Tag: seven of pentacles

Solstice #Short: making magic

Thank you as always for watching, reading and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. Email Tarot both short and long are open for the holidays, and your support is always greatly appreciated!

Today is something new. I wrote this layout inspired by both the solstice and a trend I’ve seen on Tarot Instagram. I’ve seen a variety of people suggest shuffling the deck then finding a particular card related to a particular topic and then reading the card or cards adjacent to it to get your particular message. For example, thinking of general guidance, you might shuffle then look through the deck for the Magician card, and look to the card right behind it for insight into what you are manifesting or transforming or calling to you in this moment. I’ve seen a half dozen variations of that. Here is mine.

Today where I am is the winter solstice. Dark moves away a tiny bit and the sun steps forward again. Of course, in the southern hemisphere it’s reversed where daytime has peaked and night will advance a bit. So when we get to the cards, read them according to your location. For your winter solstice, look for the sun card for energies moving toward you and read the card right behind it. At the same time, look for the Moon card and read the card behind it to see the energies that are beginning to move away from you. For the summer solstice, reverse the direction – use sun for energies moving away and the moon for energies moving toward you.

Whichever hemisphere you are in today, you can adapt the context to your location.

Since I’m in a sunny but frosty winter place, I’ll write this from a winter solstice perspective and leave it to our southern friends to adjust for their location.

Moon / Queen of cups: reliance on intuition and instinct

Sun/ Seven of Pentacles: results of labors, return of energies

I won’t belabor the point since this is supposed to the a Tarot short, but basically, intuition steps back and practical application steps forward, but only a little bit of each. It is the solstice, and the underlying foundation of the whole thing is, naturallly, a balance.

I see this as being the same essential message for BOTH hemispheres now that I think about it for a minute. The advice is to use, trust and apply intuition, but not too heavily. Don’t use intuition to the exclusion of practical action.

On the other hand, don’t just shotgun out a lot of hard work and effort without some degree of thoughtful guidance. It will pay off. You will reap what you sow, but you’ll reap even more if you take the time, effort and though to sow good seeds and care for the garden in a “work smarter not harder” sort of way.

It’s a balance of intention and effort. It’s a balance of making and manifesting. It’s solstice. It’s magic.

Today’s Tarot: Squint and Stare

“You reap what you sow” is both the threat of consequences for the bad choices you make and the promise of the good things you give coming back to you. Sometimes you have to stop, lean on your garden hoe, squint and stare at things a bit to figure out which is which.

“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” – Nicolaus Copernicus

“And I know what I know girl. But I don’t know what I know when I know it” – The Kongos

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Knuckle Down, Buckle Up and Get Cozy

Interactive Tarot Reading: You choose the card, guidance for the week ahead.

It’s that time of year where time flies by far, far to fast. How is everyone feeling on the energy side of things? I don’t know why the general America-energy has come in so many weather metaphors this year, but that continues. It feels like there has been a shift. From a map with lots of scattered tornadoes all over the place, to hurricanes on the horizon, to now a snowstorm. There is such enormous relief about the election, combined with such grief and anxiety about the pandemic. It is like admiring the beauty of a deep snow while worrying what you’ll do if the electricity goes out and if there will be enough food if you get snowed in. It’s an odd energy as I read the cards today, underneath each cards message. That being said, let’s get to those cards. Pause the video if you want to take a moment, then restart to see the reveal, or just pick a card on impulse. Here we go…

Left: King of Pentacles. Kings are always to some degree about leadership. Pentacles or Coins are earth element, down to earth, practical and real-world, nut-and-bolts level stuff. There is a big sense of protection or protective energy. First impulse is to say protect what you have, budget or anything really, err on the conservative side given the choice. Here is why it really helps for the YouTube videos and the blog here to compliment each other. My brain really is hard wired to be a writer, I suppose. Keyboards and pens really do hotwire right in to a deeper intuition some days. This is one of those days. I missed it earlier but there is a sense of spirit guide or guardian angel or something on that order. There is a second sub-wave here. In addition to the obvious physical – realm message, there is a reassurance that you are among the protected. Even when the money and physical realm aspect of things seem terrible, there is an esoteric protection, a heart protection. “Where there is Love” comes through here. You are connected and protected and loved on a deep esoteric, energetic, subtle emotional/mental level of things. Reach for that, if nothing else this week.

Center: Seven of Pentacles. “You reap what you sow” is both a threat and a promise. Sow bad seeds, give neglect, and that is what you will harvest…but inherant to that is the promise that there WILL be a harvest of some kind if you but plant the seed, good or bad.

Like was said earlier, I do sense a shift in energies. It’s not the red lights and sirens, ring every single empath’s bell sort of energy from last winter. This is more a crazy swirl of often contradictory energies. In my mind’s eye I see the general zeitgeist energy as just that…big snowflakes in the wind of a night time snow storm (stay safe all of you in the midwest that are / have recently experienced this for real)

The advice is clearly to plant and plan. Prepare for the weather to break on the energy level of things. Hold the space open for what you hope to achieve. There is sense of movement, almost like a roller coaster. Hang on, the turn, the shift the end to stagnation is coming. Be ready. Be ready to plant when the moment is right, because things are likely to grow quickly if you do.

Right: Queen of Wands. Queen cards embody leadership too, but a much more nurturing kind. While the King defends the boarders, the queen makes sure there is enough food. That isn’t to say historical, actual, monarchies worked that way…Tarot is symbolic and archetypal. Classically, the message is one of self-care to build the strength and reserves to care for others, but today the energy is more nesting, home-and-hearth, “facilitate the cozy.” In this iteration, it is care, for self and others and everyone within cookie flinging distance. Whether you are male or female, this week is your chance to shop smart, buy the extra milk and toilet paper and put the kids in front of a Christmas special with a bowl of popcorn, pour yourself a cup of mulled something or another and put your feet up. You can do it. You got this. You are the Queen of Cozy this week.

Thanks for reading and watching. If you would like to unleash the hot-wired keyboard intuition brain onto an email reading just for you, you can order any time 24/7 on the HOME page.

Today’s Tarot: Detective Work

Card image from the public domain via sacred-texts.com. Please support this online resource!

Are you in synch with the natural cycles of energy? Are you jumping the gun or lagging behind? Synch up with the cycles of things.

Today’s Tarot: Seven Coins and One Hundred Thank Yous

THANK YOU each and every one. No matter if you are seeing this directly from your YouTube subscription or if you are on the blog or social media – thank you. As you can tell, (insert Star Trek Dr. McCoy voice) dammit Jim,  I’m a writer not a YouTuber. I really didn’t know what to expect when I started the channel. Triple digits are both a surprise and a priveledge. I’ll do all I can to make the channel and blog only get better from here.

I appreciate all of you who have taken the time to comment on YouTube. I’ll reply individually in time (once I get my almost boomer brain around how to do that effeciently) But yes, you are absolutely right. These videos ARE short – for a reason. They were always intended to be a starting point. I hope you’ll follow the description link to get the full written reading. There are plenty of speech to camera talking head Tarot videos out there. I want this to be about the cards and the *intuitive process*. Intuition and mental processes don’t make for exciting video.

And yes, I’ll be making videos of actual readings on a variety of topics, career included. Comments on the website are closed, but you are welcome to use the feedback page or email to send any questions, comments suggestions or topics you would like to see covered both on the YouTube channel and in the blog.

But now back to the reason we are all here…

Seven of Pentacles: Give stuff time and space to grow. Tarot evolved in medieval Europe, even if it was initially just a game. Even if it didn’t make the jump from game to fortune telling device or spiritual practice until the eighteenth or nineteenth century, the culture was still more agrarian than industrial. That would explain why this card is so rooted in gardening images and metaphores. You reap what you sow – literally. It is both warning and a promise.  If you plant artichokes, you are going to get artichokes, not a field of daisies. It is a warning that if you throwdown bad stuff, bad stuff will come right back at you, in some form or another. It is a promise, that if you put in the effort, that if you plant seeds there will indeed be a harvest, in one form or another.  Warning and promise take time. To get the good stuff, you have to put in the work, invest good things, and let nature take its course a little bit, but nature promises some sort of return, symbolically speaking. Sure, real life farming can take disasterous turns that are no fault of the farmer. Metaphorically speaking: nature gives back, always, sooner or later. What nature gives is in many ways up to you, what you do, and how you perceive the result.  A tomato may not be picture-perfect, but still taste delicious.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot for May 17-23, 2020

Left: Eight of Cups. This card always has a bittersweet feel to me, but in the end it is a very triumphant sort of message. It validates courage that has been gathered, progress that has been made. It take both to be able to move on emotionally from difficult situations. Moving ahead does not require that you leave memories or behind. This is more about going on with life with those things, neither abandoning nor stagnationg with them.

Center: Two of Wands. This is a week of opportunity, you can have the world in the palm of you hand, but timing is critical. Discretion really is the better part of valor. Be thoughtful, diplomatic, careful … look before you leap … but when the time comes, when the time comes, jump in. Watching, analysing and couragous action may all be needed.

Right: Seven of Pentacles. Plant seeds that are worth the wait. Thus is the week for foundation building, not instant gratification. Plant seeds that will a good harvest. Build a foundation for something to stand the test of time. In my minds eye I see precisely cut white marble or granite like greek temples or the Washington monument. Precision, attention to detail, and best effort (here Deadpool pops up with “two swords and maximum effort”) Long story short, focus on quality now to create domething that will be worth the wait later.

Related post: https://taocrafttarot.wordpress.com/2020/05/07/todays-tarot-worth-the-wait

Forget Tarot, Follow Science for This One

Just saw this….seems relavent in light of that 7 of pentacles reading earlier this morning.

Tarot can help cope with the stress of the pandemic, especially if your role is to simply stay the heck at home. For the rest of it, forget Tarot and follow science. Now go wash your hands.

Today’s Tarot: Worth the Wait

After 25…no, wait…more like 27 years of doing Tarot readings (good grief) if I’ve learned anything it’s been to honor the process. It is what it is…roll with it.

The energy is still focused on the Pandemic, rightfully so I supposed. Again with the pentacle cards. Personally I’ve got some other ideas brewing….stay tuned for that…but these daily readings are always intended for the highest and best message for the most people, or at least somebody somewhere out there in cyberspace. The “Today’s Tarot” readings go where the bulk of the energy is flowing right now, at least regionally here in the Eastern U.S. Sometimes these readings touch on universal truths, sometimes they are like the local weather forecast. Either way, Tarot readings are a little like Neo’s (Alice’s) White Rabbit. If you follow it, it will lead you someplace really interesting.

Things are happening, but not fast. Like yesterday, I get the sense we are in the second half or our little time in the hurricane’s eye, and are headed toward the second eyewall. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Dr. Fauchi and the public health folks that have been doing infectious disease longer than I’ve been doing Tarot. There is going to be a second wave, and it ain’t going to be pretty. Limit your time out, maintain your personal space, wear a mask in public, and wash your dang hands

Despite the dramatic change in pace from what we were accustomed to in the before-time, things ARE going to happen. In my mind’s eye, winds are blowing pretty hard on the other side of the storm, but that isn’t the energy for right now (meaning it may never happen – here and now is what counts)

Right now, we wait. If you are in an area that is re-opening, we wait to see what impact that has on public health and infection / death rates. If you are still in a locked down red zone, we wait. Today’s card begs the question…what seeds are you planting now that will be worth the wait later?

The Seven of Pentacles is typically associated with the idea of “you reap what you sow” which is both a threat and a promise. Do bad things, they come back to haunt you. What goes around will come around, yes, but it also gives the hope and promise that there will indeed be a harvest, and something will come of our better efforts too.

That’s the basics of what will happen and how it works, but rather than if and quantity, what about quality? What is it you can plant now that will be worth the wait later? What will your future-self thank you for starting now? THAT is the place to put your attention and intentions today.

If you are going to be waiting anyway, use today to start something that will, sooner or later, be worth that wait.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Plant

Pick a card. Pause the video if you need some time. Restart to seee the reveal, then you can scroll down to get your reading below. OR you can do you own reading. PeaceTarot ebook download can teach you how. (https://www.etsy.com/listing/248936426/peacetarot-e-book-how-to-do-daily)

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Left: Ace of Pentacles. “Bloom where you are planted.” The energies are a wind at your back, the near future is an opportune time for productivity and creativity in a very tangible way. Both the muses and the maker’s energies are with you. Be on the lookout for inspiration and opportunity to make or do something tangible.

Middle: Seven of Pentacles “Let the planted seeds grow.” In the 27 years that I’ve been reading cards, I’ve never seen a pattern so repeated, so loud, so clear as the energies have been for the past couple of months of the global pandemic.

Now is not the time for big innovation, change or being overly high-minded, or woo woo spiritual about things. Let the seeds that were sown grow. This is one of those time to leave well enough alone. Sit with what is and what has happened so far. This is very different from the major arcana Hanged Man energy. It isn’t stagnation…this is a needed, necessary quiet. We aren’t stuck, the best thing to DO is nothing, is to wait. Being at peace with that will reap harvest in its time. Finding out that you are not at peace with quiet and your own company is important too. Both are needed now in order to move forward at harvest time.

Right: Queen of Wands “Tend to your garden.” Again this is a clear, repeated message of the times. Take care of yourself and those near to you. Do what needs done. Protect yourself. Do the right thing to protect those around you. The Tarot is on the experts side. Again, just like with the Seven of Pentacles, no is not the time to push or innovate or be overly woo woo spiritual, Tend to the physical. The spiritual will come back in its time. Your endurance is needed. Sleep. Eat. Get outside when you safely can.

Social Distance is my Tarot specialty! I write Tarot as easily as speaking it face to face. A keyboard is a hotline to intutition for me. The connection comes from information, not physical presance. Spirit and energy exists everywhere, so I can get your message and send it anywhere. Order on the home page. Prices reduced through at least the end of April to help out during the pandemic.