A Beginning
Tag: wisdom
Tarot for Today: All of It
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
The Chariot
All potential emotions, cosmic wisdom, and profound compassion are travel sized for your convenience in the size and shape of a single human being.
That human being is you.
Mood and mindset move with you. You can’t drive away from your sadness. Your happiness always comes along for the ride. The past is inescapably in the Chariot with you, but it doesn’t hold the reins. The past doesn’t control the future, only this present moment can set the cause for future effects. Only this present moment can decide if scars from the past debilitate you or make your stronger.
Only in this present moment can you touch the rest of time.
Touch it gently, and with great kindness.
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Week Ahead: Choose Your Card
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
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Pause the video and think of your question or the week ahead. Choose your card, left or right. Restart the video to see the reveal and get your free tarot reading below.
7 of Cups: Choices are important and may feel stressful and overwhelming. Start with logic, but if all practical things seem equal, let your intuition and instincts lead the way. The up side of this is that multiple choices exist – at least you aren’t painted into a corner with few choices at all. When there are many options, especially when they all seem equal, it can all be very overwhelming. Sometimes being the one to have to make a hard choice alone is an overwhelming burdon, even when the choice seems clear. Choices and options can be intimidating in any combination of circumstances. If you are facing a big choice or have too many options, your head and heart have to work together. If logic fails, let your heart lead the way. In the end, clarity is crucial however your sort it out. Focus on the end. Choose your destination and the way to get there will become more clear.
King of Wands: Wands have to do with the fire element. King cards speak to leadership. Good leaders start with compassion and wisdom, but kings can’t rule without a kingdom. King cards often represent protecting and providing for the place where they rule. Wands can also symbolize your relationship with yourself. Remember your agency over your own life. Own it, mistakes and all. This is a good week to tap into as much main character energy as you can muster. Write your own story, lead your own inner kingdom. Combine wisdom and compassion with confidence and skill. Set boundaries and enforce them.
Thanks so much for reading! See you at the next sip!
Odinsday Oracle: Traitor
Yep – back to the the Odinsday Oracle title because Odin was the god of wisdom among many other things in Norse mythology and because I have an irrational enjoyment of alliteration. Wednesday will be oracle card day unless there is a “Learn With Me” series running. The next one of those starts September 20 when we look at the 36 cards of the Lenormand Tarot. I’ll be using the Healing Light deck specifically (Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler © 2020 Lo Scarabeo srl, via Cigna 110, 10155 Torino, Italy. All rights reserved, used by permission)
Today – back to the Alley. One of the many things I love about The Alleyman’s Tarot is the way Seven Dane Asmund not only gives broad permission for the deck to be customized by the purchaser, but it was intended for that, which perfectly fits the herd of cats that is Tarot readers at large. The whole point of the deck being mis-matched and eclectic from the very start is so cards can be added and subtracted and made into something entirely unique and intensely personalized to the reader using it. A master artist’s skill is evident in any medium, but the experience is synergistically and exponentially elevated for everyone when superior tools are used. It’s like the relationship between a master painter and superior pigments, a master chef and the freshest ingredients, or a master violinist and a Stradivarius violin.
My thing has been to separate the traditional-structure Tarot cards from the “Strange Suit” and “Other Arcana” cards. When they arrive, I’ll add the Alleyway Secret Oracle cards from the more recent Publishing Goblin LLC deck and use the sum total for our Odinsday Oracle posts. As always I’m grateful for permission to use the cards here and in social media posts.
This particular card is the “Traitor” from the mid-1800s Grand Etteilla deck in the French National Library.
The weird thing is that I’m in a little bit of an “I got nothin'” place with the card even though it speaks volumes to me on a personal extended family thing that I’m not going to talk about here because privacy (btw – I go just as hard protecting YOUR privacy, even with the ASK ME ANYTHING questions that are answered in the blog)
It doesn’t help that this is such a succinct, straightforward card. It reminds me of Corban Dallas’ one word answers in the Ruby Rhod scene.
The card is just what it says. Someone’s trust has been betrayed. Are you the betrayed or the betrayer? Where have you made mistakes and misteps either in placing your trust or allowing trust to be placed in you?
Today’s oracle Traitor resonates with Monday’s Five of Cups
No matter which direction it flows, disappointment and betrayal are difficult emotions to process. They are hard mistakes to learn from and all the more painful is there is choice or deliberate action as any part of the situation.
Sometimes you just have to sit with those feelings, experience the whole thing, maybe even wallow for a short while in order to reach a place where you can let the emotions go and things can start to change for the better.
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NEW! Crystal Cast Reading
TaoCraft is four years old today, but this new crystal cast reading is today years old today.
My Tarot career isn’t shiny and new, but these readings certainly are.
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
Today is the 4th anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot’s grand opening. Even though I’ve been doing reading cards since the early nineties, publicly under the nicknames Baihu and Modern Oracle since 2003 or so, in 2018 I re-named re-branded and re-launched everything as TaoCraft Tarot. I still hope to re-introduce everything because knowing is more comfortable than not knowing and I want everyone, new and old friends and followers alike, to feel comfortable and at home here.
At four years old, TaoCraft as a whole is like a well used favorite pair of jeans with all of the reasons for the name chang well out of the broom closet, but today I’d like introduce a brand shiny new kind of reading.
New to me, in any case. I’ve never offered these publicly before.
Casting type of divination isn’t new. Throwing coins to gain wisdom from the I ching is an ancient practice. People probably have been doing psychic readings with tossed objects since someone dropped some chicken bones on a patch of dirt. Charm casting had a moment on social media a few years ago. I had a charm reading once. It was – forgive me – charming. There is just no better word for it. At was insightful and helpful and kind which a credit to the reader more than the charms.
Those are all parts of the powerful roots that I hope to bring to the crystal casting experience. For those of you listening on the podcast, you
The unique part of this is not the casting and pure intuitive reading process, the unique part is the stuff I’ve put in my wise woman’s little reading bag of tricks, so to speak. Inspired in part by that charm casting reading, but also by Crystal Vaults crystal readings, Thom Pham’s Rune Cards of Mannaz and Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice (which I may add to my literal grab bag once they arrive from the kickstarter in a few months) I’m using black crystal chips for protection, clear quartz crystal chips for clarity and to amplify psychic energy, and lapis lazuli rune stones for wisdom, insight and integrity.
Looking at the example video above (on the blog and podcast website. If you are listening to the podcast I’ll put a link in the show description for you if you’d like to see the example) we see two lines which brings to mind converging paths or converging concerns. On is mostly black chips, the other mostly clear chips, with the two converging in the middle of the scattered chips. I get the impression this is about protecting your vision, guarding your insight until it is the right time. I ‘hear’ … hear meaning that the intuition comes as words instead of mental images … “don’t overshare”. If I apply this to my situation, it reminds me of the whole squirrel rave meme that has been popping up the schedule announcements and all the changes in planning over the spring and summer particularly. The advice is to “play things close to the vest” so to speak. I’ll explain more later, but I’m not going to announce schedules and plans so much anymore so things can adapt and be more agile over all. Oversharing seems like a bad idea in the short term future it seems.
See the X, the Gebo rune? It means gift, generosity, partnership…all hints of being in a flow of good things. The blank side rune hints at potential. I hear “blank slate” with great potential to choose and write the future being present on the path ahead.
See how that works?
I’m offering these at an introductory price until the end of November 2022 then they will cost the same as a one card Tarot reading. Please visit the blog and podcast website for details.
i know it isn’t exactly polite to ask for presents on your own business anniversary. Every year, I break my own rule of no cutsey pants promotions rule and do something to celebrate the deep authenticity and the anniversary of the TaoCraft web name and blog title. This year it was $1 Tarot readings. Now I’m asking for a little treat from you, not tricks involved. If you could comment on the blog or to the blog if your platform supports that – I’d really like to hear from you. What do you think of the crystal casting idea? What do like, hate, or want to see more of here in the blog and podcast? If I could trick or treat at your door tonight, I’d rather hear your thoughts than get a candy.
Thank you all for listening and reading. Thank you all for being here, and making the past four years so worthwhile.
Happy Halloween!
Spinoza’s Peacefulness
The Justice card and Spinoza’s peacefulness.
You wouldn’t necessarily expect a lady with a sword to be talking about a peaceful state of mind, but there it is.
Hello and welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Justice card from the major arcana.
At first blush this card has all of the usual admonishments to wisdom, fairness, balance and, well, justice. I was listening to news updates a few minutes ago, so of course all the current politics is top of mind as I saw the card.
But I am also reminded of a slightly older current event. Here in the United States, judges on the supreme court are called justices. The senate confirmation hearings for the newest justice, Kitanji Jackson, were publically broadcast and nerd that I am, I watched them. At least sort of. If I’m not listening to music, have a habit of letting the news play in the background during the day. Yes, it is a lot of repetition but enough bits and pieces make it through my foggy inattention to stitch together a picture of the day’s events. During the confirmation hearings, Justice Jackson said something about her early work as a defense lawyer that landed in my brain with a thud and has been there ever since. It was interesting on level because it was an epiphany out of context, an ah-ha moment apropos to nothing I was actually doing at the moment. It was interesting because it was an epiphany. I’d always suffered under the wrong understanding. She disabused the nation and history of that misunderstanding in a handful of sentences.
Defense lawyers.
Like many other people, I always had the vague impression they defended the criminal or the crime, in other words advocating for the wrong side.
Nope.
Defense lawyers defend the criminal’s civil liberties, not the crime. They protect the constitution and equal justice under law and the principle of innocent until proven guilty. THAT is what they were defending.
Of course in my brain, there is a cut scene right to Jim Carry’s character in the movie Liar, Liar where he screams legal advice over the phone to his most recalcitrant client and tells him to “STOP BREAKING THE LAW!”
It is an interesting, complex balance between protecting innocent society from criminal behavior and protecting equal justice from the very system that claims to have created that self-same equal justice.
All of which begs the question: what on earth does any of this have to do with a Tarot reading?
I have a hunch that this high-minded esoteric kind of thinking is why the Justice card has a reputation for presaging a fair and correct decision in any literal legal proceedings, especially in the prediction-oriented days of Tarot readings.
A number of readers comment on the similarities between images on the Justice card and on the High Priestess card. Justice is thought to be worldly while the High Priestess is of course purely spiritual. That last Sage & Stuff post about Venn diagrams might hold a clue for us today. With the similar visuals, what is the conceptual overlap between the cards?
Wisdom.
The High Priestess deals with mystery and esoterica while Justice is faced with nitty gritty action within the real world. Both act from a place of great wisdom, but move in different directions. One is wisdom drawn from ineffable mystery the other is wisdom applied to implacable reality and practicality.
As Baruch Spinoza reminds us, justice, wisdom and indeed peace all go hand in hand when he says “peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence and justice.”
Thank you so much for reading and listening. I appreciate any likes, follows, shares, questions or comments that you can spare. The blog and podcast are not monetized and depend on your support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where memberships, shop purchases, commissioned private email tarot readings and virtual coffees all support the creation of these (almost) daily Tarot readings for you.
Thank you again. See you at the next sip!
It’s There
You have the answers you need. They are in there. The trick is coaxing them out…and believing them once they surface.
Hi and welcome to Tao Craft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Queen of Cups. The queen is said to evoke the deepest aspects of all that the suit of cups symbolizes. In the Pamela Smith artwork we see here, the cup is bigger and fancier than the rest. There is almost always water imagery with the Queen of Cups, usually the ocean. This is no little pond or river. The Queen is barefoot, which to me symbolizes both connection and grounding. The queen keeps her connection with the earth while plumbing the depths of emotions and insights even if they are hidden in equally deep waters.
One way to sum it all up is “inner wisdom.”
As elegant, and wise and profound as the Queen of Cups energy may seem, this is no rescuer. The Queen isn’t here to tell you what you need to know. The Queen is here to tell you that you already know. Whatever answer you are looking for … it’s in there.
Sometimes the answers you already possess need a little finesse to bring them to the surface. Water gives more resistance than air. It’s physics in a way. If I’m understanding this correctly, when more surface area is exposed to the resistant force of air or water, more overall force is applied to the object.
Here is a thought experiment for you. Imagine a cafeteria tray laying flat at the bottom of a swimming pool. Even if it is the shallow end, if you lift it up flat it is harder to do than if you lift it up by the edge first. If you use both arms and yoink it flat out, it takes more effort than lifting it up by the edge by two fingers.
Deep inner knowing can be like that.
You have the answers you need. The trick is coaxing them out. It takes a little time and patience and subtlety. Be kind to yourself when you plumb these psychological depths
The harder trick is believing them when they do.
It’s in there. You have the answers you need deep inside, even if they are answers you don’t particularly want to hear.
Thank you for reading and listening. Any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions or comments you can give are always appreciated.
None of these free to access Tarot readings are monetized and depend on your support. If you enjoy these posts and podcasts, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page and consider becoming a Patron of the Tarot arts. The memberships and virtual coffees contribute to the web hosting and other costs of creating this (almost) daily blog and podcast
YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Circles of Life and Fortune
You choose the Tarot card. Pause the video or blogcast if you need some time. Then restart to see or hear the reveal and get your Tarot reading
Today’s YouChoose works the same as always: pick a card. You choose the card, you choose how to apply it. Pause the video if you want a minute to think about which card you want, then restart to see the reveal and hear the card interpretation.
To keep the reveal a surprise (because I know you have good instincts and will pick the right card for you) the video will stand alone without a transcript so there is no peeking.
Stay tuned for more short sip Tarot reading posts and an update about Spring ’22 hours.
Thanks for watching!
Comments and questions are moderated but welcome below. Select replies post in the blog.
Today’s Tarot: Apply Liberally
Before you get your underwear in a bunch, liberally in this case is used in its dictionary definition, not in a politically knee jerk one.
In other words “in large or generous amounts”
Justice is a large, complex, difficult, ever-changing topic, and getting more so every day. No wonder in the prediction-oriented early days, the card was simplified as an omen about a literal legal issue. Tarot doesn’t pretend to have all the answers to anything this big, and it certainly can’t predict with certainty the outcome of any legal issue.
It can, however, remind us of key ingredients for Justice writ large: wisdom & compassion. It can hint at how energies are flowing, or alternatively, how to nudge energies in the direction you want them to flow.
Martin Luther King, jr told us that the arc of the moral universe is long but bends toward justice.
From what I’ve seen, it only bends so because of the weight of generations of good people, the weight of untold millions of individual acts of kindness and wisdom pulling it in that direction.
Today’s Tarot: Tricky Beginning
The trick to getting started is a willingness to laugh at your own mistakes
“A beginning is a very delicate time” – movie adaptation of Dune by Frank Herbert
Many cards seem to have two tracks, two threads of meaning. The two aspects aren’t always related. The fool card has always been associated with new beginnings and taking the leap of faith needed to start something brand new. It seems like a chicken and the egg sort of feedback loop: the Fool card means beginnings because it is the first card in the deck, and the Fool is placed first in decks because it means beginnings. Outside of this, the Fool has been associated with play, humor and a court jester sort of character.
Ted Andrews combines a little bit of both by associating coyote with the card. Coyote has a reputation of being a trickster. That touches on the idea of laughter and play. Coyote has a touch of creation, the start of something new. Mr. Andrews’ interpretation “wisdom and folly” reminds us that beginnings can be a tricky thing. At the beginning of a journey we might head in exactly the wrong direction, a classic comedy trope. The good news is that we can laugh at out mis-starts, back up and start again. Including a little lightheartedness makes that whole process easier. If we use wisdom, we can avoid the folly. But if we end up a little foolish, laughter makes it better. Admitting folly and re-starting is certainly better than bashing forward out of foolish pride and allowing an unwanted destination to show us how tricky a beginning can be.
So if the Fool feels like the card for you today, begin. Take a leap of faith in yourself and begin. Choose your first steps and first direction wisely. Think of this as planting the seeds that the Seven of Pentacles will sow later, so plant good stuff. But if you catch yourself in a mistake, laugh and play your way back to the drawing board, and create a new beginning.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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