sage sips – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

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Phenomenal courage. Raw power. Inevitable, undeniable strength and beauty.

Today is National Coming Out day. The energy today is layered. I don’t sense anything global or too soft or esoteric today. The national energy is too loud. There is this bottom tarry layer thick with fear and anger over national politics, the cost of living, the impending election and feeling terrorized by growing christofascists making things progressively worse.

For anyone to come out, or even to take baby steps along a path of coming out, in this energy climate is mind-blowing.

Compassion and authenticity are our most powerful allies in these times.

Last night’s Daylight/Twilight card asked us to consider our strengths and superpowers. Today’s layout suggests that compassionate authenticity is our superpower for these times.

After 50+ years of gradual, strategic manipulation and takeover the right-wing Republicans and Christian evangelicals have shown us who they truly are. People have literally been shot in the street by masked government sanctions SS-like goons and they are planning a live stream execution. The layer fear and anxiety is almost palpable. It makes intuitive work -um- challenging to say the least. All applause to all of the energy sensitive people out there holding it all together over the next few weeks.

Over top of the layer of maga-sludge I sense I lighter layer, a hopeful layer, it looks like shimmering lines, like heat rising from a summer roadway. That is the alliance of compassion and authenticity. It hums with the strength and power of people being their true, unabashed self while at the very same time being compassionate toward all of the other unabashedly authentic people around them.

Together, that alliance of authenticity and compassion looks like a force field, containing those whose true authentic selves have proven to be hateful, bigoted, racist and worse.

Drawing three cards as a simple pathway reading for this week:

The 8 of cups, the influence of the past, talks about abandoning the toxic, walking away from that which no longer serves any compassionate or useful purpose.

The King of Wands, the current energy, speaks of honoring yourself, take command and leadership of your inner world. The outer world my force you to make certain choices for your safety and inner peace at times, but they can never rob you of your true self unless you surrender it. If you have to make tough choices, honor them and your courage to make make them. But never forget you can choose differently as circumstances change. The castle doesn’t have to change on the inside no matter whether it flies the King’s colors on the outside or not.

The 10 of cups shows the direction we are headed. I ‘hear’ “found family is your home now”

The people you love and trust and the home you create for yourself is your true home.

Those of us who can and have done that must be the force-field for the young ones who can not. It is essential that we all are the safe space for those coming out to come out in to.

We all must make out a safe and good place to be.

We all must keep a lid on the evil sludge and create a shimmering zone of safety.

If it takes political speech and massive voter turn out to do that, so be it.

No matter what lies on the other side of coming out, no matter what lies on the other side of this coming election, compassion and authenticity remain our assets and allies that will allow us to create that space where all of good will are welcome.

Daylight / Twilight

The Yin and Yang of Tarot just makes sense to me.

In a recent newsletter to her app membership, Geo of Fal and ThatGlasgowWitch.com speaks of the push and pull of changing seasons. It’s fall in one hemisphere, but spring in the other both within the whole of our planet.

Tarot is much the same. Within the whole of life and wisdom, we look both forward and back, all from the center of it all We call that center the present moment. This moment, right now as you read this, is the axle the wheel of the year spins around.

Tarot can be both expansive and forward looking at the same time it is introspective and reflecting backward. In the daylight we see the energies ahead and learn to navigate our way forward. In the twilight we contemplate the day that is done, process it, learn from it…put it to bed so to speak.

Today we see the seven of swords

The idea that comes through right now has little to do with the traditional meanings of the card. I ‘hear’ “superpowers” (meaning that the intuition comes as words instead of mental images)

I am reminded of fun heist movies like Oceans Eleven, Gone In 60 Seconds, or even Xmen. The feeling here reminds me of superheroes with superpowers, or a team where each person has some quirky, unique expertise.

This card today is asking you to think about your skills. What is it you do well – or just love to do so much that it doesn’t matter one bit if you are good at it or not. What is your role in the heist crew?

I forget which of his books it was, but author Richard Back talks about how sometimes fictional characters are more real than the real ones.

Forget about cosplay…build a whole new character. Use this universe, or your favorite fictional one. If you could be anyone, do anything in that fiction, as long as it is new and unique and not another created character, what would that person be like?

For example – don’t image you are Superman.. Imagine who you would be in that universe.

I forget if it was Mat Auryn or Christopher Penczak, but one of them had the idea of trying a new skill on for size, in a way. If you want to be a powerful psychic, imagine what your life would be like if you already were. Not at some point in the future, what if POOF! Right now you already were psychic. Now try it on for size and live a day as if it were already true.

Daylight Tarot (journal prompts): what trait do you want to have that you can live today as if you already have it?

Twilight Tarot (journal prompts) What did you do today so genuinely and authentically that it turned it into a superpower. Even if it was just waking up. Consciousness is a miracle. You did it! Find something to feel satisfied about, no matter how small.

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Like what you see here? Support me on ko-fi and get a private Tarot reading by email as a thank you gift. A portion of October 2026 proceeds will be donated to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Twilight Tarot

No, I’m not talking about the sparkly vampire books and movies.

I mean the actual English word twilight, the time between sunset and full darkness. It is a liminal, transitional, magical time. Energies soften. The subtle and etheric is close at hand, easier to touch. Spirit’s whispers are easier to hear.

Much of Tarot is forward-looking: Tarot for the day, month, year ahead. Tarot can also look inward. It can be a prompt for introspection and calming and processing the day just finished just as much as it is a signpost and guideline for the day ahead.

Choose a card at sundown. How does the card make sense of the past day? How does the past day make sense of the card? How does the card connect to what you are feeling about the past day? What does the card have to say about how you are feeling, period?

Today’s Tarot ‘spark an idea’ one card readings and the a Action Eases Anxiety layout resonates speaks to what to do, how to move through the energy of the day.

Twilight Tarot is all about how you feel. It’s like the contrast between cups cards and sword cards, one feeling, one doing.

I ‘hear’ “tired from fear” Did you work so hard out of passion for what you do or for passion for protecting and providing for your home and family….or are you working so hard out of fear – the fear of not having what you want?

I am reminded of something actor Misha Collins’ daughter said. He told on social media about a time when he was teaching his daughter the child’s game of making a wish while blowing on dandelion seeds. When he asked what she was going to wish for, she looked at the dandelion and said “I wish for this”

I’m also reminded of the Saxon / Norse “Four Fs” wish for “Flag (like flagstones of a fireplace, in other words shelter, a hom) Flax (the source of linen, in other words clothing) Fodder (food) and Frig (the goddess Freya, symbolizing home, love)

It’s OK to feel tired. Worries these days are all too real.

Wish for this, and the fear may just blow away like dandelion seeds.

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.

Daily Debrief

I’m thinking about adding a new type of post, just for the main blog on TaoCraftTarot.com.

In PeaceTarot I teach you how to do a forward looking, morning oriented thought-for-the-day type of daily meditation tarot reading. But where there is yang, there is yin and there is another side to the day.

I’ve been thinking about evening Tarot.

What I’m thinking is using a one card Tarot draw as an evening debrief and journal prompt.

It’s OK for everything to be OK. It’s OK to NOT be OK too. Either way, introspection and journaling improves your quality of life even when you aren’t using it for problem solving or self improving or anything other than just relaxing at the end of an average day.

Tarot doesn’t predict. Tarot impacts. Tarot affects.

It is just like the debriefing meeting after a project, training exercise, or superhero mission or whatever. You can review what went well so you can try to repeat it next time. You can review what went wrong so you can do it differently next time.

Tarot is the same. Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens. Tarot doesn’t predict the future, it helps you create the future you want through cause and effect, through decisions and actions.

Here is an example after a stressful day where a random stranger was a complete asshole to and I was (and am) furious over a rando tree cutter trespassing on my property:

Point taken.

I was stewing over the people who had legitimatly wronged me and worrying in advance about too many other things. I needed more than just the little adjustments to stay in balance that you see with the two of pentacles. Now is a time to actively, deliberately haul things back to center. Temperance is a call to establish balance, while the two of pentacles reminds us about how to maintain balance.

That’s it. Just that simple, just that beneficial.

Repeated over time, one card Tarot brings the many micro-resets that can add up to an increased sense of calm overall.

Please join me by following the blog here on TaoCraftTarot.com. Not all of the evening posts will make it to the Ko-Fi blog or Substack.

If you like what you read, please click the mug below to buy a virtual coffee and help me keep Sage Sips ad and paywall free. Thank you!

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.

Wise Way

A friend of mine posted in social media that he felt like a wave of justice was coming.

I hope so.

But I have to agree. Yesterday and today feel like a beginning, that something better this way comes. Justice is a big ask, but any turn for the better is welcome at this point.

Oof…’Murica.

We’ve done lots of two card “Action Eases Anxiety” readings. The Lenormand deck really has come through as a no punches pulled, pithy, to-the-point advice.

What, I wonder, can Lenormand do for the good times?

It IS, after all, OK to be OK.

Not every moment in life has to to be somber or striving or improving.

It is OK to be OK. What you do with Tarot then? Anything?

Nothing is a perfectly good thing. It is 100% ok to reach for the cards only when you need the comfort and guidance. It works.

It works other times too. Equal to the fear of the unknown is the fear of losing the cherished know. When you’ve been through loss, it is hard to let yourself believe the good energy when it comes around.

Tarot can help with that too. When it feels OK, the cards can inspire a feeling of wellbeing by showing what is good about right now and give an idea how move forward in a wise way, how to keep going in a good direct.

Today’s “what it is” card shows The Star … the energy is as magical and saturated with potential as it feels.

The “wise way forward” is The Dog….trust. Trust the feeling. Trust the moment. Make it a solid foundation if you choose.

Thanks for reading! I hope your week is just as magickal as this feels at the moment.

See you at the next sip!

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!

Merry Equinox! Fall Schedule 2026

I’m very pleased to announce the fall schedule for Sage Sips and TaoCraft Tarot.

There is none.

Tarot is now all a joy-filled labor of love. No freelance artist hustle. Just the joy of reading -and reading for you.

Private readings are still available and I still have every one of those 30+ years of tarot reading experience BUT they are only available to Sage Sips blog supporters on Ko-Fi.

Buy me a coffee (or join the Brew It Forward membership tier for unlimited one card email readings at your request any time while your membership is active) and a portion of the proceeds are donated to a different public service organization each month. The rest is used to create Sage Sips in a way that is free to everyone with no ads or paywalls.

For September 2026 the donation from the ko-fi proceeds supports the American Library Association in honor of Love Your Library month and their upcoming Banned Book Week.

As for the blog itself, it’s not on a regular posting schedule. It’s all pirate radio style whatever whenever. Please subscribe with the box on the right of this page to get every single bit of tarot content that I create or subscribe to Sage Sips on Substack to get most new posts as they drop.

Typical Sage Sips posts can include:

Daily meditation style one card Tarot readings
Action Eases Anxiety Tarot readings
Tarot Q&A
Oracle card readings
Tarot readings with other layouts
Tarot behind the scenes aka Tarot reading how-to
reposts from my other blog, Sage’s Second Cup

Merry Equinox! I hope to see you around here. Please feel free to explore the pages from the top menu or use the search to explore the archives. There are literally THOUSANDS of Tarot posts for you to browse covering every card of the RWS deck and more.