Tag: wheel

Ask Me Anything: Does He Love Me?

Use the contact form on the Ask Me Anything page to – you guessed it – ask me anything. I’ll answer in a blog post like this one. It might contain a Tarot reading. It might not. But it will be intuition based and free. Unless your question is spam, religious, or inappropriate. Then it will be deleted. Other than that – ask me anything.

Q: I would like to know if the man I am currently in love with loves me and if we will ever be in a serious committed relationship.

Hi *****

Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, I have both good news and bad news. You may not like this answer at all. It might make you furiously angry. Hopefully, over time, the reading will prove more helpful than not – even if it triggers a few feels right now.

The other good news is your question is letting me showcase the new TaoCraft Path layout that is taking the place of my old Modern Oracle/energy flow layout. What follows is exactly like a paid, private email reading, which means you are getting a $30 Tarot reading for free. So maybe it won’t be so bad after all.

The first thing we need to do is give everyone a reminder about how Tarot really works. It is NOT like what you see in the movies or on TV. It doesn’t predict the future because of simple cause and effect. Your choices and actions are what really matters. What you do makes the so-called “prediction” happen or not.

Relationship questions like this are even more complicated. You have no control over what your love interest feels or does. There is only one person in all the universe who can answer if the man you love loves you too – and that is the man himself. All this reading can do is give you insight and understanding and ideas about how to approach this relationship and your feelings about this relationship.

Which begs the question – why are you asking a stranger on the internet if he loves you? Have you told him how you feel?

If you are asking the question because things have been said, things have been left unsaid or neglected or you have any reason to doubt him – we need to look at the cards to find ideas and encouragement for you to talk to HIM about this. You have every right to be safe and happy. If he isn’t right for you, then you need to know from him so you can move on and do whatever you need to do in order to be safe and happy.

If you think maybe he does love you and you are afraid of rejection, afraid of finding out that he doesn’t – welcome to club! You are facing the biggest, most consequential feeling that human beings can experience. Good for you for giving this the care and attention it deserves! Let’s look at the cards and see if we can find you the courage to talk to HIM about this.

Either way, Tarot can’t predict if you will ever be in a serious, committed relationship because it all depends on if you two ever talk about your feelings and it depends on the things in his mind and in his heart – things no other person can know or control.

But now let’s move on to the part that is just like a private email reading.

First we talk about the general pattern of the cards and how they fall in the overall layout. This layout is read from the bottom up, and right to left – exactly the opposite of the way we read words. That helps disrupt logic & language habits, and encourages a purely intuitive reading.

Your card today are:

  • The Past and its influence: Five of Wands
  • The Energy Now: The Lovers
  • Advice & Cautions: The Tower
  • The Greater Path: Knight of Cups
  • The Lesser Path: Wheel of Fortune

In the Tarot deck, there are 56 minor arcana cards but only 22 major arcana cards. Minors outnumber majors slightly more than 2 to 1. So when the majors outnumber minors in any layout it is usually significant.

In your case, I think the major cards dominating has two messages.

First and foremost, this speaks to the intensity of emotion at play. This is a big, important, potentially very wonderful thing for you. There is a lot on the line. It is ok to feel big feelings about that. Big emotional energies get the big energy cards.

The other message is that this is a big energy time for everyone, especially here in the U.S. Big political things are happening, there is a comet in the sky, two big storms have just passed, seasons are changing – some of the charged emotions and worries may be coming from the outside. Intuitive people feel resonant energy as if it is their own sometimes. You can see it in physics. If you sound a tuning fork at a particular pitch, a bell at that same pitch can vibrate and create sound even though the bell hasn’t been touched.

Almost every five card reading I’ve done lately has this three major arcana and two minor arcana pattern. That repeating pattern for many unrelated people and readings tells me that a general, environmental, Zeitgeist sort of energy is at play in this reading too. The energy environment may be amplifying your worries a bit. The advice in that situation is simply don’t be impulsive. Be sure before you act. Trust your instincts, but be gentle and patient as much as you can with everyone – both yourself and your love interest.

The Past: Five of Wands

Wands symbolize the element of fire, passions, inner philosophy, and your relationship with yourself. This card gives a feeling of inner conflict. Although the five of wands has to do with conflict it also hints at a positive outcome after that conflict if you put in some effort. If we connect that to relationships, if you have had past bad experiences, don’t assume the same things of this person. Put in your work to be fair to the other person. Be open, aware – don’t be fooled again, but neither should you make assumptions or expect the worst. “Don’t assume” steps forward for emphasis. It’s very important not to jump to conclusions about this person. Again that brings my mind to what we said earlier about talking to him. That kind of direct communication is essential to avoid assumptions or false expectations that may be based only in old bad experiences. Don’t let conflicted emotions get in the way of clear understanding.

Current energy: The Lovers

The Lovers card is one of the most misunderstood. I wouldn’t blame you if you took one look at this and though ‘woo hoo! he loves me and we’re getting married!”

That’s not it at all. It doesn’t say anything about how he feels. It has nothing to do with committed stable relationships (that’s the two of cups, by the way, not the lovers card)

The lovers is about a lusting type of desire, and it can be about a passionate desire for anything, not just a romantic partner. Lust burns bright. Love lasts long. Follow your passion, yes, but that can’t be everything. This card shows how much this relationship has captured you heart and mind. Don’t forget you. Don’t lose yourself. If you love him as you say, then give him the best of you – a whole, healthy you. Don’t forget all the things that make you into the right match for him.

Advice & Cautions: The Tower

It is very common for major arcana cards, like the lovers and the tower to have multiple threads of meaning. The tower most commonly can mean sudden news or an unexpected thing that throws everything into chaos. Adaptability is key in surviving chaos. Think about what you would do, how you would react to whichever way things go with this man. If he doesn’t return your love and doesn’t want a long term relationship – as terrible as that would feel, what would you DO in response? And, crucially, if he returns your feelings and wants to deepen your relationship, as wonderful as that would be what would you want to DO next?

Another less well known meaning is perspective. If you climb to the top of a tower, you can see the big picture, even when things are chaos at the ground level. To understand and better know how to adapt to unexpected things, to understand and better know what you want to do, look for the big picture. Don’t focus only on the relationship. Give time and attention to all aspects of life.

The Greater path: Knight of Cups

This is the direction most open to you, and most likely to lead to a good outcome. Cups cards have to do with the element of water, and symbolize emotions. Knight cards denote action. There is a feeling of smooth sailing, and calm action. Don’t approach this with anxiety. Approach this with calmness and love. Very old interpretations of the card have to do with a message coming to you or travel over water. Calm, cool water comes to mind. Be at peace. You being in a calm, steady emotional place will help things go better. Message is key. Action is key. Talking and communicating with this person is key. Talking and communicating about strong emotions is difficult, but that is the path to a good outcome.

Lesser Path: this is open to you if you choose it, but it isn’t the way things are headed naturally right now.

The Wheel is a card of change. Things will change naturally, whether you do anything or not. This feels like the path of not communicating. This feels like the path things would take if you choose not to talk with him about how he feels. This feels like a path of inaction, just “let the chips fall where they may”

If you don’t talk with him about how you feel and how he feels – then what are the chances he takes that silence to mean that you don’t care?

There is a chance of a good outcome here, but not talking feels riskier than taking a chance on heartfelt, kind, gentle conversations.

Summary

In all of my private readings I end with a psychic summary that lets any last intuitive messages come in no matter whether they have to do with your question and cards or not.

If you feel nervous about talking about big emotions, flower aromatherapy like rose and lavender might help. Also the stone blue lace agate is very soothing to anxiety and connects to the throat chakra to support communication.

I go back to the Lovers card. Keep career, work, health, hobbies, friends – keep a total life balance in the picture. Try not to focus on the romance relationship so much that you lose touch with other things. Especially keep an eye on career, and keep in touch with close friends.

I get a flash of a teapot, which sometimes is symbol for grandmother.

Again the color light blue comes through as something helpful. A flash of a light blue jar candle with a linen or light citrus scent.

And there the energy steps back.

I hope that helps!

Best wishes to both you and your loved ones.

TaoCraft Path Tarot readings by email are available to order HERE, no appointment needed

Heal, Contemplate, Release – again.

Tarot reading for the week: it will get better when you get to the point that you can let it go.

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Hello and welcome to the Energy Path reading for the week of September 4 – 11. I’m glad you are here.

Change and cycles are still a thing this week, but in a different way. It feels like it has moved from a general environment thing to being more personal advice. The lingering Moon card energy from the past few weeks feels like it has turned a corner, ebb is beginning to flow. The mental image here is outgoing tide, not at all the “slack water” energy from a few weeks ago.

At the same time there is emphasis on change. Now it has shifted to a more intense, personal, evolutionary change more than broad, gentle, slow, tectonic shift natural cycles.

Two other things come to mind, generally.

First, we are responsible for who we are now. Yes, life has been hard. Yes, you have experienced trauma of all sorts. Yet, you can heal, you can rise again, you can overcome. Destruction becomes disappointment becomes release.

It gets better when you get to the point where you can, at last, let it go.

“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” – Alan Watts

Second, as I listen to my favorite darkwave playlist-

If we choose who we are now, why do I and others choose dark, goth-ish, witchy, INTP, neon cyberpunk self-expression.

Yes, I said choose.

We could be all bright and karen and hot girl summer if we wanted to do that – but we don’t.

And we are doing right by ourselves and our souls and for society at large by doing so. I am reminded of the adage that religion is for people who want to avoid hell while spirituality is for those who have already been there. Perhaps the kindest people are the ones unafraid of the dark because they have walked there so often before.

Sometimes, the most revolutionary thing you can do for your shadow side is to admit it exists.

Why revel in what some call darkness? Consider the alternative: false, toxic positivism.

The Ten of Swords truthfully and directly acknowledges our injuries and our circumstances. The figure stays face down and flat to allow the profound change of either death or healing to begin.

This phase is fading. We’ve been down, so to speak, but the tide is turning. It is time to once again rise.

We rise, not fully transformed, but with lingering disappointment. Traces of old experience can cling. Now is a time of contemplation, of coming to understand what happened and is happening. Swords may be intellect and action, with a certain physicality to it all, if not from our physical person then from our social environment. The Five of Cups is about the emotional aftermath of whatever the Ten of Swords represents for you.

Growing energies are the Wheel. This is the change of the death card plus the cyclic nature of the Moon card plus the transformation energy of the Magician card all rolled into one. We are coming to a potent time of change, and a potent time of choosing the person we will be five minutes from now.

We are under no obligation to be the person we were before but we are under every obligation to choose who we will become five minutes from now.

Cruel or kind, the choice is yours.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Window Into Fall

https://youtu.be/ArjkwMHU0G8

My Jedi Padawan has surpassed me.

They are an amazing artist and recently posted a Trevor Henderson inspired digital image where a sideways stoplight onto a local bridge had eyes. We talked about how the bridges are a liminal space. “Liminal” is an idea that has stepped forward in a big way lately. I’ve had Laura Zarkoff’s book Weaving the Liminal in my to-read que since it was released. I suspect the book’s time has come. I look forward to starting it this evening. Perfect for a cup of spice coffee and a fall equinox evening. I’m looking forward to it.

Today’s cards have a forward looking feel. It feels like the equinox energy this morning is gently holding a portal open for us, holding a space for the liminal, a timeless portal and a moment to stop and absorb the magick.

Whenever you see or read this, I hope the cyberspace preserves the feel of this space in time for you to reach out to the card that is most helpful to you right here, right now.

You all know I’m a writer at heart. At first it felt like it would be a stand alone video. That feeling seldom survives the posting process. Fingers touching a keyboard is a powerful, instant portal to energy and intuition.

Four of Cups: An idea is coming, but it needs you to create the space for it to arrive. Take a break, mental or physical. Quiet allows the sudden insight you want and need to materialize. It may be sudden, but it might be quiet, as spirit so often is. Noise, day to day activity and crowded thoughts drowns out the whispers of spirit, intuition and deep guidance.

The Wheel: A tumbling busy time is on the horizon. Where are you putting on the brakes, where are you stopping or sabotaging yourself? What change do want and need but at the same time resist? This card is reminding you that busy and change can be very good. Let the good times roll!

The Devil: Naivete can be dangerous. A little cynical can be a good thing. Wallowing in negativity is never healthy in the long run, but being rolled by life isn’t a good thing either. Heads up, eyes open. Take off those rosy sunnies you’ve been hiding behind and take life by the big hairy horns and it might not be so bad as all that after all. Make friends with your shadow side, so you are not a victim of shadow or light either one.

Conspicuous In Its Absence

When I do a reading, the first thing is to talk with you about your question, topic of concern, or you OK for an open reading. Then we shuffle the cards, put them into the layout you ordered (by email, you get a photo of the actual real life cards, by phone I’ll list them out for you, or whenever in-person readings come back, you can see them for your self.

Once the cards are ready, the first part in all formats bigger than a one-card, is what I call the “general pattern” where we look for any clues from the patter of cards taken as a whole. One of the things we look at is the number of major vs minor arcana cards. Of the minor arcana cards, we look at what suits are showing and how many of each suit are there.

“Negative space” is an idea from art and sculpture. The art-thing itself sets shapes and boundaries in and around the space it occupies. Kind of like a paper snowflake where the cut out parts are shapes too. Like the hearts in this one (Found this on a Google search. you can get the pattern at papersnowflakeart.com)

Sometimes, if three of the four minor arcana suits are showing, intuition will pull toward the suit that is missing as if it is being conspicuous in it’s absence and is sending a message by not showing up.

2020 has been a heck of a decade, and hindsight is 20/20 too. When we look back what can we learn? Surprisingly, I found one of those negative space, conspicuous in its absence kinds of messages when I looked back at the broad swath of cards that have shown up in the past year, a couple of patterns emerge. Early in the year, there was a preponderance of Pentacle cards, with their earthy, practical, pragmatic advice. The message was to not judge ourselves too harshly as we did what needed done during the early days of the covid pandemic. If it took pajama days and pandemic snacks to cope, so be it. If it took nuts-and-bolts, one foot in front of the other suiting up and masking up and putting food on the shelves….well, let’s just say the rest of us are very grateful. Then things shifted. Later in the Summer and Fall Cups cards stepped forward with a shift toward the intuitive and the spiritual. Wheels and worlds, Towers and Magicians, even the Devil card (Shadow Side in the Witches Tarot deck) put in an appearance.

But no Death card.

At least not in any prominent, repeating, attention-getting way. Given the profound tragedy the pandemic has brought and continues to bring, it is a wonder that the card didn’t show up every other day. With so many lost, this year has brought profound and permanent change to so, so many families.

Early in the year, there was a lot of zeitgiest, general-culture, general-society energies. If we look at the Death card from that perspective, then its absence makes more sense. Not intending to be callous toward the worst that has happened, if we remove tragedy from the card (as is its actual use and meaning….we all know the card actually isn’t a harbinger of literal death)

The Death card is about permanent change. When permenant change is conspicuously absent, maybe the big scary change isn’t so permenant on a large scale cultural level.

We’ll never regain and never forget those who were lost. There may be permanent scars from all of this. But in the end, in the very very long run, life just might get back to OK.