Author: TaoCraft Tarot / Sage Sips blog

I read Tarot, write stuff and make things.

Catwoman Had a Baby, reprise

This post throws WAY back to the Modern Oracle days. It is from the “Tarot Without a Net” series where I was working with Thom Pham’s Heart of Stars Tarot deck much the same way as I have been with the Alleyman’s Tarot and with the Publishing Goblin’s oracle dice. I’d do an intuitive read then follow that up with the author’s interpretation. Thom Pham and Seven Dane Asmund are both very skilled Tarot readers and very talented artists and I am very grateful they graciously gave their permission to use their work in my blogging and social media.

MEMBERS can read the full post HERE

I don’t like calling this exclusive content when I want my Tarot work to be warm, inviting, calm, cozy and inclusive. I’m taking inspiration from Joyce Vance’s excellent substack Civil Discourse and am calling this a thank-you post for paid subscribers.

Ko-fi Sage Sip members get much more than occasional members-only content! Members also get discounts on email readings and free one card reading by email through the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi shop. Join today to get ALL of the benefits.

image: Heart of Stars Tarot third edition by Thom Pham, used with permission

8 July 23: announcements and reminders

Remember that thing from the movie “if you build it they will come” ?

Well, it’s built.

I hope y’all will come read the blog, browse the archives, and ask questions.

On that last….

I’ve been hit with a few annoying ‘bots it seems, but I don’t want to shut out everybody, so I’m splitting the difference and requiring log in to comment. If you don’t want to do that, you can use the comment form on the “ask me anything” page instead.

I’ve also yoinked the like buttons. I appreciate the feedback, but honestly word of mouth about my readings and social media shares are more helpful than the ego boost of a ‘like.’ I’m hoping that will head some spammy shenanigans off at the pass too.

I have a healthy list of banned words, and will delete first and ask questions later if anything looks even a teeny tiny bit spam-ish … so if you aren’t getting a response with the AMA form or comments, feel free to contact me by email. That’s the fastest way to schedule and in-person or online reading.

Email Tarot doesn’t require an appointment, but everything else does. My schedule has changed a LOT compared to pre-covid, so live readings schedule around a week in advance now.

It isn’t captcha, but you humans should be able to navigate those few things.

Just a reminder, too, that the posts here are open to you under an attribution, non-commercial, non-derivative creative commons 4.0 international license. That means you can share it all you want BUT you have to credit me with writing it AND you can’t sell it or make money off of it. Fair enough, right?

NEW: I’m on Threads!

I’m also on Substack, but that is only the free Monday Energy Path readings as it stands now. If you want EXCLUSIVE content, discount email readings and on-request free one-card readings you’ll have to get a SAGE SIPS MEMBERSHIP on ko-fi

I’m still on all the same socials as before. Look for Sage Words Tarot on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr and YouTube. I mostly push to them from here, so if you want to really interact, Instagram or Threads is the best place to catch actual human me.

As always, thanks for reading. See you at the next sip!

Momento Mori

Today: The Death card and lofi chill

Please remember me if you ever want an affordable, professional Tarot reading. Private readings by email don’t need an appointment. This free Tarot content is fueled by reading purchases, memberships, and coffee (both irl and the virtual ko-fi kind). Your comments, likes and social media shares are always appreciated.

The August blahs are starting early this year.

I blame the hot, humid weather and suppressed rage at anyone who doesn’t care about global warming. Republicans and oil companies are going to get us all killed at this rate.

But I digress. Sort of.

It’s interesting how the collective energy sometimes is reflected in private readings or vice versa. It’s a little chicken and egg. People who come to me as clients contribute to the collective energy, which would explain some threads of similarity. At the same time these perceptive folks may be drawn to a reading because of the collective energy, which also explains similarities. Either way it always feels validating as a reader to see the collective show up in a private session or cards from private sessions repeat a time or two in collective readings.

The energy has shifted from death card to death card. It feels like the resistance to change from earlier has shifted to a sort of weary acceptance. It feels like instead of resisting the inevitable, we’ve slipped into a semi-comfortable expectation of a certain degree of upheaval. It feels like time to take a sippy sip of our soupy soup and calmly watch the mayhem unfold.

I like to think that is the essence of Sage Sips. Calm. Reassuring. If my Tarot style was described in music terms, I like to think it is LoFi Chill.

Stay safe, stay chill and stay hydrated. See you Monday for next week’s energy path reading.

Learn With Me: Oracle Dice, The Crone of Summer

Sage Sips blog is a contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee

I don’t know much about Dungeons & Dragons, but I’d call this character chaotic good.

This is a really lovable card, and it’s tempting to join the chaos, but I’m in full sun-avoidant deep shade forest baby Grogu sipping soup and calmly watching the mayhem unfold mood. You don’t always have to participate in order to appreciate.

Let’s stay methodical this week.

Tarot, or any good intuition enhancing too, has layers of meaning just like ogres and onions.

The first we looked at a single face from the dice – analogous to drawing individual cards for a Tarot layout. By randomly rolling seven times we selected 7 “practice dice” out of the 22 dice set to work with as we get to know the Oracle Dice. Learning the oracle dice parallels the way I learned Tarot. I’ve distilled YEARS of trial and error into this step by step thing we are doing. I’m learning the oracle dice this way because I KNOW this way of learning and reading oracle tools … any intuition helper…works. I know it works well because I’ve been doing it for a hot minute. Longer than I care to admit most days.

You get the idea about the individual faces and how to look at those.

Now we are going through our practice dice one by one looking at it from the die cube meaning. The Oracle Dice’s creator, Seven Dane Asmund assigned a name and meaning to each of the 22 dice (one of which is a cool 12 face die) In this edition, he also created a card with the “lord” of each of the dice. The “lord” in this case is a parallel to the suit in Tarot. The “lord” is the essence of die’s meaning, its guardian, its protector, sort of the ace, king and queen all rolled into one.

Today’s die is “summer” depicted as the “Crone of Summer.” It’s perfect that the image on the card includes gold coins because this card encapsulates much of the same energies as the suit of coin (pentacles) in Tarot. There is easy, almost careless generosity around it. It is so fully and unabashedly about the physical realm that it rises above the physical realm and becomes something more esoteric, much as the ten of pentacles (coins) is so fully prosperous and abundant that it points to the intangible treasures of love and happiness that money can never buy. Such is the effusive joi de vie embodied by the crone of summer.

You know how I see the world through Taoism colored glasses

The dots in the yin yang symbol represent the idea that anything in its extreme holds the seed of its opposite. We see that in the ten of pentacles and the Crone of Summer. The physical realm taken to its extreme can hold the seed of its opposite. In excess creation lies the potential for destruction. In excess possession lies the potential for generosity and so on.

When we move on to the next layer – combining dice – when the summer die rolls in, think of it in unabashed and golden terms like full throttle summer and an exuberant generosity of self and spirit

Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate your generosity with your time.

If you ever want a private Tarot reading, please think of me. The free Tarot and other content here on the Sage Sips blog and on Sage Words Tarot social media is fueled by your reading purchases, your memberships and lots of coffee (both irl and the virtual kind on ko-fi)

Your likes, follows, shares and comments are always greatly appreciated!

*Publishing Goblin‘s Oracle Dice used with permission

Obvious Change

Please think of me if you ever want a private Tarot reading. Affordable, professional email Tarot readings are available to order anytime, no appointment needed. The FREE Tarot content on this blog, the Ko-fi blog and social media is fueled by private readings, memberships and coffee. Your likes, follows, comments, virtual coffees and social media shares are always appreciated!

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