coffee – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Look! Card for the Week

If someone yells “LOOK!” that one word tells you that something need your attention right now.

Day, week, month or year; regardless of the time frame you have in mind, a one card “meditation” reading functions like a loud “LOOK!” It doesn’t predict what will actually happen in that time, but it does tell you to look for something.

It tells you the current energy, let’s you look at the energy environment as it is at the moment.

Within that environment, it can steer you in the direction of something important. It might validate something you already know, or it can draw your attention to something you hadn’t noticed that needs your attention. Whatever the case may be it is usable information. It is a helpful idea.

Over time, I’m less happy with calling these “daily meditation tarot” like I did in PeaceTarot. Names can be powerful, magickal things. Renaming Modern Oracle and Tarotbytes to TaoCraft Tarot and Sage Sips was, as Storm Faerywolf describes in The Witch’s Name, both descriptive and aspirational. Naming things empowers who/what they are as well supporting all that is wished to be.

I forget where I read it, so I don’t know if it is accurate, but there are cultures and traditions where names change to reflect different accomplishments, or stages of life. Frank Herbert describes something akin to this in Dune when Paul chooses his public Fremen name but is given a private tribal-only name. Changing the website and blog name, I believe, elevated my Tarot readings. I feel it is time to re-name, revive, and re-empower these one card readings.

On one hand, it makes no real difference in the grand scheme of things what I name something on my website and ko-fi shop. On the other hand, we all know that energy and intention makes a difference or we wouldn’t be here.

“LOOK” is a pretty vision-centric word, but it can also be a conceptional, point of view thing, like outlook (the actual noun, not the computer program.)

Intuition isn’t only visual. It can spark any sense. Words, music, smells, tastes, physical sensations can intuitively come to mind just as much as visual mental images. For that reason I kind of like the word “spark” You can see them. Sometimes you can hear them (like a fireswork sparkler or firestarting flint being struck) Sparks can, in the right conditions, start something bigger. Sparks and kindling might be a better mental model for this: Action eases anxiety after all. One card readings can spark just such ideas and actions.

But while I mull over the new name, look at what the energies have for us today.

This is not an expansive, yang time. This is, true to the local season, a time of increasing yin. Autumn is a time of darkening days, cooling temperatures. a time of coming to center and appreciating the harvest. It is a time to nurture home and hearth, not to expand and adventure.

That is the part of life that is asking us to look at it, think about it, act on it. This is the spark for our thinking and doing this week. This is the spark in the dark to help us look and move in a good direction.

Thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to use the search bar to explore the archives. Leave your email in the follow box to all new posts right in your inbox (even the ones that don’t make it to Ko-Fi or Substack)

See you at the next sip!

October Brew

Hello, welcome and thank you!!

Hello to all of you new subscribers and old. I appreciate each and every one of you! Merry October!

Please feel free to use the search bar to browse the archives. There are 8 years and over 1700 posts here to explore. True to the blog titie, most of it is short pithy Tarot wisdom. If you visit Sage’s Second cup, you can explore the Tarotbytes archives with 2000 posts dating back to 2009.

I’ve been at this Tarot thing for a while.

The learn more pages are a quick read that gives you the story behind Sage Sips the blog and TaoCraft Tarot the website (and name of the book I want to write)

Speaking of the archives…

WordPress has started giving us a daily list of throwback posts – a quick link to old posts from this day in years past. Nostalgia generally isn’t helpful in a Tarot blog. A weather forecast from 2016 might help long term climate research, but it won’t tell you if you need a jacket today. Tarot is like that. It can help you understand what has happened (like climate research) and it can help you understand and better navigate the current energies (like a weather forecast).

Yesterday’s throwback post was a “Month Ahead” card from 2016. (You can read it in the Tarotbytes archives over on my other blog, Sage’s Second Cup) I thought it might be fun to do that again, and draw a card for October ten years on.

Seven of Wands: Do the spiritual thing. Walk your spiritual way. Follow your passion, protect your peace.

Seven in western culture hints at luck and good outcomes. Wands are associated with the element fire, passions (think ‘inner fire’) spirituality and our relationship with ourselves.

While the artwork seems conflicted and combative, my attention is drawn to the more benign aspects: overcoming obstacles, protection and advocacy.

I hear (meaning the intuition come as words or music instead of mental images) “DO what your magick needs”

The more confident you are in your spiritual way, the less bothersome others become (that part is for the deconstructing ex-vangelicals out there) LIVE your spirituality.

More on that to follow on Second Cup this month.

This card helped me decide where to donate this month. I donate a portion of the proceeds from your support on ko-fi to disaster relief, food security, wellness, or civil rights organization each month.

Theocracy in general worldwide, white Christian nationalism in the U.S. is a threat to this cards advice. They think you are a lesser person than they are just for reading these words. Follow another spiritual path, and evangelicals will tacitly (or overtly) hate you.

I’ve chosen the Freedom From Religion Foundation for my October 2026.

Help me help the helpers. Help me donate to FFRF while they protect separation of church and state and our right to read and practice whatever spiritual path we see fit.

When you support Sage Sips on Ko-Fi you can get a private, personalized Tarot reading by email as my thank you gift. The remaining proceeds after the donation is used to create and web host Sage Sips with no ads and no paywalls.

please click below for details

Note: Due to some unexpected ALA online minimum donation requirements, I made the Love Your Library donation for September 2026 part of my personal donation to A.C Free Library, Carnegie PA

Don’t forget Banned Book Week October 4-10.

Happy Coffee Day ’26

Happy National Coffee Day! Of course, EVERY day is coffee day around here. Luv the stuff.

If you support Sage Sips blog on Ko-Fi, I’ll sip a cup of spiced coffee in your honor while I do a Tarot reading as a thank you gift for your support.

Click the coffee mug below for details.

Cheers!

Reminder: most blog posts are echoed on Ko-Fi and Substack, but TaoCraftTarot.com is the only place to get EVERY post plus access to archived Tarot readings. Please subscribe for FREE to get everything right in your inbox. Your support on Ko-Fi helps me to create and maintain Sage Sips without ads or paywalls.

Two Minded Why

Seven Dane Asmund reads the Two of Swords as stagnation….something akin to the stagnation we see on a larger scale with the Hanged Man of the major arcana. Diane Morgan reads it a sort of spiritual connection or mystical unity.

Swords are connected to action and intellect, air and mind. The crossed swords speak to intellect thwarted. Combined with the blindfold on the figure, it all points toward using our connection to the mystical when logic fails. When all is objectively equal, when it is truly a ‘six of one, half dozen of another’ situation, we have to rely on something else in order to move forward.

As another blindfolded figure, the 8 of swords, teaches us that with a little creative problem solving there is always some sort of way forward.

Sometimes the WHY of a thing is that creative way through. Understanding why you want a thing can help decide if it is worth the cost of getting it. Understanding why a problem happened can help solve the problem and, more importantly, help prevent it from happening again.

Sometimes why doesn’t matter. Sometimes what is the place to start, regardless of why. What tells you what to do and you can figure out the why of it later if it is ever needed. This is one of the underpinnings for the ‘Action Eases Anxiety’ two card Tarot layout that I wrote.

I’ve always been of two minds about the WHY of things. Does the WHY behind what we all do really matter?

I have yet to figure that out. I think it might actually be entirely situational – sometimes yes and sometimes no.

Here is the ‘why’ on my mind right now….

Why do I want to make donations part of Sage Sips blog? We covered the inspiration for it back in July 2026 when I kicked it off with a donation to the ACLU. It’s just a tiny sip, but it’s a start.

In the spirit of fairness and transparency, I want to share the why behind the groups I’ve chosen for the ‘brew it forward’ portion-of-the-proceeds donations moving from here on. (One VERY small dollar donation to one organization each month as announced)

Yes, this is to some extent virtue signalling.

I’m not a public business, I don’t earn money from this (which is why I am so very grateful for your support on ko-fi) The ko-fi coffee only goes toward creating and web-hosting Sage Sips without ads or paywalls I have no interest in persuading you of anything and certainly not trying to convince you to buy anything.

When I signal the things I care about, people who don’t align with them can just move right along. Let’s start with the big one – religion.

If you are reading this evangelicals don’t like you.

If you enjoy, use, read, or even passively tolerate Tarot (or any spirituality other than evangelical Christianity) they think you are flawed. They think you are a lesser person even if they don’t actively hate you, which some no doubt do. I know. I was there. I heard with my own little ears that congregations are actively taught and indoctrinated with that kind of thinking. That’s why I donate to the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The wall between church and state is precious and being actively demolished here in the U.S. Protection and defense of that separation is vitally important to anyone reading these words right here, right now. They hate – or at least ‘strongly disapprove’ – of people like me. If you’ve read this far, they don’t like you either. This is important. Don’t take my word for it…go, learn about Christian nationalism and the threat it poses. Then please, donate, call Congress. Stand up for your rights.

My family’s home was destroyed by Hurricane Juan in 1985. I’m here to tell you a hot meal and cans of soup mean the universe. Food and clean water are, literally, life. That’s why I support the Red Cross disaster relief and World Central Kitchen. Cooking food is my love language. Those guys do it at scale.

Regardless of your spirituality or beliefs about it, Tarot deals in a currency of ideas. So do libraries. A public library lets you borrow any book they have, including racy romances, science, psychology even (gasp!) world religions and witchy occult topics. Libraries are lifesavers of the mind and spirit. Love your library! A portion of all ko-fi support for Sage Sips in September 2026 will be donated to the American Library Association.

Hugh Lane Wellness has done amazing, wonderful things for people I love like I love the air that I breathe. They, and the lgbtqia+ community have my full support and alliance.

Others will no doubt pop up as time goes on. August 2026 went to Democracy Forward as a nod to Molly Lee’s inspiration to start this ‘portion of the proceeds’ kind of easy activism.

So if you want a free tarot reading by email as a thank you gift, buy me a coffee and I’ll share it with a worthy organization that aligns with the values of first amendment civil liberties, food assistance and wellness.

Or donate to these good people directly.

Thanks for reading. See you at the next sip!

Go On, You Can Do It.

It seems like a good day for an “Action Eases Anxiety” layout with Christopher Butler’s Healing Light Lenormand.

The Action Eases Anxiety layout is inspired by conversations with a friend about Lenormand cards and an episode of The Circle is Podcast with Mat Auryn and Rachel True. My experience agrees with theirs: Lenormand tends to be direct, no-nonsense, and almost sentence-like. So I read this two card layout very much as a terse two word sentence, “What it is” (subject, noun, the current collective energies) and “What to do about it” (verb, suggested action to best navigate that energy)

The premise is, of course, that taking action about something that is worrying you reduces that worry. Even making a plan about what to do if an imagined scenario that might turn up can reduce anxiety about the imagined thing, show what is under your control – and what isn’t.

Which in turn always sends my brain back to that DC comic thing about ‘make a plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails….and throw away the plan. Equal parts calm, planning and adaptability is some superhero stuff we can all use.

But back to today’s cards.

It’s a pretty straightforward message, really. The Stars card hints at good fortune. This is a good energy place to be, or at least behind the scenes there may be more good fortune and opportunity than you are feeling at the moment. The Child card hints at a new beginning, much like the RWS Fool card combined with the innocence of the Six of Cups.

Do it. This is good energy to give yourself permission to start something new.

It doesn’t have to be big. It can just be a little try.

Permission is a powerful thing. When you were a small child, did you ever get a small permission to follow your natural curiosity or do something you already wanted to do but didn’t think you could do or would be allowed to do?

This energy feels a little like a cosmic smash cake.

I don’t know where this whole thing started, but you know people will make a small separate cake for a baby’s first birthday and let them smash it at eat it with their hands and just enjoy it. The look of astonishment and delight on the kid’s face makes my heart sing every time. Best. Idea. Ever.

What outrageous, delightful, life affirming thing do you need to give yourself permission to do today?

Grab a handful of cake why don’t you?

Meditation teacher and journalist Dan Harris frequently talks about the age-old Buddhist advice to talk to yourself as you would a friend.

If someone ten years younger than you was facing a situation you are facing or making a decision you are currently making, what advice – or even better – what encouragement would you give them?

Then take your own good advice.

The perfect time never comes. Good enough times happen. Often that good enough time is the only time we ever have – right NOW.

Give yourself permission to be as delighted with life as a kid with a smash cake.

Go on. You can do it.

Support me on ko-fi and get a private Tarot reading by email as a thank you gift.

A portion of proceeds are donated to a public service organization each month. September 2026 is the American Library Association in honor of national Love Your Library month.

Remaining proceeds are used to create Sage Sips in a way that is open and free to everyone without ads or paywalls.

Thanks for reading and supporting Sage Sips if you can!

Tarot Q&A: Am I Psychic?

From the Tarotbytes blog archives from September 2016

Read more from my old Tarotbytes blog using the search bar on Sage’s Second Cup

Q: I think I have psychic abilities. Could you do a yes or no reading to give insight in to how to use them?

A: There is so much to say here, I’m not sure where to start!

In an academic thesis or dissertation one of the first things you do is define key terms, so let’s start there too. What do we mean when we say “psychic abilities?”

If you mean predicting the future, then the short answer is no. No reading can give you insight into something that is essentially impossible. Or at least highly improbable. For a deeper dive into that topic, here are some of my favorite rants from the blog:

But if “psychic abilities” means the normal, natural intuition that we all posses then that is a very different story.

You said that you think that you have psychic ability. Does that mean your yes-or-no question is really “Do I have psychic ability?” The short answer there is yes, you do. Everyone does.

We all posses a mind, an imagination and the ability to listen to them. Intuition is simply listening to our consciousness’ connection to the great big everything, the all-that-is, the Cosmos. We are a part of it all. Why wouldn’t we evolve with some sense of the universe as a whole in addition to sensing our immediate environment and some perception (albeit malleable) of the passage of time?

But that’s just my spin on it.

That still begs the question of “How do I use my intuition?” If you want to learn to better access your normal, natural, innate intuition then the best advice is what martial arts teacher, Master Gracenin always says: “The best way to train for a thing is to do a thing.” The best way to learn to use your intuition is to – you guessed it – use your intuition.

If intuition is your consciousness and your imagination connecting you to everything-that-is, then use that connection in a mindful, deliberate way.

Engage with your here-and-now everyday life on an intuitive level. You don’t just get up one morning and randomly win the Boston Marathon. Even the most talented natural athlete must practice, build endurance, get advice from coaches, and incorporate running-training into their routine daily life. Intuition trains the same way. Listen to the words and images that come to mind as you make small inconsequential choices. Pay attention to feelings and emotions when they bubble up. Read books or take classes. A runner training for a marathon needs good equipment, like shoes. Oracles like Tarot, runes, I Ching, astrology, tea leaves, palm lines, what have you are tools to help you access your intuition. Shoes are nothing special in and of themselves, but a person’s hard work and talent make them a part of winning a gold medal. Cards, runes, palm lines, etc aren’t special by themselves, but a person’s attention, intuition and practice make them a part of something special. Athletes in training have to take care of themselves with good food and hydration. Intuitives in training need to take care of themselves too…both physically and psychologically. Staying healthy, balanced, and grounded are all important to the process.

I have a small group workshop that helps you to make the connection between intuition and Tarot cards. Follow the blog here for details.* There are many good books to help you begin a solid spiritual growth and intuition development path (I think the two go hand in hand.) These books come to mind as a start-point for you:

The Healer’s Manual by Ted Andrews
Psychic Protection by Ted Andrews
The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot**

Not to mention a lot of good old fashioned trial and error. And that is only the beginning. Needless to say, developing and using your intuition is bigger topic than any one blog post or yes/no reading can touch. By a long shot.

“Neo, sooner or later you are going to realize just as I did that there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path” – Morpheus in “The Matrix”

“I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it is going to begin.” – Neo in “The Matrix”

* I don’t offer these any longer except as a volunteer free service at select local library branches to support the library. In the South Hills of Pittsburgh? Support your library! Interested in Tarot? Ask them to contact me at TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com if you would like the learn to read Tarot workshop at your library.

Don’t forget – September 2026 Brew It Forward donation is for the American Library association in support of Love your Library month and their upcoming Banned Books Week. Buy me a coffee for a portion of the proceeds to be brewed forward to a good cause each month

**I also suggest adding Mat Auryn’s 2020 book, Psychic Witch

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.

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*

Today’s Tarot: Clarity (Q&A)

Q: What do we most need to know right now in the United States following Lindsey Graham’s death and conjecture about Mitch McConnell’s.

I drew this card with this question in mind, right after seeing a social media post from someone who I typically has good points and real food for thought. This may well be the first time I’ve disagreed with him.

But no, this isn’t a time for tut-tutting about “speaking ill of the dead” from either side of the political divide. Graham was not a good person who, because of his political power, inflicted real harm on real people and contributed much to the rise of fascism and white christian nationalism in America today.

I’m sorry for the loss of any kind person who feels his – or their – passing. But at the same time it is fair to think they are lying in the bed they made during their lifetime.

The social media person clucked something on the order “saying these things says more about you as a person than it does about them.

Not this time.

If making fun of a powerful bad man says something about the person saying it….what does a powerful man’s silence about the death of school girls at the hands of unnecessary war, the death of women at the hands of politically and religiously motivated abortion bans, the death of schoolchildren at the hands of our lack of gun control….and on and on and on. What does silence about these dead say about THEM? I’d rather people make merciless fun of the politicians who caused harm than remain silent in the face of the harm they caused.

It’s more important to be kind to everyone living than to worry about what is said about the dead.

Laughter is good medicine. Public figures who caused real harm aren’t going to be any less dead if we only say nice things about them after they’ve been rendered harmless by the inevitable. Momento Mori.

In the noise of current events, the Ace of swords reminds us to cut to the chase, get to the point, simplify. Tune out the static and get right down to what really matters. In the end, kindness is the only measure of what that is.