pittsburgh tarot reader – Page 44 – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Sit down!

Another way to understand reversed (upside down) cards in a Tarot reading.

I don’t know who enjoyed the cartoons more, my daughter or me.

Kids in the early 2000s had way better shows to watch than we did. But then, I’m old and decrepit and had to wait for Saturday to watch them. Still, Spongebob and Jimmy Neutron rocked.

One of the funnier bits in Jimmy Neutron was when Jimmy and Cindy used double negatives to get the teacher to give them permission to leave the classroom. When Carl tried to use some sort of complicated quadruple negative, all he got from Mrs. Fowl was a loud “Sit Down, Carl!”

Sometimes reversed Tarot cards are like Carl’s double negative attempt and they need to sit down.

Energy flows like a river. Tarot can point out where the current flows most freely…and where there are rocks in the way. Sometimes there are whirlpools and eddies and quiet pools. Reversed cards can make things go in circles if you get too tied up in them. There is a general notion that if a card turns over upside down (relative to the person doing the reading) its meaning is also reversed, presumably flipping the card from positive to negative connotations. Sometimes a reversed card is generally felt to be a negative omen, regardless of the specific card or meaning.

If the card points to the dark side of life in the first place?

If the reversed bad card is turned into a good card, why not just throw down a good card in the first place? Isn’t there more to it than that? Doesn’t that rob the reversal of any meaning? So what if it does?

Reversed cards can be difficult for beginner readers, exactly because of these swirls of energy (and questions) and the double negative style of communication. This is why I tend to tell reversed cards to sit down.

Double negative communication and any difficulty with reversed cards begins from a place of absolutes. The root mistake is to think a card has a fixed positive or negative connotation in the first place.

My method for dealing with reversed card is to view it as neutral regardless of orientation on the table. Take today’s card, the Hanged Man as an example. Let’s give it the ‘stagnation’ meaning today. For someone who has been harried and hurried and pushed, a time of being “stuck” might be a gift of enforced rest just when it is most needed. For someone who is rested and ready to move, “stuck” is a source of enormous frustration. To the first person, if the hanged man is read as meaning lots of new starts and forward momentum, which indeed could be negative and stressful for someone already too much on the move. For the second person, reversed hanged man and the connotation of forward movement is good news, not one bit negative in any way. The card and its message is neutral, not matter how it falls on the table or which side of its nature steps forward. The good or bad, positive or negative is assigned in context by the sitter (Sitter or seeker means the person getting the reading. When you read for yourself, reader and sitter are the same person.)

By beginning from a position of neutrality about the base card meaning, allowing the client to make any ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ judgement about how the card’s message applies to them. It makes it easier to read a reversal: take whatever meaning steps forward to you. If it is reversed, that simply means that the idea, life lesson or energy movement is blocked or challenged in some way, like a whirlpool outside of the river’s primary flow.

Or, it may mean nothing other than random chance in a deck that has been used and shuffled.

Let your intuition be your guide. If no intuition steps forward, then default to method. In this case, make the base card neutral in good vs bad, consider all the possible meanings for the card, and take the reversal to mean slowed or challenged energy surrounding whatever the card is addressing.

Class dismissed. You can stop sitting down now, Carl.

TimeFlow: Tarot To Get Organized

I’ve been thinking about it on my way down the hallway.

I really don’t have much else to say. Usually the post-companion videos don’t keep me talking this much. For once, I don’t have much to add. I’m sure I could have said much of this more artfully, but you already know I’m a better writer than a yootoober.

I’m a little stuck on that intuitive reference to that scene in the Indiana Jones Movie. Normally it is fun and cool when energy & intuition uses the common language of movies and music. Nerves are on edge, and the general energies locally (eastern United States) are still ringing in resonance with the insurgency at the Capital. That might just be me, not every sensitive or empath. I grew up near-ish to Washington D.C. The vast majority of our TV and radio was from there. We have good friends who live there. Thanks to AP civics in high school I’m the designated politics nerd at our house and still feel a little dialed into the place. The violent shoot-the-annoying-sword-guy scene is a giggle in context, and does demonstrate the calm of strength vs the vulnerability of showboating (come to think of it, maybe something Samurai would have been better, I dunno)…but with the funky mojo out there any hint of violence, even intuitive movie references, is setting of other red lights and sirens. This has roots in the day after the election somehow. Gaaackkkk…the energy that day was just so freaking toxic, and that’s when the maga(t)s thought they’s won. *shudder*

Stay strong. Stay safe. Protect your aura and energy.

And still wear your mask, keep your distance and wash your dang hands for like, the next year, even with the vaccine.

All Exposed ’21

TaoCraft Tarot is exposed.

Not, thankfully, to any viruses. BUT all of my available layouts are exposed. No seasonal readings. No limited time cutesy pants special offers. All the Tarot I have to offer is all out in the open for all to see, all affordable and super convenient (only live phone readings need an appointment.)

You can order everything on the home page

Seven card by email $40
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See you on the socials 🙂

What the actual….

Whelp. I guess that tornadoes fading image hasn’t started to fade yet. So what say you my sensitives? What is your read on the funky mojo energy here in the U.S. after yesterday’s armed insurrection at the capital and continuing political frakus? Both logic and intuition say this is it – buckle up for the end game. THEN we can crawl out of the wreakage, survey the damage and begin the beginning of the very early phases of clean up.

I can’t think of a card that captures any meaning or guidance for anything like this, except maybe…

Top image via bitmoji free app, Devil card image from the public domain

Timeflow Layout

Tarot isn’t about predicting the always changing future. Tarot is about navigating and adapting to the future. Tarot doesn’t tell you what is going to happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

2021 is HERE. Now what?

Everyone and a monkey’s uncle are all making resolutions, breaking resolutions, swearing off things, going on diets, declaring their word for the year. I have questions.

How does a resolution fit into the big picture, connected everything in life? Is it a temporary goal or a permanent lifestyle change? Why do something new for the new year at all? What if you aren’t organized enough to drum up even a poorly thought out hot take new year resolution? Do these start-of-year resolutions really fail, do we really give up on them, or is it really just a sign of adapting to evolving circumstances? What if….seriously….what if resolutions don’t last long because they weren’t the right resolution to make or just weren’t needed in the first place?

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems to me it is less about the details of the resolution itself, and more about the process that the new year milestone triggers: evaluate -> adapt -> execute. Resolutions might just be a little frivolous fun and a new year tradition of sorts. That’s cool. If that’s the case, then it is no big deal when they don’t work.

But if you make a serious resolution, it’s because you’ve identified something to change. It might be a problem to fix. It might be a goal to work toward. It might be a consequence to avoid. Whatever the specifics may be, the bottom line is you have evaluated the situation and found something you want to change.

A martial arts teacher once said that if you keep doing what you are doing you will keep getting what you are getting. If you evaluate things and like them and want to keep them…cool. Just keep up what you are doing. If you take that look, and find something to fix, change is necessary. You have to adapt what you are doing to go in a new direction.

Easy right? I don’t think so. I’ve never found it to be that easy. Humans are pretty complex creatures. No one change is all it takes. It is a process, and we usually are juggling several processes at once. It isn’t about just a one-off resolution one time in a year. Solving problems and improving life is a multi-step process. Along with evaluate, adjust and execute, sometimes you have to throw prioritize into the mix too. That’s where the “TimeFlow” reading can help.

In general, Tarot is broad and intuitive, which allows it to be holistic. It can help you see which area needs attention, and where to focus your energies. This layout helps put things into first things first order. Not to get all yin/yang and such again, but it is a balance. Tarot, like life, is big picture and holistic but this particular layout helps you see the smaller, more manageable steps within that whole. It helps you find both the one resolution and see the whole process, both. It is helpful any time of year, or multiple times per year. Or at least I’ve found the structure useful. I hope you will too.

The TimeFlow layout has 4 cards:

Let It Rest: A watched pot never boils as the old adage goes. Some of the best food has simmered in a slow cooker all day. Good things can take time. This card symbolizes an area of life that needs some time to simmer, time to develop, maybe a little time left to it’s own devices. This card let’s you know when something needs less time and attention from you, and is often a validation that it is OK to back-burner an area of life and come back to it later. It shows where you have put too much time and energy unnecessarily.

Let It Go: The key word here is GO. This is a spring house cleaning sort of card. This hints at something that can be taken to the curb next trash day. It might be something minor (throw out those dead batteries in that one drawer) or it might be major (no, your ex isn’t coming back, so move on) but either way it is a clue to disengage your attention and energy. It shows where you may have been wasting time, energy and emotion.

Que It Up: Timing, they say is everything. I have no idea where the adage came from or what it is originally about, but in this context it is about energy flow. Sometimes the wind is at your back and things flow easily. Other times you are fighting the currents, stuck, stagnant and going nowhere. This may be something that was rested in a previous reading. This may be something where, as another adage says, the tides are turning. This is an idea or action whose time has not yet come, but is worth investing some time and attention because soon the flow and tide will be right. Or if you are more baseball minded – this is the energy and idea that is in the on-deck circle. Don’t let it rest totally, but get ready, but this thing’s time is coming.

Let It Roll: This is a clue where the energies are flowing. This is the thing whose time has come. This card is a hint at the priority issue where your most focus attention and energy is most needed.

When I do these readings, it has the same general pattern opening and intuitive summary closing as all the other layouts, to general intuitive impressions, crystal energy and/or aromatherapy suggestions to come through.

If you would be interested in trying this layout, it is available on the home page HERE for $20 with secure PayPal checkout. For fastest service, please use the “contact merchant” button or send an email to taocrafttarot@gmail.com with any topic, question or request an open reading.

Plan 21

I have a theory.

You have to HAVE a plan before life, circumstances and general random crap can blow it all to pieces. Life can get pretty Darwinian sometimes. Adapt or die. But you have to have something TO adapt. You have to be in the water before you can go with the flow. Plan/adapt, yang/yin: I doubt anyone is surprised to see me go kind of Taoist with all of this.

My original plan lasted all the way through 9 am yesterday. So step one is declare time and calendars to be merely arbitrary (they are) and just roll all of this out now instead of a nice, neat Monday morning. This is my general game plan for 2021, subject to change. Everything is, subject to change that is.

Video/blog combos twice per week: YouChoose week ahead on the weekend (or early Monday morning) and Today’s tarot on Wednesdays
One card Tarot readings on the blog other days as often as possible, with longer reads sprinkled in as the inspiration (or reader questions) hit.
No more cutesy pants marketing promotions. The prices are very affordable and the quality of the readings are high. What I offer is a solid value as it is. I’m good at this. I love doing this. I’m here to help. Let’s do some Tarot together.
20% of the proceeds from all one card distance Tarot readings by e-mail will be donated to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank throughout the year.
No more seasonal shenanigans. All the readings I do are available all of the time. You can find a price and layout to fit any budget, mood or question, all on the home page.
Announcements weekly in the youchoose posts, or in the blog / Twitter for emergencies/cancellations
Expect delays nights, weekends and U.S. holidays.
In-person sessions and parties will remain closed until the Halloween season 2021
Comments and social media are OPEN. Talk to me people! Let me know the kind of content you like, don’t like and want to see and I can, you know, adapt. (comments are still curated and spam is still obliterated in a blinding flash of hellfire)

That being said, let’s DO this thing.

The energy IS different than it was last year. I still get the mental image of the U.S. map with lot’s of little tornadoes all over it, but they are fading. I also get a dry, windy ‘aftermath’ feeling, like a scene from a disaster movie, with a feeling like coming out of the storm shelter with a rock in the pit of your stomach as you see the damage, and start to process what just happened and that it was just as bad as it seemed. Or maybe that is just my gut twisting when I hear how many people traveled over the holidays. We’ve turned a sort of corner, but now comes damage assessment, realizing the losses, and the first inklings of the beginnings of the beginning of recovery. Don’t put away your chaps just yet. There is still plenty of Mad Max style dystopian post apocalyptic energy out there. They aren’t kidding. It is probably going to be a dark-energy winter, at least locally (U.S. vs global) Spring and summer have that ‘aftermath’ feel. I feel pretty optimistic about Fall, although I usually do since it is far and away my favorite time of year.

Nature is adapting, but it is also cycles. No new forward looking new year planning is complete without a little retrospective. Thank you all for reading, following, commenting, liking and making this all worth doing. I’m grateful.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: The Moment (that got away)

Whelp, that was unexpected.

Sorry for the delay. We were out of some staple basics, and silly me thought I could mask up, go grab a few things from the grocery store, heave something in the oven for supper and type this baby right up.

I forgot: It’s a Saturday, right before Christmas. So here I go right into one of our worst traffic areas in the worst traffic time of the year. One thing led to another including putting some cucumbers into start a dill pickle ferment and feeding George the Second, my latest sourdough starter, and here we are. *sips hot cuppa and sits it down* Now, *rubs hands together* where were we?

Left: Four of Swords. I love the Witches Tarot. It’s probably my favorite deck. The Four of Swords is the one and only card where the artwork is dissonant with the message. Energetically, I get the typical rest, respite, repose message that is more evident in other decks if they are based on the RWS originals. Take this public domain image of Pamela Smith’s artwork on a a circa 1910 deck for example.

See the difference? Sometimes a feeling of readiness or fierceness akin to the Mark Evans artwork will come through. My feeling today is more with the Smith artwork and the respite interpretations.

If you selected this card, this is a week to be in the moment with your thoughts and plans. Don’t exhaust yourself with worry or regret. It is the intellectual, emotional, stress management equivalent of a quick catnap. Your not being asked to shirk responsibility, be in denial, or put off urgent action. The energy this week, or at least today is taking a breath compared to how it has been during 2020 to date. Allow your mind and emotions to rest in the present moment, and set aside worry and regret just for a little while. The present moment is very restful to the part of our mind that worries.

Center: Ace of Pentacles. This is a very sunny, upbeat positive feeling card. I associate it more with inspiration and solutions that physical benefit or money luck, although if your inspiration helps your work, then it could daisy chain or chain-of-events into money luck. The mental image that came with the card was a baseball catcher behind the plate with their glove up and ready. The word hurtling seemed important and strong, as in something good is hurtling toward you so be ready to catch it. Be in the moment, ready to embrace it when a good thing comes. It may be unexpected, but it feels more like it is coming in fast. As I typed “embrace” the mental image was of a baseball glove with a fast pitch hitting hard and the glove snapping shut around it.

If you selected this card, be in the moment but be alert so you can grab stuff when it comes your way on short notice. Be alert, be quick.

Right: Three of Coins. This is very physical realm, very work and task related. I get a little bit of “stick to your knitting” plus a little bit of Luke Skywalker and the Death Star “stay on target”. I am also reminded of a lyric from an old Kate Bush song “press execute” If memory serves, at the time (maybe it is still this way) British computer keyboards used “execute” instead of “enter” I could be wrong. But “execute” is the feeling here. Maybe the Nike slogan. But DO-ing is front and center. “Task at hand” comes through as well. Planning is great. Revisiting and revising are helpful. This week is all about productivity in this moment.

If you selected this card, energies are wind at your back. This week is all about getting stuff done. It is a good week to go beast mode on your to-do list.

Comfy is good

Get comfy.

The comforts of home is something no in-person psychic or Tarot session can give. It’s like the whole Schrodinger thing. An observer just observing changes the whole thing. Sort of. Or something like that.

No matter how it is done, a live spoken reading can never have the mind to mind impact of reading your message at your leisure and in your greatest comfort. Calling this a READING is no accident of language. It’ a cosmic hint as I see it.

If you go to a psychic, then you have to put on your shoes and your public face. No matter how familiar, homey or welcoming their workspace may be, some degree of social conditioning kicks in – on both sides of the Tarot table. Even if the psychic comes to your home or party, the same idea applies. With a stranger in your home, you are in a different mind space than you would be under everyday circumstances. The message given by spirit is identical to any other format, but the way the message lands in your mind and heart might just be a teeny tiny bit different because of those social filters. It brings another person into the system, just like peeking in the box adds an observer into the system and interacts with the results of Schrodinger’s thought experiment. Or it least that is my meager understanding of it.

Social isn’t bad. Having another person affecting the system is in many ways the whole point of it. If you could figure this out on your own, you wouldn’t want a reading in the first place. Two eyes see with greater depth and clarity than one (related post: “Parallax“) In-person readings meet a basic human need for human interaction that written readings can’t quite replace. Phone readings fill that roll too. They are live, real-time, fill a social need while being covid safe. In-person work is valua ble, which is why I plan to bring them back on a part time basis for Halloween 2021, depending on how the vaccination distribution goes.

A Tarot reading that you actually read is something entirely different, and something very special.

With a distance Tarot session…be it email, video, or handwritten pen, ink and paper…there is no social filters, no schedule, no expectations. The words from spirit stream to you directly, in whatever cocoon of comfort and privacy that you choose to create. Wear your comfiest clothes. Listen to your favorite music. Grab your favorite bevorage or snack. When you engage with a distance reading in your own way, in your own place, in your own time, you engage with spirit from a place that is most fully and authentically youriself. You engage with energy and spirit on an more intense and mentally intimate level.

It’s that elfcon time of year. Even staying home, scaling down, and celebrating inside of your own four walls, why add to the season’s to-do list? Why tie yourself to a scheduled phone call when you can take in your reading in a time and a place and a way that suits your schedule best?

Intuition has a comfy bias. In my experience, the most powerful messages are given when we are both deep inside our comfort zones, with the cozy turned up to 11. On my end, coffee and fuzzy slipper socks will most likely be involved.

Spirit is everywhere. Energy is everywhere. Where we are relative to each other makes no diffrrence at all. The connection to that everywhere-energy and everywhere-spirit is strongest when we connect to it from our respective places of comfort and confidence.

Order a reading any time you like on the website home page. All of my layouts are available all the time now, at the lowest price possible. Please scroll down through the whole list here. It’s the widest variety of layouts and prices anywhere that I know of. I’m confident that you’ll find something you are comfortable with.

Wishing you all a cozy evening.

Conspicuous In Its Absence

When I do a reading, the first thing is to talk with you about your question, topic of concern, or you OK for an open reading. Then we shuffle the cards, put them into the layout you ordered (by email, you get a photo of the actual real life cards, by phone I’ll list them out for you, or whenever in-person readings come back, you can see them for your self.

Once the cards are ready, the first part in all formats bigger than a one-card, is what I call the “general pattern” where we look for any clues from the patter of cards taken as a whole. One of the things we look at is the number of major vs minor arcana cards. Of the minor arcana cards, we look at what suits are showing and how many of each suit are there.

“Negative space” is an idea from art and sculpture. The art-thing itself sets shapes and boundaries in and around the space it occupies. Kind of like a paper snowflake where the cut out parts are shapes too. Like the hearts in this one (Found this on a Google search. you can get the pattern at papersnowflakeart.com)

Sometimes, if three of the four minor arcana suits are showing, intuition will pull toward the suit that is missing as if it is being conspicuous in it’s absence and is sending a message by not showing up.

2020 has been a heck of a decade, and hindsight is 20/20 too. When we look back what can we learn? Surprisingly, I found one of those negative space, conspicuous in its absence kinds of messages when I looked back at the broad swath of cards that have shown up in the past year, a couple of patterns emerge. Early in the year, there was a preponderance of Pentacle cards, with their earthy, practical, pragmatic advice. The message was to not judge ourselves too harshly as we did what needed done during the early days of the covid pandemic. If it took pajama days and pandemic snacks to cope, so be it. If it took nuts-and-bolts, one foot in front of the other suiting up and masking up and putting food on the shelves….well, let’s just say the rest of us are very grateful. Then things shifted. Later in the Summer and Fall Cups cards stepped forward with a shift toward the intuitive and the spiritual. Wheels and worlds, Towers and Magicians, even the Devil card (Shadow Side in the Witches Tarot deck) put in an appearance.

But no Death card.

At least not in any prominent, repeating, attention-getting way. Given the profound tragedy the pandemic has brought and continues to bring, it is a wonder that the card didn’t show up every other day. With so many lost, this year has brought profound and permanent change to so, so many families.

Early in the year, there was a lot of zeitgiest, general-culture, general-society energies. If we look at the Death card from that perspective, then its absence makes more sense. Not intending to be callous toward the worst that has happened, if we remove tragedy from the card (as is its actual use and meaning….we all know the card actually isn’t a harbinger of literal death)

The Death card is about permanent change. When permenant change is conspicuously absent, maybe the big scary change isn’t so permenant on a large scale cultural level.

We’ll never regain and never forget those who were lost. There may be permanent scars from all of this. But in the end, in the very very long run, life just might get back to OK.

Today’s Tarot: Worth the Effort

The Seven of Wands specifically is associated with effort, challenge, sometimes conflict. When you combine that with the wands’ suit meaning of your relationship with yourself (the element of fire, inner passions, philosophy, spirituality, etc.) It brings mental challenge to mind.

It may have to do with setting healthy boundaries, protecting your inner world and mental health from unhealthy connections. That is work, but it is worth the effort.

It may have to do using planning and strategy to overcome a challenge. Working smarter, not harder, is always worth the mental effort.

There is an element of success, or being on the path to success, over conflicts and challenges even though effort is required to achieve that success. On of my favorite interpretations comes from Ellen Dugan who adds overcoming conflict with “Style, wit and humor” to the mix. That always brings characters like Han Solo from Star Wars, Captain Mal from Firefly or Deadpool from Marvel comics to mind for me. Thom Pham dials in to this same energy when he portrays the Seven of Wands with Obyron, the bon vivant warrior in Game of Thrones. So the advice here would be to keep your sense of humor and meet challenges with your own flourish. That will be worth the effort in how it helps to keep your stress levels down if nothing else. Laughter is good medicine.

Wishing you a day of style, humor and overcoming any obstacles that comes your way.