HIGH PRIESTESS: Trust what you know, then do it. Spiritual power is greatest when you feel it, but it is still there even when you don’t. Some days, there is no grand mystery. Some days, just going through the motions is plenty enough. Ritual is never empty when it is mindful of the present moment.
May is both National Meditation Month and Mental Health Awareness Month. Tarot is part of both.
There have been countless times that I’ve seen jaws unclench, shoulders drop and frowns disappear in a Tarot reading.
Tarot can offer you a peaceful moment in troubled times.
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
May is both National Meditation Month and Mental Health Awareness Month.
Tarot can play a part in both. This month, I’m returning to where it all began with daily meditation style Tarot readings on the Sage Sips main blog, the Substack and the socials. Your private readings, memberships and virtual coffees all support these free collective Tarot readings.
EIGHT OF PENTACLES: Meditation meets you where you live. It can be found in almost any simple, repetitive task. The mindless can be a portal to the mindful.
I’ve quoted Alan Watts so many times before, but it applies here again – “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.“
True to Tarot, even the earthy, ground oh-so-practical Pentacle cards have a spiritual side. Pentacle spirituality is particularly akin to Zen and Taoist spirituality.
Simple productivity can feed your soul as much as a job feeds your bank account and in turn your stomach. That isn’t to say that your job has to be ultra spiritual. Any work can be of service and finding a job that you love is a treasure beyond money.
Feeling and being productive improves mood: Action eases anxiety, literally.
Easy, repetitive, ‘mindless’ activity is relaxing. No wonder things like knitting, crochet, jogging, hiking, gardening, sports of all sorts are all popular hobbies. Anything that occupies your hands and body while bringing your mind to the moment at hand is meditation. In these million different ways, meditation meets you right where you live if you allow it to be there. Meditation meets you where you live and brings a little mental health help right along with it.
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deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC
Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
Due to a situation beyond my control (don’t ask) Elf-con is cancelled this year. This is going to be the lowest energy, lowest expectation holiday season I’ve ever experienced. Like Chinese take-out on Christmas day levels of non-celebration.
SO…
I have oodles of time to do readings. I’ll be open for readings throughout the holiday season.
Are you at Elfcon 1? Ready to take a moment for yourself? Ready to take a deep breath, relax and spend a few minutes with something that was created 100% just for you?
Maybe not the take over the world part (much) but more the buy a doctorate off the internet for $14.99 part.
Remote work is normal now. 2020 basically happened online, including every level of school and nobody batted an eye. Back in the day, before lockdowns put us all on the webbernet, remote study was viewed with suspicion. Especially for those of us who started in the days of paper, photocopies and actual snail mail submissions. Back in the REALLY old days they called it ‘correspondence school’ …. cue the the Owl Correspondence School song from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.
Knowing this, I actually checked their accreditation when I enrolled in CCNH. It was apparently fully legit at that time. Always was as far as I know, and was a well estabolished 20 years old when I was through the program. All I wanted was a piece of paper to prove I knew what I already knew anyway. It cost a bit more than $14.99 and, owing to a medical leave, took over a decade to complete. After reading, writing, testing, and much postage I worked my way through holistic nutrition,herbology, history of naturopathy, energy medicine, iridology (THAT was ridiculous laughable nonsense, I grant you) homeopathy, business management for professionals, research theory and thesis writing, overviews of Ayurvedic medicine, overviews of Traditional Chinese Medicine and probably several I’ve forgotten *deep breath* then I began the dissertation process. Dissertation was the real education. That process, even working remotely, included written proposals, IRB proposals, reviews and supervision, and supervision by actual people with actual Ph.Ds from actual universities.
Reiki & Relaxation is my 2011 dissertation with a shorter title. I tweeked the formatting and cover to make it e-book friendly, but inside is all the dry, repetitive, academic writing of anyone else’s dissertation. My ego is just over inflated enough to think that it is still easy to read for anyone. It may not be up Ivy League standards, but it might convince the local community college that Reiki is demonstratively effective in reducing stress which in turn improves wellness and quality of life.
As part of our slow stroll down the hall of equinox newness, Reiki & Relaxation is available for inexpensive and immediate download.
All of my book(lets) are available for easy download in the new Ko-fi shop and in the Etsy shop.
How did the summer go so fast? I guess traveling between pandemic spikes will do that. Speaking of which, transmission is still in the red zone, so the no in-person services policy is still in place. Distance readings by phone, zoom, skype or email is OPEN (no appointment needed for email readings.) Staying home in the AC doesn’t seem like a bad idea anyway with this hot as stinkballs weather we have had lately. Not a fan of sun and humid. Not going to stop me from binge swilling pumpkin spice coffee for the next six months though.
Still scheming up some things for fall. Got one more done: Formatted, updated the cover and uploaded Reiki & Relaxation which is basically my doctoral thesis reworked into .pdf format. You can order it along with PeaceTarot and Triquetra on the Ebooks page. Plus have a couple of youth/small adult “Mindful Moments” bracelets in the shop. (6.5 inch around, but stretchy)
But it WILL be September soon, which means I have to stop being aghast that I first picked up Tarot and oracle cards in the 1991-ish era. I know for sure it was well before ’93 because I changed jobs and moved to a new apartment that year. Still, 29-30 years is a long time. It’s making me feel old just talking about it so moving on….
In celebration of this astonishing realization, 7 card email readings purchased here on the website are $1 for each year of card reading….$30 is a $10 discount and will only last until the Autumnal Equinox on September 20. Then it’s back to the no cutesy pants promotions policy.
I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession: The floor is my friend.
I write a lot of one card meditation readings for the TaoCraft Tarot blog. I pulled the Ace of Pentacles, which means that it’s a good day to make friends with your floor.
I’m not suggesting anything weird. Well, at least not THAT weird. You won’t even have to sweep up when you are done. All you need is your feet.
We hear about being “centered” or “grounded” but what does that really mean?
In physics, or at least in my puny understanding of it, electricity goes along the path of least resistance. That’s how lightning rods work. Metal wires provide a safe path for lightning to go into the ground instead of blasting its way through a building.
The emotional kind of grounding is similar. Instead of re-routing a lighting bolt, emotional grounding reshapes strong emotions.
So what does lightning and emotions have to do with the Ace of Pentacles? Emotional grounding is one of the classic meanings for the card. Pentacles as a group are associated with the alchemical element of earth. The literal earth is a safe place to send lightning but symbolically the earth is a safe place to send strong emotions like fear or anxiety.
Connection is key to both types of grounding. Wires connect electricity to the ground. When we feel connected to another person, to a group or to some identity outside of ourselves it helps with the emotional type of grounding.
The mind is a powerful thing. Imagination and visualization are like the wires in a lightning rod. You can use them to make friends with your floor and find a little emotional grounding.
The science kind of grounding was discovered through experiments. Let’s try a mental experiment to see if we can find some of that emotional grounding.
Put your feet flat on the floor.
That’s it.
It doesn’t matter if you are sitting or standing. Just pay attention to your feet touching the floor. Allow yourself to be aware of the actual physical sensation. Let your sense of touch remind you that you are connected to the floor
… and to everything else for that matter. You are part of this whole planet and a member of the entire human race whether you feel that connection right now or not.
It’s a big planet. Earth can handle your worry, your fear, or your anxiety. Imagine any stress that you have right now going through your feet, out into the floor then safely out into the ground – just like lightning goes through the wires of a lightning rod. Give it a try for a few seconds. Right here, right now as you listen to this, feel the floor through your feet and let the floor carry your stress safely away.
Now, how do you feel? How did that little experiment work for you? If you were feeling good when you started, has the quality of that feeling improved at all? Maybe it feels a little more solid or a little more durable than it did at the beginning.
If you were feeling stressed at the beginning of the experiment, did that feeling change at all? Does anything feel even a tiny bit calmer or a little bit more confident?
If not, that’s ok. Failure is always an option in these kinds of exercises, no harm done. You can learn by doing no matter what the results are. It is an easy thought experiment to do. Try this visualization a few different times and you’ll get a sense of whether it is right for you or not.
That’s it. That’s the confession. When emotions run high, the floor is our friend.
Do you have a question about clairvoyants or tarot readings that you’d like to have answered on the podcast? Please visit the clairvoyant confessional podcast page on taocrafttarot.com to submit a question. It doesn’t cost anything except a minute of your time. The link is in the episode description. While you are there, feel free to browse the website for the print only Tarot readings and other blog content.
As always, any podcast follows, blog follows, likes, or shares that you can spare are always greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for listening! I’ll see you on the print side and talk to you next time in the clairvoyant confessional.
“In case you haven’t guessed already, I loves me the bullwhips. The meticulous, repetitive, stretching, checking, cutting, lacing; it is deeply meditative.”
Adam Savage, speaking on Mythbusters about whip making.
public domain
Intuitive messages are wily things. Sometimes they as clear and as forceful as a frying pan to the face, other times they are cagey and elusive and evolve slowly.
We’ve seen this recently as the cards speak in a cascade over the course of the wek. They have been speaking about various aspects of rest & respite. Rest through finding quiet, introspection, and literal physical rest (Four of Swords) rest through a change of perspective (Hanged Man) and today, mental respite through physical activity. Physical activity can be at any level. Some people find a long run the best possible way to clear the mind and ease stress. For me, running IS a stress. Any repetitive activity that doesn’t require a high degree of mental involvement can very much take on the deeply meditative quality that Mr. Savage describes. Putting the neurochemistry and endocrinology of running aside, the key here is the degree of mental involvement, not the cardiovascular involvement. Repetition can be soothing for some people. Mantra & bead meditation is an example, too. Arguably, low key repetitive activity occupies or so-active “monkey mind” enough to allow allow a meditative state to emerge.
Bonus points for doing the thing by yourself. Social behavior, even with one other very close person, engages our mind more than meditation or whatever meditative activity alone, or at least if we are left alone to our thoughts by the people around.
Anything can be a meditative activity. Tai chi is a classic example. But you can add jogging, knitting, and bullwhip making to the list too. Today, maybe this weekend too, is an excellent time to find that physical thing to do that gives rest to mind and spirit.
Q: Are there different kinds of Reiki sessions for different needs, like one for night to relax if you have trouble sleeping or one for morning if you need more energy?
A: Surprisingly no. It isn’t guided or prescriptive like that. The energy is like a raw material that the body uses where ever and however it is most needed. On of my teachers told the story of a gentleman with tennis elbow. He was very skeptical of Reiki, didn’t think it would help at all, but came to the session to placate his wife. He would’t let the Reiki master touch him anywhere except his left elbow. After a couple of sessions it didn’t do anything for his elbow….but it greatly improved his blood pressure. Nothing else in his life had changed to explain the improvement…no change in his medication or diet or activity or anything else that they could think of except the Reiki sessions. The body puts the energy where it needs it the most. Timing isn’t an issue, either. Reiki can be sent with the intent that it activate at a time when it is most needed as well. Like gravity, Ki is everywhere, all the time, and Reiki simply helps you draw from that energy in a time and a place and a way that is for your best health. For example, if problems sleeping is the main concern, a morning Reiki session might help the underlying reason for the insomnia, and in turn help the sleeping problem when bedtime comes around. Like the tennis elbow, the blood pressure was a more important issue. We trust the body (in its physical, mental and emotional aspects) to put the energy where it is most needed. Like the morning session that helps bedtime insomnia, the body guides when the effects of the energy are felt. Thanks for the question!
4 of Swords…comtemplating….deciding…IS doing something. The mind needs space to work. That workspace at times takes the form of rest, inactivity, watching what thoughts come and letting them go…you know…meditation.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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