Tag: runes

Joy and Potential

Be the sparkly fireworks you want to see in the world.

Boom!

Hello and welcome to Sage Words Tarot and the Crystal Cast reading for the week of January 21-28. Happy New Year to our friends celebrating the Spring Festival and year of the yin water rabbit!

I’m still working on the physical mechanics of casting the crystals. Have to admit, this shake and toss and see what comes blowing out of the top of the bag is kind of fun. This one might have been a little overly-enthusiastic on my part. It will take some more practice and experimentation to dial it in. We’ll see how it goes. I’m curious as heck whether or not you all like these crystal reading or not. Good, bad or indifferent, please leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments. Heck, I’d even answer reading questions in the blog comments just for the practice. So have at it. No promises, but if you leave a question, there is a fair to middling chance that I’ll do a crystal reading for it. Which means that podcast people will have to use the link in the show description to leave their questions in the blog comments, but hey, it’s a free psychic reading so what can you say?

Back to these crystals.

The mental image that came when the crystals scattered like this was fireworks. Specifically those extra sparkly ones that glitter and shimmer as the remnants fall. It also reminded me a little bit of those holographic glitter nail polishes. The explosive quality to the energy and the way the crystal felt like they were volcano spewing out the top of the bag is a key point, but the happy glittery shiny celebratory quality to the feel and the energy is the bigger focus. It goes right along with the Lunar New Year celebrations. The sparkle is the thing. Joy and happiness is the fuel for the expansiveness of this week’s energy.

I am reminded of the FDR quote that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. And also the famous Mark Twain quote “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

This is such a warning against thinking or dwelling on potential problems that I don’t even want to bring it up as a thing to avoid.

The focus is on the sparkle, on the joy.

And it is all inside you.

You are the firecracker. You are the sparkler. This week it is up to you to light the fuse, not wait for external circumstances to do it for you

Don’t let fear be the wet blanket. If you feel it, don’t hold back. Let yourself be an explosion of joy. It’ll help everything go better for you, not to mention elevate the energy and help things go better for everyone around you.

It is said that like attracts like. Think of yourself as a magnet dragging through the week. If you were given the choice, what would you want sticking to you at the end of the week; ridiculous unreasonable happiness in SPITE of everything, or worry and stress BECAUSE of everything?

The visual for that in today’s reading lies in the clear quartz crystal chips. They are a happy sparkling POOF of happy when you look at them intuitively. They are pretty close to being just that literally as well.

The top of the two runes showing is Sowilo, associated with the sun, happiness, light and love. It is an interesting optical coincidence that this particular stone is reflecting light so strongly in the video that it is hard to read the rune.

The other, lower rune is Algiz, which has to do with protection, security, and guidance. It is much easier to feel happy when you feel safe.

Here, too, there is a sense of fearlessness, in a good way. I forget who posted it, but there was an Instagram post a few years ago that has stuck with me. I call it to mind whenever I start to feel any vague or general worry creeping in, especially about stuff that may or may not happen.

The context was a feed about paganism of some sort. They contrasted mainstream or Christian prayer to be protected vs the Germanic pagan mindset of petitioning Odin for the wisdom and strength to be able to protect ourselves.

I prefer the latter point of view.

Why? It just feels better, but also because of compassion.

Which petition has the greater potential to foster compassion? If we seek to be strong and wise, that strength and wisdom can in turn lead to protecting and caring for others. Asking to be pre-emptively protected doesn’t afford that same opportunity.

The desire to grow wise and strong and be a better person is a type of compassion toward oneself.

There are several runestones with their blank side showing. I also read that as potential, as one would expect from any reading that is looking forward. The future is all about seeing the potentials, not making predictions.

Look ahead to this week. Face it with all the courage and happiness you can muster. Light the fuse on a glittering explosion of joy, or at least indulge in a little sparkle. Your little POOF of happiness just might draw the best possible things out of a week full of potential.

Thank you all for reading and listening. Any likes, subs, shares or follows are always greatly appreciated.

Private readings by email are open. Your purchases, memberships and virtual coffees all support the blog and podcast.

Thanks again. Next up for me is the weekly learn to read Tarot post for the members only blog on ko-fi. After that, it is back to the usual Sage’s Sip of Tarot.

See you at the next sip!

CrystalCast for 9 Jan 23

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you at the next sip!

Crystal Cast for the week of 26 Dec 22

CrystalCast psychic reading – a look ahead to the week of 26 December 2022

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

It’s been quite a year for me, and this cast for the final week of 2022 rubs a little lemon juice into a private emotional paper cut. That being said, I’ll leave it to you to decide if this resonates for you or not. That being said, it isn’t about us per se as much as it is a confirmation or explanation of other people or of some of the unkindnesses we may have experienced or witnessed this year.

It might be a pitfall of being a people pleaser. It might come from some deep seated desire to do the right thing above all.

Or it might come from being elitist, egotistical, holier-than-thou and judgemental.

The take-away message that I see here is that people are more important than ideology. When I say ideology, it could extend to anything but top of mind right now is religion. Use it interchangeably in this post, if you like. Damage is done when we put religion or politics or policy over the people they were originally intended to help.

I tend to look at life through a very secular humanist lens. True to pareidolia, our natural neurological tendency to see patterns where likely none exist the pattern I see here is a human form reminiscent of the constellation Orion. If the upper blank rune stone is considered the face, the left hand could be the largest obsidian chip. Left is considered the yin or receiving hand. Give and take is a consideration this week. Don’t leave your receiving hand closed. Give a little love to yourself even as the main focus is caring for others. The black color of the obsidian also resonates with yin, resting, receiving, accepting, abiding: All things to remember.

The right hand is the larger raw quartz bead. If we consider this patter as looking at another human face to face, the quartz would be the sending, giving, yang right hand. Our task this week is to care for others. It’s our turn to give that extra little bit of care and consideration be it literal, like taking out the extra holiday garbage, or giving a little tlc to the emotional bruises the holiday season can inflict for some while celebrating all the good that comes of it for the rest of us.

The “m” shaped rune is ehwaz, which Thom Pham visually likes to two people holding hands. It has to do with relationships.

Your relationship with people and with yourself is pre-eminant. In my opinion any person that puts organization and dogma over people are making the wrong choice. Organizations and their leaders that ask that of their members are barking up the tree of cultism and psychopathy in my non-expert opinion.

The extended diamond shape next to ehwaz is othala, which has to do with homeland, legacy, or ancestral home. I get the purely intuitive sense of that ancestral legacy being self-knowledge in the vein of Socrates. I want to associate it with the treasure of being confident and comfortable within your ancestral home, your own skin. The more you know thyself, and the more comfortable with that authentic self, the more impervious you are to other people’s petty judgements. More importantly, it makes you less likely to judge or demean others, even inadvertently.

Yoda was right. Fear and anger and dare we say emotional pain of any kind leads to the dark side.

Socrates was right. The more you know yourself, the more you can accept and abide with the unique, amazing person that you are.

The art form of Kintsugi is right. Brokenness has the potential to become beautiful.

In this last week of the year, in the flow of yuletide, in the hope of brighter days to come, give freely of your compassion and be generous your ability to see the beauty in cracks and crinkles. Give all of these things freely to yourself as well.

Zombie Cat’s Tarot Reading for 2023 is coming later this week. Zombie Cat doesn’t give a flying brain cell about how Tarot really works, how probabilities really work or if his so-called predictions come true or not. He’s a zombie. And he’s a cat. All of Zombie Cat’s readings are 100% guaranteed to contain words and have a 50% chance of being dead wrong. I hope you’ll stay tuned for the fun.

As for me, I want to say thank you here and now for your kind attention. I appreciate your following the blog and the podcast. It means a lot that you are willing to spend a few minutes and few sips of coffee to consider these little Tarot contemplations.

Both the Blog and the Podcast will be back right after New Years. I’m considering a few superficial updates, maybe even a name change as my Tarot work continues to adapt to some off-line meatspace changes. From your end of things, it will all be pretty much the same. I want to make things more regular and predictable for all of our sakes. Hang in there with me. We got this.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, peaceful and abundant 2023!

CrystalCast for the week of 14 November ’22

CrystalCast reading for the week ahead,: vibe and chill.

I don’t know what I did, but I lost the video of this one. Backed it up with a static photo, so hopefully this will do.

Hi and welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and audio blog, A.K.A. the podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Since it’s new, and since I screwed up the video anyway, I hope today’s reading will work as a super short nano-sip of a podcast, just to let you know that these crystal cast things exist. Between now and at least January, life here is an elfcon 1 squirrel rave at full volume, so I’m not promising to do anything blog, podcast or social media related at any given time on any given day. Still, it’s my intent to post these “crystal cast” readings on Monday mornings.

Ish.

Hopefully.

But don’t hold your breath. I don’t want to contribute to anyone dropping their oxygen levels.

My intent is also to film the crystals and runestones so you can see them as they fall. Seeing the actual cast might spark something within your own mind and intuition. Just like with a Tarot reading, your hunches and feelings about what something means takes precedence over anything I might say about it.

That’s what readings are about after all. As I see it, professional psychics with all of our woo woo cards, crystals, runes, tea leaves, star charts, chicken bones or what have you are all in service to one thing: the human experience. It isn’t about predicting the future. If that is what you want, then I’m not the reader for you. Buyer beware is all I’m saying about that kind of psychic sales pitch.

Intuitive readings aren’t about any external spirit or deity unless you want them to be. I don’t see it a reading as one bit supernatural. They are no more supernatural than an image in a mirror showing us a point of view we might not have otherwise seen. It is about emotion, perspective and our individual connection to the wholeness of everything. Are psychic readings subtle? Yes. Objectively measurable by science? No. Valid and valuable and enriching to the human experience? Absolutely.

I’m hoping that those of you listening today on the podcast will at some point visit the blog to see the card draw and crystal cast videos. The crystal cast posts will be a blog exclusive after today. There is a link to the blog website in the episode description. Some podcasting platforms allow for video podcasting. I tried a few test episodes, but it seemed to defeat the whole purpose of having an audio version of the blog in the first place. If you are in it to listen while you work or work out or drive or what have you, then for safety’s sake you shouldn’t be looking at a screen. If you want to see the visuals, please, by all means visit the blog or the youtube channel. But if you just want to listen, by all means, please, grab the podcast version and just listen. I value your attention and your thoughts no matter whether you are looking or listening or both.

But, as usual, I digress.

Back to this week and these crystals.

The first and obvious thing is the row of four touching runestones, like a literal wall across the path of the other crystals.

The clustering of clear chips under the wall of rune stones reminds me of last week’s reading. It isn’t a forever blockade. The energy here isn’t a NO – it’s a “slow down and cool your jets” kind of vibe. In my minds eye I see a school crossing guard telling everybody to slow down.

Last week’s reading had a lot of sparkle with an emphasis on productivity and progress. This isn’t a full stop to that previous message, but it is a little bit of fine tuning to the speed of it all. In a way, it is a validation of what you are doing. As dynamic as last week’s reading was and as often as the chaotic Tower Tarot card has shown up lately, this pattern is saying two things:

First, it is ok to cool it with big changes and the frenetic pace.

Second, all that stuff you started is good. Keep up the good work.

Here I get the mental image of that ridiculous looking shirt from the 70’s that said “keep on trucking.” I’m also reminded of Harry Connick Jr. on American Idol talking about singing “in the pocket” or being “in the groove” with the band or some such thing. Now I’m reminded of one of my favorite Twitter memes, your friend and mine, vibing cat.

Whatever you’ve been doing, if it’s working, keep doing it. To borrow some more cliches, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and just keep on keeping on. Stay in the groove. Vibe with things as they are for a little while.

Of the four rune stones, three are blank. I don’t get the sense of brimming “potential” that I did with last week’s blank stones. There is more of a “stay” or “hold” feel. That would go along with the one rune that is showing – Isa, symbolic of ice.

It doesn’t get much more to the point than that in the intuition and symbolism business.

Chill.

Do, but don’t push. Continue, but at a relaxed pace. You are sliding along, not frozen solid in the ice.

Just to prove that a sense of humor exists in the world…as I write that I get the mental image of olympic curling, and the slow, smooth slide of the curling rocks.

The individual crystals in the top right hand corner of the photo remind me that there are always outliers. This reading doesn’t apply to every single person who hears it. This is a collective energy, general audience kind of reading that should never bear the burden of prediction, even if such a thing were possible. If this reading doesn’t resonate with you, that’s normal. No one reading can be everything to everyone. Keep listening and your perfect message will find you in time.

Thank you so much for reading and listening today. I welcome your questions and feedback through the comments below or the contact in the right hand column over there ->

There are links in the episode description for the podcast.

The blog, the podcast and the youtube channel are not monetized in any way, so they 100% rely on your support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page where purchases and memberships all support creating these free blog and podcast Tarot readings for everyone.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

NEW! Crystal Cast Reading

TaoCraft is four years old today, but this new crystal cast reading is today years old today.

My Tarot career isn’t shiny and new, but these readings certainly are.

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

Today is the 4th anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot’s grand opening. Even though I’ve been doing reading cards since the early nineties, publicly under the nicknames Baihu and Modern Oracle since 2003 or so, in 2018 I re-named re-branded and re-launched everything as TaoCraft Tarot. I still hope to re-introduce everything because knowing is more comfortable than not knowing and I want everyone, new and old friends and followers alike, to feel comfortable and at home here.

At four years old, TaoCraft as a whole is like a well used favorite pair of jeans with all of the reasons for the name chang well out of the broom closet, but today I’d like introduce a brand shiny new kind of reading.

New to me, in any case. I’ve never offered these publicly before.

Casting type of divination isn’t new. Throwing coins to gain wisdom from the I ching is an ancient practice. People probably have been doing psychic readings with tossed objects since someone dropped some chicken bones on a patch of dirt. Charm casting had a moment on social media a few years ago. I had a charm reading once. It was – forgive me – charming. There is just no better word for it. At was insightful and helpful and kind which a credit to the reader more than the charms.

Those are all parts of the powerful roots that I hope to bring to the crystal casting experience. For those of you listening on the podcast, you

The unique part of this is not the casting and pure intuitive reading process, the unique part is the stuff I’ve put in my wise woman’s little reading bag of tricks, so to speak. Inspired in part by that charm casting reading, but also by Crystal Vaults crystal readings, Thom Pham’s Rune Cards of Mannaz and Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice (which I may add to my literal grab bag once they arrive from the kickstarter in a few months) I’m using black crystal chips for protection, clear quartz crystal chips for clarity and to amplify psychic energy, and lapis lazuli rune stones for wisdom, insight and integrity.

Looking at the example video above (on the blog and podcast website. If you are listening to the podcast I’ll put a link in the show description for you if you’d like to see the example) we see two lines which brings to mind converging paths or converging concerns. On is mostly black chips, the other mostly clear chips, with the two converging in the middle of the scattered chips. I get the impression this is about protecting your vision, guarding your insight until it is the right time. I ‘hear’ … hear meaning that the intuition comes as words instead of mental images … “don’t overshare”. If I apply this to my situation, it reminds me of the whole squirrel rave meme that has been popping up the schedule announcements and all the changes in planning over the spring and summer particularly. The advice is to “play things close to the vest” so to speak. I’ll explain more later, but I’m not going to announce schedules and plans so much anymore so things can adapt and be more agile over all. Oversharing seems like a bad idea in the short term future it seems.

See the X, the Gebo rune? It means gift, generosity, partnership…all hints of being in a flow of good things. The blank side rune hints at potential. I hear “blank slate” with great potential to choose and write the future being present on the path ahead.

See how that works?

I’m offering these at an introductory price until the end of November 2022 then they will cost the same as a one card Tarot reading. Please visit the blog and podcast website for details.

i know it isn’t exactly polite to ask for presents on your own business anniversary. Every year, I break my own rule of no cutsey pants promotions rule and do something to celebrate the deep authenticity and the anniversary of the TaoCraft web name and blog title. This year it was $1 Tarot readings. Now I’m asking for a little treat from you, not tricks involved. If you could comment on the blog or to the blog if your platform supports that – I’d really like to hear from you. What do you think of the crystal casting idea? What do like, hate, or want to see more of here in the blog and podcast? If I could trick or treat at your door tonight, I’d rather hear your thoughts than get a candy.

Thank you all for listening and reading. Thank you all for being here, and making the past four years so worthwhile.

Happy Halloween!

Coming Soon – Psychic Casting $1

NEW format psychic reading for $1 coming soon.

I’m developing a new, unique style of intuitive reading involving crystals and runes together. It will include a video of your individual crystal & rune cast plus a written psychic interpretation by email. The intuition and psychic part is the same as Tarot or any other psychic reading, but I’m beta testing the delivery format. Until the technical piece of it is solid, this distance reading is only $1 regular price – for now. It will go up to $5 just like the one card Tarot meditation readings. Please follow the blog* so you get plenty of warning when the price update is coming. You can get all new blog posts as soon as they are published by opting in with your email in the right hand column of this page ->

Here is how the new reading works

I’ll cast random chips and runestones on my Tarot reading cloth that has accumulated some pretty good vibes over the years. Then I’ll do a purely intuitive / psychic reading based on how the chips and stones fall. By writing it, you get the best of my intuition, by email, no appointment needed. By writing it you can order anytime, 24/7. Stay tuned for the blog post that let’s you know ordering is open.

I’ll make a private share video on the TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel of your individual real world cast and send the link to the private video in the written psychic reading that comes to your email.

When this NEW reading is set up and ready, this page will link you to the TaoCraftTarot Shop where you can purchase the reading and submit your question in one easy transaction.

Stay Tuned!

*The blog on this website is FREE and opt-in, you can unsubscribe at any time. There is an audio version of the blog on Spotify, Anchor Fm, googlepodcasts, stitcher, and more.

This blog and the audio blog (podcast) is NOT monetized so I don’t see a single penny of any advertising you might see. If you enjoy TaoCraft Tarot content, please support the blog & podcast on ko-fi (“buy me a coffee”)

There is a member’s only blog on ko-fi with exclusive content including a monthly pathway Tarot reading on the members blog. Members also get shop discounts and more.

The shop on ko-fi has all of my ebooks & is open to everyone, but members receive a standing discount.

Of course, all virtual coffees (online tip jar) are gratefully accepted.

Thank you so much for taking a look at this! I hope we can beta test this new reading together soon! – Sage

The Oracle’s Toolkit: Introduction

Introducing a new blog post series about ways to help improve intuition

I was talking with a really interesting, insightful, lovely person last evening (you know who you are … and I still think your intuitive light shines more than you realize.)

One of the things that came up in conversation is learning to read Tarot cards.

I can teach you how to do that, and have offered small group workshops on how to do one card meditation Tarot readings for a long time – until covid came along, anyway. My ebook PeaceTarot is the basis for the workshop. The book is a basic how-to guide for DIY daily Tarot. My hope is to bring the book and workshop to live, online, private one to one sessions this year. If you’d be interested in that kind of private zoom-meeting lesson, drop a comment below. Knowing that there is an iota of interest in private Tarot reading lessons will bump them up on the ever growing list of sh*t I want to do to make TaoCraft Tarot better for you.

BUT, as was also part of the conversation, Tarot isn’t for everyone. It does have layers and lots of moving parts and can get very confusing and overwhelming. That’s why we pros are here. You don’t have to juggle all of that if you don’t want to. We are, you know, professionals at sorting the cards out for you.

That is what makes Tarot so useful. It has the depth and complexity to encompass all that life can throw at us and still reflect each person’s unique energy message.

Even with all of that, get right down to it, Tarot is a tool. It is just one of dozens and bunches in an oracle’s toolkit. When you get down to the root essence of it all, the only oracle that exists is human intuition. All the rest of it is just bells and whistles, hammers and wrenches of the heart and mind.

Tarot cards, oracle cards, playing cards; you could do an intuitive reading with uno or old maid cards if you wanted to.

Tarot cards, rune stones, pendulums, black mirrors, crystal balls, palm lines, star patterns, head bumps, chicken guts, random songs on the radio or what-have-you; all of them are just tools. I call them oracle tools, and they are simply just that. All of these things and more are simply things that help us access and communicate our innate intuition. They are like microphones that amplify the quiet whispers of spirit and energy. For the deep and sometimes hidden well of human wisdom, your intuition is the pump that brings the wisdom to the surface and these oracle tools are the cup of water that primes the pump.

The best thing is that you don’t need a single tool to unlock your intuition. With a little time and mindful attention, intuition is right at your fingertips quick as a thought. Think of TV psychics who just say way they see (or hear or feel or know) with no tools, props or drama required. That isn’t to say that they are better psychics than those of us that use these oracle tools, they use a different microphone. We all have something good to say. Not everyone is a good direct speech communicator. Oracle tools give us a way to put the non-verbal intuitive message into useful verbal form.

We may not need oracle tools, but they do make the whole process easier and a bit more fun. In that sense they are oracle toys as much as oracle tools.

Back on my old ModernOracleTarot.com Tarotbytes blog, I started a post series called “The Oracle’s Toolkit” It didn’t get very far before the whole re-branding to TaoCraft Tarot process kicked in. Inspired by the conversation last night, I’m bring that back too. We’ll start with the original first for parts about pendulums and pens, then move on to other oracle tools like scrying objects, rune stones and more.

I won’t make any promises how long the posts will be or how often they will happen. I hope you’ll follow the blog so you can see them whenever they do happen.

Short Sip Tarot returns in the morning. See you at the next sip!

Just looked at the latest new case count and deaths for our county for January 9-15. Yikes! Guess that sticks a fork in in-person readings for a while. Party Tarot is closed until further notice.

Please stay tuned to reputable news sources for up to date information. Avoid whackadoodle conspiracies and make good choices to stay as healthy and well as you can.

Being healthy and alive are the best oracle tools of all.

Dearly Beloved

For my own sanity, I really, really, REALLY try to avoid politics and that other powderkeg word that starts with R.

But, in full disclosure, the idea for today’s card dropped into my head while I was watching coverage of President Biden’s remarks in Tulsa about the Greenwood “Black Wall Street” massacre of 1921.

Most of the time when you work with an oracle tool to access your intuition (like Tarot, runes, scrying, I Ching or what have you) a random item sparks the meaningful idea. Sometimes, it’s happened the other way around. A meaningful idea drops into my head inspired by some other source; muses, spirit guides, something I’ve seen, something on TV, a song from the radio, a scroll through social media…anything. Those ideas are usually the ones that niggle at you for a while. I turn them into a post for “The Niggles” category here in the blog, or sometimes I’ll reverse engineer the idea into a Tarot card.

It’s an interesting exercise, really. It doesn’t even have to be a spontaneous, inspired niggly thought. Take any concept that seems important to you and browse a Tarot deck (or decks) to see which card best resonates or exemplifies the idea. It is a great way to build your relationship with your deck(s) and expand your intuitive understanding of the cards when you do a reading. In this case, the Two of Cups seemed best.

Today’s – or really last evening’s – niggly concept is “beloved.”

President Bidens remarks in commemoration of the Tulsa Massecre were so filled with compassion, insight, inspiration. Especially in contrast to the last administration, the kindness and humanity so evident in his words and voice were inspiring, heart wrenching and breath taking. I encourage you to listen to his speech. If you consider yourself one drop intuitive, listen with your heart and with your third eye. Bring your full intuitive attention to what he said as well as what historically happened.

Perhaps you will wonder, as I did, why isn’t he the most beloved President in American history. Perhaps he will be. If there is one bit of justice, if the species survives long enough to do it, I hope that those who look back at the early 21st century see Presidents Biden and Obama for the compassion and intellect they embody. Again…look with your third eye, listen with your heart, not with your usual political leanings.

Out of that moment, that fleeting thought, the word BELOVED grabbed my attention.

It takes a lot of people to make a President “one of the most beloved.” It takes a solid plurality (and enough popular vote to overtake gerrymandering and electoral college bias) to make a person a President at all, but what does it take to make a historical figure beloved?

One person.

Perhaps you.

All it takes for anyone to be beloved is for one person to love them, for any measure of time. That measure of time exists. Always. If you love or are loved for any moment, then you are loved for an eternity because that moment always exists in the larger eternity, no matter where else in time you view that moment from.

Every moment you give love to the universe, to any person, to any idea – to yourself – that moment counterbalances and functionally erases a moment of hate given elsewhere.

Even for a moment, if you love someone – or yourself – then that person is beloved.

As for President Biden, I suspect Dr. Jill has it covered.

As for the rest of us, love someone for a moment. They are then beloved. Think of the whole earth and everything living being on it just for one tiny little fleeting moment and send your love to that entirety. Now you too, are forever beloved.

All it takes for anyone to be beloved is one person.

Perhaps you.

Todays Tarot: Every Little Thing

 

“We can “read” anything in our world as an answer to an issue or question. The answer is in our heart and the world reflects it back to us. If you asked a question and your eyes caught a spider web, this web would reflect the truth that was within and be an answer to your question.” – Joy Star

One contemporary way of understanding the four minor arcana suits in is terms of relationships: how we related to the physical realm, to our inner selves, to society at large and when it comes to cups, our relationship with relationships or our innermost circle of loves, friends and family. In a nutshell, all of the king cards symbolize leadership. Cups also relate to the alchemical element water. Water in general relates to intuition (think of the fish in a cup, mysteries from the depths of our psyche connotations from the Page of Cups card.)

Stir all of that together and it eventually boils down to intuition leading you, or leading through a deep trust in your intuition. One of my favorite interpretations for this card over the years is the king of cups as pointing to a spirit guide. A more literal spin is that of a mentor who guides your development in a specific area but in more connected, long term, developmental way than you would associate with a teacher or manager or organizer.

For now, I’d like to focus more on the spirit guide side of it. If you feel drawn to the mentoring side (either as mentor or mentee) I strongly suggest reading Chunliang Al Huang’s excellent book Mentoring: The Tao of Giving and Receiving Wisdom.

Spirit guides are a fascinating subject. Books could, and have been, written about them. My absolute go-to favorite is Ted Andrews’ How to Meet and Work With Spirit Guides. Some people think of them as something very separate from themselves like a patron saint sort of figure. Some see them closer, like a guardian angle or the one to one spirit guide described by Andrews, Bach and others. Still others see a “spirit guide” as a reflection of our spiritual side, our “higher selves.” This is the kind of guidance that Joy was hinting at when she wrote about the world reflecting our truth. Things like Tarot cards, planets, stars, runestones, I Ching lines….whatever it is…don’t give answers in and of themselves. They are the carrier signal, the pipeline, that lets the message come through. Oracles deliver the message from our inner wisdom and higher selves through the noise of everyday living to our everyday consciousness. The cool thing is every little thing can be an oracle. Remember that lyric from the song by the Police “every little thing she does is magic” ? It is just as true that every little thing is magic. Anything can be a tiny little validation, or an itsy nudge toward the way you should go. Every little thing is magic when you look with intuitive eyes.