Tag: south hills

Page update – email readings

Check out the newly updated email Tarot readings page

email tarot readings $5 – $45

Pro Tip: Scroll the whole list! I have layouts to fit any question…and any budget!

I’m not a bot! All email readings are done with real world cards by a human Tarot Reader with 30 years of experience. Distance Tarot is my specialty! Meet your reader HERE

All readings include:

  • a photo of your real-world card layout
  • card-by-card interpretation
  • psychic summary with crystal energies and intuitive aromatherapy.
  • See an example email reading HERE.

Choose from:

  • Power of 3 (9 cards) Set of three yes/no questions for complex “this or that” questions but with the clarity of a simple yes/no answer. Question or topic required. If you describe what you need, I can adapt it to this unique yes/no format for you – $45 only available to ko-fi supporters
  • Extended TaoCraft (7 cards) The same layout used in live readings in-person and online. Shows the 3 card path you are on, advice, alternatives, helping energies and potential challenges – $40
  • TaoCraft Tarot (5 cards) Written by me and in use since 2003, this layout empowers you and your choices with the original five cards in the extended layout above – $30
  • Year Ahead (5 cards) Gives a theme for the four seasons coming up and a card to symbolize the entire year ahead. Great for New Year, birthdays and more – $25
  • TimeFlow (4 cards) the get-organized reading with “Let it rest, let go, que it up, and let it flow” cards – $20
  • Pathway (3 cards) A modernized version of the classic past-present-future layout with a focus on navigating your path, not predicting the future – $15
  • Zombie Cat’s Yes/No (3 cards) reads ANY questions with 100% guarantee to contain words, and at least a 50% chance of being dead wrong – $15
  • Short Sip Contemplation (1 card) – Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. General advice or a focused follow-up to a longer readings we’ve done together – $5

Contacting me indicates that you agree with the policies listed HERE.

The Infinite and The Empty

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today, the infinite and the empty.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip, Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee, or evening tea, whatever happens to be the case. The blogcast is posting much later than usual today because of adulting and schedules and the like. Whatever day or time of day that you are reading or listening to this, I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is The Empty, which as best as I can tell was created by Seven Dane Asmund specifically for the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck. In the guide book he makes it very clear it was not intended as an “anything is possible” sort of card.

Indeed.

For all of its zen simplicity and stark beauty, conceptually this card is Schrodinger’s cat meets the Bene Gesserit box test from Dune. For those of you listening on the podcast, there is a link to the blog in the episode description if you’d like to see the real world card draw for today. Seriously, I hope you’ll google the deck and the card. This thing is seriously gorgeous.

This card also reminds us that the observed and the observer leave their mark on each other.

As Seven writes, quote … it doesn’t mean that anything is possible, only that you will irrevocably stain and paint this thing as you begin to interact with it. Be mindful what imprint you leave on its surface. End quote

Be mindful, too, of what you are drawing out of the infinite void of possibility. Anything may be possible, but you leave your mark on that process. When you contemplate the infinite, it leaves its mark on you. You are an active participant in what is attracted and manifested from the infinite, even when that activity is on the subconscious level.

Or, in the words of Carl Jung, quote Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will all it fate. End quote.

Empty is powerful. But empty is not pristine. Empty observed is different from empty ignored. Empty is where all things can become potentially possible. Only the empty cup can be filled. There has to be a deficiency of electrons in one part of a circuit for electricity to flow. Thinking positive with outward flowing desires and expectations and efforts often doesn’t serve as well as being open and empty and in some sense surrendering to the larger and emptier universe. What will you draw from infinity into your empty.

Empty is where infinity hides.

Thank you for listening.

The blog and podcast are 100% listener supported. This free to access Tarot depends on you. Be a patron of the Tarot arts. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page to learn about all the benefits of membership. Proceeds from the shop support the blogcast.

Of course, your likes, subs, shares, commissioned Tarot readings, follows, questions and comments are always apprecitated.

See you at the next sip!

In-person Readings are back

In-person individual Tarot reading services are re-opening in April. Serving Pittsburgh’s South Hill neighborhoods of Carnegie, Scott, Collier, Bridgeville, Nevillewood, Mount Lebanon and Upper St. Clair

For the next week or so, social media will be more random than usual.

Email readings are open the same as always.

And (drumroll please) in-person readings will re-open in April. Appointments need to schedule at least 2 days in advance. No same-day appointments are available.

Just as a reminder, since it’s been a hot minute since in-person readings have been available:

  • In-person sessions are $40
  • Appointments are required. Contact me to schedule.
  • TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com is still the BEST contact. The phone number you see around the website is for text messages only.
  • Contactless pre-payment is available HERE on the website.
  • Cash in exact change is accepted at the time of our meeting. I don’t carry cash to make change. Payment is due at the time of the reading either way.
  • In-person readings last 40 minutes to 1 hour, give or take. I charge per card not per minute to allow the energy to move at its own pace. That gives you the highest quality of reading when we don’t have to focus on a fixed quantity of time.
  • I don’t keep a physical location and pass the savings along to you. We meet at a quiet public place within my service area. I suggest Panera bread at one of these convenient locations (with plenty of parking!): Great Southern Shopping Center in Bridgeville, 1900 GreenTree Road in Scott Township (in the plaza near Marshalls), Galleria Mall in Mount Lebanon, or Settlers Ridge in Robinson Township.

#Short Sip Tarot: Spin

Thank you for watching, reading and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot. Any likes, subs, shares, or reading orders that you can spare are always greatly appreciated!

Today’s card is the Wheel.

I also get a strong sense of it bringing the World card right along with it. The idea for today is very much a combination of the two.

The Wheel reminds me of how dynamic life is. It brings today’s energy into the realm of time. A season is part of a year, a day is part of a week, a moment is part of a lifetime. Like it or not, we are all part of something larger than ourselves just by virtue of our very existence.

The World reminds me of this interconnection of all things. Neil DeGrasse Tyson points it out on a physical level when he said “We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.”

The one spin of a wheel is part of the longer journey. Each moment of a lifetime is a shining gem of its own, worthy of our full attention. At the exact same moment, that time, is also an inseparable part of a greater whole.

Michael Talbot’s book “The Holographic Universe” comes to mind here. I wonder if time can also be imagined as a hologram, a totality where each part contains the essence of the whole (thus explaining the phenomenons of prescience, clairvoyance, clairsentience and so on) But that is a whole coffee pot worth of pondering, not just a sip.

Anyway, these cards represent the point of view that was on my mind when I created the woven bead bracelets in the shop. That’s why I created them, to honor that energy. That’s why I wear one, to remember that perspective as time spins on.

Thank you again for reading, watching and listening. See you at the next sip.

The author with one of her handmade bracelets

Today’s Tarot: Low Pressure System

I like anime.

I watched the one and only season of Cowboy Bebop for the first time surprisingly recently. Funny how all of that adulting can get in the way of your TV watching time. The whole thing was as awesome as I’d always heard.

Spike Spiegel came to mind with the Two of Pentacles this morning because of the episode on Venus where he was teaching the kid in the airport how to fight. I was all about being relaxed which gives you clarity, control and speed.

That’s a real thing, by the way. Staying relaxed and breathing was my biggest nemisis in my brief spin through martial arts sparring back in the day.

Spike pretty much summed up the classic Bruce Lee “be water my friend” interview:

If Taoist influenced Jeet Kun Do isn’t your cup of water, then a weather report captures the same idea.

Storms are driven by low pressure. The most destructive hurricanes have the lowest atmospheric pressure at the center.

Beware the quiet ones. Relaxed fighters are the ones in control. Like the figure on the Two of Pentacles, you might have to juggle your way through a life that is a circus on the outside. If you can find SOME way to find your calm, find your low pressure center, then you aren’t just another circus act. You are, as the popular internet meme says, the storm.

source unknown, presumed public domain

Today’s Tarot: A Little Ruckus

Into every life a little ruckus must fall

This card doesn’t feel cautionary at all. If anything, it is encouraging us to jump in. The idea here isn’t combativeness or a conflict based on an external threat, but rather teamwork and mutual problem solving. The energy is basically “healthy competition.” I’ve don’t have any personal experience with team sports but I’d describe the feel here more like a scrimmage or an intramural tournament sort of thing rather than out and out competition with other teams.

Practice makes perfect as the adage goes. There is also a bit of a fire drill feeling here. No actual threat at the moment, but practice and prepare the tough stuff as well as the easy. A paramedic instructor once told me “prepare for the emergency and the emergency goes away.” Preparation and knowing what to do turns an emergency into just something you have to do, just really fast.

Ruckus is going to happen. A little practice, training, and healthy competition takes some of the scary out of it when it does.

Reminder: no appointment needed for distance Tarot. Order any time, 24/7.

Email tarot includes a photo of your unique cards (I shuffle, draw the cards and take a picture just as if we were in the same place together). You can then read the card interpretation. With video distance by email, the link to the video comes by email (the file is too big to attach to email directly) you see the card draw and listen to the interpretation. Both include the “psychic summary” with crystal and aromatherapy suggestions. Both email and video distance readings are available on the home page using secure PayPal buttons to purchase. For fastest service, please send your name, and topic/question/open reading request by email or by using the “contact merchant” button at checkout.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot Nov. 29 – Dec 5

I hope you all had a good week. I don’t know about you, but I’m still on turkey overload and enjoying the start of elfcon season. I don’t know why but it seems easier this year. I’m probably massively forgetting something. But with what I am remembering, the YouTube channel will definitely only post once, maybe twice a week, but hopefully the blog will be a bit more active. That I can do in between batches of cookies.

Left: Queen of Swords. Swords are intellect, and queens are nurturing leaders. Think. Help but help smart. Triage and mind your resources. It reminds me of something I once read about UNICEF. They are a good way to help because they have infrastructure in place, and know what is truly USEABLE in an area. If the help doesn’t match the need, you are either throwing paper towels at a flood or donating a high end laptop to a village that doesn’t have electricity. Don’t let ego or impulse trip up your naturally generous nature or helping impulse. I read a Tweet recently that has a valid point: before you send a donation to a senate race in another state, donate food to you local food bank. Supporting good public policy is critical to do long term good, but a meal for a hungry child in your own town is a much more urgent need. In short, put your efforts and energies where they are truly most needed, not necessarily where your first impulse goes, no matter how well intentioned that impulse might be.

Center: Three of Cups. Here’s that Richard Bach quote I was telling you about in the video. “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.” This is a good time to celebrate the non-genetic family that means the most to you. They are pure gold in times when families of blood can’t (or choose not to for their own good) be together.

Right: Ace of Cups. Inspiration. This card comes with the mental image of a coin being dropped in a cup. Inspiration comes, it can’t always be sought after. Sleep on it. Put a problem aside just for a minute if you can. The something-else that you do, the other -thing that you think about just might inspire the answer you were seeking in the first place. Creativity has to do with connecting disparate dots as much single minded focus.

Happy week everyone!

TaoCraft Portfolio: Introduction

I want to work with you and this is my portfolio

Download the entire FREE TaoCraft Portfolio booklet HERE

When an artist interviews for a job, they bring examples of their work so the employer can decide if they are a good fit for the company or project. Authentic Tarot readers have more in common with artists than they do with stage show mentalists or movie psychics. From cave paintings to Da Vinci, art has many different styles and genres. No two artists are exactly alike. No two psychic intuitives are exactly alike. There is no ultimate psychic authority. There is no official right or wrong way to do a Tarot reading. Tarot is artistry and spirituality, not rules and regulations. One thing is certain. If you read this booklet, a Tarot reading with me should meet or exceed your expectations because you will know exactly what to expect in advance.


There aren’t many Tarot portfolios around. So how do you know who is a good match to do your psychic reading? The best advice, of course, is follow your own instincts. Pay attention to your deep down, reflex feelings when you look at a website or advertisement. Because of religious and cultural prejudices that are on the rise in some parts of the country, many of the best psychics and Tarot readers are still very quiet about what they do. It may take some research, asking around or visiting small, local “new age” bookstores to find anyone at all. Once you find someone who does readings, talk to them for a minute and ask reasonable questions. Don’t pour out your heart to a stranger or try to get an impromptu free reading over the phone. Instead, ask practical questions like location, prices, payment, scheduling and so on. Their demeanor in a non-Tarot conversation will give you a sense of the level professionalism they will bring to the reading itself. If they seem evasive, impatient or leave you feeling uncertain, then honor those feelings and look for someone else. If it feels right and you can afford it, try a session. If it is a good match, you’ll know right away. A good Tarot session inspires, empowers and reassures you. A reading should never frighten you, make you feel judged, or feel as if you have done something wrong.  If it isn’t a good experience, simply try again with someone else. A mismatched personality doesn’t necessarily mean that the reader is doing anything wrong. By the same token, you should never take it personally or feel that a bad session was your fault for “not believing” or any such nonsense. Of course, always use plenty of common sense to steer clear of scams. “Psychics” that make outrageous promises or make repeating and increasing demands on your time (and money) are best avoided. 

Thanks to the Internet, no matter where you live, you can get affordable, expert, caring Tarot readings. Distance Tarot is my specialty, and we’ll talk about that in more  detail in the chapters that follow. In this booklet, we’ll look at the basic structure underneath all of my readings, both distance and in-person. No matter whether we work face-to-face or remotely, no matter whether we are working with Tarot, Reiki or Meditation, I follow the same ethics and standards that I applied in my mainstream medical work. All policies are transparent, written in plain English, and found in the “Fine Print” chapter at the end of this booklet.

Following your instincts, combined with a little common sense can help you find an excellent psychic. I hope that once you read this, your instincts will be to get a reading with me. 

I want to work with you and this is my portfolio.