This week we had our first snowy day of the season.
It’s one of those things where you just have to roll with it. You can’t stop it. Not much you can do about it except brave the bread and eggs crowd at the grocery store and shovel when it’s all said and done.
Life is one big snow day in that respect. Do what you can when you can and roll with it otherwise.
The six of swords is giving that energy today. Go with the flow is the best way through. All is not always as it seems anyway.
The swords are on the boat…not blocking the boat;s way.
The figures behind the swords seem huddled and seem miserable while the standing (and steering) figure sees the way ahead, the direction the current is flowing, and can nudge things toward a brighter horizon.
Why fight the current if you can use it to your advantage? Why huddle behind imagined blockages when the natural flow of is taking you in the general direction that you want to go?
Mindfulness and being aware of the present moment is like standing up for a minute and seeing the current flow, the bigger picture, and the way ahead.
The six of swords is a reminder to enjoy unexpected snow days, so to speak.
Action Eases Anxiety layout shows ‘what it is’ (left – current energy or situation) and ‘what to do about it’ (right- advice to help move forward) Having a plan makes things less scary, even if the plan goes off the rails (which is usually does – being adaptable helps too)
Three of Pentacles: the physical realm, especially when it comes to work and career feels inside out and upside down. And it isn’t all under your control. The system or teamwork may be falling apart or under stress.
Knight of Wands: Now is the time to make a move in favor of yourself. You are your own best mentor and support team in this moment. Don’t be petty or hurtful or throw anyone deliberately under the bus, but do what you need to do for you. This is that moment where the oxygen masks are dropping and you have to put yours on before you can help anyone else. You are no good to anyone, yourself or otherwise, if you are metaphorically unconscious. Tend to your own physical and mental health this week so you can be present for new situations and other people later on.
Often this strategy brings guilt about not helping others in this moment, or worry that there will be pay-back or blow-back. Think of it as a short term investment for a long term gain. If there is blow-back for giving yourself a short amount of time to do what you need to do for yourself – then that shows the true colors. A time like this where the energy supports taking care of yourself shows who supports you and who doesn’t. Use that information to know how best to spend your energy and efforts moving forward. This time not only benefits you directly, but also lets you help others with sincerity and dedication in times to come.
The knight of wands carries most of the energy in this reading. It often reminds me of the book/series Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. In that, the Knight of Wands turns out to be a harbinger of “magic returning to England”
The Knight of Wands is here to let us know that this is a time for our magic to come home. It is a time to pay attention to your passions, your loves, the things that make life most magical for you.
Your magic is returning. This is the week to welcome it.
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The “Action Eases Anxiety” layout was inspired by Buddhist philosophy (I HIGHLY recommend Dan Harris’ Substack) and my “Learn With Me” series about Lenormand Tarot.
The layout is like a sentence…a noun and a verb. It represents the current energy, then what to do about it. It isn’t a prediction or a quick fix, but making an action plan like this takes the edge of worries. Any tarot reading can help us focus on the moment at hand, not what may or may not happen in the future. That in itself can help ease worry.
What it is (left card): Ace of Cups, reversed. Something is leaking or spilling. Where are your emotions being spent uselessly? Where is your creative energies being wasted? What fucks are you giving that would be better not to give, or to at least give somewhere else?
What to do (right card): Ten of Wands. Put down responsibilities that aren’t really yours. Remember that you can show the way, but you can’t walk through the door for someone else. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. Your happiness is your responsibility, no one else’s. No one can give it to you, but equally, no one can take it from you unless you give it away.
Thanks for reading and watching! See you at the next sip!
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permissions Publishing Goblin LLC
It doesn’t chase after anything. Yet, just being itself, a magnet attracts and sticks with the just-right things. It’s a quiet process, but a powerful one. Watching, waiting, just sitting there letting your light shine in the universe is a powerful something to do, possessed of great optimism. Although they are outwardly quiet, confidence, optimism, contentment, and intention can be very energetically loud.
“My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud”
Henry Rollins
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This is a yes/no layout that the recipient allowed me to share with you, so you can see what an email Tarot reading with me is actually like. Instead of a video (that I for the blog) email readings get a static photo of your unique, real-world card layout.
Q: I got a reading with you almost a year ago. The reading said it was a good time to think about a job change. Not long after that, I got an unexpected job offer and took it. It seemed like the right thing to do and everything seems to be going well, but some doubts are starting to creep in. Did I do the right thing?
A: First of all thank you for letting me share your reading with the blog. It is such a positive energy and we could all use a little boost of good news these days.
And positive it is!
This is the most definite YES! energy that I’ve seen in a while. Usually, even in these “Zombie Cat” yes/no readings there is a lot of fluidity and emphasis on the power of choice.
This reminds me of that bitmoji where the energies and your spirit guides just sip a coffee and say YUP.
I apologize for this being a short reading. It always feels like these concise clear answers are too easy, that I’m not giving you your money’s worth. I hope the ‘yup’ is as valuable and reassuring as the energy feels on this end. It feels surprising too. If you ever had any doubts about your personal power, your path of magick, you can set those right on to the side. You are in a good place. All the effort has been worth it and people are starting to see all you’ve put into your growth and building good things for you and your family both in terms of real world, tangible things – but even more importantly for the positive esoteric energies that follow you around like your favorite perfume.
As you probably remember, these yes/no readings work a little like an I ching coin toss. Two aces = yes, but three aces mean a yes that can be easily tipped over to the opposite if you choose to do so. In this case, you are solid, which I’m guessing is just the news you wanted to hear.
Going card by card after the basic answer –
Ten of Cups is just as good as it looks. Cups are symbolic of closest relationships (as well as the element of water, intuition, emotions) This shows that the choice you made is good for you and your family, which you have always said is your number one priority.
Ace of Pentacles is as job related as you can get for this question. Pentacles are Earth, real world, career, finances. This is pure reassurance that work will work out ok.
Ace of Cups moves its focus from family & relationships to the water & intuition realm of the suit. Your instincts were right on target. Again, huge validation energy here. Doubts are normal. Stay on the lookout for any real problems emerging, certainly, but don’t get stuck in the past. The energy is very forward-looking at the same time it is reassuring.
I see blue…like a lighter gemstone, along the lines of blue lace agate or apatite. But that being said, I also feel pushed to say wear whatever crystals make you feel as powerful as you are. Lapis Lazuli steps forward too. In fact that is overtaking the lighter. Lapis, definitely lapis. I’m getting the usual woody scents like the meditative ones that usually come through for you. This time it is a little sweeter like copal or frankincense.
A quick flash of crossed over loved ones of an older generation – parents or grandparents. I ‘hear’ “honor the ancestors” but it is Dios De Los Muertos season. Now the taste of candy, like a vanilla taffy. Does that have any meaning for you?
Again Dia De Los Muertos (I hope I’m spelling that right) images.
And there the energies step back.
I hope that puts your doubts at ease! Gurrrl – you are SO on the right path!
Thanks again for letting me share such a cool-feeling reading!
How to move forward in harmony with it all: Five of Cups
The energies are ripe for you to rediscover your true self, remember the things you genuinely love, and embrace all of the things that actually make you happy – to hell with what other people think or if it makes money. (Am taking my own advice there – hence the void scream)
Happy is valuable. A moment of joy is priceless.
The past year of death-card change and chaos energy is finally starting to move away. Things are still weird, but you are adapting to the weird and making friends with your inner demons. Adapting and rolling with whatever happens makes adapting and rolling feel like home.
Loss and release is sometimes necessary to make room for something better.
This is a perfect week for shadow work, very in keeping with the season. Don’t bury your dark side. Make friends with it, and make your light and dark combination greater than the sum of the parts. There is magic to be made in killing the past (a la Kylo Ren) to become who you really are. There is no part of you so bad that there isn’t someone who has been there with you at some point. There is no part of you so dark that you are excluded from the human race.
Dark is necessary for light to shine. Or as my favorite Affordable Floors song says – there is no calm without the storm.
Embrace the dark as a place to let your light shine.
This is a time of re-evaluation and release. Take a hard, honest look at the way things actually ARE so when the energy shifts to a mores active stance, you can do what truly needs done, even if the thing that needs done is letting go.
The dominance of female images points toward a very yin, quiet, drawing in energy this week. In autumn, many trees shed their leaves, so Autumn Queen reminds us of letting go, which can be filled with feelings of loss and sadness just as much as the experience is filled with empowerment and freedom. The energy truly is bittersweet this week. This energy is very much akin to the 8 of cups in RWS type decks.
The thing to do in this environment is to take a reality check. The Autumn Lady works with the queen like an advisor, keeping decisions grounded in reality and practicality. The action of taking inventory is a quiet, introspective one but an action nonetheless.
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For THIS week, I have a treat – for myself, but hopefully for you, too. I’m finally breaking out my “Normal Tarot 2” deck . This thing is GORGEOUS! I love the gold foil on black with skeletons aesthetic (no surprise there) and I’m really looking forward to exploring it more with all of you in a few weeks.
But now…this week. Interestingly, it might be helpful to read both, regardless of which one you chose in the beginning.
THE FROZEN KING: If we think of this card in classic Tarot terms, it is a little bit Death, a little bit Hanged Man. It is about the loss and tragedy of stagnation when the stagnation stems from choice – not the lack of choice. The frozen king is like locked up riches that can not be used. It is about lack of progress and prosperity stemming from a refusal to adapt and change. This is another facet of the Death card that has turned up in some readings lately. If you are frozen, resisting flow and change, ask what passions and loves in your life have you been neglecting. What flame do you need to (re)kindle to once again find your Flow.
THE SIXTH OF SUMMER: This is almost the opposite of the Frozen King, and the solution to it. It also marries elements of multiple Tarot cards, the Lovers and the Three of Cups with a little Ace of Wands thrown in. In short, be passionate about your relationships with people with a strong overlay of playfulness and lightheartedness – be generous with your smiles to strangers and add a little extra wattage to the intimate relationships that matter most to you. The battery for all of the extra energy is authenticity and genuine emotion. Only light the torch of passion when you genuinely and intensely mean it. But the hottest flame ends the soonest. Take care not to flame out fast. Cool the passions you want to last. Advice from trusted sources and friends can help, akin to that three of pentacles energy that is coming through here.
Merry Monday! See you at the next sip!
Sage
Deck: Normal Tarot 2 by Seven Dane Asmund used with permission and available to purchase on PublishingGoblin.com
Before or after the reveal, before or after reading the card’s message below. However you choose it is your choice, your instincts, your message. Take both. Reject both. It is still your own good intuition leading the way.
Death: You no doubt already know the Death card is never literal, but symbolizes change. Big change. It means the crossed-the-Rubican, no way back type of change. When that happens, and it does happen to everyone one way or another, only you can say if the change is for the better. Chance at a new life or fate worse than death: It’s up to you.
High Priestess: No one knows everything. Predictions aren’t real. There is real healing and personal power in becoming comfortable with not knowing. To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr. – “‘[Courage] is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
Together these bring to mind a social media meme that feels very true to me “Religion is for people trying to stay out of hell but spirituality for those who have already been there.”
Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC
Some say anxiety is from thinking too much about the future. We can’t predict the future but we can make plans and, more importantly, take action to help create the future we want. Psychic predictions aren’t much of a thing, but cause and effect is a proven, real and powerful thing. Tarot is very much that – it is a tool to help you understand what is going on here and now, and helps give you ideas about what to DO. Those ideas and those actions create the future, not predict it. Those ideas and actions help ease anxiety.
In this layout, the left card reflects the current situation, the current energy. It helps us understand what it is that prompted us to want a Tarot reading, or scroll a Tarot blog, or watch the social post that brought you here, or whatever the case may be.
The next card suggest a good next step. It is an idea what to do now about the energy that is happening now. That one idea, that one next step, is all it takes to interrupt that habit of letting your mind live in the future and stop the spiral into anxiety, even its just for a little while.
Coming in October: Sage Sips blog on TaoCraftTarot.com will be partnering with the “How To Holistic” blog to bring you more stress relief options. The Ebook “Reiki and Relaxation” and pay-what-you-want distance Reiki sessions to the Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot Ko-Fi shop.
KING OF CUPS: The king of cups is about both literal and spiritual guides and mentors. Cups cards are connected to the element of water. Because of that, they are also connected to intuition, emotions, and close relationships (including family, close friends, not just romance)
The message here is that you are not alone. You are connected to all that is. You are part of the Cosmos at the grandest scale. You spirit-world companionship is at your side at the very least. On a more practical scale, this isn’t a time to go it alone in the mental and emotional real world either. Read, listen, learn, ask for advice. That takes courage. That is why this kind of mentorship and learning is connected to the KING card. Be brave enough and wise enough to know that you don’t know everything and go get the knowledge that you need.
HANGED MAN: This card has two very different traditional meanings rolled into one card. On one hand it is about stagnation, or at the very least, feelings of frustration at the pace at which life is moving. Your mental/emotional/biological clock is ticking at a faster pace than things are naturally moving. The message here is basically cool your jets. Let things unfold. Time is key, and some things can only happen with time. You can’t ferment fine wine …or even a mason jar of pickles…in a day. Time is a crucial ingredient right now.
The other meaning for this card is ‘fearless sacrifice’ or ‘self sacrifice’ The sacrifice that must be made here is your expectations. Give up the when. Throw yourself on the alter of being patient.
Sacrifice your expectations and impatience to allow room for either real world or spiritual guidance (or both). Find your mentors. Spirit guides don’t work on a time clock. It takes time and quiet to hear spirit’s whispers. Moving at a fast pace makes it all hard to hear.
Thanks again for reading. Hoping to get a ‘weekend oracle’ ready for you Friday. See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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