Two days ago was a “blue moon.” It’s not common, but it’s not spectacular. It’s not something that is going to grab you by the nose and make you look. A blue moon is just two full moons in the same calendar month. It is a subtle thing because most of us go through life not knowing what phase the moon is in on any given night. No matter what the cool social media graphics show, the moon is the same color it always is.
It was also a “super” moon. Google “perigee” and “apogee.” Orbits aren’t perfect circles. They are off a little, just a tiny bit ovalish and wobbly. Sometimes the moon passes just a little bit closer to earth and seems a tiny bit big-ish because of it. That’s a so-called super moon — any full moon during a close perigee kind of orbit.
These little details don’t happen often, and they both happen at the same time less often, but it is still one of those natural cycles we’ve been talking about. It’ll be a while, but there will be another super blue moon in time.
Super moons and blue moons are slow and subtle things. So are tides and seasons and the growth of trees. That’s the kind of changing and shifting energy that has been around lately. Slow, gradual, gentle change but change nonetheless. Even continental drift will get you to the other side of the planet eventually.
I suspect energies will move on come Monday’s Energy Path reading. It feels like the gentle cycle change has peaked and is drifting beyond. Here I again I intuitively hear the song “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Beyond Thunderdome)” It seems like energies are gently moving beyond thunderdome, not back to paradise.
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. U.S. readers: Private email Tarot readings open and available to purchase throughout the Memorial Day holiday weekend, no appointment needed.
Hi and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Wheel of Fortune from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck. The image for this card is credited as the Besancon Tarot copyright BnF (the digital national library of France.) As I understand things, this is a popular eighteenth and nineteenth century deck very similar to the Marseille deck but with a few localized changes as it was printed in Switzerland and Germany. You don’t need to know all that sort of thing to be a good Tarot card reader, but I enjoy it. Call it what you will, be it academic discipline leftover from writing my dissertation, my need for a high level of professionalism in my Tarot practice or just plain getting brain-gasms at learning cool things.
In any case, The Wheel of Fortune is one of those with fairly consistent imagery and meanings across most Marseille based or RWS type Tarot decks. Its core meaning is that everything changes. This card is the nemesis of control freaks everywhere. It also reminds us of randomness, chance and fate.
Everything changes. It can change with speed. Or not.
A wheel is a very primal thing and a potent symbol. They have been around for a long, long time. We understand how they work. They symbolize change, forward progress, ease of movement. Wheels symbolize impermanence, reincarnation, while the circle shape symbolizes perfection for Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. In the context of Tarot, the wheel symbolizes all of these things, but with an emphasis on randomness, chance and fate. Think of carnival games, the TV game show or the scene from “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” where a spinning wheel sets the punishment for deal-breakers in Bartertown.
The only certainty is that the wheel will spin. Wheels move. Even if they don’t, there are changes and consequences as a result of the stillness and stagnation. Wheels always move, if not through space then certainly through time.
The Wheel reminds us to savor the good while we can and to hold on to persistent hope that things will improve (in other words, keep moving to the front door of your sanctuary – as the 5 of pentacles recently advised)
Everything changes, but we don’t know and can’t control how fast the wheel of fortune may spin.
Thank you for listening and reading. If you enjoy the blog-cast and the companion videos on YouTube please consider liking, following, & sharing them. Please also visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. Shop purchases, memberships and virtual coffees all contribute to creating this free to access Tarot content.
This episode was produced on May 27, 2020. Private email readings with the blog author are open and available for purchase on the blog website throughout the upcoming US Memorial day holiday weekend, with no appointment needed. Links are in the episode description for podcast listeners.
Comments are open on the blog. Your questions and comments are always welcome. See you at the next sip!
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.
Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Five of Pentacles from the classic 1909 Waite Smith Tarot.
Today’s Card seems to be asking to be put in the broader context of cards from the past few days, which in itself is a helpful message for me.
Spring is always slow for Tarot. Even after all these years, it makes me worry about taxes and bills and all the rest of it. The artwork on the card looks pretty dire, especially for a pentacles card. It can put money anxiety right in the pit of your stomach with one look. Which is kind of the point of it. The card is important for the way it acknowledges difficult times. The card doesn’t sugar coat anything. It validates any fear or worry you might be feeling. It hears you and sees you and whatever challenges life might be dumping on you right now. The card is validating but it is also reassuring. The light through the window and the church looking building in the background is intended to symbolize shelter and refuge and help available in times of need. This builds a connection to the Hope card in the “anchor rock” post and episode a few days ago.
Pentacles are earth connected and have to do with the physical realm. This points to practicality and mindfulness, in contrast to the pure emotion and melancholy we see in the five of cups. Both five cards are ominous in their own way, but the pentacles is about the practical real-world solution more than dealing with the emotion of a situation. If anything there is a sense of putting head over heart. The sanctuary in this case is the facts at hand and the cold hard reality of the present moment. That present moment focus connects with the vibe and grind, focus on what you are doing and work the problem energy from the Chariot card “Power Prompt” episode yesterday.
That is the top-line, high level message for today. If things seem bad, look at the facts and reality of the situation. It might suck, you might feel afraid and that is perfectly fine. The trick…today’s Tarot inspired life hack…is to put the fear in its place and try to not let it overwhelm your logical problem side. Let’s get literal with the image on the card. If you are poor, poorly dressed and in a snowstorm, the cold could pose a real life and death threat – but help is at hand. Shelter is right by your elbow if you can make it just a few steps more. It would be an avoidable tragedy for the figures to be so wrapped up in fear and emotion that they walk right by the life saving shelter. That is, I grant you, an overly simplified, melodramatic example but it puts small nuisance first world problems in perspective doesn’t it? Again, we have that advice from earlier cards to not make mountains out of molehills.
The thing that is interesting to me as a Tarot reader is the way this week’s cards offer you a concrete example of how Tarot readings are not tied to literal time and space. An intuitive message has unspooled over the course of days and was sent across the whole globe through the world wide webber net. Speaking of which – special hello to those of you who have viewed the website from Ireland, the UK, India, Brazil and all those other places. I appreciate you, all of you, every single reader, listener and subscriber / follower!
During this slow business, slightly confidence rattling time of year, it’s been nice for me to see this slowly evolving but still cohesive message emerge. It proves yet again that email readings really are as functional and valid as in person readings. We’ve seen it in action right here. Multiple cards connecting across space and time to give a little advice. With the energies such as they are right now, it might be all to easy to feel a little afraid. There may be very real challenges going on and storms on the horizon so to speak. This set of cards over these few days reminds us to use any help at hand, work the problem, be in the moment and keep a cool head. Don’t make mountains out of what could in time turn out to be an anthill.
If we can get cohesive inspiration from two or three cards strung out over a week and focused on a broad online and social media audience, imagine what five or seven cards in one email document focused on you individually can do.
But back to the five of pentacles. It’s a simple, straightforward reminder that even though things may be kinda terrible in some moments, help exists in the world. Keep walking and you’ll find the front door. The energy message really is akin to that old World War Two British poster to “keep calm and carry on” although it is coming through clairaudiently as “stay chill and work the problem.” Today is a day for head over heart and trying to keep fear from overwhelming the facts.
Thank you so much for listening! Your support through likes, follows, shares, questions and comments is always appreciated.
If you would like to give one of those private, individually focused email readings a try, they are available in the “no appointment needed” tab at the top of this blog page, in the menu on mobile, or on the blog website in the podcast episode description.
Or please visit the Tao Craft Tarot ko-fi page also linked in the description. Proceeds from the shop, memberships and virtual coffees are used to create this blogcast and the youtube videos of the real-world Tarot card draw that goes with each short sip post and episode.
Thanks again for reading and listening! See you at the next sip
Some days, the cards are breathtakingly elegant in their utter simplicity.
I turned on some of my favorite music from Yogetsu Akasaka because of the energy and headspace this card evokes. It’s so simple. So beautiful – both the music and the card’s energy. It’s like the empty circle of the enso, or the legendary wordless sermon of Buddha when he simply held up a lotus, or the nameless Tao.
It isn’t the typical energy you see with swords, or pages for that matter, but it’s kind of perfect, as Obi Wan said, from a certain point of view. Instead of European style knights, armour and sword fights, think of today’s page of swords as being a Samaurai, or a Shaolin Monk in training. Yes, martial skill is a big part of it, but they are also taught mental and spiritual disciplines as well.
The idea is that we need to take refuge in something. At least every now and then. It’s stress management 101. Everyone needs a rest, a safe place where they can be at ease for some measure of time.
Page cards have to do with learning. In this case it is more about remembering. Taking time to find a little refuge is natural, instinctual, innate. Even the old testament folks figured that out with their weekly day of rest. These days, it is a matter of remembering to meet that basic need. The body needs rest, we all know that. Mind and spirit need it too. That is the simple message the card brings with a single word: Refuge.
Buddhists talk about “taking refuge in the dharma.” Buddhist philosophy may not be the thing that gives you a mental break and an emotional safe place – but something does.
Whatever that is for you – today’s card reminds us to find it – use it.
We can all use a little refuge.
Please support artists and musicians whose work gives you a few minutes of mental sanctuary.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
You must be logged in to post a comment.