Tag: mean

Grandpa Hierophant

IMG_20190130_092535_305.jpg

 

Some cards come more naturally than others.

Tarot readers are people too, and have our emotional triggers. Some cards push our buttons more than others. Giving a reading touches our hearts and minds as much as getting a reading. The Hierophant card is a challenge for me when it is drawn in full pointy hat christian-heavy regalia. Just not my wavelength. Fairly or not, my life experience and point of view made the RWS Pope look wrapped in rules and judgement. Until – thank you social media – I read a framework for the card that made sense out of it. At the same time I found decks with artwork that fit the new conceptual fit. In short order, the dogmatic, pedantic pope-ish character morphed into a Grandpa.

Think stories by a campfire. Think shamen. Think wise elder. Think teacher. Think Yoda.

Whichever deck we use, when the Hierophant comes into a reading for a client, intuitively, it seems to take one of those two tracks, whichever best suits the client’s needs I assume. It either vibes with rules or traditions.

On one hand, it seems to have to do with social conformity, playing by the rules. It is compliance with a Papal Edict. Or, it could have to do with nonconformity, breaking social convention, rejecting other people’s expectations. It seems like the sense of it doesn’t follow whether the card is reversed or not. It seems more triggered by the clients nature. If the client is a natural conformist, then it seems to nudge toward being their own person, pushes them a bit toward freer thinking. If, on the other hand, the client is naturally a freethinker, or a rule-bender, then it may be a nudge to “play by the rules” a little more in some respect.

Now that the ‘keeper and teacher of traditions’ notion has crossed my path, it comes through at times even if I happen to be using the RWS deck. It seems to come through with that energy at times when the client is feeling  a little uprooted, or disconnected, emotionally or spiritually orphaned somehow. When this is the energy, the Hierophant is a call to join the circle, learn of the past, learn of roots and connections. Just as we are each our own best minister or pope, we are at times our own hierophant, finding and adopting our own spiritual tradition on a path apart from our past or upbringing. Either way, it is about learning a new pattern.

It is a pattern of twos, of balance, in understanding the Hierophant. Comply with rules or find your own path. Embrace or rediscover your tribe and deep traditions or celebrate your initiation into a tribe of one. Either way, the Hierophant is teaching us our path and spiritual tradition.

Sometimes I Need a Pep Talk Too

3wands

I’m not going to energize it by talking about the details, but I needed a pep talk this afternoon. Then I pulled this for a “Today’s Tarot” post. Hellooo pep talk.

The three of wands is a very forward facing card for artwork that shows a guy’s back, but that is the whole point. He’s leading the way. We are all going in that direction, so of course we don’t see the man’s face. We are moving ahead into the new frontier together.

It is a very positive, yes kind of card that hints at progress, successes to come, a process, decision made and steps taken, looking ahead with a balance of intuition and logical know-how.

The pep talk I needed was in the realm of professional Tarot readings, so I’m seeing the card in those terms today. If you aren’t a pro Tarot reader, think of this advice in terms of your work or career. Not all career advice comes through coins cards. There is more to humans than money and the same is true of the life lessons that are tied to work and career.

Lesson # 1: Shuffle and draw your cards with focused intent. I was a little bleary eyed about my usual intent (choose a card that will help someone out there in cyberspace) with half a brain on wanting either a pep talk or some kind of good idea. Voila! Pep talk in the form of the Three of Wands. That isn’t to say that it can’t be a good message for both the sitter and the reader. More often than not, that is how it works out, whether we intend it to be that way or not. Tarot readers are real people with real emotions and real ups and downs just like everybody else on Earth.

Lesson : Pro readers – heal thyself. Ahead of time. No, no, that’s not exactly it. Nobody’s perfect. If we waited until we are healed and wonderful or whatever nobody would ever give or get a reading again. No, this is more along the lines of “Pro Readers – clear thy head.” Self care is a thing. You really can’t pour from an empty cup. A reader is never going to be perfect but we can at minimum try to focus, put our client’s needs at the forefront and keep some sense of energy boundaries. It helps us and our clients if we stay clear on what energy is for us, and what is for them. Everyone has intuition, and readers are people like everyone else. We are all in this together, and sometimes spirit will speak to us together too.

Lesson #3: Deciding to watch and wait is a decision too. The three of wands hints of coming progress, looking ahead to a goal on the horizon, a process in motion, a journey started but about to move into a new frontier. Forward progress in a journey (like the spiritual growth of the 8 of cups we saw the other day) doesn’t have to mean lightning FAST progress. It is perfectly fine to stop and take a look around so you can continue to move forward in a deliberate and mindful way. Even if you are driving in the slow lane, you are still on the road. That counts.

Even if you need a pep talk every now and again, the work you do matters.

 

Shakespeare’s Roses

shakespearesroses
Image copyright Ronda Snow 2019 Used with permission

“What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

“What I told you was true, from a certain point of view”  – Obi Wan Kenobi

Obi Wan nailed it. Sorry Bill.

Names, labels, adjectives, the power of words; all of those things have niggled at me off and on over the years. The niggling about names hasn’t stopped since we talked about it the other day in the “What is in a Name” post. That was a first step away from Shakespeare’s literalness about flowers. Let’s take it one step more.

Shakespeare was right, of course, in the most literal sense. You could name that particular fragrant flower a “rose” or a “gagglystank” or anything else, and the literal flower would still have the same chemicals causing the same fragrance, the same petals, the same stems, the same thorns and all the same physical attributes.

But, like business and website names, any name has more to it than just literal, physical descriptions. Names, like all of language, is about communication. If I say “rose” and you speak English, you know exactly what I mean. Not just a flower, but a particular type of flower with a particular set of physical attributes. You can probably imagine the scent, the petals, the stems, everything about them. If I say “gagglystank” to you, chances are you will have no idea what it means much less have a physical description come to mind. Gagglystank is a word that tells you a little about my feeling about the scent of roses, but is definitely not the NAME of anything. There is power in a name. Communication happens when things have a name. Communication conquers time and space. That is why “branding”….naming….matters. It is outward communication. A name is immediate, instant communication of what a thing is. TaoCraft Tarot is hint about what I do and my way of doing it.

Shakespeare’s roses (in addition to being a great idea for a band name) is about the literal, unchanging being of objects no matter what words are projected onto them. Names are more than the literal objects. Names are also about every intangible thing the tangible object symbolizes. Outward communication is one step away from the actual things. One more step takes us inward. Consider the psychology and emotional response to a rose.

If we called roses gagglystanks instead, would they really smell as sweet? What emotions and connotations would a different name elicit? I’m not fond of rose scent or anything too cloying or floral. Gagglystank is a perfectly good word to tell you how I feel about the way those specific flowers smell. But it can’t be the name of the thing, because it doesn’t communicate to you. It isn’t a meaning our language has agreed to use. It doesn’t capture the visual beauty. It doesn’t capture the emotional response to the flower generated by generations of love-symbolism our culture has connected to that flower. When we see or hear the name “rose” all at once we understand the literal thing, the things the symbolizes, and likely experience a positive emotional feeling to go along with it all.

First you have a thing. Then you have a name-word for the thing. Then you have all the abstract things that go with the literal thing, all wound up in an emotional response to the whole word-name-symbolism package. Names means a lot.

tower

This second-step away from Shakespeare’s roses is the place where Tarot cards get their power. The cards have powerful images. The cards use powerful words. They prompt us to take that next step beyond literal things and outward communication in order to get right to the realm of symbolism, emotional connotations and, most importantly, inner response. The Tower comes to mind. Set aside the lighting and other images, lets talk about just the Tower alone for a minute. First you have a literal picture of a literal tall thing. You name it Tower, and without the picture, a Tarot reader can convey instant understanding of both the thing and the image. If I say “tower” then you know I’m talking about a big tall skinny outdoor object or part of a building. Then you bring in all the connotations of a tower: tallness, a higher perspective, potential isolation.  The inner FEELING of the reader guides the seeker to the right connotation and symbolism, even when reader and seeker are the same person. The process of inward symbolic communication…the second step away from Shakespeare’s roses…is where a Tarot reading really happens. This kind of word and name driven inward communication is the same no matter if you are reading for yourself or someone else, nearby or at a distance.

The thing, the name of the thing, along with the symbolism, connotations, and emotions that the name carries are all part of intuitive communication. Names speak both outwardly and inwardly.

There is power attached to a name. That power can attach to any name for any thing in any language, but not every name carries that level of potency. Roses by other names may not smell as sweet except in the literal sense. Roses by their true name have a complex fragrance…from a certain point of view.

Spark in the Dark

hermit

We all see the sky together, even when we stand alone in the night

 

Ah, intuition. Bundle of contradictions, that.

On one hand, I just got finished saying I’m done preaching to the masses. On the other hand, here I am posting a daily meditation for the masses.

On one hand this blog is direct, personal, for YOU. On the other hand, this is given in the hope of helping someone, somewhere. I have no idea who. I have no idea how, where or when. But here it is.

The thing that keeps it all from being contradictory to the point of hypocrisy is the convincing part of it. When I say no more preaching to the masses, I mean no more tryint to convince the general public how helpful Tarot is or try to entice them to Tarot with jump-on-the-bandwagon stuff like doing yearly predictions. Instead of some kind of infomercial, this is a cozy little workshop. I hope this helps….helps YOU. If it spreads the word about Tarot or puts my contact in front of eyeballs, great. But that’s not the core intent. It was creeping too much toward that kind of feeling before. As Scott Cunningham said, “the feeling is the power”. So it is here. It FEELS different, more powerful, to write these posts like I’m talking one to one with a client, not publishing for a wider audience. I hope you can feel the difference too. This card is for you.

The Hermit wants our attention tonight. He turned up in a client reading earlier today, and when I did a random draw for the blog tonight, here he is again.

This kind of repetition happens sometimes. This time I used an entirely different deck than I used for the reading earlier. Sometimes, when I am reading for a Tarot party, a particular card will keep turning up time and again, despite shuffling, let the client choose the cards, all sorts of randomizing. It is an experience in synchronicity, that’s for sure. If a card keeps turning up like that, it is meaningful and worth paying attention.

Some say that means the card is trying to get a message through to the reader. Sometimes that is true. Other times, it just doesn’t resonate personally, so I chalk it up to the vibe of the group. I let it ride as symbolic of the evening as a whole. It is endlessly fascinating when that happens. When you combine the shades of meaning, times the layout positions raised to the power of all the various meanings for the card itself…even with the same card, each person get an intensely personal message.

That seems to be what is happening with the hermit tonight. It is indeed a message for me – reminding me of that party phenomena. Reminding me that it is possible to be direct and personal … one to one as a hermit would teach…even in a blog like this. There is one person on the other end of this post. Even if there are a lot of one persons in a lot of places reading at various times….it is still just one other person. The message may not be for your eyes only, but if you are still here reading this, then this blog is, indeed for your eyes.

By the same token, I’ve subscribed to some newsletters that take the chummy one to one thing too far and computer insert a first name just a bit much. I don’t want TaoCraft to sound like Dale Carnegie seminar threw up in a Diagon Alley tarot shop. So if I start to annoy you with this personalized tone, for the love of Plato, please email me with the feedback. The addy is over there in the right column –>

Best

R.

Zombie Cat Q&A: What will next year bring?

Get a FREE Zombie Cat yes-or-no Tarot Reading

  1. Email your your yes-or-no question to TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com
  2. Follow the blog at http://www.TaoCraftTarot.com
  3. Your reading will be redacted if needed for privacy if needed, but will appear in the blog asap.
  4. Offer ends midnight est 12-31-2018

Easy!

Disclaimer: All Zombie Cat readings are 100% guaranteed to contain words but have at least a 50% chance of being dead wrong. No monetary value. Entertainment only. Buyer beware because hey, it says ZOMBIE right there in the name. No lifeguard on duty, swim at your own risk. Eat your vegetables and get vaccinated. Thank you.

Q: (M. Asks) “What will next year bring?”

A: 2019 will bring confusion and minor misunderstandings. You can totally change this future by reading and following instructions.

Yes-or-No Tarot formats can’t answer open ended questions like this any more than those magic 8 ball toys can BUT don’t forget 99.999% of the time, the more open a Tarot question is, the better the reading is. Set expectations can be more blinding than enlightening, so you actually did the right thing by keeping open-ness around your question.

So let’s do this instead. Let’s pull a card that will give you a theme, a general read of which way the energies are flowing for you for 2019 as it stands now. But remember all of it can change through your choices and actions. If you don’t like the card or the reading, it might hold a clue how you can change directions instead. It’s all cause and effect really, just like science. Each choice and action is a cause that gives a future effect. That is why “psychic” predictions are pretty unreliable, no more that that 50-50 coin toss probability it talks about in the disclaimer. If I make a specific “prediction” now, any little flutter of your intention could change it all 5 minutes from now. It is more helpful by a long shot to give you larger, more general ideas to help you navigate the larger, more general energy flows that seem to lay ahead.

Your card for today is: The Five of Swords

RSWfiveSwords

Ouf! I was teasing earlier when I talked about confusion and following directions earlier, before I drew the card. But the 5 of swords hints that this year might actually be headed in an unsettled direction. The word “jumbled” springs to mind. It doesn’t feel like it all has to do with you…that some might come from other’s indecisiveness and actions, but you have to play your part. “Clean vision” “clear planning” all come to mind. See the gray areas in the sky on the card? That might be clouds or it could symbolize the smoke, fog or confusion of a battlefield. It may be your strong suit, or it may be something you are learning, but it feels important for you to keep your head. No matter what other people are doing, no matter if they are making it easy or hard for you to do, your big task in the upcoming year is to be clear-eyed, and level headed, to see clearly and realistically, even when those around you do not. Hold on to hopes and dreams, yes, but don’t force them onto the world around you. See what is really there so you can do whatever needs done. The universe will unfold perfectly, but on it’s time frame, not ours. Things might not turn out how you want or expect….but if you are ok with that, it gives room and energy for things to turn out BETTER than you expected, too.