Knitting together last week’s posts about imagination and accurate Tarot predictions.
I like to knit.
Sometimes that means making stuff out of yarn.
Sometimes it means weaving together disparate ideas in a Tarot reading. Or a Tarot blog post.
I’m doing both lately. It’s that Elfcon 5 gift making time of year, but I’d also like to knit together the past couple of blog posts. We’ve looked at a couple of narrow topics, now lets connect them back into the grand scheme of things a little bit.
The grand scheme is how Tarot and intuition actually works – at least the way I go about it.
My readings do not predict the future. So that kind of “accuracy” doesn’t factor into things even if it were possible, which it isn’t for all of those cause and effect sort of Heisenberg uncertainty-ish sort of reasons. In this case “accurate” means “it contains some sort of useful insight or idea.”
Can we get insight or inspiration from Tarot and imagination? Yes – absolutely. It’s about the most human thing I can think of to do.
Let’s go back to our imagination as intuition example – think of an elephant taking a shower.
When I first learned this concept in an email conversation with Chris Fleming, my first thought was a Babar-like, highly antropomorphized cartoon elephant in a cartoon human shower with a big white towel wrapped around it’s waist a la movie men’s locker room.
Was this a prediction? No, of course not. Was it accurate? Yes – it was whimsical and playful at a time in life where I needed a reminder to be more playful and find more humor in life.
In response to last week’s post, a client said she visualized a real life elephant being lovingly cleaned by an attentive caretaker and seeming to enjoy the experience.
Like a Tarot card in the context of a layout, this image in the context of the person who saw it is a beautiful message from and for a beautiful person.
This person is a natural caretaker in a care taking profession. Her visualization is a tremendous validation that she is on the right path in her work, and even if they don’t say it her clients appreciate her as much as her imaginary elephant was enjoying its shower.
It is also the classic reminder for caretakers to allow themselves to be cared for or at least give themselves a little TLC. It could be a reminder to let yourself be that happy elephant.
These aren’t “accurate predictions” relative to physical events. To make Tarot or psychic readings into that is to strip it of all its depth, emotion, beauty and humanity. Making Tarot and psychic readings about predictions is like taking a living breathing elephant and turning it into a two dimensional rubber stamp shadow image of an elephant.
Imagination is our window to intuition. Tarot is the battery sparks intuition. Together, they let us see marvelous things far beyond physical predictions.
Are you ready for something more advanced than pool ball toy predictions? Are you ready to glimpse the ideas that help you create your future rather than (maybe) predict it? Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens.
Imagination speaks many languages, and goes by many names. So does intuition. You could say they are twins.
Imagination is the portal to your intuition. Intuition enters our consciousness through the doorway of our imagination.
Imagine something. Imagine anything. Conjure up anything – a sight, a sound, a memory – anything. Psychic Chris Fleming uses the example of an elephant in a shower when he teaches about psychic ability and intuition. Let’s use that as an example. We had an email conversation once a long time ago. He said I could use his teaching point if I gave him credit. So here we go.
Imagine an elephant taking a shower.
Now what form does your imagination take? Is it a realistic elephant in a river spraying water on itself through its trunk? Or is it a cartoon elephant standing on two legs in a human shower and a gigantic towel wrapped around its waist? Is it a memory of watching Dumbo as a child? Or is it music that reminds you of elephants in a circus? (or my favorite, the song by Tame Impala)
Imagination is telling. By letting our daydreams and earworms flow, the intuitive answers you want just might come along for the ride.
Ace cards carry the essence of the suit. Today, the ace is carrying the water element association for cups, which is symbolic of intuition and deep spiritual wisdom (why, some say, the King, Queen and Page of Cups are typically portrayed near oceans. Deep water = deep wisdom & deep insights.
Most of all water flows. Let the imagination happen.
Thanks for reading! Next up, more Learning and Lenormand! See you at the next sip.
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund all rights reserved, used with permission.
If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration
Nikola Tesla
I’m not saying that tuning forks can be used in any sort of psychic way. I’m saying that psychics sorta work like tuning forks – sometimes. I’m not saying that this science explains psychics or that there is any kind of causal relationship here. I’m using this objective physics demonstration as an analogy to describe and communicate something a psychic or intuitive might experience.
K?
So all of you pedantic skeptics out there just listen for a minute. Science is the best method we have for figuring stuff out – especially physical world stuff. But in 500 plus years of years of screwing around and writing stuff down as Adam Savage put it, science hasn’t wrapped its head and arms entirely around everything, particularly when it comes to things like consciousness, philosophy, and other internal, subjective esoterica. But that, again, is a post for another day.
For now, for all of you wonderful, terrific people who have been following the main website blog, to you first and foremost, I want to thank you. I know everybody says it, but really I couldn’t do this without you. That goes triple for my private clients and ko-fi Tarot Table members. I really REALLY couldn’t do this without you. Thank you, and thank you again.
image: bitmoji
Second – sorry for all the repetition headed your way. I want to use the next week of free-for-all posts to introduce Sage Words Tarot (plus some faves from the Modern Oracle / TaoCraft Tarot archives) to the paid subscription part of the Ko-Fi blog and Substack newsletter.
Which explains why I’m back to talking about resonance again today.
Looking back to late 2019 and very early 2020, it really is remarkable how many similar questions came to Tarot readings. It seems like there was a whole cadre of people who felt like something was wrong but couldn’t quite figure out what. They felt disconnected and worried about the future for no real reason. Those were the advanced students. They were the perceptive folks who sensed the storm on the horizon that we all were about to face: pandemic lockdowns.
To no one’s surprise that pattern continued for a year or so.
Reading after reading combined with a healthy dose of my own experience, it became pretty clear what was going on. All of the collective fear, anger and anxiety about the pandemic combined with the political climate in the United State was creating a toxic energy brew that was ringing a lot of intuitive bells regardless of our awareness of it.
I like the word zeitgeist, that German word for the mood and spirit of a time, or in other words the energy of the time. Sometimes energy sensitive people will vibe with the energy around them so strongly it feels like it is coming from the inside. Outside energy makes their own tennis balls bounce so to speak.
Please, take a moment and watch the publicly available demonstration on YouTube with the tuning forks. When the conditions are just so, the untouched tuning fork vibrates from the air pressure – the sound – created from the other tuning fork of the same frequency. The second tuning fork is energy sensitive. The second tuning fork wasn’t being whacked by a mallet. It was only being whacked by the air pressure waves created by the OTHER tuning fork that was being whacked by the mallet. The tennis balls are only hanging around so you can see when the second tuning fork is moving or not.
To put it in woo woo terms instead of physics terms…the second tuning fork was reading the energy environment. The tennis balls are like Tarot cards helping to make the whole energy thing more visible and understandable.
Now imagine a whole bunch of tuning forks. Only a few have tennis balls to make the energy a little more visual. Imagine the crowd of tuning forks all have a wide range of sensitivity. Some vibrate to sound a little easier than others. Now imagine the tuning fork that is getting whacked with the mallet is bigger and much louder than usual. It puts out much stronger air pressure sound waves. The non-whacked (resonant) tuning forks all around are vibing stronger than usual, and the ones that usually don’t react to the environmental sound start to vibrate.
Like I said, this isn’t any sort of explanation, just a broad analogy. So it isn’t perfect, but it is telling that matching frequencies are needed for the resonant phenomenon to happen. Moods and emotions can be as contagious as a new virus. When the world tipped into pandemic, all of the fear and worry zipped around the globe right along with it. Because the frequency was one of fear, anger and anxiety, that is the emotions the energy sensitives felt. That’s how the vibe felt to them.
Psychic sensitives didn’t predict it – they just heard the sound at a lower volume and their tennis balls started bouncing before everyone else’s. They read the energy and picked up on the zeitgeist early in the process.
Go back to the video demonstration. Now imaging what would happen if you put a big bell jar over top of the resonant second tuning fork with the tennis balls. You would dampen the sound and possibly stop the second tuning fork from sounding at all.
That’s great if you want to shut out an uncomfortable sound or metaphoric emotion, but the problem is that it would also shut out all of the sounds, all of the frequencies, all the vibes and all of the feelings. That’s generally not an emotionally healthy thing. If it’s your job to read energy and turn it into helpful communication, not being able to read the vibe is a straight up problem.
So what do you do?
A big scary thing is hammering away at a really big tuning fork set to the fear, isolation and anxiety frequency and it feels for all the world like YOU are afraid, isolated and anxious.
Here is what works for me.
Go shields up (or bell jar down) but just briefly.
My intuition is predominantly visual. We call that clairvoyant. I get a fair amount of mental words, sound or music to go with the mental images. That’s called clairaudient. Intuition can come as smells, tastes or physical sensations too, but that seems to be much less common.
If I ever wonder if a particular emotion is welling up for a reason or if it is just the collective zeitgeist making itself known, I tend to use a visualization technique. I use imagination, which is a valid and powerful thing. Imagination may be play for children, but it can be a powerful tool for emotional health when it is wielded by a thoughtful adult.
Try this and see what you think….
The next time you feel a strong emotion or a random mood hits or find yourself in a funk “for no reason” try a little self check.
Imagine something that protects you. Imagine something around you like a protective bubble. Something bigger like that big bell jar from before or a science fiction force field or that real force field that makes same-pole magnets repel each other. If it feels better imagine yourself in a cloak that protects you. Or literally put on a jacket or wrap yourself in a blanket. Whatever you choose, use your imagination to infuse that image or that thing with the ability to shield you from any outside influence. Use your imagination to set the intention that what you feel while you are thus protected is an true and clear insight into your own emotions. It is a fair amount of mental gyration just to simply focus on you and allow yourself to feel whatever you yourself genuinely feel…but we need that sometimes.
Sometimes we need some little bit of ritual or imagination to disrupt our mundane, everyday patterns and shake us out of our mental habits in order to face our emotions for what they are.
Most of the time, I’m pleasantly surprised.
I’ll go a little starship captain and give the “shields up” order and suddenly it is all “HEY! It’s kinda nice and happy in here!” Or, to continue the Sci Fi reference, if there are Klingons off the starboard bow, I can take action to handle it.
Once you know what is internal response and what is outside sensitivity, then you can do something to help the situation.
Setting owning your emotions and healthy emotional boundaries is doing something.
Thank you so much for reading and listening.
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Next up, pathway through the week reading tomorrow morning. See you at the next sip!
I’ve been thinking some more about it, so I guess today we are getting a whole cuppa Tarot here on the blog. This is one of those print/blog only posts exclusive to the website I’ve been yammering about. I hope you’ll take a look at / give a listen to the new “sip of tarot” (almost) daily one card meditation readings that are all over the place too. Besides all that, I’m feeling very fond of the Chariot card today. It’s energy is pointing toward mindfulness more than mere attention.
Mindfulness is not only consecrating and connecting but it is protective, healing and self-saving on the esoteric level. Here’s what I mean:
Many people who are drawn to Tarot (or any psychic/intuitive style) readings tend to have an above-average degree of energy sensitivity themselves. In late 2019 and early 2020 I had a long run of clients and blog readings that focused on resonant energy. It’s one of those physics things that I may not explain well. The best example I know came from being in the room during a violin lesson. When one string is pressed correctly to make a certain note, when you play that string, a nearby open (untouched) string that is tuned to that note will vibrate too. If you correctly press an E string to make it sound a G note, the open, untouched G string will vibrate and sound a little bit too.
Intuitive, energy sensitive people people will resonate with communal, cultural, zeitgeist energies much like the G note open string vibrates along with the fretted-to-make-it-a-G-note string in the violin example.
Pay attention when that happnes.
On the physical level, pain is a signal that something is wrong. All sorts of physical symptoms can signal a problem.We pay attention to those, or at least we should. If the danger is high enough, our reflexes will pay attention for us.
The same is true in the emotional realm. Feelings of something being off or wrong or troubling are worth your attention just as much as physical symptoms. The tricky thing, especially if you are energy sensitive, is knowing when a bubble of emotion is a genuine internal state that needs your attention when that thing you feel is actually a resonant vibration, a response to external energies.
When you are a professional reader, knowing that boarderline is part of the job. Take it from someone who has been paying conscious deliberate attention to that boundary line between internally generated feelings and externally sources resonance for a looong time – it’s HARD to do. It’s easy to think that funky mojo feeling is all you, and equally as easy to blame your stuff on the outside world (looking at you Mercury-retrograde-o-phobics)
It’s hard, but isn’t the place for blame, either. The trope of “setting boundaries” tends to feel like blame or fault or failure if one energy is mistaken for the other. That isn’t the case. From one point of view, those boundaries are just arbitrary. Our inner emotions are part of the outside whole just like we as individuals are a seamless part of the entire wholeness of the Cosmos. No matter how much we might wish otherwise, the outer world does have an effect. The mind-body connection flows both ways.
So how do you know when your bell is ringing for your attention or when the outer world is a hammer ringing your bell?
Protect.
Think of that boundary between inner emotion and outer resonance as a protective layer rather than a border fence. That is especially helpful when the uncertain feelings are frightened or anxious, as was the case early in 2020 pandemic an lock-downs. For a sensitive, the fear and worry of that time was almost palpable.
The energy has indeed shifted. More on the out-there social zeitgeist energies another time.
Imagination is fuel for intuition. Visualization is imagination in overdrive. Imagine…visualize that there is something surrounding you and insulating you from outside influences.
One way to think of it is like a force field or energy shield in science fiction. Or think of it like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Or a tent or room or cave that you can go into. Here is a fun one for you science and physics folks – a Faraday cage. Metal cages isolate the equipment inside them from stray radio waves. Or the metal cages that contain tesla coil arcs (like “Arc Attack“)
But anyway….the next time you feel worried, or anxious, or just not yourself, or that things are just feel off and you can’t figure out why – imagine you are surrounded by your energy-isolating protection layer of choice.
If it is outside cultural group energy ringing my bell, then the imagined shield feels good. It feels like a sigh of relief. I remember the first time it worked for me. I’ll spare you the details, but I was faced with a barrage of negativity and a legit stressful family-in-the-hospital stress.
You know that feeling when the neighbor stops using the leaf blower and there is a sudden, jarring, blissful silence? It’s kind of like that. My first thought was HEY!! It’s actually HAPPY in here! In that moment, you know it is the outside and not an internal emotional injury.
If you imagine eliminating the outside influence, but still feel something is off. Pay even more attention. But for goodness’ sake don’t take that as personal blame….take it as a hint to get help or at least do some serious self-care.
It isn’t a 100% guarantee either way, but it is a helpful mental exercise. Since that experience of shutting out the waves of negativity for a little while, it is my go-to visualization/meditation when things feel a little hairy. It refocuses my attention away from the stress and on the here and now. If it’s happy “in here” then it’s just resonant funky mojo and will pass. If it is gnarly “in here” then it’s time to do something, although that will often pass too.
I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession: The floor is my friend.
I write a lot of one card meditation readings for the TaoCraft Tarot blog. I pulled the Ace of Pentacles, which means that it’s a good day to make friends with your floor.
I’m not suggesting anything weird. Well, at least not THAT weird. You won’t even have to sweep up when you are done. All you need is your feet.
We hear about being “centered” or “grounded” but what does that really mean?
In physics, or at least in my puny understanding of it, electricity goes along the path of least resistance. That’s how lightning rods work. Metal wires provide a safe path for lightning to go into the ground instead of blasting its way through a building.
The emotional kind of grounding is similar. Instead of re-routing a lighting bolt, emotional grounding reshapes strong emotions.
So what does lightning and emotions have to do with the Ace of Pentacles? Emotional grounding is one of the classic meanings for the card. Pentacles as a group are associated with the alchemical element of earth. The literal earth is a safe place to send lightning but symbolically the earth is a safe place to send strong emotions like fear or anxiety.
Connection is key to both types of grounding. Wires connect electricity to the ground. When we feel connected to another person, to a group or to some identity outside of ourselves it helps with the emotional type of grounding.
The mind is a powerful thing. Imagination and visualization are like the wires in a lightning rod. You can use them to make friends with your floor and find a little emotional grounding.
The science kind of grounding was discovered through experiments. Let’s try a mental experiment to see if we can find some of that emotional grounding.
Put your feet flat on the floor.
That’s it.
It doesn’t matter if you are sitting or standing. Just pay attention to your feet touching the floor. Allow yourself to be aware of the actual physical sensation. Let your sense of touch remind you that you are connected to the floor
… and to everything else for that matter. You are part of this whole planet and a member of the entire human race whether you feel that connection right now or not.
It’s a big planet. Earth can handle your worry, your fear, or your anxiety. Imagine any stress that you have right now going through your feet, out into the floor then safely out into the ground – just like lightning goes through the wires of a lightning rod. Give it a try for a few seconds. Right here, right now as you listen to this, feel the floor through your feet and let the floor carry your stress safely away.
Now, how do you feel? How did that little experiment work for you? If you were feeling good when you started, has the quality of that feeling improved at all? Maybe it feels a little more solid or a little more durable than it did at the beginning.
If you were feeling stressed at the beginning of the experiment, did that feeling change at all? Does anything feel even a tiny bit calmer or a little bit more confident?
If not, that’s ok. Failure is always an option in these kinds of exercises, no harm done. You can learn by doing no matter what the results are. It is an easy thought experiment to do. Try this visualization a few different times and you’ll get a sense of whether it is right for you or not.
That’s it. That’s the confession. When emotions run high, the floor is our friend.
Do you have a question about clairvoyants or tarot readings that you’d like to have answered on the podcast? Please visit the clairvoyant confessional podcast page on taocrafttarot.com to submit a question. It doesn’t cost anything except a minute of your time. The link is in the episode description. While you are there, feel free to browse the website for the print only Tarot readings and other blog content.
As always, any podcast follows, blog follows, likes, or shares that you can spare are always greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for listening! I’ll see you on the print side and talk to you next time in the clairvoyant confessional.
Pick a card, any card. Actually, you get to choose between left, center or right.
Pick on impulse or, if you want a little time to ponder or get a feel for which card is right for you, pause the video and restart when you are ready to see the reveal.
Listen to the video interpretation and/or read the guidance for this week for the card you chose below.
Any likes, youtube subs, blog or video shares, blog follows or reading orders you can spare are always, always appreciated!
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.
Sage Words Tarot 
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