The strongest people are often the quietest, gentlest, and kindest.
Integrity and power often work in silence.
Listen –
Do you hear the electrons as they move to power the screen you are looking at right now?
An industrial magnet might make a humming sound….but it can lift a car.
Beware the loud and bombastic. Often it cloaks more hypocrisy than integrity.
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The five of wands has always had a note of success about it. Sure, there is striving, effort, even conflict around the situation on your mind – but the effort isn’t futile. Some sort of progress can be made here.
I’ve always liked the spin that challenges can be met with style, panache, even a little humor. Effort and challenge doesn’t have to mean being up tight, stressed and anxious while you do it.
There is a trace of that old adage that if you do what you love, then you’ll never work another day. Combine that with the notion of choosing your battles. When you choose your battles you are managing your resources. Those resources include your internal energy and mental/emotional bandwidth. Choose your ambitions and your striving in life wisely. If you spend effort on the things you love then stress and striving melt away.
As always, all readings and blog posts are for personal & spiritual enrichment only, they do not predict the future.
It’s a shocker, I know.
I follow a number of Taoist, Buddhist, Accupressure, Traditional Chinese Medicine and other such social media feeds.
This being the waning weeks of the year of the snake has popped up several times over the past few days, associating the end of the year with a metaphoric shedding of skin, as a snake does when it grows and enters a new cycle.
It reminds me of the ouroboros, the image of a snake or dragon eating its own tail that is said to symbolize cycles destruction and rebirth.
Drawing the Star card from the major arcana fits exactly that energy today.
This card is sometimes associated with guidance – like ancient sailors using the stars for navigation. Of course, this winter holiday season, the Christian minded among us might think of the star in the three kings legend. But that isn’t the energy this time at all.
Reference after reference connects The Star with rebirth and renewal.
This is much more cyclic. This is snake skin and ouroboros circles. It’s not about a singular point of guidance. It’s much more complex than that.
When I drew the Star card, I intuitively ‘heard’ “echoing silence” and was reminded of winter nights with a clear sky over snow-covered ground. Even if you are in a city parking lot or a suburban driveway, the night and silence are profound, the quiet echoing behind any noise you might hear.
We are at a cusp. We are at the tail of the ouroboros snake. No one star guides us through this transition.
An entire galaxy of stars promise rebirth.
As dark as this night may be, as anxious and terrifying as the echoing, frigid silence may feel, the stars burn on.
Even the stars move. Everything changes. And that includes changes for the better just as much as the tragedies our fears so often imagine.
This is the Normal Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, the brilliant creator behind my favorite Alleyman’s Tarot deck. Used with permission by @publishinggoblin1072
The Waxing Crescent Moon symbolizes a silver lining or unexpected benefit. The card being reversed gives the impression that the silver lining is buried deep, any benefits to the current situation being hidden – but worth finding.
Richard Back wrote (in Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, if memory serves) that “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in your hands.”
Buddhist wisdom and common aphorisms like “every cloud has a silver lining all advise the same thing: There is always some small way to turn some small part of a problem into some small benefit. It’s wise to do that whenever you can.
The waxing crescent card is a cue that there is a silver lining there for you. There is some gift from some problem around you. The card’s reversal is a hint that you might be missing the good thing, or have to dig for it – but it is there.
Look for your gift, look for your silver lining, whenever you can.
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Think of your question or the week ahead. Choose a card.
Pause and choose the card before they are revealed. Choose after. Choose both. There is no wrong way to do this.
Full Moon, reversed: Take advantage of the shift in energies or the shift in energies might take advantage of you. Read the room. Be responsive to the vibe around you, and things can get better. Ignore it, and problems could continue.
Three of Autumn: Things long forgotten now work their cause and effect magic. Something you thought small, beneath notice has grown into something good. A very seven of pentacles type of energy. Enjoy the good investment that you made.
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Deck: Normal Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund
This week we had our first snowy day of the season.
It’s one of those things where you just have to roll with it. You can’t stop it. Not much you can do about it except brave the bread and eggs crowd at the grocery store and shovel when it’s all said and done.
Life is one big snow day in that respect. Do what you can when you can and roll with it otherwise.
The six of swords is giving that energy today. Go with the flow is the best way through. All is not always as it seems anyway.
The swords are on the boat…not blocking the boat;s way.
The figures behind the swords seem huddled and seem miserable while the standing (and steering) figure sees the way ahead, the direction the current is flowing, and can nudge things toward a brighter horizon.
Why fight the current if you can use it to your advantage? Why huddle behind imagined blockages when the natural flow of is taking you in the general direction that you want to go?
Mindfulness and being aware of the present moment is like standing up for a minute and seeing the current flow, the bigger picture, and the way ahead.
The six of swords is a reminder to enjoy unexpected snow days, so to speak.
See you at the next sip!
It takes a certain courage and generosity of spirit to be kind to yourself. It is OK to be grateful to yourself for that kindness.
What seems flawed on the surface can contain great beauty when we look at it as a whole. Scars are lovely souvenirs of the life you have survived. Removing yourself from unhealthy environments and toxic relationships can cause an ever changing mixed bag of emotions. It can make you exponentially grateful for the good ones. Yeah, this is a time for family…but hopefully it is family defined by love and relationship – shared DNA is optional. Personally, I think the whole Friendsgiving thing is kind of brilliant now that we are years into being a country divided by bigotry, racism, religion, politics and more. I don’t know that it is entirely a bad thing – many have learned the hard lessons that come with living fully, authentically, and protecting your peace.
Expectations are the enemy of a happy holiday. You don’t expect the pickles to taste like pumpkin pie. Smile when vinegar tastes sour because that just means it tastes just like it should. Life can be both bitter and sweet, but it always is as it is. The bitter times make it all the nicer when the pumpkin pie tastes as it should, too.
I’m thankful for all of you, and thankful to still be able to read Tarot for you.
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Back with a card for tomorrow. See you at the next sip!
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Pause the video if you want more time to think, then restart to see the reveal.
The World: Whew! You made it through the past few weeks. Halumi and R’amen for that! The World is your cue that things are turning. The world is always your oyster. Sometimes it is just a matter of hanging on until your part of the world turns toward the sun again.
Six of Cups: Only everything is everything. The smallest pleasures hold a universe of delights. It’s OK to enjoy the small things as much as the big things. Delight can come anywhere, from anything, at any time.
When you celebrate little wins, feel relief at finishing tough weeks, and find joy in small things anywhere you find them, the world is delight in a cup
Deck: Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans, copyright 2012 all rights reserved. Used with permissions on Llwellynpublishing.com
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“The Shockjock” card is drawn from the Alleyman’s Tarot Podcast which expands the backstory and lore behind the Tarot deck, which is yet another facet of why Alleyman’s Tarot is one of my favorite decks. And yes, admittedly, I have collected more decks than I care to admit over the years. The Alleyman’s Tarot and this deck, the Alleyway Oracle of Secrets, is built on the same premise which is set in the same conceptual universe as the original deck.
In the podcast, the ‘shock jock’ is a low filter podcaster prone to blurting out anything who has been following the Alleyman urban legend along with the other cast of characters. (The podcast has a certain Twilight Zone quality and is interesting beyond the Alleyway, if you are interested in giving it a listen)
In any case, this is one of those times where intuition and energy screams louder than the guidebook meaning. This is one of those days that teach us how important it is to listen to your own inner guidance, not necessarily what the deck’s ‘little white book’ might say.
Following your own inner wisdom over outside influences is a giant life skill in and of itself, and we can circle back to that some other day. For today, let’s listen to the shock jock – all puns intended.
In the podcast and Oracle deck guidebook, the shock jock isn’t a deliberate or cynical provocateur. Sure, he is in it for the follows, like all of us on public cyberspace platforms – but he isn’t cruel. The guidebook gives the impression that this card is an irreverent jokester, rooted in humor. The intent is silly, comedic and harmless.
The energy today, however, is opposite. This feels like a reversed card in the classic sense, where the card is read as its opposite.
This is the dark side.
This is a lesson in free speech, connected in a way to the seven of pentacles.
Today is a reminder that cause and effect is still a thing.
You are free to say anything you want. You are equally free to experience the effects that your words cause. Since the energy is a little on the shadow side, it’s tempting to say that you are free to suffer the consequences of what you say, but there is more to it than that.
The seven of pentacles often carries a ‘you reap what you sow’ vibe about it. For both the seven of pentacles and the shock jock, we have to consider both sides of reaping and sowing, of speaking and experiencing.
As we’ve talked about before, “you reap what you sow” often seems punitive, something told to children so they don’t do bad things so that bad things won’t happen to them.
The other side of the threat is the promise. If you reap what you sow, then there is a promise that there will indeed BE a harvest, that good things WILL come from your sincere efforts.
The same is true for our inner shock jock.
Words have meaning. Words have power. They can be used thoughtlessly. They can be used to calm, encourage and heal. Words can be used to wound and cut down. Silence can be golden. Silence is complicity.
Like the seeds that are sown, words have consequences. Say anything you want, or stay silent if you choose, but you will reap a harvest either way.
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Oracle of Secrets deck by Seven Dane Asmund used with permission
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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