Tag: knight of Wands

Forward and Back

A Tarot reading for your week ahead in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

Right here, right now is all there is. All we have is this present moment. Our superpower is that we can choose IF and how to connect it to the past and the future.

Merry Monday everyone!

I like the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach. Simple is always best. Right now, functionality seems more important than elegance. Unless and until I get feedback from all of you to the contrary, I’m going to write these free for all Monday Week Ahead Pathway readings in the same format as I would a private three-card Tarot reading. It’s comfortable. It works. And it’s a Monday where I could use a few extra sips of coffee. Here we go.

The cards today are:

  • Fading energy: Knight of Wands
  • Current energy: Knight of Rings (pentacles)
  • Growing energy: The Hermit

General Pattern:

The Two minor arcana cards are both court cards which holds a little more energetic ‘zing’ than the numbered cards or the ace. These two minor arcana cards lead into a major arcana in the growing energy position. I take that to be a clue that the vague ennui and introvert energy from the past few weeks has indeed swung in the other direction. This is the starter’s signal we’ve been waiting for.

Go!

Now!

If we are hearing the track and field starter’s pistol, the event is a sprint. It feels like a blip, a short lived window of opportunity to get a flurry of stuff done before things quiet again for a time. If today is not the day, then look for cues this week about when to hit the start button on a project or idea that you’ve been contemplating. Hints about timing may be on the near horizon.

Knight cards symbolize action.

In the card draw video above, I’m using my current favorite deck, the Alleyman’s Tarot with the permission of Publishing Goblin LLC. The Alleyman’s deck uses disks and rings for this suit, not just pentacles. Artwork on this particular card is by Amrit Brar for the Marigold Tarot. I don’t know if I’ll ever buy another deck, but if I ever do, the Marigold is high on my list of decks to consider.

Of course the meanings and energies are all fairly interchangeable no matter what deck you use or what name you call the suit. I still call them coins instead of pentacles much of the time because I read with the Art Nouveau deck for years before branching out into other decks. But we can talk about decks another time.

Today, let’s call it rings. The knight of rings is about steady, persistent action. It has a plodding but inexorable quality about it. Consistent, unending, persistent small actions can lead to big results. Raindrops can flatten a mountain given enough time.

Don’t give up on yourself even if your enthusiasm for something good and right starts to fade. Keep chipping away and you can move your mountain too.

The knight of wands also suggests action. The earth element knight of pentacles acts, but is OK with a glacial pace over geologic time. The knight of wands is fire element. This energy may be less focused, less enduring and more chaotic but it is, well, energetic. What it lacks in focus it makes up for with high wattage and unbridled enthusiasm.

I get the mental image of an old Wile E Coyote style cartoon bundle of dynamite wired to a big old fashioned alarm clock.

The think you’ve been ticking away at is ready to blow up, in the viral internet sense of the word.

If you want to catch lightning in a bottle, you have to study electricity and stand out in a few metaphoric thunderstorms. If you have been preparing and chipping and ticking away at something, then your storm front may be on its way soon. Ready your bottle and listen for the thunder, so to speak.

I still associate the knight of wands with the TV series “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.”

If you’ve worked and prepared and keep your eyes open for opportunity, magic might happen for you, too.

The Hermit is from the major arcana. Moving from court cards to a major arcana card hints that this is a time of growing activity and dynamics.

On the other hand, it IS the hermit card. By it’s nature it speaks of a return to quiet and contemplation. The lantern and guiding light that is so ubiquitous on Hermit cards is here again in the Aka Skyweb art. This energy speaks to inner guidance and self-discovery.

Slow persistant energy explodes to frenetic progress for a short time but then it needs to be reviewed. I keep getting the phrase “after action report.” Is that a law enforcement thing? Or military? Or both? I want to associate it with first responders of some sort. Preparation, followed by fast action, followed by assessment of the action followed by adjustment and improvement and preparation for the next time.

That pattern may be associated with emergency services or military readiness, but it can be a successful pattern for anyone. My attention is drawn back to the knight of rings with the notion that this advice is particularly targeted toward pentacle, coin and ring kinds of concerns. This week, this reading is very much focused on career and work and wealth. As always with this suit, there is a focus on logic, groundedness, and practicality – even when you are in the middle of a big cartoon ka-BOOM of energy and change.

I see black tourmaline as a helpful energy to protect and steady during the high energy times.

I get the scent of amber and sandalwood to also ground and balance but also support meditation and introspection and learning from experience when it is all said and done.

And there the energy steps back, with a spark of hope that you have all enjoyed the reading and find it helpful.

Thank you all for reading and listening.

The reading fits in here, too. It’s a free for all kind of week.

All of the posts on the Sage Words Tarot blog on both wordpress and ko-fi plus the Sage Sips newsletter on Substack are free for everyone the week of April 24, 2023. The Sage Sips podcast is always free on Spotify plus a variety of other platforms. None of this is advertising monetized – even if you see an ad, I don’t see a penny from it.

All of this Tarot content is supported by readers and listeners like you. If you enjoy these weekly pathway readings, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to see all of the other posts including Q&A, one card meditations, behind the scenes, quote of the day and more.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

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!

Weekend Tarot Turnover: Knight of Wands

Weekend Tarot Turnovers on TaoCraft Tarot by Ronda Snow flips the script on a typical Tarot reading to let you stretch your intuition and learn to read single Tarot cards.

Hi and welcome to this special weekend evening edition of I’m going to try something new with this text to speech thing. I’m glad you are here.

My cyberpunk self is loving this whole concept. In my overly robust imagination, I can conjure up getting an award for my Tarot brilliance and giving a thank you speech with the AI voice dubbed over it as if that was my actual speaking voice so we can all pretend that I actually sound like this. Big spontaneous not-sponsored, unpaid thank you to Anchor FM, WordPress and Siri’s second cousin Remy for making this whole construct possible. And thank you to William Gibson for writing Neuromancer and sparking off the whole cyberpunk analogy in my mind. I love that book.

But anyway, these “Tarot Turnover” exercises are just that. We flip the script on one card Tarot readings like the ones in the weekday short sip episodes. Except today I sip the coffee and YOU contemplate the card. I’ll pull a card and list some interpretations for the card either from old blog posts or partially inspired by some of the books on the suggested reading list here on the website.

Speaking of references, I get the feeling that one authors is a little extra sensitive about citations so I’ll remind everyone that every deck that I show in the blog, on the YouTube channel or in social media has permission for use granted by the author, artist or publisher. In the case of Animal Wise Tarot, I was kindly given direct permission from DragonHawk Publishing. I’ve been a huge Ted Andrews fan since the early 1990s, so I was pretty geeked over that one. Tham Pham, the brilliant artist behind the Heart of Stars Tarot deck and the Runes of Mannaz card deck, kindly granted permission directly to me for its use. Once it arrives, I also have permission via a kickstarter conversation from Dane Asmund and Seven Thirteen Books to use the Alleyman’s Tarot. I can’t wait to get my mitts on that one. But rest assured that if you see a deck here, I bought it, paid for it, evaluated it, used it, and deemed it one of the best within reach. It wouldn’t be in the blog otherwise. I’ve been using a Waite Smith public domain deck a lot lately just because it is easier to type “public domain” than it is to type a full deck information. After dissertation, the academic in me won’t let citation discipline go. I have to give SOME level of citation because I can’t not. Besides, my luck with citations is that if I get tired and forget ONE FRIGGEN TIME, in ONE FRIGGEN instagram post, complaints ensue. That being said, the deck pictured today is The Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans used with permission granted by Llwellyn Publishing via https://www.llewellyn.com/about/permissions_tarot.php

But again…..back to the turnover

There are a huge number of interpretations for any card. You can use your intuition to choose the meaning that fits you the best from this short list OR -even better – create your own direct understanding of the card. Your direct intuitive understanding doesn’t even have to be put into words. No one needs to know your message from the card except you. It can be a feeling, mental image, or physical sensation. But if you have any questions about your interpretation feel free to ask in the comments or contact the email in the right hand website column for a response in the blogcast, identifying information withheld of course.

Knight cards are associated with action and chivalry. Wands have to do with fire, passions, your inner world and your relationship with yourself. The vibe I get today is an advice type message to act on your personal spirituality with integrity.

Other possible meanings might include:

  • Calm self-assurance, comfortable within your own skin
  • Adventure, travel
  • new job or new house
  • survival instincts / acts of self preservation

Look for an updated blog post or in the podcast episode description for a list of helpful Tarot references. There is nothing wrong for looking to books for inspiration about a card interpretation. Bibliomancy is using a book for intuitive guidance. Both the books and the cards are all just inspiration. They are the spark and the amplifier. You and your intuition is really the thing at work here.

What does your intuition tell you about the knight of wands this evening?

Thank you for reading, watching and listening. The blog cast and YouTube channel are not monetized in any way so they depend on your support. Email Tarot reading purchases, Tarot Table memberships and “Buy me a coffee” donations all contribute to creating this Tarot Content for everyone to read or hear.

Your likes, subs, shares and follows are always appreciated too.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Happiness at Hand

Today’s card is the knight of wands.

Knight cards tend to speak of action or implementing an idea. Wands reflect the inner world; our passions, our interests, spirituality, philosophy and more. Wands can reflect your relationship with yourself.

This card isn’t a permission slip to go on a wild bender and indulge in self-destructive passions, but it is permission to actively, deliberately engage with passions that make you happy. What is it that makes you light up and the words flow from you? What in life makes you feel charismatic – at least to yourself, even if no one else notices. More than being comfortable inside your own skin, this card asks you to find the thing that makes you feel confident and alive and happy within your own skin.

It worries me that there may be someone out there who feels that they can find nothing, or who says there is nothing that they feel happy about. If anyone is truly that despondent there may be more going on than Tarot can help. There is no shame in getting help when it is needed. That is what the knight of wands would do. The knight of wands would take action to help the world within.

Thom Pham hit the bullseye for today’s energy when he put Top Gun Maverick on a motorcycle on the card. The character alludes to so much. There are elements of self discovery as well as that sense of all-out, mach 2 with your hair on fire passionate living. What would the day be like if we turned that passion toward something we already know and already have that makes us happy?

The card reminds me of a few quotes.

I don’t know if it is accurate, but Abraham Lincoln is cited as saying “People are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

The other is the story from who-knows-where. The internet in its wisdom attributes it to Buddha. A person asks what he should do. “I want happiness,” he said. Buddha answered that the first thing to do is to remove the word “I” because that is ego. Then remove the word “want” because that is desire. Then look to see what is left. It’s just happiness sitting there waiting for you.

Happiness is already on hand. It’s just waiting for you to pick it up.

Thank you for watching, reading and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip – Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee. Any likes, subs, shares, blog follows or reading orders you can spare are always appreciated.

Short Sip Tarot readings are available on the TaoCraft Tarot blog and as a podcast. The Clairvoyant Confessional Podcast will become the TaoCraft Tarot podcast starting in 2022. Watch the real world card draw for these short sip readings on the TaoCraft Tarot youtube channel and instagram reels.

As we go into the December 2021 holiday season, readings will post a little less regularly, but will resume a normal schedule after new year.

My name is Ronda. I read Tarot, write stuff and make things. I also wish everyone a very happy, healthy, safe and prosperous holiday and New Year.

See you at the next sip.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Look

Time and space isn’t such a big deal in Tarot. Viruses be damned, we can read Tarot together any time, anywhere. You may be reading this years after it was posted – thank you! If I just smashed the old publish button and you are reading this – Wow! Thank you! You may be watching this for the fourth time…it still has some message for you, even if it isn’t the week in the video or the interpretation that is stepping forward right now. Follow your intuition.

Choose a card at random, left, middle or right. Choose on impulse, or if you want to think about it, pause the video and then restart it to see the reveal.

The video get things started, then here in the blog we take all three cards together for a theme too. For this week’s theme, I get a sense of “look.”

Left: Seven of Swords. Look around. Watch your back. Mischief is afoot. It is NOT a prediction. This isn’t to say anything bad will happen. The energy feels like a minor heads up, think critically, question things. It could be as innocent as a prank by kid, or it could be more adult office politics. Use your head, don’t be taken in by social media hysteria or a deep fake. This is a good week to question everything. But then, aren’t they all?

Center: Knight of Wands. Look inward, then DO something about it. Whatever your spiritual tradition, spiritual leaning or life philosophy might be, this is a good week to DO it. LIVE it a little bit. For me, that is in the realm of lighting a stick of incense or meditating with a mala. Or it may be to do nothing at all. Celebrate your nonbelief by celebrating SOMEthing you love. I mean, they are going to fly a drone on Mars soon – go Percy & Ingenuity!

Right: Ten of Wands. Look inward, and persist. The Ten of Wands is about slowed or blocked energy, a strong sign of obstacles, more than simply a reversed card would be. It is a spiritual time and energy, but chances are you just aren’t feeling it….which is perfectly OK. If all the peace, love and positivety is more annoying than not, it is fine to find your vibe. Don’t force yourself to listen to new age harp music when you really want to crank up the thrash metal. Acknowledge your true mood, and keep one eye on the spiritual stuff. Time will work it’s magick and your moment of peace and Zen will come in its own time.

My Tarot Valentine 2021: Do Your Way

It’s the church lady (think Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live) version of the infinite monkey theory.

My mom is exceedingly fond of stuff with sayings on them. Mugs, shower curtains, calendars, address books – you name it. It was like growing up in a very church-y Hallmark store. Like the infinite monkeys typing that finally came up with a copy of Hamlet, the mass of platitudes came up with one that actually made sense, in a mind-body connection sort of way.

“Don’t think yourself into a new way of doing, do yourself into a new way of thinking.” – some unknown sappy platitude writer

The Knight of Wands is about adventure, travel, experimentation, newness. It feels like the card is directed to people on the hunt for a soulmate. It isn’t a traditional meaning for the Knight of Wands, but intuitively the Knight is whacking us over the head with the apparent theme for this year’s “Tarot Valentine” series: Self confidence is sexy.

Knight cards are active. They are about doing. Wands cards are about inner fire, our inner, spiritual, philosophical world. Today’s card reminds me very much of “do yourself into a new way of thinking.” It’s a little like “fake it until you make it” but without the fake part. Sincerely do things differently and your thinking will change. You’ll KNOW how good or bad the change is for you. Once the experience of DOing a thing shows you the actuality, then you can embrace or reject the thing not from thinking but from the knowing that only experience can give. “Experience teaches all things” is attributed to Julius Caesar, not the shower curtain.

So what does that have to do with Valentines Day and such?

Here is my thought: Self-confidence is sexy. The pandemic may make this impossible for a while, but when things get back to normal, DO things that take your mind off of being lonely. NO, not going to bars on a heat seeking find-my-soulmate mission. DO something that you enjoy, nay, something you LOVE doing that is not romance or relationship related. DO what you love doing. Put your heart and mind into that, which is in essence a big investment in yourself and your self-actualization, and your autonomy and your maturity and your personal development and – did I mention that self-confidence is attractive?

I mean, look at it this way…who would you rather spend your time with? Would you rather be with someone whose mind an heart is wrapped up in how lonely they are or someone who is already happy and living their best life? If a person is already giving love and attention to what they are doing, that demonstrates they are capable of giving love and attention to you. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of already-existing joi de vie. If someone is all wrapped up in finding a soulmate in order to make them happy, all that shows is that they want YOU to make THEM happy. Not many people are going to sign up for that.

Finding a new love, a soulmate, that certain special someone is a sort of inner alchemy. Living happy draws love to you. Giving your love and attention to the life you already have (or to making it a good life without a soulmate) might be just the thing to DO your way to an attractive, self-confident way of thinking.

YouBoo Interactive Tarot: Halloween Week 2020

Happy week everyone! I have no idea when you are actually viewing or reading this, but at the time of writing it is a week before Halloween and a week before the second anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot’s second anniversary. I seems really weird to celebrate the second anniversary of what amounts to a name change and a new coat of paint to a Tarot practice that has been going since around 2003 or so (my website used to be Modern Oracle Tarot) but name changes can mean a lot. This one did to me, so there you have it. To celebrate, I’m giving away free one card digital InkMagick readings. You can get yours on the Special Offers page. All the fine print applies, and delivery time varies. Thank you everyone for reading, getting readings and being here the past few years and beyond. More important then a name, is the people who know it. Thank you.

Left: Ten of Wands. This card lives around that intersection of the mental and physical. It represents carrying a burden, particularly the mental and emotional side of weighty situation. That isn’t to minimize very difficult, frightening situations. It isn’t to minimize hard work. It is about perceptions of those very real physical situations. It is easy to shoulder very real and necessary burdens when they don’t carry the added weight of expectations or regrets. Sometimes the mental weight is the hardest to set down.

Center: Knight of Wands. Magic is afoot. But it all happens on the inside. A shift in outlook or perception can change everything. This could signal that it is an opportune week for personal growth, taking stock of the direction you are actively going and taking active steps to go a different direction if needed.

Right: Knight of Pentacles. The energy around this card feels very “hygge” or cozy. Pleasures of the senses aren’t as “adult” as you might be thinking. Enjoy innocent physical comforts, like a stretching, yoga, running (whatever your favorite exercise might be) Have a soak with your favorite bath bomb, or light a scented candle. Have a cup of your favorite tea, coffee, or cocoa. Get out of your head and appreciate the physical. Mindfulness and a Zen approach comes to mind, as with that famous quote by Alan Watts “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.” Indulge in enjoying our brief moment as incarnate beings. Imma going to knit now.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot 23-29 August 2020

Interactive one card daily meditation Tarot reading for the week ahead

Pick a card, any card. It is always worth remembering that these cards are not predictions. They are a gauge of the energy flow just ahead. It lets you know the topics that need the most attention, and let’s you know the choices that have a more favorable environment right now. Just like water, energy flows are changeable and, for lack of a better term, fluid. This reading may change before a week is out. Whenever you watch this, I trust the process. Whenever you watch this, whichever card you choose, I trust that the message you most need will find you somehow.

For now, take a deep breath. Let go of whatever is on your mind. Choose whichever card feels right. Pick on impulse, or if you would like to give it a little thought, pause the video and then restart it to see the reveal.

Before we get to the written card interpretations, I’d like to remind everyone of a few things that are much more mundane. I have lots of phone appointments available. Phone readings are easy: schedule -> purchase -> enjoy. Just contact me to schedule a time, purchase your session using the secure paypal buttons HERE, then call at your appointment time and enjoy your live Tarot reading! I will ask for your email so I can send you a photo of your card layout. You are welcome to take notes and ask questions during the session.

You can schedule a session by calling 312-206-9171 or by email at taocrafttarot@gmail.com. Please be aware: the phone only answers for VOICEMAIL and previously scheduled calls. If you want to make an appointment, please leave a message with your name and number and I’ll call you back asap. No message, no appointment. If you don’t like leaving a message, or if this seems overly complicated, blame all the spam callers, the people who stiffed me for phone readings in the past and and the ones who try to get a free reading over the phone. They are why we can’t have nice things.

Left: Knight of Swords. This week is set up for action. This is a card that asks you to call on your daring side, and use all of the self-confidence you can muster this week. This is a good week to implement plans that have been in the works for a while – plans that are complete and ready to be released into the wild. That sneaker commercial comes to mind. This card is all “Just do it” and also “It’s go time.” For aromatherapy I get black pepper, rosemary, …or coffee…active mental “study blends” for mental sharpness and memory. Mind and intellect are also associated with the air element and the suit of swords.

Center: Knight of Wands. This card brings “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel” to mind. “Act on your magick” comes to mind. Knights are action cards. Wands are associated with fire, spirituality, philosophy, your inner passions. The notion of “spirituality in motion” or “act on your beliefs” whatever form that takes for you. For some, it might be volunteer time. For others it may take the form of outward religious practice or ritual. For me, there is a feel of ritual as move through a week of a waxing moon. I’m not knowledgeable about astrology, so please refer to your favorite resource for that particular detail. The best way I can think of to articulate the energy feeling is to say it is a good week for rituals of manifestation and prosperity given the waxing moon and coming full moon on…September 2 if memory serves. In my minds eye I see pentacles, candles, now the taijitu (yin yang symbol), sunlight and black candles…a balance and respect for both the light-side and dark-side, however you personally visualize such things. For aromatherapy I get sacred wood resins, like frankincense, myrrh, patchuli and copal or palo santo

Right: Page of Wands. If you selected this card, it is a call to hold your horses instead of charge ahead. Stop, look, and listen or you might have to stop, drop and roll instead. There is a sense of something unknown. An important piece of the puzzle is missing. Whatever you do, make sure you fully understand a situation and have all the facts before you go out on a limb with a comment or opinion, and certainly before your act. For aromatherapy I get lavendar. Stay chill with this classic relaxation scent.

Thank you for watching and reading! I appreciate all of you and hope that you’ll follow the blog to get new posts in your inbox. The opt – in is over there -> on laptop view. On mobile scroll WAAYYY down to enter your email. PRO TIP: I am going to be posting a giveaway this week that will only be available through the blog. Talk to you soon. – R.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Leading Indicators

 

“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.” – Richard Bach

It’s not the no-pentacles thing.

Do you feel it? It isn’t over. The whole pandemic energy is still there, not the buzzing initial panic, but a low key, solid comfortable existential dread. From a place of both logic AND intuition – the switch flipping open the economy folks are insane. It is not time to go whole hog. We need to keep doing what we are doing a few more weeks. Even then there should be limits and cautions and this is nowhere near over until there is a vaccine.  

There is a leading indicator shift in the energy, akin to the resonance of panic and the foreboding ping that came in February and the run up to stay at home orders. This is advance planning. This is a nudge to think about what you are going to do or not do when official restrictions change. Trust me, the work from home freelancer….you don’t HAVE to go out if you don’t want to.

This reading, as a group of three, is about the good things this problem of staying in has brought, and once again this is more for the privileged than for those essential workers in the thick of this. They have bigger fish to fry than the getting and giving of Tarot readings. This is about “This is your chance to appreciate this while you have a chance before this opportunity goes away” This group of cards remind us to take whatever small gifts and good memories from the quarantine with us when it is all, finally and later, over.

Left: Two of Cups. This card, in normal times, is about marriage and other meaningful long term relationships. This is about holding on to long distance friendships that may have been forged online during social distancing. This is about the relationships that were strengthened or stretched to the limit being quarantined together. Think about what relationships have proven themselves to really matter over the past couple of months and think about which ones, if any, have proven themselves to be unnecessary. In short, trim and nurture where needed, cherish the precious from now on.

Center: Knight of Wands. Act on your passions. The rah-rah “toxic positive” vibe was way ahead of this curve. You still l don’t have to achieve or do anything except make it through, day by day. It wasn’t time yet, for many people, to do that spring cleaning or do their equivalent of Shakespeare writing King Lear during the plague. If you have some pet project or dreams to pursue, the energies are turning more toward that. Comfort yourself and those around you, yes. You will need that strength later. But the energies are shifting so it is easier for us to shift from hold-and-survive to once again chasing the dream.

Right: Eight of Swords. We are still trapped. It isn’t time to fully move yet. Now is the time for planning and creative problem solving. The energies may not have started to shift for you. If you have been thinking of these times as prison, now is the time to see them as protection. What do you need to guard that you haven’t seen? Where have you let your guard down….either getting your shields up too late, or dropping them too early?

Want a reading just for you, not from the public youtube / blogaverse cyberspace? You can get a private reading just for you, in a format that suits your taste and style: 

  • Email – typed doc with photo of your unique cards sent as an email attachment – no appointment needed
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  • InkMagick Tarot is old school, and as magic as the name implies. The written word is powerful and tangible. This is a unique keepsake reading rarely offered. Experience a Tarot reading that you can touch even as it touches you.