Tag: sip of tarot

A Sip of Tarot: One More Time

Today’s card is the traditional first of the Tarot deck, usually given the number zero.

The zero is interesting. You could get all philosophical about it. Zero, as in “you’re a big zero” was an insult, but I don’t know that anybody has cared about it since the 70s. I think of it more in terms of the Zen enso, the circle. It is a symbol of infinity from which all springs, including the newborn journey of the Fool. From there you can veer into the oroborus, the snake biting its own tail which in turn points to alchemy, manifestation and sorts of other things. It’s interesting as heck, but not the path where the energy is flowing today.

The word fool didn’t originally have the connotations that it does today. The king’s fool was more of a court jester who, through their antics and seeming insanity could tell greater and blunter truth than any other advisor. Think of comedians like George Carlin and Eddie Izzard and many others. They can make incisive social commentary, and nobody seems to mind because it comes wrapped in humor. Laughter really is good medicine. Stand up comics still remind us of the legitimate value of laughter, fun and play. Call it stress reduction if it makes you feel better, but it works, and it is imprtant.

That aspect of the Fool card is where the energy is flowing right now.

My intuition has a clairaudent (clear-hearing) aspect to go along with the clairvoyant (clear-seeing) part. Sometimes that means intuition comes as mental words instead of mental images. Sometimes sounds or music will come to mind. That’s not paranormal. It’s not the slightest bit unusual to have a song brought to mind by some circumstance or another. But if you are in a situation of wanting a message or are actively working with intuition and that happens, it is worth paying attention to the song that comes to mind.

In today’s case, the song that popped to mind was “One More Time” from Daft Punk on their Discovery album.

I know that seems wildly random but creativity and intuition are all about connecting widely separated and wildly random dots like this.

The phrase “one more time” means repetition of course, but it can also hint at frustration if the repetition is from something unwanted or out of our control. The mental image here is building a house of cards that falls down and having to start from the beginning one more time. And one more time again.

This combination is akin to the the Ten of Swords and the famous proverb that the ten so often calls to mind “fall down seven times but get up eight.” All that getting up can get exhausting and frustrating after a while. Humor and play can make frustration and repetition and having to start all over again one more time less infuriating. The Fool reminds us that humor and lightheartedness can help make that metaphoric eighth time up a little easier.

A sip of Tarot: Opposites Balance

Welcome to Halloween weekend 2021. Today’s card is the Two of Pentacles.

The two of coins is a positive, upbeat card. It is the pentultimate card of balance, second only to the Temperance card in the major arcana. Balance is a bid deal in the holistic health world. Our banner tagline is pretty much “mind, body and spirit in balance.”

Balance implies opposites. It really is like the classic balance scales we’ve all seen, like on the justice statues at court houses. If one side is given more weight than the other, the scales are thrown out of balance.

Around Halloween and Winter Solstice, this kind of balance reminds me of Lynn Andrews’ book Crystal Woman. In it, light and vision are used as another example of balance. In complete darkness, we can’t see anything. By the same token, if there is complete light, our eyes are dazzled and we still can’t see a thing. It is only in the interplay between light and dark that we are able to see anything.

Halloween is a valuable holiday. In reminding us of returning darkness, we are reminded how necessary that darkness is in the balance of things.

Yesterday we talked about Sitting Bulls quote “Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.” It’s all well and good to feed the good dog but I think there is more to it than that. It pays to come to know, train and perhaps befriend the bad one. Just as shadow is integral to good vision, knowing our dark side is intergral to personal growht and a truly authentic life.

Long story short, we live in a world of light and dark, good and evil. Balance is the way. Starved dogs become desperate and more violent increasing the fights. Make choices and feed the inner good dog, but don’t ignore or try to starve the other into oblivion. Rather train it, perhaps befriend it. Compassion is the thing to feed both dogs.

A Sip of Tarot: nourish

Today’s card is the Lovers from the major arcana

Just like the Death card, The Lovers has a TV & movie reputation apart from the card’s actual, traditional meaning. Everyone loves the Lovers. But it isn’t always about finding the love of your life or a grand romance.

The Lovers card is about any deep down desire, not necessarily the torrid romance novel kind. Often in a reading this card will advise figuring out what you really want in order to take steps toward it. Choice is less popular as a card meaning, but it has been associated with the Lovers across many decks and references.

Not only do you choose who and what you love, you choose TO love at all.

There is a quote attributed to Sitting Bull*: “Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.”

Put that with today’s card and you get the message to, metaphorically speaking, choose the dog you feed.

If you have followed the blog over the past year or so, we’ve talked about general zeitgeist cultural energies, and how all those stresses had affected energy sensitive people. The fear surrounding the pandemic and political upheaval here in the U.S. had been ringing a lot of peoples bells so to speak.

That general energy resonance is still fairly strong, but it has changed. It’s been shifting for a while now. The resonant bell-ringing among clients seems a little less widespread. The focus has shifted from the collective to the individual, from external to the internal, from practical physical realm survival to internal emotional and spiritual quality of life. It is a time for choosing the dog we feed.

And I have to emphasize the part where Sitting Bull describes it as an internal struggle. If it is projected as anything but a personal internal choice, the adage can go entirely off the rails.

My mind is also drawn to the Tina Turner song “We Don’t Need Another Hero” from the 1980s movie Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome . We’ve survived the energy and emotional thunderdome of 2020-21.

We have a once in a lifetime chance to choose how we step out of the dome and move beyond it. Every moment of every day we have a chance to choose which parts of ourselves we nourish. Today’s card suggests that we choose love.

A Sip of Tarot: Two minds, one heart

Today’s card is the Two of Swords

Swords symbolize the element of air. They can denote action. Historically they are sometimes associated with negative things because swords were at one time the primary weapon of war. It would be like trying to find spiritual guidance from a card with a machine gun on it.

Today, the energy is lying with the air, mentality and intellect side of the card. A classic meaning for the card is being of two minds about something. Logic and reason are – or at least should be – our first go-to for making major life decisions. Sometimes, however, intellect fails.

Emotion seldom makes the best decision. But neither does cold hard logic and intellect when it is used in isolation, with no emotion or compassion at all.

The figure on the card is blindfolded. That signals the indecision that is part of the card’s meaning, while it also hints that following emotion or intuition might seem like a blind leap of irrational faith to the outside observer. Only the person with their hands on the swords, the person who knows both their logical rationale.

The figure on the card is also seated in front of water, the classic symbol for emotions, wisdom and intuition that we so often see on cards from the suit of cups. That’s not surprising, because people are more than one thing. People are complex. Ideas and experiences have a great deal of overlap as do the card’s symbolism and meanings. Water – emotion and heart – has the person’s back so to speak.

When logic is blinded, heart and compassion supports. When you can’t see the answer, resting in a place of compassion is enough.

A sip of Tarot: magic in many forms

Today’s card is the Magician from the major arcana.

The magician card is traditionally associated with transformation and manifestation. Today’s energy goes along with both. To change things, to transform them, you have to do something differently. To make something, to manifest anything, you first have to first do something.

The broader concept of change would, of course, fall under the Death card. The focus here is cause and effect. The focus here is in the doing. Do nothing and there is no change for the death card to symbolize. The science folks call that inertia.

The magician card often has the symbols of the four minor arcana suits on it. The magician uses all of the elements, all of the concepts from the minor suits and applies them to the concept of transformation and manifestation. The magician incorporates all the ways of doing. All of the suits have various connections to thinking, doing, deciding, withholding, experiencing, all of which are elements of transformation and manifestation.

First decide what you want to change or create. Then do something to start on that new path. Lay the foundation. Do the thing that becomes the cause for the desired effect. Anyone can work that magic.

Thank you for reading and listening to “A sip of Tarot.” on the TaoCraft Tarot blog and Clairvoyant Confessional podcast. Stay tuned for more (almost) daily meditation style Tarot readings in the time it takes to sip from a cup of morning coffee.

Tesla coils and the Ringing Bell

Today’s “sip of tarot” card was the Chariot.

I’ve been thinking some more about it, so I guess today we are getting a whole cuppa Tarot here on the blog. This is one of those print/blog only posts exclusive to the website I’ve been yammering about. I hope you’ll take a look at / give a listen to the new “sip of tarot” (almost) daily one card meditation readings that are all over the place too. Besides all that, I’m feeling very fond of the Chariot card today. It’s energy is pointing toward mindfulness more than mere attention.

Mindfulness is not only consecrating and connecting but it is protective, healing and self-saving on the esoteric level. Here’s what I mean:

Many people who are drawn to Tarot (or any psychic/intuitive style) readings tend to have an above-average degree of energy sensitivity themselves. In late 2019 and early 2020 I had a long run of clients and blog readings that focused on resonant energy. It’s one of those physics things that I may not explain well. The best example I know came from being in the room during a violin lesson. When one string is pressed correctly to make a certain note, when you play that string, a nearby open (untouched) string that is tuned to that note will vibrate too. If you correctly press an E string to make it sound a G note, the open, untouched G string will vibrate and sound a little bit too.

Intuitive, energy sensitive people people will resonate with communal, cultural, zeitgeist energies much like the G note open string vibrates along with the fretted-to-make-it-a-G-note string in the violin example.

Pay attention when that happnes.

On the physical level, pain is a signal that something is wrong. All sorts of physical symptoms can signal a problem.We pay attention to those, or at least we should. If the danger is high enough, our reflexes will pay attention for us.

The same is true in the emotional realm. Feelings of something being off or wrong or troubling are worth your attention just as much as physical symptoms. The tricky thing, especially if you are energy sensitive, is knowing when a bubble of emotion is a genuine internal state that needs your attention when that thing you feel is actually a resonant vibration, a response to external energies.

When you are a professional reader, knowing that boarderline is part of the job. Take it from someone who has been paying conscious deliberate attention to that boundary line between internally generated feelings and externally sources resonance for a looong time – it’s HARD to do. It’s easy to think that funky mojo feeling is all you, and equally as easy to blame your stuff on the outside world (looking at you Mercury-retrograde-o-phobics)

It’s hard, but isn’t the place for blame, either. The trope of “setting boundaries” tends to feel like blame or fault or failure if one energy is mistaken for the other. That isn’t the case. From one point of view, those boundaries are just arbitrary. Our inner emotions are part of the outside whole just like we as individuals are a seamless part of the entire wholeness of the Cosmos. No matter how much we might wish otherwise, the outer world does have an effect. The mind-body connection flows both ways.

So how do you know when your bell is ringing for your attention or when the outer world is a hammer ringing your bell?

Protect.

Think of that boundary between inner emotion and outer resonance as a protective layer rather than a border fence. That is especially helpful when the uncertain feelings are frightened or anxious, as was the case early in 2020 pandemic an lock-downs. For a sensitive, the fear and worry of that time was almost palpable.

The energy has indeed shifted. More on the out-there social zeitgeist energies another time.

Imagination is fuel for intuition. Visualization is imagination in overdrive. Imagine…visualize that there is something surrounding you and insulating you from outside influences.

One way to think of it is like a force field or energy shield in science fiction. Or think of it like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Or a tent or room or cave that you can go into. Here is a fun one for you science and physics folks – a Faraday cage. Metal cages isolate the equipment inside them from stray radio waves. Or the metal cages that contain tesla coil arcs (like “Arc Attack“)

But anyway….the next time you feel worried, or anxious, or just not yourself, or that things are just feel off and you can’t figure out why – imagine you are surrounded by your energy-isolating protection layer of choice.

If it is outside cultural group energy ringing my bell, then the imagined shield feels good. It feels like a sigh of relief. I remember the first time it worked for me. I’ll spare you the details, but I was faced with a barrage of negativity and a legit stressful family-in-the-hospital stress.

You know that feeling when the neighbor stops using the leaf blower and there is a sudden, jarring, blissful silence? It’s kind of like that. My first thought was HEY!! It’s actually HAPPY in here! In that moment, you know it is the outside and not an internal emotional injury.

If you imagine eliminating the outside influence, but still feel something is off. Pay even more attention. But for goodness’ sake don’t take that as personal blame….take it as a hint to get help or at least do some serious self-care.

It isn’t a 100% guarantee either way, but it is a helpful mental exercise. Since that experience of shutting out the waves of negativity for a little while, it is my go-to visualization/meditation when things feel a little hairy. It refocuses my attention away from the stress and on the here and now. If it’s happy “in here” then it’s just resonant funky mojo and will pass. If it is gnarly “in here” then it’s time to do something, although that will often pass too.

Midweek Reminders

I dunno what the heck happened, but today’s “sip of tarot” post just isn’t loading into the podcast so we’ll just have to settle for blog , ko-fi, and YouTube Shorts for today’s card.

That being said, I want to run through some quick announcements – as much to get myself organized as much as anything

Barring mysterious technical gremlins, the (almost) daily one card meditation readings will be on multiple platforms so you can look, listen or both. Instead of “Today’s Tarot” these posts will all be titled “Sip of Tarot” to keep them distinct from “YouChoose” interactive posts and other blog-only content. Sips of Tarot can be found here on the blog page, on YouTube, Clairvoyant Confessional podcast (Spotify, Stitcher, googlepodcasts, anchor fm & more) and the Ko-fi blog

Speaking of ko-fi: The membership tier is OPEN. For $5 per month, members get a three card “pathway through the month” reading, member-only specials and giveaways, and a private, individual “year ahead” reading by email when you join.

The ko-fi virtual tip mug supports the podcast, the channel and this blog.

Speaking of this blog, you can follow it over there –>

Everything goes through here: links to podcasts, youtube videos, announcements of new member-only content, print-only blog posts exclusive to this site – all of it is right here.

TaoCraft Tarot social media is on Facebook, Tumbler, & Linkedin, but I only really interact with Instagram and Twitter. Drop by and say hi sometime!

I expect to pull all of that stuff together in a few weeks with a little something for Halloween, to celebrate the third anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot’s grand opening.

A Sip of Tarot: Frontiers

I love space.

When I was 4, dad woke me up one midnight to watch men walk on the moon. I wanted to be a cowgirl nurse astronaut in space and campaigned hard for a later bedtime to watch Apollo launches. I’ve been a card carrying member of The Planetary Society, starting in 1987. These days, I’ll settle for being a Firefly fan and watching SpaceX launches.

Today as I filmed the card draw and write this, news coverage of the Blue Origin flight with William Shatner aboard is playing in the background. The word “frontiers” came to mind along with the Peter Gabriel song “Games Without Frontiers.

It was a joyride. It was pure tourism. The only science in it was developing the vehicle and procedures. After watching NASA and SpaceX watching this felt like watching baseball players squirt champagne while wearing safety goggles after just watching the Stanley Cup final. But then Mr. Shatner started talking.

As much as I adore science and technology, I equally adore language and powerful communication. The color, the universe, the thinness, the fragility: I can’t begin to sum it up. I urge you all to please, find a tape, listen to him.

The frontier line is different for everyone. Everyone has different skills, experiences, resources.

The experience of that frontier line, wherever it falls relative to other people’s is different as well. For some people, skydiving might be as easy as a trip to the grocery store, for others a trip to the grocery store is as terrifying as skydiving.

It’s one thing for humanity to send scientists and explorers to the frontier. It’s important to fling a poet at space every now and then too. They are the ones who can bring the frontier back to the rest of us.

Confession #8: It’s October

Transcript:

 Confession #8: It’s October

I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession: It’s October

scratch/oneip

My name is Ronda. I read Tarot, write stuff and make things.

It’s October, 2021 right now. Count me among the zillion and one witchy tarot readers who love this time of year, cinnamon spice and all. 

This October is the third anniversary of rebranding my work from Modern Oracle Tarot to TaoCraft Tarot. It seems like this is the time of year for re-naming things. 

You can talk about thinning veils and shifting energies all you want. All I know is that October has always been a creative inspiration for me. This year, autumn and the internet has treated me to a whole basket full of new tools. This year, instead of one big name change, I have a little one and a whole grocery list of small tweeks and innovations.

Have you ever heard of wabi sabi or kintsuki? I hope I’m pronouncing those correctly – I don’t speak Japanese. As I understand it, wabi sabi is a way of looking at life that accepts or even celebrates imperfection and impermanence. Part of that is the art of kintsuki. Instead of making something “good as new” it elevates the act of repair and the process of preservation and accents the broken places with precious metals. In this episode, I’m splashing some gold on cracks in the confessional walls. There is wonderful freedom that comes from accepting  imperfections yourself – and everyone else too. 

***

I know I’m not technically proficient as a podcaster. As a point of unpaid admiration, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the fact that anchor fm is incredibly easy to use and has seamless text to speech conversion from wordpress. Even with tools like these, I knew coming into it that this podcast wasn’t going to be perfect.  

What I didn’t know was how much work the vocal performance was going to be. And yes, as if you couldn’t tell, this is a scripted performance. Dammit jim, I’m a writer not an improve actor. If I don’t get my thoughts organized before recording, I would sound like a babbling idiot instead of the pirate radio dj  persona I’d hoped to create.

BUT  I am just evil-villain enough to not give up on the idea quite yet. 

Instead, I’m changing up the format a little bit. Not the name, because I’m still hoping you all will finally confess that you like psychics and will send me some questions for Tarot readings. Those episodes will always be personally recorded, no script, no plan, just me and my cards and a microphone recording a Tarot reading for you. 

In those episodes that you would hear if you were sitting across the table from me. So be brave! Send some questions, let’s make some magic together.

The thing that’s changing is I’m not going to do very many of these monolog episodes 

Cheer effect

Instead, I’ll be posting a metric ton of what I’m calling “nano-episodes” under the episode title “A Sip of Tarot.”  These will be one card meditation readings the same as I’ve always done on the blog and have recently added to youtube shorts. I expect they will last a minute or so…juuuuust long enough to take a slow, thoughtful sip of your morning coffee. These meditation style readings are just that…a thought to ponder for your day, your night, your weekend – whenever you happen to listen to podcasts. 

For example….

Hear that? That’s me actually shuffling actual Tarot cards as I record this. THAT’s what a question episode will sound like.

Now let’s cut the cards at random and grab a card from the middle-ish somewhere of the deck. 

Today we have….

One card reading (please listen to the episode to hear the card reading)

That’s what the sip of tarot episodes will generally be like, except they will be automated text to voice because dammit jim, i’m a writer not a voice actor 

For the record, I’m leaving voice acting to the real talent in this world, you know, like David Dear of Ninth World Journal – 

Why YES, yes I am shamelessly fangirling for one of my favorite podcasts  – outside of this one. 

I have lots of other things up my sleeve for October, but they are all blog related. 

If you like to listen to things, you are in the right place because most of the blog content will be echoed here.  If you like to read too, come over to the print side sometime. We have Zombie Cats!

Stay tuned. We start sipping some Tarot tomorrow. 

Short dimension

The music you hear is Dimension by the Pittsburgh band Dinosoul, all copyrights reserved, used here with permission. The applause sound effect is courtesy of free stock music .com

 See you next time in the Clairvoyant’s Confessional

Long dimension

A Sip of Tarot: The Struggle Is Real

A pyrrhic victory is a win at enormous cost. You win, but there is absolute carnage everywhere by the time you are done. The name comes from ancient history. I’m not sure, but I think elephants were involved (cue Eddie Izzard – I love her sketch on Latin)

The five of swords tend to be, ultimately, a positive energy card, hinting at likely victory (the dude on the card looks kind of smiley) but you still have to consider the cost. One of the meanings I’ve seen for the card is ‘stubborness’

One of my favorite internet memes is paraphrased G.K. Chesterson quote, “A [warrior] fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.” I think the meme’s substitution of “warrior” for Chesterson’s “true soldier” speaks to the essence of a warrior. It speaks to the difference between defense and blind violence.

There will always be challenges in life. There will be times we have to defend our limits and boundaries. The struggle is real, but what price victory? Are you fighting to project (your idea) or protect (those you love)?