Tag: card meaning

The Layouts, Explained

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When we talk about the “layout” or “card spread” in Tarot, we are referring to how the cards are physically placed on the table during a reading. The photo above shows a three card layout.

Some layouts are ancient and ubiquitous and no one really knows how they originated. Others are brand new and purpose written by the tarot reader. All are equally valid.

Regardless of its origin, the layout adds context and structure to a reading. It is the framework that connects the different cards into one, larger, cohesive message.

The real key in any layout is to have a clear idea what each position within the layout pattern will signify before the reading begins. You have to have a clear, fixed intention for the layout positions before you even pick up the cards. It serves as a solid foundation, which allows the individual card meanings to adapt and flow with intuition. Those two important things together elevate the quality of the reading as a whole. The card layout (along with a consistent overall reading format) helps to put the purely intuitive Tarot information into real world language we can actually use.

Here are the layouts that I’ve written for my private Tarot readings:

Year Ahead
  • five cards
  • advice over prediction – gives a sense of the energies ahead to help navigate the year
  • four cards for each upcoming season in order, no matter what time of year the reading is done
  • One card above the others to summarize the year as a whole
TaoCraft Path
  • Five cards
  • Intended for understanding the current situation and guidance navigating your life path ahead.
  • It goes right to left: influence from the past, the current situation, advice to move forward, how to keep this path, how to change this path if you want.
NEW! TaoCraft Taijitu
  • Three cards
  • Yin card: energies drawing toward you
  • Yang card: energies moving away or that need pushed away
  • Harmony: advice to take your next step forward in balance with all of the energies.
Yes or No
  • Three cards
  • Straight yes or no answer plus advice
  • inexpensive
  • fun and lighthearted, “Zombie Cat” style

Image credits:

  • Top and Taijitu image from the public domain
  • “Seasons”photo by the author using Witches Tarot deck by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans copyright 1996 used with permissions on Llewellyn publishing
  • TaoCraft Path photo by the author using public domain image tarot cards

The Devil’s in More Than the Details

The Devil isn’t just in the details…it’s all over the darn place.

Life isn’t always pretty, so Tarot isn’t always pretty. Sometimes the best thing a reading can do for us is break through walls of denial, yank the rose colored glasses off of our faces and set some jade ones into their place.

The Devil card from the major arcana is the ultimate card for that aspect of Tarot. It’s up in your face with cold, harsh reality -usually just when you need it most. It isn’t a call to fear. It is a call to courage.

There are reasons why positivity can go toxic. If there is nothing but light you are just as blinded as you are in pitch dark. It takes both light and shadow to see.

The Devil card’s reminder of the dark side can vary anywhere from the common sense to the dire and dramatic. The purpose isn’t to scare you – the purpose is to put you on an appropriate level of guard. Have batteries in the flashlight when a storm is forecast. Park in well lit areas and have your keys ready as you go to your car. Have the hard conversation with your significant other. Admit people you care about have the capacity to make bad political choices – and sometimes do.

There are gnarly things out there in the world. The Devil card reminds us that there are people out there who really don’t have your best interest at heart and this might be a good moment to take stock, face facts, and be safe.

Week Ahead Tarot: Teams and Dreams

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Hello and happy almost September! I’m loving the cooler weather we’ve had this week! In honor of not feeling like we’re trudging through a flaming planetary death hellscape, back to roughly normal posting.

Today is a choose your own card Tarot for the week ahead. Pause the video if you want more time to think. Choose the card that feels right to you and tah-DA! You just got a free Tarot reading. It doesn’t matter if you choose before or after you see the cards and meanings. It is still intuitive discernment. It is your own good intuition deciding if one card, the other card, neither one or both are right for you.

ACE OF PENTACLES: Rest easy. Enjoy the simple pleasures that are already at hand. Contentment is a great treasure. Give yourself the freedom to dream a little while enjoying everything just exactly the way it is right now. If everything seems dark or dreadful, open your perspective. You might be missing something and focusing on one thing too much.

THREE OF PENTACLES: You got this. You are strong and capable, but you still don’t have to do everything alone. Enjoy being a strong, happy part of the team. It doesn’t mean you are weak. It might just mean you are the leader.

Fall Schedule

As always, there is none. Family first, always. When and what gets posted depends on the IRL day job. Here is the plan that fully expect to go off the rails:

Sage Sips Blog

  • Always free to read! No paywall!
  • Sunday/Monday: Week ahead interactive choose your own card readings
  • Wednesday: Action Eases Anxiety readings
  • Thursday/Friday: Weekend Oracle
  • Random behind the scenes and Q&A

Private Tarot Readings

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  • Email only: includes a photo of your real – world card layout. No AI here – only 30 years of Tarot experience.
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  • Sage Sips membership $5/month: One free Tarot reading by email each calendar month at your request – choose your layout (five card, year ahead, three card taijitu, three card yes-or-no, one card meditation)
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Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Action Eases Anxiety: Portal

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Current Energy: THE KEY. This is a time of transition, a liminal portal from one cycle to another – not quite finished, not quite begun. This energy is akin to a blend of the RWS eight of cups and the Magician energy than the pure beginning energy of the Fool card. This isn’t pure beginning. It is manifesting in the context of a new cycle. This resounding quiet is a potent time to plant the seeds of being and set intentions to manifest in the future.

Next Step: CLOUDS. Endings and beginnings both carry potent emotions. When endings and beginnings come close together, as in a closed circle, the emotions can be intensified. Be kind to yourself. Remember moods and emotions are transient as clouds. Let go. You can’t grasp the mist.

Action, doing something, can ease the anxiety and worries that can’t help but persist if we do nothing but wonder ‘what if…’ Action is necessary for there to be change, for anything to actually manifest. But the first step in any action begins in the invisible, begins with thought or decision. Making an action plan is as essential as the action itself, no matter how quickly that thought or decision or plan happens.

Making a decision – even the decision to do nothing – is in itself an action that eases anxiety.

Deck: Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler copyright 2021 all rights reserved used with permission Lo Scarabo / Llwellyn publishing.

Action Eases Anxiety Tarot: Insider Changing

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STRENGTH: The energy environment supports you today, or at the very least, is getting out of your way a little bit for once. Outer steadiness supports inner change, which requires the greatest strength and courage to face.

KING OF WANDS: Real strength lies on the inside. Do what you know is right for you. Decide what kind of person you want to be and start right now. You don’t have to explain anything to anyone. Be who you want to be, fully, immediately. A shift in perspective can happen in a heartbeat. Nothing can keep you from you. There is no barrier to being. Be smart and stay safe around bad people, certainly. On the inside, however, you are in charge. Always.

“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” – Alan Watts

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Better Than You Might Think

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Psychologists, holistic health professionals and Buddhists agree. Action Eases Anxiety – maybe better than you think. Simple mental and physical exercises can take the edge off of anxiety, which is more than typical day-to-day worry. Things like naming five things you see, taking a short walk, patterned breathing. I highly recommend @DanHarris and @jim_donovan_sound_health on instagam for more trustworthy real world anxiety advice.

This layout is inspired by Lenormand Tarot but works with any Tarot or Oracle Deck. The left card reads the current concern or the current energy environment. It may be a clue to what is the cause of your anxiety. The right card is a clue to the best thing to do next. It’s like a sentence; Subject and verb. It shows what the situation is and what to do about it.


WHAT’S GOING ON: Queen of Cups. This is deep emotion, perhaps something long suppressed bubbling to the surface. Emotion isn’t your enemy. Sit with it. Feel it fully, then move on knowing it doesn’t rule you or the reality around you.

BEST NEXT STEP: The Emperor. This signifies deep competence and real-world skill. Build your confidence. Head over heart. Let logic lead for a few steps to give emotions a chance to exist and heal and be understood without letting them rule you. You are in charge here and probably doing much better than you may think. Expanded post on https://TaoCraftTarot.com tomorrow

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Thank you so much for reading! See you at the next sip!

A little sip of happy

Sage Sips is tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee

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The fun way to do this is to pause the video, choose your card, restart for the reveal. Or read everything, then choose. It doesn’t matter, because it is still YOU making a choice. Take the message for your own or leave it. It is all up to you.

Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life, it helps you know what to do when life happens.

SEVEN OF SWORDS: Cut your losses. Don’t throw good money after bad. Work smarter, not harder. Intellect is your friend this week. head over heart for now.

ACE OF CUPS: Happiness or ease comes like a cool drink of water. It is ok to allow yourself a moment of peace and contentment. You are the only one who can. Deck: Black Cats Tarot by Maria Kurare copyright 2013 all rights reserved, used with permissions via llwellynpublishing.com

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Week Ahead Tarot: Choose Direction

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Don’t worry…you can’t cheat these readings. No matter when you choose your card, even if it is after watching the video and reading the meanings below, it’s still YOUR intuition leading the choice. There is still a choice being made and that’s what it is all about.

“Tarot is about telling you what will happen in life, it’s about figuring out what to do when life happens.” – Sage

This set of cards is very yin/yang like. The ten of cups is internal, about perception and subjective experience, like the black part of the taijitu (yin yang symbol) Yet the contentment is expansive, yang, like the white dot in the yin field. It is about how you occupy your moment and your space.

On the other hand, Pentacles are connected to earth element – the physical realm. This is yang, outward, like the white side of the taijitu. This is about how you interact with the outside world. Yet conserving, contracting, withdrawing – a very yin thing, like the black dot on the symbol.

Which direction did you choose? Where is your flow and change? What do you most need to create harmony with this week?

TEN OF CUPS: Take comfort in friends, family, chosen family and tribe. Moments deep contentment are close at hand and, for the moment, are easier to find.

Or, as Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) said in the 1994 movie The Crow “Little things used to mean so much to Shelly. I used to think they were kind of trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial.”

FOUR OF PENTACLES: Conserve your resources and mind your budget. It’s the doorway to get through this energy environment and to get to better times. “Temporary setback” “Rally the groups” and “Take action to conserve” “extend resources” all come to mind.

“A penny saved is a penny earned.” – Ben Franklin

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permissions, Publishing Goblin LLC

Papa Hierophant

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Or comfy, cool and inside with the air conditioning. Either way, Distance tarot fits any schedule, even a hectic summer one. Sage sips iced coffee on occasion. Enjoy this sip from 2019. Feel free to browse the archives with the search bar to the right or in the menu on mobile.

Some cards come more naturally than others.

Tarot readers are people too, and have our emotional triggers. Some cards push our buttons more than others. Giving a reading touches our hearts and minds as much as getting a reading. The Hierophant card is a challenge for me when it is drawn in full pointy hat christian-heavy regalia. Just not my wavelength. Fairly or not, my life experience and point of view made the RWS Pope look wrapped in rules and judgement. Until – thank you social media – I read a framework for the card that made sense out of it. At the same time I found decks with artwork that fit the new conceptual fit. In short order, the dogmatic, pedantic pope-ish character morphed into a Grandpa.

Think stories by a campfire. Think shamen. Think wise elder. Think teacher. Think Yoda.

Whichever deck we use, when the Hierophant comes into a reading for a client, intuitively, it seems to take one of those two tracks, whichever best suits the client’s needs I assume. It either vibes with rules or traditions.

On one hand, it seems to have to do with social conformity, playing by the rules. It is compliance with a Papal Edict. Or, it could have to do with nonconformity, breaking social convention, rejecting other people’s expectations. It seems like the sense of it doesn’t follow whether the card is reversed or not. It seems more triggered by the clients nature. If the client is a natural conformist, then it seems to nudge toward being their own person, pushes them a bit toward freer thinking. If, on the other hand, the client is naturally a freethinker, or a rule-bender, then it may be a nudge to “play by the rules” a little more in some respect.

Now that the ‘keeper and teacher of traditions’ notion has crossed my path, it comes through at times even if I happen to be using the RWS deck. It seems to come through with that energy at times when the client is feeling  a little uprooted, or disconnected, emotionally or spiritually orphaned somehow. When this is the energy, the Hierophant is a call to join the circle, learn of the past, learn of roots and connections. Just as we are each our own best minister or pope, we are at times our own hierophant, finding and adopting our own spiritual tradition on a path apart from our past or upbringing. Either way, it is about learning a new pattern.

It is a pattern of twos, of balance, in understanding the Hierophant. Comply with rules or find your own path. Embrace or rediscover your tribe and deep traditions or celebrate your initiation into a tribe of one, of you. Either way, the Hierophant is teaching us our path and spiritual tradition.