YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Speckles

No pressure.

There is zero big deal here. Pick a card, think about the vibe. If it is helpful, use it. If it isn’t, ignore it. I believe that, at risk of sounding like an old Blondie song, one way or another the message you need will get to you if you let it. It might be through the card you choose here. It might be through the crystal that goes with it. So choose quickly on impulse. Stop the video and think about it…it’s all good. Even if your cue(s) don’t come through this at all, heads up, eyes open. Synchronicity is your friend. Spirit whispers through random coincidence if you listen well.

Blue Kayanite – loyalty, fair communication, throat chakra

Red Jasper – nurturing, endurance, warrior stone, base (sacral) chakra

Rose Quartz – inspires compassion & peace, attracts love & romance, heart chakra


Left: Devil. This isn’t predicting something bad will happen. Many times it is a “heads up” acknowledging the reality of evil in the world. There are people out there doing not-good things. The world doesn’t always have your best interests at heart, protect yourself. But that isn’t the vibe today. Oh no, it’s WAY worse than that. It is about you facing the worst of yourself. Some call this shadow work, coming to terms with parts of your own personality and psyche that make the rest of you uncomfortable. If you choose this card, I suggest researching some Carl Jung. *

Center: Six of Pentacles. Generosity and Reciprocity. The card symbolizes generosity of both money (or other physical resources) and a generosity of spirit. There is also a sense of connection to Queen of Wands energy…you can’t be generous with others if you are tapped out yourself. Curate your resources, your health and your energy. When you feel and are abundant in resources it is easier to give generously, and more importantly, authentically of yourself. Doing something because you should or you have to is far more draining than the same thing given spontaneously without attachment to the should or have to part of it.

Right – Five of Cups. A card of melancholy, mourning and bittersweet endings. This feels oddly targeted. It lends itself the most of the three cards to that individuals connected, individuals within a joined matrix impression (like the stones in the video card) It boarders on that trope “I don’t know who needs to hear this…” This is targeted to those who have had a romantic relationship end recently. The advice is to honor the pain. Acknowledge it and feel it in order to move on to healing it. You don’t have to sweep sad, upsetting things under the rug. You don’t have to pretend hurtful things didn’t happen. Whatever the hurt or loss may be, walk through the hurt and the feelings at your own pace. It may not seem like it now, but a time will come when you can move on, even it is a bittersweet progress. Now the energy moves into a regretful letting go, a realization that it is time to move on. The rose quartz is gentle and loving. It can help heal heartbreak, then help attract new, healthy love when the time is right.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

Carl Jung

Tarot is an excellent tool and method for just the kind of self-discovery that Dr. Jung speaks of here. I’m not a psychologist, but I can help you learn to use Tarot for yourself or give you an individual advice and guidance reading that can help you with your self-discovery, personal enrichment, spiritual expression or heart-healing learning.

* The morning after this post first published, this showed up in my Twitter feed: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/04/29/integrating-the-shadow/

I recommend the article along with Mr. Auryn’s book Psychic Witch.


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YouChoose Interactive Tarot 14-19 Sept. 2020

Whew! At last. Our weather forecast finally includes some cooler nights, the first hint at my favorite time of year.

It is still that re-branding anniversary season, and the one card Tarot reading giveaway continues until Halloween. All you need to do to get the FREE reading is use the contact form on the special offers page.

Please stay tuned to the blog. More re-introduce-TaoCraft-anniversary season “Portfolio” posts are on the way.


Left: Queen of Wands. All queen cards represent leadership from a care-taking and nurturing standpoint. While kings were out defending the kingdom, the queens would care for the welfare of the subjects. From a more contemporary standpoint, this is like parenting, teaching and caring for other people. I see this card often in readings for caretakers like health care workers, teachers and so on. It often serves as a reminder to take care of yourself too. You are not as helpful or effective as a leader (of any type) if you are burned out and exhausted. This isn’t a call to over-indulgence, but it is permission to grab a nap, take a few minutes to meditate, indulge in that half hour online yoga class…that sort of thing.

Center: Ten of Wands. The Ten of Wands is as much short term encouragement as the Queen of Wands is advice for a marathon. The queen is lifestyle…the ten is looking at the short term situation. It’s a grind, and going to be that way for just a little while more. Ten is the largest of the number cards and is often associated with completion. I think of it as being similar to a ‘changing line’ in I Ching readings. In Taoist thought and the I Ching, anything in its most extreme holds the seed of the opposite, is primed and on the verge of a shift, a little like going over the top part of a Ferris wheel ready to go around again. The ten of wands, as the artwork suggests, is related to feeling overburdened or stressed. It’s not quite over yet. Sometimes this card asks you to evaluate what you should put down and what is needed to carry – a sort of a ‘thin your sticks’ idea. In this case, for this week, it is more of a ‘grind it out’ feeling. There is a sense of something nearing completion, so hang in there, do the do, grind the grind and soon you’ll be able to just toss the whole load down, job well done.

Right: Queen of Pentacles. There is something very similar in energy between this card and the Queen of Wands. I suspect it is also related to self-care, but with a different spin. Pentacles are related to the element earth and the practical, physical realm . This card brought several old adages to mind, heavy on the Benjamin Franklin. “A penny saved is a penny earned” makes me think that if you chose this card, this isn’t a week for impulse buys or unnecessary spending. At the same time, “penny wise and pound foolish” came through and in hand with the other advice. Don’t impulse buy, but don’t fail to invest in something good and needed. The energy around that part is about quality and value. Make the calculation between cost and quality. It brings to mind all of the DIY, low plastic and refillable products that the algorithms have figured out I like and are now filling up my socials…it costs more up front, but saves money in the long run. That is the kind of budgeting and money-wise thinking the card is suggesting. “Cleverness” and “Shrewd thinking” comes through too. Use your head in money matters this week. Be clever, not miserly.

Overall, three cards together, nurture your leadership, whichever style fits your situation the best. Take care of your self as you go along to keep yourself strong and well for the long haul. Grind through if you need too, then take time to recover when it is all said and done before you pick up your next project or obligation. Or works smarter, not harder. Use cleverness and wise investment to take care of yourself and those who depend on you.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot June 22 – 27

Take a moment and pick a card. Out of a whole week, shouldn’t you do that much for yourself? Deep breath. Don’t over think it. These readings look at the general energies that touch us all, so there is no wrong answer, no wrong choice. The message you need will get to you one way or another if you just allow yourself to listen for it. If you want a minute to think, pause the video, then restart for the reveal, but following your impulse instinct to the card that most calls to you, the card that draws you in is usually the best thing to do.

Left: Empress. The energy around this card is simple and straightforward. Get the heck outside. Wear a mask, keep your body two arm lengths away from any other body, and go experience for yourself that the world hasn’t entirely ended yet. If the weather is bad, at least let yourself look at some cute animal pictures on the internet.

Center: King of Pentacles. Things are starting to turn a little bit of a corner IF you do it smart. Mind your budget, use some real, logical, pragmatic planning. It isn’t all sunshine and roses work or finance-wise but the pressure may just give you a little wiggle room to make repairs and get ready for the second side of the storm. Don’t delay. Take advantage of opportunities as they come. Make no assumptions.

Right: Six of Cups. Don’t think things to death this week. Expectations are the enemy of intuitions. Life has its cycles. Tides ebb and flow. Seasons change. We just had the solstice, where the sun seems to pause, and nature holds her breath for a moment before the progression begins again. If you chose this card it is both permission and advice to pause. See things as they are without judgement or preconception. This is a moment of silence for you collect your thoughts and enjoy the moment with all the wide eyed innocence of a child at play.

Thank you for reading. If you haven’t already, please consider following the blog so you get all new posts in your email inbox (sign up in the right hand column on laptop, scroll WAAYYYY down to the bottom of the page on mobile. Have a great week!