Tag: tarot meditation

Here we go – again.

Sage Sips is tarot meditation in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

Welcome to my childhood: eyeballs deep white Christian nationalism everywhere you turn.

I wish I had words of wisdom for this.

The best I can offer is that we are surrounded. As in 2016, we are again faced with the terrifying and heartbreaking reality of just how many racists, fascists and bigots actually exist in America in 2024: one precise metric fuckton.

As with the 8 of swords, the situation is dire, but we have to find the way forward. It IS there. We just have to find it the hard way with persistence, courage, and out-of-the-box thinking. It’s a giant problem that will require an equally giant amount of problem solving, creative and otherwise.

Evangelicals hate Tarot readers (and honestly, speaking for myself, the feeling is pretty mutual). WHATEVER your identity may be, unless you are a wealthy, white & christian, you are on the outs with the people in power. It feels like we are the minority but if you define “them” that way, then ALL of the rest, ALL other identities besides that particular combination, becomes “us” That feels like an “us” large enough to maybe, just maybe, mutual aid our way through this catastrophe.

Like Obi Wan, we may have to hide in a desert cave for a bit. I feel compelled to redecorate around here again, bringing the nice, whitewashed, safe sounding “Sage Sips” and coffee theme to the forefront. The word Tarot may have to go hide in a cave for a while, but TaoCraft is still in here, same as always. Same stuff, different paint job. Again. Dammit.

This is exactly the lesson of the 10 of swords. Stay put. Plan. Heal. Stay frosty. Prepare. Become stronger. Become willing and able to get up again. And again. And again if needs be.

“You are not defeated when you lose. You are defeated when you quit.”

Paulo Coelho

Sip of Tarot: Flow by Moonlight

Change is afoot. Everything ebbs and flows like the tides. The moon reminds us to use our intuition to sense those cycles and flow with them. You can’t fight the whole ocean alone. Flow with the energy, allow yourself to sense it, and you are not alone. The whole of the ocean and the whole of the cosmos is with you.

It’s not forever. Good times will come again and again like waves on the shore.

A sip of Tarot: Opposites Balance

Welcome to Halloween weekend 2021. Today’s card is the Two of Pentacles.

The two of coins is a positive, upbeat card. It is the pentultimate card of balance, second only to the Temperance card in the major arcana. Balance is a bid deal in the holistic health world. Our banner tagline is pretty much “mind, body and spirit in balance.”

Balance implies opposites. It really is like the classic balance scales we’ve all seen, like on the justice statues at court houses. If one side is given more weight than the other, the scales are thrown out of balance.

Around Halloween and Winter Solstice, this kind of balance reminds me of Lynn Andrews’ book Crystal Woman. In it, light and vision are used as another example of balance. In complete darkness, we can’t see anything. By the same token, if there is complete light, our eyes are dazzled and we still can’t see a thing. It is only in the interplay between light and dark that we are able to see anything.

Halloween is a valuable holiday. In reminding us of returning darkness, we are reminded how necessary that darkness is in the balance of things.

Yesterday we talked about Sitting Bulls quote “Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.” It’s all well and good to feed the good dog but I think there is more to it than that. It pays to come to know, train and perhaps befriend the bad one. Just as shadow is integral to good vision, knowing our dark side is intergral to personal growht and a truly authentic life.

Long story short, we live in a world of light and dark, good and evil. Balance is the way. Starved dogs become desperate and more violent increasing the fights. Make choices and feed the inner good dog, but don’t ignore or try to starve the other into oblivion. Rather train it, perhaps befriend it. Compassion is the thing to feed both dogs.

Whacked with the Cosmic Shillelagh

Sifu Gracenin told us that the best way to train for a thing is to do a thing.

The same is true of creative work – or anything really.

Creativity, new ideas, or enthusiasm for a project are all mercurial, wispy, unpredictable aspects of the human psyche. No wonder ancient Greeks and modern creatives alike blame the whole thing on a bunch of capricious Muses. You never know when you are going to get whacked with the cosmic shillelagh of creativity.

Which begs the question of what to do in the times in between, when your capricious Muses are missing in action and you are hit with an equally unpredictable time of uninspired apathy. To borrow a phrase from the sneaker people, just do it. “The best way to train for a thing is to DO a thing.”

Here is an analogy for the “My Hero Acedemia” and superhero fans out there…if you can only bring your superpower up to 5% today, OK, but DO that. But by doing that, you might be able to dial up the full cowling to 8% another day. If you persist at 5% power today and 8% later and so on, then you’ll be more ready and in a better place when time for full power comes along.

Or in other words, if you are feeling uninspired today, take it easy on yourself – on the inside – but still do what you need to do. The inspired feeling will come in its time. “Fake it until you make it” has its moments of utility. Work within your limits but don’t stop altogether. Continue to act within your ability, and in time your capability will increase whether you feel enthusiastic about it or not. Then you can be in a better, bigger place to act on creative inspiration whenever it does hit. That’s the sweaty part of the Thomas Edison quote “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” but an important part just the same. Hiking along with your ordinary walking stick is as important as getting whacked with the cosmic inspiration stick we see on the Ace of Wands.

Hang in there. One way or another, you got this.