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Pentacle cards are associated with the element of earth. Pentacles are practical, balanced, grounded, often with a career or money focus but always with some sort of spiritual or philosophical lesson coming along for the ride.
Ace cards are the distilled essence of a suit. The phrase “money luck” steps forward here. But what is luck, really? In this case it opportunity meeting effort. Even in our language, the mystical and lucky things are tied to real world actions. We work magic, craft spells, and invite opportunities.
Then as comedian Milton Berle said, if opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door. Or as Shirley Chilsolm said, if memory serves, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring your own chair.”
Work, craft, invite, build, bring; Wishing you a day where effort and opportunity makes some magic.
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Today, two points jump to mind about the Lenormand Tarot deck as a whole rather than the Bear card specifically.
It is interesting that Lenormand has several cards with (non-human) animals as the whole focus and symbolism: bear, snake, birds or owls, fox, stork, mouse and fish. Marseilles / Visconti / RWS format decks have animals sprinkled through the deck but never as the primary or sole focus of a card. The closest is the Strength card which prominently features a lion, but it is more about the human’s interaction with the lion and the symbolism about strength and leadership that is associated with lions rather than the animal’s actual characteristics or behavior. Other than that, we mostly see the knight’s horses, a few dogs, an ox, a fish in a cup and a lobster taking a moonlight stroll on a beach.
There are two full decks that share a similar energy to Lenormand’s animal cards: the Medicine Cards oracle deck by David Carson and Jamie Sams and Animal Wise Tarot by Ted Andrews. I’m sentimentally attached to both of these decks because Medicine Cards was my first deck and entry point to reading any cards, Tarot or otherwise. I have always had great respect for Ted Andrews and his writings have been utterly influential and invaluable to me. I was so fortunate to meet him at one of his Animal Speak workshops around the time that Animal Wise Tarot was first published. There is a significant intuitive connection from between these decks and the Lenormand, more than typical RWS decks seem to have. This is the first I’ve noticed that energy-similarity since this is the first animal-symbol Lenormand card we’ve drawn.
The Bear card is about that well-known “mama bear” protectiveness, and begs the question of who protects you? Who do you need to protect? Where do you need to protect yourself better? Where are you too guarded?
The other thing that captures my attention is the 10 of clubs on the Bear card.
All 36 of the Lenormand cards have a playing card on them in addition to their primary symbol. Not all of the playing cards can be represented in the smaller Lenormand deck. Christopher Butler’s guidebook that came with this Healing Light Lenormand deck is oddly silent about the playing card references. I’m looking for more information about that part of the Lenormand cards and will update you later in the series.
In my book Peace Tarot, I give you an easy technique for using regular playing cards to find your Tarot daily meditation card meaning if you don’t have a Tarot deck to use. There is a link where you can buy a copy of Peace Tarot above the video if you are interested in learning more about DIY daily meditation style Tarot, that works even if you don’t own a Tarot deck. Using that method, the 10 of clubs connects with the 10 of wands, which is a different energy than the bear. The bear to my mind today is connecting with a major arcana energy much more akin to the Emperor card is also connected with strength and protectiveness. It is difficult to access that kind of major arcana vibe with the playing deck (we talk about that in Peace Tarot, too)
If you live in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh PA, USA keep an eye on your local library websites. I’ll be presenting a Tarot for relaxation workshop based on the information in Peace Tarot at a few locations this Fall. It’s a very inexpensive .pdf in the Sage Words Tarot Shop, I hope you’ll consider giving it a read.
In honor of 10 years of Peace Tarot and how meaningful and useful a daily meditation Tarot practice has been for me over 30 years of card reading, I’ve decided to return to daily meditation Tarot readings for the collective energy in the blog through New Year 2024 which will mark the one year anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot relaunching as Sage Words Tarot. I’ll decide then what, if anything is next. After all the upheaval in the world since the pandemic (politically since 2016 here in the U.S.) a return to some steadiness and simplicity is probably a pretty good idea.
Instagram and Threads is still the best social media to catch me if you want to actually interact. I’m Sage Words Tarot on all the socials (except Twitter – X . I quit that mess months ago) I hope you’ll follow along here, on the socials, on ko-fi or the Substack weekly newsletter. The newsletter happens on Thursdays. Next Wendsday “Learn With Me” will be back with a review of the Healing Light Lenormand deck as a whole thing that I bought – on sale from Llwellyn Publishing. Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!
Where else does a sinkhole + a bus = a holiday ornament?
It’s been a heckuva four years since the sinkhole swallowed the bus. This October feels tame by comparison. But that’s OK – I’ll take it.
The Hanged Man card has been turning up a lot lately in a variety of contexts, both in private and collective energy readings. That kind of repetition is usually a good clue that there is a bigger, longer-lasting wave of energy trying to make itself heard.
There are a few different things that might be going on, but that’s typical for a major arcana card to have several threads of possible meaning. The best known meaning for the card is being stuck or stagnant. Sometimes it is about needing a change in perspective. Some authors connect the Hanged Man card with self-sacrifice. I haven’t seen that. If the Hanged Man has any not-the-usual vibes it is more like a caution about self-sabotage, that “you are shooting yourself in the foot” rather than a heroic sacrifice or advice to “take one for the team”
In this case, it might just be pure inertia. Newton’s first law says that something that is still will stay still until something else makes it move. Something that is moving will keep moving in the same direction until something else makes it move in a different direction.
Life has been moving in some odd directions since the bus thing. When the pothole happened, there was no known coronavirus in humans yet. Wrap your head around THAT. We’ve been craving quiet. We’ve been craving normal. We will never have the old normal back, but the pace has slowed down a bit and it seems relatively quiet. Slow might feel stuck or stopped in comparison to recent chaos. A speeding locomotive takes a long distance and a long time to slow down. My hunch is that we are all feeling the change in speed, but in the opposite direction from recent years. We are in a different place and can’t go back, but things aren’t moving forward as screaming fast as before, either.
It’s the ghost tour time of year too.
Have you ever been on a walking tour or a bus tour and the group stopped someplace of particular interest so that people could take pictures or spend a little extra time appreciating the featured thing? I get the feeling there is a little bit of that going on here too.
If life stops your tour bus, it’s because there is something that needs your attention.
If you are in traffic and all of a sudden your back wheels are stuck in a big hole, look around. What have you been zooming by and not seeing?
That trope applies to any repeating card. It’s boilerplate – if a card or a life experience (or both) keeps repeating, then there is something important that we are missing, some important lesson that we just aren’t learning.
If the Hanged Man comes to your reading or you are just feeling stuck the stuck part may not be the message. The message may be to slow down, stop and take a look. It may just be life tapping you on the shoulder reminding you to do the pocket pat down and check for your phone, wallet and keys and anything else important you might be missing.
Thank you for reading!
Email readings are OPEN all through the holidays. Zombie cat is doing free yes/no readings in the blog through October 31, 2023 if you leave a question in the comments.
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC used with permission.
Consider it recycling. I’m saving the planet doing this, right?
Actually, this is me sticking to the plan for a change. Thursdays are newsletter days. Today’s substack newsletter uses the card from here yesterday. If this was made of paper I’d say we’re saving trees, but really it is just saving me a few headaches during a busy week.
Just a reminder:
Email readings are available to order 24/7 no appointment needed. Email readings are OPEN throughout the holidays (including Halloween!)
FREE Zombie Cat style yes/no readings until 10-31-23. See details below*
Subscribe to the free blog (right side of the screen on laptop, bottom of the page on mobile) to get everything in your inbox. If you want just a weekly digest, you can subscribe to the free Sage Sips Substack newsletter.
Please comment and let me know if you like the daily card or the week-ahead format better. I’ve always been partial to daily meditation one card readings. They are the most helpful most of the time unless a crisis hits or you need to make a big decision. Then the big layouts are the way to go. (Individualized one cards are more helpful than the collective energy one card posts, too)
Wishing you all a great weekend. See you at the next sip!
Hello and welcome to Sage Sips blog: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee (or whatever you like to sip whenever you read this). I’m glad you are here.
Just a quick review: Every now and then I’ll post a series of blog posts where we learn a new Tarot deck, Oracle Deck, or other oracle device together. While I’ve been reading Tarot for (I can’t believe I’m saying this) 30 years now, I don’t know every deck in existence. Each deck of cards or divination method has its own character that is worth exploring. Of course there is always something to learn process wise. If a psychic isn’t still learning, how can clients learn from their readings? Learning is change, change is life.
As we go through these new decks and tools, I’ll show you the methods I’ve used to learn intuitive reading in general as well as learning the particulars of the new thing.
My hope is that this process will build your trust in me as a reader, so you can feel confident getting a professional reading but also (more importantly) I hope this process will build your confidence in your own intuition.
Just like decks that use the Marseille, Visconti, or RWS structure the artwork can vary wildly from deck to deck. I’m glad for artwork on the Healing Light deck for a couple of reasons.
First, color on black is one of my favorite aesthetics. Gold on black is a particular favorite – no surprise if you’ve ever seen sagewordstarot.com
Second, like many contemporary decks, it is a bit more abstracted and drops a lot of the religious imagery that was the norm in the Victorian Era but is anathema to a 21st century freethinker. Hurray for that.
Especially with the ring card.
The guide book connects the Ring with “religious vows” or “religious commitment when it is connected or adjacent to the Cross card. The two together gives an energy akin to the Hierophant or Pope card in RWS style decks.
It also can symbolize a mutual, loving commitment akin to the hand fasting or marriage connotations of the RWS two of cups.
Intuitively I want to synthesize both of those things.
Commitment is a two way street. You have to give to get, and you get what you give (cue the New Radicals song). A commitment born of blind faith and adherence where all you do is give cannot last. A commitment where you sit and expect to receive can not last either.
The idea of a “twin flame” that makes you happy or “completes you” comes to mind – and falls into that take-only second category.
The circle of the ring connotes wholeness.
Commitments are both people all in, both giving and receiving in moving dynamic symbiosis.
Cue all the symbolism of the Zen enso
Ahhhhh…I get it – cue a big cartoon light bulb hanging over our head.
The guide book for the Lenormand deck is minimal. The grand tableau layout is so broad as to be unfocused and unhelpful. Lenormand is direct and to the point because it forces us to read intuitively if we are going to read it at all. Its small deck and broad symbolism can meld to whatever the message of the moment may be. It’s strength lies in touching the emotions of the moment.
In the ring card alone we can branch out to the Pope, the Two of Cups, The Moon and more as needs be. Lenormand utterly relies on our intuition as much as it prompts or amplifies our intuition.
Interesting, to say the least.
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It takes a hot, bright afternoon to make you really appreciate the cool shade of a tree, or a freezing night to make you appreciate the glowing warmth of a space heater.
As much as Tarot and Tarot readings are associated with western witchcraft, Taoist philosophy pops up a great deal, especially for a Tarot reader who has an affinity for Taoism like I do.
Sure, you could argue that this is a process of subjective confirmation bias, but I’m not the only one to find overlap between Taoism and Tarot, Reiki and Magick, East and West.
Diane Morgan’s Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao was one of my earliest Tarot influences. Christopher Penczak’s Magick of Reiki landed right lives right beside it, both squarely in the middle of my wheelhouse. I live in the liminal venn diagram space where Taoism, Tarot, Reiki and Magick all meet.
That eclectic, and often solitary mental space can have it’s drama.
Everybody loses their keys, spills their milk, or has some such tiny dramas in their life. It’s normal. That is also where the Three of Swords is pointing today.
The Three of Swords doesn’t have the darkest or most dire looking artwork. Usually it shows three swords stabbing something…more often than not a heart shape…but the heart is red and the background is seldom as literally black and dark as a death, devil, or 10 of swords cards.
Most of the meanings and keywords associated with the Three of Swords are warnings and cautions. It always feels like drama or complications from outside of ourselves. But for all of the heartbreak and betrayal keywords that go with this card, the connection to Taoist philosophy steps forward strongly today. It has to do with everything defining – and being defined by – its opposite. We find this concept in chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching, here in a public domain translation by J.H. McDonald.
“When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created. Being and non-being produce each other. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short define each other. High and low oppose each other. Fore and aft follow each other.”
Basically this is a message of encouragement, and a melange of hanging on and letting go all at once. Let go of that which has become toxic and harmful to make room for the good. Hang on through the dark times because that persistence will make the light all the more beautiful when it comes.
Darkness defines the edges of the light. Light defines the edges of the darkness. Without that contrast we can’t see anything at all.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment and let me which you like better: a card-for-today format or the three cards for the week and weekend revisit format. I’m leaning toward our old friend, the daily meditation Tarot readings. It’s like comfort food and personal growth all wrapped up in one thing.
I have a cold, so am scaling back a little this week after all. Prolly going quiet on the socials so I can chicken soup this thing. Am grateful it’s not covid this time.
Be good to yourselves. Eat your veggies, get plenty of sleep and wash your dang hands.
There are times to get creative and experiment. Other times it pays to just go with what you know, roll up your sleeves and let it flow.
Do the thing, then get some rest because more innovative days are coming.
*One free reading per calendar month. You have to ask for it (that’s how I connect to your message, plus I never read without getting consent every time) All website policies and disclaimers apply to readings – you know the drill.
I have a change in my day job schedule starting in November. Here’s the plan, such as it is.
Email Private Tarot is STILL open for orders 24/7, no appointment needed. Order anytime at the link above the video. Delivery times will vary depending on when your order comes through – I’m one real person doing real world readings for you, so holidays, nights and weekends slow things down a little bit.
In-person, phone and online readings are still by appointment only and schedule a few days in advance.
There are STILL free “Zombie Cat” Tarot readings in the blog now through October 31, 2023 for anyone brave enough to leave a comment (or use the Ask Me Anything page) with a nickname and question for the cards. It’s all just for Halloween funsies, entertainment only. Zombie Cat’s readings are 100% guaranteed to contain words and have 50% chance of being dead wrong
I’m dropping the week ahead readings (for a while, anyway) and returning to the old daily meditation Tarot reading format from the “Tarotbytes” blog days on Modern Oracle. The Wednesday Learn With Me series and Thursday newsletter won’t change.
These daily readings aren’t about any kind of “forecast.” Daily meditation is about right here, right now. This is meditative mindfulness. This card applies to you in your moment whenever you read this. Even though I’m reading the collective energies for today, spirit or synchronicity will bring you to the card whenever YOU need its message, no matter when that is. Psychic, intuitive information comes from outside of space and time anyway. That’s why distance Tarot readings are perfectly valid and why you can get real guidance from books and blogs no matter when you read them.
Now for today’s card: Death in reverse. Death means big life changes. Reversals hint at energy that is blocked or turbulent. Change blocked doesn’t mean Hanged Man style stagnation. This feels like a simple “wait a minute.”/
It’s OK to be OK
There is a sense of solid, practical, advice life advice here all wrapped up in an avalanche of proverbs and old adages:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Let sleeping dogs lie. Watched pots never boil.
There is nothing wrong with striving to be better. There is nothing wrong with experimentation. But you have to know your results before you make further changes. Sometimes too many changes spoil the soup just as much as too many cooks can.
“Remember kids, the only difference between science and screwing around is writing it down.” – Adam Savage
There is an urge to charge out there and take the week by storm, grab Monday by the beans and constantly strive, eyes on the prize and all of that.
Sometimes that a good thing.
Sometimes it’s good to give it a rest and enjoy the beans instead of grabbing them.
Merry Monday everyone! Cheers!
Sage Sips: Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
Pictured- the author’s morning mug including home made caramel cream pumpkin pie spice.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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