tarot – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Adventures in Meatspace.

I’m re-reading Neuromancer. It’s an all-time favorite and has had a big influence on my blogger-life. William Gibson is credited with coining the term cyberspace after all. That’s also where we get calling the physical body ‘meat’ and the term ‘meat puppets’ I don’t know who came up with ‘meatspace’ for the offline world (Adam Savage maybe?)

The pull to Meatspace has been strong lately. I think that it is a general, collective energy for us all. We are all way past touching grass. I saw a meme on social media yesterday that said something like “I don’t need to touch grass I need to melt into the forest floor”

Personally, I’m caught between wanting to ground and take a little bit of meatspace sabbatical as I call my offline vacations – and wanting to plug into cyberspace hard and minimize some big meatspace stress I have coming up over the next few days.

I get called out by Tarot cards too. It’s not just you.

Pulled a card to write about here and found my own stress staring me in the face.

Welp, that fits.

I often sense the seven of swords in terms of a fiction character trope; a lovable scamp, untrustworthy but helpful petty thief, a character in a heist movie like Ocean’s Eleven or one of the informers in an old episode of Miami Vice.

Today, though, I’m drawn toward Seven Dane Asmund’s interpretation of carrying the burdens of our decisions. Decision making speaks to the mental, intellectual, active, air-element nature of the suit.

In other words, consider the consequences of your decision. If you choose to carry a few swords of your decisions, don’t forget they are sharp and it’s gonna hurt. But see the swords sticking in the ground? Don’t forget you can drop those babies any time you want, stick them in the ground to discharge and detox and get you back on your merry way.

The idea here is very similar to the 10 of wands except pointier, sharper, heavier. This is black belt level burden dropping stress management, not just tossing sticks that we make heavier than they really are.

Doing it all with a sense of irony and humor helps too.

I chose to do the stressful thing this weekend because the consequences of doing it are shorter term and less consequential. If I don’t do the thing, there is 100% chance of blowback. And so here I go with my hands full of swords. When you hear that big crash of dropping metal you’ll know I’m home.

Meet you back here in cyberspace for the next sip.

Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Like what you read? Buy me a coffee from the “readings” menu on Ko-Fi and a portion of the September 2026 proceeds goes to the American Library Association in honor of Love Your Library month and their upcoming Banned Book Week.

Action Eases Anxiety Tarot: The Plan

Last week, in the You Have to Make Before You Can Break It post we talked about card layouts, how making an action plan is in itself an action that can ease anxiety, and that a good plan also plans on the plan going completely sideways.

A two-card is great little reset when you are tackling the twists, turns and gone-sideways adjustments you have to make but, like we said last time, you have to make it before you break it. The Plan layout is about setting direction in the first place, making the plan that you plan on adjusting (or throwing away) later.

Reading left to right, the layout positions are:

Let it rest: You have been giving too much energy here. Dial it down, give it some space, let it simmer until the time is right again.
Let it go: This is getting unhealthy or is not serving you as well as it has in the past. This is something to consider releasing for good, or at least putting into cold storage for a good, long time.
Que it up: Pay attention here. Look for opportunities that aren’t quite here yet. This is something that isn’t quite ready but may be soon.
Let it roll: This needs your attention now. Full focus here. Roll with it.

Notice how the position names mostly start with “Let” that’s on purpose. This is about allowing the nature of energies as they are, not forcing things or fighting the flow. This is about navigation directions, not a list of do-or-die achievements.

Let it rest: Two of Wands

Well, isn’t this ironic in the middle of my little rant about planing. That is exactly what the two of wands is often about…strategic planning, preparation, watching for the right time.

The message here is clear. KNOCK IT OFF. The time will never be right. The only time is now. The only place to start is here. CHOOSE and START already.

Don’t let fear of making the wrong choice paralyse you. You can learn from your mistakes, change plans, adapt, re-adapt, re-plan and generally nope out of whatever direction you want to at any point you want to.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
Carl Jung

THIS is what Tarot is all about. It isn’t about predicting your future. It is about showing you your power, your choices, your part in creating your future. The two of wands in the let it rest position is nudging us to let the planning rest and do something. You can’t break it unless you make it. You can’t learn from mistakes until you make a few. You can’t change directions until you move in one.

Let it go: Seven of Wands

Pick your battles. Stop beating that metaphoric dead horse. Stop throwing good money after bad. Cut your losses. When you are in a hole, stop digging. Where are the costs too high?

Que it up: Nine of Swords

There is never a time for useless regrets or overwhelming anxiety. This isn’t talking about that. This is talking about stepping outside of your comfort zone. It isn’t time for emotional risk just yet, but what are you going to do when it comes? Even good things can put on pressure. Stress happens, even during good things. Something has to change for things to get better and emotions may bubble when they do. What are you going to do when that happens? Get ready.

Let it roll: Ten of Pentacles

What if….not saying it’s possible…but what if you could….

What would it be like to just be happy with things as they are now. Be happy that you’ve decided to do every single thing within your power to change every single thing you want to change – AND be happy with just having made that decision. What if, having made a choice to be happy with things as they are AT THE SAME TIME that they are changing and AT THE SAME TIME that things are in progress instead of waiting to be happen when things are done?

There is a parable about a student who asked a Zen master about how to be happy. “I want to be happy” they said. The master said to drop the “I” because that is ego and to drop the “want” because that is attachment. Then all that is left is “be happy.”

Happy? Let it roll.

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September 2026 Brew It Forward will go to the American Library Association in honor of their protection of our freedom to read and in honor of their upcoming banned books week.

Brew It Forward, September 2026

Hi everyone!

September is Love Your Library month and national library card sign up month.

Civil liberties are vital to all of us who like Tarot or any sort of not-white-christian spiritual path. Every year the American Library Association promotes Banned Book Week – a perfect fit for a bunch of tarot-types like us.

On a personal level, I volunteer and donate to my local library but for Brew It Forward I wanted to do something with more national appeal.

September’s Brew It Forward will go to the American Library Association in honor of all of the science, philosophy, spirituality, and off-the-beaten-path witchy Tarot books I’ve borrowed over the years.

In August news: The Brew If Forward donation just went out to World Central Kitchen in honor of all of YOU.

Improve Your Groove

From the archives, September 1, 2019

I love it when people talk in T-shirts.

My husband is a drummer. This morning we were watching and interview / demo video on with Stanton Moore, the drummer for Galactic. If you like music and/or drums even a teensy bit, and you don’t know Stanton Moore or Galactic, run don’t walk YouTube or his website or where ever you listen to music and check it out. It may not be your taste in music, but it is worth a listen just for the sheer skill and musicality of it all. At the moment, my personal favorite is “Ha di ka” from the album Carnivale Electricos because it totally reminds me of The Magician card from the Black Cat Tarot.

But that’s another story.

In the middle of all the music stuff he said that you can always “improve your groove” which would make a pretty good t-shirt, I think.

He’s talking about a music groove and learning / improving your skill as a drummer, but to me the non-musician, it invokes the notion of dynamic balance, comfort, ease, being “in a rhythm,” a sort of wu wei state of mind. You know, just rolling with things as they come and it’s all good.

So how do you improve on that? Why would you want to? After all it is OK for everything to be OK, at least every now and then.

Acknowledging the groove improves it.

There is a vaguely toxic version of gratitude floating around out there. I had a client one time that was going to be grateful goddammit until she got the romance she wanted. She had heard that gratitude brings the things that you want, and was essential to the spiritual Law of Attraction. Being grateful for what you have brings you what you want. Valid point – sort of. I had to wonder how grateful she really, genuinely FELT if she was as miserably laser focused on her current loneliness and that new relationship as she said.

Scott Cunningham wrote that “the feeling is the power.” Empty gratitude as an exercise to gain something can’t feel all that terrific. The magick happens when you feel the gratitude for the stuff that is right here, right now. When that happens, the gratitude brings you a wealth of good things that were right there under your nose, perhaps unacknowledged.

Gratitude is a comfortable groove. It is not some ecstasy, not something you can force or do as a means to an end. If you aren’t grateful now – OK. If things are bad – OK. Acknowledge that realistically too. You have to understand how things actually are before you can improve them, right? Gratitude can come in the form looking around and feeling that things aren’t so bad after all. As I type that, I “hear” (which is how I describe intuition that comes as sounds, words or music instead of mental images) a song by Esperanto reggae artist Jonny M, “Malacxa” which means “not awful” or “not bad”

The Magician, all songs aside, is a good card for the concept. The process of finding a groove, being in it, acknowledging it, improving it, can work a sort of magic. Gratitude CAN attract good things, but not by doing it come hell or high water to get some specific thing. The groove magic comes when you appreciate and improve the groove you are already in more than you throw your mind and energy at something that is not in your groove right now at all.

You have to make it before you can break it.

Layouts are easy. Titles are hard.

Tarot layouts are no great secret. You can write one any time you want. We pro (retired, semi-pro, just reads cards a lot) tarot readers do it all the time. This is where you ask the questions you want answered. Basically you name what you want the cards to tell you. When you go into a reading with a clear, firm idea about what each card represents, then you get a clearer idea and a more usable message

Owl and Bones Tarot and Daily Tarot Girl are especially good at it.

Granted, Lenormand and some readers are a little more chaotic and free-form, but in my experience it pays to have a layout in mind before you start a reading. It is a foundation and reference point that keeps things anchored when you are in the flow of intuition.

If you are going to pull a message out of the aether, it pays to have some place solid for it to land.

Last night’s lunar eclipse was a potent one, associated with closure, release, and transformation. That Glasgow Witch describes it as the bookend to the September 2024 eclipse. If the past two years are a cycle, a liminal space in time, a phase of transformation, now that the second bookend has been set in place it begs the question of “now what?”

Chances are you already have a good idea about the direction things are headed. If not, however, that can spark a little worry and that is where the Action Eases Anxity layout comes into play. Coming up with an idea about what to do can reduce anxiety just as much as actually doing the thing. Action Eases Anxiety is a good, fast look to help bring things back to center when life is going off the rails

But what about making the original plan before it all goes sideways?

I wrote a four card layout for just exactly that. I tried to call it “Timeflow” or something overly clever. Now I think I’m just going to call it “The Plan”

I’m more of a Marvel fan, but I am a bigger fan of adaptability, so my planning is always going to be in the vein of DC comic’s Captain Cold:

Make a plan
Execute the plan
Expect the plan to go off the rails
Throw away the plan

So if Action Eases Anxiety is for step three when it all goes pear shaped, The Plan is for step one. This is for making the plan that you expect to eventually toss and the method for making a new one in its place.

The four cards layout spots are:

Let it rest (things to set aside for now. Come back later when the time is right)
Let it go (things release. Cut this loose and move on)
Cue it up (things that need some attention or preparation)
Let it roll (put your attention here. Conditions are good)

Another reason that Tarot works is because a picture truly is worth a thousand words. Subscribe to Sage Sips on WordPress or Substack (it’s free!) so you’ll get a notice when a post an example Reading of “The Plan” layout sometime over the next couple of days, probably Sunday (it’s Friday now) That will give you a good picture of what “The Plan” layout is like.

See you at the next sip!

If you like what you see, then please buy me a coffee on ko-fi or join the Brew it Forward membership. $1 from every virtual coffee and membership proceeds are donated to a different food security, disaster response, or public service organization each month. August 2026 will support World Central Kitchen.

The remaining proceeds go toward creating and web hosting Sage Sips so that it can be free for everyone without ads or paywalls.

When you buy a virtual coffee, it unlocks DM access where you can request a one time, one card email tarot reading as a thank you gift. Brew It Forward members get unlimited one card private Tarot readings anytime at your request. Please visit the Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi page for details

Tarot Q&A: Your Advice Didn’t Work

What to do when a Tarot reading doesn’t work for you

Q: Your advice didn’t work. I tried the finger lacing and imagining, but I still feel weird and anxious and I don’t know why. Why didn’t the reading work?

Back in the days of twenty ought and seventeen, in the days of the second civil war on a bird-logo social media site (I was on the side armed with BBQ spatulas and a sense of humor) my handle was “ffs NOW what”

I’m sorry the “Vibe Check” post didn’t help in the way that you hoped it would. Tarot is an art form. I have no answer for why it didn’t “work” any more than I can say why some people don’t like cookie dough ice cream. It’s all about individual preferences. There is nothing good or bad about any of it either way.

Buuuut….I would like to circle back to the part of the post that talks about how if the visualizations didn’t quiet the noise, then it is something individual to you.

If the anxious feeling doesn’t have a clear trigger, and it isn’t a matter of vibing off of *gestures wildly* everything that is going on in the world right now, then you are up against something much harder to deal with – yourself. Honestly facing your own emotions is one of the hardest things any human can do.

As a first step, not as a whole solution, it can help to shift from “why not?” to “NOW what?” Action Eases Anxiety layouts are my favorite for this.

Grab a deck of cards, think about the vague anxiety that is bothering you, do your thing with the shuffle, and draw two cards. The first symbolizes the situation now. You can revisit the why of everything later, in a different kind of layout if needed.

The second card gives you an idea of what to DO next. Most of the time, just having an idea about what you want to do helps, even if you never actually do it.

I only do private readings for Ko-Fi supporters. If you want a second opinion on a reading you do or have other questions please feel free to use the Ask the expert form like you did this time. I’m happy to help!

But again, I’m sorry that these uncomfortable emotions are hanging around for you. I’d like to help, but Tarot isn’t the answer for everything. Some people find more inspiration and guidance in astrology, runes, meditation, Tai Chi, book clubs, listening to music, going to museums, going for a run, going to therapy, playing dungeons and dragons, taking a nap, or sitting and staring into the psychological abyss while having a hot cup of coffee or tea – the possibilities are endless. It’s just a matter of finding the right thing for you.

Keep trying, keep looking, and you will find the perfect match for you.

Tarot Q&A: Feed the Happy

Q: You talk about doing one card “daily meditation” readings as a good way to learn to read tarot, but then you also say it’s bad to get a reading too often. Which is it?

A: I know that seems like an out and out contradiction, but underneath it is more of an apples to oranges comparison.

The bottom line, I suppose, is that working with intuition, spirituality, and creativity doesn’t make logical sense all of the time. Explaining this stuff with full logical consistency is like explaining the Mona Lisa using algebra. Both are right. Both are good. They are just different and don’t overlap a lot.

Same thing with open “daily” meditation one card readings and using a larger, more complex layout to explore a particular question. Both are good. Both are right. But there are some key differences between the two.

As I see it, the thing that answers your question is to feed the happy.

First, lets look at the meditation readings. I talk about this in PeaceTarot, my ebook that teaches you how to do these handy little DIY Tarot readings. The daily in this context focuses more on the time-frame of the reading. It isn’t trying to make some grand prediction about the future, it’s just a helpful, guiding idea to contemplate over the scope of a day.

If you want to do that every day – cool. If you don’t feel it and only want to pull a card when the mood hits – equally cool.

My recommendation is to feed the happy. If the structure and regularity of an every day practice is comforting to you, then by all means read every day.

If reading every day feels like a chore or burden, then by all means follow your feelings and read only when you feel you want or need it.

Tarot readings should feed the happy – if regularity and routine is the food that feeds your happiness squirrel, do that. If following your instincts feeds you happiness through the squirrelly chaos of life, do that.

Feed the Happy applies to other readings too. It’s not the act of Tarot reading too much that is the problem. It’s reading the same question over and over and over that becomes a problem. When you do that, you aren’t feeding the happy, you are feeding the fear.

The “When will I meet my soulmate” type of question s a very common example. Some people HATE getting the real answer: find a way to be happy without a romantic relationship. That kind of happiness is exactly what attracts the right person to you. Contentment, inner peace and self confidence are wildly attractive if not downright sexy. I’ve seen it dozens of times over the years of reading for the public. After they reject their answer several times, and multiple reading have re-phrased their answer a half-dozen different ways, it just stops and reflects that fearful spiral. To break out of the fear-feeding, they either have to focus on a different question or stop Tarot altogether for a long while. The repetition feeds into fearfulness and stops the reading from feeding into happiness.

I think Ted Andrews’ guidance is best. He only read for people once or twice a year. I’ll read more often, but not always the same narrow question.

So which is it? Both! Routine or instinct: Use whichever makes you feel happy and un-pressured about it. If a reading feels unsatisfactory – step away from the cards and come back later.

But generally speaking,read Tarot cards as often or as little as you want. Open one card guidance is especially suited to an every -day habit. It is easy to make it into a comforting little ritual if you like. Or not. Just following your instincts is good practice too. But at the same time, don’t long-read the same focused question more than once or twice a year. Especially if it is a very emotionally charged topic.

Thanks for a great question!

Happy to answer questions like this here in the blog. Ask me anything for a blog answer using the form on the Ask the Expert page.

See you at the next sip!

Like the Tarot that Sage is pouring into your cup? Buy Sage Sips a virtual coffee on ko-fi. A portion of the proceeds in August 2026 will be donated to World Central Kitchen.

Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmun, used with permissions Publishing Goblin LLC

New Deck N’at

Usually I agonize over every deck I’ve bought. I have to really really REALLY feel it before I’ll shell out the cash for one. I’m frugal, and I don’t spend on hobbies and entertainment unless it strongly moves me on some level. Or if it is yarn to make a holiday gift.

Maybe that comes from being born and raised in Appalachia – real, south of here, ruby red, mountain Appalachia – BUT I’ve lived in the Pittsburgh area long enough that I consider this is my hometown whether yinz like it or not. When I accidentally stumbled across the Pittsburgh deck on social media it was an immediate ‘shut UP. Take my money’ impulse. Luckily for me, it turned out to be a very affordable deck.

The guide book is being shipped separately, so I’m winging it with this reading.

Career questions have crossed my path lately. I pulled these cards with the generic question in mind of “am I on the right path with my career”

Any “right path” question lends itself to a classic “pathway” card spread, which in turn is a more modern, nuanced version of the old-school past/present/future spread. I don’t have to tell you for the millionth time that exact predictions are not only impossible but unhelpful. As always, I read a three card pathway as:

Influences of the past – how old experiences are either influencing your perceptions of the current situation or, often, this is a reminder of old skills or lessons that you can bring forward to help you now
Current energies: things about the current situation that are asking for your attention, or pointing out any blind spots.
Moving Forward: This is a possible strategy, a good next step or a suggestion about how to best adapt to this situation.

In a “TaoCraft Path” layout, I emphasize your choices, which is what builds the future rather than predict it. For those, I add a fourth card that suggests an idea to help support the direction you are headed if you choose to keep it, and a fifth card that suggests how to change directions if you want. Today, let’s keep it simple.

In a typical RWS deck, I often read wands as your relationship with yourself – the inner world . I don’t know, yet, if that is what the deck creators intended with the suit of “nature” but that’s how I’m reading it today. I look at it through a very Taoist lens of working with your own true nature, THAT kind of nature just as much as the rocks and trees kind of nature. No question the World and the Moon cards are vibing just like every other deck, at least in relation to this particular question and layout.

Of course, being a collective energy reading, it is by the nature of collective energy readings, vague and dilute. This things are always much more impactful when it is private, customized and focused just on one person.

Two out of the three cards being major arcana confirms big career energy right now. There might be a time of stress at hand, to go with these big energies, but it doesn’t feel like anything you can’t handle. It feels like growth, in a big but good way.

Knights are associated with action. Play to your strengths. Do you. Do what you know well and above all what you enjoy. This is a comfort zone move, yes, but one that has serious wattage behind it. Showcase every skill you have, both from formal trained and from raw life experience.

The World hints that you have lots of options right now, the world is your oyster. Now is a good time to decide which direction you want to go, because many paths are open. In the predictive use, the World card has always been considered a good omen. You are in a good spot to build something good if you have the courage to start and a clear vision of what you want (out of all those many possibilities)

The Moon reminds us of natural cycles. To know if your current career or career plans are right for you, look at the context of your life…where in your life cycle or the life cycle of this job are you? Are you starting? Is there room to grow? Do you need more? Do you need less? Is this a good fit for where you are in life right now? How does your career fit into the rest of your life and it’s cycles?

I’m curious what the deck authors intended. Look for more with this deck in the days ahead.

It’s a fun deck. Just having it means something. We’ll see what unfolds.

Have a good week!

The Pittsburgh Tarot deck is by Ed Simon and Steve Teare and is available (with the guide book) through Microcosm Publishing

Pour yourself a second cup

I’m feeling very Chariot at the moment.

It’s telling me to be in the moment, look forward.

There is a hefty dose of Moon and Wheel energy.

When old things end, new things begin.

Please feel free to come browse the TaoCraft Tarot website and the Sage Sips blog archives. I think I finally have it looking the way I want it. Keep taking sips, and eventually you empty the cup. Then you can either dwell on the coffee that was or you can pour yourself a whole new cup.

See you at the next sip!

*shuffles off to the kitchen toward the coffee pot*

Modern Art!!

Energy path layout: Fading emerges, current energies, growing energies

Modern art!

Just for a fun comfort watch, we’ve be re-watching the Peter Capaldi seasons of Doctor Who. When Matt Smith left and Peter Capaldi came into the role, I wasn’t sure what to think as is the case for most Doctor Who fans when regeneration time comes around. Then they showed the old “Fires of Pompeii” episode where Capaldi had played the role of Caecilius the marble merchant. When toga-clad Capaldi raised his arms in a BEHOLD gesture and declared the Tardis to be “MODERN ART!” I’m like ok, ok…he can be the Doctor now.

If Tom Baker was the Doctor you wanted to be your dad, David Tennant was the Doctor you wanted to be your friend, and Matt Smith was the Doctors you wanted to be in your family, then Peter Capaldi was the Doctor I wanted to BE.

Why is my Whovian fan-girl side bringing up this obscure Doctor Who reference? Because Caecilius’ enthusiasm is exactly the vibe for this week’s reading.

When the world is on fire, sometimes you have to indulge in something you enjoy just to support your own sanity. Extra credit if it is something easy, simple and close at hand, like watching a favorite TV show or allowing yourself an extra scoop of ice cream. Or a beer. Or six. Or eating an entire cake with a spoon. Double extra bonus points if you have a sense of humor about it. Why not express yourself in the quirkiest, happiest most playful way that you can?

This is a week for passionate artists and creatives. It’s giving me itchy knitting fingers. Wait until you see this new hat pattern.

The fading energy card feels like early week energy. There is a ‘ get while the getting is good’ vibe about it. If you are feeling inspired, act sooner rather than later. This is the knight of cups after all. Knight cards are all about action. Cups are emotions. Grab the chance to express yourself and how you feel as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Don’t wait to appreciate your modern art!

The current energy card feels attached to the later part of the week. Sword cards are more precise and intellectual than cups, but they too can hint at action. Swords are connected to the classic element air, and the single upright sword on the ace card has a sweeping, lifting, rising energy. The word INSPIRATION comes strongly to mind here. If you have been in a creative slump, or feeling uninspired in any context, keep your eyes open and be ready, that may turn around soon. Inspiration is on the way, it seems.

For those of us who have had to focus on practical, mundane day-job energies, the ace feels more like getting a second wind. It is a hint of revitalizing an old project rather than beginning something new. Which energy carries the week for you depends on where you are starting out today (Merry Monday everyone!) If you are coming into the week fresh after the weekend, then fresh starts ahead. If, like me, you have a weekend work schedule hang in there. A fresh gust of wind beneath your wings is on the way.

The Chariot from the major arcana is the card representing growing energies. This also gives the impression of movement and flow through the week as a whole. The mental image here is of waves on a lake, as opposed to heavy surf on an ocean beach. This feels like movement and self expression, but gentle forward movement instead of a tidal wave.

There is absolutely no logical reason why, but clear quartz points and herkimer diamonds come to mind too. Lore around clear quartz is that it is an energy amplifier. Quartz points, especially tourmalated quartz (clear with small spiky inclusions of black tourmaline) are thought to support guidance (the spikes and points symbolize something ‘pointing the way’ for us.)

The keys for the week are self expression, creativity, art, increasing energy, and gentle forward progress.

So go, make life into your own work of modern art.

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