spirit – Page 2 – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Comfy is good

Get comfy.

The comforts of home is something no in-person psychic or Tarot session can give. It’s like the whole Schrodinger thing. An observer just observing changes the whole thing. Sort of. Or something like that.

No matter how it is done, a live spoken reading can never have the mind to mind impact of reading your message at your leisure and in your greatest comfort. Calling this a READING is no accident of language. It’ a cosmic hint as I see it.

If you go to a psychic, then you have to put on your shoes and your public face. No matter how familiar, homey or welcoming their workspace may be, some degree of social conditioning kicks in – on both sides of the Tarot table. Even if the psychic comes to your home or party, the same idea applies. With a stranger in your home, you are in a different mind space than you would be under everyday circumstances. The message given by spirit is identical to any other format, but the way the message lands in your mind and heart might just be a teeny tiny bit different because of those social filters. It brings another person into the system, just like peeking in the box adds an observer into the system and interacts with the results of Schrodinger’s thought experiment. Or it least that is my meager understanding of it.

Social isn’t bad. Having another person affecting the system is in many ways the whole point of it. If you could figure this out on your own, you wouldn’t want a reading in the first place. Two eyes see with greater depth and clarity than one (related post: “Parallax“) In-person readings meet a basic human need for human interaction that written readings can’t quite replace. Phone readings fill that roll too. They are live, real-time, fill a social need while being covid safe. In-person work is valua ble, which is why I plan to bring them back on a part time basis for Halloween 2021, depending on how the vaccination distribution goes.

A Tarot reading that you actually read is something entirely different, and something very special.

With a distance Tarot session…be it email, video, or handwritten pen, ink and paper…there is no social filters, no schedule, no expectations. The words from spirit stream to you directly, in whatever cocoon of comfort and privacy that you choose to create. Wear your comfiest clothes. Listen to your favorite music. Grab your favorite bevorage or snack. When you engage with a distance reading in your own way, in your own place, in your own time, you engage with spirit from a place that is most fully and authentically youriself. You engage with energy and spirit on an more intense and mentally intimate level.

It’s that elfcon time of year. Even staying home, scaling down, and celebrating inside of your own four walls, why add to the season’s to-do list? Why tie yourself to a scheduled phone call when you can take in your reading in a time and a place and a way that suits your schedule best?

Intuition has a comfy bias. In my experience, the most powerful messages are given when we are both deep inside our comfort zones, with the cozy turned up to 11. On my end, coffee and fuzzy slipper socks will most likely be involved.

Spirit is everywhere. Energy is everywhere. Where we are relative to each other makes no diffrrence at all. The connection to that everywhere-energy and everywhere-spirit is strongest when we connect to it from our respective places of comfort and confidence.

Order a reading any time you like on the website home page. All of my layouts are available all the time now, at the lowest price possible. Please scroll down through the whole list here. It’s the widest variety of layouts and prices anywhere that I know of. I’m confident that you’ll find something you are comfortable with.

Wishing you all a cozy evening.

Let’s Predict the Election!

One thing hasn’t changed from the Modern Oracle Days.

Predictions.

In my experience, they still work the same way as they always have. That’s why I brought “Zombie Cat” and “100% accurate predictions and a big cube of jello” over here from the old archives.

I’m not a physics or statistics person. Or at least I’ve never been formally educated in the subjects. Still, it seems to me that Tarot is more akin to fluid dynamics, probabilities and the butterfly effect than a 100% accurate friendly phone psychic infomercial. Yoda was right. The future is fluid and changing and the product of cause and effect – with causes as complex and ephemeral as someone making a choice.

Besides, what would you DO with the information even if accurate predictions were possible? What are the ethical considerations? What are the quality of life considerations?

Take, for example, today’s U.S. elections. More and more with each passing minute, the deed is done, the cake is baked, our spam is in the can so just enjoy the ride and wait for the the whole electoral college nonsense to do its thing. If, accurately or not, we predict the election now, what good is it when it is too late to act on the information?

If we tried to predict it months ago, when there was still time to do different things and make different choices based on the prediction, then those very actions and choices would change the prediction itself. A prediction made in time to be actionable could be invalidated in a heartbeat.

Let me ask you this: how helpful is you favorite GPS app or device if you have one?

Predictions aren’t super useful, but navigation IS. Navigation is what good psychic and Tarot work actually DOES.

GPS doesn’t predict where you are going. You decided that when you entered your destination. GPS can tell you high traffic areas and alternate routes. GPS doesn’t predict the cars you pass or things by the roadside, but it certainly helps navigating to wherever you want to go. Intuition, psychics and Tarot can tell you which directions the energies and probabilities are headed. It can show the shortest way to where you want your life path to go. It can show where there are blockages and potential challenges, but is not so great at predicting other people who pass through or exact events along your way.

Psychic Tarot isn’t the right tool for every situation and this is one of them. This election is far too important to play around with “predictions.” Lives are literally at stake. Justice and civil rights and democracy is at stake. This isn’t a time for frivolous predictions. This is a time for reason, speaking out, peaceful protest if necessary, but above all this is a time to vote.

As with medical questions, trying to read this situation is about using the right tool for the right job. As I’ve said many times, you can’t hammer nails with your cell phone and you can’t make a phone call on a hammer. You can’t even send a text. The right tool for this situation is data, logic, stress management, and accepting the fact that we don’t know how this is going to end until it does.

Readings touch subtle energy. That is the nature of Tarot and intuition. I personally am not willing to engage with the radioactive toxic brew of political energy here in ‘Murica today. You can use the “Zombie Cat” yes or no layout to predict the election all you want for yourself, if you like. (I show you how it is done on the YouTube channel) Don’t get me wrong, predictions can have deep value. Predicting this election is very instructive in one way. If you get an answer you don’t like, it shows you where your attachments and expectations really lie.

PLUS (and this is no small thing) these ‘predictive’ yes/no readings are a straight up giggle. Back in the before time, when I was still doing business and party appearances, I’d sit at my table and do yes/no readings for myself until people would wonder what the heck I was doing and come over to the ‘fortune teller’ table. I’d ask trivial things about Stanley Cup wins, or what to make for dinner, or if mail order packages would arrive on time – stuff like that. Never underestimate the value of humor on a stressful day.

Because of that light, fun factor, I waive the rules about predictions …. I mean …. Zombie Cat doesn’t have any rules about predictions in his yes/no readings. So if you want a predictions you have to talk to Zombie Cat. Ask anything! He’ll read any question so long as you realize there is a 50% chance he will get your question dead wrong. Maybe more. After all, he’s a zombie. And a cat.

P.S. If you want to ask Zombie Cat a question about anything, now is your chance! Zombie Cat shambles off (at least until next summer) November 7. Order your reading at a final week reduced price HERE

Still here? GO VOTE!

October Art Day 7: Skeleton

“Skeleton” poem by Ronda Snow, image source unknown, via free picsart app

My daughter is a wonderful artist and musician. In protest of copyright violations and the coopting of intellectual property by other prompt lists, she made her own. That’s my girl!! 💖

I’ve been following along in my own way. If you’d like to see the rest, visit the TaoCraft Tarot instagram feed. There is a link to it on the special offers / social media page. While you are there, check out the FREE TAROT READING giveaway celebrating the second anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot. (Policies and disclaimers apply, offer ends 10-31-2020)

Support independent artists and small business!

Check out and buy some of Snowbird.20 ‘s excellent artwork at ddan://www.redbubble.com/people/snow-bird/shop

Today’s Tarot: Now Is The Time

Writing a blog and doing a general audience Tarot reading is both challenging and interesting. I’m sure the process is different for everyone who takes on Tarot blogging and YouTubing. For me, it starts with a general intent that the card (or whatever topic) post is helpful to somebody, somewhere, sometime. Once a post is chucked out there into cyberspace to drift forever “today” or “the week of” can become any day or any week. You have to start someplace. Even though I do the reading looking at a particular day or week, there is a background energy that knows the ideas in the post can cross paths with anyone browsing around at any time. The algorithms work in mysterious ways. The best way I’ve found to work with that baseline, background energy is to let it be, and trust that people and ideas, internet readers and internet readings when the time is right. Trusting that the message will get where it needs to go whenever it needs to be there is at the core all genuine readings, regardless of format. Readings are a leap of faith in both your intuition and the message it relays.

2020 has been a challenging energy environment to say the least. It has required a whole new level of awareness when it comes to background energies, boundary lines and the general shape of things. This year has forced a greater awareness of that boundary line between internal emotions and external energies. It has forced a time and place awareness that has never really been needed before. It’s fascinating to be aware of where an energy is coming from and where it is directed, all against the backdrop of trusting the message to get where it needs to be in all of cyberspace and forward looking time.

For this card and this moment, here, now, with you reading this, the message is exactly that…”now is the time.”

That is the global anyone anytime message. If something has been on your mind, this is the “ready, steady” with “go” on the near horizon. This is the time to take your place on the starting line and take your stance. The race begins momentarily.

Layer one is the most vague general intent. The next layer is the sense of final preparation and a sense of urgency to watch and listen for an emminant signal to begin. Why not the Fool card you ask? This has an air of seriousness that the Fool card does not. Also this us an embedded beginning. This feels like a beginning of a new phase within a larger process.

As a final overlay, there is a regional variant. There is a sense of the card coming through that is specific to the pandemic, specific to the United States. That energy can be described as “hearts are laid bare”.

It reminds me of a scene from the book and movie Dune. “Our test is crisis and observation.” The past three months have been, to one extent or another, crisis. Now observe. Hearts are laid bare. We have shown who we truely are. All of us. Including you. Some are affible and adaptable, making jokes about pets and pajamas and zoom meetings. Others are heroic, doing both the extraordinary and the commonplace to keep the rest of us safe and alive.

Still others are angry, bile-spewing, self involved, arrogant and callous.

Now is the time for all to see. There is no pretending. There is no hiding. There is no middle ground.

People wear their heart … or abject lack of it … literally on their face.

The past months of the pandemic were not a time for big decisions, not a time for spiritual deep dives. We needed to take care of the basics first. Energies have shifted. Something has changed.

Now is the time. Now is the time for introspection and spiritual deep diving. Now is the time for the path-defining choices. Now is when we must stare ourselves straight in our soul and decide who we are and who we are going to be from this time on.

Gift of a Lifetime Wrapped in a Pen

Sallie Christensen, one of the most skilled and gifted psychics I’ve ever met, once told me that “A thought is powerful, the spoken word is more so, but the written word is the most powerful of all.” That one sentence was a gift of a lifetime wrapped in a pen. In essence, she had handed me a magic wand.

I had that reading with her in the early 1990s, roughly around the time I’d started exploring oracle cards with Tarot soon to follow. That adage has proven true time and again in the decades since.

Journal writing is a powerful thing. I suspect those years of journaling is the reason why I can communicate messages from spirit as easily through pen and keyboard as through speaking. Written Tarot is definitely more sophisticated, since live sessions don’t have edit buttons or grammar check. Speech may transmit ideas quickly, but writing is a superconductor. Hearing is here and now. Even recordings have a sense of immediacy. Writing transcends space and time. It’s the closest thing we have to telepathy. When I write something and you read it, the message from spirit is communicated heart to heart and mind to mind with none of the mechanics of speech or hearing in between. Hearing happens at Mach 1, the speed of sound. Reading happens at the speed of light.

As Carl Sagan wrote:

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”

Written Tarot is potent to both give and receive. The experience of reading something that resonates with you spiritually is very similar to the experience getting an intuitive message directly from spirit. Reading anything that is spiritually resonant, be it books, letters, Tarot cards, blogs or emails, is a breathless melange of emotion, empowerment, and enlightenment. Many books have been like that for me, Ted Andrews’ and Christopher Penczak’s in particular. Perhaps written Tarot can capture some of that experience for you.

Intuition happens inside of your head and heart. It is an entirely subjective experience. For me, the internal process of writing is more closely aligned to the internal intuitive message itself. The flow from spirit to written language is immediate and effortless, while putting things into spoken words takes the tiniest bit more thought and effort. In wireless terms, spoken words work at 4G while my writing operates at 5G or above.

How you enjoy taking in the words and messages of a session is another story. If you like to read, written Tarot is as comfortable as breathing. It doesn’t matter if the actual thing you read is a computer screen or a piece of paper. The experience of reading your message is equally intense regardless of media.

In-person Tarot readings are wonderful, mind expanding, heart warming, and sometimes life changing things…just like the session I had with Sally when we talked about journal writing.

An email or handwritten paper Tarot session is its own kind of mind expanding, heart warming and life changing experience … just like reading the Andrews and Penczak books.

All of that being said, I’m hoping this will let you feel confident in ordering Distance Tarot. While this post is a glimpse to the writing process on my side of the table, the message is the same no matter how you prefer to receive it, written or spoken, email or live. It’s just a matter of deciding which experience resonates with you.

This one is for all of the book lovers. I’m working on a second edition of PeaceTarot. Both editions teach you how to do DIY daily Tarot meditations even if you don’t have a Tarot deck on hand. The second edition adds expanded, pandemic-era card meanings for all 78 RWS Tarot cards.. During the caronapocolypse, we have all been making do with stuff on hand. As life “re-opens” I hope we can carry a little bit of that ingenuity with us. In the spirit of that resourcefulness, I want to upcycle some second quality paper copies* of PeaceTarot and hand customize one just for you. I’ll write a one card reading just like the kind of readings the book can teach you to do PLUS include a sigil element (or sigil glyph or psych-a-doodle or whatever you want to call it) crystal energy and aromatherapy suggestions, an affirmation, add whatever else comes to mind AND use my favorite schmancy glass dip pen. There are a limited number available. All you really pay for is postage and handling. The “graffiti edition” PeaceTarot with custom handwritten one card Tarot readings are available in the shop HERE.

*First edition, single side print, side staple bound

Just a quick reminder: Distance Tarot is always OPEN, with phone readings by appointment. Even though our area is partially out of lockdown and starting to re-open for retail business, in-person individual and party readings will remain closed until a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available.

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:

In-person readings are on hiatus for the time being
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
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.
FREE TAROT offer on the special offers page
Zombie Cat is back! (and 66% off. Order on the special offers page.)

12 Second Tarot: Temperance (aka the cure for Mecury retrograde)

Stop. Just stop for a second.

Take a deep breath. Take a look around. Get the information about where you are, so you can catch your breath and catch your balance before moving on.

Things have been pretty yang lately, energetically speaking. Yin and yang, outward, inward, pushing, taking in….all of those things apply on a mental level as well as the physical.

Choosing is a mentally active thing, even in those times when you choose to do nothing or choose to decide later. Choosing not to choose is still a choice, even when made through apathy or inattention. It is still doing a thing. So is stopping, at least for a moment, to regain your balance.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t resonate with astrology on a lot of levels, most of all with the whole Mercury retrograde thing. I mean, take a tiny step above the ecliptic plane and Mercury moves just fine. Look. Look at the planetary movement from the big picture, from top down. A little shift in perspective and POOF! No problem.

So stop. Just stop.

The cure for all the frustrations that social media looooves to blame on Mercury is to go from frenetic mental yang to a moment of mental yin. Stop. Re-calibrate. Re-orient. Re-balance. And Re-member how the solar system actually works. Think of this trick-of-eye retrograde time as a time for mental yin. Naturally, if you push and keep a frenetic yang spider-monkey-on-amphetamines state of mind during a yin quiet-and-observe energy time, you are going to be blocked and frustrated. If, as Neil Degrasse Tyson says, “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you” then neither are the energies of the universe obliged to cater to your agenda. Like the rhythm of the planets, energies ebb and flow. Sometimes energy is right for a large and in charge King of Passions and Choices like we saw yesterday with the King of Pentacles. Other times the energies are right for a moment of watching, mixing, balancing.

The Tao in TaoCraft is about finding harmony with energies as they are then making a better way forward. Tarot has a card for that.

12 Second Tarot: The Chariot (2020-02-17)

Spirit speaks to everyone, but it whispers. The only way to hear over the crash and clatter of daily living is to pay attention and to be fully here in this present moment. That is the kind of attention the Chariot asks of us. Life moves fast. It takes deliberate mindfulness to connect with what you need to hear otherwise subtle guidance is whispers in the wind.

Q&A: Doesn’t the person have to be with you for the reading to work?

(reprise)

Q: How can you do Tarot readings from a distance? Doesn’t the person have to be with you for the reading to work?

A: They call intuition a sixth sense or extrasensory perception for a reason. It really doesn’t have anything to do with normal seeing, hearing or feeling. It is from outside of normal time, space and distance.

I don’t need to be with you for a reading, because I’m not reading YOU at all.

I’m listening to spirit and reading universal energy on your behalf, like a translator. I can read energy and listen to spirit from anywhere because spirit and energy is everywhere. Think of it like an email for you in a language that you don’t speak fluently. Getting a reading is like getting an expert translation of that email. You might know some of the language yourself and could figure it out, but a pro could translate quicker, easier, and with more depth.

Out of the everywhere-energy, I connect to your specific message when you ask your question or give permission for it to be an open reading. That simple interaction is an exchange of information that can happen by speaking OR by reading your email message. After connecting general energy to your message through our little beginning conversations, I use the Tarot cards to help me “read” the mental images, words, feelings that spirit/energy gives for you. I translate those impressions into English sentences that you can use to help you. When it comes to energy connections and spirit messages, it doesn’t matter if we say things out loud, type on a keyboard, or write on paper. For example, if spirit gives me the impression of a flower, I give you the word “flower,” It doesn’t change the word or the message one bit if I type the word in an email or say it to you in person.

So no, you don’t have to be with me for the reading to “work” at all. The only difference is how you want to experience the reading and how you want to connect with your message from spirit. Both styles have some minor differences, advantages and disadvantages from your side of things. You can read more about that in the Q&A blog post “What’s the Difference?”

All of my readings are flat rate…you know your cost up front. If you live in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh, PA USA and would like an in-person session, contact me to schedule a reading. If you are anywhere, and have enough internet access to read this post, you can order a distance Tarot reading any time, 24/7 on the home page HERE.

Q&A: What’s the difference?

Q: Why get a distance reading? What is the difference between that and a live reading?

A: Inside my head the two are identical. From where I sit, the process and the message is identical. As a writer at heart, I express myself through a keyboard as easily as through my voice. Not all psychics likes to write, which is why I say that distance is my specialty. It’s easy for me and I enjoy the daylights out of it. Write, speak…same thing. It’s the same message coming in from energy and spirit no matter which way I give that message back out to you.

The only real difference is how you experience the message. Deciding between a distance or in-person session is entirely up to you. Which is more meaningful to you? Which do you enjoy more?

Both have advantages.

In-person readings are set apart, special and social. The process of making the appointment and traveling to the reading sets the time apart, gets you away from your schedule, and makes it clear to you and to everyone that this is your time. In-person sessions are private, but a little social too. You are welcome to jump right in with any questions you might have. We take care of any questions right there, no waiting. Also, a little bit of visit-y small talk at the beginning and end of an in-person session makes it more relaxed and fun for me. I get the feeling that clients feel the same way. A little social friendliness is pleasant, even between strangers, because we aren’t by the time its done.

Distance readings can be very powerful things. I love to read and I love to write, so I have a serious bias in favor of written distance readings. When you read, it is like spirit and energy are speaking directly to your heart and your intuition without the filter of my voice and your ears. In that way, distance readings are intensely private. They are externally the most private readings, too. No one sees you go to see a psychic. You choose the time and place to read the document. Even if you are reading your phone in a train station, it is still just you and your spirit message. In my opinion, there are a better value because you can go back to them, see how they have unfolded. You can take your time with the message and re-read it as many times as you need. And they are hella convenient. Like I say about the 12 Second Tarot readings in the blog and on social media “The Tao in TaoCraft is about being in harmony with the nature of things. If the nature of your life is busy and hectic, then 12 Second Tarot is for you.” Same here. If you are busy, then you can’t beat a distance reading for convenience. Order when you want. Read it when you want. No appointment, no travel, no need to change out of your yoga pants, you know? The only down side I see to distance work is that you can’t ask questions on the spot. Every distance session includes a follow up email if you have any questions about the reading. We still answer all of your questions. It just takes a little longer to go through the email process. I keep a pretty close eye on my inbox, so it won’t be a huge wait, but it won’t be immediate, real time interaction.

So to answer your question: Why get a distance reading? Because they are private, convenient. If you like to read, they can be more powerful, emotional and direct without the social filter that is a natural part of voice, hearing and conversation.

Do they have advantages? Yes. Both distance and in-person readings have things that are special about them. If you like social interaction and the chance to ask questions immediately, then in-person may be better. If you want convenience and extra privacy, then distance is the way to go. If you want fast, then distance is your only option with me. I can do distance readings much more quickly than my in-person schedule allows.

They both share one important advantage: price. I don’t keep an office or work in a storefront. Without that overhead, I can keep my prices low. Without an office, I have to set some common limits that also help me keep my costs down, your access up, and both of our stress at a minimum. That is why in-person sessions schedule at least 24 hours in advance and why I have a clear service area for parties and in-home individual readings. Tarot may be a spiritual thing, but being a professional reader has a business side. Transparent business policies and a high degree of professionalism are an advantage to BOTH my in-person and distance Tarot readings.