Tag: TaoCraft Tarot by Ronda Snow

Short Sip Tarot: Gotta know ’em to break ’em

Thank you for reading, watching and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Any likes, subs, shares, reading orders or blog follows that you can spare are always appreciated.

Today’s Card is the Hierophant.

The Marsielle deck calls it the Pope card. Personally, I prefer other decks that call this same card the High Priest and omit the specifically Catholic and Christian imagery that Pamela Smith uses.

I think both approaches to the card’s artwork is valid, because this major arcana card has two threads of meaning. Sometimes, as with the religion-neutral decks, the Hierophant is a grandfatherly figure, the keeper of stories and traditions. Other times the card has a more law-and-order vibe, that speaks more to social convention, rules, and cultural expectations.

Today it is the second of those two that steps forward. Over the years, whenever this side of the Pope card steps forward it is usually to ask us to think about our individual relationship with those rules, conventions and expectations. This may sound like an oversimplification, but simplification is often just what the situation needs. The question is essentially are you a rule-breaker or a people-pleaser? The advice is to understand your natural, innate style, to honor that, but also know when and how to play the other side of the game for a little bit.

If you are by nature a people-pleaser, the Hierophant might be suggesting that it is time to color outside of the lines a little bit. If you go your own way, then the card might be asking you look for ways you can play societies game a little bit in order to accomplish a particular goal. Wherever your mind is at the moment, look at the opposite and evaluate it as an option. If you tend to follow the rules, is it time to follow your heart? If you are a free spirit, is it time to cover the tattoos and put on a suit long enough to get through that job interview…that sort of thing.

Either way, the Hierophant reminds us that we have to know what the rules are. It’s like writing and grammar. We have to know what the rules actually are so we can decide when to judiciously break them.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot : Practical Passions

https://youtu.be/HRfuYGQPFkI

Letting the video speak for itself today.

Merry Monday everyone!

In-person readings are on hold again. I take my guidance from CDC community transmission rates for Allegheny County PA USA.

E-mail (no appointment needed) and live online readings (by appointment) are OPEN. I’ll be keeping them open throughout the holidays, although delivery times might flex a little bit depending on how many cookies are in the oven

Thanks for reading, watching and listening to TaoCraft Tarot! In addition to blog exclusive content, TaoCraft Tarot is on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumbler, Ko-fi, Spotify, Anchor Fm, Googlepodcasts, and Stitcher podcasts.

Wherever we run into each other online, please say hello! Your questions and comments are always welcome. (but moderated to keep the energy in a good place for everyone) Thanks!

Don’t DIY this one

Thank you for reading, listening and watching TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from a contemplative cup of coffee. Any likes, subs, follows or shares you can spare are always much appreciated.

Today’s card is the Five of Swords. It is usually associated with challenges, obsacles, even outright defeat. It’s considered a negative card in a lot of ways, although not as ominous as the three of swords or the devil card. It is another of the cards where I prefer the artwork in the Witches Tarot deck by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans that depicts a dragonfly flying upward, along with the swords. It hints at risk, challenge, potential damage….but at the same time hints at illusion, and self defeat. The dragonfly is still free to fly around the swords, just as the person on this Waite-Smith card is standing ready, strong and free not to mention very well armed.

There is a sense of advice around the card today. There are enough challenges and risks and defeats in life that you don’t need to add any of the DIY variety. Be on guard for tricking yourself into thinking things are more combative than they really are. If you are feeling defensive, try to understand what you are defending against. Your feelings are not unfounded, but over-reacting or compounding real concerns with imagined ones does not help the situation.

This morning’s energy reminds me of two quotes.

The first one has always been a favorite of mine, it cools off a flaring temper when, as we call it in Pittsburgh, Jagoffery abounds. James Marcus Bach, auther of Secrets of the Buccaneer Scholar once tweeted that “people get defensive because they have something to defend.” In other words, stay chill, you don’t know what other people are going through. By the same token, honor your own feelings of defensiveness. You are defending something – the helpful thing is to understand what you are defending. It’s ok to be ready, to stand up for yourself, to set healthy boundaries. For all of its peaceful zen insight energy, Tarot isn’t against a healthy sense of self and self-defense.

The card also brings to mind the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

No matter how much conflict is actually happening, no matter how much self defense is actually needed, when it comes to feeling inferior or feeling judged there is no need to DIY that one. Life is challenging enough without our adding to it.

If you have any questions or feedback or if you have other Tarot content you’d like to see, the comments are open on the blog and on all of the TaoCraft Tarot socials. Your questions are always welcome. Thank you for your support!

See you soon for our next sip of Tarot.

Merry December

Elfcon 1, engage!

Meatspace is filled with knitting, with cookies soon to follow.

Cyberspace has a couple of new things

Tarot Reading gift certificates are in the ko-fi shop for instant download. Redemption instructions are on the certificate itself.

The Tarot Table membership tier is available. Now through New Year members can get 10% off all e-books in the ko-fi shop only.

No Tarot Turnover post this Sunday. It looks like the plan of YouChoose Tarot on Monday with Short Sip Tarot other days seems to be holding up so far. Follow the blog (right hand column on laptop view, scroll wayyy down on mobile view to enter your emial) to get all available Tarot content in one place.

Or pick your socials: I’m on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter , Linkedin and Tumblr.

E-mail distance Tarot is OPEN, no appointment needed. Turnaround time might vary a lot between now and New Year, but I will be doing readings all holiday season. “Year Ahead” layouts are available on the home page.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome (here or in the socials) however spam or anything else inappropriate will be deleted in a flash of hellfire.

Thank you so much for reading the blog!

#Short Sip Tarot: Spin

Thank you for watching, reading and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. Any likes, subs, shares, or reading orders that you can spare are always greatly appreciated!

Today’s card is the Wheel.

I also get a strong sense of it bringing the World card right along with it. The idea for today is very much a combination of the two.

The Wheel reminds me of how dynamic life is. It brings today’s energy into the realm of time. A season is part of a year, a day is part of a week, a moment is part of a lifetime. Like it or not, we are all part of something larger than ourselves just by virtue of our very existence.

The World reminds me of this interconnection of all things. Neil DeGrasse Tyson points it out on a physical level when he said “We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.”

The one spin of a wheel is part of the longer journey. Each moment of a lifetime is a shining gem of its own, worthy of our full attention. At the exact same moment, that time, is also an inseparable part of a greater whole.

Michael Talbot’s book “The Holographic Universe” comes to mind here. I wonder if time can also be imagined as a hologram, a totality where each part contains the essence of the whole (thus explaining the phenomenons of prescience, clairvoyance, clairsentience and so on) But that is a whole coffee pot worth of pondering, not just a sip.

Anyway, these cards represent the point of view that was on my mind when I created the woven bead bracelets in the shop. That’s why I created them, to honor that energy. That’s why I wear one, to remember that perspective as time spins on.

Thank you again for reading, watching and listening. See you at the next sip.

The author with one of her handmade bracelets

Month Ahead Pathway Reading Dec. ’21

The members only monthly Tarot reading is now available: https://ko-fi.com/post/Member-Month-Ahead–December-2021-A0A6780X2

Reserve your seat at the Tarot Table! For $5 per month, the same as a one card meditation reading, you get a THREE card members only “path through the month” reading, random special offers, monthly newsletter and a one time PRIVATE year ahead Tarot reading by email when you join.

POV upside down

Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip – Tarot guidance for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Today’s card is the Hanged Man from the major arcana.

Usually this card is associated with stagnation or being stuck or “hung up” somehow. Today another meaning is stepping forward. It is all about perspective. It is all about point of view.

The things coming to mind today are the same ones I’ve talked about for years in the print blog. Like I’ve always said, one person’s stuck in the mud is another person’s spa treatment.

There is a lot of subjectivity in the passage of time. A few weeks might be a nice break when you’ve been busy or under stress. Mental respite is as important as physical get-aways. But what if waiting IS the stress? Then waiting a few weeks more might be intolerable. It’s unreasonable to expect to change your point of view all that quickly. Frustration doesn’t turn off and on like a faucet.

If you feel stuck, are you measuring progress by the right thing? If your love life is going nowhere, look to other parts of life to see if there is opportunity for movement, for happiness – and vice versa. If, for example, work has been moving too fast, look at other area of life for opportunities to slow down.

It seems simple and obvious, but sometimes when we are caught up in stress of one kind or another the simple and obvious gets out of focus. We lose the forest in the trees as the saying goes. Tarot not only teaches far flung grand ideals spooky spiritual stuff. It is just as likely to give calm, practical advice.

Sometimes even Tarot turns its point of view upside down.

Thank you for watching, reading and listening to today’s short sip Tarot. Follow the blog to get all of my Tarot content. Short sip daily meditation Tarot card readings are available on the blog, on the TaoCraftTarot YouTube Channel and on the Podcast by the same name. The podcast is available on Spotify, Anchor FM, Stitcher and more. Any likes, subs, shares, follows or reading orders you can spare are always, always appreciated.

Is there a problem?

Thank you for watching, reading, and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot.

Today’s card is the Ten of Swords. It is always one of the more dire looking cards in the Waite Smith or RWS derived decks. Being stabbed in the back with ten swords can’t be a good thing.

In fact, it would suck. Is there a problem here? Why yes, yes there is.

You can’t stop the sucking until you admit it exists. Panic doesn’t help. Denial doesn’t help. Seeing things as they are, even if they are a big problem, is the first step in solving the problem. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to be happy or chipper or brave about it. I can’t quite put my finger on it but there is a movie reference or some sort of pop culture trope here, kind of like the Witcher’s deadpan f-bombs, or Eddie Murphy’s character in Trading Places asking if there is a problem, or something very Tony Stark about the energy here. Or maybe that meme where somebody’s famous last words were probably going to be “well (expletive) THAT didn’t work!”

My hunch is that if you feel drawn to this card and this reading today, that there may be a problem that you are resisting or denying. It isn’t predicting that something dire will happen, it’s asking you to consider that a problem already has.

“Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens.”

Here, the what to do that comes to mind is best described by dharma drum mountain global website

“Four Steps for Handling a Problem —A Proposition for Resolving the Difficulties of Life

Face it :  face the difficulty squarely
Accept it :  accept the reality of the difficulty
Deal with it :  deal with the difficulty with wisdom and compassion
Let it go :  afterwards, let go of it”

Is there a problem? When the answer is yes, it is ok to not be ok and it’s ok to be not ok for as long as you need to deal with the problem and heal.

Thank you for again for reading, watching and listening. I hope you’ll like, subscribe, follow and share. See you at our next sip of Tarot.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Have at it

https://youtu.be/xK1129gX2ic

This video is about as Monday as it can get, but here it is in all of its rough, rambling, boy-do-I-need-another-cup-of-coffee glory.

If you want a more coherent private reading, distance tarot is always available

order email readings 24/7 no appointment needed HERE

or email taocrafttarot@gmail.com to schedule a live online reading

Gift Certificates for the holidays are HERE

Short Sip Tarot: Strong Suit

TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot is an idea to ponder and guidance for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee

Thanks for watching, reading and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot where you get an idea to ponder and guidance for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee. Or Tea. Or whatever beverage starts your day.

Today’s card is Strength from the major arcana portion of the deck.

This card is vulnerable to cheer leading. It is easy for it to slip in platitudes about be strong, hang in there, find ways to be strong for others, and so on. It also goes with connotations of honesty, integrity and strength of character.

Not today.

Today the Strength card is a reminder that you are already strong. You got this.

No one is perfect. No one is perfectly imperfect. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We are all heros and cowards in one way or another, to one extent or another.

The classic Tao Te Ching is often translated as Integrity and the Way. The integrity part points to the same strength of character as today’s card. Take as a whole, the Tao Te Ching talks about being the best person you can be and living in harmony with the nature of things while you do. One spin on all of that is self improvement through being your most genuine self. Whenit talks about living in harmony with nature, it doesn’t totally mean the rocks and trees and flowers and leaves kind of nature. The idea of it includes working with your nature too. Use your naturally good parts to adapt the less fantastic parts. Self-improvement doesn’t have to be a war with yourself. It is a celebration of the good parts so loud that it drowns out the bad.

Thank you again for listening. All the follows, subscribes, likes and shares that you can spare is always appreciated. Your support through the virtual coffee mug and Reading Room membership support the production of the blog, podcast and card draw videos.

I’m taking my own advice. If you are listening to this on the podcast, your are in the right place. Clarivoyant Confessional is now TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. The Confessional Episodes are still available and more will come as the inspiration arises. The majority of the content is changing to Tarot readings because that is my strong suit. Your questions are still very welcomed. Blog comments are open, as is the voice messaging on the podcast’s anchor.fm page.

See you for the next sip!