Hold Peaceful Space

You’ve heard the term “hold space” but what kind of space are you holding?

What is inside that space we are always talking about holding?

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Or tea. Or adult beverage. Or whatever it is you are sipping this time of day. I’m glad you are here.

Every profession loves its jargon and jazzy acronyms. Spiritual or psychic work is no different. Speaking just for Tarot readers, we have a whole glossary of terms that make sense to us, but may or may not make sense to people who don’t spend their day immersed in the woo woo.

The phrase “hold space” is an example.

It is a little hard to imagine, since there isn’t a really good physical world analog. How do you hold space? In a jar with a lid? Does a bowl or coffee mug count?

Holding space is a mental and emotional process more than a tangible thing, although there are tangible things that one can do to symbolize and support the internal process of holding space. That’s why sometimes people who want to find long term romantic partnership are sometimes advised to clear out a drawer or a closet and literally make space in their life for the soulmate that they hope to find. It creates a mindset as much as it creates a later convenience.

It’s a hard thing to put into words, but I would define holding space as “mindfully allowing” combined with the far more familiar “save my seat.”

When we say hold space it also relates to the principle from science that “nature abhors a vacuum.” When we create space, nature tends to flow something into it. If you put a bowl out in a rainstorm, it collects more water than a brick because of the space the bowl holds that the brick doesn’t have. When you pull back on the plunger of a syringe, it holds space in the barrel for the medicine to flow in.

When we admit that something can be a part of our life, then we save its seat, we save that thing’s spot in line next to us. Admit can mean confess or confirm the truth of something, or it can mean allow someone in, as a ticket to an event is admission to that event. When we admit that we want something, that is a step toward admitting that thing into your life.

Doing the literal work or preparing a literal space is another step.

Today’s nine of wands points out another aspect of that process. It’s an aspect that I don’t think gets much thought or attention sometimes.

Desire and a fear and desperation that you may never get what you want can make the whole holding space thing messy if not impossible .

If you want to save space, to hold space for something or someone to come in, the quality of the space may affect the admission process.

Think of a literal room.

If a room is cold or noisy or missing a window or missing a big part of the outside wall…who or what would want to inhabit that space? If a room is secure, comfortable, quiet and inviting, who or what is going to want to stay there?

If that room is metaphor for part of your heart, mind, awareness or emotions, what are you asking in? What is that inner room going to attract? More importantly, is that inner space you are holding one you are willing to live in one the hoped-for person, thing or situation arrives?

The theory applies to anything. If you hold a peaceful place within, then you can be safe and warm and comfortable and happy while you are waiting for your invited guest to arrive. You can be safe and warm and happy even if the invited guest never comes.

Whether you are hoping for prosperity or a soulmate or whatever it is, pay attention to the mental and emotional space that you are inviting the wanted person or thing to enter. The more peaceful the space, the happier the end result.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. I have a few more thoughts about this card and empaths, but we can pick up that thread another day.

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Thanks again! See you at the next sip!

Pigs and Squirrels

Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

Some days you just call it a day

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the five of swords. It’s one of those cards that gives the swords suit its reputation for being doom and gloom bearer of bad tidings. Not everything in life is all cotton candy and unicorns. It’s Tarot’s job to get in our face about the messy parts of life as much as it is to inspire us with the pretty ones. Tarot’s symbolism is both because life and nature is both, to borrow the sentence pattern from that line in that movie The Craft.

The five of swords is, at least in part, about winning at all costs and when the costs are too high. Hannibal and the elephants he used to cross the alps and win a victory in one battle against the Romans, but ultimately lose the war is the classic example of this. He started with 37 elephants and only one survived or some such thing.

Of course, my favorite telling of the Hannibal story is Eddie Izzard’s brilliant stand up bit about the Latin language including something about elephants looking like squirrels in the front and pigs in the back.

Thinking of that favorite piece of video (it’s on the internet, and I recommend it) might be a little carry over from yesterday’s Tarot Turnover where we talk about how to read Tarot on the members only blog. Yesterday’s card was the Page of Cups, which always carries a little bit of humor and absurdity. I mean, it shows a dude on a beach staring at a fish in a cup. Whatever other symbolism that may hold, it is on its face a little silly.

So are pigs and squirrels.

When we combine the two cards we get a reminder very apropro to a Monday morning like this.

Ridiculousness and absurdity might be a clue.

When things are dramatically not going your way, when you run headlong straight into a wall, it might be time to pack up your pigs and squirrels and cross the Alps another day.

Winston Churchill may have equated victory with survival, but is that really the victory we are stressing over? If this card speaks to you today, it may be time to stop and evaluate your goals. If it is survival, yes, by all means do that.

If your goal is a quick mocho-choco -frozo-latte when there is a line at the coffee shop, then this is your cue to ease up, and define victory a little differently. Be kind to yourself AND the local barista. Is this really as big of a deal as it feels? Is it worth it? What do we define as a success? Do we need to re-visit and change our goals and our definition of success? What is really, really worth every bit of your persistence and resources and what should be left for another day?

Thanks so much for reading and listening. I wish you and all of your pigs and squirrels a lovely Monday.

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See you at the next sip!

A Cup of Cigars

Some days are more absurd than spiritual

It’s not a particularly well known interpretation – but the Page of Cups with the Pamela Smith artwork always brings to mind a certain whimsy and a reminder to not take things so deadly serious all of the time. It’s ok to have a sense of humor about things, even the spiritual and abstract. It’s ok to embrace the absurd and let your freak flag fly and let life be what it is in all of it’s glorious absurdity.

I’m also reminded of the Sigmund Freud quote “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” I see an element of that in the Page of Cups. Some days just aren’t cut out for serious, ponderous, high flying, deep thought spirituality. Some days just hand you a fish in a cup, which is infinitely better than a cup of cigars, don’t you think….

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When the Road is Wide

There is plenty of room for everyone.

The universe is a pretty wide road.

Have you ever seen an official balance beam for gymnastic competitions? They are 10 cm or around 4 inches wide. It’s hard enough to walk on one, much less do what olympic gymnasts do. Staying centered and balanced and in the middle of one of those is a darn good trick.

Now think of a flat path or sidewalk that is, lets say, about 1 meter or a little over 3 feet wide. Compared to a balance beam, how hard is it to find and walk down the middle of that?

Or walk down the middle of a football field?

The advice here is don’t make your path narrower than it has to be. Don’t make life narrower than it is. When life is wide, the middle way still encompasses a lot of territory.

The middle way of a wide path is big enough to encompass your comfort zone.

The middle way of a wide path is big enough for everyone.

Be kind to yourself and be kind to those who walk alongside of you. In a path as wide as the cosmos, there is plenty of room for all of us and every definition of middle, balanced and OK.

Look for slightly, not so slightly and completely unrelated content on Sage’s Other Words blog

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Warmest Welcome and Hello Friends

Welcome Followers old and new! I’m so glad you are here.

Thank you so much to everyone who has ordered private readings and subscribed to the free blog over the past couple of months! It really means a lot.

A lot.

Part of my brain thinks changing names is Internet suicide while another part of thinks it is genius because, let’s face it, Tao could just as easily be a Chinese boy band member as could be a philosophy reference and Craft brings glue guns and Martha Stewart to mind just as much as anything witchy.

So much for trying to be clever. Thank you from the bottom, top and middle of my Tarot heart for sticking with this through all of the renaming nonsense. At least now we are back to normal words that everyone can recognize and spell and whatnot.

Here is the rest of the 2023 overhaul:

  • Email, this site, the podcast, Ko-fi (shop, member’s blog, email readings) the YouTube channel, Facebook page, Instagram, Tumblr, and TikTok have been changed to the new name.
  • Closed the Twitter account because I wasn’t really interacting with it after the whole Musk/Trump’s back kerfuffle. If you want to say hi, and I hope you will, Instagram and TikTok have become the two accounts I actually scroll every day.
  • Party Tarot is CLOSED (let’s just say it didn’t survive covid)
  • In-person, live online, and small group Tarot are OPEN and available by appointment on a limited basis in select Pittsburgh (South Hills) neighborhoods.
  • EMAIL READINGS are open for purchase 24/7. Email is my specialty, my true Tarot love, and my priority. Reading orders are usually fulfilled within 12-18 hours but may take longer when you order nights, weekends or US holidays. Vacations and emergency closures are announced here on the main blog.
  • Social media content is not on any particular schedule. THIS BLOG is the one and only place to get ALL of the free Tarot content. If you follow the blog by email, it all shows up in your inbox – even if it isn’t on youtube, the podcast or the socials (like this post)

If you have followed for a while, you know I’ve sworn off sales, giveaways and all of those cutesy pants promotions. That will stay the same.

THIS on the other hand is a sincere thank you, from me to you, in appreciation of you being here at the end of the chaos and for joining up as everything moves forward. Welcome and THANK YOU.

As a way to say thanks, I’m doing this once, right here, right now, only on this blog and only until February 28, 2023. If you email me at the new address (SageWordsTarot@gmail.com) before with:

  1. Your name
  2. Your age
  3. Your question (or permission for an open reading)
  4. and the coupon code BLOGREADER

I’ll reply with a one card Tarot reading just for you …yes YOU…as an individual, not a general audience reading like we usually do for blog posts or the podcast.

That’s pretty much it.

I hope you like the new energy vibe. Names are symbolic mini-affirmations of who we are, what we have done and what we still hope to achieve.

Joy and Potential

Be the sparkly fireworks you want to see in the world.

Boom!

Hello and welcome to Sage Words Tarot and the Crystal Cast reading for the week of January 21-28. Happy New Year to our friends celebrating the Spring Festival and year of the yin water rabbit!

I’m still working on the physical mechanics of casting the crystals. Have to admit, this shake and toss and see what comes blowing out of the top of the bag is kind of fun. This one might have been a little overly-enthusiastic on my part. It will take some more practice and experimentation to dial it in. We’ll see how it goes. I’m curious as heck whether or not you all like these crystal reading or not. Good, bad or indifferent, please leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments. Heck, I’d even answer reading questions in the blog comments just for the practice. So have at it. No promises, but if you leave a question, there is a fair to middling chance that I’ll do a crystal reading for it. Which means that podcast people will have to use the link in the show description to leave their questions in the blog comments, but hey, it’s a free psychic reading so what can you say?

Back to these crystals.

The mental image that came when the crystals scattered like this was fireworks. Specifically those extra sparkly ones that glitter and shimmer as the remnants fall. It also reminded me a little bit of those holographic glitter nail polishes. The explosive quality to the energy and the way the crystal felt like they were volcano spewing out the top of the bag is a key point, but the happy glittery shiny celebratory quality to the feel and the energy is the bigger focus. It goes right along with the Lunar New Year celebrations. The sparkle is the thing. Joy and happiness is the fuel for the expansiveness of this week’s energy.

I am reminded of the FDR quote that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. And also the famous Mark Twain quote “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

This is such a warning against thinking or dwelling on potential problems that I don’t even want to bring it up as a thing to avoid.

The focus is on the sparkle, on the joy.

And it is all inside you.

You are the firecracker. You are the sparkler. This week it is up to you to light the fuse, not wait for external circumstances to do it for you

Don’t let fear be the wet blanket. If you feel it, don’t hold back. Let yourself be an explosion of joy. It’ll help everything go better for you, not to mention elevate the energy and help things go better for everyone around you.

It is said that like attracts like. Think of yourself as a magnet dragging through the week. If you were given the choice, what would you want sticking to you at the end of the week; ridiculous unreasonable happiness in SPITE of everything, or worry and stress BECAUSE of everything?

The visual for that in today’s reading lies in the clear quartz crystal chips. They are a happy sparkling POOF of happy when you look at them intuitively. They are pretty close to being just that literally as well.

The top of the two runes showing is Sowilo, associated with the sun, happiness, light and love. It is an interesting optical coincidence that this particular stone is reflecting light so strongly in the video that it is hard to read the rune.

The other, lower rune is Algiz, which has to do with protection, security, and guidance. It is much easier to feel happy when you feel safe.

Here, too, there is a sense of fearlessness, in a good way. I forget who posted it, but there was an Instagram post a few years ago that has stuck with me. I call it to mind whenever I start to feel any vague or general worry creeping in, especially about stuff that may or may not happen.

The context was a feed about paganism of some sort. They contrasted mainstream or Christian prayer to be protected vs the Germanic pagan mindset of petitioning Odin for the wisdom and strength to be able to protect ourselves.

I prefer the latter point of view.

Why? It just feels better, but also because of compassion.

Which petition has the greater potential to foster compassion? If we seek to be strong and wise, that strength and wisdom can in turn lead to protecting and caring for others. Asking to be pre-emptively protected doesn’t afford that same opportunity.

The desire to grow wise and strong and be a better person is a type of compassion toward oneself.

There are several runestones with their blank side showing. I also read that as potential, as one would expect from any reading that is looking forward. The future is all about seeing the potentials, not making predictions.

Look ahead to this week. Face it with all the courage and happiness you can muster. Light the fuse on a glittering explosion of joy, or at least indulge in a little sparkle. Your little POOF of happiness just might draw the best possible things out of a week full of potential.

Thank you all for reading and listening. Any likes, subs, shares or follows are always greatly appreciated.

Private readings by email are open. Your purchases, memberships and virtual coffees all support the blog and podcast.

Thanks again. Next up for me is the weekly learn to read Tarot post for the members only blog on ko-fi. After that, it is back to the usual Sage’s Sip of Tarot.

See you at the next sip!

The Weather That Is

The Empress reminds us to attune with nature. Find a way to enjoy the weather that is, not the weather you wish it to be. When is the weather is your favorite kind, enjoy it all the more. Email readings are OPEN and support this channel, the blog, and the podcast.