After the sun rises it sets. Days and weeks begin, and then they end. Tarot can help set the tone for your day or week. But it can do more.
Tarot gives you a 360 degree view. It can broaden your horizons, it can help you look ahead and plan, but it can also look back and understand.
Daily meditation tarot can help bring a day in for a soft landing just as well as it can get your day off to an inspired start.
The Star is about hope and aspiration and guidance.
In reverse it hears you when your compass is spinning and you don’t know which way to go.
Tonight, the Star suggests that when you don’t know which way to go that means you are already there. Be where you are.
When it is time to move, a new star will rise and you’ll know what to do. For now, bloom where you are planted. Find the contentment and happiness that is already there just waiting for you to feel it.
Q: Hi Sage. It’s been a while since we’ve talked, but I still read your blog. The post about rest and the four of swords has been on my mind. I feel like I should do something to take care of myself this week, but I don’t know what to do. What do the cards say?
A: Hey you! So good to hear from you!
I hear you. This week does have that vibe. Given all of the external chaos we all could do with a little inward-directed gentleness.
The intuition here is very counterintuitive, and I don’t think pulling a card or reaching for any kind of oracle is the thing to DO. Follow this train of though for a moment if you will…
The thing to do is nothing. Exactly, precisely nothing.
No card. No special action. No goal. No self-initiated change. Existing is a verb.
Sometimes existence is action enough.
Here is the stream of intuition that came when I read your question:
I am reminded of several people describing meditation as DOing nothing. No special action. No special technique. No need for a special place, incense, music or time….like someone on social medial recently said “you just sit your ass down and breathe.”
The same is true of taking care of yourself. It isn’t necessarily a matter of DOing anything in particular.
I’m reminded of that scene from the movie Pulp Fiction where Jules wants to go “just walk the Earth, like Kwai Chang Caine.”
Maybe that feeling a need for gentleness toward yourself isn’t something to do, but instead is something to stop. Just do what you always do – just walk the Earth as you always do – but do it without pushing, striving, judging, criticizing.
Which spins right into another movie, and the “Dudeism” inspired by the movie The Big Lebowski. Abide. Take it easy. Let everything be what it is for a minute. Or a few days. Or for the rest of your natural life.
I forget which deck it is in. I think it is one of Seven Dane Asmund’s decks, but it is something like ‘the void’ or ‘new moon’ or ‘black sun”. In my mind’s eye, I remember it as a circle, maybe with some rays behind it like a full solar eclipse. A quick search of my decks didn’t find it, but you probably get the idea. It is a reminder of natural cycles of effort and rest, action and inaction, push and pull, doing something and doing nothing.
Or, as Devon Linder observed, “meditation won’t fix your problems, but it might keep you from making them worse.”
I’m not saying you should go meditate. I would never tell anyone to NOT meditate. I don’t think the meditation is the point. I think the point is passive presence with yourself. Just quietly BE there with yourself and your life as it is. That is meditation enough, self-help enough, no Tarot card required.
Thanks for letting me share your question. Talk to you soon.
I don’t often share my own Tarot card draws. It defeats the purpose of looking at the collective energy. Looking at the collective energy benefits us all because the collective energy touches us all in one way or another. Everything is connected, one way or another.
But this week I’ll share the guidance I was given for the week ahead, because I think it is worth sharing. It may not be a reading OF the collective energy, but it is a good way to deal WITH the collective energy this week.
Be still.
Keep quiet. Agitated water stays muddy. Be still to let things settle, to let things become clear as they naturally will. Gravity still works. Things will settle eventually.
Protect your peace.
It is a treasure worth protecting, and protecting it is wisdom worth sharing.
Alleyway Oracle of Secrets: That Which Lies Beneath
Things are not what they seem. Be shrewd, cunning, analytical – and observant. Watch a wait for the right time. Make sure you understand the situation before making important decisions or taking any actions. Decisions that have been building for a while is one thing – but avoid impulse. Wait, watch, know, be certain – especially where another person is involved. Hot takes can harm relationships.
Wishing you a quiet, watchful, enlightening weekend.
Alleyway Oracle of Secrets by Seven Dane Asmund used with permissions Publishing Goblin LLC
The past is the price we pay for the second chance each new moment gives.
And it’s a reasonable one. The past doesn’t disappear, but how emotionally attached you are to it is up to you. If it is a cherished memory – then by all means cherish it. If it is a painful, harmful one, you are perfectly free to let the attachment go.
I’ve always wrangled with the Judgement card in this form, with all the christian religious imagery here. If familiarity breeds contempt, my evangelical upbringing has bred a great deal of contempt for that ideology. The only good thing about the political climate in America since 2015 is now everyone can see what we-who-left have been talking about. Now everyone knows how toxic and insane evangelicals and Christian nationalists are. So dear everyone who said I was over-reacting when I said Republicans and Evangelicals were a bunch of fascists (middle finger) I TOLD you so.
BUT that is also an example in point for the energy of this card today. I can’t pretend that my parent’s and extended family’s religion isn’t a steaming pile of toxic, harmful bullshit. BUT I can choose to make my life a secular sanctuary, free from religion as much as a functioning adult living in America in 2026 can make it.
Alan Watts’ observation rings perennially true “You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”
And THAT is the aspect of the Judgement card that steps forward today: Second Chances.
The judgement has been made (you have decided some aspect of past experience is unhealthy, or somehow unworthy of including in your current circumstances)
The dues have been paid (you lived it, learned from it and made the reasoned choice to shift your perspective)
Another chance is in hand (every moment is a fresh start and a chance be a different person than you were five minutes ago.)
I have no idea if cross posting between blogs is a good idea or not. Nor do I give a fk at this point. That’s the whole idea of being an amateur hobbiest instead of trying to be a professional side hustle. Here goes nothin’
Clearly, this blog is going to be inspired by current events and take the place of the void screaming in my old blog Baihu’s News Haikus.
Lately I’ve been following Dan Harris. His approach to meditation very much resonates with my own (“Inner Peace Mthrfkrs!”) His posts about action easing anxiety came just when I needed to hear it in my personal life and it inspired the Tarot layout by that name. It’s true. I’ve lived it. I’ve used it. And I’ll be posting a reading later today on Sage Sips – if I get the laundry done, supper cooked and the garbage out in time. Funny how these full time jobs tend to take up so much time.
Woke up this morning to more insanity between U.S. and Iran. To those Gen X among us, did you ever in your 1079 remembering life imagine that Iran would wind up sounding almost reasonable in comparison to the White House? Am feeling the Lenormand deck. I think we can use one of it’s pull-no-punches kind of readings.
I’ve recently added a third card to the layout. The first is ‘what it is’ to show the current energy environment. The second is ‘what to do’ suggesting a helpful response to that energy, probably a shift in perception or understanding. The third is ‘how to do it’ which I hope will both support the second card and encourage us to implement it out in the real world. I think of swords cards as sort of the patron saint of this layout….air, intellect AND action.
Making an action plan can go a long, long way toward easing anxiety. But putting the plan into actual action goes that one step further. Even if the action plan goes entirely off the rails as plans so often do.
I’m such a tiny little speck of nothing when it comes to current event and US politics. All I have to offer in this situation at the moment is an internet connection and three congressmen to yell at. Online contact may not do anything, except as one tiny electron tick to some aggregate statistic. But at least I can go sleep tonight knowing I did what I could.
I encourage to send your tiny electron to your representatives, contribute whatever else you can, and above all vote. Check your registration, jump through as many of their obstructive hoops as you can and if you can’t, see if anyone can help.
In the words of TV’s firefly “When you can’t run, you crawl and when you can’t do that you find someone to carry you.” That. Only voting.
Make the midterms look like the Avengers assembling.
People were joking online about being willing to crawl over covid covered broken glass to vote against the fascists in the past couple of elections. (Hopefully it won’t come to that, but don’t give them any ideas) But the idea. Do whatever you can. It doesn’t only help the greater good, it helps you. Action eases anxiety.
Will talk to you later on the main blog. Hang in there. Wishing you some little thing that gives you a ridiculously large amount of happiness in spite of it all. Imma have a second cup of coffee.
Sage Sips is all Tarot: collective energy general audience readings, behind the scenes, how-to, Q&A (submit a question HERE)
On this blog I settle in for a second cup and write about anything else.
Here is the back story of it all if you are curious:
I started reading Tarot and Oracle cards in 1992 or 1993 (ish) At first I read for myself and my friends (why pay $$$$ to the phone psychic people when you can do it yourself?) My bestie encouraged me to read online (forever grateful!) I worked under the handle Baihu with Keen, Advice Trader and AllExperts. In 2003 (ish) I went full pro and opened my own Tarot practice and Modern Oracle Tarot website doing party, in-person, live online and email readings.
I wrote the Tarotbytes blog (2009ish – 2018) and in 2015-16 was a regular on David Dear’s Menage A Tarot podcast (one of my favorite things ever! David and Kate are the BEST readers I’ve ever had the privilege of working with)
Throw an Etsy shop in the mix and things were getting messy, so in 2018 I rebranded everything as TaoCraft Tarot and renamed the blog Sage Sips.
In late 2024 l ife happened and in January 2025 I retired from the professional part of TaoCraft Tarot. Now I only write the blog as a hobby and I only do private readings as a thank you gift for Sage Sips supporters on Ko-Fi. The Ko-fi support goes toward web-hosting the main blog without ads or paywalls.
It’s liberating, honestly. Without the professional part, I can be as erratic and sweary as I want to be. When you fully follow intuition, Tarot and esoteric topics can be like that.
That’s about it. It’s been a while since I’ve used this blog. It may or may not cross post on Sage Sips or Ko-fi for the long term (haven’t decided yet) but it will initially just to help get the ball rolling with the Second Cup blog.
And yes, in real life I really like coffee, so I’m all in with the analogies.
How are you doing? Whew…what a week. For a couple of hours there on Tuesday I actually wondered if it all was going to disappear into a flash of nuclear mutually assured total annihilation.
It’s probably just as well that I was taking a little mental health break this past week. I hope you all are taking good care of yourself, too.
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We’ve had a stressful week here in the US. Even I thought we were going to all die in a flash of mutually assured nuclear destruction at the hands of the republicans. (BTW – this is a personal opinion blog and not a public business. As of today, if you are a Republican, support Republicans, want bipartisan cooperation with Republicans, are Chistian evangelical, are Christian nationalist, racist, or any variety of bigot please f**k right the hell off. That energy is not welcome here.)
THAT being said, today is a good day for a shift in focus. Things have been very yang, very outward, very existential crisis lately. It’s ok to turn off the big world news, pull in your energies and focus on you, your immediate personal space for a minute.
You…yes, you. Take just a moment away from the screen. Look around you.
So, how is it? Are you out of the weather? Hungry? Thirsty? Warm/cool enough? Sitting or standing comfortably? Is the room literally on fire? Are you in any immediate danger?
If not, take a deep breath. It’s ok to be ok for a minute.
Sometimes the best dream to chase is being OK with things as they are right here, right now. It is a dream that is forever already true.
I’ve seen the idea attributed to Keanu Reeves, but don’t judge yourself harshly for what you didn’t know. Some things, some emotions, take time to process. Respond to circumstances as best as you can now, but respond differently as you learn more. In the words of Alan Watts “you are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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