Tag: taocraft tarot podcast

Carry a Torch

Ace of Wands Short Sip Tarot: carry a torch for yourself, those you love, and the things you love to do.

I do love a good coincidence.

Thank you for reading and listening to TaoCraft Tarot. I’m glad you are here.

I drew the Ace of Wands for today’s Short Sip, found this excellent Nelson Mandela quote, then the same card and vibe turned up in a private reading for a client. The Ace of Wands intends to be heard today!

I am reminded of Joseph Campbell, American author and expert in comparative mythology and comparative religion. I read his book The Power of Myth 1990 – ish around the time I started reading Jamie Carson & David Sams, Ted Andrews, Scott Campbell, and you know…Tarot. The Ace of Wands today is akin to Campbell’s most famous quote about “follow your bliss.”

It also resonates with wise words from Nelson Mandela, “There is no passion in playing small – in settling for a life smaller than the one you are capable of living.” The Ace of Wands also reminds me of quotes from Steve Jobs that have been floating around social media lately “You’ve got to find what you love… the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

Or, put more succinctly, “…we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.”

If the Ace of Wands resonates with you today, that is your cue to let your light shine. Carry a torch…for yourself, for the people you love, and for the things you love to do.

Thank you for reading and listening. Questions and comments are always welcome, and your likes, subs, shares, and follows are always appreciated. TaoCraft Short Sip episodes are Tarot contemplations in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. If you enjoy any of this Tarot content, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. The shop, memberships, readings and virtual coffees all support the blog, podcast and youtube channel. The link is in the episode description for those of you listening on the podcast.

As always, thank you. See you at the next sip!

Sources: brainyquote.com, entrepreneur.com

In Time

A few thoughts on the Two of Pentacles and the time-space continuum.

Lau Tzu, Ben Franklin and Dirk Gently walk into a bar…

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here. These short sip posts & episodes are Tarot contemplations in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

It sounds a little like some sort of bad “walks into a bar” joke, but the Tao Te Ching, Benjamin Franklin and Dirk Gently all factor into the collective energy today.

Before we get to today’s Two of Pentacles card, I want to thank Madam Adam on Tik Tok for reminding me of the word collective. “Collective energy” really is the perfect way to describe how these general audience reading for social media or a blog feel. It is a much better word for it than the “zeitgeist” or “general audience” energy that I was calling it. It simplifies and clarifies the message when we can refer to ‘the collective’ in the way that energy often refers to the client or sitter or seeker or quierant or whatever word you like to use there. So with thanks for the reminder. Collective is the new adjective.

OK. Back to the collective energy and our unlikely trio of loosely related ideas, all of which comes back to the Two of Pentacles, our penultimate balance card second only to Temperance in the major arcana.

I doubt Benjamin Franklin was influenced by the Tao Te Ching quote “Nature does not hurry, yet all is accomplished” when he wrote that “haste makes waste” but I like to think he would have enjoyed the Tao Te Ching, not to mention the Dirk Gently novels or my personal favorite, the 2016 Max Landis TV adaptation with Dirk’s whispery, excited “everything’s connected.”

Everything IS connected.

The haste and hurry that Franklin and Lau Tzu talk about both are inseparable from physical space and the passage of time. It is science and physics – velocity is distance divided by time. The stars we see in our sky are boggle-your-mind old because they are boggle-your-mind far away and it has taken that long for the light to get here. Time, space, human perception, human activity, haste and waste are all, you know, connected.

Now lets walk around to the other side and look at this from a psychological or spiritual point of view instead.

When do you get stressed? How does time or the perceived lack of it factor into those stressful feelings for you? It seems like excess demands and looming deadlines play an outsized role in perceived stress. We have too much stuff to do and not enough time to do it. How much is too much varies from one person to another, but too much for you is too much however much that much may be.

Sooner or later, something has to give. It’s better to change the circumstances than have the circumstances change your mental or physical health.

You know how when you are resizing an image in a photo editor you can grab a corner and it keeps the proportions the same? The length and the width are connected and if you change one, the other changes right along with it. That is the kind of connectivity that we are talking about here. And that connectivity can be used to improve stress and life balance just as much as it may have helped cause it.

Too much stuff to do? Change that and your perception of time slides right along with it to a more comfortable state of being. That idea of triage and prioritizing and cutting out the unnecessary is a Ten of Wands thing, but it applies here because that is the means and method of finding the balance that the Two of Pentacles is referencing. In this scenario, if we were doing a multiple card layout, the Ten of Wands may well appear as a way to support the Two of Pentacle’s message.

Time passes.

There isn’t anything we can do to stop that, but how we measure time is completely arbitrary and under our control. Deadlines? Move them. If there are bad consequences to doing that, then the deadline might be the better option. If you look at it from a consequence perspective, then your schedule may not shift, the amount of activity needed may not shift, but instead our perception shifts. The deadline and work level may be better than the alternatives. It may all still suck, but it sucks less when you deliberately choose it compared to something worse. Perception isn’t a physical shift, but it is a shift toward increasing balance and decreasing stress just the same.

*sips coffee*

Which is all well and good, but what about the Two of Pentacles here, now, today.

I guess what all of this is saying is that when you are feeling stressed or out of balance, change and adapt what you can, and the rest of it will flex in the direction of less stress because everything is connected, haste makes waste and Nature never hurries and yet all is accomplished.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. The blog and podcast are not monetized, so that your Tarot message is first priority, not an advertiser’s message. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where the shop purchases, readings, memberships and virtual coffees all support the creation of this unique Tarot content. There is a link in the episode description for podcast listeners.

Your likes, subs, shares, questions and comments are always welcome and appreciated too. Thanks again. See you at the next sip.

$1 Tarot Reading by email – get yours HERE before they ghost on Halloween 2022.

Drama Fall

It takes a hot, bright afternoon to make you really appreciate the cool shade of a tree, or a freezing night to make you appreciate the glowing warmth of a space heater.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

As much as Tarot and Tarot readings are associated with western witchcraft, Taoist philosophy pops up a great deal, especially for a Tarot reader who has an affinity for Taoism to start with.

Sure, you could argue that this is a process of subjective confirmation bias, but there is also a great deal of objective overlap between Taoism and Tarot, Reiki and Magick, East and West, at least when it comes to spiritual things. Diane Morgan’s Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao was one of my earliest Tarot influences. Christopher Penczak’s Magick of Reiki landed right along of side of it, both squarely in the middle of my wheelhouse, both hitting right where I live, right here in Tao Craft. Hence the name. It is a more authentic fit than Modern Oracle ever was. I live in the liminal venn diagram space where Taoism, Tarot, Reiki and Magick all meet.

That eclectic, and often solitary mental space can have it’s drama.

Everybody loses their keys, spills their milk, or has some such drama in their life. It’s normal. That is also where the Three of Swords is pointing today.

The Three of Swords doesn’t have the darkest or most dire looking artwork. Usually it shows three swords stabbing something…more often than not a heart shape…but the heart is red and the background is seldom as literally black and dark as a death, devil, or 10 of swords. Most of the meanings and keywords associated with it are warnings and cautions. It always feels like blockage, drama or complications from outside of ourselves. But for all of the tears and betrayal keywords that go with this card, the connection to Taoist philosophy most jumps out at me today. This idea of everything defining … and being defined by its opposite…begins in chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching, here in a public domain translation by J.H. McDonald.

“When people see things as beautiful,
ugliness is created.
When people see things as good,
evil is created.
Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low oppose each other.
Fore and aft follow each other.”

Basically this is a message of encouragement, and a melange of hanging on and letting go all at once. Let go of that which has become toxic and harmful to make room for the good. Hang on through the dark times because that persistence will make the light all the more beautiful when it comes. It will, indeed come, because exactly that change and ebb and flow is an essential fact of life and our existence.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. I appreciate it! I always appreciate any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions or comments that you can spare. Neither the blog or podcast is monetized, so your Tarot message comes first, not the advertisers’ Please support the blog and podcast on ko-fi, there is a link in the episode description for the podcast side of things.

Again and always, thank you. See you at the next sip!

Click HERE to get the Octoberversary special $1 Tarot reading by email (no appointment needed…order anytime!) offer ends 10-31-2022

Coming Soon – Psychic Casting $1

NEW format psychic reading for $1 coming soon.

I’m developing a new, unique style of intuitive reading involving crystals and runes together. It will include a video of your individual crystal & rune cast plus a written psychic interpretation by email. The intuition and psychic part is the same as Tarot or any other psychic reading, but I’m beta testing the delivery format. Until the technical piece of it is solid, this distance reading is only $1 regular price – for now. It will go up to $5 just like the one card Tarot meditation readings. Please follow the blog* so you get plenty of warning when the price update is coming. You can get all new blog posts as soon as they are published by opting in with your email in the right hand column of this page ->

Here is how the new reading works

I’ll cast random chips and runestones on my Tarot reading cloth that has accumulated some pretty good vibes over the years. Then I’ll do a purely intuitive / psychic reading based on how the chips and stones fall. By writing it, you get the best of my intuition, by email, no appointment needed. By writing it you can order anytime, 24/7. Stay tuned for the blog post that let’s you know ordering is open.

I’ll make a private share video on the TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel of your individual real world cast and send the link to the private video in the written psychic reading that comes to your email.

When this NEW reading is set up and ready, this page will link you to the TaoCraftTarot Shop where you can purchase the reading and submit your question in one easy transaction.

Stay Tuned!

*The blog on this website is FREE and opt-in, you can unsubscribe at any time. There is an audio version of the blog on Spotify, Anchor Fm, googlepodcasts, stitcher, and more.

This blog and the audio blog (podcast) is NOT monetized so I don’t see a single penny of any advertising you might see. If you enjoy TaoCraft Tarot content, please support the blog & podcast on ko-fi (“buy me a coffee”)

There is a member’s only blog on ko-fi with exclusive content including a monthly pathway Tarot reading on the members blog. Members also get shop discounts and more.

The shop on ko-fi has all of my ebooks & is open to everyone, but members receive a standing discount.

Of course, all virtual coffees (online tip jar) are gratefully accepted.

Thank you so much for taking a look at this! I hope we can beta test this new reading together soon! – Sage

Heck if I know

You don’t have to know. All you need is to know how to know, you know?

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here. Short Sip Tarot episodes like these are Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip from your coffee – or whatever you happen to be drinking at the time of day when you read or hear this.

I’m using the Alleyman’s Tarot today. This card is the nine of disks, used as the nine of pentacles, or coins. Pentacles, disks, coins: the name is up to the deck author, but they all symbolize the basic things. There may be other names for the suit, but these three are the ones that I’ve seen. The Nine of Disks in the Alleyman’s Deck is from the Sola Busca Tarot used via Wikimedia commons. This is a public domain deck from the 1400s.

When I first drew the card. I honest to goodness had no idea what it was or what it was about. The little dude getting squashed under a flaming barbeque grill filled with a bunch of pot lids in it could be anything. It is a world apart from that happy, truth-y, good conclusion, earned reward vibes we see from the 1909 Waite Smith Tarot and later decks based on the RWS structure.

Seven Dane Asmund’s interpretation in the Alleyman’s Guidebook is entirely on point for this striking, remarkable card. I can see why he chose to put it in the deck. In the guidebook he, in the guise of the Alleyman, he writes about the cost of success and the crushing emotional and mental burdons of striving for (and maintaining) success, particularly the material type of success and that defined by those outside oneself.

In other words, what price victory? What is true success and is it worth the toll it takes? In my experience, those questions and concepts attach to the five of swords in a typical deck. The Alleyman’s Deck, however, is different. The artwork here is perfectly aligned with the caution against pyrrhic victories. I’m glad he picked up on that. Totally blew by me.

So back to me staring at the card and thinking “heck if I know” I didn’t recognize the deck, I didn’t recognize it as a nine of disks or or nine of pentacles analog, and I sure as heck didn’t have any sense of a message from it.

I think that, in itself, is part of the day’s energy and message. Again it is something I typically get with or through another card, in this case The High Priestess. Mystery and the unknown is, to my way of thinking, under the priestess’ purview. The mysterious is the High Priestess’ expertise. Living with the abstract & unknown is very much a part of the lessons that this card teaches.

The message here is an important one. In my opinion,life’s mysterious, intangible, abstract, and perhaps unknowable aspects are more fitting to a major arcana card rather than the nine of disks. But that’s just me, and that is drawing from other decks, not the Sola Busca.

You know that adage where if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, then you feed him for a lifetime?

The same is true of knowing things.

You can’t know everything, but if you learn how to learn, if you learn how to go out and find what you don’t know now, it’s the next best thing to knowing in the first place. Only an empty cup can be filled. You can only learn something when you know that you don’t know something.

Knowing that the unknown can be learned, takes the fear out of the dark corners of life’s uncertainty. Both Tarot and science shine this light. Neither offers absolute knowledge, but both offer a method of learning about the inner and outer cosmos respectively.

It’s ok to not know what you are seeing or what to do when a flaming grill full of pot lids falls from the sky like some sort of medieval Sputnik. Life is like that sometimes. It’s ok to not know stuff. The trick is being willing to learn what the space grill means to you.

Thank you for reading and listening. Your likes, subs, shares, questions and comments are always welcome and appreciated. The blog and podcast are not monetized, so if you enjoy these readings please support them on the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page.

The Octoberversary special continues. Click HERE to get a private one card meditation Tarot reading by email for only $1…no appointment needed.

See you at the next sip!

Skill to be Used

Use it or lose it with the obscure three of books card

Atrophy is a thing.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

The beautiful part of the Alleyman’s Tarot is the exposure it gives to unique or less well known Tarot cards. The downside to the Alleyman’s Tarot is the unique and lesser known cards. 99% of the time the cards read easily, no reference book required. Sometimes a card just doesn’t resonate on that intuitive level. That dissonance can happen even with the most well known and much used Tarot deck that you own. Maybe that is just a professional’s problem. You do a high enough volume of these things, fizzles and disconnects will happen.

Fortunately it is an easy fix. The Alleyman’s Tarot came with the Alleyman’s guidebook which was styled to look like a handwritten journal and is just as brilliant as the deck itself. So when I pull a card that I’m not familiar with and it doesn’t read intuitively, going to the guidebook usually shakes some message or another loose.

If the deck is standard Rider-Waite-Smith type then it gets even more fun. Then you have the option of turning to that deck’s guidebook, any guidebook from any deck that follows that format plus all the stand alone references that aren’t connected to any particular deck. With all of that material as inspiration, something somewhere is bound to ring a bell and resonate with the day’s energy.

Today neither of those things that generally apply helped much.

The Three of Books is from the Jost Amman deck, a 16th century game playing deck. While the artwork on the cards by German artist Jost Amman was originally presented in a booklet with inspirational sayings, the book is rare or lost from what I’ve seen in a brief internet search. So that leaves us with Dane Asmund’s excellent guide book.

Which, today, doesn’t quite capture the feel. He talks about teaching and taming baser instinct. I get mental images of honing a knife on an old fashioned whetstone. After seeing his read and going “nah” that and the mental image led me to the idea of use to avoid atrophy.

Here is another path to the same basic concept.

In Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyers writes of elder vampires from Hungary or somewhere in Middle Europe seeming to have physically deteriorated from lack of movement…or something like that. It’s been a while since I read the book, and I don’t think this detail was in the movie. Atrophy is a thing. Muscles that aren’t used, shrink. Couch potatoes and astronauts alike have proven that fact.

In other other words – use it or lose it.

That resonates with today’s energy a little better than taming instincts.

In the 1980s and ’90s there was an American study funded by the National Institute on ageing of over 900 nuns that looked at lifestyle, aging and the onset of dementia. The study showed that nuns who had higher education levels, higher verbal skills at a younger age, and who remained physically and mentally active had less and later onset of dementia.

The moral of the story and advice of today’s card is, essentially, read a book.

Meyer’s vampires became more decrepit the less they moved in spite of their immortality. The nuns aged well because they read more. The human animal is healthier when they are both physically and mentally active and agile.

So read a book. Or three. And I’ll see you at the next sip.

If you enjoyed this free Tarot Reading or any of TaoCraft Tarot’s content, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot Ko-fi page. Reading purchases, shop purchases and virtual coffees all support the creation of this blog and podcast

Please also visit the podcast and blog website and click the purple link for the TaoCraft Tarot Octoberversary celebration offer. (print readers click HERE)

By Royal Decree

The king can’t return – because he never left. You are the King of your inner world and you have always been there.

Hello and welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m Sage. I read Tarot and write Stuff and I’m glad you are here.

Every now and then I get what I call the niggles. The niggles are what I call it when an idea drops into your head and jabs you in the brain until you write it, blog it, or make something tangible out of it.

Call it inspiration. Blame it on the muses. However you name it, some ideas won’t leave you alone no matter how much you try to ignore it, run from it or play hide and seek with it – so you might as well deal with it. It’s like that quote from Joss Whedon “Write it. Shoot it. Crochet it. Saute it. Whatever – MAKE.”

Making includes writing, reading a Tarot card and intangible things like blogs and podcasts. Creation and creativity aren’t a zero sum balance sheet. There is room for everyone. If you get a niggly little idea, by all means make something out of your niggle. Make your own blog, journal entry or comment on this blog if you like.

On the ko-fi members-only blog, every weekend I post the “Tarot Turnover,” where we turn a short sip Tarot reading on its head. I sip the coffee and YOU read the card. I’ll post a card image (usually a public domain Waite Smith card like the one above since they are so widely known and familiar to the most people) Sometime I’ll give a little Tarot behind the scenes or background about the card or a short how-to about using your intuition to read the card. Then I turn the card over to you along with a list of traditional meanings or keywords from my old blog readings. That gives everyone the opportunity to stretch some intuitive muscles and see what insight the card has to offer. I’m always available to give feedback and answer questions if any turn up. Sometimes, later on in the week, I’ll give a short sip reading about the weekend card. Members get first chance at the card, questions or coaching from me. Membership does have its benefits.

That’s what is happening right now. A niggling little idea popped up again Sunday when the Turnover card turned out to be the King of Wands. I’m here to chime in with my two cents and a hot take about the card .

In general, the suit of wands has to do with the classic element of fire, with inner passions, philosophy, spirituality, and our relationship with ourselves. Kings are leaders with a proactive, protective connotation. The king of wands has to do with inner passions and self-possession. The king is about fully owning who you are, what you choose and what you do and recognizing that authority within everyone else too.

In the words of poet Maya Angelou, when someone tells you who they are, believe them.

You have the same right to tell who you really are. And you have equal right to guard and protect who you are, too.

Here is the niggle: Ideology is a choice.

Ideology has a complicated, mind-boggling intersection with behavior.

Violence, abuse, despots and violent radical regimes have been in the world throughout human history. People have been coerced upon pain of death into certain behavior. People have been psychologically abused and tortured and coerced. Human history has a very dark underbelly when it comes to choice, ideology and behavior.

I’m not here to judge anyone for anything. People do and say what they have to in order to survive. History is harrowing.

I wish there could be health and safety for everyone.

It is chilling, terrifying and heartbreaking to see people we know freely, knowingly, deliberately choose to ally themselves with bigotry. If we are ever to come to terms with – let’s just say someone in our lives choosing the dark side – we have to embrace and accept that we chose differently. It is not arrogance to to choose better. It is OK to accept yourself as being a good person. It is neither arrogance nor condemnation on either side. It is just the facts of our choice and the authentic nature of who we are. It’s just the facts of their choices and who they are. It is OK that you walk a different path from your genetic family or your cultural community. It is OK that you chose a different path. It isn’t for me to say who in this world has chosen wisely and who has chosen – poorly. I’m not here to contemplate atrocities or solve man’s inhumanity to man. That is far beyond my ability and way, way, way outside the scope of this teeny tiny little blogcast.

My goal for this is to share a little food for thought and maybe, just maybe, give you a niggle or two of your own.

First of all, be kind. You never know what someone else is dealing with or going through.

Second, and this is where the king of wands comes in, you choose who you are and what you do. Not your past. Not your parents. Not your external circumstances. All of those things may force choices about behavior, but they don’t dictate your true inner belief. They may put you in a situation that forces you to mask and cloak and protect your inner genuine self. Even then, you are firmly seated on the throne of your inner world. It may not feel that way, but you own your choices, your thoughts and your beliefs. No other person or circumstance can steal that inner beauty from you. You can’t control other people or everything that happens, but you do get to choose how you respond to the situation. More importantly, you get to choose how you respond to yourself.

It may not always feel that way. When it does feel that way it has that Mel Brooks “it’s good to be the king” vibe. It feels like the return of the good king – but the king can never return because the king never left. On the inside, the king is you.

I think Alan Watts said it best: “You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”

Would you like to be a kind person? Done. Be kind now, even if you weren’t five minutes ago. Want to be brave enough to face who you really are? Want to be brave enough to accept both yourself as you are and accept others are who they say they are? Done.

By Royal Decree you are brave.

Thank you for reading and listening. Your questions and comments are always welcome and your likes, subs, follows and shares are always appreciated.

No part of the blog or podcast is monetized. I don’t see a penny of any advertising you may see. If you enjoy these Tarot readings, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where your purchases, memberships and virtual coffees all support this unique content.

Thank you again. See you at the next sip!

I’m celebrating… you are welcome too

In October 2018, I re-branded, re-launched and re-defined my Tarot work from the now thoroughly defunct Modern Oracle to my now beloved TaoCraft Tarot. I don’t know about you, but I am thoroughly enjoying the witchy-ness of it. That’s the ‘craft’ part of the name.

TaoCraft is, has been and always will be inspired by the three treasures of Taoism: Simplicity, honesty (authenticity) and kindness. That’s the Tao part of the name.

In the spirit of simplicity (and transparency) I’ve given up on all the cutesy pants sales, promotions, special offers and giveaways. I’m an expert, experienced Tarot reader, and I’m letting my work do the talking.

11/12 of the time, all you’ll see is the members-only discounts in the shop because, well, that’s a benefit of membership. 

But also in the spirit of celebration and gratitude, every October I create some sort of special offer or discount that is open to everyone to say thank you for reading the blogs, listening to the podcast and being a part of the Tarot community at large.

This year, all one card Short Sip private readings by email are only $1 (regularly $5). Anyone can get the reduced price. If you use the readings/commissions menu you can send your questions and purchase the reading all in one PayPal secured transaction. If you grab the one in the shop, please email your question to me here at TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll just do an open reading. When we work by email, you get the EXACT same words and message that you would get face to face, but no appointment is needed. You can’t beat these readings for privacy, convenience or price. 

Seriously, you can get a reading from a person with 30 years of Tarot experience for one dollar. No scam, no fees, no nothing except me interpreting a card for you.

As you may have read / heard on the blog the other day, one card readings for an individual are a different animal than the broad topic short sips we do on the blog & podcast. They are very personalized.

And, as you probably already know, Tarot readings are customized, inspirational, spiritual guidance folk art, not predictions for the future and not for medical questions.

I hope you’ll join me in a reading. I hope you’ll keep reading the blog and / or listening to the podcast. No matter what, I wish you a happy, healthy, fun, and prosperous years-to-come. 

Happy TaoCraft Octoberversary!

Octoberversary Special: $1 Tarot reading

Get one card for one dollar by email – order HERE

special offer ends 10-31-2022 Regular price for private short sip reading $5

No appointment needed, order any time.

Delivery times vary – closed nights, weekends and USA holidays. Stated policies apply.