One of my favorite summer spots, in spite of the road construction noise near by.
If nothing else, just for these few seconds, be ok with who you are and where you are. Just for 30 short seconds, allow yourself to know everything is just as it needs to be in this time and place on your path. For these 30 seconds allow yourself to know that you are complete, you are all that is needed and exactly as you are needed to be in this moment.
There are two brand new special offers:
All prior free readings, special offers and price reductions have now expired. The above special offers are subject to all website policies and disclaimers and are valid May 26 – August 30, 2020.
From PeaceTarot copyright 2013 Ronda Snow all rights reserved. Used with permission.
The First Edition of PeaceTarot is available both on amazon.com for kindle and in the the TaoCraft Tarot Shop on Etsy.
In 2012 the mass shooting of children in a Newtown, Connecticut school shook the souls of the nation’s parents. For those of us who had young children it was an emotionally charged and terrifying event, even if we were geographically far removed from Newtown. It was followed over the next several years by the Boston Marathon bombing, the Mother Emanuel shooting, Orlando, Las Vegas, Stoneman Douglas High School and our hometown in 2018 with the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. The litany of violence and political inaction continues here in the United States. We can never forget that war and violence have been with the human race across the globe throughout history.
After many years of doing Tarot readings, I knew first hand the comfort the card’s ideas and symbolism could bring. I’ve seen a reading ease the tension in a person’s face and body language time and time and time again. The comfort I’d personally taken in the cards naturally found its way into “Tarotbytes,” my blog on the Modern Oracle Tarot website and again in this self published ebook.
Now here we are in 2020 experiencing a deadly global pandemic and the worst economic depression in nearly one hundred years. I had intended to use the great stay-at-home lockdown quarantine of 2020 to do other writing and other things. Catching up on some sleep was high on the list.
Yet, as is often the case, the cards have other ideas. Tarot has a role to play again.
It wasn’t clear at first, but the readings since late February (both for individual clients and generally for the blog and social media) have been overwhelmingly focused on the pandemic. You don’t have to be intuitively sensitive for the feelings of these times to hit you like a tidal wave. Then and now, 2012 and 2020, the point of Tarot work is to help us to honor our true feelings. The process of doing a reading can help clear stress and find a path forward that may have otherwise been hidden behind turbulent times and equally turbulent emotions. One thing is clear. It’s time to bring PeaceTarot out of mothballs and let Tarot work its magic on our current challenges.
All of the original PeaceTarot material still exists in the second edition with two new features. PeaceTarot still begins by teaching you to do one card daily meditation style readings for yourself. It still gives the peace-minded card meanings from the 2010 – 2012 era. For each card, I’ve added the pandemic focused interpretations that have stepped forward in the early months of 2020. Next, the internet allows me to give you a brand new resource for choosing a daily card when you don’t have a Tarot deck on hand. The TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel has a growing number of videos that you can use to see a card being randomly drawn. You can then reference the reading for that card in the video description or coordinate it with the ones here in PeaceTarot as you build your daily Tarot meditation practice.
The one thing that never changes is that everything always changes.Despite those changes, peace of mind and a quiet Tarot moment are ideas that never go away. Through it all, I wish you health, happiness and many moments of peace.
Ronda Snow
Pittsburgh, 2020
“There is no problem without a gift for you in its hands” – Richard Bach
“If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, then you probably haven’t checked with your answering service lately” – Hawkeye Peirce
Energies are starting to shift.
Pentacles have been in our face the past month or so, with good reason, calling our attention to the physical realm and asking us to be practical. It was time to “work the problem” and do what needs done, even if what needs done is to stay the heck at home.
The Ten is different this time. The ten, being the largest of the number cards, not only symbolizes a good ending or a good outcome (and reassures us that better times are ahead) but also points to intangible things more than the other numbered pentacle cards. The ten reminds us of a good outcome that is made of all the things that money can never buy. Health, happiness, love, family, peace, contentment and all of the abstract things essential to the human spirit.
There is nothing wrong with experiencing those things, even in the middle of chaos, boredom or isolation. We aren’t a victim of circumstance if we deal with our circumstances and move on to value the important things beyond it. It is OK to be OK in spite of it all. It’s OK to give up diversions for a while when the important things are still there. It is OK to adapt to circumstances, especially when weird circumstances are teaching us what our important things are.
Update: The $5 off email readings has been extended to May 8 to match our local stay at home orders. I’ve tweeked the website just a little bit in spots to make it a little more useable on phones and tablets. Mobile or not, feel free to browse around, check out the new organization on the pages and menu. Eyes open! The free one card digital InkMagick Tarot reading by email is still available, so look for the free Tarot and special offer links.
I’ve been an anime fan since Kimba the White Lion reruns circa 1970.
My daughter is an anime fan too (so proud!) She and I have been watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. We’ve made it to season 4 “Diamond Is Unbreakable.” It would take an entire blog to begin to explain this behemoth of a story line, but let’s just say a “stand” is like the personification of a superpower. “Shining Diamond” (the name is a reference to the Pink Floyd song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”) has a superpower where the things it hits, attacks or destroys reassembles to a changed condition that is better than the original…or it can directly heal wounds and injuries inflicted by others.
What if this ability is an analogy for one possible silver lining in all of this? I’ve been talking with friends and clients about how these pandemic times have been affecting energy sensitive people. What if one silver thread in this terrible dark cloud is a re-alignment on a spiritual or energetic level, akin to Shining Diamond’s healing objects or people who were previously torn apart?
What if our social connections are being stretched thin, even being smashed to bits in order for them to be put together into something new and better? What if we are being separated to make room for new relationships that resonate with our spiritual growth and our hearts rather than social connections of convenience?
It is a common thing for friendships to fade during times of spiritual growth and evolution, especially for people in their 20s and 30s. Old friends drift apart (or blow apart) and new, more attuned connections fill the space left behind. What if this is happening on a global cultural scale? What if we are being pummeled apart in order to be reassembled along like-minded spiritual strata? What if we are being blown out of our old tribes in order to find the tribe that matches our hearts rather than our habits?
I’m not saying that is what is actually happening, but it is an intriguing thought experiment, don’t you think?
There is nothing like a little social distance and time alone to put you face to face with your own heart and mind. Yogis, gurus, monks, shamen and spiritual people of every tradition have deliberately sought this kind of isolation. Stay home orders and social distancing has put us all on our own little mountaintop spiritual retreat. Or it should. It says something tragic about the inner peace of those who can’t make some adjustment at the cost of human lives.
For the fortunate, who have food, shelter, a job to do from home…for those, this is a gift. If, under those fortunate circumstances, “social distancing” is uncomfortable for you, could it be because you are uncomfortable with yourself? If you are uncomfortable in your own company, this is an ideal time to figure out why.
When you are good with you, it is a lot easier to be OK with other people. The popular thing on social media among the uber-positive happy people is to advocate for “self-love”. That seems strong. Why not aim for a little self-OK first? Self-love flirts a little too much with narcissism for my taste. Self-acceptance seems more real to me.
The first step to being OK with others is to be OK with yourself. We are one. We are all connected. Bigotry, hatred and intolerance are twisted forms of self-loathing.
A little time apart might help that. It’s like we are being hit full force by Shining Diamond. We are being blown apart to give us the opportunity to reassemble healed.
Right: 6 of wands. Sometimes you have to fight the war to find the peace on the other side. Protect your boundaries.
Left: 5 of Pentacles. No need to deny how difficult it is. If times are tough, face up to the fact that they are. That doesn’t mean you have given up hope. Admitting you are cold doesn’t stop the first spring flower from blooming through the snow.
Middle: 7 of Cups. A good time to choose. This present moment is the axel around which the wheel of the future spins. This is where you make the choices that steer your path where you want it to go.
The only peace the holidays require you to keep is within yourself.
Whether you speak your truth or walk away, protect your compassion from the ravages of other people’s stress and zealotry.
A small shift in perception is all it takes to be at peace with yourself. Even if it doesn’t seem like a win right now, today is an step along life’s way and necessary to getting where you want to go. Good or bad, it is a stepping stone. It is ok to be at peace with that.
They say a fish rots from the head down. Calm, relaxed and peaceful comes from the head down too. Leadership need not involve anxiety in the leader or the lead either one.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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