Tarotbytes - The Death Card

Everyone is scared to death...all puns intended...of this card. It doesn't mean literal, mortal danger as some as TV and movies might have you think. It doesn't mean you are going to walk out of your reading right under a speeding bus. 

It really means change, rebirth, renewal. For some people, change is more frightening than that speeding bus. Especially if that change is for them - a change in who they are. 

Richard Bach captured the feeling of this card perfectly when he wrote "I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it?" (source: brainyquotes.com)

Each day the old 'us' dies away and the right-NOW us lives. 

Who you are right-NOW is completly under your control. Old you is dead. Long live you.

Each day, each moment is a rebirth, a resurrection of sorts, of the gone old-you into the very alive and vital here-and-now you. How do you want today to be? Zombie Apocalypse or a fresh start into something better? 

Stay safe, and enjoy your Halloween!

www.ModernOracleTarot.com  to order your own Tarot Reading, for Halloween, Dio de los Muertos, or any old day.

ShelfLight: A Nomadic Witch

The "geek girl's bookshelf" motif is becoming a common theme in the blogosphere. I'd like to change it up a bit here. Instead of just focusing on "geek" or just books, I thought it might be fun to expand it to any old fan-girl rant - a sort of "that's kind of cool" for anything. Think of it like a small display shelf with a light over it to showcase whatever we sit on the shelf. Who knows? Maybe you will think it is interesting too. Maybe you'll even check it out for yourself.

I just finished reading "A Nomadic Witch" by Debora Geary...for the second time. Her "Modern Witch" series is Harry Potter for parents...not because it is "adult", but because it she touches on the common everyday things we've all experienced with our kids...cookies and ice cream, glitter spills, 4 year olds playing dress up.

And then she shows us the pure magic in every bit of it. 

The Modern Witch series just keeps getting better. Underneath the layer of playful fun and the usual idea of magic with teleportation, flying broomsticks, fire globes, and storms-from-nowhere - underneath all of that is a real-life magic. She touches on very real emotion and very real parts of life that are, indeed, magical.

For example, parenthood. In past books she deftly handles deep ideas like self-discovery, change, self-image, personal responsibility and community belonging. Through all of her books Ms. Geary creates utter believable, genuine, realistic characters. Not only are they believable  but somehow you wind up caring about the characters as if they are real people. The people in her books are the bridge between fictional magic and the magic in real life and real people. 

In "A Nomadic Witch" that premise is taken further, looking at even more heart-rending, emotionally deep concepts like welcoming new life, healing old lives, and even saying hello to those who have passed beyond this one. 

Despite that, "A Nomadic Witch" is an easy, enjoyable page-turner, start to finish. I recommend it!

www.RondaSnow.com

www.modernoracletarot.com

Today's Tarot and a Favorite Quote: Death Card

Death is a difficult subject both in Tarot and in Life. This quote pretty much sums things up.

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, 

the Master calls a butterfly"

~Richard Bach

Q&A: Does my spirit guide have a message for me?

The short answer for this question is usually yes.


If spirit guides and messages and such are on your mind enough to ask the question, then my  hunch is they are using that feeling to get your attention. It is a little like the beeps on the tv when there is a weather warning...it is to get your attention before the message itself comes through.


Sometimes when I do a reading, I get a sense of 'someone' giving advice or some sort of message. Usually it is validation or reassurance. The messages that come through me are the beepy, "can I have your attention please" type or just a friendly "hello - I'm really here" type.


The language of spirit is so symbolic, and so personal sometimes it is hard to get a more specific message than that. "Spirit" and "spirit guides" speak in many, very personal ways. I like to compare it to dream interpretations. Sure, there are those general "dream dictionary" kinds of meanings that anyone can use as a start-point, but the real, specific understanding of a dream (or a spirit-guide message) comes from within ourselves. Context and past associations can have a big influence. If you think it refers to something, that is the message...not what the dream dictionary or the psychic says.


Symbolism and Synchronicity are the language of spirit. Spirit talks to us through tiny hints, subtle coincidences that are easy to miss if we aren't paying attention. When I say "spirit", I mean the widest possible definition of the concept:  crossed over loved ones, spirit guides, our "higher selves", our intuition, our imagination, the whole gambit.


Of course, talking about "spirit" as if it is a distinct thing, somehow separate or outside of ourselves is arbitrary, and a trick of language. It is part of living in a three dimensional world. The cosmos is a unified whole. For example, if we talk about last summer, we aren't talking about something separate from all time, we are just specifying a particular point in infinity. Say you want to meet a friend at a coffee shop that is at the corner of 5th Avenue and Main Street in Anytown. The coffee shop isn't separate from the city...it is still a part of good old "Anytown"...you are just using the language of street names to specify a particular place. 


The same is true of "spirit" or "spirit guides". They are part of you, you are part of them, and we are all part of the entirety of everything-that-is. But the me, them, you, us, spirit, intuition designations make it easier to understand things - just like "fifth and main" makes it easier to find your favorite cup of coffee in Anytown.


So does your spirit guide have a message for you? - yes. Can I tell you what it is? -maybe, let's see...no promises though. Can you get the message for yourself? Absolutely! 


Wishing you a day of good coffee and being in tune with the spirit side of life.






Modern Oracle Tarot

Daily Meditation - Major Arcana "Death" card

The sky doesn't ask what you believe before you are allowed to look at it. 


Plants don't demand you think or do certain things before they grow from the earth to nourish you.


Gravity doesn't demand that you accept it before it holds you to the Earth.


The sun doesn't ask you have blind faith in it before it warms you.


Water doesn't require your trust to flow.


Why should "heaven" or the afterlife be any different? 


Some things simply are. 




www.ModernOracleTarot.com
www.RondaSnow.com

Psychic Q&A "Is it all my imagination?"

Was talking with my friend, the talented psychic Joy Star, about her latest newsletter. The topic was a question that she has heard from some of her intuition development students who want to know how to tell if their psychic impressions are "real" or "just my imagination". I've heard that question a lot too.
It isn't easy to answer, but I think J.K. Rowling said it best in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". It was something on the order of "Yes, Harry, this is all in your head. But why on Earth would that mean it isn't REAL" (caps mine). I don't know if that is an exact quote,  but you get the idea.
Harry was unconscious, possibly dead, and we see his conversation with the now dead-and-buried Professor Dumbledore. That makes it a particularly potent example, especially at Halloween, when death and the after-life are such prominent themes. We all have some level of conviction about life after death, or at least some deep curiosity about it. It is an idea closely tied to the idea of intuition, psychic ability, spirit guides, guardian angles and so on.
Was Harry imagining the whole thing? Are we just "making stuff up" when we tap into our intuition? Is it just elaborate imagination? Maybe. My question to you is what difference does it make?
My answer is NONE. It makes no difference at all, simply because our minds...AND our imaginations...are part of the seamless whole. We, our minds, our emotions, AND our imaginations are all part of the universe, part of the great big cosmos, the all that IS...not to mention the time-space continuum that connects all that IS to all that was and will be to boot...
I think we draw lines in the sand between ourselves and the larger whole because of very old, very ingrained social customs. To get along, we distinguish between ourselves and other people. We know the difference between ourselves and our reflection in a mirror.  This duality is projected to abstract ideas too.  We distinguish between the material and spiritual - and "intuition" becomes the bridge between the two. That is normal, and necessary to function and survive. The problem comes when we put extra qualities on one or the other.
The religion-driven perception that the 'spiritual' or godly is somehow perfect or good while the physical is somehow tainted or flawed still persists. It is hard to shift to a more holistic, unified way of thinking. It is hard for some to realize that the spiritual, etheric, intangible, intuitive and emotional are part of the same unified WHOLE as everything else.
That includes your imagination. Even if you imagine it, the lessons that you learn from using your imagination are as real and valid as lessons you learn from "spirit" or anything you think to be separate or outside yourself.
Just ask child psychologists. Children learn from imaginative play...we adults can learn from flights of imagination too, if we are open to it, and keep it in perspective.
Your imagination is part of you. You are real. Your emotional response to what you imagine is real. The lessons you learn from your imagination are real too.
Other people can't see, react too, or have feelings about what you imagine...but you can. Just because something isn't tangible or "real" to the outside world doesn't mean it isn't valid to your inner experience of life.
Just like Harry gained understanding from his encounter with Dumbledore. It was all in his head...AND it was real.
So is intuition just your imagination? Yes - but that is what makes it real.

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Daily meditation - Life, Love and Death (the major arcana card)

New on Modern Oracle Blog for KINDLE: Daily Meditation - Life, Love, and Death (the major arcana card)

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Paranormal Proof

Nobody likes to be wrong.

That is the problem with proof. When something is proven right, another thing is proven wrong, and there is natural resistance to that.

Was watching one of those "ghost hunter" shows on TV earlier. They are interesting, not because they prove or disprove life after death, but because they are generally an interesting window to human nature. Tarot is too.

Why the need to PROVE anything? Who is being convinced? What does it matter if we prove our way of thinking to another human being or not?

I have a hunch it is tied to that basic need to "belong" and the even stronger need to communicate. After all, communication and social, coordinated effort is a survival skill from way back. And, we like to convince people to our way of thinking...that way we don't have to be wrong.

Why can't the answer be "yes" or "all of the above", though. Isn't tolerance of other views a compassionate thing?

Both science and religion have a sort of dualistic bias. If it can't be scientifically proven, then it is dismissed, ridiculed, even oppressed (like scientific medicine oppresses holistic medicine through archaic legislation, but that is another, off-topic rant).

Some religions are well known for its "believe what we believe or to hell with you" attitudes.

A certain amount of judgment and classification is needed for us to understand our world and get along in it...But I wonder how far beyond our own judging and understanding we should venture. If the journey is what matters, more than the destination, perhaps the process of reasoning, deciding, rejecting, believing is all more important than the final conclusion. And if the process is what matters, can't each conclusion have validity? No matter which lens of understanding we use, shouldn't each lens be respected by virtue of the process that formed/chose it?

Like everything, it seems to me, it is a balance of opposites. We must test, judge, rationally (scientifically) test what is true and valid for us. We choose what to believe. The two together form what we know. *

So why run around shouting at ghosts, chasing them with emf meters and digital recorders? Why tell people that they will suffer an eternity if they don't join a particular belief-group? Why not just live by the basic agreed-upon rules of society (don't kill anybody, don't take anybody's stuff, keep your promises and don't tell outright lies) but beyond that, believe what you believe and that's that.

Sounds pretty ironic, coming from a blog-writer that does nothing but spout opinion...

Also ironic...this is an exercise in just that believe-what-you-believe and not care about proving anything to anyone motif.

After decades of self-editing and keeping opinions to myself, this blog has been a fascinating practice in running ideas up the flagpole...if anyone salutes, thank you! If not, that's ok too. I have no proof to offer, and no interest in doing so. It is a hard-won but good place to finally be.

And you?

*"Believing is one thing. Knowing is another." ~Chris Fleming

"...I would like to make one thing quite clear...I never explain anything" ~ Mary Poppins

Q&A Is there life after death?

Q. Is there life after death?

A. I can't say that I have an answer for that one - it's a big question. But I do think that is the kind of really big, philosophical question that "psychic" (intuitive, spiritual, meditative) is suited to deal with. There is no concrete proof of life after death, just like there is no "proof" of psychic / intuitive information . The best we can do is infer, interpret our own sense and experience. At the same time, there is no concrete proof that this direct experience in anything less than valid and true for the individual having the experience. Like my favorite quote from J.K. Rowlings in the "Deathly Hallows"..."Just because it is happening in your mind doesn't mean it isn't real"...or something on that order.

I don't want to go where good sense fears to tread, so this is the best answer I can give: Look within, and listen to what your own heart and spirit says.

Think of astronomy. It is a fairly mainstream idea that there are supermassive black holes at the center of at least some galaxies. Since we can't hop in the car, drive over and take a look for ourselves...we have to infer, calculate and figure it out. We can observe the way the stars move, add that to what we know of physics and crunch the numbers.

Spirituality, and thoughts about spirit guides, angels, crossed over loved ones and so on require a different sort of inference and "number crunching". Looking at galaxies with just visible ligth, we miss all sorts of things...all the energy and everything that is happening in the infrared, radio, xray and gamma frequencies. Psychics and intuition, in a way, is like radio astronomy for the human spirit...our right brain hemispheres, our "sixth sense" lets us look at life in a way slightly outside the norm...detect things that aren't obvious and would otherwise be missed...just like light-only astronomy would miss all the things that need radio telescopes to be detected.

How does that apply to spirit guides, angels and life after death?

Your heart, your imagination, your inexplicable inner knowing...they are your radio telescope. They let you detect, experience, infer and 'know' beyond what logic, science, and 'normal' senses can infer and detect. One doesn't prove the other...one doesn't cause the other...one isn't right and the other wrong. Light telescopes and radio telescopes are both right...they just focus on different wave lengths of energy within the universe. Science and spirituality are the same way. One doesn't prove or disprove the other...one doesn't cause the other...they just look at different aspects of the human experience. Both are important and helpful and right.

We can look at the sun and know it exists from direct experience. We can use a radio telescope and know a quasar exists through our interaction with the special equipment, even though we look up at the sky the quasar directly, or feel its warmth as we do with our sun.

We may not have any real way to scientifically "prove" life after death. There is certainly no way to concretely prove one religion or one philosophy. We can prove the sun's existence by pointing to the sky on a clear day. But how do you prove a quasar exists to someone who won't look at the radio telescope equipment? For some people their religion is their radio telescope. For others, it is tarot and intuition. The difference isn't in the radio equipment.

When one telescope after another, and another and many more still discover the same finding, you have to believe the data is real. Every culture, society, philosophy has some view about life after death. Everyone has some sort of 'data'...Everyone has SOME opinion about life after death, or at least SOME suspicion about it...yes or no.

The problem comes when every observer explains and qualifies the data in different ways. Everyone thinks their explanation is the only right one, even though other explanations explain the spiritual radio telescope data equally well...perhaps better.

Science has its ways for dealing with those situations...but what do you do when everyone has a different opinion about data of the spiritual sort?

When it comes to life after death, almost everyone thinks there is one...that is like the raw data from the radio telescope. Yes, I grant you everyone could be wrong, and instead of a quasar, it is just the microwave oven down the street warming up a burrito...but that, too, is just another explanation of the data...

Whether you explain that idea, that feeling, that suspicion, that belief in life after death as the result of believing certain things, the result doing certain things, a bunch of hogwash, or just a normal part of the natural function of the universe...you are still dealing with the subject, and you are basing it on your own direct experience with life. It is your interpretation of the "data" from the "radio telescope" to extend the analogy.

Whatever conclusion you draw...that is your truth, your explanation your belief. It is good and right and valid for you...not to belittle the subject...but your interpretation is as good as anyone else's. It doesn't matter if it matches the majority or not. It doesn't matter if it matches anyone else at all.

This is one area where reading for others can help...we can show you how to operate the equipment, or tell you the broken syllables we hear in the static, but in the end, only you can decide what you infer, you believe.

What I believe, I know...in every cell...from direct experience. My "radio telescope" has shown me things that I believe are convincing, but only you can look through the eyepiece to see what they universe shows you...only you can listen to the static and whistles to hear the message the cosmos sends you in this so-important question.

May you hear the message, see the data, and find happiness in the proof they hold.

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com