Let’s take a closer look at another card from my new Lenormand Tarot deck.
The more I work with this deck, the more it feels like a real-talk oracle card, really a thing of its own. Not a toxic positive overly optimistic oracle deck that sees the world through rose colored glasses, certainly, but not the depth and complexity that the 78 RWS or the 130+ card Alleyman’s Tarot. A bigger deck with smaller layouts seems to be the sweet spot for my intuition.
See, we learned something right there.
Finding – and frequently using – your intuitive comfort zone is not only OK but it is a good idea to better readings for yourself in the end. BUT at the same time learning, growing, and expanding that comfort zone is equally important. How else are you going to know what your optimum intuition conditions ARE?
That little bit of meta-analysis aside, let’s look at today’s card, the Snake.
All of the animal related ideas from the Bear last week still apply, just swap out the bear characteristics for snake characteristics.
Which I may not be super objective about.
I was born in the year of the wood snake – the green snake. After I learned about Taoism, feng shui, I ching and the like, I’ve always resonated with my chinese astrology symbol just as much if not more than my western Pisces sun sign. Although I don’t know anything about sidereal vs tropical astrology, all I know is that I’m Pisces in both, which in itself is supposed to mean something in itself, I think. I’ll leave that to the astrology adepts of you to figure out. But back to Snake.
The Christopher Butler guidebook to this Healing Light Lenormand deck reads the Snake as someone deceptive with malicious intent (Hey!)
Like owls, snakes are feared in some cultures, revered in others. Makes sense, because in the real world the old nope rope may be either harmless or lethal and you have to know something about them to be able to tell which is which. That’s not the snake being deceptive. It’s up to you to know “Red touches black, no worries for Jack. Red touches yellow, dangerous fellow.” and so on.
Knowledge arms you against deception, both literally and figuratively. But that’s another story.
Chinese astrology, the restaurant place mat edition, reflects the real world duality. Snake year people can be stubborn, opinionated, intimidating with a heaping helping of hubris to go with it. But at the same time they are viewed as intelligent, wise, creative and intuitive.
Or, as the Sirius Black character says in one of the Harry Potter books “We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.”
Part of enlarging our comfort zone, part of learning new things is associating them with things we know well. Just like with the oracle dice from the last “Learn With Me” series I associate this with a few RWS Tarot cards, the Devil and the Three of Swords. Both acknowledge the malevolent side of human nature, cautions us to be on guard as well as asking us to be honest with ourselves about our deepest motives. Are we being deceptive, or are we being deceived.
As for the playing card inset, the queen of clubs, in my system of reading playing cards (I intend to write about that in an upcoming book) the Queen of Clubs is analogous to the Queen of Wands with a message of nurturing and self-care. Watching your back and taking care for your safety is, indeed, self-care.is
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“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly… time-y wimey… stuff.”
There are two words that make me cringe a little when I get them in a Tarot question: “will” and “when.”
Predictions and time are knotty subjects in psychic work. Mostly because they don’t legitimately exist. Tarot isn’t about predicting the future. They are about CREATING the future through your choices and your actions.
Tarot doesn’t’ tell you what is going to happen in life; Tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.
Predictions are actually a scientific thing. A scientific prediction is essentially a pronouncement about what will happen based on existing data and past results. For example, we can predict where in the sky Mars will be a year from now based on Newton’s laws of gravity, Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, existing observations and so on. As I understand it, that is the kind ofprediction that a law of physics or scientific principle has to be able to make in order for the principle to be considered valid within the scientific method.
Skeptics spend a great deal of time and energy bashing and demeaning “psychic predictions” in the name of science. Unlike overt scams, ego trips and outlandish fiction, authentic psychic predictions are essentially the same as the scientific kind. The psychic reader is an objective observer who is knowledgeable about symbolism and human nature. Because of that wider perspective the reader can see trends that the person getting the reading may not see. A Tarot reader can predict where things are headed in a relationship just like a scientist can predict where Mars is headed in the sky. The biggest difference that is that psychic predictions are based in non-linear logic, experience with human behavior and psychology instead of linear logic and numerical data.
That is looking at it all from a very superficial, everyday experience point of view. This is Isaac Newton kind of stuff. It’s like predicting that when an apple detaches from a tree, it will fall down. What if we go a just a little bit more modern with it?
Think Schrodinger’s Cat.
Schrodinger’s Cat is a thought experiment that everyone seems to know. Often it’s used to take a swipe at non-scientific or spiritual thinking. If you want to understand the hard core science side of Schrodinger’s Cat, Star Talk with Dr. Degrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice is MWHA *chef’s kiss*. Watch it. You are welcome.
I’m no physicist but let me take a stab at this, more for the analogy of it than for the science of it. As Dr. Degrasse Tyson hints, this experiment is really about stuff we can’t observe and we can’t know. Tarot is one way people could talk about stuff we can’t know in a time long before quantum physics. The Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck dates back to the 1440s, predating both Galileo and Newton. The discovery of quantum physics doesn’t mean that Newton’s laws are untrue. The existence of objective science doesn’t mean subjective experiences of human intuition is untrue.
Thought experiments rely on your imagination. Intuition relies on your imagination. So it seems reasonable to use a thought experiment to talk about psychic predictions.
But back to the Schrodinger thing.
In the thought experiment, a poor unsuspecting cat from an era when no one cared about animal welfare was put in a box with a vial of poison gas. There is a trigger on the vial connected to a radioactive molecule that has a 50-50 random chance of breaking down within the next hour. During that hour we cannot know and we cannot predict what the result is going to be. Either the molecule decays and triggers the poison, or it doesn’t. Until the observation is made and the whole thing has happened the cat can potentially wind up in either condition. During the time that the experiment is in progress, the cat is both dead and alive up until the moment when we look in the box to see what happened.
Once the experiment is set up and started, the cat could come out of it alive or not. But why not both or neither? Why are those possibilities excluded when so much of life is on a spectrum like electromagnetic energy? Why are other possibilities excluded when so little of life is a strict dichotomy? Disappearing Cat or Zombie Cat could happen…it’s possible. As I understand the BBC Horizon Series’ program “Parallel Universes” (hosted by Dr. Michio Kaku, based on his book “Parallel Worlds”) anything and everything is possible. Some things are, however, wildly unlikely within the laws of physics of our particular universe.
Multiple universes is one possible explanation of it all. The cat is both…it just does it in different universes. It can’t be both dead and alive in the same universe.
Why not? I ask the computer screen every time I see the Minute Physics video about multiple universes. Why not a zombie cat that is both or a disappearing cat that is neither?
When the moment of discovery is still in the future, the possibility and attendant levels of probability exists for all outcomes. In the mysterious and undetermined future, all conditions potentially exist, even our wildly unlikely disappearing or undead pet. Can you predict which way THAT is headed using nothing but your brain and handful of Tarot cards? If you “predict” the more likely dead vs alive construct, is that psychic or science? If you predict Zombie Cat, is that quackery or was the intuitive vision simply dialed into a different part of a far flung multiverse?
Zombie Cat may well exist out there. We don’t know because multiverses, as the video says, is unproven. No-cat and Zombie Cat might be out there, but they just don’t make the jump from possible to probable to IS, at least not in this world. All potentials exists until the possibility becomes “entangled” with our reality and the moment becomes NOW instead of future, and then slips instantly into the past. Now and Past are fully collapsed probability waves. They exist. Ska-doosh! It’s a done deal with nothing to predict. The future on the other hand, that’s a different animal than any of our imaginary cats.
Now, just to make things really interesting, let’s introduce Zombie Cat to Alice the Vampire.
In the movie Twilight, the psychic vampire Alice could see the future insofar as people have decided what they want to do. If someone changes their mind or changes their actions, then her vision changes. She can predict but with uncertainty. Her predictions are predicated on the course people are on, not any one fixed outcome. Alice the vampire’s visions and Zombie Cat’s existence are a matter of probability, not “accurate prediction.” And so it is with Tarot and psychic readings.
Let’s say our imaginary cat has human-like intelligence and has a choice rather than being a victim of circumstance as in the classic thought experiment. What if there was something the cat could think or do or meow or some action it could take that could detach the vial from its molecular decay trigger?
Now how do you make predictions under that set of conditions?
Imagine your psychic vision was of a dead cat which had a 50% mathematical probability in the experiment. What if the cat heard you make that “psychic prediction” and disconnected the trigger when it otherwise wouldn’t have acted that way? Was the the initial prediction wrong?
Now would be a good time to google “self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Will you get that job?
I dunno.
Did you apply for it? Update your resume? Schedule an interview? Learned good interview skills? Has the person doing the hiring made any decisions or taken any actions that have connected the possibility to reality?
A reading can’t predict a specific outcome, but it can give you advice and it can help you make decisions that nudge the probabilities in your favor such as be flexible (4 of swords), emphasize your skills and experience (The Emperor) or show you’d be a hard working team player (3 of coins). A good advice reading is like the psychic yelling at the cat in the thought experiment box to disconnect the trigger and improve its chances of survival.
When will you get married?
I dunno.
But in the meantime you can do social things that make you happy (3 of cups) be clear in your mind about the kind of person and marriage you really want (The Lovers) and engage with the life you have now as happily as you can (10 of pentacles)
The future is just as wibbly-wobbly as the Doctor told us. But Tarot can give you ideas about how to bring love and happiness of all types into your life.
Psychics, Tarot and intuition are intended to help you make the best possible choices along the way, not predict what lies at the end of the road.
If you do nothing, take no advice, make no choices, then it is all just a coin toss. Your might wind up with anything from a living happy cat to unalived cat right up to a Zombie Cat. But who knows? Maybe a friendly Tarot-reading Zombie Cat might not be such a bad thing.
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Today, two points jump to mind about the Lenormand Tarot deck as a whole rather than the Bear card specifically.
It is interesting that Lenormand has several cards with (non-human) animals as the whole focus and symbolism: bear, snake, birds or owls, fox, stork, mouse and fish. Marseilles / Visconti / RWS format decks have animals sprinkled through the deck but never as the primary or sole focus of a card. The closest is the Strength card which prominently features a lion, but it is more about the human’s interaction with the lion and the symbolism about strength and leadership that is associated with lions rather than the animal’s actual characteristics or behavior. Other than that, we mostly see the knight’s horses, a few dogs, an ox, a fish in a cup and a lobster taking a moonlight stroll on a beach.
There are two full decks that share a similar energy to Lenormand’s animal cards: the Medicine Cards oracle deck by David Carson and Jamie Sams and Animal Wise Tarot by Ted Andrews. I’m sentimentally attached to both of these decks because Medicine Cards was my first deck and entry point to reading any cards, Tarot or otherwise. I have always had great respect for Ted Andrews and his writings have been utterly influential and invaluable to me. I was so fortunate to meet him at one of his Animal Speak workshops around the time that Animal Wise Tarot was first published. There is a significant intuitive connection from between these decks and the Lenormand, more than typical RWS decks seem to have. This is the first I’ve noticed that energy-similarity since this is the first animal-symbol Lenormand card we’ve drawn.
The Bear card is about that well-known “mama bear” protectiveness, and begs the question of who protects you? Who do you need to protect? Where do you need to protect yourself better? Where are you too guarded?
The other thing that captures my attention is the 10 of clubs on the Bear card.
All 36 of the Lenormand cards have a playing card on them in addition to their primary symbol. Not all of the playing cards can be represented in the smaller Lenormand deck. Christopher Butler’s guidebook that came with this Healing Light Lenormand deck is oddly silent about the playing card references. I’m looking for more information about that part of the Lenormand cards and will update you later in the series.
In my book Peace Tarot, I give you an easy technique for using regular playing cards to find your Tarot daily meditation card meaning if you don’t have a Tarot deck to use. There is a link where you can buy a copy of Peace Tarot above the video if you are interested in learning more about DIY daily meditation style Tarot, that works even if you don’t own a Tarot deck. Using that method, the 10 of clubs connects with the 10 of wands, which is a different energy than the bear. The bear to my mind today is connecting with a major arcana energy much more akin to the Emperor card is also connected with strength and protectiveness. It is difficult to access that kind of major arcana vibe with the playing deck (we talk about that in Peace Tarot, too)
If you live in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh PA, USA keep an eye on your local library websites. I’ll be presenting a Tarot for relaxation workshop based on the information in Peace Tarot at a few locations this Fall. It’s a very inexpensive .pdf in the Sage Words Tarot Shop, I hope you’ll consider giving it a read.
In honor of 10 years of Peace Tarot and how meaningful and useful a daily meditation Tarot practice has been for me over 30 years of card reading, I’ve decided to return to daily meditation Tarot readings for the collective energy in the blog through New Year 2024 which will mark the one year anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot relaunching as Sage Words Tarot. I’ll decide then what, if anything is next. After all the upheaval in the world since the pandemic (politically since 2016 here in the U.S.) a return to some steadiness and simplicity is probably a pretty good idea.
Instagram and Threads is still the best social media to catch me if you want to actually interact. I’m Sage Words Tarot on all the socials (except Twitter – X . I quit that mess months ago) I hope you’ll follow along here, on the socials, on ko-fi or the Substack weekly newsletter. The newsletter happens on Thursdays. Next Wendsday “Learn With Me” will be back with a review of the Healing Light Lenormand deck as a whole thing that I bought – on sale from Llwellyn Publishing. Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!
Where else does a sinkhole + a bus = a holiday ornament?
It’s been a heckuva four years since the sinkhole swallowed the bus. This October feels tame by comparison. But that’s OK – I’ll take it.
The Hanged Man card has been turning up a lot lately in a variety of contexts, both in private and collective energy readings. That kind of repetition is usually a good clue that there is a bigger, longer-lasting wave of energy trying to make itself heard.
There are a few different things that might be going on, but that’s typical for a major arcana card to have several threads of possible meaning. The best known meaning for the card is being stuck or stagnant. Sometimes it is about needing a change in perspective. Some authors connect the Hanged Man card with self-sacrifice. I haven’t seen that. If the Hanged Man has any not-the-usual vibes it is more like a caution about self-sabotage, that “you are shooting yourself in the foot” rather than a heroic sacrifice or advice to “take one for the team”
In this case, it might just be pure inertia. Newton’s first law says that something that is still will stay still until something else makes it move. Something that is moving will keep moving in the same direction until something else makes it move in a different direction.
Life has been moving in some odd directions since the bus thing. When the pothole happened, there was no known coronavirus in humans yet. Wrap your head around THAT. We’ve been craving quiet. We’ve been craving normal. We will never have the old normal back, but the pace has slowed down a bit and it seems relatively quiet. Slow might feel stuck or stopped in comparison to recent chaos. A speeding locomotive takes a long distance and a long time to slow down. My hunch is that we are all feeling the change in speed, but in the opposite direction from recent years. We are in a different place and can’t go back, but things aren’t moving forward as screaming fast as before, either.
It’s the ghost tour time of year too.
Have you ever been on a walking tour or a bus tour and the group stopped someplace of particular interest so that people could take pictures or spend a little extra time appreciating the featured thing? I get the feeling there is a little bit of that going on here too.
If life stops your tour bus, it’s because there is something that needs your attention.
If you are in traffic and all of a sudden your back wheels are stuck in a big hole, look around. What have you been zooming by and not seeing?
That trope applies to any repeating card. It’s boilerplate – if a card or a life experience (or both) keeps repeating, then there is something important that we are missing, some important lesson that we just aren’t learning.
If the Hanged Man comes to your reading or you are just feeling stuck the stuck part may not be the message. The message may be to slow down, stop and take a look. It may just be life tapping you on the shoulder reminding you to do the pocket pat down and check for your phone, wallet and keys and anything else important you might be missing.
Thank you for reading!
Email readings are OPEN all through the holidays. Zombie cat is doing free yes/no readings in the blog through October 31, 2023 if you leave a question in the comments.
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC used with permission.
Hello and welcome to Sage Sips blog: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee (or whatever you like to sip whenever you read this). I’m glad you are here.
Just a quick review: Every now and then I’ll post a series of blog posts where we learn a new Tarot deck, Oracle Deck, or other oracle device together. While I’ve been reading Tarot for (I can’t believe I’m saying this) 30 years now, I don’t know every deck in existence. Each deck of cards or divination method has its own character that is worth exploring. Of course there is always something to learn process wise. If a psychic isn’t still learning, how can clients learn from their readings? Learning is change, change is life.
As we go through these new decks and tools, I’ll show you the methods I’ve used to learn intuitive reading in general as well as learning the particulars of the new thing.
My hope is that this process will build your trust in me as a reader, so you can feel confident getting a professional reading but also (more importantly) I hope this process will build your confidence in your own intuition.
Just like decks that use the Marseille, Visconti, or RWS structure the artwork can vary wildly from deck to deck. I’m glad for artwork on the Healing Light deck for a couple of reasons.
First, color on black is one of my favorite aesthetics. Gold on black is a particular favorite – no surprise if you’ve ever seen sagewordstarot.com
Second, like many contemporary decks, it is a bit more abstracted and drops a lot of the religious imagery that was the norm in the Victorian Era but is anathema to a 21st century freethinker. Hurray for that.
Especially with the ring card.
The guide book connects the Ring with “religious vows” or “religious commitment when it is connected or adjacent to the Cross card. The two together gives an energy akin to the Hierophant or Pope card in RWS style decks.
It also can symbolize a mutual, loving commitment akin to the hand fasting or marriage connotations of the RWS two of cups.
Intuitively I want to synthesize both of those things.
Commitment is a two way street. You have to give to get, and you get what you give (cue the New Radicals song). A commitment born of blind faith and adherence where all you do is give cannot last. A commitment where you sit and expect to receive can not last either.
The idea of a “twin flame” that makes you happy or “completes you” comes to mind – and falls into that take-only second category.
The circle of the ring connotes wholeness.
Commitments are both people all in, both giving and receiving in moving dynamic symbiosis.
Cue all the symbolism of the Zen enso
Ahhhhh…I get it – cue a big cartoon light bulb hanging over our head.
The guide book for the Lenormand deck is minimal. The grand tableau layout is so broad as to be unfocused and unhelpful. Lenormand is direct and to the point because it forces us to read intuitively if we are going to read it at all. Its small deck and broad symbolism can meld to whatever the message of the moment may be. It’s strength lies in touching the emotions of the moment.
In the ring card alone we can branch out to the Pope, the Two of Cups, The Moon and more as needs be. Lenormand utterly relies on our intuition as much as it prompts or amplifies our intuition.
Interesting, to say the least.
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It takes a hot, bright afternoon to make you really appreciate the cool shade of a tree, or a freezing night to make you appreciate the glowing warmth of a space heater.
As much as Tarot and Tarot readings are associated with western witchcraft, Taoist philosophy pops up a great deal, especially for a Tarot reader who has an affinity for Taoism like I do.
Sure, you could argue that this is a process of subjective confirmation bias, but I’m not the only one to find overlap between Taoism and Tarot, Reiki and Magick, East and West.
Diane Morgan’s Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao was one of my earliest Tarot influences. Christopher Penczak’s Magick of Reiki landed right lives right beside it, both squarely in the middle of my wheelhouse. I live in the liminal venn diagram space where Taoism, Tarot, Reiki and Magick all meet.
That eclectic, and often solitary mental space can have it’s drama.
Everybody loses their keys, spills their milk, or has some such tiny dramas in their life. It’s normal. That is also where the Three of Swords is pointing today.
The Three of Swords doesn’t have the darkest or most dire looking artwork. Usually it shows three swords stabbing something…more often than not a heart shape…but the heart is red and the background is seldom as literally black and dark as a death, devil, or 10 of swords cards.
Most of the meanings and keywords associated with the Three of Swords are warnings and cautions. It always feels like drama or complications from outside of ourselves. But for all of the heartbreak and betrayal keywords that go with this card, the connection to Taoist philosophy steps forward strongly today. It has to do with everything defining – and being defined by – its opposite. We find this concept in chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching, here in a public domain translation by J.H. McDonald.
“When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created. Being and non-being produce each other. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short define each other. High and low oppose each other. Fore and aft follow each other.”
Basically this is a message of encouragement, and a melange of hanging on and letting go all at once. Let go of that which has become toxic and harmful to make room for the good. Hang on through the dark times because that persistence will make the light all the more beautiful when it comes.
Darkness defines the edges of the light. Light defines the edges of the darkness. Without that contrast we can’t see anything at all.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment and let me which you like better: a card-for-today format or the three cards for the week and weekend revisit format. I’m leaning toward our old friend, the daily meditation Tarot readings. It’s like comfort food and personal growth all wrapped up in one thing.
I have a change in my day job schedule starting in November. Here’s the plan, such as it is.
Email Private Tarot is STILL open for orders 24/7, no appointment needed. Order anytime at the link above the video. Delivery times will vary depending on when your order comes through – I’m one real person doing real world readings for you, so holidays, nights and weekends slow things down a little bit.
In-person, phone and online readings are still by appointment only and schedule a few days in advance.
There are STILL free “Zombie Cat” Tarot readings in the blog now through October 31, 2023 for anyone brave enough to leave a comment (or use the Ask Me Anything page) with a nickname and question for the cards. It’s all just for Halloween funsies, entertainment only. Zombie Cat’s readings are 100% guaranteed to contain words and have 50% chance of being dead wrong
I’m dropping the week ahead readings (for a while, anyway) and returning to the old daily meditation Tarot reading format from the “Tarotbytes” blog days on Modern Oracle. The Wednesday Learn With Me series and Thursday newsletter won’t change.
These daily readings aren’t about any kind of “forecast.” Daily meditation is about right here, right now. This is meditative mindfulness. This card applies to you in your moment whenever you read this. Even though I’m reading the collective energies for today, spirit or synchronicity will bring you to the card whenever YOU need its message, no matter when that is. Psychic, intuitive information comes from outside of space and time anyway. That’s why distance Tarot readings are perfectly valid and why you can get real guidance from books and blogs no matter when you read them.
Now for today’s card: Death in reverse. Death means big life changes. Reversals hint at energy that is blocked or turbulent. Change blocked doesn’t mean Hanged Man style stagnation. This feels like a simple “wait a minute.”/
It’s OK to be OK
There is a sense of solid, practical, advice life advice here all wrapped up in an avalanche of proverbs and old adages:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Let sleeping dogs lie. Watched pots never boil.
There is nothing wrong with striving to be better. There is nothing wrong with experimentation. But you have to know your results before you make further changes. Sometimes too many changes spoil the soup just as much as too many cooks can.
“Remember kids, the only difference between science and screwing around is writing it down.” – Adam Savage
There is an urge to charge out there and take the week by storm, grab Monday by the beans and constantly strive, eyes on the prize and all of that.
Sometimes that a good thing.
Sometimes it’s good to give it a rest and enjoy the beans instead of grabbing them.
Merry Monday everyone! Cheers!
Sage Sips: Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
Pictured- the author’s morning mug including home made caramel cream pumpkin pie spice.
Social Media Update: With the advent of Threads, I spend most of my scroll time there these days. Threads and Instagram is the best place to actually interact. You are welcome to stop by and say hello. I post on FB, Tumblr, and TikTok, but don’t interact there very much. I will warn you that the Threads account has become a combination of Tarot posts and my ex-birdsite political and religious voidscreaming. But you probably know by now that secular humanism, Taoism, witchcraft, progressive/liberal politics and lgbtdq ally-ship is a big part of who I am and influences what I do here. If any of those things offend you then we wouldn’t be a good match for a Tarot reading anyway. But rest assured, no matter what you see on the Threads feed, I can set all of that aside and channel in the right energy message for you no matter what it says. That is what 30 years of experience will get for you. There are some advantages to being genX years old.
So what does that have to do with today’s card or Tarot at all? That gnarly online energy IS very much today’s energy and card. The growing energy from Monday has arrived. The Three of Swords has to do with sorrow, heartbreak, loss, pain and betrayal. The keyword betrayal steps forward with the most energy today.
This isn’t a good day to be expansive or ebullient unless the feeling is so strong that your happy emotion bubble can withstand a field of needles. The collective energy today feels prickly like trying to hug a porcupine. You may have all good intentions, the porcupine may be filled with love and kindness, but things are what they are. Being true to yourself and being true to your own nature can also mean facing up to hard realities. Your true self and other people’s true self isn’t always going to blend well. You don’t have to like everybody and not everybody has to like you. Oil is a part of nature. So is vinegar. That doesn’t mean that life has to be salad dressing. To borrow a phrase from Joseph Campbell, follow your bliss. But follow it knowing that not everyone has the same bliss.
Some people by their nature are counter to your nature. Deliberate and malicious or not, intended or not, it can feel like a betrayal when you hoped for some sort of relationship, but nature makes that difficult if not impossible.
There may be good intentions all around, but oil and water, bubbles and porcupines still happen. Some days just aren’t made for trying to make square pegs fit round holes and vice versa. This feels like one of those days.
To paraphrase another writer, John Le Carre, betrayal can only exist in the presence of love. You can only betray – or be betrayed by – those whose opinion you care about. You can’t be jabbed by the porcupines that you don’t try to hug.
Here my mind turns to some of those social media threads I’ve been reading lately. With the evangelical support for right wing politicians and the christian nationalist & “dominion theology” growing in our national awareness (and, arguably, growing as a threat to those of us with interests in Tarot or ANY spiritual path other than theirs)
There can be family betrayals, community betrayals, literal danger to vulnerable groups like our lgbtq loved ones. Like the meme says – you can’t say you love me then vote for someone who hurts me.
The Three of Swords reminds us that protecting oneself from real danger is an act of loving kindness too.
Which brings us back to yet another paraphrase of yet another author, G. Chesterson, who said “a [warrior] fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.”
When religion tears apart families and communities the prickly energy splatters everywhere.
It’s hard to hug a heart that deliberately surrounds itself with swords. It’s ok not to impale yourself on the sharp edges.
Thank you for reading. Heavy energy, heavy ideas today. Thanks for contemplating it all along with me.
Next time: Energy path reading for October 9-15.
The Blog and social media will be on a short hiatus October 14-17, 2023. Email readings are OPEN but may experience delivery delays on those days.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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