Two Way Doorway

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A doorway works perfectly fine in both directions.

Never mind the dedicated pressure triggered in and out doors at the supermarket, I’m talking about your ordinary door.

Threshold, portal, liminal space – its all the same basic idea here.

The collective energies have been niggling at us through the eight of cups for a while now, and it isn’t done with us yet. The energy hinted at turning a corner with it as we talked about the other day in the Standing in the Shimmer post and the brilliant @spiralseatarot on threads once again wrote the eight of cups and about holding space for good things to fill the gap where we have let go of the things that no longer serve us.

Inspired by the gap in the cups that she pointed out, I intuitively heard “portal in time.” Time is something worth exploring in connection with the eight of cups.

The card at its core is about letting go of something while at the same time walking toward something better. It looks back and ahead simultaneously from the portal, the gap in the cups, this bubble we forever live in, this present moment.

Setting mindfulness and the present moment aside for another time, let’s think of the two directions we can cast our attention with this card.

With the classic Pamela Smith artwork, we can’t see what the figure is walking toward. The future is literally out of view. The crescent and round face in the clear, cloudless sky very likely was mean to communicate moon energy, but the crescent and round shapes seem a bit of a moon and sun combination – yin and yang together. That with the clear, cloudless sky both hint at infinite potential held in that out-of-view future.

The Tao Te Ching tells us that one becomes two (the unified oneness of everything can be understood in harmony of opposites, yin and yang) and the two becomes three (I see it as an echo of biological reproduction) The three becomes five (the five classic elements) which in turn comprise the totality of the physical world to this system of thought.

Long story short, the future hold a LOT of potential with this card.

The portal to the future, the gap in the cups, the space Spiralsea advises us to hold is where we draw from that infinite potential. The gap/portal/space is this right-now moment where we make the decisions and take the real world actions that influence the way things go from here. The figure on the card is taking a step. It’s not the cliff dive we see on the Fool card. This has a deliberate quality. This is a decided first step in a new direction.

It takes courage to step in to a new and unknown direction.

It takes courage to deal with the past.

If the background of this image hints at an unknowable but potential laden future, and space in the cups is our portal to time and the sacred liminal space in which we hold our hopes and intentions for the future, then the foreground deals with the past. The ground is beige and barren, with the rest of the card filled with blue, sky and water. The cups rest solidly on the bottom edge of the card.

On one hand this card is about walking away from a bad situation, expunging something harmful or dismissing something from the past that is of no more value. You’ve heard me quote it dozens of times, this again reminds me of that quote from the movie The Last Jedi where Kylo Ren says something akin to “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. It’s the only way to become who you were meant to be.”

A change that profound should never be made rashly.

The past may be barren, lifeless ground, but it is ground just the same. It is solid. It exists. It happened, it ain’t changing, the memories are yours forever.

When you walk away from the past, you can’t change what happened but you have absolute control over how the past affects you. In the gap in the cups, in this present moment space we hold, we choose how much of the past we allow through to the present. When we let go of the past, the past events still exist unchanged, but the effect it has on us is transformed.

We aren’t letting go of the literal events of the past, we are releasing the mental and emotional hold those event have on our present moment – and in turn their hold on the future.

The doorway in time we see symbolized here goes two ways. It is a present moment liminal threshold where we can both plant seeds for the future AND stop the past from contaminating those seeds. We can let go of the past’s hold on us at the same time we can choose a new direction.

Please feel free to explore the archives. Type eight of cups or 8 of cups in the search bar on the right side of the page (laptop view) to see more thoughts about this card from old posts.

See you at the next sip!

Week Ahead Tarot: Look and Listen

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My first thought today was to do the usual Action Eases Anxiety layout with the usual Lenormand or RWS tarot decks.

But instinct, or intuition, or spirit or the muses – or whatever you want to call it – had another idea.

First, I felt pushed toward the Normal Tarot deck (by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission) Then the layout seemed all wrong. Anxiety is often connected to outside conditions like *gestures wildly* everything in America right now.

At that point I hear “look within”

How very Bene Gesserit.

Look for and listen to your own deep intuition. It speaks quietly, and needs your full attention and maybe some amplification. Any microphone of your choice will do. For me it’s cards. It might be astrology, or a random song on a randomly chosen playlist. It might be that one wise snippet posted by someone in the middle of your nightly doomscroll. Whatever your amplifier of choice, look inside and listen to the spirit and intuition that is in there. Take yourself seriously.

Looking at the deck’s guide, the Drowned King is about tragedy at the hands of hubris. It is biting off more than you can chew, and then choking on it.

I am also reminded of the taijitu. The opposite colored dot in the middle of the widest portion of each color speaks to how anything in the extreme holds the seed of its opposite.

The advice is really about moderation. This is a week for taking the middle way.

Yell too loud and yes, you are heard, but you also let your enemies know where you are. Learn too far forward and you fall down. We’ve been called to action a lot recently by the Knight of Swords, but there are limits. Know yours.

When you’ve been pushing the “edge of the envelope,” you have to know when to “haul it back in” as the movie The Right Stuff put it.

Look inside and listen. You’ll know when to move, and when to stay put. You’ll know when to strive, and when to take smaller and chew so you don’t wind up like the Drowned king.

This card and the inverted star together let us know that we are where we need to be right now. Sit tight. Bloom where you are planted. Be present with here, now. Too much pushing or striving could lead to disaster.

Taking slow sips this week – see you at the next one

Soft Landing

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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&A: Self Care Tarot

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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.

Worth Sharing

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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.

Weekend Oracle (17 April 2026)

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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

Reasonable Second Chance

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Today’s Tarot: Judgement

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.)

Here is to reasonable second chances.

See you at the next sip

Sage’s Second Cup Sunday

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.

Introducing Sage’s Second Cup

I’m resuscitating my other blog that has the old Modern Oracle archives for you to explore.

Hi! I’m Sage.

I’m also a Tarot reader and the author of Sage Sips blog on TaoCraftTarot.com. If you are looking for anything Tarot related, it’s there.

THIS on the other hand is my other blog.

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.

See you at the next sip!

Happy Mid-April

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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