TaoCraft Tarot / Sage Sips blog

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.

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

Sitting With Nothing

Often this card reminds me of the famous Japanese proverb “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”

That is the short answer to the core message of the Ten of Swords: What do you do when things go wrong. What do you do when you are face down in defeat?

It said STAND. Not leap up. Not bounce back. Not return to the same battle. STAND includes dragging yourself up after taking time to figure out how to get back on your feet. STAND includes limping off in another direction to do something entirely different.

Today’s card also reminds me of something author Chuck Wendig said on social media during the era of his book You Can Do Anything Magic Skeleton. I remember it as having this Tarot image and the advice that when life has you face down on the floor, look under the sofa for those keys you lost last week – or something like that.

If there is a theme song for this card, it’s Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping “I get knocked down. But I get up again. You’re never gonna keep me down.”

Getting up is the important part. This doesn’t say anything about when or how you stand up again.

It’s ok not to be ok. You don’t have to leap up and be happy about what just happened.

Here I am also reminded of a photo of Sidney Crosby just sitting on the ice, exhausted and dejected after a Stanley Cup loss. He was the picture of defeat kind of like our Ten of Swords dude. He wasn’t all spitfire and overjoyed after he stood up from the ice. But he did stand up, keep playing, won more Stanley Cups and is a record setting athlete. To put it mildly.

The important thing isn’t about when or how you stand up again. The important thing is that you do – eventually – stand up again. Sometimes when you have nothing left in the tank, you just sit with the nothing. Sometimes when you feel depressed, then you just by damn be depressed for a while. When you are laying face down on the floor with metaphoric knives in your back, the best thing to do is stay down there and look under the sofa for your car keys.

Feel the feels. Sit with the nothing. Do what you need to do to get ready to stand up again. You are allowed to move slow, hold on to something and make old man noises while you do.

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

It’s spooky season and I have itch Tarot fingers. Get a free email Tarot reading as my thank you gift when you support Sage Sips on Ko-Fil

A portion of the proceeds are donated to a different wellness, food support or civil rights organization each month. September 2026 Brew It Forward is for the American Library Association for their promotion of freedom to read and this years upcoming Banned Book Week