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.
