Tag: what do i do

Same Courage, Different Direction

Changing direction in the face of fear is not the same as being stopped by it.

Go prefrontal cortex! Go! You can do it!

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

Today I picked up the Allyman’s Tarot Deck and drew the Undaunted card. This is the first time I’ve drawn it. Over six months into using this gorgeous deck, and I’m still discovering cards. I still haven’t gotten around to reading the guidebook. I haven’t finished that Chuck Wendig library book that is due next week either, so Mr. Wendig and Mr. Asmund are in good company together. I’ll read about the Undaunted card in a few minutes after I get this started. Who knows? This might even post before noon for a change. Let’s see.

I love this card.

Color on black is my favorite look and blue is my favorite color so this was an instant favorite on first glance aesthetics alone. To me, undaunted, connotes courage and level headed reactions to adversity. Go prefrontal cortex! That’s the area of the brain that lets us do that sort of thing. If I were to connect this card to a classic Waite Smith card, I’d be the knight of swords, but this has a different tone and direction. The knight is active, fast, now, self-confident. I associate the knight of swords with someone yelling “Geronimo” and diving right into a situation. Undaunted is strong and self confident, but undaunted is also less about galloping straight in and more about being inexorable at any speed and in any direction.

Confidence and action upside down reminds me of fear, anxiety and reticence. Fear and anxiety exist for a reason, however. Evolution drummed it up as a way to help keep us alive. I think we are meant to do something when we are afraid. It might be fight. It might be flight. Either one is still doing something.

Being undaunted isn’t about being an unstoppable juggernaut in one single direction. It is about moving and doing and trying regardless of circumstances, even when those circumstances require some finesse and change and adaptability. Changing what you plan and do because of fear is not the same as being stopped by it. Changing because of fear or anxiety isn’t failure. It’s adaptation. It’s survival.

Ok.

I’ve had my say. Let’s see what the deck creator has to say. Where is that guidebook?

Here we go – this card was created by Shan Bennon, by the way. Undaunted in reverse, page 133 of the Alleyman’s Tarot guidebook “a hidden creature unwilling to show itself for fear of being known.”

Hiding. That’s doing something. Sometimes it is both tactical and strategic to lay low. Watching, waiting, analysing, planning, changing direction…all of those things are doing something, even if it doesn’t look like our stereotypical notion of full gallop ahead courage.

Even when that something is watch and wait and hide and feel and just survive, doing something in the face of fear or anxiety makes you undaunted.

Thank you for reading and listening. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where purchases and memberships all support these free to access Tarot readings. Any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions or comments you can spare are always apprecieated.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC, used with permission.

Video music “Modern Crusaders” by Enigma via YouTube Shorts

Podcast intro and outro music “Daylight is not for Owls” by Owltree used under attribution non-commercial no-derivative creative commons 3.0 international license.

Turn Around

Sometimes you need to circle around a problem to nab the solution from behind.

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

Today’s card is the Hanged Man. This card is different-looking from the usual Hanged man. You can see the card being drawn in the blog and on the YouTube channel. This particular card was created by Emma Daues for the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck. I uses a cat curled up in a space bubble turning and drifting endlessly to get at the same message as the better known Pamela Smith card. That oblique approach pretty much is today’s message.

Regardless of the deck or artwork you use, the Hanged man most often has to do with stagnation, frustration, feeling stuck, going in circles making no progress.

Circles have been a bit of a theme the past couple of days. Remember how the Page of Wands was circling around to the back and nabbing the point from behind? Today has a little bit of that energy too. Endless space circles certainly captures the stuck, stagnation aspect of the card.

Sometimes the Hanged Man is connected to self-sacrifice or fearless sacrifice. I don’t get any sense of that lesser known interpretation from our space cat at all. Although, I imagine a good sci fi writer could use a self sacrificing bubble cat in space as a story prompt and come up with something.

The main energy today lies with one of the most common messages I get with this. I suspect it is a very repeated idea because it is, in my opinion, the most useful one. This part of the card talks about seeing things from a different point of view.

As you think about problems or decisions turn things around. Turn it upside down. Kick the tires. Take outlandish options out for a spin mentally.

My all time favorite analogy for this energy is an interview I watched on TV once with one of the Disney “imagine -eers.” I can’t remember the gentleman’s name or any exact quotes but the essence of it was they would use physical models of new rides and attractions during the creative development process. A key they would use the model was for specific creative problem solving. If a problem turned up they would look at the physical model from physically different angles. They would stand on chairs and look down on it, sit on the floor and look up at it. I imagine they would circle around it too. A physical shift in perspective could spark inspiration for a creative solution or bring focus to a diffuse, poorly understood problem.

If there is something you are pondering, the Hanged Man reminds you to look at it from all sorts of angles. Circle around, maybe you need to nab the solution from behind. Turn around, see what the problem looks like behind you instead of perpetually chasing it down.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! I appreciate any likes, subs, shares, follows, questions, comments or feedback that you can spare. Comments on the blog are open.

The blog & podcast are not monetized, so we are working for the highest and best energy message, not for advertisers. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi. The shop, memberships, commissions and virtual coffees all support the creation of this free to access (almost) daily Tarot content.

Thank you again. See you at the next sip!

Inescapable Unity (both edges apply)

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.

See you in a few days at the next sip.

Let Kindness Decide

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: seven of cups

Hello. Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the seven of cups.

For the past several years, on the first fourteen days of February, I did a series of posts called “My Tarot Valentine” where the one card daily coffee fueled Tarot contemplation was focused on love, romance, and relationships. From one sentence affirmations to a few paragraphs of advice, whatever card that turned up was viewed through as much of a pink hued Valentines Day lens as I could muster.

There were fewer cups cards than you would expect over the years. Interestingly, here we are back in early February and we have a cup card with no romantic or relationship vibe around it whatsoever.

The essence of the message is vague and generally as it always is when you are reading for a wide audience online like this. It can apply to anything, really, including romance. The vibe is basically: don’t be arrogant in your decision making, let kindness lead the way.

Cups symbolize emotions, and the emotion often associated with the seven is feeling overwhelmed, or feeling a level of anxiety because of overthinking things. It can also be a sort of decision paralysis as it is called. That is the feeling you get when there are so many delicious sounding things on a menu that you can’t decide what to order. Instead of an embarrassment of riches, it is an embarrassment of choices.

Having too many good choices, like the delicious menu is a privilege. Feeling boxed in by nothing but equally bad options is a dilemma. Both are solved by letting logic rest and letting heart and kindness lead the way. Look, as many have said, for the highest good with harm to none, yourself included.

Thank you for watching, reading and listening. Neither this blog cast nor the YouTube channel are monetized, so these Tarot card readings depend on your support. Your likes, subs, shares, private reading orders, Tarot Table memberships and ‘buy me a coffee’ donations are always greatly appreciated.

Thanks again, and I’ll see you at the next sip!