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Hello and welcome to the Energy Path reading for the week of September 4 – 11. I’m glad you are here.
Change and cycles are still a thing this week, but in a different way. It feels like it has moved from a general environment thing to being more personal advice. The lingering Moon card energy from the past few weeks feels like it has turned a corner, ebb is beginning to flow. The mental image here is outgoing tide, not at all the “slack water” energy from a few weeks ago.
At the same time there is emphasis on change. Now it has shifted to a more intense, personal, evolutionary change more than broad, gentle, slow, tectonic shift natural cycles.
Two other things come to mind, generally.
First, we are responsible for who we are now. Yes, life has been hard. Yes, you have experienced trauma of all sorts. Yet, you can heal, you can rise again, you can overcome. Destruction becomes disappointment becomes release.
It gets better when you get to the point where you can, at last, let it go.
“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” – Alan Watts
Second, as I listen to my favorite darkwave playlist-
If we choose who we are now, why do I and others choose dark, goth-ish, witchy, INTP, neon cyberpunk self-expression.
Yes, I said choose.
We could be all bright and karen and hot girl summer if we wanted to do that – but we don’t.
And we are doing right by ourselves and our souls and for society at large by doing so. I am reminded of the adage that religion is for people who want to avoid hell while spirituality is for those who have already been there. Perhaps the kindest people are the ones unafraid of the dark because they have walked there so often before.
Sometimes, the most revolutionary thing you can do for your shadow side is to admit it exists.
Why revel in what some call darkness? Consider the alternative: false, toxic positivism.
The Ten of Swords truthfully and directly acknowledges our injuries and our circumstances. The figure stays face down and flat to allow the profound change of either death or healing to begin.
This phase is fading. We’ve been down, so to speak, but the tide is turning. It is time to once again rise.
We rise, not fully transformed, but with lingering disappointment. Traces of old experience can cling. Now is a time of contemplation, of coming to understand what happened and is happening. Swords may be intellect and action, with a certain physicality to it all, if not from our physical person then from our social environment. The Five of Cups is about the emotional aftermath of whatever the Ten of Swords represents for you.
Growing energies are the Wheel. This is the change of the death card plus the cyclic nature of the Moon card plus the transformation energy of the Magician card all rolled into one. We are coming to a potent time of change, and a potent time of choosing the person we will be five minutes from now.
We are under no obligation to be the person we were before but we are under every obligation to choose who we will become five minutes from now.
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The Lenormand series begins Wednesday September 20 in honor of the Autumnal Equinox.
Two days ago was a “blue moon.” It’s not common, but it’s not spectacular. It’s not something that is going to grab you by the nose and make you look. A blue moon is just two full moons in the same calendar month. It is a subtle thing because most of us go through life not knowing what phase the moon is in on any given night. No matter what the cool social media graphics show, the moon is the same color it always is.
It was also a “super” moon. Google “perigee” and “apogee.” Orbits aren’t perfect circles. They are off a little, just a tiny bit ovalish and wobbly. Sometimes the moon passes just a little bit closer to earth and seems a tiny bit big-ish because of it. That’s a so-called super moon — any full moon during a close perigee kind of orbit.
These little details don’t happen often, and they both happen at the same time less often, but it is still one of those natural cycles we’ve been talking about. It’ll be a while, but there will be another super blue moon in time.
Super moons and blue moons are slow and subtle things. So are tides and seasons and the growth of trees. That’s the kind of changing and shifting energy that has been around lately. Slow, gradual, gentle change but change nonetheless. Even continental drift will get you to the other side of the planet eventually.
I suspect energies will move on come Monday’s Energy Path reading. It feels like the gentle cycle change has peaked and is drifting beyond. Here I again I intuitively hear the song “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Beyond Thunderdome)” It seems like energies are gently moving beyond thunderdome, not back to paradise.
Queen of Bombs: Denying the darkness has never lit a candle.
I don’t know if it was Odin’s day, but it was a day.
Enduring comfort is an illusion. Nothing is certain. It isn’t pretty or pleasant, but neither is life. Not all of the time, anyway.
To deny the realities of life is as toxic and dangerous as any other risk or challenge life brings – perhaps more so because of its disguises. The most dangerous disguise of denial is that of comfort.
Tarot is labeled occult and evil, usually by those who wish to wrap us all in the paralytic comfort of their own delusions and desperation for control. Tarot has has dark and violent imagery representing the darker sides of human nature because darkness exists and Tarot is meant to help us cope with it, perhaps even thrive in it.
Denying the darkness has never lit a candle.
The Queen of Bombs comforts us not through glassy eyed and fanatical devotion to an impossible ideal, but by reminding us of the fleeting moments and reminding us of the endless human capacity to believe it just might be OK in time after all.
The Queen of Bombs card was created by Seven Dane Asmund for the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck. Deck used with permission.
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Major arcana energy is right in the middle of it.
You know that moon energy that has been lingering the past few weeks? The same message is here but in a more direct, confrontational way. Major arcana cards tend to be more energetic, urgent, profound, far reaching…you name it.
The literal full moon is in two days. I chalk that up to a good old fashioned Jungian sychronicity – a meaningful coincidence. The Moon card has shifted to the Death card, but the energy of change remains.
As we all know from watching the Simpsons, the death card isn’t literal death…it is a big change. It’s not ‘you are going to get hit by a bus’ death, it is the death of an old view, action, persona…the “old” you that makes way for a new you. This is the ‘natural cycle’ energy from the past few week’s Moon card and the ‘only the empty cup can be filled’ energy we talked about last week but with the volume turned up to 11.
The cup is brimming, and is soon to turn over. The moon is nearly full, it’s time for tides to turn. This week feels like a tipping point of some sort.
Maybe it is the outrageously loud pavement cutting and water line work that is going on in front of my house right now, but I have a twitchy, gut churning ‘bad feeling about this’ worthy of Princess Leia. Something is up somewhere, but I don’t know what and I don’t know when. All I can do is sit here and take my own advice.
Fading energy: Queen of Pentacles, reversed. The Queen of Pentacles in any orientation is about nurturing. Often it is about nurturing yourself to preserve your capacity to help and nurture others. The reversal makes it feel like a reminder to let others nurture you. We all need a little care. If you don’t even have the reserves to care for yourself, allow others to help. Just ask nicely. It’s that simple. The fading energy here may be ours. It doesn’t feel like a go-getter, entrepreneurial kind of week. Astrology might blame it on the Mercury in the microwave phenomenon – it feels like a bigger pattern, more of a tectonic shift than a zippy little optical illusion.
Current Energy: Death. The funky mojo energy reminds me of the beginning of covid to be honest. Maybe we are finally shifting out of that phase of human history. It doesn’t feel quite like impending doom, but a sea change of some sort. Sea change is a good way to put it…it connects with the moon cycle, ebb and flow imagery that has been so prominent lately. The phrase “Brave New World” comes to mind, although it doesn’t feel like an Aldus Huxley reference at all. The unknown can be gut-twistingly frightening. Maybe that is the bell ringing resonant energy that is going on here. We are finally moving out of that storm, cleaned up a little of the mess and are being forced to face facts. Everything has changed and will never be the same again.
I’m going to go put “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Beyond Thunderdome)” on loop. Maybe we are looking at the unknown beyond Thunderdome so to speak. Ah – there it is – “I wonder when we are ever gonna change, change Living under the fear, ’til nothing else remains.” Is this going to be fear or freedom for us? I suspect it will be whichever we choose.
Growing energy: Five of Pentacles
It’s interesting that the Pentacles are the only minor arcana cards showing this week. It’s right back to that hunker down and be practical vibe from 2020. Maybe this really is the unknown other side. Again, the sense of this card as fearful or freeing is again up to us to our choice.
The card also brings to mind a TikTok I saw yesterday. I forget the creator, it was something survival. It was a very sped up video of someone who dug a hole and built a survival shelter out of branches and dry grass & mud daub. They even dug out a fireplace (about the size of a small cooler) complete with chimney.
I looked like a totally warm, dry Hobbit hole when it was done.
The Five of Pentacles is about seeking shelter in a storm.
You can focus on the storm or you can focus on the sanctuary that is available for you to take. Again, our choice.
I ‘hear’ “wrap your wisdom around you like a cloak.” Sheltering through a storm means gathering in, yin, not pushing, not being ostentatious. But it also means being happy that shelter exists to take.
Sometimes humble but sturdy and reliable is a wonderful thing. Look for those kinds of things and take whatever shelter you need this week.
Thank you for reading! Your support through likes, follows, social media shares, and comments is always appreciated! Nothing on this blog is paywalled anymore, and none of my social media is monetized so YOUR Tarot message always comes first. Your support through private readings, memberships, and virtual coffee tips are what fuels it all.
Next up – Wednesday “Odinsday Oracle” – not because I’m not particularly Norse pagan but I am, however, fond of alliteration and Neil Gaimon novels.
This has been a learning experience for me – for you, too, I hope.
I think there is more to take away from this than just dice & image meanings.
This series has been a proof of concept experience: the REAL oracle is our human intuition. Tools and amplifiers like dice, cards, tea leaves, charms, chicken bones or whatever are truly just that. These things and techniques are portals, energizers and amplifiers that help us to access and communicate our own innate intuition and psychic ability better. Because they have a similar function in support of our innate intuition, different oracles can be learned and used in similar ways. There is a great deal of overlap on the energy / intuitive level despite surface differences.
Consciousness and the human experience is expansive and too enormous for any one oracle to encapsulate everything for everyone. The exponential combinations of a handful of cards or dice come close. There are 138 sides in the dice set, rolling 22 dice – if you calculate it out, you get a number so big I don’t even know how to name it. Still, we can learn to work within that enormity and use these intuition helpers in the same way we learn anything. Learning an oracle tool can be logical, methodical and intuitive all at the same time.
We’ve dug down through the layers starting with the individual images on the dice, the meanings associated with the individual dice cubes. In the last post, we talked about connecting all of those things.
The foundation goes full circle. Once you dig down to the nitty-gritty and build up all of the layers of meaning, you have to knit it all together. Think of language – it’s no coincidence we call these things readings. We’ve learned words (side images) and we’ve learned the syntax and grammar (dice, lord cards) now it’s time to make some sentences. It’s time to take this whole project and make it make sense and be use-able. A reading takes all of the digging and layerering and glues it all together into some sort of cohesive whole. THAT is the hardest part. The level of difficulty increases exponentially with each moving part in a reading and the trillions of potential combinations in the case of a 22 dice roll. That is why genuine psychics still exist – anyone can learn to do this, but not everyone has the knack or desire to do all of that digging and layering and gluing. If you pay for an authentic professional reading, you are getting real artistry and skill.
This is also why I cap my Tarot layouts at 7 cards. Larger layouts, like the Celtic Cross or a full 22 dice throw are certainly DO-able, I just find them unwieldy, potentially contradictory and just plain overkill. Why use a chainsaw when all you need is a pair of scissors?
Here is how I’m going to do this…it might not 100% align with the method described in the guide book, but I’m taking artistic liberty since I’m only using a portion of the dice instead of the full roll described.
Since the reading cloth image is a circle, and the dice can potentially orient in any direction of those 365 degrees, I’m going to read the image as-is, no consideration to reversals as you would in Tarot when the cards are all aligned along a single axis.
The dice on the “core” area hold more immediate importance and strength compared to the dice in the outer areas. You all know how I feel about predictions, so tying this to time just doesn’t work for me. I used this side of the reading cloth because as I was setting up for the video, this side felt most right – perhaps most needed by the most people of those who watch and read this. Rather than past, present, future and fated, I think of this in terms of strength of the energy’s influence: Core is the strongest then fated, future, present and past in descending order of influence. Yes, that is very much like the fading-current-growing energy card positions that I wrote into my Tarot layout. I’ve used it for years, and it. Just. Works. It makes sense to continue that proven foundation in this new oracle method.
Since all of the dice fell in the main center circle, that’s as far as I’ll take it. The guidebook talks about how to handle dice on the outer portions of the reading cloth or that fall off of the cloth or table altogether. I leave that for you to figure out if you are interested in getting a set of dice and reading for yourself.
Of the two dice that fell in the core circle, the slightly higher one, relative to where I’m sitting, most catches my attention. It is the grey relations dice on the “alone” face. It shows a single person in a bubble.
The guide book divides the interpretation of any die between when the die lands in the core and when it is elsewhere. In the core, the “alone” face speaks to the querent being the sole focus of the reading (which is my policy for all readings anyway.) This interpretation is a validation for me of something that has been niggling at me for the past few posts – this really is an intensely focused, intimate, personal, individual oracle. This oracle tool isn’t well suited to the at-large collective energy readings of the type we do here with Tarot cards. This is a fantastic tool and technique, but for private readings, not blog readings.
The other core is the action die. When we first rolled it, we saw the “judgment” face with scales and a lot of justice energy. This is the “sacrifice” face, intended (especially at the core) to represent something large and difficult that is being released or a big sacrifice that was made to gain something currently in the querent’s life. Seven Dane Asmund cautions that it “is likely to be a gut wrenching reading. Be prepared.”
Next in level of intensity, we have two dice in the “fated” area. The one on the right catches my attention the most of the two. That is the Elements die on the “wind” face and it relates to a fickle, difficult or changeable person or situation. I get an eight of wands sort of energy here – things up in the air, out of our control, and it is a matter of waiting to see where things land before we can assess and react.
The other high energy “fated” die is the Goblin on the “obsession” face. The guidebook mentions how this die is very often modified or characterized by nearby dice. In this case, the fickle, changeable, difficult, up in the air,beyond reach, not under our control thing has been top of mind, perhaps too much. Taken together with the sacrifice die face – we get a “let it go” message.
The next tier of energy, “present” gives us the same face of the Summer die that we first saw, “gain.” This die is off alone and gives a stand-alone vibe. It feels simple and good and an omen of good fortune – this is a good energy time for paying attention to your creativity and livelihood, especially if the two intersect somehow. All good vibes with that one.
The lowest energy brings the obstacles dice on the emergence face which edges out the Alley die and its “scavenge” face which feels very much on its way out of the door. Of those two the energy definitely lies with the “obstacles” die and its “emergence” image.
The image depicts escape from obstacles, or from a mental or emotional trap. This “getting unstuck” feeling resonates with Hanged Man in reverse in Tarot. There is also a similarity to the five of swords in Tarot with this “overcoming obstacles” energy, especially as Matt Evans drew the five of swords for the Witches Tarot deck. There is also a bit of the Queen of Swords in the way the die relates to “recognizing your power in the moment and rising up beyond what has kept you from feeling free” as the oracle author puts it.
Being in this low key position on the cloth, whether you look at it as time related or not, reminds us that breaking free, picking up the mantle of our power, living free and true to ourselves is not a one time event but instead is an ongoing process.
And there if feels like the energy steps back bringing this reading to a conclusion.
Once again, many thanks to Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC for permission to use his excellent Tarot, dice and oracle cards in this blog and associated social media.
In a few weeks we’ll start a new “learn with me” series looking at the Lenormand Tarot. I’ll be using the Healing Light Lenomand deck under the “free teaching” permissions granted by the publisher https://www.llewellyn.com/about/permissions_tarot.php
Newletter / digest will be on Medium later today. No “weekend shif” Friday post this week. Next up, it seems is next week’s energy path reading.
Thank you so much for reading today and following along with this first “learn with me” series.
Any likes, blog subscriptions (it’s free! Just enter your email in the right column or a the bottom of the mobile page) social media follows (@sagewordstarot) like, shares and comments are all much appreciated!
You can read more about that over-arching, cyclic Moon major arcana energy in the Weekend Shift post. There is a new focus today, but that gentle, cyclic, guiding Moon card energy is still with us.
Welcome to Sage Sips, Tarot for your week in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
Against the backdrop of Moon energy, I’m getting succinct, common sense, solid useful advice. Eat your vegetable, exercise, get enough sleep, drink enough water, wash your damn hands and when difficult emotions come around, follow this advice.
Interestingly it is an energy cycle very akin to what we were talking about a few weeks ago when Dharma Drum Mountain’s Four Steps for Handling a Problem came to mind. This is pretty much the same idea except it’s directed toward any strong, difficult emotions.
“You can’t fill an empty cup” is one of the best known Zen proverbs. Usually it refers to ego getting in the way of learning and mindful experience. In this case, the cups cards represent emotion. We can let old traumas cripple and pierce and fetter us, like the ten of swords or we can face them honestly and directly and masterfully, like the King of Cups.
Dwelling in the past isn’t a helpful thing in these cases. Just as Dharma Drum’s Ch’an Buddhism teaches us to let go of a problem once we’ve done all in our power to understand and solve it, today’s reading reminds us to let go of emotions that no longer inform us or serve us.
Full emotional cups that are dumped out unceremoniously dumped without thought or consideration just fill up all over again.
Full emotional cups that stay full beyond their time leave no room for growth or new happiness.
I’m not really sure what it means – it feels way out of context – but I ‘hear’ (meaning the intuitione comes as words or music instead of mental images) “Pour one out for your homies.” To me the vibe is like a ceremony or libation or communion with a symbolic pouring or drinking in honor of spirit or a crossed over loved one or something emotional and ceremonial and spiritual like that.
I wonder, too, if the growing energy Ace of Cups turned upside down is a reminder to pay attention to our spiritual life, our communion with whatever it is that we spiritually revere.
*raises mug of coffee to my spirit guide crew in deep gratitude*
Against the backdrop of last week’s Moon card energy, we are given a glimpse into the cycle of healthy human emotional experience: Feel. Abide. Release. Feel again.
Thank you all for reading. I appreciate your time and attention. Your likes, shares, blog follows, private reading orders, questions and comments are always appreciated. See you at the next sip!
Consider this from Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Facebook:
“In a deck of 52 playing cards, the total number of possible shuffles is Astronomical: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ** If a trillion people each shuffled a deck of cards a trillion times per second… ** And they each did this for a trillion years… ** And it occurred in a trillion civilizations across our universe…. ** And that played out in a trillion universes across the multiverse… ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ On your next shuffle, only then is there a nearly even chance your deck will match any previously shuffled deck. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Which means any time you fully shuffle a deck of cards, it’s not likely to match any deck that has ever been shuffled before.”
A Tarot deck has 78 cards. That makes repetition of a shuffle even more unlikely.
The Alleyman’s Tarot has multiples of major arcana cards plus the “Strange Suit” plus the “Other Arcana” plus expansion packs – do depending on how a Tarot reader has customized their deck, this has over 130 cards which raises the magnitude of mind blowing and makes repetition damn near impossible.
Yet here we are. The Moon, albeit with different cards and art, has been here two weeks in a row. Sure, you can argue things like shuffling technique, cutting vs dealing, a pure, raw coincidence – I’ll leave the pedantry and calculations to the scientists and mathematicians.
Still, my layman’s guess is the odds of this happening are somewhat less than 50-50. All things considered, this card means business. It went from current energy two weeks ago to a growing energy position this past Monday. It’s almost like it backed up in order to take a better aim at us.
While we are on the topic of mind-blowing statistics, let look at a little bit of science juxtaposed with some of the Moon cards classic meanings. I’m not saying that science explains Tarot or supports the existence of magick…I’m just saying that the scientific and the spiritual give us some lovely, complimentary analogies.
The Moon card is associated with water, emotions, intuition, psychic ability, spiritual journey, women’s intuition and natural cycles.
The actual moon is just as mind-blowing as its spiritual side and card-shuffling statistics.
Lots of planets have moons. Some planets have lots of moons. We have one that spins in just the right way to allow the same side to always face us here on Earth’s surface. Amid all of its phases and changes, there is an element of constancy and therefore comfort. The moon changes, but it changes in predictable ways that small schoolchildren know. Even when it backs up and aims right for us, Moon card energy is gentle and comforting at the same time it is spiritually empowering.
The Moon card energy is clearly lingering. As the weekend goes on, it is clearly shifting too. My guess is that it will be a background energy that continues even as the focus moves on to other things as the new week begins. Look for natural cycles large and small to shift and turn. Look to the sky for comfort of Earth’s changing yet constant companion.
Sage Sips weekly digest plus the page of pentacles
Things aren’t that newsy at the moment – whew!
If variety (and change) is the spice of life, then the past couple of years have been kind of ghost peppery.
The big pieces have fallen into place and are gelling nicely. Still putting some fine points on some minor details.
Closed the Substack and moved the “newsletter” to Medium. ALL content there is free same as it is here on the main blog – no more paywalled content here, either.
On the new platform, it is going to be less “newsletter” and more of a weekly digest summary linking to the new content here over the week prior. So if you want new content hot off the cyberspace presses right to your inbox, follow this blog. If you get way too much email and just want a weekly summary, follow me on Medium HERE
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