action – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Action Eases Anxiety: Trust Fall

Sage Sips is tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffeetarot

Private Tarot readings – no appointment needed HERE

Five card email reading gives you the same information as a 45-60 minute in-person session for much less – only $30. Three card readings are the same as a 30 minute live session, $15. Most orders are filled within 24 hours.

The “Action Eases Anxiety” layout is inspired by the sentence-like quality that Lenormand style tarot readings tend to have. We’ve talked about that before in he “learn with me” series about Lenormand

In this layout, the left card functions as the subject of the sentence. It is the thing that is, be it your current situation or our shared energy environment.

The right card is like the verb in a sentence, the action, the thing to do now that might help the situation – or at lease easy your worry a tiny bit.

Today, the mental image that came with both cards is an advertisement where a person goes “trust fall” and falls backward into a huge pile of dried plants to demonstrate the plant stems and leaves that they don’t use in their select flower-only suppliment.

As much as I like that product, I’m not here to endorse anything. The trust fall bit of it is the key to the intuitive image.

“When things seem terrible, it can feel impossible that they will get better. if the future is too big for a leap of faith, then all you can do is take a trust fall into the present moment.” comes through here.

The “what it is card” is the bouquet. If today isn’t stressed, enjoy the beauty of it. Enjoy the moment. If you are feeling stressed, try to sort out what of the stress is rooted in the past and future. Try to see the present moment for what it is. Look around you. Are you in life threatening danger? If you are – then you aren’t reading this. If that’s the case you have bigger things to do than read blogs and scroll social media. So if you are seeing this, stop: Take in this moment for what it is. Stop and smell the flowers the bouquet card is offering. It also reminds me of that quote attributed to Mark Twain “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, the most of which never happened.”

What it is is not so bad when you eliminate the parts that are actually worries about a future that may never happen.

What to do is the Clover card. It is a card of luck. The doing is simple in this case. Simple, but easier said than done when anxiety is raging. Acknowledging and accepting that things aren’t so bad and are getting better. When anxiety or sadness is raging in your brain, it’s hard to feel as lucky as you really are.

Acknowledging your luck attracts it to you.

Tell yourself that you are lucky.

Blind, rote, repeated affirmations even when you don’t feel them isn’t going to magically manifest the thing you want. They won’t do that even if you do feel it. But what that can do is bring your feelings and your energy into better alignment with the flow of things and help you find what you really need, even if it is different from your original desires and expectations.

You are lucky, it is just a matter of finding it. And it may look like something you never in a million years imagined.

Thanks for reading!

If you like what you read here, please support Sage Sips on ko-fi. Likes, follows, subscriptions, and shares are always welcome. See you at the next sip!

The Reading Is In The Title: Action Decreases Anxiety

This is the kind of day this new Tarot layout is all about. Action dissolves (or at least decreases) anxiety.

Thank you for reading! Please support me on ko-fi. Your private readings, memberships, and virtual coffee all help keep Sage Sips always free to read!

Today is the kind of day this new layout is all about. Action dissolves anxiety. Making an action plan helps. Doing the plan helps even more. Action dissolves (or at least decreases) anxiety. Many thanks to Dan Harris for sharing that concept with everyone. I heartily recommend his Substack and social media

Today’s energy has a genX meme, “suck it up buttercup” feel to it. It’s time to put on the big kid britches and do the thing. Today needs practical action. Be as level-headed, logical, and practical as you can be. Go with what you already KNOW. Just for today, put intellect ahead of emotions and head over heart as best as you can.

Be kind to yourself if you can’t. If emotions get the better of the situation, step back, cool off and try again later. It’s ok.

It’s ok to be kind to yourself even on the days when your self is a bubbling hot mess.

Be a cool headed as you can, and bandage up the rest later.

There are reasons why the horse is standing still and strong on the knight of pentacles card. Rock on, but rock steady, one logical step at a time. The King of Swords is all about cool, cutting intellect and decisive leadership. Good leaders know when to get help and look for resources.

It isn’t easy. It isn’t about perfection. It is about step by step making it through.

Thanks for watching! Please like, share & subscribe. Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee Your private readings (no appointment needed for email), memberships and virtual coffee on ko-fi keeps Sage Sips blog free for everyone to read

Judgement and Action

Learn how to learn an oracle method along with me as I explore the new Publishing Goblin Oracle Dice

Hi and welcome to Sage Sips: a contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Thanks for being here. This free content is fueled by your private reading purchases, paid subscriptions and virtual ko-fi coffees and plenty of real coffee too.

Figures.

Second roll of the dice and I get my old nemesis, Judgement.

I have to admit, I like this one a lot better than the religion influenced Judgment card from Tarot major arcana. Almost giggled when I saw it, because for a split second I thought it was a muppet face.

Luckily the energy today is on the “use good judgement” side of things and not the Judgey McHubrispants side that pushes my religious trauma buttons.

Off the cuff intuition is on the order of … once you make a reasoned decision, it is pretty worthless without some sort of action. It might be one task, or a million little nuanced lifestyle decisions, but good judgement is tied to action nonetheless.

Quick note before we move on with this post – or this series of posts, actually. I know the singular of dice is die. But this is cyberspace and America in 2023. There is a pretty good chance that something automated is going to confuse the singular-dice word with the become un-alive word. Grammar be damned, I’m calling them all dice. I’m out here trying to help (and hopefully entice you to get a private reading) I can’t do that shadow banned. Talk about your Judgy McHubrispants.

Now – back to the Judgement symbol.

Head Over Heart Today

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Do Differently

You choose: you pick the card, you decide how to apply it, and then get today’s reading the for your card.

https://youtu.be/5ZuiFHKibRs

This week the overall energy seems to focus on doing things, but for different reasons.

Ace cards have a thread of beginning energy (although not with the same wattage as the Fool card from the major arcana.) They also typically carry the essence of the suit, which is what draws my attention in this instance. Pentacles are connected with the physical realm, often career, work, or wealth. Today feels like the physical realm in general with the advice to engage with the physical realm to rest the mind. Think in terms of a long jog, or the classic hot shower where genius ideas are born.

Swords and knights are action. Swords are also connected with the element of air which in turn points to mind and intellect. If you chose the knight of swords (no spoilers! you’ll have to watch the video and pick a card to see if this one is yours) then the energy for you is also flowing toward doing and action, but something that combines doing and thinking, as you might with following a pattern or recipe or anything new really.

Cups cards connect to the element of water, intuition, emotion, and closest relationships. This is also doing oriented. but working with friends. Not so much working on a career or physical-realm task as the other cards, but actively polling your brain trust. It feels like the thing to DO is to poll the audience so to speak, to reach out to trusted friends. The idea of “two heads are better than one” will serve you well – especially if the other head is someone you have a good relationship with.

Headspace

“Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.” – Leonard Nemoy

Tarot lacks an opinion.

It doesn’t judge, opine, or pronounce dogma. It is a tool to access our own inner wisdom and intuition. Tarot doesn’t care who you are or what you do any more than your bathroom mirror does. In fact, the two have something in common. They both show you what is, not what you want to see.

I once read a story. I can’t remember when or where. It was meant to give an example of Confucian thought in general. As the story goes, Confucius was giving advice to two student who were both ready to graduate and go begin their adult lives. He told one student he should be bold, go out into the world and follow his dream as soon as possible without worrying about other people’s opinion. It was sort of a 500 BC version of Nike’s “just do it.” When Conscious talked to the other student, he told him to talk to his multiple people, get all the advice he could, use that advice to make a solid plan and start out carefully and deliberately. A person who had heard the advice for both students asked the teacher why he gave such opposite advice to two student in such similar situations. The answer was that even though their circumstances were similar, each of the two students were very different personalities. The first student was timid by nature, and tended to put too much stock in other people’s opinion, so Confucius encouraged that student to act on his own and put some heart over head. The second student was stubborn and impulsive by nature, so Conscious encouraged him to slow his roll, make a plan and put some head over heart. Conscious told his students what they each needed to hear, not necessarily what they wanted to hear.

Any given Tarot card can do the same thing for us.

Some critics might use the long lists of key words and varied associations given to Tarot cards to say psychics are BS because you can make any card say any thing. I say the cards are dead on useful for the that exact same reason. When you combine Tarot or runes or tea leaves or any oracle along with your inner wisdom, you get the message that you most need. Like Confucius, Tarot cards don’t give the same advice to everyone all of the time, but they do give the advice that any one individual needs at any one particular time.

Today’s Tarot card, the page of swords, is a prime example. Swords can mean action, but they can also mean mentation. Swords are associated with the element of air and with intellect just as much as they are with action and authority. Which begs the question of how do you know which thread of meaning applies? How do you know which set of Confucious’ advice to follow?

Resonance is one way to describe it. That’s how we sometimes say it when you immediately recognize the right meaning for you. If your reflex response is “yeah, that sounds right” or “yeah, I knew that” then you know that is the bit of advice for you.” If your gut reflex is “oh heck no” then of course you should look at other meanings. If they are a half-bubble off too, then go back to the original. That “oh heck no” response might juuuust mean be the cards telling you something difficult that you really need to hear.

Today, the page of swords is still associated with action…BUT it action AFTER thinking. Crawl into your headspace before you start swinging your sword. Look before you leap. Use your head instead of your heart at least just for today.

Today’s Tarot: Union of the Devine

Striking a balance requires that decisions be made.

It amazes me that humans have figured out how to teach robots to maintain physical balance. It is a surprisingly complex thing that the human brain does effortlessly, easily. Test the theory: stand on one foot. You don’t have to lift one foot very high off of the floor, but there you stand, on half the support ( more or less, I dunno, I’m not an engineer) that you had a moment ago.

The emotional, mental and spiritual balance that Tarot deals with is no less intricate. Temperance and the number two cards of the four minor suits all speak to different aspects of balance. The Two of Swords is classically associated with indecision, or being of two minds about something. Sometimes that is exactly the energy I get from it in a reading. Other times it is something different, something more. Diane Morgan interprets the card as “mystical unity.” This in a deeply essential way defines balance. A lever isn’t a lever without the fulcrum. Balance isn’t balance without the center spot where the opposites connect, around which balance does its adaptive dance.

For there to be balance, decisions must be made.

Swords are associated with air and intellect. Swords are associated with action. Think and choose.

Choose your balance point. What calls to you today? The balance of magic and mundane? Spiritual versus intellectual? Intellectual versus emotional? Choose where you want to be, and then make choices about what needs changed or shifted to achieve the balance-point that you want. OR change your balance point to suit the conditions that exists. Or some combination thereof.

In the earlier example, you had to choose which foot to stand on. Then you had to choose how high to lift the other one off the floor. You chose when to put it down. Your body automatically made an untold number of tiny muscle adjustments to make it all happen.

Choose, act and find balance. That balance, that being in harmony with the state of being that you happen to find yourself in is indeed a mystical unity where the mundane unites with the divine.

You Choose Tarot (12 Dec 19)

Left: The Hanged Man. “Good things come to those who wait.” We don’t get to control the flow of time or circumstance, so why not trust it to bring the right thing at the right time?

Center: Knight of Swords. Good things come to those who DO. Be brave. The universe may be using you to unfold something important. Why would you keep the universe waiting?

Right: Page of Pentacles. Good things come to those who learn. Succeed, and you have an opportunity to learn what works. Fail, and you have an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work. Why would you pass up a chance at learning like that?

You Choose Tarot (4 Dec 19)

Left: The Chariot. Pay attention to this moment, here, now. Like a heroic gladiator, that little bit of mindfulness can swoop in and rescue you from worry about the future or regrets about the past.

Middle: The Lovers. If you aren’t getting what you want, are you wanting the right thing?

Right: Knight of Wands. Something magic this way comes. Action with genuine feeling and compassion behind it is a powerful thing.

********

Order distance tarot any time, no appointment needed HERE

Order pen and ink handwritten Tarot, ebooks, meditation beads and more HERE

12 Second Tarot: Queen of Wands (6 Nov 19)

Just do it. Procrastination is a delicious, but today is not the day. Put the procrastination off for a day or so. Dreams and passions never make it from inside your mind to the outside world unless you do what needs to be done.