Tag: pittsburgh tarot reader

A Strange Sort of Keeper

Weakness is a strange thing to keep, but only the things you keep can be transformed.

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

I’m not an expert on Taoism. The philosophy has been a big part of my world view and how I live life for well over 30 years. It has held true for me and I come back to it time and time and time again. I’ve been reading The Tao Te Ching, I Ching, Alan Watts, Chinliang Al Huang, Deng Ming Dao and more since the 1980s. Taoism predates Tarot for me, which is saying something.

Like Tarot and magick, exoteric Taoist philosophy (I can’t speak for the religious aspects or for esoteric Taoist practices) is broadly inclusive. If you think of the Tao as the multiverse sort of meta-everything then anything written within our universe about it is part of the greater whole and a valid point of view. Therefore, as someone once wrote, everything written about the Tao is canon. Be that as it may – if you are interested in Taoism, go grab a book and have at it. Good stuff, that.

If you want to learn more about the esoteric side of Taoism I highly recommend Benebel Wen’s excellent book The Tao of Craft. It was published just as I was beginning to lay the groundwork for rebranding Modern Oracle Tarot into TaoCraft Tarot. I took it as an omen that I was on the right path even though that path is more on the philosophical, exoteric side of things.

I mention it Taoism because today’s Strength card brings to mind probably one of the most Taoist ideas to come out of a card reading in a while. This deck hasn’t touched the Taoist vibe very much. Speaking of decks, today I’m working from the Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund. The artwork on this particular card is by Madam Clara for the Five Cent Tarot.

Taoism is about being in harmony with nature. Sure, that means the rocks and flowers and trees and bees kind of nature, but it also means your nature. Taoism is about living in harmony with your authentic self.

Being in harmony with your authentic self doesn’t mean you can’t do better next time. Authentic self does not mean static self. People change. Ideally people grow and mature and hopefully become wiser and kinder as time goes on.

Part of that nature, for some of us, is to be hard wired people pleasers. The idea of strength and weakness and being a better person is often tied to idealism more than realism. The path to being a better person is often fraught with “should” and “ought” and external definitions of good and external measures of character. We tend to want to eradicate or drastically change anything that is considered a weakness or a character flaw.

The major arcana Strength card is all about strength of character, not at all about the physical variety. Internal progress is measured internally, not measured to outside signposts.

It is a strange thing to say consider keeping your weaknesses. Perhaps instead of getting rid of our weaknesses, we should keep them, but learn a new relationship with them. Find and use the good aspects.

Repurposing a weakness into something beneficial still gets rid of the so-called weakness. It is a strange sort of keeper, to hold on to what some people might label as weakness. Transforming our downfalls into superpowers is a Strength all of its own.

Thank you for listening! Your likes, subs, follows, shares, questions and comments are always appreciated.

Private readings with the blog author are available on the blog website.

None of these blog posts or podcast episodes are monetized, and it all depends on your support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page. The memberships, shop and virtual coffees support the creation of this free to access Tarot reading content.

Links are in the episode description for podcast listeners.

Thank you again. See you at the next sip!

It’s There

You have the answers you need. They are in there. The trick is coaxing them out…and believing them once they surface.

Hi and welcome to Tao Craft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the Queen of Cups. The queen is said to evoke the deepest aspects of all that the suit of cups symbolizes. In the Pamela Smith artwork we see here, the cup is bigger and fancier than the rest. There is almost always water imagery with the Queen of Cups, usually the ocean. This is no little pond or river. The Queen is barefoot, which to me symbolizes both connection and grounding. The queen keeps her connection with the earth while plumbing the depths of emotions and insights even if they are hidden in equally deep waters.

One way to sum it all up is “inner wisdom.”

As elegant, and wise and profound as the Queen of Cups energy may seem, this is no rescuer. The Queen isn’t here to tell you what you need to know. The Queen is here to tell you that you already know. Whatever answer you are looking for … it’s in there.

Sometimes the answers you already possess need a little finesse to bring them to the surface. Water gives more resistance than air. It’s physics in a way. If I’m understanding this correctly, when more surface area is exposed to the resistant force of air or water, more overall force is applied to the object.

Here is a thought experiment for you. Imagine a cafeteria tray laying flat at the bottom of a swimming pool. Even if it is the shallow end, if you lift it up flat it is harder to do than if you lift it up by the edge first. If you use both arms and yoink it flat out, it takes more effort than lifting it up by the edge by two fingers.

Deep inner knowing can be like that.

You have the answers you need. The trick is coaxing them out. It takes a little time and patience and subtlety. Be kind to yourself when you plumb these psychological depths

The harder trick is believing them when they do.

It’s in there. You have the answers you need deep inside, even if they are answers you don’t particularly want to hear.

Thank you for reading and listening. Any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions or comments you can give are always appreciated.

None of these free to access Tarot readings are monetized and depend on your support. If you enjoy these posts and podcasts, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page and consider becoming a Patron of the Tarot arts. The memberships and virtual coffees contribute to the web hosting and other costs of creating this (almost) daily blog and podcast

Cosmic Gutter Bumpers

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: cosmic gutter bumpers

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

Today’s card is the Lovers from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck, art by Nate Hillyer.

Today’s energy is absolutely positively not in any way about Romance or romantic relationships. The card isn’t really about that anyway. The card is about what you want from life. Of course that includes romantic relationships, and the desire for love, romance, and companionship are vitally important and shouldn’t be trivialized. By the same token, that’s just not where the energy is going today. This is about your relationship with yourself, and desires related to your overall life path. As important as romantic, platonic and familial relationships are, this is important too. Relationships have the whole suit of cups to address them. This energy is closer to the inner fire, the suit of wands, but turned up to major arcana sized volume.

Today’s energy is begging a question to which Tarot doesn’t necessarily have an answer. As good as Tarot is, it is nevertheless only a tool in the hands of your intuition. Tarot, runes, astrology, pendulums, scrying mirrors; oracles can nudge your attention in the right direction. In the end, it is only your heart, your feelings, your instincts that can answer some things.

Today’s energy is asking us to consider when to persist and when to change.

Persistence can overcome the obstacles that life randomly throws at our feet. But what if those obstacles are a message in and of themselves? What if those obstacles are a cosmic safety net trying to get us to adapt to an ever changing situation. What if our obstacles are not meant to elicit persistence but rather to save us from ourselves?

In times of challenges, sometimes it is helpful to question why and to understand the root cause of our desires. Do you really want to get back together with your ex, or are you really wanting to heal the wounds of rejection and to know that you are desirable after all. Do you really want that one particular job, or do you really want the attention or creative outlet or steady income it would bring?

Motives change as circumstances change. What was top of the list one day can slip in importance over days, weeks, months or years.

Cue today’s music reference. I just intuitively heard a snippet of Reeling in the Years by Steely Dan. I was 7 when it was released, and early 70s music isn’t my favorite, so I’m calling this pure intuition. In a reading, it doesn’t matter when a clairaudient song was released. What matters is any association your have with a song that comes up like this. What memories does it bring to mind, no matter when that memory actually happened? What feeling does the song evoke for you? What was going on the last time you heard the song, if it is one you’ve heard before?

Life changes. I also clairaudiently hear the words “chord changes.” I’m not a musician so I don’t really understand what that means. I’m guessing that chord changes within a song make the song better. So I would guess that means that changes in desires and changes in goals, hopes and dreams would make life better too.

And now for something completely different. Now I get the image of a bowling alley and hear the phrase “gutter bumpers.”

In bowling alleys, they usually have guide rails that pull up or some kind of bumpers that they can put in to keep the bowling ball out of the alley gutters and make the game more fun for small children or physically challenged players.

It has been said that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Sometimes challenges teach persistence and build strength of character.

It has also been said that “I don’t have ducks, I don’t have rows, I have squirrels and they are having a pagan rave.” I’ve enjoyed that meme of unknown origins a lot this past month. Sometimes challenges are a source of clarity and new directions.

The squirrel rave has been tiring, but it has also forced some clarity. It has been a validation for this text to speech format and a few other plans I have in mind for TaoCraft Tarot. This isn’t what I’d originally wanted for the podcast, but it is what life needs it to be right now. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am.

Thank you so much for listening!

If you enjoy these posts and episodes, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. The link is in the episode description for podcast listeners. The shop, memberships and virtual coffees support the creation of the blog and podcast.

Private readings are available by email HERE

Embrace the Strange

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Deal with old demons when they come around. They might be more afraid of you than you are of them.

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

Today we are back to the Alleyman’s Tarot deck. This is what Friday vibes look like. Fridays aren’t about re-capping the week, as much as it is a shift in energy from outward to productivity to inward self care, from work to rest or play, from yang to yin.

Today is the Boogeyman card. Of course I’m geeking out over it. But that’s no surprise to any of you who have heard my incessant fangirling over the Alleyman’s Tarot the past few months since it arrived on my doorstep. This particular card was created by the Alleyman’s deck creator Seven Dane Asmund for his upcoming Blood and Rust: The Misery Tarot. I can’t wait to see the Magician for it. He describe the new deck as quote Inspired by survival horror genre titan, Silent Hill, the Misery Tarot focuses on the traversal through grief, trauma, and suffering as a kindness to ourselves using imagery of the horror genre. End quote.

As the week closes and energies shift a bit toward self-care, the boogeyman isn’t as much of a paradox as it might seem at first glance. Weekends are a happy thing, usually. So is surviving a challenge.

Here I intuitively get the Madonna song “Survival.” to go along with the the survival-horror movie reference in the deck description. The suffering itself isn’t the kindness to oneself…but the acknowledgement of suffering, the acknowledgement of all you’ve done to emotionally survive, the acknowledgement of the things you feel now and the acknowledgement of old issues that bubble up every now and then … all of these conscious acknowledgements are the kindnesses that the boogeyman brings today.

We’ve been talking about some tough stuff lately. Tarot, like life, doesn’t have any easy answers. It helps us ask the right questions. It helps us to acknowledge the right things we need to face to live vibrantly.

I think this same message would come through in the classic RWS deck in the form of our friend the Page of Cups, or maybe Page of Cups with a little Devil thrown in. Sometimes life is weird. Sometimes life is chaotic. Sometimes life is devilish. But you can stare a fish full on in the eyes and get through it.

It has been said that religion is for those who want to stay out of hell and spirituality is for people that have already been there. If that’s the case, then Tarot in general and today’s energy in particular is all about spirituality. It’s about admitting the suck, embracing the chaos, and feeling the feels with unabashed gusto.

It’s funny how some old demons and boogeymen just vanish when you give them a big old hug hello. That is where I think the boogeyman as described by the artist is going. Being real about how bad (or good) things might (or might not) be is a kindness to oneself.

Cue “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkle (although I’m not usually a metal fan, I definitely prefer the Disturbed cover. Wow.)

Hello Darkness, my old friend.

I hope you have a good weekend, evening, day or whenever you happen to see this. Thank you for reading and listening. I always appreciate any likes, subs, follows, shares, questions or comments that you can spare.

If you are enjoying the blog, podcast or the companion YouTube videos, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. The shop, memberships with their exclusive content and special offers, and the virtual coffees all support the creation of these Tarot readings.

Want more than a sip? Full size readings with the blog author are available on the blog website.

For podcast listeners, links to all of this is in the show description.

Thanks again, and I’ll see you at the next sip

It can happen

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today the Ten of Cups reminds us that it get better. Happiness is yours to claim.

Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog & podcast. I’m glad you’re here.

Heck, I’m glad I’m here. Yesterday was a little extra, so for this week the squirrel rave is letting me post on a Thursday, although that might not always be the case. Because this squirrel rave we call life can be like that.

It is only Thursday, and this isn’t a weekly wrap up kind of post but the energy is circling back around to the same ideas that we have been talking about for a few days.

When messages cycle and repeat like that, the boilerplate interpretation is that an important life lesson is being ignored. Repeating energies and messages are supposed to mean that someone just plain isn’t getting it.

I don’t think that is why the energies are dwelling in one spot this time. I think the energies are circling to give us a better look, like a tourist helicopter circling an attraction to give everyone a clear view. I think spirit is doing a slow circle to let us get take our time with this message, make friends with the energy and, to borrow a word from the Dude in The Big Lebowski, abide with the ideas for a while. Spirit and energy doesn’t care about clocks and calendars, so dwelling on one topic for a while is neither bad nor uncommon.

My thoughts and my heart are dwelling and abiding with Pride month.

With the growing intolerance and hate filled legislation in some parts of the American, I legit worry about the health and safety of people whom I care about very deeply.

They say that familiarity breeds contempt. In my experience, that is sometimes true. My early life and extended family familiarity with evangelicals and Republicans has bred a great deal of contempt for those bigoted ideologies.

Familiarity can also breed compassion.

It’s harder to hate a person on grand principle once you get to know them as individuals. There is a 2014 study reported in U.C. Berkely’s Greater Good Magazine (a neuroscience and behavioral psychology newsletter) that suggested that racism really is taught by social groups and is not an inherent genetic-based behavioral trait in rats. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/are_rats

It might not rise to the level of scientific study, but everyday experience seems to hint that the same is true of humans. Or at least for humans with some toe hold on reality.

Where humans have the capacity to make things bad, as a species we have the same capacity to make things better. Difference and diversity teaches us that being a little weird yourself is a good thing. When you meet a lot of different people you can find the ones where you can be weird together. When you meet diverse people, you meet ones who think the same things are important as you do. You find the people who think you are important. Whether you know them or not, whether you feel it or not, there is someone on earth who enjoys and supports people like you. Like it or not, you are loved.

Getting older does make that process a little better. It is easier for adults than it is for kids and teens because we’ve been around the block a few times. . We know the feeling comes back; adults have experienced its return. We’ve met people very different from ourselves and lived to tell the tale. It’s easier to know that things get better when they’ve already been better – and worse, and better, and worse, and better again. To quote that insurance commercial – we know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.

It gets better because when you find that little bit of connection outward, it helps you connect inward which where all the happiness really lives. That little bit of outward support and belonging helps you lay claim to the inward happiness that has always been yours and always will be.

Thank you for reading and listening! Your likes, subs, follows, shares, questions and comments are always, always appreciated.

If you enjoy the YouTube shorts that show the real world card draw that inspires the blog and podcast – or if you enjoy the blog and podcast – please support them all through the TaoCraftTarot page on Ko-fi. The shop, memberships and virtual coffee all help me to create these Tarot readings for you.

Want more than a sip of Tarot? Have a full cup! Full size private Tarot readings with the blogcast author are available on the blog website.

See you at the next sip!

Be Yourself, Be a Hero

Be a Superhero. Be yourself. The 9 of Pentacles is today’s short sip tarot reading.

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

Today’s card, the nine of pentacles, is as light and simple as yesterday’s card, the hierophant, was heavy and complicated.

Thom Pham’s Heart of Stars third edition deck was the absolute perfect one to carry today’s message. I don’t know that this energy could come through quite this way with any other deck.

This deck has a lot going for it including Mr. Pham’s raw artistic talent, and excellent guide book writing not to mention the color palette and the watercolor aesthetic. But it’s his use of movie and TV references that drew my attention to the deck in the first place and makes it a favorite deck to this day.

My intuition works exactly that way. If you have ever had a reading with me, chances are that some sort of song, tv show or movie came up. I’m not a super deep-cut kind of media watcher, so if something comes to mind that I actually recognize, chances are that it is popular enough to be relatable to most clients.

Like right now for example. This probably is nothing more than an example, but if it is meaningful to you somehow, that’s perfect, roll with it. Right now the mental image of baby yoda grogu sipping soup comes to mind. Even if you didn’t watch the Mandalorian series, the snippet of baby yoda sipping from a cup has been a fairly viral internet meme. For me, it is symbolic of utter calm in the middle of utter chaos. It is a more recent image that carries the same feeling as that scene in the 1991 version of Robin Hood where the Sheriff of Nottingham comes into a room and starts pacing and yelling and in a brilliant bit of stagecraft Alan Rickman stabs the dinner ham to bits while the sheriff’s witch-sister deadpan asks “something vexes thee?”

Or, if you are middle aged gen x vanguard like me, you might remember that Hawkeye quote from the TV series MASH “if you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, then you probably haven’t checked with your answering service lately.”

Whichever pop culture image you most resonate with, it carries the advice to stay chill no matter how chaotic it gets. Be the cooler head that prevails.

See how that works?

But back to the nine of pentacles. Thanks to the Heart of Stars deck, it has a superhero vibe to go with the picture of Wonder Woman. Classically, nine of pentacles is associated with truth, happiness and, as the artist himself put it , quote This card represents self-reliance and the need to question your biggest assumptions in order to challenge the status quo and things that seems so normal because everyone around you is accustomed to the same beliefs. End quote.

Raise your hand if you see the connection to yesterday’s card.

Some people, for their own health and safety, cannot express their authentic selves. It is a harsh reality and necessary choice. When someone does that, they do so in quiet service to their own health, safety and sanity. That choice is as worthy of our love and support as any other.

Today’s card is the opposite side of the same coin. If you have the wherewithal and opportunity to live your truest most authentic self (and only you can decide what that is) then you have the obligation to do so.

Here, instead of a clairvoyant mental image, I’m getting a clairaudient mental snippet of a song. It’s Odd Future by Uver World that was one of the opening themes for the anime My Hero Academia, although I forget which season.

So there you have your soundtrack for today’s Tarot. Be a hero by being yourself. Be a hero by living and speaking your truth. Without even trying you might inspire someone who can’t do the same thing right now. If you are heroically out there living your best life, you might just heroically comfort someone who really needs to see someone like them.

Or if anime themes don’t convince you, maybe psychologist Carl Jung can. He once said that quote the privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are end quote.

Today the nine of pentacles is asking us to exercise our privilege, be our glorious true selves and maybe inspire other people to become the same kind of hero too.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! Any likes, subs, follows, shares, questions or comments are always appreciated. If you enjoy these free to access tarot readings, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot Page on ko-fi. There is a link in the episode description. The shop, memberships and virtual coffees all support the creation of the blog and podcast.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Speaking of the next sip…that will be in two days. Like the meme says, I don’t have ducks, I don’t have rows, I have squirrels and they are hosting a rave. The squirrels are a little out of hand tomorrow so short sip will be back on Thursday June 9

Extra layer Tarot Turnover

During weekend Tarot turnovers, I sip the coffee and you interpret the Tarot card. Each “turnover” post is a mini intuition building exercise and behind the scenes insight.

Available to members on the ko-fi blog

https://ko-fi.com/post/Weekend-Tarot-Turnover-A0A1D3P96

Do for you

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today, the eight of pentacles and the stuff you do for you.

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

Today’s card is the eight of pentacles, which points to work and productivity.

Which is too bad because I’m a lazy, lazy girl this morning.

Headphones on, listening to one of my favorite playlists on Spotify, drinking coffee and writing about Tarot (or knitting) is pretty much my happy place. Life is good at the moment.

But life isn’t always comfy chairs and cinnamon latte.

Shit happens, and when it does, empty platitudes and pep talks are no help whatsoever. Today’s energy could too easily slip into that. On the surface it could sound like some kind of suck it up buttercup, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps puritanical platitude.

Today’s energy isn’t suggesting that you can just cheer up, work hard and everything will be ok. Far from it.

It is suggesting that there is a whole world of coping mechanisms out there. A healthy lifestyle is something that you do for you. The emphasis today is on the word DO. Work isn’t all bad. The hack is finding the right kind of thing do for where your head is at.

When I saw the card, it reminded me of another life long ago in a galaxy far far away. One of the psychiatrists I used to work for back in my long abandoned physician assistant days always said that a job is as good as therapy. It wasn’t for all of the toxic anti-welfare, racism tinged, right-wing-ish reasons that might spring to mind these days. He was talking about structure, diversion, and self esteem.

As supportive as structure and getting something – anything – done in a day can be, I’m not talking about actual depression or real world problems here.

The same kind of advice about structure, diversion and accomplishment re-emerged during pandemic quarantine. For the average person under stress or in the occasional normal doldrums, accomplishing something – anything – in your day can be the little boost that you need. The degree varies from individual to individual and from day to day. Some of us secretly get off on going mach 2 with our hair on fire. For others, fresh pajamas and getting the dishes done is enough.

Self care is as much about mindset as action. For some people self care and a mood boost is all bubble baths and candle light. For others it is turning up the punk rock and cleaning the house. Anything, even being productive at some kind of work or project, can be self care.

The point in all of this is to do the thing that is right for you and your day in the amount that is right for your needs…but for goodness’ sake do SOMETHING. It might make you feel better than you think it will. Even if you are a lazy, lazy person like me.

Like everything for me, it gets back to Zen and Taoist philosophy akin to the old adage “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” Self care and stress management doesn’t have to be fancy, high minded or separate from life. Like Zen spirituality, self care and stress management is all about the moment to moment mundane living of life.

If you will allow me to indulge in a moment of fangirling, Madam Adam, one of my favorite social media follows, put it absolutely brilliantly. It was spot-on perfect when I first his post yesterday, and the eight of pentacles this morning confirms it. As he said “self-care is doing what you do anyway, but doing it with intent.”

Bullseye!

Through simple intention, anything can be self care including a day of work and productivity. Through simple intention, the mundane becomes magick.

Thanks for reading and listening! I always appreciate any likes, subs, follows, shares, questions or comments you can give.

For those of you listening on the podcast, a link to the blog website are in the episode description. You can find episode transcripts, private readings to purchase and other non-podcast Tarot content there.

If you are enjoying the blog or podcasts, please visit support them through the TaoCraft Tarot page on Ko-fi. Your virtual coffees, shop purchases and memberships contribute to the web hosting and few basic costs that it takes to create this Tarot content for everyone.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip.

Not Alone

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. famously said that “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

The 53 or so years since Dr. King’s assassination has taught us one more thing. The arc of the moral universe only bends toward justice under the weight of many people, sometimes many generations of people, pulling it in that direction.

Justice is never a solitary act.

It is always a melange of defenders and oppressors, compassion and hate, hope and fear, wisdom and willful ignorance. In justice or the absence of it, we are never alone. If we act solely for ourselves, how can justice exist much less the arc of the universe bend toward it?

Alan Watts once said that “If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet you’ll come to understand that you are connected to everything.” In that same vein, Martin Luther King also said that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

This interconnectedness makes alliances not only crucial to Justice writ large, it is crucial to our own self interest. Ignoring injustices to others is neglecting our own injury. It injures our life and energy to accept injustice to anyone.

Together we are stronger, perhaps strong enough to tug the arc of the moral universe a little closer to Justice.

Wherever you are, however hopeless it feels, you are connected to the universe. The universe is a pretty big place, so rest assured there is someone else in it who believes as you do and accepts and celebrates the person you are deep down where it matters. That connectedness, even in times when you can’t sense it for yourself, will bring all of our weight to bear in bending King’s arc.

Grab onto the arc, hold on to the notion of connection and know there are others hanging on right there beside you.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. Your likes, subs, follows, shares, questions and comments are always, always appreciated.

If you are enjoying these short sips of Tarot or you would like a full cup all your own, please see the links below or in the podcast episode description.

See you at the next sip!

It’ll be back

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today mystical self care until the woo woo feels come back.

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

As you’ve probably noticed I’m an all in fan girl for the Alleyman’s Tarot deck and today’s card is probably one of my favorites so far. It puts all of the Tarot and Reiki work I do into a little better perspective. The weird ass mystical shit is a normal part of life just like everything else. Seeing it put in so many words is a good reminder not to take things quite so seriously. The weird ass mystical shit card has a lot of the same “embrace the absurd” and “go with the flow” advice that I often get from the Page of Cups card.

Plus, today’s weird ass mystical shit card is reversed. Either that means things are gonna be extra spoopy or overly normal, one or the other.

All I can say is that it’s probably a good thing that I’m not monetized on any platform and totally rely on your support. Otherwise I’d probably be demonetized today. This card gets just a little sweary.

That’s not the only disclaimer. I’ll be talking about the card and deck as if they are an intelligent separate entity more than usual.

This deck is easily the largest I’ve ever used. It can be slippery and challenge my manual dexterity at times. That makes the deck seem like it has a mind of its own. It also has a propensity for reversals. So far, the deck has been serious about each and every one of them. In this case, my hunch is that the reversal means a block. The WAMS card (as the deck creator calls it) tells it like it is, no woo woo required. In this case, the reversal takes the mystical woo woo down yet another notch. In essence, today’s card is a validation for you if you aren’t feeling the slightest bit spiritual at all.

If you are deep in the mystical feels today, then this card is asking you to consider what you will do when – not if, but when – you hit a day where your sense of the mystic isn’t there. What is it you can rely on later when a low-energy day comes along? What can you trust when your feelings of personal power elude you? A day when you are dialed in and feeling is a good day to pay attention to what really works for you so that you can rely on it when you really need it.

I read Scott Cunningham’s Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner a few years ago. One of the most memorable parts was simply “The feeling is the power.” On one hand that is a very empowering idea. It speaks to a deep trust in ourselves, our feelings and our innate intuition. The feeling is the power regardless of rituals or tools or outward appearances. The thing you choose is secondary to the act of mindful choosing in and of itself. The external things that express your feelings are secondary to the feelings themselves.

But that also begs the question of what to do when you just aren’t feeling it. Does not feeling mystical render you powerless? Does it make you somehow vulnerable?

Vulnerable, maybe, but not powerless. We all need to pull back sometimes. We all need to balance yang with yin, haul in the envelope we’ve been pushing, and give ourselves a little TLC. If we keep pushing when we need to be still then things can go haywire. It may seem empty or powerless or outright ridiculous to lean on weird mystical shit when we just aren’t feeling it. But remember, weird mystical shit has its practical, plain-talking side. It’s something to build a bridge between now and the point in time when the woo woo feeling comes back. And it always comes back.

You might call it faith. That’s too Christian-ish for me personally. For me, the word faith conjures the con-man’s call to blindly take someone’s word about something unproven, possibly unprovable. When you’re not feeling the mystical woo woo, blind faith is a dangerous thing. Deep trust is a better way. When you are feeling more BLAH than empowered, wouldn’t it be better to lean on something you’ve tested and trusted and used before? Trusting yourself is the path back to feeling the mystical.

Sometimes that trust in yourself takes the form of waiting until the time is right. Sometimes trusting yourself means just doing what you already know works and allowing time to do its healing thing.

The card reminds me of a meme of unknown origin, one of my favorite memes.

source unknown

It reads quote Movie witches: For this spell you must gather these sacred items three, soak them in water held by the skin of a deer and drink half a cup each night before bed until the full moon…Real witches: Imma just draw a sigil or something on this toaster strudel and have it for breakfast end quote.

Some days are all weird ass mystical shit, full of power and potential. Other days are all toaster strudel and shoving your favorite crystals in your pocket until the feeling shifts. The mystical feeling will be back. Count on it because the mundane, practical, logical, and irreverent parts of life are with you everyday regardless of how you feel and those things are just as magical and mystical as anything else.

So yeah.

The rock in your pocket protects a low energy psyche. The sigil on your strudel can do what needs done until you are feeling the feels again. Whatever holds your trust does so with good reason. Forget blind faith – when you rely on things that have EARNED your trust you are, in turn, actually trusting yourself. You are trusting your own judgement about what is or isn’t trustworthy.

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Thanks again and see you at the next sip.

The Alleyman’s Tarot was created by seven Dane Asmund of Publishing Goblin LLC and used here with permission.