wealth – Sage Words Tarot

What are you waiting for?

Energy path Tarot reading for the week of 15 May 2023

Hello and welcome to Sage Sips. I’m glad you are here and right off thank you for hanging in with this through all the changes in 2023. With the demise of WordPress to Spotify integration and PodCastle not being as free as they made themselves out to be, the podcast is once again on hiatus, possibly permanently.

As we go along, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. Blog comments are open, or you can use the “ask me anything” page on sage words tarot dot com. Substack chats and ko-fi DMs are open to subscribers.

This week we are working entirely from the minor arcana. Sometimes all minor arcana can hint at a low key or low energy week but it doesn’t mean it is an inactive or stagnant week. There is a sense of rootedness in the physical realm thanks to the king of pentacles card. When pentacles are around, there is always a sense of practicality. This is the suit of the physical realm and the classic element of earth and all of the no-nonsense no-drama style that you would expect. The other two cards are both from the suit of swords. Swords is connected to the element of air, but there is nothing airy-fairy about them. Swords also symbolize mind and intellect and action. Put all of that together and this week definitely calls for a head over heart approach. Cool incisive logic is your friend. Compared to the high flying ideals of recent weeks this might seem low energy by comparison, but careful precise action is action just the same. This isn’t the withdrawn or introverted energy we’ve seen recently either. This is deliberate, inexorable forward movement.

The mental image is a glacier flattening the landscape or the slow crumbling ah-ah lava that is just as powerful as the fast flowing type. The energy for this week may be slow, but it is oh so focused on being efficient, effective and enduring. The energy this week seems to be putting the level in level-headed.

Kings are leaders, so if the pentacle card represents concrete wealth, money or career, then the two together hints at a wise use of resources. Don’t let things waste either by sitting and mouldering or by being used frivolously or unwisely. Don’t allow things to sit and spoil, but don’t be a spendthrift either. This is in the fading energy position. Going back to the glacier mental image, I see small rivulets of melted ice, small streams of water flowing quickly down the front of the glacier. That feels like a quicker movement, an influx of resources may come, but not quite yet. It’s not a forever thing, but right now is a time to play the cards you are dealt and work with what you have on hand.

I get the sense of a short time or a not-serious wait. Here I get the mental image of that TV show where chefs compete to make the best dish from the ingredients given to them in a basket.

The current energy card is the knight of swords in reverse. I’ll spare you yet another explanation about how I handle reversed cards. If you have questions about reversals, what that means or how to handle them in a reading – please, ask away in the comments, ask me anything page, or other contacts as listed.

The knight of swords is usually a card of daring, or action and supreme self-confidence. Today the reversal feels significant, it feels like all of those things are blocked or hampered. It feels less like the afraid side of timid and more like a lack of confidence, or negative self-talk. This card isn’t talking to the part of you that is afraid…fear is there for a good reason sometimes. This is talking to the part of you that says “I can’t.” You can. You can do something. Who says you have to do what is expected? Who says you have to do what other people do? Instead of saying “I can’t” figure out what IS within your reach and your resources and do that. Every little bit helps and something is better than nothing in this case.

The growing energy is the eight of swords. Sometimes in a reading a card can serve as a highlight, an underline or an exclamation point to another card’s message. I think that is the case here. The energy of practicality, and level-headed, mind over emotion, deliberate, considered action may with us for a while. The eight of swords is working with the reversed knight to remind us that working within our means and doing what we can do is better than stopping dead in your tracks and giving up, doing nothing.

Take inventory. Make a no-nonsense plan. Act within your means and resources but act. Don’t let “I can’t” take you prisoner. Just because you can’t do one thing doesn’t mean the other things you CAN do aren’t needed or valuable. When it comes to doing the things within your means, what are you waiting for?

Thank you so much for reading and listening.

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Forward and Back

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

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

Merry Monday everyone!

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

The cards today are:

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

General Pattern:

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

Go!

Now!

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

Knight cards symbolize action.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you all for reading and listening.

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

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

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Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Focus for Flow

What is it about money that ties people up in knots?

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot, a nano blog-cast and Tarot reading in the time it takes to sip from your coffee, or tea, or adult beverage or whatever it is you sip this time of day. I’m glad you are here!

Today’s card is the six of pentacles. Pentacles are associated with the physical realm, often with career or wealth. The six in particular is said to represent generosity, money flow, sharing, paying kindnesses forward, that sort of thing.

Many long years ago, way back in the before times, in the very early days of my professional reading career, I had one of the nicest experiences with getting paid for my Tarot skills and it didn’t involve actual money at all.

After the reading, and after my modest fee was paid (I’m still super affordable by the way) the client and I were chatting about Reiki and natural health services in our area, and business cards for her new side venture as a masseuse. I forget the exact context, but the thing that rocked my world was when we shook hands at the end she said something like “I have money luck, now I’m sharing some of it with you.”

That was the last time I talked with that charming, vivacious lady. I don’t know how her new business turned out, but I do know this. Here mindset in that moment was a treasure, and I was touched by her easy generosity in sharing it.

In these days of supply chain issues, inflation, dire news about government money management and the general cost of living, finances can be a fear inducing to mildly terrifying thing.

I can’t promise you crazy things like attracting or manifesting wealth, but I can share a few thoughts that might take the edge of a little bit of the worry.

First I’m reminded of the quote from Disney’s Mary Poppins that “enough is as good as a feast.” Defining your “enough” simply and within your means may not actually pay the bills, but it might help untwist the gut-knots a little bit.

Yeah, I know. It’s a very Tao Te Ching kind of idea. Just because I changed the name of the blog and podcast doesn’t mean the influence went away.

The other helpful thing is the client’s gift to me.

Try it once. Just stop for a second and think of yourself the way she thought of her joyful self. Think of yourself as someone who is fortunate and the things you need come to you almost without effort. Just for a minute allow yourself to have money-luck.

That isn’t going to make things magically happen. This isn’t about the law of attraction or some cultish prosperity gospel. You still have to work and plan and hustle just like before. But try it. Thinking of yourself as having money luck shaves a tiny bit off of the fear of not having enough. When you are just that tiny bit less stressed, you might think a little clearer. You might find a solution or an option that was missing before. When you think of yourself as having money luck it gives you a particle of optimism that all of your work, planning and effort will pay off in the end after all.

Knowing how you are going to go about getting what you need is money luck and riches indeed.

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Manufacture

Moderation manufactures money.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip – Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Thank you for reading and listening. I appreciate it.

Today’s card is the 4 of pentacles. It is an interesting dichotomy of meanings. On one hand it has been associated with penny-pinching, or being selfish or miserly in a bad kind of way. Other times it has been associated with protectiveness, guarding a secret treasure, or found fortune. But before you run out and buy a lottery ticket, “found fortune” can mean a forgotten dollar bill in your jacket pocket from last winter.

When a card has two seemingly separate threads of meaning associated with it like this, often the energy of the day will pick one or the other. One aspect or key word about the card will light or step forward compared to the others. Today is a little different in that respect. This very much has a combination of both vibe.

Guarding what you have is a way to find a secret treasure. Ben Franklin made the idea famous in his “a penny saved is a penny earned” aphorism. A little delayed gratification now can open the door to unexpected satisfactions.

Another way of saying it is to ask if what you want is really what you want. That thing, that trip, that whatever-it-is, are you after that specific thing or some aspect of it that is already at hand?

It is an old idea from the Tao Te Ching, too. It tells us “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

This all isn’t to say you should make yourself miserable and be so stingy it makes Mr. Scrooge blush. Live. Live happy. Live with what you have. Put your energy into that and it turns into found fortune. Focus on what you don’t have, and you in essence lose it all. Moderation is, as always, key. A little shift in perception can change everything.

Today, the four of pentacles is reminding us that minding what we already have manufactures money, both in the sense of preserving those resources and in the sense of shifting mental perception in that Tao Te Ching way that makes the world already belong to you.

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

Inexpensive Treasure

We all have at least one – go get yours with today’s short sip Tarot and the Ten of Pentacles

We’ve all got one. Or a bunch. It’s the weekend. Go get yours.

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

We’ve all heard this one before. I’d say this card is a broken record, but since digital and streaming doesn’t have that particular glitch I’ll skip the reference that no one this side of gen X would really get.

The song remains the same. We’ve all heard this one before. Which, in the Tarot and personal growth business, is more of a validation than being a mere cliche.

I like to think that when a card, like today’s ten of pentacles, keeps harping on the same idea, it adds to the meaning instead of diluting it. Things like “money can’t buy happiness” or “little things mean a lot” or “the simple pleasures are the best” are all platitudes and aphorisms for a reason. The generalized truth behind them is potent enough that it is like archetype and aphorism combined. Whatever big word you want to call it, these repeating messages woven through a long time Tarot practice are worth listening to.

Pentacles are associated with the element of earth. They symbolize wealth, money, career, practicality and our relationship with the physical realm. Ten is as large as the number cards get.

In the I Ching, the Chinese “book of changes” which has been used for guidance in a way very akin to Tarot, there is the idea of changing lines. When you use three coins to methodically choose with I Ching hexagram to read, three of either heads or tails is considered a “changing line.” The line in the hexagram is maximum yin or maximum yang. There is an idea in Taoism that anything in its extreme holds the seed of its opposite. If life is always changing and in motion, then I see that as meaning a tipping point. Like that old children’s game – it is a pot so full that one more bean can tip it over and spill into becoming something else.

That is what is happening with the ten of pentacles. Sure, it shows an idealized happy family, pets included. There is a tipping point here – and it isn’t what you might think.

The opposite of maximum coins isn’t bankruptcy. The opposite of the happiness depicted isn’t misery. The tipping point here is from the tangible into the intangible. Of all the contentment depicted in the card and in all those RWS derived decks, none of them are dependent on being rich. Food, water, shelter, basics sustain life. Beyond that, the truly precious things are at once both practically free and unspeakably priceless; people who care about you, a friendly dog wagging their tail when they see you, a little sit in the shade on a hot day or a soft chair near the heater on a cold one.

Innocent or guilty the little pleasures are what the ten of pentacles is talking about today. Think of those photos of President Biden in his aviator sunglasses smiling and enjoying an ice cream cone. That’s what we’re talking about. He is well paid and as powerful as it gets. Yet, how much does an ice cream cone cost? Change from the sofa cushions would close to cover it. Almost anyone can access it. Yet the pleasure the ice cream can bring – that part is priceless and even easier to get. All you have to do is let yourself have it. The ice cream is just the carrier, it’s the delivery method for the happy. Pick your delivery method. It can be any little thing that delights you. It can be any little thing that you have on hand right here, right now. Mine today is my Spotify playlists.

Go.

Go get your inexpensive treasure. Then let yourself have the happy.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. I appreciate you, your follows, likes and any shares you can spare.

The blog and podcast are both not monetized in any way and are supported through your private reading purchases and the TaoCraft Tarot shop and memberships on ko-fi. Thank you for helping to create this (almost) daily Tarot contemplation for everyone.

See you at the next sip!

Pause, not stop

It’s like the difference between taking a lunch break and quitting your job.

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

Today’s card is the Seven of Pentacles. It picks up on a thread from yesterday’s Ace of Cups. Remember how there was a sense of a seasonal shift in season toward a quieting to balance peak summer. You have to give the seeds time to grow before the harvest can happen.

The same idea applies generally, not just to medieval farmers on Tarot cards. Persistence is important. Perseverance is a key to success.

The other day I was browsing the Psychology Today website (as one does) and stumbled on a review of Angela Duckworth’s book Grit: The Power of Passion of Perseverance by Michael Page. Angela Duckworth is a psychologist who studied the psychology of success. She listed the qualities exemplified by successful people in a wide variety of careers and industries. According to the review, grit was defined as perseverance combined with passion and it was more often present then talent or genius. Grit and persistence topped genius and giftedness.

The seven of pentacles is reminding us to protect our grit.

There is a difference between a pause or a short rest and giving up altogether.

The occasional pause to rest and reevaluate is as essential to success as the passion part is essential to the persistence part to create Duckworth’s grit of success.

Blindly, rigidly plowing ahead keeps us from adapting and it can be a recipe for burnout. Even if you manage to persist through the burnout, you lose the passion that is equally a part of the overall success.

This strikes me as the yang side of the four of swords’ rest and contemplation vibe. The four of swords is inwardly contemplative. This card, the seven of pentacles is more outwardly focused, evaluating and assessing and re-evaluating more than meditative. It’s physically quiet but mentally active. This kind of rest is full of evaluation, planning and mentally preparing for the next step (as opposed to more active preparation advice that you might see with the three of wands)

Pentacles represent our relationship to wealth, career, and the physical realm. It is only fitting that a pentacle card would remind us to preserve a key element of long term success.

Take a pause, protect your grit, then get back to persisting.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! Your likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments are always appreciated!

The blog and podcast are not monetized. Your Tarot message comes first, not advertisers’ but I need your support to create this (almost) daily Tarot content. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where the shop, memberships and virtual coffees all help. Again, thank you.

See you at the next sip!

Different Wealth

Gratitude doesn’t magically bring you what you want. Gratitude taks what you already have and transforms it into treasure. Contentment with the present moment is a different kind of wealth.

Hello and welcome to Tao Craft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the Four of Disks from the Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, art by Dark Synevyr.

There is a strong sense of juxtaposition and contrast with the card and energy today. It’s like double vision in your mind’s eye of all freaky things. Ah well, it is Friday.

There is face value meaning here. Coin cards in general are associated with wealth, career, or our relationship with the physical realm.

The four of coins in particular (or the Four of disks, or pentacles or whichever name you prefer) is associated with being conservative and watching the budget. If the card is reversed it can mean the need to watch the budget because of low or dwindling resources. Taken to an extreme it can have a tone of hoarding and greed. In this case it has a tone of smart money management. It is about living within your means. It’s about making do and making more.

That’s the surface.

It also feels like there are watery depths here, like the deep inner wisdom we were talking about in the “It’s there” blog post and podcast episode a few days ago. The mental image is like one of those tiktok videos where they make fancy drinks or swirly color artwork with spheres of partially frozen, very clear ice. The surface of the ice they use is solid and crystal clear with a swirling, watery center. The energy with this card is a little like that.

On the surface we have solid practical advice: Use your money smarts. Mind the budget. This is a time to be practical with money and not frivolous. The energy is definitely not right for impulse buys.

Beneath that surface is something much more esoteric and spiritual. Beneath that is volumes about mindset, manifestation and how powerful thoughts and words can be.

It’s that glass half full, glass half empty thing.

Think about it. Or plunk a glass of water on the table and LOOK at it. What you think about glass doesn’t change the literal amount of water. 8 ounces is 8 ounces and 4 ounces is four ounces and what you think, feel or believe isn’t going to change that objective measure by one molecule.

The glass half full versus a glass half empty doesn’t have anything to do with the physical glass or water at all. It is all about words and perceptions and mental habits and emotional paradigms. Think about that glass of water. When you think of it as half empty, it creates a phantom. It alludes to water that that used to be there but is gone now. This way of thinking focuses on the empty space and what the glass doesn’t have when that extra volume may never have been there in the first place. What if the glass used to be only a quarter full and a half is a big improvement? The adjective “empty” shifts our perception, not the water that is, was or will be.

By the same token, if we think of the glass as half full, the adjective “full” shifts our perception in the other direction. This way of thinking focuses on certainty, reality, the water that is definitely there and hits at more to come.

Here I get that annoying platitude to “have an attitude of gratitude.” There is some sort of new-age-y idea out there that being grateful for what you have will create a feeling of abundance and in turn manifest what you want through some twist of the Law of Attraction. Gratitude isn’t some magic bullet. Forcing yourself to feel grateful in general isn’t going to attract some specific object of desire.

Genuine feelings of gratitude are, however, a definitive inner shift in perception and thus a change in our experience of the outer world as it stands now.

My mind is drawn toward a line from the Starz series version of Neil Gaimon’s American Gods. The character Salim hints at the difference between mainstream Christianity in America and Islam as he knows it. If memory serves he said something like “That is the difference between us – you pray to get the things you want. I pray to say thank you for what I already have.”

That is exactly the energy today. Gratitude will not magically bring what you want and don’t yet have…but instead that gratitude will change your perception of what wealth really is for you. Manifesting wealth, prosperity gospel, think positive, be grateful to get what you want nonsense not only risk your money, but they can rob you of your peace of mind and spirit.

Gratitude doesn’t magically bring you what you want. Gratitude takes what you already have and transforms it into treasure. Being thankful for what you have instead of praying for what you don’t have is potent alchemy. Contentment with the present moment is a different kind of wealth, but a priceless one.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. Your likes, subs, follows, shares, questions and comments are always appreciated!

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Go all Hamilton all over it

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

Today’s card is the Ace of Pentacles.

The energy here is hopeful and optimistic. It feels like the odds are definitely in your favor today.

It also reminds me of the often quoted, perhaps over quoted bit of wisdom from Wayne Gretsky that “you miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.” Which in a way begs the question of why. Why would you not take the shots life presents to you? Why wouldn’t you go all Alexander Hamilton all over it and, to paraphrase Lin Manuel Miranda, go boat on fire into the room where it happens and refuse to waste your shot.

Fear is a good thing.

I’ve done this. Maybe you have too. An opportunity comes along and a bucket of ice water tips over in your gut and suddenly you don’t want to take that shot so much after all. It is a weird experience to want some for a long time and be on the verge of getting it, then instead getting a sudden burst of fear. Sometimes that’s ok. Fear keeps us out of stupid dangerous situations. I’ve bailed out of opportunities, regretted being a big chicken, and later was very glad that the sudden burst of unexplained intuitive fear saved me from my own stupid self.

Impulsive, mercurial actions are more closely aligned with the element of air, and so the suit of swords. The pentacles are associated the element earth. Pentacles remind us of being grounded, solid, balanced and practical. The Ace of Pentacles gives a feeling of reassurance – it encourages us to go all Hamilton over the opportunities that come along today or the near future as long as there is no real-world logical reason to give it a hard pass. The Ace of Pentacles gives us the green light to move forward with new opportunities but also reminds us not to abandon practical matters in the process. If ice buckets are there, if you are feeling uncertain or suddenly afraid of success, listen to that. Sometimes when things are moving fast your gut works faster than your brain. But all things being equal, all things being logically safe, all things being intuitively clear, when the Ace of Pentacles shows up then take your shot on goal with confidence.

Thank you for listening, reading and watching.

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See you at the next sip!

Do the thing

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot guidance for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today its the knight of pentacles and do the thing.

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Your support through likes, subs, shares, blog follows, reading orders and the virtual coffee mug is always, always appreciated.

Today’s card is the Knight of Pentacles.

Knights evoke the image of action while pentacles are connected with earth, work, career, wealth, and our relationship with the physical realm.

Today the vibe is very down to earth. Often pentacles brings in an element of practicality. Today the energy is so rooted, so down to earth, so low key that it verges on drudgery instead of practicality. At the same time there is a short duration feel. It is a little like bit like the notion of just ripping a bandage off and getting the pain over with.

Today’s advice is to do what needs done, just do it and get on the other side of it.

Your emotional energy and enthusiasm are optional as long as you can ride up on your horse and do the thing and get the job done. It isn’t suggesting that we phone it in as they say, or slack off on effort. There is a knight’s sense of chivalry. Do the thing, do the job well with all of your usual brilliance and competence, just don’t waste any energy on extra fanfare or drama.

Do the thing and you are free to ride off into the sunset.

And there the energy of the card does the thing and rides off into the sunset.

These aren’t called nano-episodes for nothing. Tarot is like that. It never fails to amaze me how the energy adjusts the length and intensity of a reading to a person’s individual needs…or in this case, the individual day’s needs.

Thank you so much for reading, watching and listening. See you at the next sip!

Today’s Tarot: meet a need

The Ace of Pentacles could be called the essence of things.

On the top layer you have success, abundance, and all the positive top-line meanings.

For all the attention that is given to court cards, the aces fascinate me. They speak to that simplicity that is so near and dear to Taoism’s heart. They are about the essence and nature of the minor arcana suit, in this case pentacles (coins in some decks.)

Pentacles are associated with the earth element. They are our relationship with the physical realm, tangible, practical things. Which begs the question of what is the essence of those things? What is the nature of stuff?

I’ll leave that to physicists, which is fascinating as heck, especially once you start getting into the whole Schrodinger, Heisenberg quantum thing. Especially for someone like me who can’t even explain why its bad if the lights dim when the refrigerator comes on.

For our purposes, let’s look at the role stuff plays in life. Of course, now my mind is stuck on the old George Carlin bit…

I’m talking functionality. We want stuff. It pays to know what you want. Achieving, manifesting (however you want to look at it) works better when you have a specific and clear vision of what you really want. If you get to the essence of it, then window dressing and expectations are less likely to get in the way. When you work from a place of simplicity and essentials, the things you REALLY want can take a multitude more forms, and have a multitude more ways to find a way into your life.

That’s wants. Today’s card is, energetically, talking about needs. Physical need is the example, but the energy idea can be extended to mental, emotional and spiritual needs too.

This feels like a moment in time, but possibly an important one. Just for a minute, just for today, what is a literal need. An immediate, pressing, life-depends-on-it need.

Your next meal.

Your next drink of water.

Your next breath.

Now give it your full attention and gratitude as you meet that need. Try it. Just once. Just for today.

How does that feel?

Today’s Tarot card is available as a blog post, a Clairvoyant Confessional episode, and on YouTube Shorts.

Your feedback is always welcome on any of these platforms.

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