Tag: chariot

A little love for here and now

You know that light bulb that has been on since the early 1900s at that fire department?

According to wikipedia, the Centennial Light has been in almost continuous operation since 1901 (longer than the RWS Tarot has existed!) with untold shifts of first responders who can attest to it. It has never burned bright – maybe 40 watts when it was brand new – but it has burned long.

That is the kind of energy this week seems to have.

The here and now deserves our love and attention just as much as our dreams and aspirations do.

The four of pentacles is the fading energy card. Pentacles have to do real world practical things, often money, wealth or career. The four in particular has to do with watching the budget and minding your money, always a good thing. But taken to extreme, it can also symbolize greed or hoarding based in fear. The fact that this card is in the fading position hints that the issue around physical things or monetary / budget issues are likely to be short-lived. The advice is to not let fear drive decisions this week. Logic and practicality is always the primary advice for money matters.

In other words, be careful with the budget, use logic and practical knowledge and don’t take financial advice from Tarot cards.

The Chariot is our current energy card, and the core of this week’s message. It is from the major arcana so even if it is a low-wattage kind of week the ideas here still carry importance. The message may speak softly, but it really really means what it says.

The Chariot card is classically about focus and attention to the present moment. I typically see it during more high energy, high intensity times, but the message today is still the same: Pay attention.

I often call this the ‘test pilot’ card. If you are flying a supersonic jet, you have to keep your mind on what you are doing as you are doing it or bad things are going to happen and happen fast. Whenever you see the Chariot card pull your head out of the past or future or wherever else your thoughts are lingering and be mindful of the present moment. Be as fully in this moment as you can be.

As I write this I am reminded of Polnareff and his Silver Chariot stand from the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime. I have no remote idea what that has to do with anything, but if it resonates with you, you are welcome to the connection.

There we have body and mind. The four of pentacle makes a point about the physical realm. The Chariot makes a point about mental focus. Now the Hermit, also a major arcana card, brings spirit and emotions into the mix.

The Hermit card almost always has a lamp or light of some kind on it. It can symbolize enlightenment or wisdom in a high spiritual sense. In this time, it feels like the wattage is turned down on that too. The Hermit’s light is not aiming for ultimate truth, but rather simple illumination.

Whatever your emotions are, point the light at them and see them for what they are. Accept them as they are. You don’t have to act on them. You don’t even necessarily have to express them, unless you want to.

Whatever they are, let them see the light of day. Are you happy? Enjoy! Are you angry, anxious, afraid, or stressed? That’s OK too. Let the so-called negative emotions have their moment in the light too. Accept that they exist and are what they are. Abide with the tough stuff for a little while. You may be surprised how simple acknowledgement and allowing them to be will help uncomfortable emotions to simply dissolve. Or at least lessen intensity for a while.

The trick is not to let that turn into dwelling or energizing them. That’s where we get back to the central message of the Chariot again – of bring our mind back from whatever caused the difficult feelings and refocus on the present moment.

In this present moment, I have a few fast reminders for us. The comments are open to everyone here on SageWordsTarot.com plus there is the contact form on the Ask Me Anything page where you can, you know, ask me anything. There is a chance you might get a one card Tarot reading in reply or that your questions might inspire a Q&A blog post. Of course anything that goes into the blog is always very, very edited to protect privacy.

Also a reminder that none of this is monetized. I don’t see a penny from any advertisements you see, so these free Tarot readings are fueled by you through private Tarot reading purchases, paid subscriptions and virtual coffee tips not to mention plenty of real world coffee too.

Thanks so much for reading! I’ll see you at the next sip!

CrystalCast for 9 Jan 23

Echo and the Bunnyment were right: Bring on the Dancing Horses.

It’s weird, but it happens. I don’t think that’s what it is talking about, though.

Hi and welcome to Sage’s Short Sips podcast previously known as TaoCraft Tarot Podcast previously previously known as Clairvoyant Confessional podcast.

I know. I know. All the name changes are probably pretty kamakaze from a marketing and social media perspective, but I’m all about the Tarot and intuition. I’m letting go of the marketing part of all of this. Business, yes. Professional, yes. Crazy protective of our privacy, yes. Stressing over promotion? No thanks. You can read all about the name thing in the updated Meet Your Reader page on the website so I won’t get into that here.

Today is a Monday, and the start of the first full work week after the New Year’s Day observance last week. Instead of drawing a Tarot card, let’s work with a little pure intuition. I call this crystal casting. It is inspired by a combination of charm cast readings, rune stone readings and a video about reading crystal chips from one of my favorite online information sources, crystalvaults.com.

As always when I say ‘hear’ it means that the intuitive hunch comes in the form of mental words, sounds or songs. When I say ‘see’ it means that hunch comes as a mental image.

Looking at the pattern of quartz chips, obsidian chips and lapis runestones, I ‘hear’ “the weight is in the future” which sounds like cryptic nonsense I’ll grant you. I think that is meant to point our attention to the future so we can be forward looking this week. That isn’t to say that this is predicting any doggone thing. We should always be rooted in the present moment. This is just letting us know that this is a good energy environment for planning, thinking, dreaming, creating, and planting seeds for the future.

The rune stones are to the left of most of the smaller stones. They are obviously the bigger, heavier stones as you can see in the video on the blog post and on the TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel. (The Sage Words Tarot YouTube is coming soon.) That clustering of the heavier stones to the left, which I read as the path ahead of us. You can orient the scattering of stones in time any way you like – or not at all. I read Tarot spreads from right to left simply because that is the first Tarot layout I learned and how we were taught in an aura reading class that I took once. It seems right, and it stuck. But like I said, the orientation itself is arbitrary. The important thing is to have those sort of details clear in your mind and clear in your intention before you start any given intuitive reading. So for this week, the weight of the reading is forward facing.

The majority of the rune stones are blank, which always seems to be the case. I take that to symbolize the potential in the time ahead. There is always potential in the time ahead, so that fits.

The one rune we do see is Ehwaz. It can be associated with literal travel, but it is also associated with progress, moving forward. The rune is connected to horses. Horses typically move forward. They can move backward, but it isn’t natural or instinctive and they have to be deliberately trained and guided to do it. Dressage horses prance all over the place, but the fancy rich people dancing horses aren’t very common. Horses going backwards is unusual and kind of weird looking, but it happens. Horses move forward. Think Chariot Tarot card from the major arcana. The energy of this week is forward oriented. We should look forward, plan forward, & move forward.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. No matter what you title it, a blog and a podcast aren’t much without YOU, the audience. I appreciate you. Thank you for your support.

See you at the next sip!

Path Through the Week

At first I thought the Hermit was a reading I’d done for a person, but actually it was today’s short on YouTube. There is a LOT of overlap between the blog and the channel, but not 100%. Following the blog is the best way to get everything, especially blog exclusive, print only content – but if you can spare a like, sub, or share on the ‘tube I’d sppreciate it!

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Heads Up Display

Sorry for the slight delay getting this up today. Did a little impromptu website setup for the hubster’s new site PGH Tai Chi.

There are reasons why my Tarot work is named what it is. Taoist philosophy has been a big part of who I am and how I live since I first learned of it in the late 1980s. That in turn lead me to Tai Chi and Wushu, which is where we met and the rest, as they say is history. We taught martial arts together and even owned a martial arts school for a time. Although a medical concern has prompted my retirement from teaching and competition, it is a deep pleasure to return to practice and to see my husbands progress in his martial arts teaching career. I am grateful for all that I’ve received from Chinese culture and how it has enriched my life. I stand in gratitude and solidarity with the AAPI community. Between my southern evangelical upbringing and what I’ve learned from exoteric Taoism, I’ll choose the Way of Virtue every time. Xie Xie.

That being said, back to this week’s cards.

Take a look at the cards in the video. Pause the video if you would like a moment to think. Restart when you are ready to see the card you choose. Or just pick quick and roll with it. Either way, I send all good wishes for your week.

All three cards together: Heads up, pay attention, look for change and be ready to act. I don’t know why, but the word “latchkey” comes through. If that makes any sense to anyone, I’d like to hear what that is about.

Left: The Chariot. This is the jet pilot card. This week life may need a heads-up display. The advice is to pay attention. If you aren’t into jet piloting, maybe a pirate will do…keep a weather eye on the horizon, changes may be coming. Pay attention to subtle signals or synchronicities that can give you valuable information for the path ahead.

Center: Death. Remember the Simpsons episode? You gotta watch out for that happy squirrel card before you have to worry about the death card being a literal thing. It is all about change. Nevermind the horizon, change feels like it is on the doorstep, and the Grim Reaper probably wants some chocolate hobnobs in a nod to Dave Turners most excellent How To Be Dead book series. Read it. You’ll need it this week from the way this card feels. Need it meaning a good laugh. Death means change. My mind is strongly drawn to the humor of the books. Stop, drop and roll with it. A spoonful of humor helps the changing go down in much more palatable way. Not all change is bad. Keep your head – and your sense of humor.

Right: Knight of Swords. Knights are action. Swords denote action – thoughtful, incisive, precise, daring action. In martial arts there is a saying that you fight like you train. If you pay attention, if you don’t fear change, if you put your heart and mind into what you do (especially if it is something you love to do) then when you are thrown into a situation where action is needed quickly, your muscles and reflexes are well trained to act. Practice, prepare, think so that if the unexpected happens you can act quickly, the right thing to do will flow from you.

All in all, heads up – Pay attention to details, prepare for change, prepare for action.