Author: TaoCraft Tarot / Sage Sips blog

I read Tarot, write stuff and make things. Secular Humanist, coffee loving, knitting, lgbtquia2+ ally.

Obvious Change

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This is a first.

It’s new but not difficult.

The Alleyman’s Tarot is unique, as far as I know. It’s intended to be. The customization is the irresistible part of the deck. From the beginning, Seven Dane Asmund, has encouraged deck owners to follow the Alleyman’s lead and take cards out or put cards into the deck as opportunity and intuition prompt. This original deck was curated from many artists and decks, and has multiples of several cards, especially if you add in the expansion packs. Which I did.

I’ve always used standard, one of each card RWS decks up until this one. Believe it or not, I still don’t use the Alleyman’s deck ALL of the time. Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve done a reading with multiples of one card in it.

It’s fitting that the first multiple card is Death, change because it takes a small shift in perspective. Fitting, but not surprising and certainly not supernatural. Of all the multiples in the Alleyman’s deck, the most common card is the major arcana Death card and I’m glad because the artwork on these things is phenomenal. This is serious, gorgeous, hang it on a museum wall art.

But two deaths in one reading? Do they cancel each other out like adding negative numbers? Actually, it kind of fits right in with the way I read Tarot.

It’s easy, actually.

In the past we’ve talked about each card can have multiple key words and multiple threads of meaning. Different artwork for the same card just fits right in with that.

We’ve seen this in action before. There have been times when the image from one deck or another resonates with the energy message at hand. When the energy brings to mind the image from a different deck…I’ll tell you, so you can google it and see the different visuals for yourself.

That’s all there is to it for multiples of the same card. They aren’t identical. The images are different, and convey different aspects of that same card. The multiple different cards are different facets of the same diamond.

We’ve talked about reversals before too. I let intuition lead. If it feels like nothing, I’ll just flip the card upright and go on. If it feels significant, I read it as an indication of blocked or challenged or turbulent energy. That’s the case today, so the “smoke” death and the high priestess are staying reversed (upside down relative to the person doing the reading)

Intuitively the reading today came through as this one concise idea: Make the obviously needed change; we always fight the demons alone.

There is a trace of that adage to stop waiting for the perfect time because the time is never perfect.

The fading energy is death upside down….resistance and blockages around changing are fading. I don’t know if “resistance is useless” as the Vogons said, but it certainly is decreasing.

If you like TV that is even older than the Vogons and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, cue the Brady Bunch episode where Peter’s voice keeps cracking so they write into the “It’s time to change” song.

How’s that for an outdated pop culture reference?

The High Priestess is about the mysterious. What is a blocked or turbulent mystery? It could mean it is something utterly unknowable. I know I’ve said that reversals don’t automatically mean the exact opposite of the usual meaning for the card, but in this case it turns out to be functionally the same thing as inverting the meaning. If something fails at being mysterious, it is obvious. If something is having a hard time hiding, it is seen.

Put these two together and the first half of this week’s message is get your head out of the sand and face the obvious. Something needs to change and avoiding it isn’t helping.

From those two we head into a more classic, death or horseback card. This one is harsh, down to brass tacks, realistic confrontation of violent ends. In the reading we go from ethereal smokey death to violent bloody death – death.

Although not usually related to the death card, I intuitively get this is about confronting inner demons, about an internal change. There may be something about ourselves we don’t want to admit or face, but it is something we’ve known for a long time. “Suspected from the beginning” comes through here.

All that and I still haven’t touched the guidebook.

Let’s see how this unfolds, and I’ll read the Alleyman’s Notebook on the cards and maybe we can weave that in on Friday or Saturday for the weekend update if nothing gets in the way this week.

Photo by the author of this weeks real-world card layout. Alleyman’s Tarot deck used with permission of Publishing Goblin LLC

Learn With Me: Oracle Dice, Collector of Selves part 2

Time is an ingredient for learning.

Deep understanding is seldom instantaneous.

Sometimes you have to abide, sit with something for a while, squint at it and poke it with a stick before you can really integrate and use a new idea.

That is where I am with this die and lord card. Even after sleeping on it after a late night part 1 post, I still don’t have much to offer. I’m still in the squint and poke stage with the relationship die and its lord card, The Collector of Selves.

The basic “card meaning” level symbolism is easy enough. This is the relationship cube. I connect that with the relationship energies of Tarot’s suit of cups. This seems a little broader, encompassing any level of relationship, not just the cup’s intimate ones. This feels a little like the sword’s broader community and collegial relationships too.

My hunch is that it will make more sense once it is in context with other dice and on the reading cloth.

The Collector of Selves is interesting. I didn’t get it right away, but Mr. Asmund writes about masks and social roles a bit in the guidebook. The die talks about multiple levels of realationship between people it seems, but the lord card seems to pull in our relationship with ourselves, which in Tarot I connect to the suit of wands.

See what I mean about the cards adding layers of meaning and nuance?

As I understand it, the card asks us to evaluate the aspect of ourselves that are involved with the relationship in question, whatever level of intimacy or closeness that relationship may have in the bigger picture our lives. He portrays that facet-of-self quality as a mask. What part of ourselves are we showing, what mask are we wearing? How close to maskless does this relationship come?

Is there such a thing as a completely maskless relationship?

The mask we wear for ourselves is often the hardest of all to remove.

Thank you so much for reading along with this learning process. I hope it is helpful to you in some way. Thanks for coming along as I walk my talk about life long learning.

Sage Sips is fueled by private Tarot readings, ko-fi memberships, paid substack subscriptions and coffee (both real and virtual.) Your support through likes, comments and social media shares are always appreciated!

*Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice used with permission

Learn With Me: Oracle Dice, Collector of Selves part 1

Learn with me: Oracle Dice continues. Now that we have our 7 learning dice, we add another layer of meaning.

I’m presenting and learning the dice the same way that I’ve studied Tarot over the years for two basic reasons. First, I know this methodology works. I’ve used it. Been there and done that. Second, by learning the dice with me you can also get a behind the scenes peek into reading Tarot at the same time. There are parallels here. The oracle creator has created Tarot decks. Really good ones. If you’ve read this blog for a hot minute you know how much I like the Alleyman Tarot. I just bought the guidebook to his previous deck the Normal Tarot because it has the best cover art of any Tarot book ever – but more on that another day.

The oracle dice works so well with this method of learning because it was created by hands familiar with Tarot. The dice have all the depth and insight and use-ability of a 138 card Tarot deck.

Tarot is more than memorizing individual card meanings. There are layers, complexities and nuances. In the past it was called gifted. Psychic gifts are really more a matter of skill and practice. It’s like sports. Almost anyone can learn to play a sport – tennis for example. If someone has a natural gift for tennis, they are never going to get anywhere with it unless they learn the rules and swing a racket. Someone with no natural talent whatsoever can play tennis with learning and practice. The person who put in the time and work and practice would easily beat a person with natural talent who was playing their first game. Combine a small seed of Talent with work and practice over time – that can seem like some sort of special gift. No all of us can make it to Wimbledon, but any of us can certainly bang a ball around at the local park.

This series, this blog can’t teach Wimbledon level Tarot reading. It can’t teach you to read for other people, but you can learn some banging DIY Tarot reading for yourself.

But it take time, and blogging unfolds at a different pace. We could do this face by face together and move on to the next thing four months from now.

I don’t think you need that.

You’ve seen how this works.

Hurl dice at the table, get your hunches, mental images and intuitions about it. Combine that with the reference book and there you have it.

Now we are going to add another layer to it.

Seven Dane Asmund has given each dice its own topic and lord card. The topic is analogous to the the suit in the Tarot deck as I see it. Instead of the RWS Tarot’s four minor arcana suits with 14 cards each and the 22 card major arcana, we have basically 22 suits with six ‘cards’ each. In this second edition of the dice, the nuance is expanded and supplemented with the Lords of the Dice cards. The dice’s “lord” is a sort of symbolic spirit guide or guardian for that dice. The Lord card serves a similar purpose to the artwork on the ace cards of Tarot’s suits. The Ace in Tarot holds the core essence of the suit. By the same token, the lord card gives us insight into the essence of the individual die.

Interestingly, the influence flows both ways. After this, the ace cards feel even more important than they did before. I never thought of them as being potential guides and guardians before. But it works, at least for the number cards. The court cards in Tarot (page, knight, queen and king) have their own thing going on. That too, is a conversation for another day.

But that sets us up for the next little series within the series. We’ve looked at individual dice faces and at the same time chosen our seven learning dice out of the set of 22. Now instead of face by face, we’ll go die by die and look at each dice’s topic and lord card.

There really isn’t a good way to be very random about this, so that makes the active video pretty boring. For this next section of posts, I’ll be working from static photos of each die with its card. For YouTube, I’ll just share the tictok instead of filming the dice roll. It’s just more visually interesting at this point.

Please join me tomorrow when we pick up the “Collector of Selves” in more detail in part 2.

video / photo by the author of Publishing Goblin’s Oracle dice second edition, used with permission.

Middle of the week update-update

Another quick tour of Sage Words Tarot

Hi everyone!

First and foremost, as always, thank you so much for reading Sage Sips blog on Sage Words Tarot.

As I sit here sipping a real world cup of tea and as my coffee cold brews for morning I want to say hello, say thanks, and give you all a quick tour around the website now that I’m taking a break from changing and tinkering. Things will stay like this for the rest of summer at the very least.

Email Tarot readings are OPEN all summer! You can order a private Tarot reading by email anytime, 24/7, no appointment needed. It’s still just me doing this, and I live in the US eastern time zone, so it may take a hot minute to get your reading to you if you order nights, weekends or US holidays. Most of the time I get a reading to you inside of 24 hours, but it can take longer some days. I’ll be in touch whenever you order and give you my best estimate about when I can get the write up to you.

Ask Me Anything is OPEN. Just like the name of the page says (tab at the top on laptop, scroll down on mobile). You ask. I’ll answer in one form or another, maybe a Tarot reading, probably in the blog. You have my promise that no identifying information will ever be used in a blog post. If a post is inspired by and actual question, I change and redact it so that it could be a question from anybody that can help everyone.

The “reading room” tab has two pages, “frens and fam” is a list of links to people I know and trust around the web. Some of it is Tarot related, other not, but they are all good folks, real people in the real world that I trust. The reading list is just exactly that – my favorite reads over the past 30 or so years.

In-person Tarot readings and online readings are available with appointment and prepayment with the secure PayPal invoice that I’ll send to you along with the appointment confirmation.

Sage Sips membership on ko-fi get exclusive content, discount email readings, and free one card readings (one per month please) all for $5 / month. The exclusive content without the discount readings is available for $3/month through this blog and the Substack newsletter.

How to Find a Psychic You Can Trust is an excerpt from the free ebook “TaoCraft Portfolio” available in the ko-fi shop along with my other ebooks.

Sage Sips blog you know. Mondays have a three card energy path Tarot reading for the collective, general audience energies. Wednesday (including tomorrow) has “Learn With Me” as I explore other oracles or who knows what. These are free for the summer of ’23 , but may move to paid subscription this fall. Right now we are exploring the Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice, used with the permission of the oracle’s creator Seven Dane Asmund of Publishing Goblin LLC

Friday’s on the blog are my version of “Weekend Update” – at least until I can come up with a better title. There we’ll revisit the week’s energy path and see how it is – or isn’t – unfolding.

Other posts, cards, quotes and assorted other topics will post randomly as time and inspiration allows.

Thank you all.

I’m grateful for your support. The free Tarot content on Sage Words Tarot and Sage Sips blog / newsletter is fueled by your private reading purchases, memberships, and virtual coffees. Your likes, subs, free blog follows, and social media shares are always greatly appreciated!

Energy Week Ahead: Flow, Recharge, Think

Pathway Tarot reading for the week ahead

I’ve got adulting to do.

I’m not saying Tarot isn’t adulting. Learning, questioning, applying, doing all we can to be a better person; that’s actually the adultiest of adulting we can do.

I’m talking oil changes, errands and helping family kind of adulting. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a busy day, so here is your energy look at the week ahead a little early. I plan on taking this batch of advice myself, as I often do.

If these posts ever seem wrong or off or not for you….you can do like I do. Either draw a different batch of cards for yourself to get a more targeted individual read. If you aren’t the DIY type, no worries. Email Tarot is always open and I’m happy to help. Even when it’s busy, I can carve out time to pay attention to an email reading. It’s my strength. Just like our current energy card.

The fading energy card is six of pentacles.

Sometimes the six is about literal generosity, giving and sharing money or other tangible resources. Sometimes it talks about the intangible, speaking of a generous nature or a generosity of spirit. Today, the card brings in elements of both, reminding us give and take, ebb and flow. It feels like a reminder that we get out of life what we put into it. That in turn brings to mind the 90s song “Get What You Give” by the New Radicals.

Physical or philosophical, now is the time to find your flow before attention needs to shift to other things.

The other thing our attention my shift toward very soon, if it hasn’t already, is Strength. Just like the major arcana Death card always talks about change and not literal death, the Strength card always talks about strength of character and fortitude. This feels very simple and straightforward. Tap into your inner strength, endurance, and courage now while you can.

@bobthewritingcat is one of my favorite Instagram accounts. Bob the cat, through the opposable thumbs and internet access of his human Jenny Graves, often tells us to “gird our loins” against the inevitable approach of yet another Monday. That is the feeling here. The Strength card is like that today: gird your loins, spool up your best people skills, batten down any loose hatches, there might be a minor kerfuffle on the horizon.

The Growing energy is the three of swords. From the decks that I’ve seen, it is always a dire looking card. Like every other card, it has different shades and threads of meaning. The word “petty” is really stepping forward today, along with “quintessential ‘karen'” Be on the lookout for inane squabbles and back-stabby sort of pettiness “from all the usual sources” It might work your last nerve, but that’s where the strength and flow from earlier can come in handy. If you can see the petty squabbles as just that, and deal with the week from a place of strength and flow and calm, it will be easier to get through this particular burp in the energy flow. Girded loins will prevent frayed nerves if you’ll permit that really odd way of saying it.

Overall the feel of the week right now isn’t bad or foreboding as much as just plain weird and potentially annoying.

Assuming the adulting goes to plan (HA!) next up is Wednesday’s “Learn With Me” now that we have picked 7 random dice to learn with, we’ll get a little more meta with it and look at the general meaning of each individual die and it’s “Lord Card” which gives each one of the dice it’s own subject or realm, akin to the arcana and suit meanings in Tarot. In this series of posts, I explore the Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice and learn to use it in the same methodical way I taught myself to read Tarot back in the day and over the years since. The process gives you a small behind the scenes peek into the intuition development process.

Thank you for reading! This free Tarot content is fueled by your support through private Tarot readings, memberships, paid subscriptions, and ko-fi coffee. Likes, blog follows, and social media shares are always much appreciated.

See you at the next sip!

This free Tarot reading is fueled by your support: Your likes, social media shares, blog follows, paid memberships and virtual ko-fi coffees are all very much appreciated!