Tag: tarot

Today’s Tarot: Hanging Around

Public Domain

In Carl Sagan’s fiction work Contact, Ellie Arroway is a scientist involved with SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intellence (which is a real thing.) In it, at one point, she considers not only the vast distances between Earth and other potential homes to intelligent, communicative life, but also the role that time inherently plays. Obviously, it take a heckuva long time, even at the speed of light, for one side of message to get from there to here and vice versa. What if there is also a vast difference in lifespan and local experience of time. A few days to us is a lifetime to a fruit fly, and many generations to a germ. As she was driving she noticed crack or bumps in the road at fairly regular intervals. What if, she wondered, the pulses in a signal came so slowly, so widely spaced that we didn’t even notice the signal, with each blip of the message just being dismissed as an anomaly.

Makes me wonder if the universe isn’t really teeming with intelligent, communicative, technological life but each at such widely disparate time scales, that nobody can connect with anybody so that everybody thinks they are the only ones…but that something for another time.

The same phenomenon can happen when it comes to our interaction with Tarot, or any form of esoteric guidance, even pure intuition. Sometimes the whole idea gradually unspools over days, weeks or months until finally the last piece falls into place. If we miss a piece, the message goes on until finally the “ah-ha” happens.

A single card daily meditation practice is an excellent way to get a feel for this among many other things. Not only do you get a specific read of the energy for that specific day, you can see patterns emerge over the course of days, weeks, even years. My personal example of that is the strong presence of pentacle cards during the first part of the pandemic and the evolving intuitive images of the U.S. map with all the little tornadoes and the hurricane on the horizon that both reflected the overwhelming cultural zeitgeist energies that were so strong during 2019 & 2020.

What say you empaths? Has the cultural and environmental energies stopped ringing your bell quite so hard? I think that is the impetus behind the speckled stone image. Boundaries are firmer, individual concerns are at the fore and the existential political crisis (at least locally here in the US has dropped into the background somewhat.)

Today’s card connects to yesterday’s Four of Swords card which connected to previous readings. There is a continued thread of change & rest themed energies.

The Hanged man connotes stagnation, but this energy hasn’t been hanging around long enough to take on that interpretation. Hanged Man can also mean surrender, changing your way of looking at things – it can take on exactly the wait, don’t push, change what you are doing, rejuvenate, and contemplate energies we’ve been seeing. My hunch is that this kind of energy is going to be around for a while since we’ve seen it in a multi-day pattern like this. Astrology might ascribe this to some planet in retrograde or something. I don’t know anything much about astrology, so I attribute this to a yin phase, a time of quiet, of taking in, minor adjustments. It is a time of plugging in to recharge in whatever metaphoric sense you want to give the phrase.

If there is a message specific to today, I sense “patience.” Not everything unfolds at the pace we want or expect. There are reasons patience is considerd one of the great treasures of Taoism. Just like messages from aliens, life unfolds at its own natural pace, not according to our wishes.

“The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you”

Neil DeGrasse Tyson via brainyquote.com

Growing Ogres

Shrek: ….ogres are like onions

Donkey: They stink?

….

Shrek: No! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. You get it? We both have layers

from “Shrek” copyright 2001 Dreamworks Pictures, quote via imdb.com

Layers mean complexity. Layers apply to all sorts of things that are actually more complex than they seem at first glance; ogres, onions, cakes and – you guessed it – Tarot.

Reading Tarot for yourself is actually quite simple. In a couple of hours I could teach you to do good DIY readings for yourself. (Related: PeaceTarot ebook)

Reading for other people is another story. High level professional readings are, like onions and ogres, more complex than it seems on the surface. That’s the whole point of them. A professional reading can gives you extra layers of insight and experience that you can’t get alone. Two heads are better than one. Two eyes give depth perception (related post: parallax) The two of us working together gives your reading another layer of understanding.

Sometimes layers talk about authenticity. Sometimes you have to peel back a few layers to get to the real heart of the matter. We’ve talked about authenticity and public Tarot practice before, after my Modern Oracle Tarot work was re-branded to TaoCraft Tarot (related: what’s in a name, Shakespear’s Roses, Spell Your Name)

That’s all well and good, but consider another aspect of layers: growing new ones. Interestingly, actual onions grow on the inside. New layers are added at the core while older outside layers get dry and thin and ultimately fall away. In this, onions give us another useful metaphor.

In the medical field, and no doubt many other professions, continuing education is a condition of licensure and employment. You have to keep learning and keep current if you want to keep working. Whether it is required or not, whether it is career related or not, lifelong learning is a respected mark of excellence. Learning isn’t just formal education. Learning comes from experience and experimentation and the living of life. Artists’ work evolves over time. Any person’s point of view can evolve over time.

And so, the “Modern Oracle” layout is evolving. I’m calling abort on the video / text hybrid format. It was an experiment that failed, and I’ve learned something important from it.

Remember how deeper layers are often perceived as more authentic and how old layers of growing onions turn papery and fall off? It’s time for the 5 and 7 card Modern Oracle layouts to evolve, to become more authentic, to show more of their inner complexity. The video hybrid isn’t the way for that to happen. The names of layout card positions are changing. It’s a tiny detail that you may not even notice from your side of the Tarot table. On my side of the table it is important shift in mindset. This allows me to fully and authentically follow what intuition and spirit shows me.

I wrote the initial layout meanings to create a bridge from old fashioned, predict-the-future, fortune telling layouts to a more modern advice, guidance and empowerment reading. I wrote the Modern Oracle layouts specifically to show the power of your choices over your future. Cards that once were called “past, present and future” in the old style became “lessons from the past, current situation, and moving forward.” Predicting the future evolved into making an action plan.

Now it will go one step further. I in my minds’s eye, I see a reading in terms of dynamic energy flows, not a concrete road through time. As Modern Oracle layouts become TaoCraft layouts, we will let go of time and predictions entirely. If the Modern Oracle layout was like GPS map for your path ahead, the TaoCraft layout is like a GPS traffic update with a weather report.

Card 1, lessons from the past, will become Fading Energies, symbolizing energies that are moving away from you. These are things that need less of your attention.

Card 2, current situation, will become Current Energies, the energies that are strongest, and deal with things that need your attention in this moment.

Card 3, moving forward will become Growing Energies, energies moving toward you, or gaining influence in the path you’ve currently chosen. It still isn’t predictive. It is still intended to guide you, help you prepare for possible conditions ahead. Think of it like a weather report. It doesn’t tell you exactly what will happen to you during your day, but it can give you the chance of rain or sun while it happens.

Card 4 will remain Choices. It is still placed under the current energies card and at the center of the layout because that is still the place of power. Empowering your choices is still the heart of the reading. The choices card will take on a more advisory tone than before. Instead of suggesting how to persist or how change your path, it focuses on whether changing or whether staying the course is the wisest thing to do.

Card 5 is still Alternative Path just like before, showing the most open alternative path you if you decide a change is needed. (Or it can help keep you on your path if you like the way things are headed.)

Card 6 Helping Energies and card 7 Potential Challenges are the same as always, and speak to exactly what the name implies.

Long story short, if you are dead set on a specific “accurate” prediction, you aren’t going to like the new TaoCraft layouts. If that’s the case, you need the Zombie Cat yes/no readings like we did the other day. Even then, you have to realize it isn’t 100%.

If you are ready for next level, dynamic energy readings, I can help. Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot.

,

Pick a Winner

Public Domain

Choose choosing

The seven of cups has turned up in several readings lately, and when that happens it makes me think there is a message for everyone, a read on general energies.

It does fit. Vaccine availability rolls on and people are starting to think about what’s next. Legit decisions have to be made about how to get through this last critical time of mitigation, vaccination and evaluation (of how variants progress and THAT piece of it unfolds) There are decisions to be made and courses to be set.

The Seven of Cups talks about decisions. First and foremost, that you should make them. Even if you keep doing the same thing that you are already doing, it has a different energy if you deliberately CHOOSE to keep doing it. It is the difference between a mindful, purposeful choice and mindlessly letting it all happen. Choices are empowering even when the choice is to do nothing or the choice is to wait and decide later.

One of the psychiatrists I used to work for used to say deciding not to decide is still a decision. Making a decision has real psychological implications. It is a step toward emotional health and balance for any of us. Making a choice is not only empowering, it is anxiety relieving. Once you choose where you want to go, then it easy by comparison to decide how to get there.

That isn’t to say that decision making is easy. The more important it is, the more intimidating the choice becomes. Choices have consequences. That includes the choice to act on a decision – or not.

The seven of cups also talks about the challenges of making a decision. Sometimes there are too many good choices and we dither. Too many good choices and are decision making process freezes like a deer in headlights. Marketers call it decision paralysis. Or you can get the opposite, where there are no good options and we freeze in a different set of headlights. In these situations the advice is to simplify as much as possible. Then, all things being equal follow your heart – or you gut, whichever seems to be leading the way. This is tied to the other thread of decision-problem energy in the card. Sometimes we over think. We make choices much harder than they have to be and go in circles upon mental circles over the potential outcome of the decision. Again, the advice is to simplify. When all else is equal and logic doesn’t suffice, then let love, intuition and a good old gut feelings lead the way.

If the seven of cups comes to you, brace yourself for blunt, confrontive adages: “Suck it up buttercup” “shit off the pot” “you can’t sit on the fence” “lead, follow or get out of the way.” “Choose wisely.”

Indecision is uncomfortable. Even a bad choice is a learning opportunity. A good choice is a liberating thing.

“I don’t think we can sit on the fence anymore. We have to make up our minds. And if one wants to choose the path of darkness, then so be it, but be conscious of what it is you’re doing.”

Seal (via brainyquote.com)

The Distance Difference

Spent some time this afternoon updating the ABOUT section of the main menu. I hope you’ll browse around the site. I’ve tried to tuck some interesting bits here and there that I hope you’ll enjoy. Meanwhile here is my second favorite soapbox subject: Distance Tarot is just as effective as in-person Tarot.

Distance Tarot readings are my specialty. Order yours here.

The difference between live Tarot and distance Tarot is like the difference between podcast and an e-book.

It’s the same message, the same information, almost the same words except that you listen to one and read the other. One tends to have a conversational style while the other has a little extra depth and refinement. Both can be as lighthearted and fun or as profound and poetic as you need it to be.

Writing comes naturally to me, I enjoy it. I can type out a Tarot session as effortlessly as other psychics speak them. Keyboards are a like a direct hotline plugged right to my intuition. You get exactly the same reading as you would in-person. The information is the same either way.

Each format has different advantages and disadvantages. The difference isn’t in the substance of the reading. The difference is all surface aesthetics. The cake is the same, the difference is the frosting.

I’ve been asked “how can you read me if I’m not in the same room with you?” The answer is that I’m not actually really reading you at all. I’m reading universal life energy to get its message for you. The message comes in to me the same way, whether we are across a table or across the globe from each other. It makes no difference if I give the message out to you by speaking it or typing it.

Live phone readings are a middle ground. They require an appointment like in-person readings do, so they are less convenient than email readings. Phone readings are social and conversational and allow for questions in real time. All email distance readings include a follow up email for questions at no extra charge. Both have questions and conversation – it just happens at a different pace.

The biggest difference between a live session and a distance reading is on your side of things. It is all about how you want to take the message in. Live readings are raw and unedited. Written readings are more thoughtful and artfully worded. It is up to you whether you would rather use your ears or your eyes to take in the message that spirit gives to you.

Distance Tarot Has Many Advantages

Convenient: No appointment needed for email or video readings. Order the reading whenever you want, 24/7. Open the email (or snail mail for paper and ink style) and experience your reading whenever you want, as often as you want. Live phone readings are almost as easy, but require prepayment and an appointment.

Affordable: With email, I can offer smaller layouts that are not cost effective to do in-person. E-mail readings start as low as $5.

Private: No one sees you go anywhere. It is entirely up to you when and where you order and read your Tarot session.

Eco-friendly: Neither of us have to travel anywhere, no is gasoline burned, no paper used, no trees cut. I opted for a renewable electricity provider, so there is nearly zero carbon footprint for the whole thing!

Affordable: By working online, by phone, in public spaces or at your party venue (when in-person is available) I don’t have to keep an office or storefront. I pass those savings on to you. I charge per-session not per-minute so you know your full cost up front before the reading ever begins. A $40 seven card reading usually lasts 45 minutes to an hour. Compare that to the average $90-$100 per hour that some psychics charge (source: www.payscale.com).

Email and Phone Tarot is Covid-19 safe – for both of us.

My Tarot Valentine: Each Breath

Take a breath.

No, really, take a deep breath. You stopped for a moment to read this (thank you for that) so use it to stare at the screen, look busy but take a deep relaxing breath.

Thanks. I did that too.

The Judgement card is my nemesis. It seems like everyone has a card that resonates with them, that seems to signify where they are in life. Some cards are just comfortable, familiar or welcome. Sometimes a card resonates with an idea or an old battle or some constant struggle…a nemesis.

I won’t introduce you to that particular skeleton in the closet. We’ll get back to that when I get around to writing “Arcana in Balance.”

Still, it is a challenge to connect this card to Valentine’s Day without being overly harsh. So I’ll connect it to a thread of yesterday’s card instead.

Yesterday, the six of cups reminded us of innocence, and the in-the-moment sweetness of simplicity. To taste that sweetness we adults must first release judgements, expectations and pre-conceived notions of what a moment should be. Valentine’s Day this year isn’t business as usual. Let it be the moment it is. Let go of judgement to find your way to the sweetest present moment that you can.

My Tarot Valentine: Compassion in Power

The Queen of Swords rests in power, but in an alive sort of way.

Today’s card keeps with the self-confidence theme that keeps popping up this Valentine’s season.

  • The Devil: the confidence to be counter-culture and ignore Valentine’s Day outright if you want to.
  • 3 of Wands: the confidence to set aside self and pay deep attention
  • 4 of Swords: self-care allows you the ability (and/or confidence)to care for others.
  • Knight of Wands: um, did I mention self-confidence is sexy?
  • 2 of Pentacles: confidence to balance of self and others
  • 5 of cups: the confidence and courage to face difficult emotions with direct communication
  • King of Cups: the confidence to get advice from trusted sources

Today’s Queen of Swords is similar self-confidence but more. This card has an energy of deep and abiding self-acceptance, not mere confidence. It is the difference between knowing something and iternalizing, itegrating and BEing something. There is great peace that comes with that. That peace spills over into all sorts of relationship. The more you accept and the more you authentically live your highest truth and truest self, the less other peoples judgement matters. The more happy you are with yourself, the less you depend on others for happiness to exist. The more comfortable you are in your own skin, the more accepting you are of others in theirs. The more you are compassionate toward yourself, the more you can be compassionate to others.

The knight cards, and the other cards so far may be self confidence in action, but today, the Queen of Swords is self confidence at peace.