Ain’t no big

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today the Page of Pentacles reminds us that it ain’t no big thing.

Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s Card is the Page of Pentacles from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck, card artwork by Eli Norvell.

Here is your Tarot life hack.

When you are reading a card, look at the foundation meaning, then add your intuition on top.

Easy.

In this case we have a base of page cards that symbolize learning and pentacles that symbolize our relationship with the physical realm. Intuitively I get the word “easy” and the mental image of that old office supply store commercial with a big read button with the word easy on it.

It would be nice if this means that life will be as magically easy as it is in the world of television ads. But I don’t think that is what spirit, energy, and the card are really trying to say. Life can be hard enough on its own. We don’t have to add to that. Let things be easy and fun whenever you can.

Perception and intention are everything in Tarot, spirituality, personal growth, quality of life, dare I say magick. This is the part where experience, study and a professional’s opinion might come in handy. It takes a little work and experience to connect a random card to a mental image of a television commercial to a meaningful idea we can all apply to make life a little better.

Some days intuition is all POOF and easy and spiritual and satisfying … other days it’s like a mental Rube Goldberg machine. Today is a little bit of both. We have to connect a few dots including a random card, a TV ad easy button and a practical need to drum up a useful idea for today’s post.

Luckily pentacles are practical cards, and today’s dots are, well, practical and easy.

This episode and post is case in point. It serves no purpose to try and make this into some big dramatic spiritual lesson. The bottom line is that it is OK for some things to be easy. It is ok for things to be out of hand, down to earth, and no big deal. Being difficult and complicated doesn’t necessarily add value, but it does add cost. We may feel more accomplished or productive when we overcome challenges but it doesn’t have to be that way every single time. Streamlining and making things more easy has value too. Making things easy gives us a very valuable gift: the ability to give our time and attention to other things.

This playful, forward looking card reminds us not to spend time and energy when it isn’t necessary. Don’t overthink. Don’t make mountains out molehills. Let things be easy when they can be. Learn a life hack. Or better still, invent one for yourself. Then you spend the energy and effort you save on the things that matter the most: you and those you love.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! Any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions or comments are always appreciated. Blog comments are open and I’m on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook most days.

If you are enjoying these posts and episodes, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot Ko-fi page. Proceeds from the shop and memberships supports the creation of this free to access Tarot content. Want more than a sip? Get a big cup all your own. Private email Tarot Readings with the blog author are available to order anything, no appointment needed, on the blog website. Links are in the episode description for podcast listeners.

Thank you again. See you at the next sip!

Cute and Clever

Page of Pentacles: Cleverness saves the day. TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the page of pentacles made by Eli Norvell for the Alleyman’s Tarot deck pictured above. If you are listening on the podcast, there is a link in the episode description if you want to take a peek at a super fun card. It has a sort of anime, kawaii, bubbly cuteness about it.

Today’s reading actually started yesterday, but it still feels relevant. As always, use your own feelings and discernment to decide if the card applies to you or not. That’s the difficult thing with these blog and podcast readings. It can’t be all things to everyone. If something is on your mind or giving you the feels and this reading doesn’t hit the mark, by all means please consider drawing a card for yourself or consulting with someone like me to get a more personalized reading. So if this helps – great! If not, don’t be discouraged. Keep looking. Your guidance is out there, somewhere, even if it takes some thinking and pondering and contemplating to get to it. That’s why the person getting a Tarot reading is sometimes call “the seeker” instead of “the sitter.”

Just after drawing this card yesterday morning, I got a call from my relatively new part time job at the local library. I love to write, so spending a few hours a week up to my eyeballs in books is a natural fit. It is a small place that our family has enjoyed and supported ever since we moved here years ago. Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity to spend time in one of my favorite places AND make up some income from closing in-person Tarot during covid. When there was an unexpected staffing need, I was so there.

The Page of Pentacles is about newness and opportunities. You could take it to mean that the card predicted that I would be spending the day with my new opportunity half an hour before the phone rang. I wouldn’t mind imagining that I’m that good of a movie grade psychic but that’s not how any of this works. That’s not the message of the moment – yesterday or today.

I may not be TV style psychic, but my intuition is, however, clairvoyant. That means it works with mental images. It is also clairaudient, meaning it works with mental sounds and words. And, as you who follow the blogcast know, it also works heavily with pop culture references – mostly references filtered through my Gen X lens.

To go along with the cute, bubbly, almost anime-like artwork on the card, I was reminded me of an 80s pop song.

This shows a little bit how intuition works through a daisy chain of associations sometimes. Critics say this is stretching, or reaching or fishing for answers in the vein of psychic “cold readings.” When you are reading in person for someone else, it can certainly seem that way. We can talk about cold readings another day, but for now let’s look at one card meditation readings for yourself. How is searching for connections within your own mind something wrong?

It isn’t

It is prompt. It is a structured way to think things through. It is a topic for contemplation. THAT’s what Tarot is all about after all. No matter if you are reading for yourself or getting a reading from a pro, Tarot is food for thought. Sometimes that thought process takes a few steps. Sometimes food for thought takes a few steps to digest.

Ok, back to this intuition daisy chain.

The early 80s Culture Club album “Kissing To Be Clever” came to mind as did the scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone where Hermione talks about “books and cleverness.” The word “clever” seemed to be the thing grabbing my attention through this card.

Learning, training, books and cleverness is a concept we see in any of the Page cards. Pentacles bring the page into the realm of groundedness and practicality. Put the two together and that says life hack to me.

This feels like an advice card, reminding us to work smarter, not harder. Look for the life hacks that really work. Let practical experience teach you and make things better next time around.

Yesterday, I posted an announcement that I wouldn’t be doing this episode right after the YouTube short and Instagram reel like usual. That post led me to another piece of life hack advice: have a plan B

Sometimes you have to drop back and punt. Sometimes you have to adapt. The universe provides, but it provides what you need not necessarily what you want or expect. Look for some life hacks, develop a plan B for when life throws the unexpected at you.

And if you can do it all while cute and clever – then bonus points to you!

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Thank you so much for listening. See you at the next sip!