You Choose Card of the Week 3-11-24

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Three of swords : Trust must be earned, even when you want to give it easily

Eight of wands: Patience and time can work in your favor. Obstacles and challenges may be slowing you down enough to protect you from something you don’t see coming.

Five of pentacles: It’s not a good time for impulse buys. Wait, be sure first.

And there, the energy steps back. I guess we chalk this week up to a pithy and potent kind of card reading.

Next up is finally starting that behind the scenes series either Wednesday or Friday, depending on how much the squirrels rave this week. Either way, have a good week. See you at the next sip!

Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund used with permission (publishinggoblin.com)

Squirrel image: unknown / public domain

The Deeper The Authenticity, The Better The Tarot

We are having a blissfully rainy day here in the ‘burgh. The energy this week has been kinda chaotic and funky. Weird even. The energy right now is the reset we need to shake off the funky mojo and get back to the normal squirrel rave of life.

If you are working this weekend – thank you. Stay chill, hang in there until your next time off. If you have this weekend off, stay chill, do what needs done and relax when you can.

I do weird things on the weekend like think about reverse engineering. Reverse engineering Tarot to be exact.

It is an interesting exercise at any skill level of Tarot reading to take an idea, anything, and try to find a Tarot card that best exemplifies that concept. Instead of going from a random card to its keywords, go from a random idea to its key card.

It doesn’t always work. Sometimes it takes a few cards to capture the essence of the idea, but I would guess that is why card layouts were invented. We’ll get back to talking about layouts another day. For today, I’ve been thinking about which one of the 78 cards best communicates the idea of authenticity.

Authenticity is a big, stage of life, personal growth, life-lesson kind of concept so my first instinct is to look toward the major arcana. Of those, my attention is drawn to the World card.

In my opinion, this card are best summed up by not just “the World” but by “Cosmos” and “Gestalt.” Together, it gives the feeling of the biggest of big pictures and everything in it.

Everything in the world includes the masks we wear AND the beauty behind them. Everything, the Gestalt, the cosmos includes truth, lies and everything in between. That includes the authentic self of each and every human being. Whoever you are, whoever you want to be, however you want to be perceived – every facet of your true self – is included, accepted and connected with the grand everything that The World card symbolizes.

Authenticity is a part of that everything.

Every part of you is a part of that everything.

That everything-ness of the World card in particular and of Tarot in general gets behind our social masks. It flows both ways. When you allow a reading to touch the real you and not all the “could” “should” and “will” you get a higher, more potent level of guidance and help.

Should you choose to work with a professional reader instead of taking the DIY approach, the reader’s level of authenticity also enhances the quality of your reading experience.

No two readers are alike. Some are con artists. Some are artist-artists. Some are voices from a higher realm. Some are practical, grounded, roots as deep as a tree. Some are therapists in artists clothing. Most of us are out here doing our thing just trying to make it through life ourselves and hopefully help some folks along the way.

You’ll know the difference when you see it. You’ll know when someone genuinely believes in what they are doing, or at least what they think they can do. The trick is finding someone whose authentic self vibes with your authentic self. Unfortunately there is no way for us readers to know when that is the case. It’s up to you to listen to your inside authentic self.

Thank you so much for reading today. Next up: You Choose interactive reading. See you at the next sip!

You Choose: Card of the week, March 5, 2024

Private readings by email or recorded video: order HERE, no appointment needed

Pick a card from the picture above. Watch the video to see the reveal. Get your reading below.

Magician: This is a card of manifestation and transformation. It is also a card of co-creating, in other words working with the universe to bring your intentions into reality. Often this kind of magickal working is heavy on the WORK. The magician must do their part.

King of Pentacles: Survey your kingdom. Focus on what you have. Don’t spend your energy wanting what you don’t have this week. Once you see what you have on hand, it becomes clearer what you truly want, what you need and how to get what is really missing. Wanting what you have is contentment.

Death: Change is inevitable. Seven Dane Asmund, creator of this Tarot Deck (Alleyman’s Tarot, used with permission) He calls this the “dancing death” of the several versions of the Death card in this deck. Dance with this moment. Embrace it. Fully be a part of it because, for better or for worse, this moment will change momentarily.

It’s Not Time Yet

I have plans. Plans within plans.

One of which is to (hopefully) go see Dune 2 this weekend.

Other than that, you would think I would have learned my lesson about the plan thing by now.

I HAD planned to do the first big, juicy behind the scenes post, but it just isn’t happening.

So for realz this time – no schedules, no plans. Intuition doesn’t flow that way. Once again for about the bazillionth time in this lifetime – Taoism proves its wisdom to me.

Here is our behind-the-scenes for today: If you are going to read the energy, you have to flow with the energy. You have to be in harmony with the nature of it – and in harmony with your own nature.

I’ve never surfed, but I imagine that Tarot is energy surfing – to read the waves, you have to ride the waves, flow with the waves, making millions of tiny adjustments to hold your balance along the way.

That.

Let’s do that and see where the waves take us.

Private readings HERE – no appointment needed.

Choose your card interactive Tarot (26 Feb 24)

Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee

No appointment needed for recorded video or email private readings – order HERE

The Boogeyman: Calculate your risk. Are your fears truly possible or just imagined?

Lightning in a bottle: Sudden success is never sudden. It builds up over time like a static charge. To catch lightning in a bottle, you have to stand out in a lot of storms

Paimon: What do you control in this situation? Is it time to subjugate or surrender?

Now that you’ve chosen your individual card. Let me take a look at all three together for a collective energy reading for the week ahead.

Although it is in the “fading energy”spot for a pathway reading, Paimon is anything but fading. If anything it is shifting from “go with the flow” to “rise and shine motherf*ckers! It is a week to reclaim power and apply it in as calculated, precise way as possible. “Controlled fury” comes to mind HEAVY on the controlled part.

Now for the parts we can’t control….

Static electricity builds, then zaps. The electrons have to accumulate in one place before the lightning can happen. The charge is building. Persist. Good advice for anyone.

The Boogeyman card reminds me of that Mark Twain quote “I’ve had a lot worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Be in the moment, see things as they are. Don’t build fears up with imagination. If you are brave enough to look under the bed, you’ll see there are no monsters.

Today’s deck is the Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund of publishinggoblin.com used with permission

Pithy & Potent: The Magician

Private readings are OPEN: phone by appointment, email & video no appointment needed. Order HERE

Magick comes in many forms. Time is one of them.

Pithy & Potent: A Tarot card for the day distilled down into a sentence or two.

Ask Me Anything: Submit a question by email or in the comments & I’ll answer in the blog, unless it’s spam or obnoxious or something. I have a zero tolerance policy for that kind of thing.

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Albert Einstein

BTS: It’s all me

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I’m so grateful for each and every one of you reading this. I enjoy writing this blog so very much.

The time has come to just say it – writing is my forte and typed Tarot readings are my best work. I do live and in-person readings really well – video readings, online readings, and over the years I’ve built some serious party chops at big events (CMU, Nordstroms, Arthritis Foundation of Pittsburgh & more)

I want to spend time and energy in 2024 getting back to where it all started: typed distance readings. I want to give a little love to the blog with some longer reads and deeper dives. So thank you, thank you, thank you for coming along.

“I don’t have ducks. I don’t have rows. I have squirrels and they are hosting a pagan rave.”

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As much as I enjoy a good squirrel rave, this needs a touch of logic and a methodical approach. The “there is no plan” plan is still very much in place, but the general rule of thumb is:

  • Monday – Choose Your Card. Watch the video in the post or on YouTube. PAUSE the video at first so you can CHOOSE your card, then RESTART the video to see the reveal. A short reading is in the video description and on social media. A more in-depth card of the week reading will be right HERE on the blog. A lot of our holidays fall on Monday here in the U.S so on those days I may not post.
  • Wednesday – BTS or Learn With Me: Starting today, I plan to do behind the scenes (- ish) posts that give you a peek inside my method and philosophy of Tarot reading. OF COURSE it is mostly shameless self promotion because I want you to buy email Tarot readings from me. But with a little luck we’ll all maybe find a little free fun and inspiration along the way
  • Friday – something completely random or a quick one card meditation to satisfy my completionist side and fit that nice M-W-F pattern
  • The weekend newsletter is going on hiatus until I can figure out how to switch it from Substack to WordPress. I’ll keep you posted on that, although I’m hoping you’ll follow the blog (right column on laptop, scroll waayyy down on mobile) Three posts a week isn’t bad and posts go straight to your inbox, just like a newletter would anyway. But that’s to sort out another day.
  • Comments are always open and you are welcome to CONTACT ME with any questions and get an answer in the blog. Unless it’s spam. Then I’ll prolly block you.

It’s all me

This ain’t my first rodeo as they say.

I’ve been reading cards in some capacity since the early 1990s. You know, when the whole world was black and white and computer memory was still 5 inches across.

At first I just read for friends & for myself because why pay the phone company and Dionne Warwick’s friends huge amounts of money for something you could do yourself? After a while, a friend suggested that I try working on one of those online sites (eternal gratitude, girlfriend!)

Taking her advice, I did Tarot readings on Keen, Advice Trader and Allexperts all under the nickname Baihu. Within a few years of some serious hustle, I’d done hundreds of readings. Yes, you read that right, hundreds. I stopped counting around 400 or so. After a while, enough was enough of the experience building for free or nearly free.

I started my own part time Tarot practice with ModernOracleTarot.com, the Tarotbytes blog, and Quirk & Flotsam Etsy shop. During those years I did in-person, party, phone and email Tarot readings.

The name was fun, inspired by The Oracle character from The Matrix. Despite that, I made sure Modern Oracle had a carefully curated, super sanitized, white-washed image that was nice and non-threatening to any random local conservative suburbanites that might stumble across it. I had a family to protect, after all.

Now, that family is all security minded working adults and I don’t have to be around school district soccer moms any more (whew!) Modern Oracle just didn’t fit anymore, so I re-branded in 2018 to TaoCraft Tarot which was a much more authentic representation of myself and my Tarot philosophy

I’ve studied Tai Chi, and Taoist philosophy as long as I have Tarot and Reiki almost as long. I’ve had an interest in magick and witchcraft longer than any of it, even as a very small person watching Bewitched re-runs on TV. The TaoCraft name was very meaningful to me, but it didn’t seem to make as much sense to new clients. People seemed to stumble over it a bit. That’s a big problem because these Tarot readings that we do together are not about me … they are all about and for YOU.

So re-brand number two: Sage Words Tarot

Easy to pronounce, easy to understand, basic, common words that get the point across on multiple levels.

Sage is an herb with a familiar flavor from sausage and holiday turkeys. Sage in aromatherapy calms anxieties, lifts moods and promotes optimism. Aromatherapy can come in the form of burned incense and dried leaf bundles. Sage smoke can be used to metaphysically clear the energy of a space but should not to be confused with the indigenous practice of smudging. They are two paths from two cultures that wind up in a similar place, but each deserving of its own respect.

I hope that a Tarot session with me leaves you feeling calm, comforted and hopeful, just like sage aromatherapy.

Sage is also a word meaning wise, symbolic of Tarot’s wise advice.

Sage is now my pen name and Sage Words Tarot is the website where it all originates.

TaoCraft is still under there a little bi. It’s like a new business in an old Pizza Hut building. You can’t deny the structure underneath. The same is true here. My work is still guided by the Taoist treasures of simplicity, honesty and kindness. I still follow the Reiki ethic of only doing energy work with those who give knowing consent. I never ever approach or spam an individual to get a reading.

Advertise? Sure. I have coffee to buy and web hosting to pay for. Your reading orders (no appointment needed for video or email) memberships and virtual coffee donations all go toward keeping the lights on in this humble little Tarot shop in cyberspace.

Thanks so much for reading! Next up: One Card Friday. See you at the next sip!

Choose Your Card: Week of 19 Feb 24

Distance Tarot is my specialty – Private readings are always open. Order HERE

Two of Wands: Prepare. Plan. Get ready. Change or travel may come soon.

Nine of Wands: Live your enlightenment. Live the hard-won lessons you’ve learned. May them your own before you press on

Hierophant: Know what you don’t know. Don’t guess or feel your way through this time. If you don’t know, get help. Go find the knowledge you don’t have right now.

Looking at all three cards, there is a sense of “on the precipice” but in varying degrees. There is a feeling of something about to happen – soonest for those who chose the two of wands, slightly less soon for those who chose the hierophant, longest for those who chose the nine of wands. For all three cards, moving forward depends on you. Either there is some piece of knowledge or information you need to find in order to move forward well, or there is some bit of preparation you need to do for a good outcome, or it just plain isn’t time to move. Go for quality, not quantity in all three cases.

It’s President’s day here in the U.S. so the fam is home for the day – That’s where my energy is at the moment.

If you have any questions or comments, leave ’em below. I’m happy to answer any questions you have here in the blog. Next time: Learn With Me: BTS

I’ve made minor attempts at this since New Years Day, but this time I’m going to back up and do a proper run at some introductory material and give you a real behind the scenes look at how my particular style of Tarot really works. No nonsense, lots of transparency and plenty of shameless self promotion.

See you at the next sip!