When past and future, logic and intuition, planning and action all meet it can seem like magic.
Few quick announcements:
The podcast is going on short hiatus until December 1
Email readings are OPEN order anytime.
Check out the new, improved, PayPal secured, single contact ordering process. (No more sending your question in a separate email!)
My schedule now through December is pure unadulterated Elfcon 1 chaos so I’m not making any promises about anything until after New Year’s Day. Delivery times for email readings will vary – a LOT – but don’t worry. Your reading will indeed happen. Thanks in advance for your patience.
Happy Thanksgiving U.S. folks! Have a great weekend everyone!
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – quote attributed to Lau Tzu.
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
And the blog of a few paragraphs begins with this one quote, the first in a whole cascade that came to mind with this card:
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” is attributed to Voltaire. The eighteenth century French writer that is, although I am very fond of Aurelio Voltaire and Gothic Homemaking too.
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” by Wayne Gretzsky is another favorite
There are bunches of quotes about it never being the so-called “right time” and all of these quotes connect to the spirit of the Two of Wands card.
The suit of Wands, as we know, is connected to fire, inner fire, passions, philosophy and the like. Two cards tend to hint at some sort of balance. This card has a sense of tipping point or being on the edge of something and in this case it feels positive. like being on the precipice of something good.
For all of you new Stranger Things Kate Bush fans out there who love “Running Up That Hill” as much as I have loved it for the past 35 years – check out my other favorite song from her 1985 Hounds of Love album. “Cloudbusting” strongly comes to mind here with the line “I know that something good is gonna happen.”
Precipice is a good word here, too. Whether it is obvious or a little hidden, two cards very often hint at some sort of tension or balancing act. Today the two of wands is pointing to that balance point between active waiting with alert watching and active, well, acting. Other than emergency plans that we all fervently hope we never need, what good are plans that are never implemented?
Waiting for the right moment to maximize an opportunity is important. I wonder how much human genius has been lost because of being just a teensy out of step with the right time and place. It is hard to catch lightning in a bottle when the weather is unexpectedly good.
But on the other hand, if you wait for the right moment you’ll be waiting forever because the just-right moment lives in the future and the present moment is the only one we have.
What is the harm of taking that first step if you do it knowing you just might have to change directions with your second step? Or third? Or fourth?
The adventure of your lifetime has to start sometime. Now works.
Thank you so much for reading and listening. Your likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments are always, always appreciated.
Your Tarot message comes first, not advertisers’ This blog and podcast are not monetized and depend on your support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on Ko-fi where the shop, memberships and virtual coffees support the creation of this (almost) daily Tarot content.
Thank you again. See you at the next sip!
* card draw video on the blog features the Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission.
No matter how thin you cut a coin, it still has two sides.
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.
Today the emphasis is on short. As in a short week. I don’t want to do half-assed readings for you. I want to do the best Tarot reading I can for you be it here on the blog and podcast or be it in a private individual session. Usually I straight up take a couple of weeks off around this time of year. This year, I thought I could fit a little Tarot work in and around other things, but it isn’t quite working out that way. Like my new favorite internet meme says, I don’t have ducks, I don’t have rows, I have squirrels and they are hosting a rave. Long story short, E-mail Tarot readings are open, but the blog, podcast and social media will be on a short hiatus from now until June 27, 2022 and again over the weekend of July 4. After that it is right back to the usual squirrel rave playlist.
With that announcement out of my system, let’s get to today’s card, the two of swords.
Swords are associated with the mind, intellect and the element of air. They are a symbol of power and authority, society and culture too. Swords were the weapons of war for a broad swath of human history. If we take a more contemporary, relational point of view of the suit of swords they can symbolize our relationship with authority, and with the bigger definitions of society; your nationality, your ethnicity, your religion, your political affiliation. Sometimes swords carry a thread of Hierophant or Pope type energy. Social conventions are a minor background energy today.
More often than not, Tarot is intensely personal. It isn’t often that a spirit or energy message connects to society at large. Today’s card, however, is reminding us that we are never not connected to it. We are never not connected to anything. We are never not connected to everything.
The two aspects of this card are interesting. Two cards vary in theme from suit to suit. Two of pentacles is the essence of balance and has a similar vibe to Temperance in the major arcana. Two of cups is about committed one to one emotion, marriage and long term relationships. Two of wands is about watching, hope and preparation within an individual. The two of swords speaks to mental state, things like indecision, being of two minds about something, or somehow in an unwinnable situation with equal good and bad consequences…something that cuts like a double edged sword as the saying goes
In her book Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao, Diane Morgan interprets the two of swords as mystical unity.
However sharp or dull the edges of a sword may be, they are still a part of the same sword. Even if you split a sword down the middle, you get more edges, each connected to its mate.
We are three dimensional beings. There is no one side to anything. As strongly as the two of pentacles points a dynamic balancing dualities, the two of swords points to an inescapable unity. No matter how thin you slice a coin it always has two sides. You can’t deny the existence of the sword’s other edge, the coin’s other side – or your many sides either. Sometimes you just have to choose which edge you use, which side of the coin to show, and which facet of you to that you use to interface with the rest of culture or or your larger social groups. Whatever side you choose to show, the other sides of you, even the sides you may not like so much, still exist.
It is a dangerous thing to ignore one side of sword when all the edges apply.
One of those edges is feeling like it is useless to choose or stop caring about important decisions. Remember…whatever sad, angry, terrifying thing makes you want to give up, you are equally connected to happy, kind, supportive, comfortable things. Out there, somewhere in the universe, in there somewhere on a bone deep molecular level, there is a connection to love and support. You are star stuff, and many people love stars.
The edges may cut, but the center connects.
Thank you so much for reading and listening! Your likes, subs, follows, shares, questions and comments are always appreciated!
The blog and podcast are not monetized and depend on your support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where the shop, memberships and virual coffees all support the creation of this unique Tarot content.
Helpful links are in the episode description for podcast listeners.
Turn Tarot on its head while you practice your intuitive and card reading skills.I sip the coffee, you read the card. Today’s card is the Two of Wands
Hello and welcome to the Weekend Tarot Turnover. I’m glad you are here.
Let’s turn the Tarot reading process on its head. I’ll sip the coffee while you contemplate and interpret the card. For those of you reading the blog or getting here through the YouTube channel, you can see the real-world, authentic card draw on video. Those of you listening on the blogcast will just have to take my word for it or check it out later. A link to the blog is always in the episode description, at least on Spotify and Anchor FM it is.
Today’s card is the Two of Wands.
Read or listen to this list of possible card meanings, as use your intuition to see which one fits you or feels right to you. Or better still, use your own intuition to make your own meaning. Honing in on the right meaning provided in the references and resources direct inspirations you have on hand is integral to reading Tarot for yourself. I don’t certify or teach anyone to read for other people but I can teach you to read Tarot for yourself really, really well. Watch this space for more on that.
But back to the Two of Wands. Two cards in general deal with balances.
Balance your inner world with the outer world. Don’t get so caught up in the physical that you forget to care for your emotional and spiritual side. And vice versa – don’t live in your head so much that you neglect the practical side of life.
Balance your attention to time. If you allow your thoughts to dwell too much in the future, anxiety or unhappiness can come.
Look to the future sometimes. Hopes and plans are important too. Tomorrow has to start somewhere.
Reassurance or validation that you are on the path to success, watching the horizon for your ship to come in
So, what do you think? Feel free to drop your card interpretation or thoughts about the weeknd turnover exercise in the comments. Questions are welcome and answered in the blogcast. Will trade my opinion and expertise for some of that sweet, sweet content. Let’s talk!
Thanks for listening! I’ll see you at the next sip.
None of the authentic TaoCraft Tarot content is monetized. Any ads you see benefit the hosting platform, which means the Tarot part of the content is 100% listener supported. The blogcast and YouTube channel depends on email Tarot readings purchased through the blogcast website and Tarot Table memberships on ko-fi. I always appreciate your support as well as any likes, subs, shares and follows you can spare. Thank you.
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: Threshold
Today’s card is the Two of Wands
The two cards of all the minor arcana suits point toward balance of some kind. The two of wands today feels more like a tipping point than any sort of long-lasting balance.
How many times do you walk through a doorway in a day? Going through a literal door is something we do so much that it is beneath notice. When we add in the elements of time and change, doorways take on a great deal of symbolic meaning. Liminal spaces are not just transitional, they can be transformational.
These places and times of change have always been thought of as being a little bit magic. It’s no wonder that we celebrate New Years, birthdays and anniversaries. Such times can bring the gift of healing and sealing the past in one hand with hope and optimism in the other.
Think of your favorite sunrise or sunset. The time just before sunset is called the golden hour. To me it is more than the natural light being perfect for photography, it is the feeling of the time as well. It brings to mind a nearly forgotten line from Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicals about feeling as if you could reach out and touch time, touch eternity itself. Threshold places and transition times can feel a little like that.
Transitional times and places touch both past and future. Transition times are an extra dose of eternity living in the present moment.
The Two of Wands is a very forward-looking card. It has some elements of waiting, watching, contemplating and planning, but today it feels like change is close at hand but relative to a much larger picture. It’s close, but in terms of months relative to years, not close as in minutes or days. This threshold is built out of transition time. This threshold is wide. The energy in the card today reminds me of the impromptu year ahead reading we did here on the blog and podcast in the “old is new again” post and episode. If time before the pandemic was “the before times” it feels like we are entering a long threshold, like a hallway really, to the “after times.”
The card has a surprisingly intimidating feel despite the pleasant artwork on the card. I guess that is to be expected – any change, any threshold can be intimidating when you aren’t 100 percent sure what is on the other side. Yet there is also a sense of hope and anticipation as well. Things change, but for once, in spite of being burned before, things might just change for the better this time.
In short hope for best, prepare for the worst, but if you can, appreciate the magic inherent to the thresholds we cross.
TaoCraft Tarot podcast is the audio version of the TaoCraft Tarot blog. Short Sip posts and nano-episodes are Tarot contemplations for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. You can see the real-world card being drawn for the day on the corresponding YouTube short video.
I am so glad that you are here. Thank you for watching, reading and listening. I really do appreciate your support through likes, subs, shares, follows. None of this Tarot content is currently monetized so if you enjoy any of it, please support the blog and podcast through the virtual tip mug, shop and tier memberships on the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi.com page (convenient links are in the episode description for podcast listeners)
Thanks again for dropping in. See you at the next sip.
Suggested reading: Weaving the Liminal by Laura Tempest Zarkoff
On of the author’s favorite paintings “Keeper of the Threshold” by Eliju Vedder, 1898 at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA.
They used to call a half caf skim milk latte a “why bother?”
Good question, and not just about coffee (she says as she sets down her double shot)
Don’t get me wrong…not every single solitary thing in life has to have a point, purpose or goal. Just being, abiding, enjoying is reason enough for anything. At the same time, life without some degree of point, purpose or goal leaves one languishing in a sea of ennui.
Sips
With anything that you do a lot or a long time, in my case Tarot, it pays to revisit the point, purpose and goal of it every now and again. What’s the use of Tarot? What good is it doing anyone? Why bother?
I think the answer is in the reason why we ask questions like this: clarity.
If something is going to have a pointed, productive goal-oriented role in our life, we have to have clarity about what that goal or purpose really is. The purpose of Tarot is to gain clarity. An yup, that is rooted in the same ‘clair’ as in ‘clairvoyant’ which literally means clear sight ability. We use our intuition and the mental-imaginative echoes of our senses to cut through the noise of daily life and all of its twist and turns – expected and unexpected alike.
A number of cards have the quest for clarity at the forefront of their meanings and connotations. The seven of cups, for example, points out times of decision paralysis, an abundance of choices and the possibility we are overthinking things. The advice has an outward, yang quality. The advice is to gain clarity by simplification. It is an active solution, to go out and cut away the unnecessary.
Here the energy is more yin, zen and passive. Sometimes these solutions are more challenging when other needs are pressing, like a job, income, or general frustration. With the two of wands we find clarity by waiting, watching. It is advice straight from the Tao Te Ching: In a river or pond, churned up water is cloudy, but if it is given time and allowed to be quiet the mud will settle out. The water becomes clear.
When you read for yourself, you can read the cards for clarity.
When you read the cards for others, you read in service to clarity, namely helping them to find theirs.
Keep a weather eye on the horizon, or so the pirates say.
At least that’s what they say in the movies, sometimes. Horizons are special, like any doorway, transition, or liminal space. The horizon is the visual boundary between earth and sky, between far, and too far to see.
The Two of Wands connotes just that kind of watchfulness. It isn’t change in progress like the Wheel, it isn’t foreboding, but much more like a routine boarder patrol, just keeping a casual eye on things. In today;s case, the energy is even more hopeful than that. It is more of a positive connotation, like waiting for success to come, like waiting for a package that you know is out for delivery, literally waiting for your “ship to come in” as the saying goes.
It resonates with this time of year. At the turn of the year and the winter holidays, we always seem to take a collective look back over the year and at the same time turn a hopeful eye forward. Next year can’t suck as bad as this one, can it?
And so we eye the time horizon with hope.
Sometimes a joy, sometimes a sadness, sometimes a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, right now is the eternal horizon. Right now is the boundary line and liminal space between past and future. Today is a good day and this is a good time of year to stand, quietly watch, and keep a weather eye on it all.
Use the video to pick a card; left, center or right. Go on quick impulse, or if you need some time to think about it you can pause the video and restart it to see the reveal. Once you have your card, scroll down for the reading.
Looking at all three together doesn’t give much of a message this week. It is all kind of low key, and more individualized than usual. Your chosen card might resonate with you as an individual more than usual. Or not. You know how these general energy, general audience readings go sometimes.
Not much going on this week by way of announcements. The anniversary month give-away continues until October 31, 2020, so visit the special offers page if you would like a free one card handwritten “mini digital InkMagick Tarot reading” by email.
The interesting thing this week is the way all three cards are coming through as more verbal than feelings or mental images. In other words, I’d call it clairaudient rather than clairsentient or clairvoyant.
Left: Two of Wands. “Look to new horizons.” The energies this week suit pushing the envelope a little. If you are given the chance to try something new, been thinking about trying something new, or are being nudged outside of your comfort zone, not to worry. Scope it out, if it seems right, why not?
Center: Knight of Pentacles. “Patrol the perimeter.” Knights denote action. Although Pentacles are often associated with career or wealth, I get more of a grounded, centered, practical energy as one would expect from the earth element. I forget the source but I’ve seen the card associated with “active upkeep” and that kind of routine, proactive maintenance is very much the energy here for this week. This is a good week to keep to the schedule, patrol your fence, repair what needs repaired, and do other such mundane chores.
Right: Six of Cups. “See with the eyes of a child.” Disappointment and frustration come from reality being different from your hopes and expectations. If you don’t know (or care about) what to expect, like small children at play, you can take things as they come. No expectations, no disappointment. See things at they are, then you can use your imagination to invent a way to move a little closer to your dream.
Time is woven into the fabric of the universe. How we measure it and talk about it, however, is made-up and arbitrary. A necessary arbitrary, to be sure. We need that common touchstone to communicate. It’s a whole wibbly-wobbly Doctor Who kind of thing. If you invented a time machine, it would have to be able to move, too, or else the Earth would rotate right out from under you while you were gone.
Time is a thing, and setting arbitrary measurements for it are a necessity, but it doesn’t have to be an stress or an enemy. There is a yin and yang too it, and ebb and flow to it. Yes, Eistein showed that time is relative to speed, literally, but there is also fluidity within our perception of it. Psychological stress can be described as feeling time-pressure equally across all tasks. Everything is a coming-in-hot emergency.
The Two of Wands reminds us that nah, it’s not.
Full speed ahead mach 2 overdrive 24/7 is a problem waiting to happen. When this card comes along, it’s time to cool your jets. Look, listen, wait, think. Those are things too. Those are things that need doing as much as anything else. A quality journey is a win as much as getting to your destination is a win.
Putting pressure on yourself is counterproductive in today’s energy. Allow yourself, your projects, your goals, your hopes have the time they need. A turtle doesn’t need to run to live well. Thoughtful persistence is as beneficial as outright speed.
Pro tip from my side of the table: When a message from a minor arcana card mirrors the basic meaning of a major arcana card, it serves to modify the intensity or impact. It can serve as a “major arcana light” sort of meaning.
In this way, the two of wands connects to the major arcana Fool card by suggesting a beginning. No only does it differ in intensity, but in quality too. The beginning or new-thing in question here isn’t the giddy thrill of a totally new project, or new path as is the flavor of the Fool’d kind of new beginning. This is a new beginning within an older, over-arcing journey or project. It doesn’t have the quality of cycles or phases that you might see with a moon card, it is more like a course adjustment, or adaptive change that has the luxury of time. Planning is a strong component of the two of wands as well. Think of it as a new phase, a change in plans, heavy on the plan part.
It connects with the Devil card reading from yesterday, but in energy, not artwork. Remember that storm on the horizen image that has been coming through lately? It’s back. Energy shifts and flows, day by day. The point in time today is slightly different from yesterday, even though that was a short 24 hours ago. On the whole, general energies are turbulent and fast moving these days, even though things may be stagnant or stuck on the individual level. It’s the difference between a general blog reading and individual custom reading. These posts are free, but apply to the group mindset. some days they are like throwing cooked spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks (metaphorically speaking – don’t waste food. Love, mom) A custom, individual reading is like a plate of your favorite dinner made exactly to your taste with your favorite seasonings. Shameless plug aside…back to the devil card yesterday.
Today that storm on the horizon energy has backed off a tiny bit, and seems more horizon-ish again. We are at a point where we can navigate again. Detour, might be a better word. It is still possible to get where we want to go, but we might need to detour around the worst of a storm, like a plane or ship might. That leads right in to the two of wands with planning, a new turn, a new direction, adaptation and newness within an older journey. Like real life hurricane warnings, at least we can try to prepare, with the spiritual equivalent of boarding up windows (define and honor healthy boundaries between self and others, personal emotions and general energies) and gathering supplies (self-care, disengaging from social media or draining relationships, etc.)
Introspection and a spiritual turn are parts of both day’s message, in energy if not in art work. Wands are associated with the element of fire, inner passions, relationship with self.
The Two of Wands has another connection to the major arcana. A globe is a common art element for the card across many decks. Connect that to the World card of the major arcana. That hints at success in the end if the plan/adaptation/new direction is enacted. It also hints that plans and actions need a gestalt, big picture, global aspect to help steer things toward that success.
Not every beginning is giddy and pure. Some beginnings are held within any given journey, project or plan. Sometimes, as now, we begin a new direction and a new plan within the old one.
Sage Words Tarot 