pandemic – Page 2 – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Today’s Tarot: Grind

The Five of Wands has long been associated with conflict and challenge – but it is not insurmountable. I don’t know of any Tarot cards that are hopeless. There are “change course”, or “cut it loose and move on” types of messages, but never an “give up it’s over” kind of message. This may seem close. It isn’t going to be easy. Life seldom is. The message from the Five of Wands isn’t give up. It’s quite the opposite. It is a call to persist. We’ve made it to the point where now we know what to do (stay the heck at home, etc.) Now is the time to do it. And keep doing it. Then do it some more. It’s time to grind.

Yes, things are inside out and upside down. In an ideal world, our future selves will look back, figure out just what went wrong, and try to figure out what we need to do to stay out of this particular sh*tstorm. But how is that going to help here and now that everything has hit the fan and we are right in the middle of it?

Grind.

Just do it. Fake it until you make it. “Don’t think yourself into a new way of doing, do yourself into a new way of thinking.

On that big, gestalt, general energy, zeitgeist level, it feels to me like there has been another shift in the wind. The past several days have been a pleasant respite. That was the eye of the hurricane. Now we are headed back into it for the second half of the initial storm. There are more waves on the horizon, but we’ll cross that energy bridge when we get to it.

For now, do what needs done without over thinking it. Persistence will overcome.

It may not be a good time for spirituality. There may not be energy to spare for that. If that is where you mind, heart and energy lies, this card suggests a present moment attention, like a minor arcana echo to the Chariot card. This card suggests that Zen is a good spiritual approach to take in the challenges to come. Think Shaolin Monk. Think Samurai. Whatever level of potato peeling you may be doing, the idea is as Alan Watts said:

“Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is to just peel the potatoes.”

– Alan Watts

Today’s Tarot: A Well Stocked Cookie Jar

With all the pentacle cards that have been showing up lately, I’ve taken to re-reading old reference books to see if there is some obscure meaning, or some facet of the cards I’m missing. Call it due dilignce, although it is probably closer to trolling for inspiration.

Today was browsing the book that came with the deck in the video. It is my far and away favorite deck right now, the Witches Tarot. The book is by Ellen Dugan and the georgous artwork is by Mark Evans.

The keyword “homemaker” jumped out from the description for today’s Queen of Pentacles. My first knee jerk response was drudgery, housework, negative connotations of leaving the workforce that still get foisted on stay-at-home moms who are seen as somehow lesser, or giving in to old strictures of patriarchy.

Ok, let’s let that go, let the cultural programming wash a way for a second. Deep breath.

Now let’s connect the word homemaker to the more common, more resonant, overarching meaning of nurturing and self care that typically comes through with this card. Now lets connect that further to the pandmic that was such a huge wave of energy coming through the pentacle cards lately.

Rather than the HGTV Martha Stewert version of homemaking, think “nesting.”

Think comfortable. Think of making a soft cozy little nest of pillows and blankets and watching TV in bed or from your favorite seat. Think pillow forts and cookies and comfort foods. It is sourdough season.

There is the potential for good things to come out of this experience. Those out and working have found strengths they may not have known before. May they also discover a vast pool of support they have never had before as well. Delivery trucks, supply trucks, and grocery stores have my eternal gratitude to go right with the healthcare and first responders.

We’ve been given the chance to face up to…and befriend who we are right here and right now. What better way to make a friend than sharing a cookie or two? We’ve been handed the chance to rediscover childhood pleasure, and create new ones. We don’t need mass consumerism and a constant drive to heal, to grow, to progress or to succeed. To bake a loaf of bread, put on our jammies, to become OK with a being on earth…even on who likes the occasional sweet treat or second (or fourth) cup of coffee, or letting yourself sit and finish listening to that song, a stretch, a yawn … any of a million tiny sensual physical realm pleasures that are close at hand with minimal effort.

We can get back to obsessing over appearances and diets and progress and consuming and doing and achieving later. For now, stock the cookie jar and deeply, mindfully enjoy the simplest, smallest pleasures at hand. Little things mean a lot, even when you are the Queen.

May we always have well stocked cookie jars and appreciate the simple pleasures close at hand.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Leading Indicators

“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.” – Richard Bach

It’s not the no-pentacles thing.

Do you feel it? It isn’t over. The whole pandemic energy is still there, not the buzzing initial panic, but a low key, solid comfortable existential dread. From a place of both logic AND intuition – the switch flipping open the economy folks are insane. It is not time to go whole hog. We need to keep doing what we are doing a few more weeks. Even then there should be limits and cautions and this is nowhere near over until there is a vaccine.

There is a leading indicator shift in the energy, akin to the resonance of panic and the foreboding ping that came in February and the run up to stay at home orders. This is advance planning. This is a nudge to think about what you are going to do or not do when official restrictions change. Trust me, the work from home freelancer….you don’t HAVE to go out if you don’t want to.

This reading, as a group of three, is about the good things this problem of staying in has brought, and once again this is more for the privileged than for those essential workers in the thick of this. They have bigger fish to fry than the getting and giving of Tarot readings. This is about “This is your chance to appreciate this while you have a chance before this opportunity goes away” This group of cards remind us to take whatever small gifts and good memories from the quarantine with us when it is all, finally and later, over.

Left: Two of Cups. This card, in normal times, is about marriage and other meaningful long term relationships. This is about holding on to long distance friendships that may have been forged online during social distancing. This is about the relationships that were strengthened or stretched to the limit being quarantined together. Think about what relationships have proven themselves to really matter over the past couple of months and think about which ones, if any, have proven themselves to be unnecessary. In short, trim and nurture where needed, cherish the precious from now on.

Center: Knight of Wands. Act on your passions. The rah-rah “toxic positive” vibe was way ahead of this curve. You still l don’t have to achieve or do anything except make it through, day by day. It wasn’t time yet, for many people, to do that spring cleaning or do their equivalent of Shakespeare writing King Lear during the plague. If you have some pet project or dreams to pursue, the energies are turning more toward that. Comfort yourself and those around you, yes. You will need that strength later. But the energies are shifting so it is easier for us to shift from hold-and-survive to once again chasing the dream.

Right: Eight of Swords. We are still trapped. It isn’t time to fully move yet. Now is the time for planning and creative problem solving. The energies may not have started to shift for you. If you have been thinking of these times as prison, now is the time to see them as protection. What do you need to guard that you haven’t seen? Where have you let your guard down….either getting your shields up too late, or dropping them too early?

Want a reading just for you, not from the public youtube / blogaverse cyberspace? You can get a private reading just for you, in a format that suits your taste and style:

Email – typed doc with photo of your unique cards sent as an email attachment – no appointment needed
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LIVE phone reading (by appointment only – prepayment required – schedule with the contact form HERE)
InkMagick Tarot is old school, and as magic as the name implies. The written word is powerful and tangible. This is a unique keepsake reading rarely offered. Experience a Tarot reading that you can touch even as it touches you.

Phone a Friend

Thank you, thank you.

I SO appreciate everyone who reads this, follows on the socials, trusts me to do readings for you…you all are unfailingly awesome!

I had a really enjoyable phone reading this afternoon. (Thank you so much you-know-who-you-are!) Shout out to WordPress for the PayPal buttons that are making phone readings work out this time. In the past, payment and scheduling were so confusing for clients and there was such low demand that I mothballed phone readings ages ago.

But (insert Poltergeist move voice) they’re baaa-aaack!

Due to the Pandemic and my desire to oh, I dunno, stay alive, in-person readings are closed until a vaccine comes along. Phone sessions are the only real-time reading I can offer right now. I have to admit, it is kind of nostalgic and fun. We are talking old school friendly psychic phone readings, only without the triple digit surprises on your phone bill, high per-minute charges or sneaky connection fees.

Interested? It’s easy. Just go to the PHONE READINGS page in the menu. Buy the session (5 or 7 cards) using the PayPal button – just like you would order anything you buy online. Then use the contact form provided to schedule your reading. Call me at the scheduled time and POOF! Live Tarot happens.

So stay home! Phone readings are available now, and the discounted prices on email readings have been extended to May 8 to match the local stay at home orders.

Now go wash your hands and stop touching your face!

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

Today’s Tarot: Lingering Winter

The Five of Penticals still points very strongly to the physical realm. When I do these readings, it is with the intent of reading the general energies and hopefully giving a reading that is thought provoking or in some way helpful to the broadest audience possible.

Today there is a sense of a three way split, with a slightly different idea for each group.

Again, at least here in the U.S. the pandemic is the top of mind issue and the dominant energy. All three, however, reming of long winters. We are in the late January equivalent of this energy wave. We are in the dark heart of a long and lingering winter, do to speak.

Some may feel cautiously optimistic. You are right, this will end, but for a long while and not with rainbows and unicorns you might think. Nurture that optimism, it is like a flower poking up through the snow. But don’t get too carried away just yet. Temper and balance that optimism with realism and practicality. This isn’t over yet. Don’t panic, things will change, but at their pace, not ours. Plan in case scarcity last longer than you think.

Others may feel just plain terrible, and the bleak imagery on most five of coins cards captures that feeling. You are totally justified in feeling that way. Things are terrible in a lot of ways for a lot of people. The initial zinging panic energy has already changed, even if it has changed into the low level him of persistent existential dread. There’s no easy remedy for that kind of mental and emotional headspace. I’m not talking about real depression or genuine mental health need, which is far outside the scope of this kind of this kind of blog. It speaks to the normal funk of a person put in a funky situation beyond their control. Here I get the mental image and sound of “it can’t rain all the time” from the movie “The Crow.” In 1816, a volcanic eruption in the south Pacific caused an ash cloud so severe that it caused crop failures in Europe. Even in that “year without a summer” Yes, things suck. Don’t deny or minimize how you feel about it, but at the same time don’t let it affect what DO about it. Persist. Keep plodding on through the deep snow drifts. It might be along winter, but it isn’t a forever winter. You aren’t in this alone. To continue the analogy with winter, we are all freezing our buns off together to one extent or another. You might be in an isolated cabin by yourself, but you are not in the storm alone.

The third group has pretty much just snapped. Cabin fever has boiled over. Whether they have carried an enormous burdon or were just fragile to start, some have been pushed beyond their means to cope and are operating from a place of fear and anger. That person isn’t reading this and probably couldn’t hear anything the card might suggest anyway.

It falls to the rest of us to protect ourselves from lingering in a place like that and from those who do. Whether you are walking around harboring a glimmer of hope, like sunshine on a freezing afternoon or if you are sitting in fully overcast gloom, we got this. Yes, mind your resources. Yes, honor your genuine feelings. Winter can sometimes linger, but it never lasts forever.

Taking the Advice the Cards Keep Giving

Now is not the time to press, to strive, to make big decisions – or try to learn to make good youtube content. Now is the time to be mindful. Pay attention to the here and now, even if it is isolated or terrible. But that’s easy for me to say, because right now I’m ok. I forget who said it, but mental and emotional suffering lies between how things are and how we wish them to be. Now is a time to gather in our energies and make friends with where we are and who we are, no judgements, no goals, no expectations.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Plant

Pick a card. Pause the video if you need some time. Restart to seee the reveal, then you can scroll down to get your reading below. OR you can do you own reading. PeaceTarot ebook download can teach you how. (https://www.etsy.com/listing/248936426/peacetarot-e-book-how-to-do-daily)

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Left: Ace of Pentacles. “Bloom where you are planted.” The energies are a wind at your back, the near future is an opportune time for productivity and creativity in a very tangible way. Both the muses and the maker’s energies are with you. Be on the lookout for inspiration and opportunity to make or do something tangible.

Middle: Seven of Pentacles “Let the planted seeds grow.” In the 27 years that I’ve been reading cards, I’ve never seen a pattern so repeated, so loud, so clear as the energies have been for the past couple of months of the global pandemic.

Now is not the time for big innovation, change or being overly high-minded, or woo woo spiritual about things. Let the seeds that were sown grow. This is one of those time to leave well enough alone. Sit with what is and what has happened so far. This is very different from the major arcana Hanged Man energy. It isn’t stagnation…this is a needed, necessary quiet. We aren’t stuck, the best thing to DO is nothing, is to wait. Being at peace with that will reap harvest in its time. Finding out that you are not at peace with quiet and your own company is important too. Both are needed now in order to move forward at harvest time.

Right: Queen of Wands “Tend to your garden.” Again this is a clear, repeated message of the times. Take care of yourself and those near to you. Do what needs done. Protect yourself. Do the right thing to protect those around you. The Tarot is on the experts side. Again, just like with the Seven of Pentacles, no is not the time to push or innovate or be overly woo woo spiritual, Tend to the physical. The spiritual will come back in its time. Your endurance is needed. Sleep. Eat. Get outside when you safely can.

Social Distance is my Tarot specialty! I write Tarot as easily as speaking it face to face. A keyboard is a hotline to intutition for me. The connection comes from information, not physical presance. Spirit and energy exists everywhere, so I can get your message and send it anywhere. Order on the home page. Prices reduced through at least the end of April to help out during the pandemic.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Own It.

Pause the video if you need more time to pick your card, then restart to see the reveal. Scroll down to see your card reading. Please follow the blog so you don’t miss any of the learn-to-read-Tarot and other “my side of the table” written content that will be coming up over the next few months.

Left: Knight of Pentacles. “SUSTAIN” A knight that drops his shield in a battle doesn’t survive for very long. In this case “back to business” does NOT mean back to the way things were before. It means put on your big kid underwear and keep going, even if you are exhausted to the bone. Last month was alarms and claxons and responding to a real life and death emergency, collectively speaking. This isn’t recovery. This is keep going. Keep your guard up. This card is letting us know this isn’t close to over. We needed a period of mobilization, freak-out, and adjustment, without judgement. Now is the time to be adjusted already and sustain our response. Forget before. It’s time go get to the business of the business at hand. Energies are shifting from an all out sprint to a sustained, marathon endurance pace.

Center: Nine of Wands. Read the Knight of Pentacles, this is basically the same message on a slightly less literal and more mental/emotional level. Energies are shifting, but stay on guard. If you are empathic or otherwise energy sensitive, continue to set strong boundaries. Don’t be a victim. Be responsible. Do the self-care you need to sustain through this middle phase. There is no “back to normal.” Do what you need to do to be in a good head space right here, right now.

Right: The Star. “Thank the things that got you this far” This is also has a bit of a mental/emotional/spiritual spin to it, although it is important to know the physical realm people and resources that have helped you…and the things that can and will help you still. Pay it forward as best as you can both now and later. Less literally, think about the things that got you through the initial response and change and is helping you to sustain as we begin the middle of unknowable duration. What ideas, beliefs, people and practices have gotten you this far? What old beliefs that “should” be your rock and your shelter have crubled to dust under the weight of everything? What beliefs have supported and sustained you? What new shining star guides you when the world seems to spin out from under you? Forget before. What ideas and beliefs have proven their worth under these very real stresses be they old or new?

Buckaroo Bonzai said “No matter where you go, there you are.” Well, here we are. It isn’t like it was, but it is what we have. Now it is time to own what we do with it.

Meet Zombie Cat 2020

Hey everyone. I’m Zombie Cat. I poofed into quantum probability collapsed existence back in 2015 after Schrodinger’s experiment and a Menage A Tarot podcast collided in the hooman’s head and came out as a blog post on her old Modern Oracle site. You can read a reprise of the original post here. Both the hooman and I are very grateful for that podcasting experience to say the least.

A few days ago she tossed me the keys to the joint and walked off mumbling something about Mad Max needing cheese ….or maybe it was make a mask and going for groceries. Either way she had a slightly stressed look on her face like she was about ready to go full metal shoulder pads and start singing Tina Turner – badly. I figured that was my clue to take over the Tarot readings for a day or two. I usually only come shambling around at Halloween, but the end of the world as we know it has my attention. I’m back for the duration of the pandemic, to give you all a little break from being all positive and productive and hopeful and all that crazy crap. Some days if you peel off those 5 day old pajamas and take a shower it’s an accomplishment. If you want something thoughtful, diplomatic, kind, calm, reassuring, inspiring or empowering – go get one of the hooman’s readings. That’s not my style. Seeing as I am

a cat and
a zombie

I don’t feel any particular need to sugar coat such things. Despite the fictional undead cat thing, I’m a damn fine Tarot reader. That’s why I usually charge $10 per reading. I’m cutting you people types a break while the lung rot is out there, and my yes or no readings are only $5 (three cards for the price of one) until the end of April. Maybe longer. The hooman said she’s not letting her guard down until someone squirts an FDA approved vaccine in her arm. Meanwhile she is always running around cautioning people about how Tarot doesn’t predict the future, trying to encourage them and show them the power of their choices and all that. I just call ’em as I see ’em. If you want to believe a prediction from an un-dead fictional cartoon cat, who am I to judge? Ask me anything. I’ll give you a straight up yes or no answer guaranteed to contain some words and have a 50% chance of being dead wrong. Any accidental snark or humor is free of charge. All policies and disclaimers apply, caveat emptor, swim at your own risk.

And go wash your hands.