A Typo, a Cat, and a New Year

Surprise! Blew off a couple of things, and wound up with a few minutes to spend here with the blog. That makes the hiatus into something of a typo…The podcast is for sure on hiatus until the 21, but if I get a chance to write on the blog, I will. Writing is a hotline to my intuition like the big red bat phone in the Commissioners office. I’m hardwired as an introvert if that myers-briggs thing we did in a training class is to be believed (INTP to be exact) so put the two together and writing be like breathing.

So here I am, to remind anyone interested in a reading, orders placed between now and Ded. 21 will be delivered Dec 22 or 23. The Podcast will be on full hiatus until around the 22 or 23, and socials will largely be quiet. I’ll be lurking on Instagram, mastodon and tiktok mostly, so say hello if you are there.

Speaking of writing fun, it’s always entertaining to throw caution to the wind and do a New Year’s Prediction reading. A you might have guessed if you read my other blog Sage Words, I have a raging case of the cynical blahs this holiday season so I’m handing the New Year prediction over to our zero-f**ks slightly-snarky prediction-friendly fictional feline alter-ego Zombie Cat. If you haven’t met Zombie Cat, let me introduce you. Here is the 2015 blog post that first adopted Zombie Cat, inspired by a Menage A Tarot podcast episode and Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment.


“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly… time-y wimey… stuff.”

There are two words that make me cringe a little when I get them in a Tarot question: “will” and “when.”

Predictions and time are knotty subjects in psychic work.

Predictions are actually a scientific thing. A scientific prediction is essentially a pronouncement about what will happen based on existing data and past results. For example, we can predict where in the sky Mars will be a year from now based on Newton’s laws of gravity, Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, existing observations and so on.  As I understand it, that is the kind of prediction that a law of physics or scientific principle has to be able to make in order for the principle to be considered valid within the scientific method.

Skeptics spend a great deal of time and energy bashing and demeaning “psychic predictions” in the name of science. Unlike overt scams, ego trips and outlandish fiction, when psychic predictions are made authentically and traditionally, they are essentially the same as the scientific kind.  The psychic reader is an objective observer who is knowledgeable about symbolism and human nature. Because of that wider perspective the reader can see trends that the person getting the reading may not see. A Tarot reader can predict where things are headed in a relationship just like a scientist can predict where Mars is headed in the sky. The biggest difference that I see is that psychic predictions are based in non-linear logic and psychology instead of linear logic and numerical data.

That is looking at it all from a very superficial, everyday experience point of view. This is Isaac Newton kind of stuff. It’s like predicting that when an apple detaches from a tree, it will fall down. What if we go a just a little bit more modern with it?

Think Schrodinger’s Cat.

Schrodinger’s Cat is a thought experiment that everyone seems to love. Scientists who try to explain it love to use it to take a swipe at non-scientific or spiritual thinking. If you want to understand the hard core science side of this, Star Talk with Dr. Degrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice is very understandable (and fun!)

I’m no physicist but let me take a stab at this, more for the analogy than for the science of it. As Dr. Degrasse Tyson hints, this experiment is really about stuff we can’t observe and we can’t know. Tarot is one way people could talk about stuff we can’t know in a time long before quantum physics. The Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck dates back to the 1440s, predating both Galileo and Newton. The discovery of quantum physics doesn’t mean that Newton’s laws are untrue. The existence of objective science doesn’t mean subjective experiences of human intuition is untrue.

Thought experiments rely on your imagination. Intuition relies on your imagination. So it seems reasonable to use a thought experiment to talk about psychic predictions.

But back to the Schrodinger thing.

In the thought experiment, a poor unsuspecting cat from an era when no one cared about animal welfare was put in a box with a vial of poison gas. There is a trigger on the vial connected to a radioactive molecule that has a 50-50 random chance of breaking down within the next hour. During that hour we cannot know and we cannot predict what the result is going to be. Either the molecule decays and triggers the poison, or it doesn’t. Until the observation is made and the whole thing has happened the cat can potentially wind up in either condition. During the time that the experiment is in progress, the cat is both dead and alive up until the moment when we look in the box to see what happened.

Once the experiment is set up and started, the cat could come out of it alive or not. But why not both or neither? Why are those possibilities excluded when so much of life is on a spectrum like electromagnetic energy? Why are other possibilities excluded when so little of life is a strict dichotomy? Disappearing Cat or Zombie Cat could happen…it’s possible. As I understand the BBC Horizon Series’ program “Parallel Universes” (hosted by Dr. Michio Kaku, based on his book “Parallel Worlds”) anything and everything is possible. Some things are, however, very very unlikely within the laws of physics of our particular universe. Multiple universes is one possible explanation of it all. The cat is both…it just does it in different universes. It can’t be both dead and alive in the same universe.

Why not? I ask the computer screen every time I see the Minute Physics video about multiple universes. Why not a zombie cat that is both or a disappearing cat that is neither?

When the moment of discovery is still in the future, the possibility and attendant levels of probability exists for all outcomes. In the mysterious and undetermined future, all conditions exist, even our wildly unlikely disappearing or undead pet. Can you predict which way THAT is headed using nothing but your brain and handful of Tarot cards? If you “predict” the more likely dead vs alive construct, is that psychic or science? If you predict Zombie Cat, is that quackery or was the intuitive vision simply dialed into a different part of a far flung multiverse?

Zombie Cat may well exist out there. We don’t know because multiverses, as the video says, is unproven. No-cat and Zombie Cat might be out there, but they just don’t make the jump from possible to probable to IS, at least not in this world. All potentials exists until the possibility becomes “entangled” with our reality and the moment becomes NOW instead of future, and then slips instantly into the past. Now and Past are fully collapsed probability waves. They exist. Ska-doosh! It’s a done deal with nothing to predict. The future on the other hand, that’s a different animal than any of our imaginary cats.

Now, just to make things really interesting, let’s introduce Zombie Cat to Alice the Vampire.

In the movie Twilight, the psychic vampire Alice could see the future insofar as people have decided what they want to do. If someone changes their mind or changes their actions, then her vision changes. She can predict but with uncertainty. Her predictions are predicated on the course people are on, not any one fixed outcome. Alice the vampire’s visions and Zombie Cat’s existence are a matter of probability, not “accurate prediction.” And so it is with Tarot and psychic readings.

Let’s say our imaginary cat has human-like intelligence and has a choice rather than being a victim of circumstance as in the classic thought experiment. What if there was something the cat could think or do or meow that make or some action it could take that could detach the vial from its molecular decay trigger? Now how do you make predictions under that set of conditions?

Imagine your psychic vision was of a dead cat which had a 50% mathematical probability in the experiment.  What if the cat heard you make that “psychic prediction” and disconnected the trigger when it otherwise wouldn’t have acted that way? Was the the initial prediction wrong? 

Will you get that job? I dunno. Did you apply for it? Update your resume? Schedule an interview? Check the classifieds for other options? Has the person doing the hiring made any decisions or taken any actions that have connected the possibility to reality?

A reading can’t predict a specific outcome, but it can give you advice and it can help you make decisions that nudge the probabilities in your favor such as be flexible (4 of swords), emphasize your skills and experience (The Emperor) or show you’d be a hard working team player (3 of coins). A good advice reading is like the psychic yelling at the cat in the thought experiment box to disconnect the trigger and improve its chances of survival.

When will you get married? I dunno. But in the meantime you can do social things that make you happy (3 of cups) be clear in your mind about the kind of person and marriage you really want (The Lovers) and engage with the life you have now as happily as you can (10 of pentacles)

The future is just as wibbly-wobbly as the Doctor told us. But Tarot can give you ideas about how to bring love and happiness of all types into your life. Intuition can help you make the best possible choices along the way, not predict what lies at the end of the road.

If you do nothing, take no advice, make no choices, then it is all just a coin toss. You might wind up with anything from a happy cat right up to a Zombie Cat. But who knows? Maybe a friendly Tarot-reading Zombie Cat might not be such a bad thing.

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Religion–Spirituality/Menage-a-Tarot-Podcast-p641978/

Zombie Cat’s 2020 Shamble

Zombie Cat shambles off into the sunset on November 7, 2020

Zombie Cat has had it with 2020. He’s going to go take a dirt nap until next summer. Order now if you want to get one of Zombie Cat’s yes-or-no readings before he shambles off into the sunset on November 7th.

These readings use 3 cards to answer any one yes-or-no question. AND they are $5 off for the rest of the Halloween season! How can you say no to that?

After you order with the secure paypal button below, send your question to TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com. Zombie Cat is extra cranky and snarky this year, so if you don’t send a question, Zombie Cat will just make one up for you, OR if it isn’t in yes/no form, Z.C. will put it there.

All of Zombie Cat’s readings are just for fun, 100% guaranteed to contain words and have a 50% chance of being DEAD wrong.

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Zombie Cat’s Yes / No Tarot

Limited time! Special price! Answers any one yes or no question. Send your question to TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com. If you don’t, Zombie Cat will make up a random question for you. If it isn’t in yes/no format, he’ll put it there. All Zombie Cat readings are entertainment only, 100% guaranteed to contain words, and have a 50% chance of being DEAD wrong. Available through Halloween season only.

10.00 $

Today’s Tarot: Do Your Way

Today’s Tarot: Eight of Pentacles – yes, pentacles. This is still resonating with the pandemic. Stay home, don’t touch your face, clean everything, and wash your hands

Back in the long dark days before the webbernets, we had coffee mugs, posters and t-shirts instead of memes.

Somewhere along the way, on something like that, I read “Don’t think yourself into a new way of doing, do yourself into a new way of thinking.” At first I wrote it off as a hallmark grade shallow platitude, but for some annoying reason it stuck in memory along with other 70s debris like the “keep on truckin'” shirt and pet rocks. Much later, after I started working with holistic health, it came in handy as an example of the mind-body connection. The mind-body connection is very much a two way street. Even more than our little leftover platitude would suggest.

It’s true (see the literature review in my dissertation) that changing you mindset, or in other words, “decreasing perceived stress” will have a positive impact on physical well being. It is also true that physical wellness can have a positive impact on our emotional outlook. The idea is to bring mind, body and spirit into best possible balance and function. Books have been written about how to do that. The kicker is where to start, which is very much an individual choice. Do you start on the mental side and work you way into improved physical health or go physical and let the more comfortable body support a more relaxed mind and more pleasant emotions?

Just like Zombie Cat is my answer to Schrodinger’s thought experiment, my thought here is to do both, but that’s another story. I might have to fire up my old holistic health blog for that one. 

Today the 8 of Pentacles nudges us to a physical side start. The boilerplate advice these days seems to do something small, however minute, to give yourself a feeling of accomplishment or comfort; make the bed, water the houseplants, brush your hair, change out of those 2 day pajamas into a fresh pair of yoga pants….something. Do yourself into a fresher mental and emotional state while you are at it.

The intuitive feel around this card today is that it is aimed with direct targeting cross hairs at the privileged among us (myself included) who can stay home with functioning internet. uninterrupted utilities and pick up groceries. If you are fed, safe and well, you have no business complaining.

 

If you are out there in the thick of it, then the “do” in this case is all about self-care. The “do yourself into a new way of thinking” thing strikes me as way too snippy, and judgy, implying that anybody’s thinking needs changed. If anything, the “change” is to decrease stress and find some tiny granule of hope in it all. To “do” yourself into that, take care of yourself, even if right now that care comes in the form of a crappy cup of coffee or a five minute chair nap. And thank you for what you do.

Now everybody go wash your hands.

Meet Zombie Cat 2020

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Hey everyone. I’m Zombie Cat. I poofed into quantum probability collapsed existence back in 2015 after Schrodinger’s experiment and a Menage A Tarot podcast collided in the hooman’s head and came out as a blog post on her old Modern Oracle site. You can read a reprise of the original post here. Both the hooman and I are very grateful for that podcasting experience to say the least.

A few days ago she tossed me the keys to the joint and walked off mumbling something about Mad Max needing cheese ….or maybe it was make a mask and going for groceries. Either way she had a slightly stressed look on her face like she was about ready to go full metal shoulder pads and start singing Tina Turner – badly. I figured that was my clue to take over the Tarot readings for a day or two. I usually only come shambling around at Halloween, but the end of the world as we know it has my attention. I’m back for the duration of the pandemic, to give you all a little break from being all positive and productive and hopeful and all that crazy crap. Some days if you peel off those 5 day old pajamas and take a shower it’s an accomplishment. If you want something thoughtful, diplomatic, kind, calm, reassuring, inspiring or empowering – go get one of the hooman’s readings. That’s not my style. Seeing as I am

  1. a cat and
  2. a zombie

I don’t feel any particular need to sugar coat such things. Despite the fictional undead cat thing, I’m a damn fine Tarot reader. That’s why I usually charge $10 per reading. I’m cutting you people types a break while the lung rot is out there, and my yes or no readings are only $5 (three cards for the price of one) until the end of April. Maybe longer. The hooman said she’s not letting her guard down until someone squirts an FDA approved vaccine in her arm. Meanwhile she is always running around cautioning people about how Tarot doesn’t predict the future, trying to encourage them and show them the power of their choices and all that. I just call ’em as I see ’em. If you want to believe a prediction from an un-dead fictional cartoon cat, who am I to judge? Ask me anything. I’ll give you a straight up yes or no answer guaranteed to contain some words and have a 50% chance of being dead wrong. Any accidental snark or humor is free of charge. All policies and disclaimers apply, caveat emptor, swim at your own risk.

And go wash your hands.

Spooky Season Super Sale

Yes, yes. I used the S word.

To celebrate the one year anniversary of officially re-launching as TaoCraft Tarot (was formerly Modern Oracle Tarot) AND more importantly to celebrate all things Halloween

Zombie Cat Is Back!

Get a 3 card Tarot reading for the price of one card in the Zombie Cat yes-or-no style.

Who the heck is Zombie Cat?!

Zombie Cat is a poorly drawn cartoon cat alter ego inspired by Schrodinger’s famous thought experiment and the “Test Tubes and Tarot Decks” episode of the Menage a Tarot podcast that I did a few years ago with Dave and Kate. Read the original “Zombie Cat” post from the old Tarotbytes blog HERE.

Order your reading with the secure PayPal button on the home page. For fastest service, send an email or use the “contact merchant” option at check out to send your question for Zombie Cat. If it isn’t a yes-or-no question we’ll change it into one.

Zombie Cat’s readings are 100% guaranteed to contain words, and have at least a 50% chance of being dead wrong.

Buyer beware. After all ZOMBIE is right there in his name.

 

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Zombie Cat

First published 27 April 2015

“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly… time-y wimey… stuff.”

– Doctor Who in the “Blink” episode written by Steven Moffat.

There are two words that make me cringe a little when I read (or hear) them in a Tarot question: “Will” and “When”.

Predictions and time are knotty subjects in this work.

Predictions are actually a scientific thing. A scientific prediction is, in essence, expert opinion about what should happen based on existing data and past results. For example, we can predict where in the sky Mars will be a year from now based on laws of gravity, planetary motion, existing observations and so on.  As I understand it, that is the kind of “prediction” that a law of physics or scientific principle has to be able to make in order for the principle to be considered valid within the scientific method.

Science spends so much time and energy bashing and demeaning “psychic predictions” when they are, in essence, the same as the scientific kind of predictions.  The psychic reader is an objective observer, knows human nature, and can see trends that the person getting the reading may not see. A Tarot reader can predict where things are going in a relationship just like a scientist can predict where Mars is headed over the next year. The only real difference is psychic predictions are based on non-linear logic and de facto  psychology instead of linear logic and hard data.

And that is looking at it from a very superficial, everyday experience point of view. This is Isaac Newton kind of stuff. It’s like predicting that when an apple detaches from the tree, it will fall down. What if we go a just a little bit quantum about it?

Think Schrodinger’s Cat.

In theory, once the experiment is set up and started, the cat could come out of it alive or not. But why not both if you are into zombies? Or neither one if the cat suddenly ceased to exist? Disappearing / Zombie Cat could happen…it’s just extreme magnitudes of unlikely as I understand the BBC Horizon Series’ program “Parallel Universes” (hosted by Dr. Michio Kaku, based on his book “Parallel Worlds”)

When the moment of discovery is still in the future, the possibility and attendant probability exists for all outcomes. In the mysterious and undetermined future, all four conditions exist, even our unlikely disappearing / undead pet. Can you predict which way THAT is headed using nothing but your brain and handful of Tarot cards? If you “predict” the more likely dead vs alive construct, is that psychic or science? If you predict Zombie Cat, is that quackery or was the intuitive vision simply dialed into a different part of a far flung multiverse?

Zombie Cat may well exist out there. We don’t know because multiverses, as the video says, is unproven. No-cat and Zombie Cat might be out there, but they just don’t make the jump from possible to probable to IS, at least not in this world. All potentials exists until “the wave collapses” and the moment becomes NOW instead of future, and then slips instantly into the past. Now and Past are fully collapsed probability waves. They exist – ska-doosh! – done deal, nothing to predict. The future on the other hand, that’s a different animal still.

Now, just to make things really interesting, let’s introduce Zombie Cat to Alice the Vampire.

In the movie Twilight, the psychic vampire Alice could see the future insofar as people have decided what they want to do. If someone changes their mind or changes their action, then her vision changes. She can predict but with uncertainty. Her predictions are predicated on the course people are on, not any one fixed outcome. Alice the vampire’s visions and Zombie Cat’s existence are a matter of probability, not “accurate prediction.” And so it is with Tarot and psychic readings.

Let’s say our cat has human-like intelligence and has a choice rather than being a victim of circumstance as in the classic thought experiment. Using the Einstein gunpowder version of things, what if there was some choice the cat could make or some action it could take that would keep the gunpowder from exploding? What if it could disconnect the fuse? Now how do you make predictions under that set of conditions?

Imagine your psychic vision was of a dead cat? (a 50% probable outcome in the original experiment.)  What if the cat heard you make that “psychic prediction” and blew out the fuse when it otherwise wouldn’t have? Was the prediction wrong? 

Will you get that job? I dunno. Did you apply for it? Update your resume? Schedule an interview? Check the classifieds for other options? (What has the cat done to keep the powder from exploding) Has the person doing the hiring made any decisions or taken any actions? (collapsed the probability wave)

A reading can’t predict a specific outcome, but it can give you advice and it can help you make decisions that nudge the probabilities of getting the job in your favor such as be flexible (4 of swords), emphasize your skills and experience (The Emperor) or show you’d be a hard working team player (3 of coins). A good advice reading is like the psychic yelling at the cat in the thought experiment bunker to blow out the fuse to improve the chances that it won’t blow up.

When will you get married? I dunno. The future is just as wibbly-wobbly as the Doctor told us. But Tarot can give you ideas about how to bring love and happiness of all sorts of things into your life. Intuition can help you make the best possible choices along the way, not predict what lies at the end of the road.

If you do nothing, take no advice, make no choices, then it is all just a coin toss. You might get anything from an explosion right up to a Zombie Cat. But who knows? Meeting a friendly Tarot reading Zombie Cat might be a lot of fun.

Next time: The Ghost of Zombie Cat

Videos by Minute Physics, via youtube.com creative commons permissions Please watch! I highly recommend them!

Inspired by “Test Tubes and Tarot Decks” episode of Menage A Tarot Podcast April 2015