The Un-selfie Psychic

I hate having my picture taken.

Always have, it seems. One of my favorite photos from when I was about 6 or 7 was the whole family seated against the wall at grandma’s house, looking oh so 1970s. Mom, Dad, and my 2 year old sister had enormous “say cheese!” grins. Mom also had her arm around my waist with me in full sprint position making a break for it, fast exit stage right. I won’t tell you how old the picture below is, but it will have to do because I don’t do selfies. I’m trying to make myself do one of those speech to camera introductions for a TaoCraft YouTube channel, but we’ll cross that bridge later. Much later.

It is only slightly less excruciating to write a bio for a book or what have you. I hadn’t updated mine in ages. I copied and pasted the “Meet Your Reader” page right from the old Modern Oracle page. I mean, ewww, right?

But logic finally won. Updated the old bio this afternoon. It’s below.

As long as I’m introducing Reiki and meditation to TaoCraft Tarot, might as well reintroduce myself to you so you’ll know who is coming to your reading or your party, or is behind the cards for your distance session.

*Deep Breath*

Here goes….nice to meet you

MEET YOUR READER

Read Client Reviews

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

I started out with no intention of reading cards professionally. I have a Bachelor of Science in Medical Science, 13 years clinical experience as a physician assistant in psychiatry and interventional cardiology, a non-accredited Ph.D in Natural Health, Reiki Master-practitioner certification, U.L.C. ordination and am a retired Tai Chi instructor. The original idea was to do Natural Health Consultations. Natural, holistic health is all about mind, body and spirit in balance. There are lots of practitioners out there who can help physical heath. As it turns out, my calling is to help emotions and spirit through the art and entertainment of Tarot.

In the early 90s, when I was working in mainstream medicine, I began reading Tarot and oracle cards for my own spiritual development. That, and the fact I was too cheap to pay overpriced phone bills and have psychic friends to do it for me. Turns out I have a knack for it. After reading for friends and family, my best friend encouraged me to try reading online. In the early 2000s I did readings under the handle “Baihu” on Keen, Advice Trader, and Allexperts. When my Ph.D dissertation expenses came along, I took the next logical step, started to work for myself, and Modern Oracle Tarot was born. The extensive Tarotbytes blog archives are still available if you are interested.

In October of 2018, I brought Reiki and meditation under the same cyber roof as my tarot work, transforming Modern Oracle into the TaoCraft Tarot you see today.

That’s the “I read Tarot” part.

Things I’ve written includes the old “Tarotbytes” blog, the blog at RondaSnow.comModern Oracle: Hello, Peace Tarot, my dissertation Reiki and Relaxation and Bead Mindful, Begin Meditating. PeaceTarot is available in the etsty shop with other titles coming soon.  PeaceTarot and my poetry collection “Triquetra: The Dance of Worlds” are already on amazon.com for Kindle. I have written  articles about Natural Health for Point of Light magazine, and about Tarot for Find Your Psychic e-zine. My poetry has been in magazines and contest anthologies including Kindred Magazine, Nature’s Echoes, Quicksilver Moon, and Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum.

Now for the making stuff…

I make handcrafted meditation beads (mala) for your meditation practice or to go with the meditation lessons offered here. You can find them in TaoCraft T.arot Shop  on Etsy. I also knit and make handmade jewelry as a hobby. Some of those projects are in the shop too.

Now we’ve come to the part where author’s bios put some jazzy 3rd person comment about where I live and and stuff…

Ronda lives in the Pittsburgh suburbs with her musician / concert photographer / computer genius husband, her yarn stash and a deep dislike for doing yard work.

I hope we can work together soon.

 

Introductions are in order: Reiki

Take a tour of the new concept.

The foundation is built of the ho-hum but practical, pragmatic and necessary business practices and policies. Everything is spelled out in detail and utterly transparent. Everything is heads up and eyes open, so you know exactly what to expect from working with me.

I want you to have the best Tarot reading experience that I can provide. That can only happen if you understand what that is. If I can provide the kind of reading you want and need – awesome. Let’s get started. If not, then no hard feelings. I’d rather see you find a reader that matches your personality and expectations. Being very clear about my style of Tarot and my business policies helps you to narrow your search for perfect reading. It frees us both to move on to more satisfying things. Clear, up-front rules and policies are nothing but good. The short version small print is at the bottom right corner of every web page. There is a tab to the full policies page at the top right of every page.

This is a safe space.

Closing the comments keeps out the words (and negative energies) of trolls and spammers. My email is over there –> for anyone who wants to give legit comments or feedback, good, bad or indifferent.

Tarot you know, or will. That is going to be the vast majority of the blog from here on.

We will come back to meditation soon. Today, let me introduce you to the other new service I’m integrating with Tarot on the TaoCraft site.

REIKI

reikikanji

Reiki comes from Japan, and loosely translated it means “universal life energy.”

In the West, the early leaders of modern medicine like Galen and Paracelsus called this same thing “vital force.” Universal energy or vital force is that special something that makes us alive. It isn’t well defined by purely scientific terms as yet, but it is that something that makes a living creature different from an inanimate object. Western medicine has not studied subtle energy, life force or mind-body therapies until very recently. Often this type of natural, medication-free healing is still dismissed as pseudoscience or “faith healing.”

In recent decades, however, modern medicine has begun to accept the mind-body connection as proven fact. Psychoneuroimmunology has proven the effects of stress on the immune system, T cells in particular. The effect psychological stress has on a variety of chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes is fairly well known. Reiki intersects with mainstream medicine through the way it quickly reduces stress. From a Western perspective, Reiki can improve health by removing stress and all the detrimental effects stress can create. Whether Reiki itself has a direct physical effect remains to be seen, but even if it only relieves stress, that alone is a proven health benefit, both physically and emotionally.

There is a long history of using universal, life or nerve energy for healing in Asian cultures. Energy, the ‘Ki’ in Reiki means energy. So does the Chinese word chi or qi (like Tai Chi) which is used in accupuncture and accupressure. Prana is a kind of energy from India, Yoga and Ayurvedic medicine. Energy medicine is ancient, common and accepted there. . Over time, energy healing has become a rich, and anecdotally proven tradition.

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Reiki in particular was developed in the early 20th century by Mikao Usui. Reiki is now taught around the world. Different styles that have developed over the years with slightly different practices and differing histories of how Reiki developed. Despite these variations, the core concepts of Reiki are very much the same. For my part,  I studied Traditional Usui style under Reiki Master Tom Beardshaw. As for the history of Reiki I recommend the books by Frank Arjeva Petter.

The common ground among Reiki practitioners is much larger than our differences. Here are some examples:

  • The life force is the source of all healing, the body heals itself. Nothing can heal FOR it, but we can help that inner process work better through healthy lifestyle, medication, herbs diet, and of course, Reiki.
  • Universal Life or Vital Force energy is everywhere, throughout all space and time. It is neither good, nor bad. Like sunshine or moonlight, it is a simple fact of nature.
  • Reiki practitioners do not add any of their own energy to the process. They do not change or manipulate the recipients energy or body in any way. A session simply adds a little more natural life energy to the recipient and makes their connection to life energy clearer and stronger.
  • In my tradition, energy is treated respectfully and only given with a recipients full knowledge and consent. I treat my Tarot work as an energy practice, and follow that same consent guideline.

Computers are a good analogy. Barring genetic disease or birth injury, most people are born with a clear, vibrant connection to life energy. We start off with a cat 5 hardwired broadband connection. Over time, aging, illness, lifestyle all can slow the connection down. Reiki can help clear the connection and get you back from 80s dial up modem speed back up to at least 4g broadband, even if you never get back to your original high speed. The better connection and extra energy makes it easier for you to patch your software, so to speak.

more to follow….