Trying a new thing: I am letting the YouChoose videos, unpolished as they may be, stand on their own for a while. That way there is no chance of spoilers in the text below.
I hope you’ll let me know what you think either in the comments or by email at taocrafttarot@gmail.com
If you have any questions about anything Tarot or have content requests, let me know that too! Comments are open and welcome as long as they aren’t spam.
PS…did you see the new logo? So excited about converting to it 🙂
Personalize your Tarot reading:
Taken together, the three cards talk about perspective and problem solving. This week is about finding the answer that is already inside, finding an answer outside of the box, and being on the lookout all around for a problem that sneaks up behind and needs solving.
The overall energy is sluggish and slow. It isn’t brick-wall kind of blocked, but feels thick, and just this side of stagnant. Be patient. It might be an annoying slog, but we’ll get through it.
Left: Three of Swords. This card is part of the reason the Swords cards have a little bit of a foreboding reputation. You can’t solve a problem or avoid a trap unless you know it exists. The danger isn’t dire, but warrants your attention. This card always seems to carry an energy of manipulation and petty power plays. Watch your back. If something gives you the creeps, or someone makes you feel uncomfortable, pay attention to that. Follow your gut in that respect.
Center: Eight of Swords. Also dire-looking, this card is already trapped, bound, feeling overwhelmed and helpless. It is less so in this deck, but in the Pamela Smith artwork for the card, the swords are less evenly spaced, leaving an out that must be gingerly sensed, so the woman does not cut her feet if she is to find and use the gap, the way forward to escape. “Careful, shrewd VERY out of the box thinking” comes to mind and may be what is asked of you in the near future.
Right: The Hermit. Just because it isn’t fun doesn’t mean you don’t have things well in hand. If you picked this card, you already have an answer that you need. You may well have what you need already. The trick is to drag it out into the open. Find a way to shut out the distraction and the noise. Not to go all Dune on you, but look within. You already have what you need, it is just a matter of sorting through the noise and clutter to find it. Set boundaries, say no, find some me time to do just that.
Here is how the interactive Tarot posts work:
You know how it goes…a journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step, and you have to have a plan before life and random circumstances can blow it to bits, so here is the main 2021 plan (she said as she puts on eye protection and readies the catcher’s mitt for the inevitable plan-schraphnel)
“YouChoose” interactive Tarot will post on the YouTube channel and here on the blog sometime between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning inclusive
Today’s Tarot with video will post both place on Wednesday morning. Ish.
Other days will have print-only content: Zombie Cat Answers (ask your free question HERE for Z.C. to answer in the blog) My Side of the Table, and other topics. Most other days. Some of them. I’m really hoping to be busy doing readings and/or selling stuff in the Etsy shop in addition to blogging.
The comments are OPEN so please feel free to send any non-spam questions or feedback. Tell me the Tarot content you would like to see, and I will do my best to try and create it!
When all the cards are taken together, there is a lot of active, creative energy and movement. The card you chose might be a hint where in the creative or project process is best for your attention because that is where the energy is flowing. The cards feel more aligned with their traditional element associations than with traditional meanings or the more contemporary ‘relationship with…’ meanings.
Left: Ace of Cups. Think water meets creativity. The energy here are raw creative flow. Imagine. Innovate. This is the early phase of creativity. This is the “dream it” part of “dream it and then do it.”
Center: Nine of Wands. This is fire and energy. This is the mid point of the creative process that moves from create to make. This is the part where you stop obsessing over planning and get up and do the thing. Execute. If you chose this card it is time to go all 80s movie montage on this – kick the tires and light the fires, baby!
Right: Two of Pentacles. The most balance-y card this side of the major arcana and Temperance. This is all fine points and fine tuning. Again I get three rotating points, like a juggler or a triquetra sort of shape. It may not be a literal three, but rather symbolic of many moving parts. If you chose this card, you might find yourself with a lot of moving parts to track. Earth is the element here, so stay grounded, centered…be the center of gravity around which all those moving parts move instead of letting them pull and drag you in every which direction. Spirit (energy, the collective unconscious – whatever you like to call it) has been into music the past couple of days. Here I’m getting “Loves Me Like a Rock” by Paul Simon. I guess it is oldies day in the spirit realm. But that is the energy of the card….earth energy, solid, centered rooted energy to keep your balance, not matter how many moving parts are whirling around this week.
Thanks for reading and watching! Best wishes to you for this and every week.
Whelp, that was unexpected.
Sorry for the delay. We were out of some staple basics, and silly me thought I could mask up, go grab a few things from the grocery store, heave something in the oven for supper and type this baby right up.
I forgot: It’s a Saturday, right before Christmas. So here I go right into one of our worst traffic areas in the worst traffic time of the year. One thing led to another including putting some cucumbers into start a dill pickle ferment and feeding George the Second, my latest sourdough starter, and here we are. *sips hot cuppa and sits it down* Now, *rubs hands together* where were we?
Left: Four of Swords. I love the Witches Tarot. It’s probably my favorite deck. The Four of Swords is the one and only card where the artwork is dissonant with the message. Energetically, I get the typical rest, respite, repose message that is more evident in other decks if they are based on the RWS originals. Take this public domain image of Pamela Smith’s artwork on a a circa 1910 deck for example.
See the difference? Sometimes a feeling of readiness or fierceness akin to the Mark Evans artwork will come through. My feeling today is more with the Smith artwork and the respite interpretations.
If you selected this card, this is a week to be in the moment with your thoughts and plans. Don’t exhaust yourself with worry or regret. It is the intellectual, emotional, stress management equivalent of a quick catnap. Your not being asked to shirk responsibility, be in denial, or put off urgent action. The energy this week, or at least today is taking a breath compared to how it has been during 2020 to date. Allow your mind and emotions to rest in the present moment, and set aside worry and regret just for a little while. The present moment is very restful to the part of our mind that worries.
Center: Ace of Pentacles. This is a very sunny, upbeat positive feeling card. I associate it more with inspiration and solutions that physical benefit or money luck, although if your inspiration helps your work, then it could daisy chain or chain-of-events into money luck. The mental image that came with the card was a baseball catcher behind the plate with their glove up and ready. The word hurtling seemed important and strong, as in something good is hurtling toward you so be ready to catch it. Be in the moment, ready to embrace it when a good thing comes. It may be unexpected, but it feels more like it is coming in fast. As I typed “embrace” the mental image was of a baseball glove with a fast pitch hitting hard and the glove snapping shut around it.
If you selected this card, be in the moment but be alert so you can grab stuff when it comes your way on short notice. Be alert, be quick.
Right: Three of Coins. This is very physical realm, very work and task related. I get a little bit of “stick to your knitting” plus a little bit of Luke Skywalker and the Death Star “stay on target”. I am also reminded of a lyric from an old Kate Bush song “press execute” If memory serves, at the time (maybe it is still this way) British computer keyboards used “execute” instead of “enter” I could be wrong. But “execute” is the feeling here. Maybe the Nike slogan. But DO-ing is front and center. “Task at hand” comes through as well. Planning is great. Revisiting and revising are helpful. This week is all about productivity in this moment.
If you selected this card, energies are wind at your back. This week is all about getting stuff done. It is a good week to go beast mode on your to-do list.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating next week. For the holidays, remember the classic TV specials: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Charlie Brown and friends shows us that Thanksgiving can happen with any food, with any one (or alone.) Just like Whoville after the Grinch stole all the STUFF, the time, the holidays still come. Maybe next year we can better appreciate how the holidays always are for those who can’t gather with friends or family for whatever other non-pandemic reason every other year. Home is where the heart is. Home is where you hang your hat. This year, home is where you nose is …or it should be. The day will come and go with precisely the energy and import that you give it. If you give it bitterness and resentment because you have to change your usual plans in order to keep the people you love alive…then that is just what you will get – a day of bitterness and resentment. If you give the day the same good will and cheer that you always do, then you get a day of celebration regardless of circumstances. It’s about the people, not the circumstance. In this oddest of years, the best way to show love for the people you card about is to keep your nose, and any germs that might be lurking in it, home where you live.
Left: Six of Swords. Go with the flow. Obstacles are more perceived than actual, which goes right along with the rant about Thanksgiving. The art on the card tells the whole story of this energy and advice from the card. From the seated figure’s point of view, the swords are looming, perhaps intimidating obstacles, blocking the view at the very least. But the standing, rowing figure can see that their canoe is in wide open water, able to go in any direction, clear sailing and smooth water all the way to the distant shore. How good or bad this week is all depends on your perspective, and your willingness to look, steer, ride with the water’s flow.
Center: Queen of Pentacles. “Hearth and home” comes to mind. Since everyone and their nose will be home, do what you can to make the here and now, the home where we are, all just as comfy as possible. Make a round of hot cocoa for everyone. Pop a little popcorn, and set as much of a lighthearted tone as you can. If you just aren’t feeling it, that is ok. Honor the mood. Drawing from the Charlie Brown cartoon – be Snoopy. Use whatever is at hand to make as much relaxation and fun for everyone in your current bubblespace AND for yourself.
Right: Three of Swords. This is much of a watch-your-back card as the minor arcana has to offer. Watch out for pettiness, politics, family squabbles. This isn’t to the level of the Devil card, by any means. But look at it this way – if we all shelter at home, we are also sheltered from toxic disagreements and toxic energies whe might otherwise tolerate for the sake of the holiday. Don’t let them drag you down. Distance is a help for that in any year.
Wishing you all the very best of the season. Not sure how this coming week is going to go schedule-wise. I’m OPEN for the season for email readings. Being at home just us is pretty normal, so I don’t see any delays changes because of the holiday. It IS still that elfcon time of year, so I’m not sure what will happen with the socials and YouTube channel.
Don’t forget to comment with your ideas for naming the “Year Ahead” layout. The winning name will be announced Dec. 1. The best name suggestion gets a reading by email. Insert all disclaimers here.
Interactive one card daily meditation Tarot reading for the week ahead
Pick a card, any card. It is always worth remembering that these cards are not predictions. They are a gauge of the energy flow just ahead. It lets you know the topics that need the most attention, and let’s you know the choices that have a more favorable environment right now. Just like water, energy flows are changeable and, for lack of a better term, fluid. This reading may change before a week is out. Whenever you watch this, I trust the process. Whenever you watch this, whichever card you choose, I trust that the message you most need will find you somehow.
For now, take a deep breath. Let go of whatever is on your mind. Choose whichever card feels right. Pick on impulse, or if you would like to give it a little thought, pause the video and then restart it to see the reveal.
Before we get to the written card interpretations, I’d like to remind everyone of a few things that are much more mundane. I have lots of phone appointments available. Phone readings are easy: schedule -> purchase -> enjoy. Just contact me to schedule a time, purchase your session using the secure paypal buttons HERE, then call at your appointment time and enjoy your live Tarot reading! I will ask for your email so I can send you a photo of your card layout. You are welcome to take notes and ask questions during the session.
You can schedule a session by calling 312-206-9171 or by email at taocrafttarot@gmail.com. Please be aware: the phone only answers for VOICEMAIL and previously scheduled calls. If you want to make an appointment, please leave a message with your name and number and I’ll call you back asap. No message, no appointment. If you don’t like leaving a message, or if this seems overly complicated, blame all the spam callers, the people who stiffed me for phone readings in the past and and the ones who try to get a free reading over the phone. They are why we can’t have nice things.
Left: Knight of Swords. This week is set up for action. This is a card that asks you to call on your daring side, and use all of the self-confidence you can muster this week. This is a good week to implement plans that have been in the works for a while – plans that are complete and ready to be released into the wild. That sneaker commercial comes to mind. This card is all “Just do it” and also “It’s go time.” For aromatherapy I get black pepper, rosemary, …or coffee…active mental “study blends” for mental sharpness and memory. Mind and intellect are also associated with the air element and the suit of swords.
Center: Knight of Wands. This card brings “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel” to mind. “Act on your magick” comes to mind. Knights are action cards. Wands are associated with fire, spirituality, philosophy, your inner passions. The notion of “spirituality in motion” or “act on your beliefs” whatever form that takes for you. For some, it might be volunteer time. For others it may take the form of outward religious practice or ritual. For me, there is a feel of ritual as move through a week of a waxing moon. I’m not knowledgeable about astrology, so please refer to your favorite resource for that particular detail. The best way I can think of to articulate the energy feeling is to say it is a good week for rituals of manifestation and prosperity given the waxing moon and coming full moon on…September 2 if memory serves. In my minds eye I see pentacles, candles, now the taijitu (yin yang symbol), sunlight and black candles…a balance and respect for both the light-side and dark-side, however you personally visualize such things. For aromatherapy I get sacred wood resins, like frankincense, myrrh, patchuli and copal or palo santo
Right: Page of Wands. If you selected this card, it is a call to hold your horses instead of charge ahead. Stop, look, and listen or you might have to stop, drop and roll instead. There is a sense of something unknown. An important piece of the puzzle is missing. Whatever you do, make sure you fully understand a situation and have all the facts before you go out on a limb with a comment or opinion, and certainly before your act. For aromatherapy I get lavendar. Stay chill with this classic relaxation scent.
Thank you for watching and reading! I appreciate all of you and hope that you’ll follow the blog to get new posts in your inbox. The opt – in is over there -> on laptop view. On mobile scroll WAAYYY down to enter your email. PRO TIP: I am going to be posting a giveaway this week that will only be available through the blog. Talk to you soon. – R.
Better late than never. TECHNICALLY it’s still Monday here where I am. We are still hammering out the schedule. I have to learn a whole new rhythm and pattern to things too. After being the usual work from home one, I’m sharing space with two other adults suddenly needing the same turf to do their work too. Unless and until the world starts ordering a whole lot of Tarot readings….the breadwinners get the priority.
Even so, patterns are emerging. As you can tell from this video, Markeplier or Aurilo Voltair I ain’t. The TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel is never going to be polished or edited. It looks like I’ll be filming these early in my day, so if you are looking for spiritual woo woo happy happy positive rainbows and unicorns, this is not going to be the YouTube for you. It is going to be raw, straightforward, caveman-ish semi sentences, with the expanded, detailed card readings here later in the day. My Zombie Cat side is going to be on full display on the YouTube side. Consider yourself warned.
I’m in the northeastern part of the USA under a stay at home order, so the energies are just saturated with both anxiety about the epidemic and raw fury at those who aren’t taking it seriously and putting other people at risk. No wonder the cards are staying in stuck-at-home territory.
The horse is out of the barn as far as prevention, testing and containment. Kiss that opportunity good-bye. All we have left is isolating to slow this thing down a little. I’ll make you a deal…I’ll stay home and write Tarot stuff if you stay home and read it. Fair enough?
Left: 3 of Coins. Do SOMETHING productive each day. I’ll be the first to admit, time management is not my strong suit, but have had enough times around the block as a stay at home mom to know it’s true. Start off with some sort of plan or inkling of a schedule so you at least have something at the start for circumstances to blow to bits. If you start with a plan and execute, and it all goes off without a hitch, pat yourself on the back, then start looking under furniture and around corners because Muphy’s Law will have its way with you sooner or later. Otherwise, baby steps. Take the small wins where you can get them. But in the big guidance energy this week: if you picked this card, this is your cue to do something, be it something you are good at and do effortlessly, your usual work, something you have been putting off or simply putting on a clean pair of yoga pants, try to accomplish some little goal that you can take with you to bed each night as a teeny tiny little seed of normalcy. Let that, small as it may or not be, give you a little comfort. Tomorrow you can write King Lear like Shakespear during the black plague.
Center: The Hermit. Yes, this guy again. We are all connected, even when we are alone. It’s a universe, cosmos thing. You might be a guru sitting on top of a mountain, but you are still sitting on the same space rock as the rest of us. Even if you are on the space station, you are part of our solar system. I had a poster on my wall forever growing up. It was that one of the Milky Way with an arrow pointing to an outer arm and “you are here” Truth. We are part of the whole dang galaxy. When you look at it, 6 feet of separation is nothing.
That isn’t to minimize families separated by the illness. Having to stay away from a hospitalized loved one is more than a universe…that is multiple multiverses of crushing heartbreak. Please send your thoughts, prayers, meditations, Reiki, mojo, hoodoo, vibing vibes out to everyone who needs healing, consoling and condolences. If we are citizens of the cosmos, we can certainly bend a little good energy toward those who need it. Let them know they are not alone, even if it is in energetic silence.
Right: The High Priest. I’ve always wrangled with the Pope / Hierophant card because of the religious imagery and overtones to the card. That’s my personal issue, not anything to do with any of you. The High Priest card is not that way at all. He is the keeper of traditions, not the maker of social rules, a teller of stories, not maker of pronouncements. Tradition is exactly the issue at hand, not just this coming week, but for a few weeks to come. I’m talking specifically about Easter. As someone forced to attend sunrise services throughout childhood, I’m here to tell you that stay at home orders and evangelical Easter are going to be a problem. It isn’t entirely my intent to take aim only at Easter, which is a purely Christian holiday. The same is true for other spring celebrations, including secular ones like graduations. It’s just an honest telling of the intuition mixed with past experience that shows Easter to be the biggest powder keg in all of this, considering it is only a few weeks away.
It’s ok to put church attendance on the shelf this one time. Lives are on the line. Life and health are far more important. What would Jesus do? He would stay home and wash his hands. This isn’t forever. You can celebrate alone or as a family unit at home this one time. It will be “that year when…” for all time to come. Make this stay at home season one to remember, because we are going to be talking about this year for years to come. Welcome to history.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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