predicting the future – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Q&A: Work & Retirement

Visit the “Ask Me Anything” page to get a free Tarot answer as a blog post like this one

Q: Will I be at same job and company I have now til I retire? At what age should I retire?

Hi ****

Thank you so much for your question. I hear you. Career and money is such a huge part of our lives. It occupies an enormous chunk of our time and mental bandwidth so I applaud you for giving it this kind of care and attention. Work and retirement are a big part of life as a whole. The happier you are as a whole person, the more present you can be in all the non-work aspects of life too. When work and career are in a good place, then we can turn our best attention to putting or keeping the other parts of life in a good place, too.

Unfortunately, the honest answer to your question is that Tarot can’t give you a fair answer to this at all.

“Will” is always a problematic way to think of things when it comes to psychic and Tarot readings because, as I’ve said a zillion times, Tarot can’t tell you what will happen in life, Tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

It is all up to you. The answers to your questions are already in your hands and always have been.

Will you stay I this company? I dunno.

Are you planning to quit? Are you looking for other work? Have you done anything to get fired? Is there any risk of layoffs? Is the company solvent enough to last until you retire? Tarot can’t predict these things so Tarot can’t tell you if you will be at this job until you retire.

More importantly – do you WANT to stay at this company until you retire? If so, why? What about the job do you want to continue as part of your life? If this particular company or job goes away due to unforeseen circumstances beyond your control, what about this job would you want to replace? What about this job could you replace?

Now dig a little deeper. Why are you asking this question? Are you worried about the job’s stability? If it is unstable, do you need to make a backup plan instead of asking Tarot about it? Do you hate it and want to change? Worried about making enough income to live? How can you best meet this real, deep underlying need? Answer that and the need to know “if” or “will” this job last until retirement goes away and puts the power squarely in your hands. Think about why you want to know if the job will last to retirement, then you know what to DO. You can think about ways to keep the job if you like it and what you need to do to replace it if it goes away.

When you should retire is absolutely positively up to you, your individual situation, and your actual financial resources. Retirement timing is 1000% NOT a question for Tarot. That calls for real-world logic and financial know-how. If you don’t know what you need, then it is important to talk to a financial advisor, or someone knowledgeable about retirement planning. Assess your needs logically and crunch the numbers and get real, expert guidance if you need it. Asking me, an artist, what age you should retire is like asking a plumber about your coronary bypass.

All of that being said, let’s pull a card that should give you one of two things:

Either it will give you a place to start thinking about these work related things, OR it will nudge you to look at something outside of your career that needs your attention. If your career path is unclear right now, that might be a hint from the universe that something else needs your attention first, and getting that something in order might, in turn, make the job and retirement question come into better focus for you.

Your card today is JUSTICE

This is from the major arcana portion of the Tarot deck. Major arcana cards typically carry higher energy, a bigger emotional impact, big life lessons or an important turning point in life. Retirement decisions certainly qualify for that!

The old fashioned way of reading cards connects Justice with literal legal concerns. So be on your guard, get good advice, don’t fall for anything scammy or shady out of fear or concern for retirement. This is not a time to “call Saul” as the television series goes.

Justice also points to wisdom, integrity and balance.

This is another reminder that retirement planning is a ‘use your head’ logic and fact driven decision primarily but also a reminder to keep the big picture in mind. “Work-life balance” comes to mind. Don’t sacrifice quality of life NOW with regards to health, family, relationships, friendships and the like for the sake of some arbitrary point in the future. That isn’t to say go all YOLO and be reckless or selfish now, that is to say to be mindful, appreciative and get the most emotional and spiritual connection out of this present moment as you can while at the same time you make reasonable plans for the future.

In other words, don’t sacrifice current quality of life on the alter of some arbitrary future point. Be adaptable. Keep the big picture in mind, making sure the big picture contains both the present needs and reasonable, logical future planning.

I hope that helps a little bit.

Best Wishes to you!

Would you like a one card private Tarot reading by email similar to this public one for only $5? Order private email readings, no appointment needed HERE. Most readings come to your inbox within 24 hours.

Select cuts of meatspace sabbatical

Getting cozy here in the blog and blowing off social media for a few days, Not exactly meatspace, but a sabbatical just the same.

I like cyberpunk novels from the 80’s: William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy, Snow Crash…you get the idea.

Gibson (in Neuromancer, I think) coined the term “meat puppet” which referred to the physical body as ‘meat’. So when people talk about “meat space” they mean the physical realm, in other words NOT cyberspace (another term coined by Gibson as I remember it)

I need to unplug from social media for a few days, yet I have some of that ridiculous anxiety that a few days away can provoke. I don’t want to show up here Monday and do a Choose your Card Tarot reading for an empty cyber-room.

That worry is proof in itself that a little time in meat space is needed. But only by half. I still want to do a little polishing on the website (not as done as I thought I was) and work on some other writing. So I’m basically visiting old familiar blog-only cyberspace. It feels like going home to be in this corner of cyberspace without pandering to social media. It feels like putting the toddlers to sleep and pouring myself a nice glass of wine and putting my feet up in front of a fireplace with a good book. Pull up a chair and glass of whatever you want to sip, and let’s do some old school blogging.

Speaking of homecoming, here’s a lightly edited Q&A from the archives:

Q: Nothing you said came true. Why not?

A: I. Don’t. Make. Predictions.

I’ve said it a thousand times. Tarot doesn’t predict the future. That is the dark ages, flat-earth way of using Tarot.

It doesn’t matter if predictions are “true” or not. I could sit here and make perfect, on-target, 100% accurate predictions all day long, but then you could go out five minutes later and do something that changes everything. (See: Predicting the Future and a Big Cube of Jell-O)

Remember Yoda from Star Wars? The future really is fluid and always changing. Life is cause and effect. If you drop an apple, it will fall down. If you strike a match, it will catch on fire. If you pour water on something it will get wet.

Cause and effect is the way Nature works. It is science. Your future is created by what you choose and do. Tarot is a way to look at options, then choose the flow of energy that is best for you. It is a chance to choose the things that will help cause the effect you want. Tarot helps you to choose the path most likely to take you where you want to go in the long run…not describe every inch of dirt along the way.

Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life, Tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

Real Talk Rewind -part 1

Keeping it 100 with the Ace of Swords

Keeping it real never stops in this business, but sometimes it helps to turn up the volume.

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

Today’s card is the ace of swords.

Each of the minor arcana suits have a variety of associations. They are connected to a classic, alchemical element. Swords are air. Each suit has a handful of keyword connections that apply to the whole suit over and above the individual card meanings. For swords you have things like action, intellect, logic, and the realm of mind.

I deliberately chose the Ace of Swords for today. It wasn’t a random thing. It was the best card I could think of that would represent what I want to talk about. The topic is reverse engineering the card instead of the card inspiring the topic for a change. Reverse engineering your daily card is kind of fun to do every now and then, and a good way to help learn the deck if you are just starting out. Think of something abstract – a feeling, an idea, any intangible concept – and then browse the Tarot cards or an oracle deck or any visual image anywhere that resonates with that intangible idea.

The Ace of Swords is associated with keywords like “truth” and “communication.” That makes it a good card for what I’m aiming to do today. It’s an exercise in disclosure and transparency.

In the excerpt from my upcoming e-booklet TaoCraft: Portfolio on the blog page “How To Find a Psychic You Can Trust” open, consistent, mundane, ordinary business policies are one of the hallmarks of trustworthiness. If a psychic is open and honest and patient with you when you talk about run of the mill business things like hours and payment and scheduling and refunds and all of that stuff, then chances are they will treat your Tarot reading or psychic reading with the same respect. And this long post today is me walking that talk. Once a year or so, I try to re-introduce my policies and philosophies – restate my mission statement if you will.

None of this is new. If you are familiar I won’t be offended if you bail out now. I would too if I were you. All of this is always available on the “ABOUT” and “POLICY” pages on the blog website. I probably have too much information on the website but it is all there out in the open for you to read any time you want. The contact email for customer service is right on the home page, and you can ask any question you have there or in the blog comments. You are always more than welcome to browse the whole website including all of the old blog posts. The last time I tried it, the search box in the right hand column worked perfectly. If you want to know about a particular Tarot card, or anything about Tarot really, just type it in the search box and you’ll get a whole list full of old posts to read. If you can’t find what you want, just ask. If it’s not in the blog already, I’ll put it there. Consider this the world’s longest lasting and slowest ask me anything session. Seriously. Ask me anything. If it’s spam or offensive it will be annihilated in the blazing hellfire of my delete button. If I don’t have the answer I’ll either point to a better resource that might have an answer. Or I’ll recruit Zombie Cat to answer. The cat gets pretty snarky but will come up with some kind of Tarot answer for almost anything. The cat and I tend to answer in the form of blog posts but don’t worry, I always always always protect everyone’s identity.

Which is a good policy place to start: privacy. I don’t talk about clients and I don’t share your contact information with anyone. I don’t even keep records older than 30 days. Readings tend to be less useful as time goes on and things change. Updating your contact information each time and asking you for a question, topic, or permission for an open reading each time is how I form a connection to your energy and your specific message. Once I make the shift out of clairvoyant mode into normal mode, I don’t remember details about the reading very well. This kind of Tarot is like the pre-technology psychic equivalent of telegram or something like that.

That’s what ephemeral means when I say that I do Tarot exclusively as an ephemeral folk art service. It was never intended to last a long time. Yes, it is so called entertainment only, but it really is spiritual guidance and emotionally engaging and uplifting and inspirational and empowering and stress relieving and so much more. I’ve called art with heart for the past 30 years and in my experience that has proven true. There is a certain emotion and spark created in each unique individual reading, that can’t really be re-created. With each passing moment, one reading fades and a new connection with energy, spirit and universe sparks into being. Because of that constantly changing, ephemeral nature of this kind of work, exchanges are impossible. You know all of this going into a Tarot reading, so no refunds are available. That being said, I promise to work with you to make a reading as enjoyable and helpful as possible. Every email reading includes a follow up email at no extra charge for any questions or clarifications. To paraphrase the ebook “I want to show you the art of Tarot and this blog is my portfolio.”

There is more. Policy is pretty boring, so let’s stop there for now. I’ll bore you to tears with more of this on another day.

Thanks for listening so far! Next time it will be a little juicer when we talk about predicting the future.

The socials are going to be quiet this week but stay tuned here to the blog and podcast. It’s turning out to be a good week for bigger reads and behind the scenes.

If you are enjoying this peek into what life is like on the Clairvoyant’s side of the Tarot Table or if you enjoy the usual short sip posts, please be sure to follow the blog, follow the podcast, follow the socials (links are on the blog homepage) like, share, and support the blog and podcast on ko-fi.

See you at the next … post.

Confession 9: I am Zombie Cat

Transcript:

I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession. I … am Zombie cat.

scratch/oneip

Welcome to Clairvoyant Confessional. I’m Ronda. I read Tarot, write stuff and make things. Happy Halloween season 2021.

Every Halloween as part of celebrating TaoCraft Tarot’s grand opening anniversary, I like to do something with Zombie Cat readings.

Because Halloween. And Zombies. This is Pittsburgh after all.

What is a Zombie Cat reading? I’m glad you asked!

It’s my particular spin on a classic, ubiquitous, nobody knows exactly where it came from yes or no style of Tarot reading.

Zombie Cat is a fictional character, a sort of alter ego that emerged from a blog post from 2015. The post was inspired by a combination of Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment and the Test Tubes and Tarot decks episode of the Menage A Tarot podcast.

Don’t worry, there are links to that and all sorts of other supplementary stuff in the episode description.

Tarot readings are one thing, but the process of doing a particular layout isn’t great material for an audio podcast. So let’s get back to Zombie Cat. Why Zombie Cat?

****

Why not?

Part of the original post was instead of only dead or alive, what if BOTH was an option for Schrodinger’s experiment?

No no no….don’t go all pedantic on this and tell me that quantum states are binary and the experiment really is JUST one or the other. It’s a THOUGHT experiment. If nothing is impossible, what’s the harm in thinking about the wildly improbable? Especially since, in this case, the experiment is being applied to abstract metaphysics, not didactic ACTUAL physics.

But on second thought, maybe binary quantum physics is a better mascot for a yes or no Tarot reading than I originally intended.

Anyway, the Zombie Cat blog post mostly talks about predicting the future and how so-called accurate predictions are themselves all but impossible and not very helpful.

So OF COURSE I name the most impractical, prediction oriented, pure entertainment layout that I do after our friend, Zombie Cat.

These layouts are a ton of fun to do. I deliberately set aside all the usual caveats and complications that come with old fashioned horror movie predictions and have at it. Any question goes, all predictions will be made all in the name of entertainment all with the knowledge that these readings are 100% guaranteed to contain words but have a 50% chance of being DEAD WRONG.

The short version of how the layout works is

Step 1. Ask a question. Any question. If it isn’t a yes-or-no questions, Zombie Cat will change it into one.

Step 2. Shuffle the deck

Step 3. Deal the cards into 3 stacks, stopping a stack when it gets to an ace card or a total of 13 cards, whichever comes first Why 13 cards? I dunno. Why aces? I have no idea. That’s just how I learned it, and it works. It’s as good of a method as any and any method will do for these kinds of Halloween shenanigans.

If you get 3 aces your answer is yes, two aces showing means maybe, but leaning yes. Only one ace showing is maybe but leaning no. No aces showing is a straight up no answer.

Zombie cat will lay the answer out plain & simple, with a light touch of humor. I will warn you, ZC has a tendency to get a tiny bit snarky with these readings. But it is all intended in good fun.

*****

If I’m doing one of these as private reading for an email client, I’ll add some of the serious stuff too, like individual card meanings, additional thoughts for the non-ace cards plus any purely intuitive thoughts that come through like crystal energy or aromatherapy suggestions…just like the way I summarize all of my readings.

Zombie Cat readings are all for just for fun. I enjoy these readings in a lot of the same way I enjoyed those non branded mysterious black pool ball toys we all had as kids.

I’ll make you a deal. I’m in a Zombie Cat mood this afternoon. Send me a question either on spotify, on anchor fm voice messages, or at the contact in the show description, I’ll do a Zombie Cat style reading for your question in the next recorded episode of Clairvoyant Confessional.

Short outro.

Thank you all so much for listening! I hope you’ll stay tuned for the ALMOST daily sip of tarot nano episodes that are generated by the print blog.

The music you hear is the song dimension by the Pittsburgh band Dinosoul, all copyrights reserved, used here with permission.

I’ll talk to you the next time on Clairvoyant Confessional. Meanwhile, I’ll see you on the print side.

Long outro

https://dinosoulmusic.com/

Tips in the virtual coffee mug support the TaoCraft Tarot Blog and Clairvoyant Confessional podcast

NEW! Newsletter and monthly Tarot reading for members only: https://ko-fi.com/taocrafttarot/tiers