Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Reverse Engineering Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving week U.S. friends! I’m thankful for anyone and everyone around the world who reads this. Don’t forget the blog readers special. This week, I’m giving everyone on the free blog the same offer that members get ALL of the time – a private one card reading on request. Seeing your name, email, topic, question or permission for an open reading is what helps me connect to your individual message, so if you put that information in an email I’ll reply with a free one card private Tarot reading. It would be a big help if you put THANKS23 in the subject line so I don’t accidentally get it confused with a question for the blog. Offer ends for free blog readers on 11-30-23.

Now to that reverse engineering thing.

Instead of pulling a card to see what ideas it brings to mind, let’s start with an idea and see what card it brings to mind.

Friendsgiving has had my attention lately.

Admittedly, this is focused on us here in th USA. Much love to the rest of the world, but right now I’m up to my eyeballs in dysfunctional family vibes and not dialing in very well to more universal themes at the moment. Thinking about Thanksgiving this year, The World comes to mind.

Worlds tend to collide during the holidays. Things that mean the world to us as individuals might mean little or nothing to other people. Sometimes, when the holidays bring together people who only gather out of social obligation or genetics, it can feel more like a game of billiards than a homecoming or reunion.

Holiday gatherings can also be comfort and warmth and a heartfelt celebration of the people who are, as the song goes, most dear to us.

Here I am reminded of the book The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. The holidays can make us feel lonely by comparison to the rest of the year and by comparison to others who have connections that we don’t have.

You don’t have to connect through the holidays. You can connect to the whole universe anytime, anywhere with anything. According to Talbot, with actual 3-D holograms, every part of the projection material contains the information to project the whole image. Conceptually, that can be extended to our world in general. Pick up a pebble and you are holding the whole world in the palm of your hand.

Even if you are alone, if you celebrate your holiday your way (or even just allow yourself to enjoy some sort of non-holiday fun) then you are connected, you are a part of the whole holiday season. It doesn’t matter what you celebrate, or if you celebrate anything at all. You are a part of the wholeness of the universe. You are connected even if you are alone. Even if you are rejected by one group, there are others that would welcome you as one of our motley crew without hesitation.

There are reasons Friendsgiving is a thing – and to my thinking it is a wonderful thing at that.

It is probably a modern internet misappropriation of some old, misunderstood quote, but I think it exists in the collective consciousness for a reason. It is a much needed idea: “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” meaning that chosen bonds are real, are powerful and are important regardless of how you feel about your genetic family. This is a time of year to celebrate and be thankful for the family we’ve found out there in the wide world just as we celebrate, when able, our birth family.

As someone who has been literally and explicitly told by my mother that she thinks I’m going to hell, I’m here to tell you that religion and politics have affected family relationships. I don’t know how many families, to what extent or what percentages – but I can vouch for one.

I can also vouch that it is possible to be happy without the idyllic holiday. It is possible to make your own.

It’s not for me to know much you want to be a part of a genetic family that rejects you to whatever extent for whatever reason. But I hope that you know this:

Pick up a pebble and you hold the wholeness of Earth in your hand. Take a breath and know that you are a part of all humanity. There are people on this pebble hurtling through space that accept you for who you are. There are people that love the things that you love. There are people that love you.

They might not know it. You might not know it. It’s only been since the advent of internet access that we are beginning to see the threads of this level of connection, but world-bonds of found family do exist.

For that I am thankful.

And thank you so much for reading! Please visit Wednesday when we will look at the Lenormand deck. It feels like time to start weaving them into a larger reading than the one card meditations we’ve been doing. Next Learn With Me: Lenormand will be a three card energy path reading again with Thanksgiving as our focus.

See you at the next sip!

A Little Lenormand – blog readers only

Hi everyone!

It’s Sunday and I was given a delightfully slow morning. I drank a whole cup of coffee in one go while it was still hot without multitasking my way through it. What a treat!

I want to give you a treat too. Of everything I put on social media to promote this blog and my private readings, the main blog here on the website is nearest and dearest to my writer self. That’s where my Tarot private practice began – with blogging. I appreciate all of you who read this blog more than you know.

The best way I can think of to say thank you this Thanksgiving Week 2023 is to give you what I do best: private Tarot by email.

You won’t find this offer anywhere else. I’m only posting it right exactly HERE.

Send an email to the contact in the right hand column of this page or on the contact page with your name and a question or topic (or “open” to let spirit lead the way) and I will reply with a private one card Tarot reading just for you.

Please add the code THANKS23 to the subject or email so I don’t accidentally think it is a question for the blog.

Offer ends November 30, 2023

Thank you.

S.O.P.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8UFwPGM/

This is my first go at embedding a TikTok video, so I hope you can see it ok. If not you can see the crystal cast happen on TikTok where I’m SageWordsTarot, just like all the socials (except the YouTube channel where you add a YT at the end)

Of all the runes showing, the blank “Odin’s Stone”grabs my attention the most, with it landing on top. It feels like some information, be it literal or intuitive, is currently hidden “by divine mandate” You can interpret that how you wish: divine, higher self, woven into the fabric of the universe…

“What isn’t known will be revealed in its time”

The other runes speak of division, karma, focus, desires and joy.

There is some sense of “just desserts” (did I spell that right?) so enjoy any of those piping hot cups of schadenfreude that may come along in the next days or weeks. I want to connect that to a national scale and the U.S. political landscape (fingers crossed)

The “bringing desires into focus” (Rune Cards of Mannaz by Thom Pham) from the thurisaz combined with the flow of joy from wunjo gives advice to pay attention and take care of the seeds we are sowing now, as they will indeed come to fruition later – both a caution and a hopeful promise, depending on what you are putting out there.

Ihwaz, awareness of karma, is the topmost rune in the field. Taking responsibility is the topmost message. Own it. Your monkeys, your circus – tend to it with an eye to current needs and future consequences.

The light and dark chips are evenly distributed and equal-ish in number. “If shadow work calls to you, that may be energized in this ti me.”

My mind is drawn to the leonid meteors tonight. If you resonate with astrology, you might want to fold that into this reading as well.

Thanks for reading!

Private Tarot readings by email are available to order anytime, no appointment needed.

Learn With Me: Lenormand, The Moon

Learn Lenormand and Tarot together

Order Private readings by email here

There is more to unpack here than it seems.

From a purely intuitive point of view, when the card turned over the message was simple and clear: Trust your own intuition right now. You already know what you are seeking to know. Trust your gut. Even if you don’t want to face it, deep down, you already know.

But from the “Let’s Learn Lenormand!” point of view, things are evolving.

As I dug into some other online resources to learn about the card, it starts to get contradictory and confusing. Honestly I’m not surprised. Lenormand is the quinessential large layout and this deck is very tied to that method and therefor that energy.

On one hand, the Moon in this deck vibes just like the Moon in the RWS based decks.

Which makes sense, because according to some sources, the deck is based on the Thoth Tarot and Thoth oracles while other sources say it is from oracle cards created directly by Marie Lenormand. Or both.

It doesn’t really matter except for vague background context which may or may not be helpful in any given individual reading. Like I’ve said over and over – no matter what oracle you use or how you use it, the REAL oracle is our own innate human intuition and psychic senses. The cards, runes, charms, crystal balls, bone or chicken gizzards are all just amplifiers and clarifiers that help access our intuition with greater ease and to communicate it to other people with greater clarity.

The Lenormand specific interpretations are all over the place. Some say it is just like the RWS moon. Others say it is nothing like the RWS moon. Christopher Buther, this deck’s author, basically connects it with intuition like other Tarot, but changes the meaning quite a bit based on adjacent cards.

My hunch the message here is to show just how interdependet the card interpretations are. The grand tableau layout using all of the deck is very interconnected and very interdependent.

It may be time for us to move on from one card readings and start with a tres petit tableau to play with the interconnected and mutually modifying card relationships.

Although, admittedly, I’m beginning to think good old Marie used the cards a prop as much as anything, laying them all out on the table and letting the psychic reading fly, occasionally making something up about the cards in front of her to justify what intuition had just told her. Which is as good of a use of the cards as any. They are props and prompts in the end, no matter how structured or methodical our approach to the cards may be.

*shrugs* who knows

There is your Tarot lesson for today: Trust your intuition.

Trust it when you are using Tarot cards, no matter how you use the cards. Trust it in pure form just out and about in daily life. Like a full moon in the middle of the night, trust your own good intuition to light the way.

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Meditation Practice

Meditation Tarot

Members get free one card meditation style Tarot readings by email (upon your request) and discounts on larger layouts. Please visit HERE for more details

“The real meditation practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

Former MIT educator and author of Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994) – a title that I always assumed was a nod to one of my favorite movies, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension

“No matter where you go, there you are.” – Buckaroo Banzai (1984)

Visit the Ask Me Anything page or leave a question in the comments for a free Tarot answer in the blog.

Private readings are OPEN throughout the holidays. Order email Tarot readings 24/7 no appointment needed. Fulfillment times vary. (I’m only one real world person with a day job after all)

Meet Your Reader:

Tincture of Time

The most difficult and deepest healing

“Time heals all wounds”

Deep healing requires the tincture of time.

Time is often the bitterest pill to swallow in our emotional healing. The slow changes time brings are often the most bittersweet. Patience with ourselves and everyone else is necessary medicine, but often the most difficult to create.

The seven of coins calls us to be patient and let the most difficult medicine of all, time, work its healing magic.

Email readings are OPEN all holiday season long. Delivery times vary, especially during nights, weekends and holidays (US eastern) After all, it is just me and my cards and my laptop and my annual panic knitting – but I get the readings to you ASAP with a photo of your real world card layout and my (more than I card to admit) years experience card reading included. Pro Tip: read the whole list to find a layout and price to fit every questions and budget from $5 for one card (FREE for members) up to $40 for a full 7 card layout. Click HERE to order, no appointment needed!

Members only post today

Members only post today. Members get free and discounted tarot readings, plus exclusive content.

New blog post for everyone on Monday.

Sage Sips Membership on Ko-fi is $5 per month.

Member benefits include:

Free one card PRIVATE Tarot readings by email upon request.
Discount prices for larger layouts
DM access
exclusive content on the ko-fi blog

Join HERE

I hope you have a relaxing and fun weekend too! See you at Monday’s sip!

Learn With Me: Lenormand, latitude

Latitude to let your intuition roam

Want to try a one card Lenormand reading? Leave your question in the comments and get a free reading in the blog.* Sage Sips members get free private by email one card Tarot readings on request. Please click HERE for details.

For several weeks we’ve been learning about the Lenormand Tarot deck the same way I learned Oracle and RWS Tarot cards back in the ’90s: card by card by card. One card daily meditations is an excellent way to learn to read Tarot in larger layouts.

Just as a reminder, Lenormand Tarot card readings do not use or consider reversals. That is significant with today’s cards because:

Latitude.

In RWS deck readings, intuition leads the way when deciding if and how a reversal is significant. Lenormand eliminates that intuitive opportunity, but replaces it with another. It has another way to give you a little latitude to use your intuition.

Today the playing card inset takes the lead on our card, the Heart.

In Lenormand, the playing card inset is what gives us an easy, safe structured way to learn to read with pure intuition. In RWS, you can practice pure intuition when you decide if an how to use a reversal. In Lenormand, you can practice pure intuition when you decide if and how much the playing card inset factors into the card’s message in a given reading. Both scenarios give us a defined safe space to practice intuition that isn’t guided by established card meanings.

You know how multiple choice tests in school always seemed easier than being faced with a blank sheet of paper and being asked to write an essay about something? It’s a bit of the same thing here. Using your intuition to decide between two defined things (reverse vs upright, is the inset a factor or not) is easier than a free form psychic reading without the help of cards or anything.

That isnt’t to say that you should discount the main image when the inset steps up as the stronger energy. They always work together. Think about ballroom dancing: One person leads, but both partners dance. Dancing well together, the two dancers make something wonderful. And so it is with Lenormand images and their playing card insets.

Today’s heart card is just what you expect – love, romance, commitment. Christopher Butler, this deck’s author, puts it with the ring card to mean marriage or committed partnership, fully fitting with the European culture that gave us both Lenormand and visconti-sforza (Marseilles, RWS) based decks.

The Heart card is very analogous to the two of cups.

The Jack is knight energy, hearts connect with cups, so we have some elements of the knight of cups here, too. That brings a more flirty, fickle, but active element to it. To my eye, the active, action piece of it is in the forefront.

Put it all together and we have our advice for today: ACT on the love you feel. Compassion and kindness is love put into action.

Social media and the blog will be on a long weekend break but email private Tarot reading orders are OPEN – and will be all holiday season.

Delivery times might vary a bit as we work through all the Elfcon levels (panic knitting – ENGAGE!) but you can order anytime, 24/7.

The blog and socials will be back Monday Nov 13, 2923

*The “leave a question in the comments and get a one card reading in the blog” offer is back full time, for any blog reader. After 12-31-23 it will revert back to using the RWS card deck.

If you want a fully private one card reading by email, you can order at the link above (only $5 !)

Thank you so much for reading. See you at the next sip!

About Sage Words Tarot

Every now and then, I’ll remind the blog of other pages on the website. This page tells you about my reading style

Sage Words Tarot is:

Inspired by Taoist simplicity, authenticity, honesty and kindness.
Transparent: Up front, flat rate pricing and clear business policies
Inclusive: You can be yourself with me
Safe Space: No spam, proselytizing, hate or bigotry is tolerated
Customized: The energy message adapts to your individual needs
Experienced: 30 years of Tarot in every reading
Dynamic: Always learning and updating to bring you the best reading possible
Authentic: No predictions, no stage mentalism
Comfortable: No drama, just advice, ideas, inspiration and encouragement
Affordable: priced per layout, not per minute.

I’m a writer, so email Tarot is my specialty. Email readings tend to be vivid and concise. Email Tarot is ideal for book lovers, introverts and anyone who wants maximum privacy. Email Tarot is a reader’s reading.

Order email readings HERE 24/7, no appointment needed

In-person or online/phone readings are light, chatty, social and above all FUN! You get the exact same reading either way. Live readings are available by appointment.

Contact SageWordsTarot@gmail.com for more information or to schedule.

Come As You Are

Your Tarot message comes first!

My blog and YouTube channel are NOT monetized. I don’t get a penny from any advertising you see. With me, your Tarot message comes first, not an advertiser’s. Please support the blog and channel with private email Tarot orders, ko-fi membership or virtual coffee. Your likes, subs, and social media shares are always appreciated too!

Perfect!

A kitten is perfect for the Page of Wands today. The page is typically associated with youth and exuberance…we’ve talked about that new graduate vibe before.

Today the page is taking a sip from the six of cups too. There is a sense of the six’s innocence, guilelessness, utter transparency and default setting of seeing things as they are and taking them at face value.

It’s as good of a way as any to take on a routine day.

Please come back tomorrow as we look at a new Lenormand Tarot card as the Learn With Me series continues.

The Zombie Cat free reading offer is CLOSED, but you can always leave a Tarot question in the comments or “ask me anything” page to get a free Tarot answer in the blog.

Thanks for reading. See you at the next sip!