Today’s Tarot: Sightline

“Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.” – Micheal J. Fox

Taraffirmation #14: I see things as they really are, and work for the best with the resources at hand.

Don’t let old experiences or expectations for the future cloud your vision. Solving a problem requires that you see the problem for what it really is. Sometimes when accept things as they are for what they are, there aren’t as many obstacles in your line of sight after all.

Today’s Tarot: Cup of Contemplation

 

The Four of Cups in the Witches Tarot (by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans, all rights reserved, used here with the permissions granted on Llwellynpublishing.com) is my favorite of all of the Four of Cups that I’ve seen.

It reminds me of the word abide.

If this present moment is one of contemplation, of introspection, of moodiness, or melancholy. Abide with it. Sit with it. Allow the mood to be in its fullness without judgement, action or reaction. 

The stream is key. Let the mood flow. Don’t keep it. Don’t deny or bury it. Moments and moods pass. 

Today’s Tarot: Controlled Burn

The suit of wands is associated with the element of fire. The Three of Wands in particular is associated with waiting combined with alertness, inward activity that isn’t always expressed with outward activity.

It reminds me of an episode of “Avatar: The Last Airbender we recently watched. Controlled fire is life. Uncontrolled fire can lead to destruction. The Avatar was given a leaf with a smodering fire at the center. His training task was to keep the fire from reaching the edge of the leaf for as long as possible but not to extinguish it.

The Three of Wands hints at that same subdued energy and change. It isn’t a card of charging ahead, but still is positive, and hints at success. It isn’t a card of completly standing down and taking a nap. It is a card of watching, analysing, following your dreams, but not chasing and flailing after them.

Follow your passions in a clear, focused, deliberate way. Control the burn, not put out the flame.

When life happens

Tarot isn’t about telling you what will happen in life, it’s about figuring out what to do after life happens. The cards are not all rainbows and unicorns because life isn’t that way.

That’s the genius of Pamela Smith’s minor arcana artwork. From agony to ecstacy, the images touch on the widest possible array of human experiences. Some iteration, some interpretaion, some combination of cards can offer insight to almost any situation.

Yet sometimes things happen that are so heartbreaking that they leave us all speechless.

And somethimes one card can speak for us all.

Black lives matter.

Today’s Tarot: Might As Well

“Don’t Panic.” – Douglas Adams

Problems and conflicts are going to happen anyway, so we might as well face them with heart, humor and style.

Until it is time to stand, in all strength and seriousness against hate and violence.

In solidarity with all who peacefully protest. Silence is indeed implicit violence.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Desmond Tutu

Dirk, DeGrasse Tyson, and the connected symphony

“…Learn to see. Realize that evertything connects to everything else” – Leonardo Da Vinci

“We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the Earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe, atomically.” – Neil Degrasse Tyson.

“The bond that links your true familyis not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.” – Richard Bach

“Everything’s connected.” – Dirk Gently TV series

We long to be together, to talk, to touch, to eat, love and laugh. It is the good and right human thing to do. Often, life demands separation in the typical sense. Loneliness forgets. It forgets the neither space nor time can break the bonds of love, of familial respect and joy. Our lives play out all on the same pale dot within the same wider Cosmos and within the same winding eternity.

You can purchase Melody Sheep’s excellent music on Bandcamp. https://melodysheep.bandcamp.com/album/symphony-of-science-collectors-edition

Special Offers Updated for Summer

There are two brand new special offers:

  1. PeaceTarot: The Punk Graffiti Edition. I have a limited number of second quality paper copies of PeaceTarot (one side printing, side staple binding) that I will thoroughly vandalize with a one card InkMagick Tarot reading (includes card interpretation, sigil element, crystal and aromatherapy suggestions and anything else that comes to mind) All you pay is $5 postage and handling.
  2. NEW Timeflow layout is 50% off, available by email only. Get yours before they move to full $20 price at the end of summer. Includes Vintage public domain RWS card images (please donate/support sacred-texts.com) the usual psychic summary and a new 4 card layout that includes
    • Let It Rest: suggests a part of life that has been getting your time energy and attention that might need some rest and room to grow
    • Let It Go: something that you might need to release entirely or at least make your last priority
    • Que It Up: Something on the near horizon whose time has not yet come. This is an area of life that needs preparation and watching for the right timing
    • Let It Roll: This is the part of life that needs your time and energy now. This is where the energies are flowing to your advantage.

All prior free readings, special offers and price reductions have now expired. The above special offers are subject to all website policies and disclaimers and are valid May 26 – August 30, 2020.

Gift of a Lifetime Wrapped in a Pen

Ink Reading Glass pen

 

Sallie Christensen, one of the most skilled and gifted psychics I’ve ever met, once told me that “A thought is powerful, the spoken word is more so, but the written word is the most powerful of all.” That one sentence was a gift of a lifetime wrapped in a pen. In essence, she had handed me a magic wand.

I had that reading with her in the early 1990s, roughly around the time I’d started exploring oracle cards with Tarot soon to follow. That adage has proven true time and again in the decades since.

Journal writing is a powerful thing. I suspect those years of journaling is the reason why I can communicate messages from spirit as easily through pen and keyboard as through speaking. Written Tarot is definitely more sophisticated, since live sessions don’t have edit buttons or grammar check. Speech may transmit ideas quickly, but writing is a superconductor. Hearing is here and now. Even recordings have a sense of immediacy. Writing transcends space and time. It’s the closest thing we have to telepathy. When I write something and you read it, the message from spirit is communicated heart to heart and mind to mind with none of the mechanics of speech or hearing in between. Hearing happens at Mach 1, the speed of sound. Reading happens at the speed of light.

As Carl Sagan wrote:

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”

Written Tarot is potent to both give and receive. The experience of reading something that resonates with you spiritually is very similar to the experience getting an intuitive message directly from spirit. Reading anything that is spiritually resonant, be it books, letters, Tarot cards, blogs or emails, is a breathless melange of emotion, empowerment, and enlightenment. Many books have been like that for me, Ted Andrews’ and Christopher Penczak’s in particular. Perhaps written Tarot can capture some of that experience for you.

Intuition happens inside of your head and heart. It is an entirely subjective experience. For me, the internal process of writing is more closely aligned to the internal intuitive message itself.  The flow from spirit to written language is immediate and effortless, while putting things into spoken words takes the tiniest bit more thought and effort. In wireless terms, spoken words work at 4G while my writing operates at 5G or above.

How you enjoy taking in the words and messages of a session is another story. If you like to read, written Tarot is as comfortable as breathing. It doesn’t matter if the actual thing you read is a computer screen or a piece of paper. The experience of reading your message is equally intense regardless of media.

In-person Tarot readings are wonderful, mind expanding, heart warming, and sometimes life changing things…just like the session I had with Sally when we talked about journal writing.

An email or handwritten paper Tarot session is its own kind of mind expanding, heart warming and life changing  experience … just like reading the Andrews and Penczak books.

All of that being said, I’m hoping this will let you feel confident in ordering Distance Tarot. While this post is a glimpse to the writing process on my side of the table, the message is the same no matter how you prefer to receive it, written or spoken, email or live. It’s just a matter of deciding which experience resonates with you.


 

This one is for all of the book lovers. I’m working on a second edition of PeaceTarot. Both editions teach you how to do DIY daily Tarot meditations even if you don’t have a Tarot deck on hand. The second edition adds expanded, pandemic-era card meanings for all 78 RWS Tarot cards.. During the caronapocolypse, we have all been making do with stuff on hand. As life “re-opens” I hope we can carry a little bit of that ingenuity with us. In the spirit of that resourcefulness, I want to upcycle some second quality paper copies* of PeaceTarot and hand customize one just for you. I’ll write a one card reading just like the kind of readings the book can teach you to do PLUS include a sigil element (or sigil glyph or psych-a-doodle or whatever you want to call it) crystal energy and aromatherapy suggestions, an affirmation, add whatever else comes to mind AND use my favorite schmancy glass dip pen. There are a limited number available. All you really pay for is postage and handling. The “graffiti edition” PeaceTarot with custom handwritten one card Tarot readings are available in the shop HERE.

*First edition, single side print, side staple bound

Just a quick reminder: Distance Tarot is always OPEN, with phone readings by appointment. Even though our area is partially out of lockdown and starting to re-open for retail business, in-person individual and party readings will remain closed until a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available.

Related post: The Power Grows.

 

Kitten Whiskers

 

One of the big perks of being a professional Tarot reader is you get to keep some of the ideas that drop into your head on the behalf of  other people. Or, some might say, you get to take your own advice.

One theme came through quite a lot early on in the lockdowns, say mid-March through Mid-April. Time and again I heard that it wasn’t the time to go into deep spiritual things. It was a time to take care of business on the physical side of things to get set up for the big stay-at-home and to take care of one’s self on the emotional side of things. It was OK to spend the day in your pajamas and randomly stare into the refrigerator. Still is, if that is what you need. Part of that overall self-care advice was to enjoy small familiar comforts as much as possible. Simple pleasures and little things are showing their importance these days.

I’m more than happy to take that little wisdom nugget to heart. On one hand, I’ve been wanting to share some of the really cool things I’ve found just out of pure fan-girling enthusiasm. On the other hand, I made a promise to myself to stay “on brand” and on topic with TaoCraft Tarot because it already includes my favorite stuff wrapped in an aesthetic that I love. But that’s the web and this, at the risk of sounding like a Julie Andrews song, are a few of my favorite real life things.

I am a Meatpuppet.

I like science fiction. I love a good sense of humor. Double extra bonus point is you reference one of my all time favorite cyberpunk novels, Neuromancer.

On of my good internet buddies and energy healer extraordinaire (you know, Pip over at Hygge Energy Healing, speaking of favorite things) told me about a story that was posting a chapter at a time. I’ve been an avid fan aka meatpuppet of David Turner’s How To Be Dead series ever since. If you like humor and fantasy / sci fi blended together in the vein of Terry Pratchett, Dave Turner’s series has it all. Think Monty Python meets Doctor Who covered in Shaun of the Dead with a heaping helping of Douglas Adams. 

Take, for example, the Grim Reaper. Spooky and eternal, yes. But also prone to dancing around the office to Blue Oyster Cult and frequently searching for cookies. You find yourself caring about Death as a character, not to mention protagonist Dave Marwood, flat mate Gary, love interest Melanie, Death’s assistant Anne – all of them – feel like people you’d want to have a beer with. All except that executive who turns out to be….well, you’ll find out. Or at least I hope you will. What better way to spend a global pandemic than a good, satisfying read about ghosts, vampires, zombies that aren’t zombies, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, werewolves. The only word of caution I have is that reading it might make you want to put “Don’t Fear The Reaper”  on loop or eat a bunch of chocolate hob nobs. All five books in  the HTBD series are available on amazon in both Kindle and paperback formats. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to make sure my ringtone is still “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and rummage through the kitchen for some cookies.

I may be a meatpuppet but at least my hands aren’t dry anymore.

“Ghoulish Delights” was just that….a delight. Amanda has since rebranded her excellent skin care products and added teas to become Balefire Apothecary. One stop relaxation, that. Aromatherapy was always one of my favorite parts of the Natural Health program, but I’m not interested in making and selling blends or products. I use aromatherapy all the time both for my personal use and as part of the ‘psychic summary’ section of a reading…but that is another kitten whisker for another day. Let’s just say I really appreciate a good blend when I smell it. These are my absolute favorites. It is easy enough to find blends with florals and musks but base notes are another thing. Woody resins are far and away my favorites, and Amanda is an absolute genius with them. Rather than being heavy, they are perfectly balanced with smoke and sweetness, fresh and watery, herbs and outright magic. The blends evoke a sense of place and story. The “corpse cream” renamed to body cream in “Bridgewater Triangle” scent is, was and will be #1 on my list: the campfire smoke, marshmallow and autumn leaves is irresistible to a fall season lover like me. The stuff actually works, too. I hand wash all of our dishes, do all of the cooking and knit. All that yarn and hand washing is a recipe for dry skin any time of year, doubly so in the winter. The cream is protective and soothing, and when I’m not doing all that other stuff I’m walking around sniffing my hands because the stuff smells so darn good. Seasonal teas, wildcrafted ingredients, perfume oils, leaping bunny certification, and a range of skin care are all good reasons to check out the apothecary. The creative names and scent descriptions are still there too.

Whether it is raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, a dollop of hand cream or a good comedy horror book, I wish you a wonderful evening with a few of your favorite things.

P.S. just out of due diligence and all of that other responsible stuff, I think I’m supposed to tell you that these are unsolicited reviews. I’m not paid and received no free samples or anything. This is 100% unadulterated grade A fangirling. Thanks to Dave Turner and Amanda at Balefire Apothecary for allowing me to rave about their stuff.

Timeflow

Blursday. The 98th day of Maraprilay in the fifth year of the great quarantine of 2020.

I dunno who came up with the “Blursday” thing on the interwebs, but they deserve a pulitzer or something for capturing the flavor of this whole thing in one word. 

It’s not a negative thing to my mind. I like Blursday. It’s my new favorite day, mostly because I was trying to freelance from home long before all of this started. I don’t mind having my all adult fam here. Free pickup at the grocery store is frosting on the 24/7 comfy pants cake. 

No great cloud is without its silver lining, and not great benefit is without its minor asspains. When I was working, even short handed and on call, time management wasn’t that big of a deal. You work your hours, execute some sort of basic hygiene, and if there was any time left there were plenty of things to do. Pick one. Sleep when you can. Easy.

Creative and freelance work is the exact opposite. Following the white rabbit of inspiration when it comes along is part of the job description. With greater flexibility means more effort is needed to manage time, even before Blursday came along.  I’m not super neat or organized in the first place, but I do like to contemplate plans for the day over morning coffee. How else can plans get blown to heck and force a person to adapt if you don’t make some semblance of a plan in the first place?

Even now, in my completely not humble opinion, the five card Modern Oracle card layout is the best all-purpose layout. I designed it to empower choices with a side of validating the path you are on. I wrote it mainly because I couldn’t find another layout that did quite that thing. No one layout can do everything. How do you make a choice when you aren’t sure what the choices are? How do you start down a path when you aren’t sure which direction to take the first step?

I’ve been looking for a good get-organized card layout. Owl and Bones Tarot had one that was close with their “embrace – face – erase” layout. They are brilliant at creating layouts (check out their Instagram feed) Triage is a lot to ask of any Tarot reading. Necessity being the mother of invention, it seemed time to write another one. The “TimeFlow” layout is simply this:

  • Let It Rest: This points to something that may have been getting a lot of your time, energy and attention that needs some space and rest. This isn’t to say that you should ignore it entirely, but maybe dial back the intensity. I want to compare it to a good southern brisket or pulled pork. You season it, then there is nothing more to do for it except low heat and plenty of time. You’ll know when it is time to bring it back out and get it ready to serve.
  • Let It Go: Some things are just plain over. Done. It no longer serves you. It it fresh out of joy to spark. Maybe this is a thought, habit, or thought habit that has grown stagnant if not outright unhealthy. This is something to consider sweeping out the door entirely.
  • Que It Up: This is about preparation and timing. It is the “on deck” circle to borrow from baseball. This is the next issue or idea to come into the spotlight. This is like the brisket in the first card that needs prepared to serve because it is almost dinner time. Think in terms of “not yet, but soon”
  • Let it Roll: Go! This card is the starter’s gun in track meet. This is number 1 on the list. This is where energy is already flowing in your favor. Don’t let the window of opportunity close on this one.

I’ve been working with this layout for a short time. I’ve already learned a few key points about it. First, it isn’t something to do often. Nothing other than a one card daily meditation should be done too often.  Follow your instinct, but don’t second guess, don’t keep asking again and again. As with any Tarot layout, the message gets muddled and confusing if it is over done.

Also like every other Tarot reading, it is more about ideas than concrete physical details. It won’t tell which project to pick up neck. It is better with intangibles. It seems to excel at pointing to the area of life or to the broad topic that most warrants your attention (or needs to be set aside.) For example if someone is frustrated at work, a coins card might say to let career rest, a swords card might ask them to let go of the idea of impressing a certain boss, cups might direct their attention toward a relationship whose time has not quite come, and finally, a wands card might point out the urgency of managing stress and feeding the inner spiritual world right now. It seems to organize within a single topic, too, when the topic is intangible.

So far, I’ve only read for myself with this card pattern, but I’m hoping you will help me change that. If you are interested in a FREE TimeFlow reading by email, please visit the special offers page and use the contact form there. That form is the only place that the free reading is available. I hope you will be patient…I don’t yet know how fast these will turn around or what the interest will be. I also hope you will send your feedback about the reading. I’d love to hear what you think! Don’t wait…the offer expires Blursday, the 98th day of Maraprilay in the fifth year of the great 2020 quarantine…