Tag: pittsburgh

Today’s Tarot: Emphasis, Not Error

Earlier this week (in other words, yesterday) the four of pentacles was one of the cards in the YouChoose Interactive reading. The boilerplate interpretation of repeating cards is that we aren’t learning the lesson that the card is bringing. It’s too soon for that to make any sense, especially in a general audience reading like this. One to one, private, individual readings are very different. In an individual session, I dial in to your specific message within the energy at large and translate that into ideas directed toward you as an idividual. These blog readings are like looking at the energy of a flock of birds or a school of fish all moving roughly together but with scattered individual for whom none of this will make any sense at all.

In this situation, we can’t consider a repeating card, especially one that comes two days in a row, to be an unlearned lesson. Humans just don’t learn or integrate the kind of life-lessons associated with Tarot in that amount of time.

In my minds eye I see the red light emoji, and hear almost a video game sort of alert signal, a little like the ‘time is almost up’ sound they make on American Ninja Warrior. I can also mentally ‘see’ a yellow highlighter marker.

For those of you who chose the Four of Pentacles yesterday, this is a double dose. Having the card appear both yesterday and today makes the message all the more important for you. The way the card moved from an option to a full on general audience hints that the message is growing in importnance and urgency, not fading. The message is for everyone now, but with an extra dose for the folks who chose the card yesterday.

The Four of Pentacles can be associated with greed and stinginess. That isn’t the thread of meaning that is so urgent right now. It speaks more to care, carefulness with budget and money. This is not a good time for impulse buys and self indulgence. Practical, low key, stock the pantry kind of energy is around. Think squirrels gathering walnuts for the winter.

Winter, as they say, is coming.

Pragmatic planning is your friend today. Slow and steady very much wins the race. This isn’t a full energy all out emergency. It isn’t a time of euphoria or dysphoria either one. Plodding, methodical, planning, budgeting are all words that come to mind today.

It’s that time of year. Taking the Four of Coins/Pentacles advice, I’m trying to get organized for Fall. Forgive the repetition, but it helps me to triage and prepare if I organize a few basic announcements for you.

First, there won’t be a premium blog after all. All of the blog, all of the YouTube channel is free and open. I haven’t monetized either one. Both the blog and the channel take some time and effort to do, especially since I’m a great Tarot reader but not such a great video media personality. The steep learning curve continues. If you like what you read in the blog, and use it oftern, please consider getting a peronal reading. One card readings are the cost of a coffeehouse latte. Although I wouldn’t object to being paid in my favorite drink, you can’t send coconut vanilla flat whites  through email. If you are so inclined, distance readings are available for order 24/7 no appointment needed on the home page.

Second, I hope you’ll consider following the blog by email along with your favorite social media (say hi on Instagram and Twitter, I actually interact with those) If you follow the blog, you’ll get all of the content. There will be print only posts that do not appear on the YouTube channel.

Third, due to the ongoing pandemic and the oncoming flu season, in-person readings and party Tarot readings are still closed. If you want a live, real-time reading, phone readings are available by appointment with prepayment. Order a phone session just like you would order anything online using the secure paypal button HERE then contact me at TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com to schedule your session.

Fourth, ask me anything! The comments are back open and you are welcome to tell me the kind of content you want to see, or ask any questions you like. I won’t promise an individual reply, but I will answer everything that I can in the blog itself. Any spam or anything inappropriate will be thrown into an active volcano and never heard from again.

Thank you all. Best Wishes – R.

Kitten Whiskers: Spark

This is the last planned episode of my Friday night fangirling. If you have questions about Tarot, Reiki, Meditation, or anything, let me know that in the comments and I’ll write more on-topic posts to fill the gap. If I don’t know the answer, you’ll get a resounding I dunno or if you ask/say/spam anything inappropriate, the comment will be incinerated in bright blue bolt of hexfire. I’m hoping to spark some conversation with all of this.

I’ve never watched Marie Kondo. In a way, this whole ‘kitten whiskers’ series of posts has been about favorite things that “spark joy” as she says. If so, I may have failed.

It wasn’t my vision for this series to be about sparking “joy.” To my mind, joy is euphoric, yes, but also misty, temporary and insubstantial like cotton candy or whipped cream topping on a dessert. I had really hoped to spark substantial contentment, like a big bowl of ramen noodles or something filling and nourishing instead of sweet fluff. My goal was to bring attention to simple pleasures and little things to comfort, encourage and anchor our sanity during these strange days.

One of the things that sparks contentment, that sparks that comfortable-in-your-own-skin feeling for me is the warrior archetype. Yes, women have a warrior archetype too. Don’t let Athena, Queen Boudica, Mulan, Joan of Arc, or the 400 women who fought in the American Civil War hear you say otherwise (Psychology Today, Smithsonian Magazine) In other words, the things that spark my happy place into existence also tends to inspire some thread of badassedness at the same time. To me, “warrior” is not in the slightest realated the toxic masculine violence that is stepping to the fore in right wing America. That is the exact opposite of a warrior. I’m talking about the self-development, self-mastery kind of warriorhood. I have a looooong way to go with that sort of thing. It sparks a sense of satisfaction to think I’m on even the sparest beginning of that path. When I think warrior, I think of things like

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front front of him, but because he loves what is behind him” – G.K. Chesterson

“Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power” – attr. Tao Te Ching

Things that spark that sort of mindset make me happy.

ART & POETRY

Fringe and free, artists and poets give zero f*cks for social mores and expectations. They are warriors in defense of every aspect of the human experience good and bad, light and dark. Some of us are gleefully hellbound. Which is why one of my current favorites is Ryan Summers. We’ve never met in person, but I’ve enjoyed every bit of his work. I’m touched by his deep kindness every time we’ve talked via social media (most recently instagram where he is @HellBoundBlack) We first talked through the online poetry group “we drink because we’re poets.” His poetry collection L’aria Onyx (written under nom de plume Sahm Ataine King) is gritty, real, almost skeletal in the sense that his poetry lays bare the bones of life. It reminds me of the Dada art movement with an echo of Japanese wabi sabe giving a result that finds power and life in dark imperfections.

His photography is his poetry transformed into image.

Please take a look at his Instagram and his new shirt design brand. Maybe you will be sparked along your chosen path too. Please support artists, photographers and poets.

COFFEE

I like coffee.

The taste, the aroma (and the caffeine) spark much more than happy badassedness. It sparks basic brainwaves. Like Sheriff Hopper said in the Netflix series Stranger Things “Mornings are for coffee and contemplation. Coffee. And contemplation.”

Indeed, sir.

A couple of weeks ago I reached out for permission to mention and link to my new favorite local coffee houses, even though I don’t live near enough to visit often. They never replied, so I’ll respect that just say they are in the Allentown neighborhood of Pittsburgh (with a second site in McKees Rocks) and their name rhymes with Plack Pforge Toffee. The iced coffee there is the best I’ve ever sucked into my face hole. Considering the oceans of the stuff I’ve had over the past *mumble mumble* years that is saying something. They are not your mother’s coffee house. Oh no. These guys have a goth metal pagan aesthetic that is as satisfying as the Sumatra dark roast. If you see me wandering around in a hoodie that says “darkness brewing eternal” you’ll know I did a little local shopping. Please support your favorite local small businesses.

MARTIAL ARTS

I used to teach Taijiquan (Tai Chi) then I learned that I know nothing. I have a black belt in Kung Fu. Then I learned I know less than nothing. It was a ton of fun, regardless. If you try it, please find a qualified teacher and do your best to avoid belt mills and over-testosteroned cobra-kai-esque mashugana mishegoss. Look for your Mister Miyagi. Look for your Socrates from Peaceful Warrior. They exist. Don’t give up. If you are lucky enough to live in the D.C. area, Master Nick Gracenin is one of the absolute best, truly world class.

BOOKS

Books will feed whatever archetype is your happy place. They can spark joy, spark contentment, spark badass, and everything in between. The ones coming to mind tonight include:

The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

Scholar Warrior by Deng Ming-Dao

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By by Carol Pearson

MUSIC

Made another playlist of music that sparks you-know-what, at least for me. I hope you enjoy. The last song is a hands down favorite. It is Jackie Chan singing General’s Mandate in Madarin. Our Sifu uses it for his demonstration forms. Master Gracenin plus Jackie Chan equals pure unadulterated motivation.

Thank all of you for reading. You … all of you…being here with this… THAT sparks joy.

Best to all – R.

Today’s Tarot: Discovering Diamonds

Today is a good example of why just memorizing card meanings isn’t enough.

Tarot cards are nothing sacred, nothing independent from ourselves. They are a tool – and a damned useful one – for accessing our own intuition and insight. The cards trigger the mental images, sounds, words or other mental-sensations or emotional feelings that typically carry the core message. Tarot readings are most powerful when you combine the classic card meanings with your own intuitive read of the energy of the moment. The first is a root, a foundation. The second is drawing from that root to meet the need of the moment.

Learning structured meanings for the cards is the beginning, a necessary gateway to using cards intuitively. Today we begin with one (of many) classic, well known meanings for this card: creativity. Generally the Ace of Cups is associated with inspiration and new ideas. Of the many meanings given for the card, creative inspiration is the one that most captures my attention today. The idea of creative inspiration (think Muse) is supported in the artwork. Think of the water pouring into the cup as new ideas being poured into your creative mind and expressive talents.

On the purely intuitive side, I get the mental image of a graphic of a human brain, like one of those pleasant, artsy 3d-ish graphics they have in memory support supplement commercials. I could “see” bright points, like diamonds scattered across the image connected by thin silver, shiny threads and “heard” the term “neural network.”

And no, I’m not hallucinating. This is all very much just the product of inner, mental imagination. Sometimes internal mental processes are best communicated in simple, spiritual, even primitive language. Saying ‘see’ is the best way to describe intuition (or energy, or spirit, pick your vocabulary) coming to mind in the form of images of things. Saying ‘hear’ is the best way to describe when intuition presents itself in the form of words or sounds.

Tarot is both literally and subtly symbolic. Sometimes the two daisy-chain together to give the card’s meaning, just like words chain together to form a coherent sentence idea. On the card, the literal image of water pouring into a chalice can symbolize an outpouring of inspiration. Combine that with the diamond-like ‘neural network’ and it reminds me of something I read once…not sure where….that creativity is not so much a function of making something totally new as much as it is a function of discovering new and novel connections between things that already exist. In some sense, that process of making new connections is the root of all creativity. Science is not the only human endeavor where we stand on the shoulders of Newton’s giants. We have to make things out of the resources at hand. Creativity can find new whole new resources or it can make new things out of what is already there. Both count.

So let’s find the diamonds and connect the dots for today.

Advice message: Today is a good day to follow your creative impulses. Don’t let a good idea spill away.

Caution message: If it isn’t a part of your livelihood or an absolute necessity, don’t force yourself into creativity. The best ideas are spontaneous. If it isn’t happening, wait for inspiration.

Validation message: Yes, that idea is as good as you think. Roll with it.

Working from intuition, these suggestions are inspired by, not traditionally associated with, the Ace of Cups:

Book suggestion: “Every Tool’s a Hammer” by Adam Savage

Aromatherapy: Lemongrass, bergamot or citronella

Crystals: Rainbow fluorite, iolite, amazonite (crown and throat chakras, inspiration and communication)

Affirmation: I see connections clearly and take inspiration from them.

A few quick announcements:

The premium blog won’t be happening after all. The entire blog is FREE, the specials and giveaways are for everyone, and the YouTube channel is still not monetized. That being said, any likes, shares, blog follows, social media subs and follows and reading orders are always greatly appreciated!

I need your help in another way too. The slo-mo ask me anything is going to happen under a different name. Zombie Cat wants to hibernate for a while. He’s just not that into it if people aren’t asking questions. If you have a question for the new look AMA, please leave them in the comments below or on YouTube, Instagram or Twitter (I won’t see it if you use FB or Tumblr. My content is there, but I don’t interact with those platforms)

PeaceTarot: Introduction to the 1st ed.

PeaceTarot is available as a downloadable ebook in the Taocraft Tarot Shop

Copyright Ronda Snow 2020 All rights reserved

I almost didn’t write .

It was an idea born out of tragedy, and there is a certain discomfort in writing a book inspired by stories of loss and violence. It feels a little like taking advantage of a disaster, even though the core idea is to help and comfort. Even so, every time I would chicken out, the Muses would take a deep breath, then start whacking me over the head with the idea all over again.

The notion of first came around after the September 2012 attack on the American Embassy in Bengazi, Libya.  As bad as that was, it was even more discouraging to hear politicians and presidential candidates try to turn those events to suit their own self-serving ends. Their rhetoric was verbal violence heaped on top of violent tragedy.  What could one unknown blogger do to speak for peace when some of the country’s most powerful people seemed intent on the opposite? I reached for the one thing literally at my fingertips: the Internet. I posted tarot meditations on Twitter with the hashtag and asked other tarot readers to do the same. Some friends picked up the challenge, but after a few days hashtag idea faded along with the headlines. It didn’t trend one bit, so I just chalked the whole thing up as a nice try.

After the mass shooting of school children in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012, came to mind again. Several friends of mine were genuinely upset by the news.  It was a loss that touched every parent in the nation. Maybe this time needed to be something more than a few ephemeral tweets. Maybe Tarot could be a source of comfort for anyone moved to emotion after a tragic event, no matter the circumstances. After all, that is what Tarot and psychic readings are really all about. Readings help us understand our situation, ease emotions, and find a way forward – plus maybe find a little inner peace along the way.

Day after day, violence continues; Shootings, bombings, chemical weapons being used and hostages being taken. demanded to be written, and for better or worse here it is.

If one person can find one moment of serenity in these few pages, then this book has served its purpose. That one person and that one moment contributes to the sum total of peacefulness that exists in the world.  Peaceful thinking and calm emotions change the choices that we make. When we choose differently, then we can literally change our future. Thought by thought, moment by moment, we all can contribute to a more peaceful world for everyone.

Ragged Reality

Reality may not be pretty. “Think positive” some say. What about about being positive things are bad? A problem can not be solved unless you accept that it exists. A problem can not be solved well unless you see it as it actually exists and understand the resources that are available. Problems aren’t the problem. Avoidance, denial, minimization, projection, fear, anxiety, anger, hatred, resentment; these things are problems.

Constantly playing the victim and eternal pessimism are asking for a problem. Denial and Pollyanna positivism are asking for a problem.

Staring reality in the eye, rolling up your sleeves and getting to work is asking for a solution.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot 8-15 August 2020

Take a deep breath. Drink in some soft, intuitive energy from the full moon picture below. Pick a card on impulse, or think about it for a minute. Pause the video if you need more time, then restart to see the reveal. Scroll down for the full one-card meditation style reading.

Left: Six of Cups. Let yourself get lost in the moment. There is an ocean of internal quiet whenever you need it. All it takes is a shift in attention. Gaze. Allow yourself to appreciate some small detail in the middle of chaos. Notice the color of a dandelion growing in the crack of a sidewalk beside a noisy, busy street. Watch a candle burn. Draw a picture. Or color one. Being in the moment and absorbed by any task can offer a moment of silent respite. Happy National Book Lovers Day! Suggested reading for this card: Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

Center: Four of Wands. Find your tribe. What is your self image? What is your self identity? How do you classify or imagine yourself? What is your spiritual foundation and DNA? Finding that, celebrating that can make anywhere a comfort and a home. When you know your own heart, your tribe and home travels with you anywhere. Happy National Book Lovers Day! Suggested reading for this card: The Hero Within by Carol Pearson

Right: Eight of Swords. Fear of the unknown is deep, primal, ubiquitous, often paralyzing. It takes a deep courage to face the unknown and to think outside the box, to problem solve in motion. Go to the go-to and more. Use every sense. Look at a problem…but also listen, touch and smell it too. Bring everything you can online to make the unknown as knowable as you can. Thinking outside the box can help you feel less trapped inside of one. Happy National Book Lovers Day! Suggested reading for this card: Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar by James Marcus Bach

Today’s Tarot: Moon Companion

Thumbnail created with free Picsart app

Just like in the video – I want to start today with a big thank you. Thank you to everyone who reads the blog, watches on YouTube, or follows on social media. A big thank you to everyone who subscribes to the channel or follows the blog (you can do that by email or in WordPress reader. The buttons are in the right hand column in landscape view or scroll WAY down on mobile)

I want to give an extra big thank you to everyone who leaves comments in either place. It is especially helpful on the video side. If you let me know the kind of Tarot content you want to see, then I can learn how to create it. I’ve been reading Tarot for 27 years and writing a blog about it for over 17 of those years. I’m really, really good at that part of it. There is, however, a learning curve to the video side of things. They don’t cover YouTube in B.S. Med. Sci or Ph.D. Natural Health degrees, so my GenX geezer brain is learning that part on the fly.

Most videos will be pretty short. They were never intended to be more than a companion piece for the blog, just like this post today. The videos enhance the blog by showing the daily readings are generated by a real person with a real Tarot deck doing a real card draw. The blog enhances the video with in depth card interpretations. Intuition communicates differently than how-tos, recipes, and game play-through. I often stop and listen to intuition during a reading in order to do the best possible job for you. That pause is invisible in print, barely noticeable in person, but a small eternity on YouTube. The pause in today’s video was a grand total of six seconds. I allow short pauses on private reading videos, but nobody likes any amount of dead air on YouTube. There are lots of talented speech-to-camera readers out there, but its not my specialty. I’m a distance for individuals specialist, but not a media maven for the masses. Cue the Dr. McCoy voice: Dammit Jim, I’m a writer, not a yootoober!

The pandemic is preventing face to face readings and that whole Stripe debacle is preventing you from a blog subscription that includes individual readings. Screw-em. Let’s do this another way. Let’s use comment questions and blog answers like a giant, slow-motion, ongoing AMA. You ask. I answer. The down side is that the answer is in a public space, with NO expectation of privacy. The up side is that it’s FREE. I benefit from the creative inspiration that your questions bring AND I hope that, once you get a taste of what TaoCraft Tarot readings are like, you’ll want to purchase a private reading or two.

Use the comments below to submit your questions about, well, anything. Comments are moderated, so anything inappropriate or spam will be cursed and obliterated. So just don’t.

Today’s card gives us a good example of the difference between a personalized private reading and the general card readings online. We all look up at the same moon even though our individual thoughts under that shared moonlight are an intensely personal thing. Moonlight carries both a shared and individual experience. Tarot questions can do the same. Your public answer might seem superficial, but it helps other people – you all see the same moon, metaphorically speaking. A private session is more specialized and detailed, just for you like your unique inner experience of looking at the moon, that doesn’t involve anyone else at all.

The moon card is about deep inner spirituality, listening to deeper intuition…which also fits this. Spirit messages are all whispers and moonbeams. A genuine intuitive reading for you as an individual doesn’t make for great social media. I hope you’ll use the AMA, the videos and the website to all decide if I’m the right Tarot reader for you, but I also hope you’ll respect yourself and your inner voice enough to purchase a private session if you think you we are a good match. I can do so much more for you in a private reading than in these media snippets show.

Zombie Cat’s AMA for the Apocolypse

Zombie Cat

Pittsburgh likes our zombies.

My first apartment was 15 minutes away from where they filmed Night of the Living Dead, and I don’t know of anyone here who hasn’t been to the mall where Dawn of the Dead was filmed. Maybe that was part of the influence in creating my imaginary pet / alter ego Zombie Cat who emerged fully formed from the confluence of Menage A Tarot podcast’s episode “Test Tubes and Tarot Decks” and a Minute Physics episode about Schrodinger’s Cat.

I’ve always thought it would be fun to do a live AMA, but then we would have to figure out a good time and a good place that suits as many of you as possible. So why not do it RIGHT EXACTLY HERE and ALL THE DOGGONE TIME….

It may not be real-time fast, but it still asking and it is still anything. It still feels kind of end of the world out there, so Zombie Cat is the perfect person (Being? Entitiy? Fictional Character?) to take on a post apocalyptic zombie shamble speed Q&A session. Here is how it works

  1. You ask a question
  2. Zombie Cat writes the answer in a blog post.

When it comes to the AMA Q&A, it’s Zombie Cat’s world and we are just living in it. I’m giving ZC control over what he answers and when. Watch out for the snark. All of ZC’s writing is guaranteed to contain words, but has a 50-50 chance of being dead wrong. Ask anything in the comments at your own peril.

Today’s Tarot: Logical make

The Ace of Wands is picking up a thread of energy from yesterday’s Page of Swords. There is still a sense of thinking and an intellectual process of some kind. The Ace of Wands is all about creativity, but in this case is a practical creativity and the logic of making that steps forward. Adam Savage’s excellent book Every Tool’s a Hammer comes to mind. He talks about the problem solving aspects of art, making and creativity in general. Flights of fancy are one thing. In imagination, anything is possible. It takes some serious problem solving and logical making to bring that imagination to tactile, usable life. Creativity combined with making an idea into a real thing is a whole-brain process. It requires us to connect disparate dots, plan, use logic, organize and experiment.

Just because something has never been done before doesn’t mean that you can’t do it now. Just because no one has done something before doesn’t mean that you can’t be the first. Just be ready for some industrial strength problem solving. Dream the dream, then create the logical make.

Today’s Tarot: Brains!

All of the page cards denote learning of some kind or another. Swords are associated with the element of air, and the mental/intellectual realm. This seems to be where the card is going this morning rather than a more modern, relationship driven meaning (your relationship with authority, culture at large, etc.)

If your emotions rule, and you are by nature heart over head, this is a caution to rein that in a little. Look before you leap. Like IBM used to say: THINK.

If you are naturally head over heart, this is your lucky day. Cleverness wins. If this was a Harry Potter movie, Hermione would save the day (again.) Being an “over-thinker” might not be such a bad thing at the moment. Especially if your thinking takes you a few steps ahead, as if you were playing chess.