Focus for Flow

What is it about money that ties people up in knots?

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot, a nano blog-cast and Tarot reading in the time it takes to sip from your coffee, or tea, or adult beverage or whatever it is you sip this time of day. I’m glad you are here!

Today’s card is the six of pentacles. Pentacles are associated with the physical realm, often with career or wealth. The six in particular is said to represent generosity, money flow, sharing, paying kindnesses forward, that sort of thing.

Many long years ago, way back in the before times, in the very early days of my professional reading career, I had one of the nicest experiences with getting paid for my Tarot skills and it didn’t involve actual money at all.

After the reading, and after my modest fee was paid (I’m still super affordable by the way) the client and I were chatting about Reiki and natural health services in our area, and business cards for her new side venture as a masseuse. I forget the exact context, but the thing that rocked my world was when we shook hands at the end she said something like “I have money luck, now I’m sharing some of it with you.”

That was the last time I talked with that charming, vivacious lady. I don’t know how her new business turned out, but I do know this. Here mindset in that moment was a treasure, and I was touched by her easy generosity in sharing it.

In these days of supply chain issues, inflation, dire news about government money management and the general cost of living, finances can be a fear inducing to mildly terrifying thing.

I can’t promise you crazy things like attracting or manifesting wealth, but I can share a few thoughts that might take the edge of a little bit of the worry.

First I’m reminded of the quote from Disney’s Mary Poppins that “enough is as good as a feast.” Defining your “enough” simply and within your means may not actually pay the bills, but it might help untwist the gut-knots a little bit.

Yeah, I know. It’s a very Tao Te Ching kind of idea. Just because I changed the name of the blog and podcast doesn’t mean the influence went away.

The other helpful thing is the client’s gift to me.

Try it once. Just stop for a second and think of yourself the way she thought of her joyful self. Think of yourself as someone who is fortunate and the things you need come to you almost without effort. Just for a minute allow yourself to have money-luck.

That isn’t going to make things magically happen. This isn’t about the law of attraction or some cultish prosperity gospel. You still have to work and plan and hustle just like before. But try it. Thinking of yourself as having money luck shaves a tiny bit off of the fear of not having enough. When you are just that tiny bit less stressed, you might think a little clearer. You might find a solution or an option that was missing before. When you think of yourself as having money luck it gives you a particle of optimism that all of your work, planning and effort will pay off in the end after all.

Knowing how you are going to go about getting what you need is money luck and riches indeed.

Thanks for reading and listening. I hope you’ll hang around and explore all the free to read Tarot content on the website. It’s easy. Just enter a Tarot card or any key word in the search bar on the right hand side of the page.

The blog and podcast are not monetized and depend on readers and listeners – in other words, YOU. If you like what you’re reading and hearing, please click the white coffee mug with a heart on it and show the site a little love. Your private readings, shop purchases, memberships and virtual coffees all help make this blog and podcast possible.

Thanks again! See you at the next sip.

CrystalCast 16-23 January ’23

The adage “you never know until you try” is scientific experimentation in a nutshell. Don’t forget what Adam Savage said “Remember kids, the only between screwing around and science is writing it down.”

Hi and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot. This isn’t Tarot, and it isn’t exactly science, but this is me trying something new and this blog is me writing it down so it counts.

It is a bit of an experiment in progress, but CrystalCasts are back. CrystalCasts are pretty basic and simple. It’s based on a combination of scrying, old school charm casting psychic readings, Crystal Vaults style crystal chip readings, rune stones (I’m particularly inspired by Thom Pham‘s Rune Cards of Mannaz) and some good old fashioned pareidolia. I’ve put together a bag of crystals and rune stones, grab a handful at random, chuck them on my favorite Tarot reading cloth and see what happens.

I wanted to show you the part where I mix the bag to show that it is random. Didn’t expect the reading to spew out of the top like this, but I’m thinking it might be an improvement to keep doing it this way. That removes any unconscious psychomotor element from scattering the things by hand. You don’t know until you try, so let’s try. We’ll certainly be writing it down.

A picture is worth a thousand words of writing down, so if you are listening on the podcast, you might want to check out the photo of the crystals for this week over on the blog. If you put in your email, you’ll get all of the crystalcast post – all of the any kind of posts really – in your email inbox to make it easy for you to see.

The large rectangle thing in the middle is a rough cut, largely raw and uncut, clear quartz bead. As I’ve done more of these readings, that bead is taking on the role of significator, a stand in for self. It’s you. It’s me. It’s the anyone who is reading or listening to this if the reading resonates with you at all.

The dark crystal chips are obsidian, and carry a protective energy. See how they circle the big quartz significator? That gives me a “relax, the universe has your back” feeling. What you focus on is what you draw in. You know how when you are learning to drive they tell you to keep your eyes on the road because where you look is where you go? The same is true for esoteric energies and this is something to pay attention to this week. What you energize is what you call to you. Thinking about something energizes it. Worrying about something can energize it. Don’t call your fears to you. Energize the idea that your protective energies are high this week.

It is a good week for qigong and Reiki and other energy boosting practices if you are into that.

By the same token, see how many of the clear quartz chips are outside of the circle of obsidian chips but – importantly – the clear ones also spiral in toward the large significator bead? This is the opposite side of the same coin. If you can beware of energizing your fears and worries, by the same token you can be aware of energizing positive energies and drawing beneficial things toward you.

In short, this week the energies are protective with an influx of good things if you let it. You go where you look, just like driving a car.

Thanks for reading and listening! There is a ton of free Tarot content including all of the old posts written under the TaoCraft Tarot name on the blog website. Use the search bar in the right hand column to look for Tarot cards or topics. While you are in the right hand column, please consider clicking that white coffee mug and supporting this non-monetized, free to access blog and podcast.

Thanks again! See you at the next sip!

Beginning Is Changing

It really does happen. When it does, it is both spooky and cool and don’t you dare ignore it.

Hi and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot – a contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee, or evening tea, or daytime adult beverage or whatever the case may be.

It probably should have felt spooky or ooky or something but it actually felt more like ok, ok, I can take the hint.

When I first filmed today’s card, I got the Fool card but got the edge of the reading cloth in frame and it all just looked wonky so I scooped up the cards and re-shot the whole video. Granted, I didn’t re-shuffle because it was morning and that second cup of coffee was calling my name. Wouldn’t you know it. Cut right to the Fool again.

A tiny part of my brain was all “oooh I should feel all freaky about this” but the best I could really come up with was “welp, I guess YOU have something you want to say, don’t ya.”

I wish I could say there was something earth shaking about it.

No big revelation about all the new name change energy. No change your life pronouncements. No big wave of energy from the collective zeitgeist.

Sometimes little ideas can be big ah-HA moments for someone, somewhere.

The one simple little idea the Fool card brought today is just this: that in order for something to begin, something has to change.

No beginning, no change and no change, no beginning.

The proverb says that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. To take that step, you have to let go and give up your current location.

Frustrated that things aren’t moving, that things aren’t beginning? What are you holding on to? Why are your feet so firmly planted where they are?

To take your journey’s first step, you have to change where you are standing.

The TaoCraft Tarot archives and lots of free Tarot posts are available on the newly re-named Sage Words Tarot website & blog. There is a link to the website in the podcast show description. Like what you see? Buy Sage a coffee to sip while she reads Tarot for you. Readings and memberships all support this non-monetized blog, podcast and social media Tarot content.

Thanks for reading and listening. See you at the next sip!

Free Yourself

Healing requires a change of heart and mind

They don’t call it a hook for nothing.

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sips: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m Sage and I’m glad that you are here.

Sometimes, when things go a little wonky, you just pick up the pieces and go on without a second thought. It’s like the upside down or reversed cards we’ve talked about before. Sometimes it feels like nothing so I flip the card and keep going. Sometime the reversal feels significant so I read it as a caution that some aspect of the energy is blocked or turbulent.

The same process applies to making the youtube videos of the real world card draw that inspires all of the short sip posts and pods. Sometimes things get clumsy or stuck filming the card draw for the day. Most of the time I just scoop up the cards and re-do it so it fits into a 15 second tiktok or youtube short. Today I was the stuck one instead of the two cards that stuck together for this video. I thought about scooping up the cards and re-shooting, but I felt stuck on this and got a niggly little feeling that the other card…both cards together really… might be important.

Today we get the eight of swords PLUS the eight of cups.

The second card surprised me by being an eight card too. Getting two eight cards back to back feels significant. It might just be validation that the two cards are indeed connected and working in together for today’s message, but it feels bigger than that. Eight isn’t ringing any bells for me personally. What about you? Anybody with an August birthday? Anyone connecting to any August event: a birth, death, or any anything from any August in the past? Any connection with the eighth of any month? Any eight connection at all with the number 8 that lights up for you?

Is that vague and stage cold reading enough for you? Anybody and everybody can probably drum up some connection with either the number 8 or the month of August. All of these suggestions are the standard, banal, boilerplate interpretations of repeating numbers in a Tarot reading. I only mention it because it feels important to the collective energy part of this reading. Like everyone on the planet, I can think of a connection for me with August…so trust me. Your gut will undoubtedly know if your 8 or August connection is energetically significant or not. You’ll know if this is something meaningful that you should pay attention to, or if it is just coincidental B.S. that you can brush right off.

That, I suspect, is where all the scammy hype rip-off Tarot readers and psychics go off the rails by making some big, ego-inflating deal out of common coincidence rather than supporting your individual intuition.

Don’t listen to me, don’t listen to the cards. Listen to your own instincts. The cards, and my role as a reader is just to support your understanding with a few little nudges, creative prompts and lots of food for thought. In the end, your thinking matters more than any coincidences that might come along to fuel it.

Which brings us circling right back around to the the two-card message for today.

Swords have to do with mind, intellect and action. I’m reminded of a line from some 90s song “free your mind, and the rest will follow.” It was some pop song girl group, and I don’t remember a single thing else about it other than that one lyric, but that one line has always stuck. They don’t call it a hook for nothing. This is the message from the 8 of swords today. The card is talking about freeing your mind.

The figure on the card is surrounded by swords and blindfolded. One of the key ideas of this card is that freedom is still possible even when the odds seem stacked against you. The key is to use creative problem solving. In this Pamela Smith card image, the figure’s feet are bare but unbound, and there is a gap in the swords encircling the person. They’d have to be really, really REALLY careful but they could feel their way to freedom given enough time. There would be a price to pay in shallow cuts, but the freedom is possible with the right action.

The eight of cups is connected to emotions more than the cutting intellect and precise careful action suggested by the eight of swords. The eight of cups is about the bittersweet moving on from heartbreak into the future, from emotional devastation into emotional healing. Sure – there were good times. Sure – there were painful times. But sometimes the only way forward is through, and the only way through is to let the past go.

Now put both cards together – free your mind AND free your heart. For true freedom, both mind (attitude, understanding) and heart (feelings, intentions) have to change AND move on from the old ways. Both cards imply movement from a bad situation toward a better future.

Thank you all so much for reading and listening today. I hope everyone, including podcast listeners will follow the free blog, as I always have some blog only content in the works. You can opt in by putting your email in the box in the right hand column of the blog website (link is in the episode description for podcast folks). You can unsubscribe at any time, although obviously I hope you won’t. Instead of unsubscribing, send a blog comment. I use the feedback to improve things or get content ideas. So thanks in advance for any comments, questions, likes, subs, follows or shares that you can spare.

The blog, podcast and youtube channel are not monetized in any way and depend on audience support. Please visit the Ko-Fi page where your shop purchases, no appointment needed email tarot readings, memberships and virtual coffees all help me to bring you this free to access Tarot content.

Thanks again! See you at the next sip!

CrystalCast for 9 Jan 23

Echo and the Bunnyment were right: Bring on the Dancing Horses.

It’s weird, but it happens. I don’t think that’s what it is talking about, though.

Hi and welcome to Sage’s Short Sips podcast previously known as TaoCraft Tarot Podcast previously previously known as Clairvoyant Confessional podcast.

I know. I know. All the name changes are probably pretty kamakaze from a marketing and social media perspective, but I’m all about the Tarot and intuition. I’m letting go of the marketing part of all of this. Business, yes. Professional, yes. Crazy protective of our privacy, yes. Stressing over promotion? No thanks. You can read all about the name thing in the updated Meet Your Reader page on the website so I won’t get into that here.

Today is a Monday, and the start of the first full work week after the New Year’s Day observance last week. Instead of drawing a Tarot card, let’s work with a little pure intuition. I call this crystal casting. It is inspired by a combination of charm cast readings, rune stone readings and a video about reading crystal chips from one of my favorite online information sources, crystalvaults.com.

As always when I say ‘hear’ it means that the intuitive hunch comes in the form of mental words, sounds or songs. When I say ‘see’ it means that hunch comes as a mental image.

Looking at the pattern of quartz chips, obsidian chips and lapis runestones, I ‘hear’ “the weight is in the future” which sounds like cryptic nonsense I’ll grant you. I think that is meant to point our attention to the future so we can be forward looking this week. That isn’t to say that this is predicting any doggone thing. We should always be rooted in the present moment. This is just letting us know that this is a good energy environment for planning, thinking, dreaming, creating, and planting seeds for the future.

The rune stones are to the left of most of the smaller stones. They are obviously the bigger, heavier stones as you can see in the video on the blog post and on the TaoCraft Tarot YouTube channel. (The Sage Words Tarot YouTube is coming soon.) That clustering of the heavier stones to the left, which I read as the path ahead of us. You can orient the scattering of stones in time any way you like – or not at all. I read Tarot spreads from right to left simply because that is the first Tarot layout I learned and how we were taught in an aura reading class that I took once. It seems right, and it stuck. But like I said, the orientation itself is arbitrary. The important thing is to have those sort of details clear in your mind and clear in your intention before you start any given intuitive reading. So for this week, the weight of the reading is forward facing.

The majority of the rune stones are blank, which always seems to be the case. I take that to symbolize the potential in the time ahead. There is always potential in the time ahead, so that fits.

The one rune we do see is Ehwaz. It can be associated with literal travel, but it is also associated with progress, moving forward. The rune is connected to horses. Horses typically move forward. They can move backward, but it isn’t natural or instinctive and they have to be deliberately trained and guided to do it. Dressage horses prance all over the place, but the fancy rich people dancing horses aren’t very common. Horses going backwards is unusual and kind of weird looking, but it happens. Horses move forward. Think Chariot Tarot card from the major arcana. The energy of this week is forward oriented. We should look forward, plan forward, & move forward.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. No matter what you title it, a blog and a podcast aren’t much without YOU, the audience. I appreciate you. Thank you for your support.

See you at the next sip!

Fresh Starts Aren’t Foolish

There is a difference between falling off of a cliff and jumping off of one on purpose.

Hello and welcome to the freshly renamed TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’ve jumped off the marketing best practices cliff and everything TaoCraft will gradually change over to Sage Words Tarot.

The name change feels totally different this time.

In 2018 when I re-branded from Modern Oracle to TaoCraft Tarot it felt like that scene from The Walking Dead tv series where they watch a cabin the woods burn down as a symbolic release of the character Daryl’s past and old self-image. The change from Modern Oracle to Tao Craft was moderately terrifying because it took every Tarot everything I’d built since 2003 and blew it to bits. It was like taking a step backwards off a cliff and hoping you don’t crash on the rocks below.

Sure, it was all rebuilt as a stronger, more cohesive brand that was following all the good marketing advice I could get my hands on. TaoCraft was far more organized from a business standpoint AND far more aligned with my authentic self. It’s a deeply meaningful as a name to me…but I don’t think it resonates very well with anyone else. I felt like I always needed to explain it. All the T and C sounds made it a little confusing to spell and that’s all a problem because Tarot is about making things clearer, not more confusing. Tarot isn’t about me, it’s about YOU.

Sage is a pen name, which protects privacy a little better for both of us in these days of openly growing theocratic tendencies in this country. Christian nationalism and evangelical bigotry is a real thing. I want to do all I can to make this a safe space for my fellow atheists and the lgbtquia community that is so important to me.

Sage the herb evokes cozy feelings. It has a familiar scent and taste from home cooking and holiday turkeys.

In aromatherapy, Sage incense and smudge sticks can clear negative energy, calm anxiety and promote a general feeling well being.

Most of all, the word sage means something or someone who is wise. The word speaks to all of the wisdom that has accumulated around the Tarot cards over the centuries.

Safety, comfort, calmness, wisdom and a feeling that things will be ok in the end are all qualities that I hope you’ll experience if we do a Tarot reading together. All of these are qualities I hope you’ll experience when you read the blog or listen to the podcast.

And THAT, my friends, is what I’m calling an introduction, not an explanation.

This time the Fool’s cliff feels more like the movie Ironman 2 where Tony Stark gleefully jumped off the side of a building while yelling to Pepper “you complete me!”

Fresh leaps of faith, fresh jumps off of buildings in your super suit aren’t necessarily foolish. Fresh leaps can make things better for everyone. No matter how long you’ve been doing something, you can always make a fresh start in the new year.

Or the new day.

Or the new moment.

Thank you for reading and listening. I’m glad you are here. See you at the next sip!

Weight of a Year

re-posted from Sage’s Other Words blog with permission.

2022 was a long year. It’s nice when time lingers. Hopefully that gives us the luxury of savoring the present moment, as each moment is unique in all the history of the universe, never to return.

Each moment seems miniscule, negligible compared to that enormity, but it is exactly that enormity of time that makes each unique moment all the more precious.

Looking back through energy eyes, or energy third eye as it may be, last January seems distant, different, almost unrecognizable. Tiny as it was in the cosmic perspective, 2022 looms large in the personal perspective. Tarot occupies a different space in the schedule, but also in my mind and energy and attention.

It’s all about the Tarot. It’s always been about spirit and intuition and living in this precious unique moment. The business part of Tarot needed to change. The hustle diminished the flow.

The business part is dressing down, changing into metaphoric pajama pants and fuzzy bunny slippers. The focus isn’t crazy pants promotions or regularly posting social media.

The focus is you.

My time, experience (did I mention I’ve been doing this since the early 1990s?) and my skill is worth the price of a session the same as the time and experience and skill of a therapist or an artist or a writer or a personal trainer or a plumber or anyone with any of the other skills we humans value is worth the cost of their services.

There is another shared thread between the art of therapy and art of Tarot readings. Neither has a bit of benefit unless the person getting it wants it. you can’t push either one on people. The best service we can offer is to create and facilitate a healing space for those who want, need and seek it.

Because of that, I’m not going to worry about posting every single on social media. Dang it, I’m a writer and a Tarot reader, not media personality. Instead of trying to be one, I’m rolling with my strong suit and putting my energy into doing the best Tarot readings for you that I can do.

Despite dropping the word Tao from my web presence, I’m following last year’s natural flow of energy from Yang to Yin. I’m closing party Tarot and reducing the available appointment times for in-person Tarot. I’m putting all of my energy into doing the email readings that I love, love, LOVE to do instead of bleeding off energy to the side hustle of promoting and marketing those selfsame readings. My attention is shifting from doing all of the “right” business things to holding space for us to work together and making a little intuitive magic. If you find me and this magical space, wonderful! It was meant to be. Let’s get to it. You are welcome here. Let’s listen together and find out what spirit and intuition have to say to us.

While a Tarot reading in any format is a spiritual space, apart from the world, the world is still waiting when we are done. There is a hustle to do, even if it isn’t related to marketing and promotion. The practical, logical business side of being a professional, trustworthy Tarot reader still exists. I have bills to pay the same as everyone else. Any support you can give, word of mouth referrals, virtual coffees on ko-fi, repeat readings, anything will help keep the stressful side of social media hustle out of our Tarot energy flow. None of it is really going away. It really isn’t as big of a change as it might sound. It’s all just getting way, way more comfortable and casual.

Speaking of social media, I’ve left Twitter and migrated to Mastedon where people really are the algorithm. I’m @sage@mstdn.social. I meant it when I said “Boosts matter. They are how we find each other. There are a lot of tremendously fascinating, cool human beings out here in cyberspace and boost help us find – and appreciate – each other and that is the whole social media ballgame. Thanks everybody *raises coffee mug* cheers!” I won’t be promoting the blog, podcast or readings there, but if you want to say a real hello, I’m there at least once a day.

The Year Ahead reading for 2023 is up on the main website thanks to Zombie Cat’s fine efforts yesterday.

But all of this can start tomorrow. After the weight of an old year rolling away we’ve all earned some quiet and routine, like the hush of January snow. I wish you a light and lovely New Year.