients, and to maintain our own psychic / spiritual health, I think it is important for all sensitives, intuitives, Tarot readers and the like to take care of their emotional boundaries in a time like this. It is important to know what is your own, inner, real, valid, valuable, genuine emotions and what is the outside world ringing your bell.

Intention, as always, is everything. Finding your emotional boundaries and putting on your fire suit can be as simple as visualizing. Imagine yourself surrounded by white or golden light. When I was in my teens, before I was at a place in life where I could quit, I would sit in the more toxic Sunday services at my parent’s church and visualize myself wearing an orange hazmat suit. It helped. Now I have a whole variety of energy protecting, boundary fortifying, zeitgeist clarifying tools: black tourmaline, discreet pentacles and sigils, aura clearing aromatherapy spray, visualizations and more. Yes, it is all full-throttle woo woo but it has value. It helps me understand my emotions with greater clarity, it helps me understand the outer situation, and helps me keep logic and reason close at hand. That makes it worth it, no matter how woo-woo it might seem to some folks. It may take some trial and error, but you can find your fire suit too. I encourage you to find the things that help you see what is your emotion (so you can honor it) and what is the outside world pinging your boundary lines (so you can put that information to good use.) If you aren’t sure, try a little visualization and active imagination. Imagine yourself wearing a protective fire suit that keeps out any vibe not coming from your own true heart. The suit doesn’t cut you off from the world. You still feel the heat of it all. The suit lets you know that you aren’t the one on fire.

12 Second Tarot: The Chariot (2020-02-17)

Spirit speaks to everyone, but it whispers. The only way to hear over the crash and clatter of daily living is to pay attention and to be fully here in this present moment. That is the kind of attention the Chariot asks of us. Life moves fast. It takes deliberate mindfulness to connect with what you need to hear otherwise subtle guidance is whispers in the wind.

Updated “about” page

My readings won’t tell you what is going to happen in life. They help you figure out what to do when life happens.

All of my readings have the same basic structure. Distance and in-person sessions give the same identical information. The only difference is convenience (email does not require an appointment) and the ability to ask questions in real time rather than emails back and forth.

All readings have these same basic parts.

Photo (or drawing) of your unique card layout
General pattern: any messages from the overall layout
Card-by-card discussion: meaning, layout position meaning, type of message from that card (advice, caution, validation, etc)
Affirmation based on your cards
Sigil elements: any shapes or sketches that intuition gives, if any. You may use these as elements to create a sigil for yourself if you like.
Psychic Summary: this allows for any impressions that come from intuition whether it is related to the cards or not. Often this includes helpful crystal, color, and aromatherapy suggestions.

Allow 45-60 minutes for an in-person session. All prices are flat rate, not per minute so you know your full cost up front. Appointment required for in-person and Party Tarot.

Distance readings are my specialty. As a writer, a keyboard is a direct-dial hotline into the best of my thinking and intuition. Since I can do this kind of reading almost anywhere, I do them all of the time, usually filling orders within hours, no appointment needed. I can type out a reading as easily as speaking it out loud in person, and give exactly the same information in both.

The small print: All the usual policies and disclaimers apply to all readings, Reiki sessions and meditation tutorials. The short version is that everything here is for entertainment, personal enrichment or spiritual practices, and does not ever diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any mental or physical illness. Nothing here can take the place of professional medical care. I don’t accept medical or pregnancy questions because Tarot just doesn’t work for that kind of thing. When you contact me, that indicates that you agree to the policies and use these services at your own risk; no liability of any sort is accepted.

FAQ: How Do Distance Readings Work?

Q: How can you read someone who isn’t there? Doesn’t the person have to be with you for the reading to work?

A: When I do a reading, I don’t connect with the person at all. I connect to universal life energy and their spirit guides (if they step forward) on the person’s behalf. Spirit and energy exist outside of normal space an time anyway. Spirit and energy is everywhere, all the time, so where we sit is irrelevant. I connect to the person’s specific message within that universal energy when I hear OR read their question, topic, or request for an open reading.

In my head, to my intuition, the mental images, words, sounds and feelings are the same no matter where the client happens to be at the time. The intuitive side of things looks the same to me no matter if you are across the table or across the world. I’ve done both types of readings for a really long time. The words I speak in a live session come from the same intuitive place as the words I type in an email session. The readings I’ve done for clients in Australia and Papua New Guinea have already put that to the maximum test. They are literally on the opposite side of the Earth from me. According to the feedback those clients have kindly given, it really, truly is the same quality as the face to face readings.

It is a little like cloud computing. The information is “out on the cloud” just like your email is stored on a server somewhere out there on the internet. You (or anyone with your password) can access that information from anywhere else, anytime. You can check your email on your work computer, your phone, your table….what have you.

Intuition is like that. We all have it. We are all born with a spiritual connection. Some people operate at dial up speed, while others naturally operate at 5G broadband. Learning and practice ups your bandwidth. Anyone can learn to listen to their own intuition. Pro readers are just a little more skilled at connecting to the whole “cloud” and not just their own email account. Pro readers are more skilled at translating spirit-speak into actual, usable English sentences. That’s what lets them be able to connect & translate for other people. It is more as more language and communication than mystical spiritual ‘gifts’ really.

When we talk at the beginning of a reading…be it in spoken form or written form…you give me a limited sort of guess pass to listen to whatever message spirit energy sends. My job is just to listen, translate the message from intuition-speak into English sentences for you to use however you see fit.

So long story short….let me look at spirit’s energy email for you. No matter where you are, I’ll send the translation as an attachment in an email, or just read it out to you in person. The translation itself is exactly the same either way.