Ronda Snow's Blog, page 6

Update July 2019

If you are new here – Welcome.

If you have visited before, or followed the blog for any amount of time, you have probably noticed the new look.

In 2018, I officially re-launced Modern Oracle Tarot as TaoCraft Tarot.  This website and blog is being streamlined to match. Here are the key changes

All of the Tarot content has been moved to the Modern Oracle Tarot / Tarotbytes Archive (posts prior to October 2018) or to the current TaoCraft Tarot Blog
From here forward, Reiki, Meditation, and Taoism related content will appear on the TaoCraft Tarot Blog
The Vampire Diet, Baihu’s News Haikus, Merry Monday, Tao Tuesday, and Browncoat Whovian Epiphany content has been discontinued.
This blog will be limited to general announcements, aromatherapy, natural health and select topics in spirituality that do not fit with the Tarot/Meditation/Reiki/Taoism/Magick milieu of the TaoCraft Site.
Some posts may deal with sensitive or controversial subjects. Reader discretion is advised. Comments are closed.
Reader comments and Natural Health questions are welcome. Please use the  form below

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Please read disclaimer below before submitting Natural Health Question. This is for general interest ONLY. No information on this website or by this author can diagnose, treat, or cure any disease and does not in any way replace professional health / mental health care. Use at your own risk.

The Niggles: What is in a name?

From December 2018 on TaoCraft Tarot.com

A lot.

Sometimes, a whole lot.

“Re-branding” seems to be a thing lately. “Ghoulish Delights Bath Shop” is becoming “Balefire Apothocary” and ”Hearts Peace Healing” is becoming “Hygge Lightwork.” One personal trainer is becoming a Tarot reader, while a musician is becoming a personal trainer and a martial artist is shifting to being a musician and life coach. Of course, Modern Oracle Tarot is now TaoCraft Tarot.

My sense is this is growth, evolution, and expansion is a very good thing for all of us. The new name isn’t just a marketing ploy. There is no ill will or negative feeling about our old names or identities at all. Shedding our old “brand” is like a snake shedding its skin: It’s necessary for growth. We are re-naming, re-imagining, and re-building in order to embrace more things and to become more fully ourselves. I can’t speak for the other folks, of course, but after brief chats on social media, I get the feeling we are all very much on on the same page.

Expansion and deeper authenticity is certainly my aim in abandoning Modern Oracle and building TaoCraft. As I write this, Modern Oracle feels like something that happened ages ago to someone else. Time passes. I’m not the same person who started Modern Oracle. TaoCraft is me, now.

That doesn’t mean I have to abandon EVERY single little thing. “The Niggles” are still here. Those posts are about ideas that camp out in my head, and niggle there until I write about them. Yeah, I know. That sounds more like a brain parasite than creative inspiration. Some ideas are like that. I blame the muses for lack of a better idea.

Since the very beginning of this re-branding process, I’ve felt pushed to talk about TaoCraft as a name. I have no earthly idea why, or even what to say, so I’ll follow that spirit, inspiration, call of the muses, or brain idea-parasite such as the case may be.

Let’s start with the obvious. “TaoCraft” is a made up word, and I’ve stuck a capital in the middle. Why? I like it. As two words, it is a description. As one word it is a NAME. I threw the capital in because 1. it works as a humpback web address and 2. “Craft” is an integral part of the concept with a dollop of double meaning.

Tao, as many of you know, is from Chinese philosophy; Taoist, Taoism, Tao Te Ching. Just to be pedantic, Tao and Dao are the same thing. Tao is Pinyan westernization of the Mandarin word, while Dao is from the Wade-Giles system. The few minutes I studied Mandarin back in the 90s, I was taught using Pinyan, so there you are. Tao it is. Tao is usually translated as “way” as in a “way of life” or a “way of doing things.”

What does Taoism have to do with Tarot? A surprising lot, actually.  “Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao” by Diane Morgan explains it best. It was an enormous influence in the early days of my Tarot career because it connected two great loves. Time and time and time again, Tao and Tarot were philosophies, a way of looking at the world, that I could rely on. I could lean on them in turbulent times without them crumbling to dust and nothing the way religion always, always did. When your life puts your beliefs to the test, they shouldn’t fall apart. Taoism and Tarot never did. No matter what I would learn or explore, I always circled back to them and found them reliable and trustworthy. Tao and Tarot belong here in this new mental and spiritual living place. They are very much an authentic part of me. This re-branding is, as is highly valued within Taoism, an exercise in deep authenticity.

Craft is also a bridge. As Tao and Tarot bridge east and west, Craft bridges old and new. When I see the word, “arts and crafts” spring to mind. That kind of craft is an old and familiar thing. My grandmother taught me to embroidery when I was 6. Embroidery, cross stitch, knitting, beading have been a part of me since then. I like to create and make. That embraces the meditation mala and assorted stuff I make and put in the TaoCraft Tarot shop on Etsy. Craft connects to a fond memory of a cherished Grandmother – a wise woman whom I swear was magic. Which brings me to the new craft. THAT craft. THE craft. Not the movie, although it is one of my favorites. TaoCraft expands my Tarot cyber-world to include, mala, meditation, Reiki, and my own brand of magical craft. It took half a century to even flirt with the notion of associating with magick or witchcraft, but dammit, I’m claiming it now. And I’m defining it on my own terms. This is my own non-diestic, non-ritualistic, natural, energy reading WAY of engaging with a solitary sort of witchCRAFT. The best label I’ve found for what I do is from Laura Zakroff’s book “Sigil Witchery”. A “modern traditional witch” is one who “does what needs doing when it needs done using whatever is at hand.” That. So that. Magick is woven in to life, both the special and ordinary times. Magick is found in both the special and the ordinary things at hand.

There you have it. That is what is in THIS name. Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot.

New Name, Same Spirit

I can take a cosmic friggen’ hint.

Eventually.

Back in October, I pulled the ripcord, and seriously rebranded my Tarot site. In the months since, that has had my attention to the point that it has been all crickets and tumbleweeds here.

The main focus of Taocraft Tarot is, as you might guess from the name, Tarot, plus some new additions: Reiki and Meditation. I’ve bundled everything I do under one cyber-roof over there. I still consider this to be my “author’s” site and this as-yet-un-named blog will be where the odds and ends will go that don’t quite fit into the flow of things over at TaoCraft. Since I wrote it, some of the content there will be repeated here, but I hope you will follow both sites for the fringy sprituality and natural health musing that will only be here.

The naming part of the process fascinated me for quite a while. Seems there is always a story behind the name, especially for businesses, bands, songs, albums, books and blogs. This is the first of three names are niggling at me posts.

I’m also going to do something here that won’t be available at TaoCraft. I want this site to be more conversational. Over there, it is important to have a welcoming, troll and spam free energy environment. I want the people who come to me for readings and come to the TaoCraft website to feel safe and welcome….which these days means locking down the comments. I don’t want to deal with the BS here either, but I want to hear from you, the sincere, decent not-bot people too. Enter the Questions of the Day. I’ll be putting a contact form at the end of a lot of posts. Please send your questions and comments that way. If it is really good I may share it here on the blog….WAIT! I have it!

As a nod to the past, and the fact this will be built of odds and ends of blog writing….ta-DAH ….Quirk & Flotsam (the blog) My etsy shop is named for TaoCraft now, because, you  know, branding. Quirk and Flotsam lives. I’ve always thought of the two owls in my logo being named Quirk & Flotsam (that’s more owl-ish than Creativity and Variety, don’t you think?)

ANYWAY….

Hello again after a long while away. Let me introduce you to me….

from 2018

Welcome

Seasons change, and so do Tarot Websites.

Modern Oracle Tarot is now TaoCraft Tarot.

TaoCraft is a new era of fierce authenticity in my Tarot, Reiki, and Meditation work.

No more trying to make Tarot palatable to a world not ready or not interested. Modern or not, Tarot is powerful, magickal, and a potent way (Tao) to make (Craft) your life experience, your journey into the best it can be.

Click HERE to read the thousands of posts in the Modern Oracle Tarot archives. It is all just as good as ever…that hasn’t changed. The archives are where you will find a treasure trove of Q&A, Card meanings, daily Tarot meditations, the ever popular “Romance Reading – The Lovers and the Magician” and my favorite the origins of Zombie Cat 

Don’t worry….Zombie Cat made the move here with me, and we’ll be seeing more of him around New Years Day.

At my core is my own, unique amalgam of Taoism and Witchcraft. Modern Oracle was a first foot out of the “Tarot Closet” as we talked about on “Menage A Tarot”  TaoCraft is both feet planted firmly out in the world. I look forward to sharing my way of doing things with you. If it helps one person, it is worth it.

Welcome. Nice to meet you.

It's Aliiiive. For reals this time.

I don't know which is scarier,

It's mildly terrifying starting a business. It's mildly terrifying writing and self-publishing a book. It's slightly more terrifying to basically burn the house down and re-name and re-brand the whole thing.

But it's a done deal. I'm beginning to think second generation pheonix are more powerful than the first. Out of the ashes of an old life came Modern Oracle. Now fresh from the steaming ashes of Modern Oracle we have TaoCraft Tarot.

There are a handful of posts over on my main website ruminating about the name change. For our purposes here, that is neither here nor there, save to say it is a more authentic aesthetic. The core services are the same with a couple of additions. Since the official re-launch on October 31, 2018 the mild terror has subsided and I've fallen progressively more in love with the new look and the new feel. I hope you will come visit TaoCraft Tarot sometime.

Aaaannnddd…..it’s dead again

Buh-bye Modern Oracle

 I’ve been vaguely, non specifically restless with the name “modern oracle” for a while now. It was increasingly awkward and disingenuous. It was the right thing in the beginning, with a new family to protect from the early days of the now-rampant bigotry toward anyone a little different. Seasons change, and so do Tarot businesses.

I think part of the process was watching “Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrel.” I was the second coming of Gilbert Norell, trying so hard to make Tarot mainstream that my work was degenerating into Milquetoast nothing. Now that the little one is nearly drinking age, It’s safe to unleash my inner Jonathan Strange. It might be nuts…it might be genius. I’m honestly not quite sure which, but you, dear audience, and time will figure that out. On one hand, I was worried that re-branding under a new name would just ruin everything I’ve tried to do over the past decade or so. On the other hand it was so right, so ME.

The funny thing is the mental image that came right after the dots connected and the light bulb went on over my thick head. I could imagine my spirit guide slumped down in a chair in a mixture of relief and exhaustion. Sorry man. Hope you recover soon from that monumental effort. I owe a thanks to fellow energy healer and card reader Pip Miller (This Hobbit’s Life on WordPress) On an impulse she was offering one card readings online and on equal impulse I got one with her. It took a while to realize THIS was what she was talking about, but her reading was the stick of dynamite tossed into a waiting gas tank that finally got the message through.

*Gratuitous I Told You So Moment*

If I say that email readings are EQUAL to in-person readings I MEAN IT. I give them that way, and I get them that way all the time. If you are a book-lovin’ reader like me, the written card readings are actually more potent than the face to face ones, giving and getting.

I don’t like the smell of roses either

What’s in a name he asked. Everything and nothing. A rose by any name smells as gag-me floral. Coffee by any name smells as delicious. But in ‘Murica, in the all holy world of money and business and marketing, names and “branding” is a thing. “Modern Oracle” is what I wanted other people to “get”. It was what I wanted to be….TaoCraft is who I AM. Already, fully. Tao is from The Tao Te Ching. It means “Way,” like a way of doing things or the Taoist WAY of living. It is like the “do” in Japanese martial arts. KenDO is the way of the sword. Tarot is a WAY of learning about our lives, ourselves, and the WAY forward in difficult emotional times. Craft hints at a heaping helping of energy centric, non-diestic witchy-ness, but it is also about craft as in MAKE something, or a skilled CRAFTsman. TaoCraft Tarot is a WAY of MAKING our way forward in life with a little more insight and maturity. Modern Oracle was about what Tarot can’t do, as in busting old myths and getting rid of ridiculous antiquated notions like exact predictions of a fated future. TaoCraft is more about what Tarot CAN do. Now that Modern Oracle has spent a chunk of time tearing down misconceptions, TaoCraft can start to build a new way forward.

The Oracle foretold the way of the craft. This is how it had to happen. It couldn’t happen any other way. For that I am grateful for it all.

Now, on with the adventure.

 

It’s Aliiiiive!

Redid ModernOracleTarot.com to match this site. It is fully live and ready to go.

This site is too, except for the “Sending Stones Reiki” part. Need to take some photos etc. Will let you know when that is up and running. Am also working on a meditation starter pack that you can buy through the Etsy shop. Good things on the horizon.

Will post more about that later.  Like Maddow says….watch this space.

Surfing Brainwaves

Pretty much done with the cyberspace remodeling project. How do you like the new look? I’m kinda digging it…dark? Yes. Zen? I hope so. I like the minimal black aesthetic. Kind of like Zen monk robes. Besides this is Pittsburgh. Black and Gold is a very good thing.

I got nothing when it comes to new posts, at least for the moment. All the brainwaves are going into setting up Distance Reiki and sprucing up both this and the Modern Oracle Tarot websites. Ah, but it is what it is. Until it ain’t. I think the theme. However this transition to fall shakes out, I have a hunch the main theme and guiding star of the whole thing is a fierce, unrelenting, authenticity. Here I am, take it or leave it.

In Erin Hunter “warriors” series of children’s books about feral cat clans. after they are finished raising a litter of kittens the adult female cats move back from being a “queen” to being a “warrior” I like that. I think that is a good idea for we primates, too. I’ve always been fond of the warrior archetype. My healing lies more along those lines than the mainstream medical ones. The healing here is in the world of energy and spirit. I’ll leave the physical and clinical medical part to other folks. I got other fish to fry now.

OK…there is the brainwave I was looking for. I think I’ll spend a little time here navel gazing. Mornings, and blogging it seems, is for coffee and contemplation. Screw the healer / healing thing. We are going Brainwave Surfing, bruh. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

The Blog Blog

I’ve cleverly re-re-named this blog “Blog”

I figured that was a more socially acceptable than “The What-The-Fuck-Ever Blog”. Although, swear-sensitive readers beware, that is what this is now. Any topic goes. Sure there will be Natural Health, Taoism, Tarot and all that stuff because …well, because that’s just me. Deal. But any and every other topic is fair game too, all brainwaves welcome.

The Natural Health part of my grand career plan has gone precisely nowhere. Like everyone else, whenever I make (what I think is) a smart plan, the universe responds with “hold my beer”.

Read an interesting blog post by my friend and excellent energy healer who goes by Pip online. She quoted someone. I don’t remember who. I don’t remember what. I don’t remember when. I didn’t pay attention to those details because I had no idea at the time how much the thing it talked about would lodge in my brain. It was totally one of those times when guidance and an idea we really, really need to hear smacks us up the side of the head, scholarly citation be damned. Thank you whoever you are for whatever you said.

I don’t remember the exact words, but the basic concept was to imagine, what would your life be like, what choices would you make if your life’s true purpose found you instead of you finding it. I’ve talked about this loads in my Tarot work (which has, gratefully, been far more vibrant than the “healer” thing. THAT should be a BIG hint right there.)

Driving is a meditative thing sometimes. It’s the best kind because I don’t set out for it to be a meditation. The ah-ha moments very often come when you are focusing on anything else (like staying on the road, not driving up a tree or what have you). Same for that grand “life’s purpose” we all seem to want. That thing that you can do that will let you not work another day in your life. That. I’m starting to think that we never can, never do find it. It does indeed find us….and ONLY when we aren’t looking for it.

It hit me one day while I was busy trying not to hit the bigger pot holes on a local street: If it is true you have to define what you want in order to manifest it, then I want my best path to present itself to me and bring a truckload of money right along with it. Not pretty, but ruthlessly honest. Maybe a little merciless honesty is what is needed for that to happen.

I’m slamming full speed into midlife. I’m too far out of the closet to put the genie back in the bottle. And heck yeah, I’ll mix metaphors and dangle participles if I darn well want to. Trying to play nice, be diplomatic, be cloying and enticing hasn’t worked. Maybe authenticity will.

It is what it is until it ain’t no more. Just so.

Like Rachel Maddow says: Watch this space.

Tarotbytes Bookshelf: Going Beyond the Little White Book

I’ve been meaning to start a series of book reviews / recommendations. Seems like I’m always giving my Tarot clients homework….books I’ve read that come to mind that speak right to what’s going on with them. The whole book may not be the whole answer, but the book that intuition plunks down on the reading […]

via Tarotbytes Bookshelf: “Going Beyond the Little White Book” — Modern Oracle Tarot

I’m not bi-partisan and here is why…

“In the end we will remember not the words or our enemies but the silence of our friends” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

In these times, it would not be right for even a tiny blog with almost no readership to remain silent.

When life here in the U.S. regains some measure of sanity, then I’ll go back to talking about Reiki, Taoism, Brewer’s Yeast and making your own beach wave hairspray.

In the meantime, there are some things I am compelled to scream into the void, simply because it serves no purpose NOT to scream them. I don’t know if any of this will do anything, except maybe document a certain (I believe widely shared) point of view of the current zeitgeist, but I have to try. If I can change one mind, or move one person to action then the effort was more than worth it.

I like calling it a zeitgeist. German seems appropriate as we are being overrun with fascists. Seriously. No exaggeration, no hyperbole, I am for real and properly afraid that a coup may well be in progress, and if you voted for Donald Trump it is your fault. If the worst happens, the blood of Americans is on your hands as much as the buffoon you helped put into office. The only way  Trump voters have to redeem themselves is to resist the changes, and do everything a private citizen can do  to oppose every single thing he does. No matter how you voted, now patriotism calls you to oppose Republican and ineffectual Democrats in Congress, and vote for more compassionate, inclusive replacements as soon as possible, including off year Congressional, local and state offices.

Yes, it does sound partisan. Yes I AM partisan-sort of. Partisans are technically enthusiastic about some party or another. Living in a closed primary state, I’m only registered Democrat in order to be allowed to vote in state level primaries.  Except for primary “super-delegates” and their tendency toward a certain general spinelessness in congress, I generally agree with Democrats, especially the more progressive wing such as that represented by Senator Sanders’ platform. I started my adult voting life as an Independent and am about a hair from re-re-registering back to Independent. I AM highly partisan for a defacto “party” of independent thinkers in favor of reason, science, compassion and basic human decency.

Yes, the Democrats fucked up big time when they had a thumb, four fingers and an asscheek on the scales for Clinton against all comers before Sanders even declared his candidacy.

Yes, the Russians hacked e-mails and used leaks to weaponize our domestic stupid against us.

Yes, I just called half of America stupid. They are gullible too. Unless they are evil. Or some combination of all three. You’ll have to decide which for yourself if that is how you voted.

But the first are just symptoms, an actual vote for Trump was the root cause. Here is how you connect the two.

I’ve been watching politics since Carter, voting regularly since Regan….

Who has always favored the rich and a”trickle down” economic policy that in decade after decade of has yet to trickle anywhere? Republicans.

Who has manipulated a large, gullible, vulnerable evangelical christian population by manipulating their innate, native biases (against reproductive privacy,  against separation of church and state, & and against marriage equality) again and again for decade upon decade? Republicans.

Who has touted populist economic change and/or possibly manipulated oil policy / oil supply to win popular favor? Repulblicans.

Who has been militaristic and quick to go to war? Republicans.

Who has been obstructionist, failed to serve the American people (government shut-down)? Republicans.

Who tacitly, through their silence, supported Tea Party racist & “birther” rhetoric since 2008? Republicans.

See a pattern?

The only thing to clean the American landscape of the Republican shit stain is

Support the removal of Donald Trump from office, be it by impeachment proceedings or by 25th Amendment mechanisms. Encourage those in power who represent you and have the power to enact these things to do so.
Hold your representatives responsible. They work for you. YOU elected them. If they don’t actively advocate for the good of the nation now, when will they? VOTE out any Republicans or ineffective Democrats at every level of government at the very next election. Now is the time. We can’t afford to “give it a chance”. We can’t afford second chances. It’s do it right, right now, or get out of the way for someone who will.
Do your part to resist no matter how you voted in November. Indivisible Guide is a good resource to learn HOW to do this if you have never been involved in politics before now. If you have the means, donate to organizations who are actually doing something to change things. I joined the ACLU.
Pay attention to the man behind the curtain. . Don’t be fooled again, even if you were the first time. Follow objective, professional journalists and ignore the truckloads of bullshit that is out there…which is doubly true of white house and other “official” sources now. Daily Kos was especially helpful in THIS article.
Support the people…all people…even the ones you disagree with IF they are trying to fix this mess. Together we really are stronger. We can argue about the small stuff again later, when we are out of danger.
Motivate your resistance through causes you truly believe in. If your thing is trees, join with feminists, scientists, journalists, atheists and the pro marajuana lobby and anyone else who is trying to protect the EPA. Stuff like that. The assaults from this regime are so wide-ranging they offend everyone except maybe the KKK and Neo-Nazis. Choose your cause, but cooperate with all causes at the same time.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke