Tag: spirituality

YouChoose Interactive Tarot for August 2-8, 2020: Happily Learning From the Absurd

Pick a card, left, center or right. Pause the video if you need a minute then restart for the reveal. Or just go with your first impulse. It works find either way. Then scroll down for the full reading. After that, I’ll be making a ranty announcemet un-announcing what I previously announced. Feel free to click away if you aren’t in the mood for it. I won’t swear. Much. I promise.

Left: Page of Pentacles. Learning is the elixer of youth. A little exercise doesn’t hurt, either. Pentacles are associated with earth element and the physical realm, often with career or wealth. If you are involved with any sort of training for work, this is a good week to focus on that. Energy put into aquiring new skill will be productive at some point. The Page of Penticles often hint at new opportunities. If you are well along in your career and an expert in your field, then write or teach. That is a learning experience too. If you have to understand something very well in order to explain it clearly and simply. No matter which end of the Socratic log you are sitting on, this week’s energy is flowing toward communication and new ideas.

Center: Page of Cups. I love this card. Life can be ridiculous. Some days you just kind of find yourself standing in the surf staring at a fish. Weird things happen. Life can be random. I feel a funky mojo week coming on. We can let it get to us – stew, brew and give it energy OR we can surf the waves and bring our new fishy friend. Other people’s harsh can be soothed by the waters of our sense of humor. Sure, 2020 has been a hot toxic dumpster fire in the U.S. for a lot of people. It’s hard to keep a sense of humor about real problems, but it helps.

Right: Nine of Pentacles. This card is associated with “truth” Of course everything is relative and there always seems to be that famous addendum that something is true “from a certain point of view.” This week, you may be asked to see the difference between subjective ‘truth’ and objective facts. Be clear on the objective and measurable. This is a week to remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Objective, observable, prove-able facts can be your tether and gaslight gas mask. Stay rooted and grounded, and be the voice of reason as best as you can in a week that might seem a little off kilter all around you.

You know that new subscription tier for the blog with the extra content and the one card tarot reading for each subscriber? Not happening.

Stripe, the payment processing service used for the premium blog arbitrarily excludes legitamate businesses on the basis of their content alone. To my mind this constitues outright discrimination against non-mainstream spiritual expression, like Tarot. I caution against working with this company in any capacity.

That being said, there will be no change in the blog or youtube channel. Both will remain free and unmonetized. Your reading purchases will still be processed through secure, reputable PayPal buttons.

I have over 25 years of experience. I’m really good at this – distance readings have been my specialty for years, so you are getting the benefit of that experience with each session. I’ve said time and again that Tarot does not and can not predict the future. That, as I see it, puts Tarot clearly in the realm of customized folk and first amendment protected speech and spiritual practice. My business practices are tranparent and expllicity published here.

As are prices. They are explicit, flat rate fee for service except large parties will charged hourly whenever they return. You know your full cost up front before you ever place the order for your distance reading or live phone session. No per minute rates that keep you talking and no hidden fees, ever.

Long story short, your blog follows, shares, likes, and reading orders are more appreciated than ever, particularly while in-person and party readings are closed during the pandemic.

Thank you so much for reading.

Today’s Tarot: A Journey Begins

Pro tip from my side of the table: When a message from a minor arcana card mirrors the basic meaning of a major arcana card, it serves to modify the intensity or impact. It can serve as a “major arcana light” sort of meaning.

In this way, the two of wands connects to the major arcana Fool card by suggesting a beginning. No only does it differ in intensity, but in quality too. The beginning or new-thing in question here isn’t the giddy thrill of a totally new project, or new path as is the flavor of the Fool’d kind of new beginning. This is a new beginning within an older, over-arcing journey or project. It doesn’t have the quality of cycles or phases that you might see with a moon card, it is more like a course adjustment, or adaptive change that has the luxury of time. Planning is a strong component of the two of wands as well. Think of it as a new phase, a change in plans, heavy on the plan part.

It connects with the Devil card reading from yesterday, but in energy, not artwork. Remember that storm on the horizen image that has been coming through lately? It’s back. Energy shifts and flows, day by day. The point in time today is slightly different from yesterday, even though that was a short 24 hours ago. On the whole, general energies are turbulent and fast moving these days, even though things may be stagnant or stuck on the individual level. It’s the difference between a general blog reading and individual custom reading. These posts are free, but apply to the group mindset. some days they are like throwing cooked spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks (metaphorically speaking – don’t waste food. Love, mom) A custom, individual reading is like a plate of your favorite dinner made exactly to your taste with your favorite seasonings. Shameless plug aside…back to the devil card yesterday.

Today that storm on the horizon energy has backed off a tiny bit, and seems more horizon-ish again. We are at a point where we can navigate again. Detour, might be a better word. It is still possible to get where we want to go, but we might need to detour around the worst of a storm, like a plane or ship might. That leads right in to the two of wands with planning, a new turn, a new direction, adaptation and newness within an older journey. Like real life hurricane warnings, at least we can try to prepare, with the spiritual equivalent of boarding up windows (define and honor healthy boundaries between self and others, personal emotions and general energies) and gathering supplies (self-care, disengaging from social media or draining relationships, etc.)

Introspection and a spiritual turn are parts of both day’s message, in energy if not in art work. Wands are associated with the element of fire, inner passions, relationship with self.

The Two of Wands has another connection to the major arcana. A globe is a common art element for the card across many decks. Connect that to the World card of the major arcana. That hints at success in the end if the plan/adaptation/new direction is enacted. It also hints that plans and actions need a gestalt, big picture, global aspect to help steer things toward that success.

Not every beginning is giddy and pure. Some beginnings are held within any given journey, project or plan. Sometimes, as now, we begin a new direction and a new plan within the old one.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot Reading 10-16 May 2020: Learn, Roll, Laugh

 

If you need more time to choose a card, pause the video then restart for the reveal and see your reading below.

I’m not sponsored or monetized, so you likes, shares, subs, blog follows and reading orders are all greatly appreciated! Thank you so much for reading and watching!

Left: Page of Wands. This is the Witches Tarot deck by Ellen Dougan with artwork by Mark Evans. To be honest, the artwork is what makes this one of my favorite decks. This particular Page of Wands captures the happy, good news, almost playful quality that a lot of readers associate with the card. Pages have to do with learning, Wands with the inner world. Rather than predicting an external message that makes you happy (which could happen, not saying it won’t) but today’s impression is more like an internal happy message, where dots connect, and the lightbulb goes on over your head, and there is a sense of happy relief as pieces fall into place and something suddenly, delightfully makes sense. Don’t expect to happen by noon on Monday. Sometimes this is a slow process, like a good stew in you slow cooker. Sometimes, the less you try the better the dot-connecting works. Sleep on things a day or two and let the thought drop in at 2 am or during your shower or however these things happen for you.

Center: Eight of Wands. Be patient. This card classically signifies something up in the air, something that is in process and out of our hands, like an arrow in flight. I always think of that scene from Doctor Who where Melody says “Penny in the air” as Amy takes a while to process a thought. Then when she connects the dots and has her realization (like the Page of Wands above) Melody says “and the penny drops.” This card is the penny in the air part. Something is in the air, so you might as well roll with your situation this week until the penny drops. 

Right: Page of Cups. One of my favorite cards. Don’t take life so seriously. Yeah, I know the fish in the cup is supposed to mean deep and hidden mysteries coming to light. Sometimes that is exactly the message. Not this week. Life can be absurd, like a fish in a cup. Yes, mysteries and deep thoughts are warranted, but don’t let that process become to ponderous this week. Here my thoughts go to “Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman, when Socrates speaks about “the laughter of an enlightened man.” Spirituality, mysteries, insights, enlightenment – none of it has to be dour or ponderous or unpleasant. The enlightened man laughs. Lighten up and let yourself laugh this week.

Today’s Tarot: Be The Stability

 

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Ghandi

So far, 2020 has been a helluva decade. 

We are all awash in change. If you look at Tarot as being predictive, then this is good news, an omen of increased stability on the horizon.

Nope.

I don’t see it that way in general principle or in this particular card on this particular day. In fact, if I listen with intuition to the general, zeitgeist, energy-at-large feelings then it feels opposite, well, actually kind of sideways from a return to stability or any sort of prior normalcy. It doesn’t feel like a hopeful, optimistic sunrise or a gentle stable reliability of the returning sun as is usually the connotation with this card. At the same time it isn’t a sense of decent into interminable darkness, either. 

The feeling is more akin to “Brace yourself for part 2. It’s gonna be a doozy.” Remember that eye of the hurricane turn in the energy last week? Or was it the week before…you know, last blursday the 77th….

It feels like the eye of the hurricane is about to pass by and we are facing the other side of the eyewall. In my minds eye I see black clouds blowing sideways in a circular wind, like farm soil picked up in a tornado. The biggest difference is this time we know what is in there. We know what we are in for. The sense of optimism that was there for a tiny bubble of time when New York City reported mitigation was working and the rate of increase was slowing down. 

Now is when the storm moves from New York City and spreads like a mud flow across the nation, at it thickest where partisanship reigns and mitigation / health science does not. Not pleasant, not neutral, but that’s the image, that is the facts of it. Tarot and science are not at odds…but are rather different windows into the same human experience.

So what does all of that have to do with the Sun card you are probably asking. It’s an advice card, not a predictive one. It is time to be your own stability. In chaotic times, the change you want to see in the world is a change toward more stability. We can’t count on that coming from the outside in. Just like we can rely on the outside world or other people for our happiness, we have to be our own stability right now. This isn’t a time for reaching, forcing, or inspirational charging ahead. This is a time for watching, prioritizing, doing what the present moment needs, preparing, being. Just be. That we can do with great consistency and stability. If you allow yourself to be, without expectation or goal or judgement, just as the sun simply IS in the sky, then that is both enough and as reliable as the sunrise.

Consider these two things:

First, a Zen parable, author unknown – 

A student asks the master “I want to be happy. How do I do that?” The master said “First, drop the ‘I’ because that is ego. Then drop the ‘want’ because that is desire. Then all that remains is ‘be happy’.”

Second, a quote from lovely Brea Fisher, Qi Gong instructor and vlogger (please support her on Patreaon www.kwanyinkungfu.com)

“Being is a current theme right now for me and many others. Beingness sends a pulse out into the world like the beating of a drum so continuous is drone. You are enough simply by existing. You don’t need to do anything more to be worthy of this life. You are whole in this moment no matter what” – Brea Fisher

That being said, being is enough. Being is your stability. Anything else is desire and perception. You can be the stability you want in this world.

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)

**********

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.

The Craziest Diamond

I’ve been an anime fan since Kimba the White Lion reruns circa 1970.

My daughter is an anime fan too (so proud!) She and I have been watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. We’ve made it to season 4 “Diamond Is Unbreakable.”  It would take an entire blog to begin to explain this behemoth of a story line, but let’s just say a  “stand” is like the personification of a superpower. “Shining Diamond” (the name is a reference to the Pink Floyd song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”) has a superpower where the things it hits, attacks or destroys reassembles to a changed condition that is better than the original…or it can directly heal wounds and injuries inflicted by others.

What if this ability is an analogy for one possible silver lining in all of this? I’ve been talking with friends and clients about how these pandemic times have been affecting energy sensitive people. What if one silver thread in this terrible dark cloud is a re-alignment on a spiritual or energetic level, akin to Shining Diamond’s healing objects or people who were previously torn apart?

What if our social connections are being stretched thin, even being smashed to bits in order for them to be put together into something new and better? What if we are being separated to make room for new relationships that resonate with our spiritual growth and our hearts rather than social connections of convenience?

It is a common thing for friendships to fade during times of spiritual growth and evolution, especially for people in their 20s and 30s. Old friends drift apart (or blow apart) and new, more attuned connections fill the space left behind. What if this is happening on a global cultural scale? What if we are being pummeled apart in order to be reassembled along like-minded spiritual strata? What if we are being blown out of our old tribes in order to find the tribe that matches our hearts rather than our habits?

I’m not saying that is what is actually happening, but it is an intriguing thought experiment, don’t you think?

There is nothing like a little social distance and time alone to put you face to face with your own heart and mind. Yogis, gurus, monks, shamen and spiritual people of every tradition have deliberately sought this kind of isolation. Stay home orders and social distancing has put us all on our own little mountaintop spiritual retreat. Or it should. It says something tragic about the inner peace of those who can’t make some adjustment at the cost of human lives.

For the fortunate, who have food, shelter, a job to do from home…for those, this is a gift. If, under those fortunate circumstances, “social distancing” is uncomfortable for you, could it be because you are uncomfortable with yourself? If you are uncomfortable in your own company, this is an ideal time to figure out why.

When you are good with you, it is a lot easier to be OK with other people. The popular thing on social media among the uber-positive happy people is to advocate for “self-love”. That seems strong. Why not aim for a little self-OK first? Self-love flirts a little too much with narcissism for my taste.  Self-acceptance seems more real to me.

The first step to being OK with others is to be OK with yourself. We are one. We are all connected. Bigotry, hatred and intolerance are twisted forms of self-loathing.

A little time apart might help that. It’s like we are being hit full force by Shining Diamond. We are being blown apart to give us the opportunity to reassemble healed.

You Choose Interactive Tarot Reading 23 March 20

 

Better late than never. TECHNICALLY it’s still Monday here where I am. We are still hammering out the schedule. I have to learn a whole new rhythm and pattern to things too. After being the usual work from home one, I’m sharing space with two other adults suddenly needing the same turf to do their work too. Unless and until the world starts ordering a whole lot of Tarot readings….the breadwinners get the priority.

Even so, patterns are emerging. As you can tell from this video, Markeplier or Aurilo Voltair I ain’t. The TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel is never going to be polished or edited. It looks like I’ll be filming these early in my day, so if you are looking for spiritual woo woo happy happy positive rainbows and unicorns, this is not going to be the YouTube for you. It is going to be raw, straightforward, caveman-ish semi sentences, with the expanded, detailed card readings here later in the day. My Zombie Cat side is going to be on full display on the YouTube side. Consider yourself warned.

I’m in the northeastern part of the USA under a stay at home order, so the energies are just saturated with both anxiety about the epidemic and raw fury at those who aren’t taking it seriously and putting other people at risk. No wonder the cards are staying in stuck-at-home territory.

The horse is out of the barn as far as prevention, testing and containment. Kiss that opportunity good-bye. All we have left is isolating to slow this thing down a little. I’ll make you a deal…I’ll stay home and write Tarot stuff if you stay home and read it. Fair enough?

Left: 3 of Coins. Do SOMETHING productive each day. I’ll be the first to admit, time management is not my strong suit, but have had enough times around the block as a stay at home mom to know it’s true.  Start off with some sort of plan or inkling of a schedule so you at least have something at the start for circumstances to blow to bits. If you start with a plan and execute, and it all goes off without a hitch, pat yourself on the back, then start looking under furniture and around corners because Muphy’s Law will have its way with you sooner or later. Otherwise, baby steps. Take the small wins where you can get them. But in the big guidance energy this week: if you picked this card, this is your cue to do something, be it something you are good at and do effortlessly, your usual work, something you have been putting off or simply putting on a clean pair of yoga pants, try to accomplish some little goal that you can take with you to bed each night as a teeny tiny little seed of normalcy. Let that, small as it may or not be, give you a little comfort. Tomorrow you can write King Lear like Shakespear during the black plague.

Center: The Hermit. Yes, this guy again. We are all connected, even when we are alone. It’s a universe, cosmos thing. You might be a guru sitting on top of a mountain, but you are still sitting on the same space rock as the rest of us. Even if you are on the space station, you are part of our solar system. I had a poster on my wall forever growing up. It was that one of the Milky Way with an arrow pointing to an outer arm and “you are here” Truth. We are part of the whole dang galaxy. When you look at it, 6 feet of separation is nothing. 

That isn’t to minimize families separated by the illness. Having to stay away from a hospitalized loved one is more than a universe…that is multiple multiverses of crushing heartbreak. Please send your thoughts, prayers, meditations, Reiki, mojo, hoodoo, vibing vibes out to everyone who needs healing, consoling and condolences. If we are citizens of the cosmos, we can certainly bend a little good energy toward those who need it. Let them know they are not alone, even if it is in energetic silence.

Right: The High Priest. I’ve always wrangled with the Pope / Hierophant card because of the religious imagery and overtones to the card. That’s my personal issue, not anything to do with any of you. The High Priest card is not that way at all. He is the keeper of traditions, not the maker of social rules, a teller of stories, not maker of pronouncements. Tradition is exactly the issue at hand, not just this coming week, but for a few weeks to come. I’m talking specifically about Easter. As someone forced to attend sunrise services throughout childhood, I’m here to tell you that stay at home orders and evangelical Easter are going to be a problem. It isn’t entirely my intent to take aim only at Easter, which is a purely Christian holiday. The same is true for other spring celebrations, including secular ones like graduations. It’s just an honest telling of the intuition mixed with past experience that shows Easter to be the biggest powder keg in all of this, considering it is only a few weeks away.

It’s ok to put church attendance on the shelf this one time. Lives are on the line. Life and health are far more important. What would Jesus do? He would stay home and wash his hands. This isn’t forever. You can celebrate alone or as a family unit at home this one time. It will be “that year when…” for all time to come. Make this stay at home season one to remember, because we are going to be talking about this year for years to come. Welcome to history.

You Choose Tarot (13 Nov 19)

Left: Six of Swords. True learning and discovery may require that we leave behind previously cherished ideas when they prove to be no longer useful, but such is the science of spiritual growth. It is a bittersweet but necessary parting of ways.

Middle: Six of cups. Things are what they are. Drop your worries and expectations, and take another look as if you were a small child – or a space alien – who had never seen any of it before.

Right: Nine of Pentacles. Job well done. Enjoy the fruits of your labor bla sipping a glass of fine wine while you turn your hard-earned knowledge and wisdom toward your next steps.

NEW etsy shop listings – 7 card InkMagick pen and paper Tarot reading plus one card mini Ink Magic handwritten reading.

Today’s Tarot: Knight of Pentacles (22 July 2019)

It’s a day to roll up your sleeves and get the real world work done. The emphasis is on the practical. Give intellectual and spiritual efforts a rest, and pay attention to the rare gift of this physical existance.

Ghost of Zombie Cat

First published 17 May 2015

“There is more in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies” – William Shakespeare

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” Arthur C. Clarke

“I ain’t afraid of no ghost” – Ghostbusters

In the first Zombie Cat post we talked a little bit about the intersection of Tarot and science. Now lets shift gears yet again and add in the  spiritual, fringe, and frankly, “woo-woo” aspect of things. Tarot intersects all of those, too.

When I’m not looking at the world as a giant Taoist Taijitu (yin/yang symbol) I tend to see a lot of things in terms of a Venn diagram. That’s why I chose a triquetra as the main symbol in my old Modern Oracle logo. This “trinity knot” is essentially an excerpt of a three circle Venn diagram which in turn symbolizes much in my work…mind/body/spirit (for holistic health) or mother/maiden/crone (for the stages of life) or sea/sky/land (our connection with Nature) and many more such groups of three. I see Tarot as overlapping with self,  science and spirituality, again giving us that lovely triquetra shape.

So, back to Tarot and spirituality. Any good thesis defines its terms. In this case we have to define spirituality. I’ve noticed a tendency for people to use spirituality and religion almost interchangeably. They aren’t. As I see it, they are totally different, damn near opposite things. I define spirituality as internal and individual. Spirituality is how we as individuals engage with the wordless, intangible aspects of the universe and our existence within it. Religion, on the other hand, is external, codified, ritualized, other, outside of our individual self. Religion is how a collective of people over time has engaged with the wordless, intangible aspects of the universe and pronounced them to be. We express our spirituality in out external lives. Spirituality goes from the inside out. Religion structures our external lives as a way to instruct the internal. Religion is outside in. Tarot is intuition – it is inside to inside. It has everything to do with spirituality, nothing to do with religion.

Spirituality is unlimited. It is in this vast inner world where Tarot applies and finds its usefulness. Yes, the cards are external. But they don’t instruct our inner world from the outside in as a religious practice might. They are a mirror to reflect out inner world back to us and lens to help us understand what we see there. They reflect and shine light in the dark corners, allowing that inner world of spirituality to illuminate and expand, grow and thrive. 

The cards are nothing more than just pieces of paper. It is centuries of projected wisdom and symbolism written on the cards combined with the intuition and insight of the Tarot reader’s living modern mind that leads the way to enlightenment…not the pieces of paper alone. The cards are the Venn diagram intersection of mind and matter that lets us catch glimpses of the possibilities and probabilities afforded to us by the physical/quantum universe of which we are an intimate and inseparable part.

Tarot cards are our portal into the trinity of humanity, science and spirituality. They are a magnet that draws wisdom, guidance, insight and empowerment out of a melange of known, unknown, explicable, inexplicable, and the heart that seeks to know more.

There is more in heaven and earth than we have yet to dream and discover. There is more inside ourselves as well. There is more than just a dead or living cat in Schrodinger’s box. Woo-woo as they may seem, disappearing cats and zombie cats are part of the bigger multiverse of the human heart, mind, imagination and spirit.

Zombie Cat is in the house! Yes-or-No Tarot is now available to order on the home page. These 3 card Tarot readings answer any ONE yes-or-no question. Fun, lighthearted and tongue in what’s left of his cheek, Zombie Cat’s readings are 100% guaranteed to have words in them and a 50% chance of being dead wrong. Order HERE.