inspiration – Sage Words Tarot

Weird But Manageable

Now there is something you don’t see everyday, which is probably a good thing.

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot. Today we are doing a full on pathway reading to do a squinty eyed Tarot look at the week ahead. This layout is roughly based on the old school past, present, future layout but I modify it to make it more dynamic. I want to focus on our ability to choose and the cause and effect power our choices have over our path forward in time.

Like I’ve been saying for years now: Tarot doesn’t predict what will happen to you in life. Tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

That’s what these weekly look-ahead readings are all about. It’s not about a prediction, it’s about navigation. The reading is about ideas to help you navigate the energies swirling around right now. If you follow the blog or podcast and get the cards in the week that they were drawn, it can give you a sense of the current zeitgeist collective energies. If you stumble across this post or episode at some other point in time then the message is still valid, it just becomes more personal to you and less connected to the general energies.

For these weekly posts and in private three card readings, I change the meaning for each card position from past, present and future to make it all more dynamic. These cards are tied to the flow of energy instead of time. The timing is unique to you. The energy flow may not connect to you at all. That is up to you to decide if and how any of this resonates for you at all..

The first card points to an energy that is present, but fading in influence. The second card is the surrounding energy that is strongest at the present moment and the final card is an energy that is growing in influence.

I read the card order from right to left for a few reasons.

First, that’s how it’s done in the first layout that I learned way way back in the day. The nine card layout in the Medicine Cards guidebook by David Carson and Jamie Sams was one inspiration for the five card and seven card layouts that I wrote ten years later when I first began professional Tarot work.

Second, it’s how I learned to read auras. When you read a person’s aura, you look at them face on, and their past is on your right, which is their left. It might sound confusing, but it is surprisingly easy and natural if you have ever looked at medical x-rays.

Third, this is the opposite of how we read English, my native language. Reading words is a logical process. By flipping the direction of card interpretation, it disconnects the Tarot reading process from the logical language reading process and opens the way for a more purely intuitive understanding.

That all being said, let’s look at this week’s cards.

Logic is not a factor in the card of diminishing energies, the Devil. Today I’m using the Alleyman Tarot with permission from deck creator Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Gobline LLC . There isn’t information about this individual card save that the copyright for the image is held by the British museum. I couldn’t find anything on an internet search so why this Devil in what looks for all the world like a very vintage card is drawn with ophiological genitalia is beyond me. Snake-boy is not something you see every day. Snakes or no, it takes some outright chutzpah to run around naked with all the confidence and power this image portrays.

Other people may have been trying to take a mile from the inch you gave. People may have been trying to take a mile from an inch that you never gave in the first place. The energy around this card is weird and intrusive and hints at a time where everything has been out of kilter and working on every last nerve. Luckily it is starting to move away, so hang in there.

Next is the Strength card. That is the closest, biggest energy right now and the message is just as simple and clear as it can get.

You got this.

In my readings, “hear” means that the intuition comes as words or music instead of mental images. “See” means the intuition comes as mental images. Sometimes there are feelings, tastes and smell, but that is uncommon. At this point, I hear the phrase “strength comes from perseverance.” Being patient and persistent is your superpower right now. Be the mountain in the presence of chattering monkeys.

The final card is the energy that is growing, moving toward us in the near future if you will. The knight of wands has all sorts of passionate, active connotations and my instinct it to toss them all right out the window.

In the BBC seven episode adaptation of Suzanna Clarke’s novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel the knight of wands is connected with a the coming of a second magician that would allow magic to return to England.

That is the meaning that is front and center and loud for this card this week.

Find your magic. Be that second magician that re-ignites your connection with the magic that is inside. Be your own Jonathan Strange.

In short, this week may be weird but hang in there ’cause you got this.

Thank you for reading and listening! Please follow the blog and podcast for more of these three card readings for the week ahead (whatever week this may be for you.) I do mean both. There will be posts on the blog that don’t go out to the podcast. The free blog is the only place to get all of my free-to-access Tarot content and it has links to the podcast if you prefer audio.

Private readings are open. Ko-fi memberships have been upgraded. I’d appreciate any likes, subs, shares or virtual coffees you can spare. Links are in the right hand column on the blog and in the episode description for this podcast.

See you at the next sip!

Going full wizzywig

Please feel free to browse the website. It is a treasure trove of Tarot readings, transparency and honesty all intended with kindness. Pardon the little sprinkles of sarcasm every now and then. It’s a package deal. Please feel free to look around. What you see is what you get.

Hi. This is just a quick follow up to yesterday’s late night post about the NEW CrystalCast reading. I only recently came up with the idea for this part crystal, part runestone, all scrying, pure intuition, just for fun, look at the week ahead reading. You can see the whole post and watch the video of the actual crystal cast HERE (there is a link in show description for podcast folks) I hope you’ll follow the blog come along as this new reading evolves.

If Short Sip Tarot posts are a contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee, Crystal Cast posts are a few brain waves for your week in the time it takes to sip from your tea. My intent is to post these either Sunday evenings or Monday morning. Maybe. More or less. Which brings me to the fall and winter schedule:

There is none.

I’m not going to try and fit into an announced schedule anymore. What you see is what you get or wizzy wig as the old school computer programmers used to say it. It is what it is and you see it all as it happens. Intuition, psychic readings and Tarot readings are all very much a product of their present moment. I want my cyberspace presence to authentically reflect that in-the-moment process. This is about quality, not quantity. Writing in the moment whenever that moment happens gives you the best of my intuition. Everything I do here is with the intent that it comes to you in the time and place and way that is highest and best for you. I don’t have to write on a set schedule or use a pre-set scheduler for the universe to bring you and your energy message together.

Which happens.

All of the time.

Most of the time, actually, The likes or comments for a post or podcast episode often trickle in long after it was first published. The internet is forever as they say. You never know when someone will stumble onto one of these collective energy readings. When I write in my moment, whenever that is, then you get the best message for you in your moment, whenever that turns out to be.

When I first rebranded from Modern Oracle to TaoCraft Tarot back in 2018, I blogged about the reasons for the name change. At its core, it was about authenticity. TaoCraft is a transparent, honest expression of what my Tarot work is really all about. It was about bringing the cyberspace aesthetics in alignment with the real me; a little witchy and heavily influenced by Taoist philosophy.

All along, under both names, I tried to follow all the good professional advice about best media and marketing practices.

It didn’t work.

Halloween is said to be the witches new year. Intuitively, autumn feels right for wrapping up some things and starting other things, like a new school year – or a new business attitude.

Owning my own business was never the goal. Don’t get me wrong – I need the money as much as the next person, but I’m not out to build a media company or be ridiculously famous. I’m here to communicate, to teach and above all, to inspire. I’m a Tarot reader, a Tarot writer, artist and intuitive. This is real, sincere and authentic Tarot. It’s not a side hustle. It’s not any kind of hustle. It’s artistry and craftsmanship. It is all about quality over quantity.

August and September were the hustle’s last gasp. Did you hear all of the sawing and air wrench sounds? I’ve tweeked a few things around here , but mostly I’m fully embracing the Adam Savage quote of “follow the process, not the plan.”

No more schedule for posts, podcasts or social media. Creativity happens when it happens. Spirit whispers as it does and energy moves as it moves. My job is to honor that process and that spirit and that energy. My job is to translate and communicate that spirit and energy…not bend it to an announced schedule. Serving authenticity in this way will elevate my experience of this work and in turn elevate the quality of the readings you receive, both public and private.

After three pandemic years of few to no party appearances, I’m closing that part of the business. I’m all about individual readings now, either privately in person, privately by email (still my specialty), or from me to you by way of the blog, pod and social media.

Starting in January all in-person appointments will be on Mondays, because of non-Tarot reasons. If you can’t meet on a Monday, we can work live online through a Zoom call at another time that works for both of us. Both online and in-person are by appointment anyway.

Purchases are all through my ko-fi page now. It is a MUCH easier checkout process, still secured by PayPal. You can check out and submit your question in one super-easy seamless process.

In person sessions can pay cash in exact change at the time of the reading (I don’t carry cash or make change) OR you can pre-pay through the ko-fi shop. When you pre-purchase the in-person session you get an instant download .pdf with general instructions a free sample chapter from one of my upcoming ebooks.

Email Tarot readings are still my specialty. I’m psychic, and I’m a writer. I’m a psychic writer, I suppose. But I’m not a marketer or media maven. I’m not a hustle. I’m not a clinical therapist. I’m not a healer. I’m a muse for your ideas and messenger for your spirit guides to help inspire personal growth and creative problem solving. Forget predicting the future. Claiming your personal power and growing as a human being is what this style of Tarot is about. If you want next-level inspiration, I’m here to help. If you want to predict the future, might I suggest one of those 8-ball toys? To be blunt, this is Tarot for grown-ups and for people who want to grow.

Grown-ups tend to be practical. We work smarter, not harder, so all of the practical advantages of email Tarot are HERE on the website.

In fact, the blog website has pretty much everything about TaoCraft Tarot. It is a treasure trove of Tarot readings, transparency and honesty all intended with kindness. Pardon the little sprinkles of sarcasm every now and then. It’s a package deal. Please feel free to look around. What you see is what you get.

Thanks for reading and listening. I appreciate any questions, comments, likes, follows or shares you can spare.

See you at the next sip!

Rain

If you want to catch lighting in a bottle you have to stand in the rain.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: a Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Today’s card is Lightning in a Bottle, one of the expansion pack cards created for the Alleyman’s Tarot deck by Seven Dane Asmund. It’s one of two lightning in a bottle cards. It is interesting to compare the two. You can see the other in the April 2022 blog post “The Makings of Magic” The other card is more ethereal while this one has almost a steampunk, industrial feel. The other card emphasizes the luck aspect of success, this one emphasizes the action part of it.

This card is akin to the famous Thomas Edison quote that “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” Anything is possible but not everything is remotely probable. Tarot is a little like that. It doesn’t predict – it inspires us with the possibility and guides us with practical probabilities, but never exact certainties. You can’t predict exactly where lightning will strike. But you can read the weather report to see where the rain will be.

According to the national weather service, lightning can strike 10 miles or a little more away from a storm. So sure, it’s theoretically possible to be hit by a bolt of lightning while you are sitting in your back yard on a sunny afternoon, but it is far more likely to happen if you climb a tall tree in the middle of a thunderstorm.

If we think of this metaphoric lightning as creative inspiration, you can just sit around waiting for an idea to hit. Especially if just sitting around is part of your personal creative process. But that’s the trick isn’t it? That’s the climbing a tree in the rain part. That’s the perspiration part. It isn’t the sitting around in and of itself that sparks the genius. It comes from knowing what inspires you. It comes from thinking about and understanding your creative process, whatever your creative process might be. When you know yourself and know your process then you can put yourself in circumstances where the lighting will find you instead of you constantly chasing it.

So now you have your spark in a jug. What are you going to do about it? Anything? Or is just knowing you captured it enough?

It might be. Happy is the person who defines success in their own terms and achieves that instead of striving for other people’s expectations.

But let’s suppose that your success includes other people. What if you want to show or share the lightning? That’s when the work starts. That’s when climbing out of our imaginary tree and doing something with the bottle comes into play. This is the part of the process where the makers are going to make and Thomas Edison starts to sweat.

It takes work to do anything else but sit in a tree with your lighting bottle. If abiding with your lighting bottle what you want and need, by all means do that. There is a great deal of light and satisfaction in doing that and it is 1,000 percent enough. In this scenario, I think of the lightning bolt as being a metaphor for Zen style enlightenment. It is for you alone. It is for you to take home, make a part of your life, and let it light your way from now on.

If the lightning represents creative inspiration, then there might be more that needs done, a different tree to climb so to speak. Catching the idea is the first stroke of luck, making it exist in physical reality is another tree climb. If the thing you create is popular with other people, then that becomes another lucky lightning strike altogether.

Both bolts require us to spend time out in the rain.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. Your likes, subs, follows, shares, questions and comments are always appreciated!

Neither the blog nor the podcast are monetized so your Tarot message comes first, not the advertisers. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi (link in the episode description.) The memberships, commissions, shop and virtual coffees all support the creation of this unique, (almost) daily Tarot content.

Want more than a sip? Get a full cup with private Tarot readings with Sage by email. Order HERE 24/7 no appointment needed

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Power Prompt

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: Chariot Power Prompt

Welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

As much as I am loving the Alleyman’s Tarot, I’m feeling the need to haul the envelope in a little bit and retreat to a more familiar deck. But that’s life. That’s living with harmony with the flow of it. There is yin. There is yang. There are times to push the envelope. There are times to haul it back in again. There are times to just vibe and grind.

Today’s card is the Chariot from the major arcana. It is a good example of just that kind of yin and yang flow. Sometimes The Chariot can be very high minded and conceptual. Sometimes it is a prompt to power ahead and let it all roll.

Remember yesterday’s Tarot reading hack, with its reminder to work smarter, not harder? Today continues that thread a little bit. You know that part about just throwing your own intuition down on a very basic conceptual foundation and just calling it a day? It doesn’t always work.

Sometimes even the best of us need some hard core inspiration.

Most often The Chariot card gives an energy of mindfulness and and being fully engaged in the present moment. It is a place of power, but I would consider it a yin power where taking in the moment and taking in much needed information as well as acting on it.

This morning, however, I got nothin’.

So what do you do when the intuition tank seems empty? What do you do when there isn’t anything to throw down on the cards foundation?

You go out and get yourself some inspiration, that’s what. Nevermind the high minded woo woo. Sometimes you have to drive your chariot right over the big empty and go get what you need.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants in the hopes of being someone else’s giant someday. In the meantime, it is perfectly OK to go foraging for your food for thought. If you get stuck reading a Tarot card or doing a Tarot layout for yourself, don’t sweat it. That’s why decks come with little white books. That’s why a library’s worth of reference and guide books have been written. That’s why I and bazillion other Tarot readers post and podcast and reach out to you like this. We can all inspire and motivate each other on those days when we need it.

That’s just what I did today. The usual meaning for the card just wasn’t cutting it, so it was time to fire up the chariot and go looking for inspiration. Went to some of my favorite references like Animal Wise Tarot by Ted Andrews, Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao by Diane Morgan, Heart of Stars Tarot by Thom Pham, Galaxy Tarot by GalaxyTone, and Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan.

Like all of the major arcana cards, The chariot has a second thread of meaning. Where it usually talks about the yin-power of mindfulness, sometimes it can point to the yang-power of determination, focus, willpower, forward motion and momentum.

Some days the Chariot reminds us to pay the heck attention to what we are doing. Other days it reminds us, to borrow a phrase, to just do it.

Thank you so much for listening! Your likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments are always appreciated!

If you are enjoying these posts, podcasts and the companion videos showing the real-world Tarot Card draw for the day, please visit the the Tao Craft Tarot page on ko-fi. Proceeds from the shop and memberships support the creation of this free to access Tarot Content.

Want more than a sip of Tarot? Have a full cup all your own: individual private email Tarot readings are available to order on the blog website, no appointment needed.

Thanks again and see you at the next sip!

The Makings of Magic

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day (or evening) in the time it takes to sip from your coffee (or tea). Today: The Alleyman’s Tarot Lightning in a bottle and the makings of magic

Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Today we are drawing from the Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund of Publishing Goblin LLC, used with permission. It’s a big deck, with one booster pack already in it and yes, you bet I’m planning on getting the other booster packs if possible.

I’m not a collector by nature, but I’ve been around collectors and I understand the passion. It’s not a greed thing or a materialistic thing. It’s a surround yourself with symbols of something you love thing. As a professional Tarot reader and Tarot writer slash blogger decks appeals to the maker part of me. It’s a “right tool for the right job” kind of vibe. On one hand they are a collection of specialized precision tools, yet on the other hand “every tool is a hammer” as the Adam Savage book puts it.

I know some Tarot readers who have dozens of decks. The Alleyman’s Tarot is my eleventh. I’m enjoying it even more than expected. It is a virtuoso deck, that pushes your comfort zone just by the vast array of tones, images and artwork. It’s also challenging by virtue of the cards like this one that are absolutely gorgeous, but not traditional RWS or lenormand symbolism. I can’t imagine anyone with the wherewithal to collect well over one hundred decks, but the vast array of different cards all beautifully curated by the creator gives you a taste of exactly that. Seven Dane Asmund has pushed all of our Tarot reading envelopes. Now it is up to us to haul it back in.

I’ve been watching the new season of the Witcher, so the Mages of Artuza came quickly to mind when I saw the lightning in a bottle card – specifically the scene where initiates were in a cave with a hole in the roof during a thunderstorm and were required to capture lightning in a bottle in order to become fully fledged Mages.

The phrase “lightning in a bottle” has been around much longer than TV shows. Generally, it means sudden, unexpected, unconventional but huge success at something rare, at something once thought nearly impossible. Lighting in a bottle is a get rich from YouTube, put a ding in the universe type of luck-meets-skill achievement.

Reliable origins of idioms like this one are just as hard to find. A quick search of the google machine gives you the idea that it refers to eighteenth century experiments with electricity like Benjamin Franklin’s kite and Leyden jars. Leyden jars are conductive material on either side of non-conductive glass in such a way that it will hold a small electrical charge. It used to be party entertainment to get a little spark from them, kind of like scuffing your sock feet across the carpet and touching a door knob on purpose. In the poetic language of the day, those little sparks were literally lightning in a bottle.

The Alleyman’s Notebook that accompanies the deck connects this card with a situation that can’t be forced. That interpretation fits in with the pop culture analogy. You can’t MAKE lightning strike. You can’t MAKE opportunities happen but you can position yourself in such a way as to be in the conditions that more favorable for the right opportunity to happen. You can put yourself in a mental and physical space to take full advantage of it if it does.

You can’t make lightning strike any given place at any given time. Putting real world electrocution aside for a moment, if you stand on an iron rich rock near salt water ocean with your arm up in the air during a thunderstorm, there is a better chance that you, the lightning and a bottle will all wind up in the same place at the same time.

There is a practical, mundane, banal side of catching lightning in a bottle. It may seem lucky or miraculous, but the most unlikely success still has elements of practical intellect and persistent effort. As Thomas Edison famously said “genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration. Lightning in a bottle is random luck plus the courage and cleverness to take advantage of unexpected opportunity with a healthy dose of effort to follow it all through to fruition. These are the elements of mundane magic available to anyone.

There is one more element. A subtle one, the one that makes you into a lighting rod and gives you the power to contain it in the bottle. This is the part that makes the apprentice into the sorcerer. It’s the part that takes us back to the rainy rocks at the witch school of Artuza.

Harmonize with nature.

Lau Tzu gave us this advice in the Tao Te Ching a long, long, long time ago. If you are a grower by nature and you are in a sunny field, plant as you wish. If you are by the sea, step out onto the rainy rock and lift your bottle to the sky with confidence.

Thank you for reading and listening. The blog and podcast are not monetized and depend on audience support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page to become a Patron of the Tarot Arts which gives you access to exclusive content, private email readings and members-only special offers. Proceeds support the production of these free to access posts and episodes. Of course your likes, subs, shares, follows, reading orders, questions and comments are always, always appreciated.

See you at the next sip.

Having an Idea

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot inspiration in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: The Ace of Wands and creative inspiration.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot inspiration in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the Ace of Wands.

Wands are associated with the element of fire, inner fire, inner passions and in the case of the ace, creativity, new projects and inspiration.

Young Einstein is one of my favorite movies. It’s a comedy. It’s fun. It’s timeless. It’s about the time space contiuum. The Ace of Wands tends to remind me of one scene where one character accidentally makes a bomb and Marie is telling Albert to do something. He calmly eats an apple and asks for a moment because he’s having an idea. If you watch this clip from YouTube, keep in mind the movie was made in the late 80s before the end of the cold war and before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The part about nuclear bombs is chilling, given current world events. It’s funny the things you can forget in thirty years.

But back to the Ace of Wands. Albert may seem to be just standing there eating an apple, but he’s thinking. He IS doing something.

The same thing applies to creativity and inspiration. Taking a break from one project to pursue something else for a little while is a perfectly legitimate part of the overall creative process. James Bach makes a similar point in his book Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar. I really enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it to anyone who is in or is thinking about a creative career.

I’ve heard that creativity isn’t really making anything new, but rather putting existing things together in a new way or finding deeper connections between things that on the surface seem unconnected. When you are creating a physical object, you just can’t magic it up out of nothing. You have to have the right supplies. Ideas and inspiration work the same way. Whether you making something or having an idea you have to have the raw materials to work with. To make connections, you have to have stuff to connect.

Live a little. Go experience or pay attention to something, anything. Make your magpie collection of life experiences that you can use for inspiration later on. It counts. Looking for inspiration IS doing something.

Thank you so much for watching, reading, and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. Email Tarot Readings purchased through this website are secured by Papal and contribute to producing this unique, freely available and (almost) daily Tarot inspiration. Tarot Table memberships and “buy me a coffee” donation support this project as well. Of course, your likes, subs, shares and follows are always, always appreciated too.

See you at the next sip!

Birds of a Feather Inspire Together

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is The Star from the major arcana.

Birds of a feather flock together. Like attracts like. You are what you eat.

Adages and Proverbs become adages and proverbs because they have proven themselves true for a long, long time. And they tend to apply to a variety of situations.

That whole birds of a feather, like attracts like thing is huge advice for lonely hearts in search of a soulmate. In other words, be the soulmate you want to bring into your life. Do you want the romance of your life to be with a person who is all tied up knots and focused solely on their own feelings or would you rather be with someone who is happy and engaged with life? Be the bird you want to feather with.

It isn’t all soulmates. Like attracts like applies to many other things too. It begs the question of what, exactly, attracts you.

Human beings, it seems, are absolute geniuses for projection and confirmation bias. We see our own desires and our own opinions everywhere we turn. Who you follow, the things you support, the things that inspire you tells the outer world as much about you as much as those things tell you about the outer world.

Curate your inspirations. Actual conversations with actual people aside, would you want to have your social media “likes” as real world meat-space friends? Would you want to be part of their group?

Social media platforms are literally called a feed. We consume media. What would happen to your body if you constantly fed on toxic things? Why would you take any less care with the media you consume? Block and unfollow buttons are powerful protectors is you use them.

I love my social feeds. I’ve met beautiful, kind, wise people from opposite ends of the continent that I never could have met otherwise. Instagram is especially fun since I tend to be a bit visual. My feed is filled with artists, photographers, poets, Taoism, meditation, witches, civil rights groups, some of the best Tarot readers out there, recipes, coffee memes and a fair bit of yarn porn.

There are some pretty wonderful things out there in cyberspace, not just doom and gloom. Of everything out there, what things grab your attention? Who inspires you? The Star card reminds us to take care that those things and people are worthy of our attentions and our aspirations.

Thank you for reading, listening and watching. The blogcast and youtube channel are not monetized and depend on your support. Email Tarot purchases and Tarot Table memberships contribute toward creating TaoCraft Tarot online content. Your likes, subs, shares and follows are always appreciated too.

See you at the next sip!

The deck pictured is Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell used with permissions granted on llwellyn publidhing dot com.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Look or Listen

Whether you watch or listen, you can interact with the cards to choose the message that was meant for you.

Starting now, you can look or listen to YouChoose Interactive Tarot. Blog posts are available as audio in the TaoCraft Tarot podcast on Anchor FM, Spotify, Stitcher and more.

If you are watching, the videos are the same as always. Choose your card, then see the reveal, just like always.

If you are listening to audio only, you still choose your card and how you apply it. The choice just comes at a different part of the process. If you can’t see or visualize your choice of card at the beginning, listen through to the end and then choose the card and description that best fits your needs. You are still interacting with the cards and still using your intuition to guide you to the parts of the discussion that is most meaningful for you today.

That being said, I’ll leave you to watch the video above.

Thanks for watching, reading AND listening. See you at the next sip!

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Changing for Fall

The short summer hiatus is over.

YouChoose is back from a short summer hiatus with a slight tweek

The three card ‘pathway layout’ and the first three pathway related cards of the 5 and 7 card layouts have already shifted from a time focus (the old past-present-future related position meanings) to a more timeless energy focus.

I’m making the same shift in focus as I read the interactive cards, too.

We all know that the internet is forever. Instead of reading for a particular day or week, if I focus on right-here and right-now instead of a particular place in time, it might make the videos more time-less by focusing on the present moment.

I’m very thankful and glad that some readers have found and like some older posts. Thank you all. If someone comes across this post after the coming week. By focusing on the now takes this reading outside of linear time because now is the only time that there is.

The part where you choose is still the same. Pause the video if you need a moment, then choose a card. Then restart the video (or just let if go if you choose quickly) and listen to the reading. It still comes out a little time referenced, a little focused on ‘today’ but today could be…should be and will be…right for your day, whenever that day may be when you watch the video or read this post.

Part of the reasoning behind the podcast and partial youtube sabbatical was social media was getting a little noisy, energetically speaking. Too much horse puckey even for me.

Which is a good reason for NOT changing the choice / interactive component. Being able to choose your own card, even for a broad blog-post social media kind of reading, cuts through the noise. You know that the message is for you. The randomness surpasses the coincidences if that makes any weird sense. What are the chances of you choosing that video out the bazillions on the internet and choosing that one card of three on any given day? Sure, if you follow the blog and read new posts as they come out that reduces the random chance element, but hopefully it will have meaning or give a little inspiration just the same.

Please enjoy. I hope you like the little change. All comments and feedback are welcome. Happy Fall!

Whacked with the Cosmic Shillelagh

Sifu Gracenin told us that the best way to train for a thing is to do a thing.

The same is true of creative work – or anything really.

Creativity, new ideas, or enthusiasm for a project are all mercurial, wispy, unpredictable aspects of the human psyche. No wonder ancient Greeks and modern creatives alike blame the whole thing on a bunch of capricious Muses. You never know when you are going to get whacked with the cosmic shillelagh of creativity.

Which begs the question of what to do in the times in between, when your capricious Muses are missing in action and you are hit with an equally unpredictable time of uninspired apathy. To borrow a phrase from the sneaker people, just do it. “The best way to train for a thing is to DO a thing.”

Here is an analogy for the “My Hero Acedemia” and superhero fans out there…if you can only bring your superpower up to 5% today, OK, but DO that. But by doing that, you might be able to dial up the full cowling to 8% another day. If you persist at 5% power today and 8% later and so on, then you’ll be more ready and in a better place when time for full power comes along.

Or in other words, if you are feeling uninspired today, take it easy on yourself – on the inside – but still do what you need to do. The inspired feeling will come in its time. “Fake it until you make it” has its moments of utility. Work within your limits but don’t stop altogether. Continue to act within your ability, and in time your capability will increase whether you feel enthusiastic about it or not. Then you can be in a better, bigger place to act on creative inspiration whenever it does hit. That’s the sweaty part of the Thomas Edison quote “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” but an important part just the same. Hiking along with your ordinary walking stick is as important as getting whacked with the cosmic inspiration stick we see on the Ace of Wands.

Hang in there. One way or another, you got this.