Tag: south hills tarot reader

Conspicuous In Its Absence

When I do a reading, the first thing is to talk with you about your question, topic of concern, or you OK for an open reading. Then we shuffle the cards, put them into the layout you ordered (by email, you get a photo of the actual real life cards, by phone I’ll list them out for you, or whenever in-person readings come back, you can see them for your self.

Once the cards are ready, the first part in all formats bigger than a one-card, is what I call the “general pattern” where we look for any clues from the patter of cards taken as a whole. One of the things we look at is the number of major vs minor arcana cards. Of the minor arcana cards, we look at what suits are showing and how many of each suit are there.

“Negative space” is an idea from art and sculpture. The art-thing itself sets shapes and boundaries in and around the space it occupies. Kind of like a paper snowflake where the cut out parts are shapes too. Like the hearts in this one (Found this on a Google search. you can get the pattern at papersnowflakeart.com)

Sometimes, if three of the four minor arcana suits are showing, intuition will pull toward the suit that is missing as if it is being conspicuous in it’s absence and is sending a message by not showing up.

2020 has been a heck of a decade, and hindsight is 20/20 too. When we look back what can we learn? Surprisingly, I found one of those negative space, conspicuous in its absence kinds of messages when I looked back at the broad swath of cards that have shown up in the past year, a couple of patterns emerge. Early in the year, there was a preponderance of Pentacle cards, with their earthy, practical, pragmatic advice. The message was to not judge ourselves too harshly as we did what needed done during the early days of the covid pandemic. If it took pajama days and pandemic snacks to cope, so be it. If it took nuts-and-bolts, one foot in front of the other suiting up and masking up and putting food on the shelves….well, let’s just say the rest of us are very grateful. Then things shifted. Later in the Summer and Fall Cups cards stepped forward with a shift toward the intuitive and the spiritual. Wheels and worlds, Towers and Magicians, even the Devil card (Shadow Side in the Witches Tarot deck) put in an appearance.

But no Death card.

At least not in any prominent, repeating, attention-getting way. Given the profound tragedy the pandemic has brought and continues to bring, it is a wonder that the card didn’t show up every other day. With so many lost, this year has brought profound and permanent change to so, so many families.

Early in the year, there was a lot of zeitgiest, general-culture, general-society energies. If we look at the Death card from that perspective, then its absence makes more sense. Not intending to be callous toward the worst that has happened, if we remove tragedy from the card (as is its actual use and meaning….we all know the card actually isn’t a harbinger of literal death)

The Death card is about permanent change. When permenant change is conspicuously absent, maybe the big scary change isn’t so permenant on a large scale cultural level.

We’ll never regain and never forget those who were lost. There may be permanent scars from all of this. But in the end, in the very very long run, life just might get back to OK.

Today’s Tarot: Worth the Effort

The Seven of Wands specifically is associated with effort, challenge, sometimes conflict. When you combine that with the wands’ suit meaning of your relationship with yourself (the element of fire, inner passions, philosophy, spirituality, etc.) It brings mental challenge to mind.

It may have to do with setting healthy boundaries, protecting your inner world and mental health from unhealthy connections. That is work, but it is worth the effort.

It may have to do using planning and strategy to overcome a challenge. Working smarter, not harder, is always worth the mental effort.

There is an element of success, or being on the path to success, over conflicts and challenges even though effort is required to achieve that success. On of my favorite interpretations comes from Ellen Dugan who adds overcoming conflict with “Style, wit and humor” to the mix. That always brings characters like Han Solo from Star Wars, Captain Mal from Firefly or Deadpool from Marvel comics to mind for me. Thom Pham dials in to this same energy when he portrays the Seven of Wands with Obyron, the bon vivant warrior in Game of Thrones. So the advice here would be to keep your sense of humor and meet challenges with your own flourish. That will be worth the effort in how it helps to keep your stress levels down if nothing else. Laughter is good medicine.

Wishing you a day of style, humor and overcoming any obstacles that comes your way.

Tree Thinking

Timing is a thing.

The queen of cups and the four of cups have been showing up a lot lately. Most of the professional Tarot readers I know have had the experience where a message for us will piggyback through the same cards as the message for our clients. Especially if there is a repeating meta-pattern. You’ve seen it. Remember the way Pentacle cards kept turning up and gave a pattern of advice that seemed relevant to the general pandemic zeitgeist in addition to the individual messages for the blog (that you saw) and the individual messages (that you didn’t see)

The same thing happened here. There has been a little tweek to the website and business-y end of TaoCraft that has been niggling at me. It was one of those six of one vs half-dozen of the other kind of things. It was super minor, no hurry stuff, so I just hadn’t yet done a reading for myself (it is, after all, that elfcon 1 time of year and handmade gifts don’t care about pandemics) Then, wrapped up in a bow like a gift from the universe, cards piggybacked my answer in along with all the other messages.

Not only does that give me my personal answer right along with the other information, it reaffirms what I’ve observed and believed alabout Tarot all along: The right message will find you one way or another. It might be through cards that repeat until you get the clue. It might be a sudden epiphany of unrelated dots that suddenly connect. It might be pure synchronicity. But one way or another, your guidance will come. My advice is to, whenever you can, respond to the tap on the shoulder before life has to hit you in the face with a frying pan.

The four of cups is associated with meditation. I tend to fall into the trap of thinking that an answer will come DURING meditation time itself. But that isn’t always the case, I’ve found. Ideas still come at the usual weird times as when I’ve let meditation practice slip. The light bulb still clicks on in the shower or while washing dishes or on a long drive. That spontaneous process seems to happen more easily and with more clarity during days and weeks when meditation was part of the overall mix of life.

Life will bring answers sooner or later, in one form or another. The right message will find its way to you. A relaxed, quiet mindset helps that process flow.

Answers come in their own time and timing. We may not all be able to go sit under a tree and think. But we can all make time to just let our thoughts flow by. In those times without striving or grasping, the way is made for the answer to find us.

The One Big Same Thing

From what I’ve seen, universal life energy is all over the place.

It’s kind of like ports.

No matter whether you put your big boat in the water in New York or Charleston or Savannah or Buenos Aires or Capetown or Glasgow or Seville, you are still getting into the same great big Atlantic Ocean.

No matter whether you work with Tarot or Reiki or mediumship or magick or taijiquan or meditation or what have you, you are still touching that great big everywhere and everything of universal life energy.

“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.” as they say in Star Wars.

I’ve lost count of the Tarot readers I know who also do other energy work: Reiki, Yoga, Magick, you name it.

That is one big reason that I re-branded Modern Oracle back in 2018. The everywhere all of the time energy that we use in Natural Health (in Reiki, Tai Chi, aromatherapy and more) is the same energy that speaks through a Tarot reading. Benebel Wen connected exactly those dots in Holistic Tarot. Distance Tarot very much is a matter of working with qi (chi, ki, prana etc.) Mat Auryn makes the same connection in the first chapter of Psychic Witch. I’m paraphrasing, but basically magick uses the energy, and a psychic reads that same energy. It is two sides of the same coin, as he points out.

Since it is all different facets of the same diamond, or different sides of the same D&D dice or SOMEthing like that, it just didn’t make sense to try and keep them separate. It was time to open the door of authenticity wide and embrace the wholeness of it all. If you were interested in Natural Health but was frightened off by Tarot (or vice versa) then we likely weren’t going to be a good fit to work together anyway. There are lots of folks around who do the blissed out strictly positive rainbows and unicorns herbology, nutrition and the like so I stepped fully in to the energy side of things. And so, here we are.

Distance is my gig. My specialty within the world of Tarot is distance readings, and my interest within the world of Reiki is enhancing and deepening the distance treatment experience with another of my loves, rocks and crystals (sorry again, mom, for all those rocks I forgot in my pants pockets that pinged the inside of the washing machine when I was a kid)

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Reiki and Meditation are permanent parts of TaoCraft Tarot. If you imagine the website as a brick and mortar place (it isn’t, really) think of one side of the room having shelves of crystals, plants, a water fountain, a statue of Quan Yin, incense and a table for Reiki sessions.

The middle third is the Etsy shop with meditation beads and ebooks. The other side of the room has a table and big cozy chairs for doing Tarot readings. If it is a chilly day or at at night, go ahead and imagine a fireplace and simmering teakettle just there.

In your minds eye, how does a space like that feel? It is all of a piece for me, flowing together, all the one same room with just slightly different things to do in the different parts of it. Energy is like that. Just different things to do in different areas of the one big same thing

Want to try a distance Reiki session using crystals? Get the details HERE. I don’t charge for the sessions but I do ask that you answer a few feedback questions as a fair energy exchange.

Still celebrating the two years since the big re-branding name change. Happy Birthday TaoCraft! But the present is for YOU. Visit the special offers page and use the contact form there to get a free one card handwritten Tarot reading by email to celebrate. Offer ends October 31, 2020. All policies and disclaimers apply.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Scout, Patrol, See

Choose a card, scroll down to get your reading.

Use the video to pick a card; left, center or right. Go on quick impulse, or if you need some time to think about it you can pause the video and restart it to see the reveal. Once you have your card, scroll down for the reading.

Looking at all three together doesn’t give much of a message this week. It is all kind of low key, and more individualized than usual. Your chosen card might resonate with you as an individual more than usual. Or not. You know how these general energy, general audience readings go sometimes.

Not much going on this week by way of announcements. The anniversary month give-away continues until October 31, 2020, so visit the special offers page if you would like a free one card handwritten “mini digital InkMagick Tarot reading” by email.

The interesting thing this week is the way all three cards are coming through as more verbal than feelings or mental images. In other words, I’d call it clairaudient rather than clairsentient or clairvoyant.

Left: Two of Wands. “Look to new horizons.” The energies this week suit pushing the envelope a little. If you are given the chance to try something new, been thinking about trying something new, or are being nudged outside of your comfort zone, not to worry. Scope it out, if it seems right, why not?

Center: Knight of Pentacles. “Patrol the perimeter.” Knights denote action. Although Pentacles are often associated with career or wealth, I get more of a grounded, centered, practical energy as one would expect from the earth element. I forget the source but I’ve seen the card associated with “active upkeep” and that kind of routine, proactive maintenance is very much the energy here for this week. This is a good week to keep to the schedule, patrol your fence, repair what needs repaired, and do other such mundane chores.

Right: Six of Cups. “See with the eyes of a child.” Disappointment and frustration come from reality being different from your hopes and expectations. If you don’t know (or care about) what to expect, like small children at play, you can take things as they come. No expectations, no disappointment. See things at they are, then you can use your imagination to invent a way to move a little closer to your dream.

Typing, Talking and YouTubing

Hi everyone!

First and foremost, thank you all from my very core for reading this. I appreciate all of you so much!

It goes without saying that in-person readings are on hold until the stay-at-home order is lifted and the coronavirus dangers have passed. No Tarot reading is worth risking so much as a nose cold over, much less something like this.

Fortunately, I am a distance Tarot specialist. A keyboard or pen and paper has always been a bright red bat-phone right to the heart of spirit and intuition for me. I don’t know why….it just is. Talking with someone, having that chatty little conversation at the beginning of a session, creates an equally powerful connection. Talking to my tablet to upload to YouTube – not so much.

Blog posts are different. I can write a general post with the intent that it will help (or at least be of interest) to someone, somewhere. Keyboards are a hotlink to intuition, but talking isn’t quite wired to do that – yet. It will come with practice. Meanwhile, I am enormously grateful to everyone who has muddled through the YouTube learning curve with me. It will get better, I promise. I really want to make it work: Here is why.

I have a friend who learns and remembers better from the spoken word than from the written. Audio books are a big asset for her. I want to learn to do YouTube video Tarot readings for her and for auditory learners like her.

So long story short:

  1. In-person readings are on hiatus for the time being
  2. YouTube readings continue but expect some changes. At some point I may delete all the old readings and re-boot the whole thing. If there are any readings you want to download, now’s  your chance before they randomly disappear
  3. The price of 5 and 7 card email readings have been reduced for the duration of the PA stay at home order. Order on the home page, no appointment needed.
  4. FREE TAROT offer on the special offers page
  5. Zombie Cat is back! (and 66% off. Order on the special offers page.)

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: What goes down must come up.

Left: Ace of Pentacles. Take a factual inventory of your resources at hand. You might be better off than it feels. Think MacGyver reruns.

Center: Eight of Pentacles.  Literally make something. That’s how the species has survived since time immemorial. Make something real with your full attention, and feel the survival instincts of your ancestors seep through. Think Joss Whedon quote “Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, saute it, whatever. Make.”

Right: Wheel of Fortune. Change is the one thing that doesn’t change. Things changed to get us from the way things used to be into how they are now. They will never change back to exactly the way things were…they may change into somethjng even better. If ‘what goes up must come down’, then what is down will eventually come up again.

My Tarot Valentine 2020: Queen of Pentacles

Heart of Star Tarot by Thom Pham. Used with permission.

There are a million was to show affection.

Sometimes it is a smile to a stranger. Or making a favorite meal. Or not saying anything when it’s not your favorite meal. Or asking if you have your keys and phone. Or putting a little extra salt on the ice by where you park your car. Or sending a random funny meme. Or letting yourself nap. Or giving an extra long hug. Chocolates are nice, but the little everyday sprinkles of love are the best.