yes or no tarot – Sage Words Tarot

Short Sip Zombie Cat Tarot: Nope

Honesty is healing even when it is harsh.

No. uh-uh. Cards say noooo.

Hi and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here. Short Sip episodes are Tarot contemplations for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Yesterday we had a whole mug full with the rewrite of “Meet Zombie Cat.”

Today we are to sounding like that insurance company commercial that knows a thing or two because they’ve seen a thing or two. I’ve done a lot of Tarot readings. I stopped counting at 300 plus way back in my online “Baihu” days.

Tarot is best suited to answer”Am I doing the right thing?” but Tarot is most often asked things like “Will we get back together?”

Not, mind you, that it’s a bad question.

There are a billion different circumstances that are bad and worse that could lead to this question, but for now, let’s think of in terms of a non-married shorter term romantic break-up.

These types of break-up questions, while common, are the best and worst of Tarot all at the same time.

The bad part is the “will…” Can Tarot predict what will happen? Nope. Can Tarot read your significant other’s heart or mind or feelings or intentions or know what they will do? Big nope.

On the other hand, this is exactly the kind of situation where Tarot is at its best.

Have you ever noticed that criticisms of Tarot and psychic work are all laser focused on the prediction part and ignore the rest, which is missing the point as completely as you possibly can? Nothing is ever said about the real value of Tarot and Psychic readings: personal development, personal enrichment, spiritual expression, facing and understanding emotional distress, brainstorming creative solutions and spitballing ideas about how to CHOOSE and to ACT to make things better.

Nothing else in the human experience can make you feel like every bone and vital organ has been shattered into a million pieces like the loss of a beloved relationship. If Tarot readings can help soothe that kind of hurt for a moment, it is more than worth it, no matter what the critics say.

But it has to be a sincere reading, an authentic reading without the onus of accurate predictions. So-called accurate predictions are impossible to make anyway and only open the door to greater hurt. As with physicians, we must do no harm.

There is a big difference, however, between doing harm and uncovering anger. Anger is an honest emotion that may, if faced, lead to better things.

If you are the one hearing the “nope” then it is normal, natural, even expected to get angry when you get the answer that you’ve been dreading the most. In the long run a harsh truth is more healing than a sugar coated platitude. I’ve gotten nopes like this before and stomped off angry like the self-involved early twenty-something brat that I was. But looking back it was one of the best readings ever. Honesty heals even when it hurts. More so when it is given kindly and with the sympathetic tone of someone who has been through this kind of experience before – which is pretty much everybody. Calling you on your -ah -stuff – is what people who care about you do. It’s like telling someone when they have food stuck in their teeth. It might zing a little in the moment but it spares them greater embarrassment later on.

WILL you get back together? A better question would be SHOULD you. WHY did the relationship end? Has any of those things changed one iota? Has the past itself changed? Nope. Unless you’ve talked things through, time has passed, and trust has been re-built, it’s still a nope. Even if you wind up back together, unless something has changed, from the “should you” perspective it’s still a big no. Without those changes, what good is it for you to return to the same situation all over again?

Will you get back together? According to a one ace layout, no. Should you get back together? Still not a good idea.

Consider the Queen of Wands symbol of nurturing leadership and inner passions. How are you owning this breakup? What role did you play? What have you learned. Are you willing to lead the relationship part of your life in a new direction? Or not? What feeds and protects your inner flame: trying to rekindle a failed relationship or being on your own with a passion for the life you have (as opposed to obsessing over the life you don’t have.)

Consider the Ace of Cups. This is about emotions. Are the emotions that ended the relationship healthy or unhealthy? Are the emotions driving your desire to get back together healthy? Or, on the other hand, are emotions that make you want to never ever ever get back together the healthy ones?

Consider the Temperance card. Are you in a balanced state of mind when you ask this question? Are all parts of life in balance or is the break-up taking all of your mental and emotional resources? Are you obsessed with romance and ignoring all the other good things in life? What do you need to release to re-balance the scales? What is missing OTHER than the relationship that may be throwing things out of balance?

Zombie Cat tells it like it is. Will you get back with your ex? Nope. BUT there is a lot of good advice under that big, fat NO. Balance this loss with other happiness and other relationships, and other parts of life. Be the leader of your own inner life. Take ownership of your own emotions and our own role in the thing that happened. Be honest about your emotions.

Then the the big, fat nope might not sting quite so much.

Thank you all for reading and listening.

I appreciate you and any likes, subs, follows, shares, question or comments that you can spare.

The blog and podcast are not monetized so your spirit message comes first, not the advertisers’. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where the shop, memberships and virtual coffees all support the creation of this (almost) daily Tarot content

Thanks again! See you at the next sip!

Get your own private Zombie Cat reading HERE (only available by email) – no appointment needed.

Meet Zombie Cat ’22

Meet Zombie Cat: the original post revisited and revised.

For the past two days, in the “Proceed” and “Zombie Cat’s Short Summer Shamble” posts we’ve talked a lot about how to do yes or no Tarot readings for yourself. Today is a throwback to the original blog post where we meet Zombie Cat.

First published in April 2015, I re-post it every year to go with Zombie Cat’s summer shamble. By summer shamble I mean the annual summer special offer for my yes or no Tarot readings that I’ve named for the notion of a friendly, tarot-reading zombie cat.

I make tiny changes to the original post every year to update any new things I might pick up about the science part of it. I haven’t learned much that impacts the original post. More importantly, precise scientific accuracy is by not by any means the point of the post in the first place. It is about the common ground between psychics and science. And yes, that common ground really does exist in the case of genuine, authentic intuitive readings. With fiction, fantasy, ego trips and scammy nonsense – not so much.

This year I’ve given the original post a major overhaul. I’ve updated links to the videos that explain the Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment and changed some of the text to make the whole thing a little more podcast-friendly.

This post was written well before I rebranded from Modern Oracle to TaoCraft Tarot, but it still shows the influence Taoist philosophy has always had on my Tarot philosophy. I guess it was in some sense foreshadowing the name and aesthetic change. Zombie Cat was probably the first big tap on the brakes when it came to my bad habit of trying to make Tarot acceptable to mainstream suburbia. Now I’m protecting my Tarot work FROM mainstream suburbia and current American politics. Things can change a lot in seven years, even if Zombie Cat himself hasn’t changed much.

To my mind, science and spirituality mirrors the yin yang symbol. The original post was in large part inspired by an episode of Menage A Tarot podcast where we talked about the interplay of science and spirituality in Tarot. That harmony of seeming opposites also reminds me of a quote from the 1996 movie, The Craft “Magic is neither black nor white – it is both because nature is both; loving and cruel all at the same time.”

Tarot, science, art, emotion, wonder, curiosity, spirituality, and skepticism are all compatible things within the whole of human experience all at the same time.

Carl Sagan said “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.”

Zombie Cat as a character is unafraid of the mysterious and unknowable. No matter what happens to Schrodinger’s cat or why, Zombie Cat begs the question of “why not?”

Zombie Cat likes quotes, too. The original post started with one by Steven Moffat writing in the “Blink” episode of BBC’s Doctor Who

“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.

Thank you all for reading and listening. I appreciate you and any likes, subs, follows, shares, questions and comments you can spare. I appreciate your attention so much that if you send a yes or no question, any questions within reason, I’ll answer it for you in an upcoming blog post and podcast episode. So here is some science and math for you: no names plus a yes or no question equals a Zombie Cat readings through the blog and podcast. You get an answer from an expert Tarot reader, I get content ideas. It’s a fair trade.

The blog and podcast are not monetized. Your Tarot message comes first over any advertisers’ 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.

MEMBERS: get 60% off Zombie Cat yes/no readings when you order through the ko-fi shop.

Proceed

Use Yes or No Tarot to answer the question “Am I doing the right thing?”

Sometimes the very best thing a Tarot reading can do is confirm what you already deep-in-your-bones know.

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

Yesterday we talked about Zombie Cat’s Summer Shamble. Zombies in general and Zombie Cats in particular are kind of a Halloween thing. Here in the Pittsburgh area where they filmed the classic Romero movie Night of the Living Dead and its sequels, we have a soft spot for the zombie genre any time of the year. I also have a soft spot for Halloween any time of the year, both of which fuel my fondness for the whole Zombie Cat mascot slash alter ego slash persona thing.

Yes or no Tarot readings have been around for as long as fortune telling whatever oracle they use. I like Tarot because it lends a TON of subtlety and nuance and layers to a reading. I’m kind of hardwired to like that. It is part of what makes me good at this.

Nuance isn’t always the best thing. Sometimes you just need a quick check-in with a topic that has already had a full reading. Doing full readings over and over and over again on the same issue is worse than just not helpful. It can be counterproductive and make things worse through the confusion. A one card meditation or a simplified yes or no layout like this one.

The more I think about it, the more I like this layout. No wonder Zombie Cat Shambles through every summer with some iteration of a special offer. It gives a smack-down of in-your-face clarity with a reassuring hint of nuance in the card by card part.

Yesterday we talked about the spin I put on the ubiquitous, timeless, been-around-forever yes or no layout. I took out maybe and put in “changing lines” …a changeable yes or no. It’s an I Ching concept that we can talk about some other time. When I do the three card “Zombie Cat” readings, I also add an intuitive card by card comment to give you ideas how to either keep or change the yes or no that you got – whichever you prefer.

This isn’t the only yes/no layout in existence, either. There are probably as many iterations of it as there are Tarot readers. Over time positive and negative, a yes or no quality has been given to each card, so you can take that into account as well if you have a mind too.

Nuance, I like. Gestalt, I like a lot. Pedantic detail – not so much. I’ve never really done the academic research into the yes or no connotations of each individual card. I’d rather have the flexibility that an intuitive read at my disposal. I like having the hard yes or no come from the layout and let the individual cards do their thing with empowering you and your choices.

The traditional version of a yes or no layout is really simple. I learned the basic format from intuition coach Joy Star who learned it from a rural spiritualist minister in South Carolina who had no idea what its origins were. You could easily do this at a party with playing cards. At that point, it is about the level of one of those magic pool ball toys and absolutely just as much fun. I encourage you go give it a try, and see what your intuition brings to the experience. If you use playing cards, my ebook Peace Tarot teaches you how to get those nuanced Tarot meanings with the playing cards, so that might be helpful to you too.

It goes without saying that it should be a question that can be answered with a blunt, one word yes or no. If you really really REALLY can’t put your question that simply, then see me. It may be time for a full reading or an intuition driven one card meditation. Some things are hard to do for yourself and we professionals are here to help.

The process is the same for both Tarot cards and playing cards. If you use playing cards, it doesn’t matter if the jokers are left in the deck or not.

The first step is to decide what pattern of cards means what. In the classic style, no aces is a firm no

One ace means maybe but leaning no

Two aces means maybe but leaning yes

Three aces is a firm yes.

Shuffle the cards while you say your question. You can say it out loud if you want, but if you don’t try to keep the question as clear in your mind as you can while you shuffle. I think it helps to repeat the question a few times while you shuffle for extra clarity and connection to your intuition.

Then start dealing the deck face up into three piles. Stop dealing to a stack whenever it gets an ace or gets 13 cards, whichever comes first.

If you feel weird about the number 13, pick another number. Something between 10 and 15 would probably work best.

When you are done, look at the aces that are showing on your three stacks of cards. That gives you your answer.

As you can guess, most of the readings are going to fall in the “maybe, but….” category. “Maybe” isn’t a super helpful answer when you are looking for specific guidance and clarity. That’s part of my reasoning for blending the yes/no with I Ching fortune telling.

The I Ching or Book of Changes is advice and insight divided into 64 chapters with each chapter corresponding to a hexigram. A hexigram is a pattern of six lines made up of a combination of broken or yin lines, and unbroken or yang lines. One way of finding the hexigram to guide you involves tossing three coins six times to get the line pattern. When you throw the three coins, two heads means a yang line, two tails mean a yin line. Three tails means a yin changing line and three heads means a yang changing line. When a line is “changing” that means it is SO yin or SO yang that it is read to tip over into its opposite. Reading the hexigram that includes those lines as their opposite might give additional relative insight.

I’ve applied that same principle here. One ace is a simple no. Two aces is a simple yes. A three ace yes is SO yes it could be easily nudged into a no. Absent aces is SO no it could be tipped over into a yes.

In this case we have a very common but fictional question “Am I doing the right thing?” The answer is yes. To keep it yes, a focus on creativity and creation is helpful. The Empress is often shown as an expectant mother. Ace of wands has to do creation and creativity. Ace of Pentacles hints at success, a pay-off, something coming to fruition. Intuitively I hear “bring something new into the world” and see a fancy maitre d’ making a little bow and that sweeping arm “after you” gesture. Two aces are a solid yes. A little affirmation and validation from a Tarot reading can go a long way. Maybe even long enough to encourage someone to persist, to proceed and ultimately succeed.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. Please check back tomorrow when I’ll be re-posting the original Meet Zombie Cat post that started this whole yes/no thing.

Hello and welcome to all new followers. Thank you. I appreciate you and I appreciate any likes, subs, shares, questions and comments any of you can spare.

None of my TaoCraft Tarot content is monetized. Your intuitive energy message comes first, not an advertiser’s message. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi.com. The shop, memberships and virtual coffees all support the creation of the blog and podcast.

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

Want a yes/no reading from Zombie Cat? Order yours HERE 24/7 no appointment needed. Members get 60% off of the yes/no reading when you order through the ko-fi shop.

Zombie Cat’s Short Summer Shamble ’22

Zombie Cat is shambling through again this summer with yes or no Tarot answers for you.

Zombie Cats don’t move quickly.

This one shuffles through each summer since he popped up out the confluence of ideas that was a Schrodinger’s Cat YouTube explainer and a 2015 Menage A Tarot podcast episode. I’ll put up the original “Meet Zombie Cat” blog post on Thursday if you are interested.

I’m incapable of mentioning Menage A Tarot podcast without saying how grateful I am to David S. Dear, voice actor extraordinaire, for bringing me in on the project back in the 2015 Modern Oracle days. I love his current podcast project, Ninth World Journal on Spotify and Kate continues to rock out loud over at Daily-Tarot-Girl dot com. I’ll put links below & in the episode description so you can check out their awesomeness for yourself.

But yeah – Zombie Cat

I’ve spent a LOT of time talking about movie-style predictions and predicting the future with Tarot and how it doesn’t really work and how its not all that useful anyway. Some people just aren’t in a good head space for that. High minded spiritual growth and personal development really is important, and all of that has its place, but sometimes you just want some short, sweet, kick-in-the-pants guidance.

Even though promises of “100% accuracy” a sure sign of a scam in my opinion, sometimes a little “wtf just do a prediction” can get to your intuition in ways thoughtful, careful “listening to your inner wisdom and higher self” can’t. Especially if you go into it knowing any little thing could change the prediction in a heartbeat. Cause and effect really is a thing, you know.

If you come over to the blog post, you’ll see a video of the last few seconds of a yes or no layout. I didn’t have a particular question in mind when I filmed the cards. I really just intended to demonstrate a little of what the yes or no layout process is (I’ll talk about that part tomorrow)

But me being me and me being Zombie Cat (over the years he’s become a fictional character zero flocks to give outlet for the Tony Stark wannabe side part of my personality) we can’t leave it at just a yes or a no. Oh no. No no.

It starts with an age-old yes/no card dealing pattern of who knows what origin.

Then I change the interpretation of the final three cards to align with the yin yang way three coins are interpreted in the Taoist related classic I Ching…which itself has been used for fortune telling for (no-joke) … millenia. The I ching is believed to have been written around 400 to 800 something ish BC in China. But that is also a topic for another day.

Just for fun, think of a question. Make it one that CAN be answered with a yes or with a no. If you are reading the blog, scroll back up to the video to get your test-case answer (If you want a real reading of your individual question, zombie cat readings are available by email, no appointment needed HERE on the blog website and in the ko-fi shop)

In all of these Zombie Cat readings, after we get the flat yes/no answer, I go through card by card with a few intuitive ideas to consider in addition to the yes no. If you don’t like the yes or no that you got, the cards might hint at ways you can nudge things in a different direction. If you like your answer, the cards might give you hints about how you can strengthen the path you are on.

In the video example we see the final cards are the four of swords, the queen of swords and the ace of pentacles. When you get just one ace, I read that as a flat no.

Four of swords asks you to think about where you need to rest and think. Is being overextended, exhausted, or inattentive part of the reason your answer is no? If you wanted a yes maybe a little rest and contemplation, a mental review of the details will show you a different path than the one you are on. If you like the no, is risking fatigue and inattention worth it to keep it that way?

The queen of swords asks you to think about where you are giving away your power. What are you ceeding to other people that makes this a no? If you like the no, what control are you willing to give to keep things going this way?

The Ace of Pentacles points to cost. What does the no cost you? What practical things can you change or do in order to change or keep your “no”?

This is all very vague and general because this is just a vague and general-audience example reading. It is pretty much the Tarot equivalent of wet spaghetti we’re throwing at the blog and pod walls to see what sticks in the hope that it is helpful to somebody somewhere.

Please come back tomorrow for another yes/no example and Thursday for the Zombie Cat post that started this whole thing.

Thank you for listening! See you at the next sip!

David S. Dear, voice actor, podcaster

Daily-Tarot-Girl (Kate)

Menage A Tarot podcast on TuneIn

Be careful what you ask for

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee, Today The Lovers card reminds us to be careful what we ask for, we just might get it.

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

A few days ago, I put a few announcements just in the print blog with summer hours and how things stand now, in essence it was a post for me to get my proverbial ducks in their proverbial row and that we should all read it quick because my ducks are a bunch of anarchists and lining them up is closer to herding cats.

It turns out that today is one of those crazy duck kind of days, so no reels, shorts, or tiktoks. It’s also a lesson in being careful what you ask for. It’s true that you just might get it.

That’s what the Lover’s card is really about. Sure, there is a lot of steamy romance misconceptions about the card out there, but that’s not the core of it. If you want the get-married card, look for the two of cups. If there is a relationship connection with the lovers card I’d put it in the realm of pure lust, playing the field as the saying goes, and figuring out what you really want from your love life but not about an enduring healthy relationship with any one particular person.

That being said, the Lovers card has application in any part of life. It is about deepest desires. Do you want a long term committed relationship or do you want insert-any-warm-body here companionship? What do you want from your job: a paycheck or fulfilling work or some combination of the two? The same thing applies to anything you want in any facet of life. Sometimes it is all one giant multiple choice test question. Do you want this, that, both or neither.

Deciding what you really want is a critical first step in getting it.

In my experience, it usually turns out to be one of those little bits of both , middle way, yin and yang together solutions. It’s what puts the Tao in Tao Craft Tarot.

There are, however, times when things get black and white. Usually it is the bald faced goodness, yes or the oh-heck-no answers that spark the strongest emotional response. That response can be as telling as the card or the reading.

If you get a white hot flare of anger or rejection when you see a card or get a particular answer in a reading, that tells you what you really want. That tells you that you already knew the answer to what you want or you wouldn’t instinctively reject the card so hard.

If you know what you want, it is easier to get it. If you know what you really deep-down want, then you can’t kid yourself about it. If you know what you really deep down want, you can’t sugar coat the hard parts or BS your way through it.

That’s why the Zombie Cat yes/no layout is far and away one of my favorites. I use it for myself as much as any other, maybe more than any other. It echos the I-ching three coin readings. It can be a clear frying pan to the face kind of reading. It lets you know when to stop screwing around and come face to face what you really want and the buried decisions that you have already made for yourself. The i-ching notion of “changing lines” which are lines that are SO yin or SO yang they can easily tip into their opposite. That’s what the dots in the yin yang symbol are about. Each thing, in its extreme holds the seed of its opposite.

If you read the cards individually in addition to the top level yes or no answer, you can get a lot of nuance and guidance out of the whole thing. The Zombie Cat part makes it light and fun and snarky and playful in the process. I use it all the time as an ice breaker when I am doing fortune teller entertainment at events, like the one at CMU recently. I’ll sit and do yes-no readings for any silly little thing that pops into my head, like will the Pens win the Stanley Cup this year. The answer is always yes to that one, by the way, whether the cards say it or not because this is Pittsburgh and they are the Pens, after all. On an energy level, it sets the right playful, entertainment vibe for a “fortune teller booth.”

The Lovers card asks us to take a hard, honest look at what we really want. The yes or no layout is a good tool to help gain that focus and clarity. That’s the be careful part.

If you tweek the old adage to say be CLEAR about what you want BECAUSE you are PROBABLY going to get it, then you are suddenly living in a whole different universe and it is a pretty good place to be.

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

The blog and the podcast are not monetized and depend on audience support. If you are enjoying these Tarot readings, please visit the Tao Craft Tarot page on ko-fi and consider becoming a Patron of the Tarot Arts to get exclusive content and members-only special offers. Peace Tarot is a short ebook about daily meditation Tarot. Proceeds from the sale of Peace Tarot in the ko-fi shop will be donated to Doctors Without Borders USA during 2022. Both ko-fi proceeds and private readings ordered on the blog website support the creation of the blog and podcast.

Of course, your likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments are always, always appreciated!

Announcements: MSTBT

spring/summer 2022 schecule, announcements and MSTBT (meat space throw back Thursdays)

Spring and summer are starting to take shape.

It is looking like Thursdays and Sundays are the days where meatspace has my attention and the blog/socials will be mostly if not totally quiet. When time allows, I’d like to do MSTBT…MeatSpaceThrowBackThursdays. I’ll pull something out of the TaoCraft archives to post here on the blog. Modern Oracle archives are going to close on April 30. That’s the plan, anyway, but you know how THOSE go around here.

The podcast definitely won’t be happening Thursdays and Sundays unless it is some sort of extra special bonus episode.

That being said:

EMAIL READINGS NEVER CLOSE! Order 24/7/365 no appointment needed. Delivery times are less than 12 hours on a typical business day, but may take a few days if you order during nights, weekends, US holidays, or announced vacations etc.

The NEW Ko-fi shop never closes! Ebook are always available for instant download. All proceeds from the sale of PeaceTarot through the k0-fi shop in 2022 will be donated to Doctors Without Borders, USA

The OLD Etsy shop never closes! Meditation beads and bead jewelry designed and handmade by me is still there and will be for the foreseeable future.

Scheduling by email never closes! In-person Tarot for both individual and parties require advance appointments (sorry – no same day appointments) BUT you can schedule any time by sending an email to TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com

The phone number never answers! Due to changes in the voip service I use, the phone number on the contact page only accepts voicemail and text messages. If you schedule an in-person reading or party, I will provide a number where you can call me the day of the appointment if needed. Call it more cost cutting so I don’t have to raise prices.

Meanwhile, I got meatspace stuff I gotta do so here is a YouTube video. See you at the next sip!

Throw Back 2021: Ogres

It’s that retrospective, year-in-review time of, ahem, year.

I used to think it was fun and sentimental. You know, reflection, introspection, personal growth and all that. But now I’m older and wiser. It’s also easy content. Who am I to argue with that logic? (She says as she shuffles off for another cup of spiced coffed and a cranberry scone for breakfast)

Today we’re throwing back to April. If you are more in a mood to look forward, “Year Ahead” readings are available by email on the home page. Memberships get both an exclusive “month ahead reading” on the ko-fi blog and a private year ahead reading by email when you join.

That being said, here is “Growing Ogres” from April 2021.

Shrek: ….ogres are like onions
Donkey: They stink?
….
Shrek: No! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. You get it? We both have layers
from “Shrek” copyright 2001 Dreamworks Pictures, quote via imdb.com

Layers mean complexity. Layers apply to all sorts of things that are actually more complex than they seem at first glance; ogres, onions, cakes and – you guessed it – Tarot.

Reading Tarot for yourself is actually quite simple. In a couple of hours I could teach you to do good DIY readings for yourself. (Related: PeaceTarot ebook)

Reading for other people is another story. High level professional readings are, like onions and ogres, more complex than it seems on the surface. That’s the whole point of them. A professional reading can gives you extra layers of insight and experience that you can’t get alone. Two heads are better than one. Two eyes give depth perception (related post: parallax) The two of us working together gives your reading another layer of understanding.

Sometimes layers talk about authenticity. Sometimes you have to peel back a few layers to get to the real heart of the matter. We’ve talked about authenticity and public Tarot practice before, after my Modern Oracle Tarot work was re-branded to TaoCraft Tarot (related: what’s in a name, Shakespear’s Roses, Spell Your Name)

That’s all well and good, but consider another aspect of layers: growing new ones. Interestingly, actual onions grow on the inside. New layers are added at the core while older outside layers get dry and thin and ultimately fall away. In this, onions give us another useful metaphor.

In the medical field, and no doubt many other professions, continuing education is a condition of licensure and employment. You have to keep learning and keep current if you want to keep working. Whether it is required or not, whether it is career related or not, lifelong learning is a respected mark of excellence. Learning isn’t just formal education. Learning comes from experience and experimentation and the living of life. Artists’ work evolves over time. Any person’s point of view can evolve over time.

And so, the “Modern Oracle” layout is evolving. I’m calling abort on the video / text hybrid format. It was an experiment that failed, and I’ve learned something important from it.

Remember how deeper layers are often perceived as more authentic and how old layers of growing onions turn papery and fall off? It’s time for the 5 and 7 card Modern Oracle layouts to evolve, to become more authentic, to show more of their inner complexity. The video hybrid isn’t the way for that to happen. The names of layout card positions are changing. It’s a tiny detail that you may not even notice from your side of the Tarot table. On my side of the table it is important shift in mindset. This allows me to fully and authentically follow what intuition and spirit shows me.

I wrote the initial layout meanings to create a bridge from old fashioned, predict-the-future, fortune telling layouts to a more modern advice, guidance and empowerment reading. I wrote the Modern Oracle layouts specifically to show the power of your choices over your future. Cards that once were called “past, present and future” in the old style became “lessons from the past, current situation, and moving forward.” Predicting the future evolved into making an action plan.

Now it will go one step further. I in my minds’s eye, I see a reading in terms of dynamic energy flows, not a concrete road through time. As Modern Oracle layouts become TaoCraft layouts, we will let go of time and predictions entirely. If the Modern Oracle layout was like GPS map for your path ahead, the TaoCraft layout is like a GPS traffic update with a weather report.

Card 1, lessons from the past, will become Fading Energies, symbolizing energies that are moving away from you. These are things that need less of your attention.

Card 2, current situation, will become Current Energies, the energies that are strongest, and deal with things that need your attention in this moment.

Card 3, moving forward will become Growing Energies, energies moving toward you, or gaining influence in the path you’ve currently chosen. It still isn’t predictive. It is still intended to guide you, help you prepare for possible conditions ahead. Think of it like a weather report. It doesn’t tell you exactly what will happen to you during your day, but it can give you the chance of rain or sun while it happens.

Card 4 will remain Choices. It is still placed under the current energies card and at the center of the layout because that is still the place of power. Empowering your choices is still the heart of the reading. The choices card will take on a more advisory tone than before. Instead of suggesting how to persist or how change your path, it focuses on whether changing or whether staying the course is the wisest thing to do.

Card 5 is still Alternative Path just like before, showing the most open alternative path you if you decide a change is needed.

Card 6 Helping Energies and card 7 Potential Challenges are the same as always, and speak to exactly what the name implies.

Long story short, if you are dead set on a specific “accurate” prediction, you aren’t going to like the new TaoCraft layouts. If that’s the case, you need the Zombie Cat yes/no readings like we did the other day. Even then, you have to realize it isn’t 100%.

10-23-21 Zombie Cat Still Shambles

Next weekend? Really? Well that month escalated fast.

Just a quick reminder that Zombie Cat yes/no readings are $5 off for only one more week before the price goes back to abnormal.

Zombie Cat yes/no readings used to be seasonal, but they are available year-round now on the “Special Layouts” section of the no-appointment email readings page.

What makes them “Zombie Cat” readings? They are written with fictional cartoon alter-ego Zombie Cat’s tongue in what’s left of his cheek mildly snarky dad joke level sense of humor . He’s a zombie. He’s a cat. He doesn’t care about how predictions do or don’t work. Zombie Cat doesn’t care about disclaimers (they still apply – ZC just doesn’t give a rat’s patootie about them) Ask ANYTHING. No promises it will be an answer you want to hear. Want a prediction? He’ll give it to you. It just might be dead wrong.

In other words, they are perfect fun for Halloween.

Or any other time of year.

Order yours HERE

Today’s Tarot: After the Fall

********

Zombie Cat is back! He lives year round on the ‘no appointment needed’ Tarot page, but he’s front page news during Spooky Season with $5 of a yes/no reading by email. STILL no appointment needed – order anytime, 24/7

Ask Zombie Cat ANYTHING. He’ll make it yes/no and give you the straight answer, not matter what it is. Zombie Cat’s yes/no readings have a 100% gaurantee of containing some words and 50% chance of being dead wrong.

Welcome to the Equinox: Zombie Cat Shambles 2021!

READ THE POST THAT STARTED IT ALL: MEET ZOMBIE CAT

Intention is everything in subtle energy work. Anything that isn’t covered by intention is usually covered by symbolism.

The YouChoose post this morning talked a little bit about liminal energies and transitional spaces. Some transitions are sharp and out of the blue, like walking through a narrow doorway. Others are slow and build gradually, like walking down a long hallway. At first I’d thought about making this post as a ginormous list of everything I’ve been working on, posting them today to honor the equinox and the beginning of my favorite season and that would be that.

That’s not today’s energy

I feel nudged to go with a slow roll-out instead of a terse list. That will let me give full attention to the intention and symbolism behind these things such as they are. Today….

ZOMBIE CAT IS BACK!

Zombie Cat is an alter-ego sort of character that came from the old blog, when I working under the name Modern Oracle Tarot, inspired by the famous Schrodinger’s cat experiment and an episode of Menage A Tarot podcast. Zombie Cat lives all year in the special & lower cost readings section of the no appointment email readings page. During Halloween, ZC comes out to play on the home page.

I enjoy Zombie Cat. I enjoy doing short, fun, anything goes yes-or-no readings from that slightly snarky frame of mind. Frame of mind and fun both count in this kind of work. That is why when I do a cutesy pants promotional price reductions anymore unless it has some sort of symbolic meaning for me. In this case, I’m reducing the price of Zombie Cat readings to give energy to all the fun that Zombie Cat gives and all that Halloween and Autumn mean for me.

But I’m hoping it will entice a bunch of you to get these holiday readings, too.

Zombie Cat yes/no readings are $5 off until Halloween. Get yours HERE