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In Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao, Diane Morgan interprets the moon card as our “spiritual journey.” The moon means so much in so many parts of our humanity; art, literature, lore, mythology, science, environment. It seems to be one of the most revered and mystical cards among 78 revered and mystical Tarot cards.
Arguably, our spiritual journey is simply the journey of being alive. If we are spiritual beings having a human experience, whatever path we choose we are doing our spiritual journey right. Light incense, dance, pray, meditate, go on long runs or peel potatoes; everything is connected and it is all sacred. Feel it or not, it is all still our right spiritual journey because we not only learn, but we experience the pain and the pleasure of it all.
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee – or whatever you are sipping at the moment.
Updated today from a September 2020 post
Heart of Stars Tarot, copyright 2007 Thom Pham, used with permission
Three of Wands. Yes – again.
Different deck, different day, same card. A cool thing happened; about an hour after I filmed the card draw above, I did a private one card reading with a different deck (Steampunk, their favorite) and wouldn’t you know it – Three of Wands. This card is really trying to get our attention.
It also gives us a little insight into how Tarot can be such an endlessly useful tool for something as complex as spiritual guidance or the human psychology. The math is pretty convincing. Let’s start with a one card daily meditation reading. You have one card position raised to the power of 78 possible cards, raised to the power of all the possible keywords and meanings that have been attached to each card over the years, raised to the power of our limitless imagination and intuition.
Even if you leave out the intuition bit, and just look at card numbers, the cards are pretty amazing. Here – let a real expert explain this:
Now, let’s consider that kind of calculation for a full Tarot reading. Never mind a classic 10 card Celtic Cross – let’s just consider my 5 card Modern Oracle layout.
For five layout positions, regardless of the meaning you assign to that position, the first card could be any card from the entire deck. The first card has 78 possible results. The second position has the whole deck minus the first card, which gives 77 possibilities. The third position has the whole deck minus the first two cards for 76 possibilities and so on
If I’m using the online calculator correctly, that means there are over 2 million different card combinations for any given five card layout.
Now add all of the possible card meanings into that mix.
Then raise it all to the infinite possibilities that pure intuition can lend to the reading.
Now you know why we charge the rates that we do. The more cards in a reading, the more complex it becomes, and the more insight, wisdom and raw Tarot experience it takes to make sense out of it all for a client. When you add in ethical, professional conduct – $35 for a five card email reading is insanely affordable.
That is beside the point. The point is that when you consider the mind-boggling number of possible card combinations, a repeating card in disparate circumstances sustained over time is a card definitely worthy of our attention.
The Three of Wands is often associated with things like watchfulness, active waiting, observation, proper timing, or vigilance.
Recently, the energy seemed to flow toward the idea of watching for the right timing, watching for events to happen that would in turn prompt you to action.
Today, the energy is more toward the vigilance end of things. This feeling of watchfulness isn’t timed to a particular action. It isn’t about timing your action just right. It has a more general sense.
This is also an energy connecting the card to the idea of healthy boundary setting. First discover where your best boundaries ARE, then the Three of Wands encourages you to watch over them, maintain them and defend them. Words like “periphery” and “vigilance” come to mind. Based on current events, turbulent times are likely on the horizon. The Three of Wands card is further reminding us to guard our energy and mental health. It is always better to over-prepare than to under-react to such things, be it literal storms or political ones.
Thank you for reading this updated post from the archives. I hope you will use the search bar on the right hand side of the page (or the bottom of the page on mobile) and browse the archives. There are six years of Tarot readings here, more over on “Sage’s Other Words” so chances are you can find something interesting.
The day job is back on a typical schedule so I’m hopeful to have a new “Choose Your Card” Tarot reading for you on Monday.
The day job has been a tiny bit extra the past couple of weeks while I’ve been covering for some vacationing folks, so I’m going to give myself a little bit of a vacation too – spring break in Tarot land if you will.
Thought I’d dig out some oldies but goodies out of the archives for this week, and then get back to new readings next week.
In fact, I have an idea for a weekly “Choose Your Card” series. Internet posts live forever, and focusing on a “card of the day” or a “card of the week” can get a little timey-wimey if you stumble on the posts a while after they were published. I believe the right message for you will find you when you most need regardless of when it was written, but some might argue that old readings lose value as time moves on. So my idea is this: draw a card for a theme or choose a theme for the reading that isn’t related to time. That’s how Tarot works best in my experience. Tarot tends to be abstract and conceptual and comes from outside of physical space and human-defined time anyway. That’s why distance Tarot readings work so well. (I have a page available that explains the whole distance Tarot thing HERE)
But back to the idea for that “choose your card” series.
I thought it might be fun to go through the major arcana and have the ‘choose your card’ post give you a more personalized insight into that major arcana card and how it might relate to you right now.
What do you think? I’ll start that project next week. That will give you plenty of time to drop any ideas or suggestions in the comments or use the “ask me anything” button on the home page. I’m always happy to hear what kind of Tarot content you would like to see in the blog.
Meanwhile, if you use the search bar on the right of the page (laptop or PC) or scroll way down to the search bar on the mobile version, then you can search & browse the archives to your hearts content. The old posts are mostly tagged by card, but moving forward I plan to tag each post by card AND topic(s) for easier browsing moving forward.
For example if you search “romance” here is one of the posts that come up. It is from 2011 on my old Tarotbytes blog.
“A Romance Tarot Reading with the Magician and the Lovers Cards”
Q: I met a man who seemed to be all anyone could want…a little older, financially stable, professional, interested in me. But he could be pushy, too, and he pushed me to go on a vacation together, his treat. Turns out he is a horrible gambler. The whole trip was a disaster…shocking. I keep attracting men like this, and after this experience I wonder if I will ever have a good relationship. I had a career reading with you last year, and liked the way you look at things. Can you give any insight to the romance side of things?
A: I think you are right…this experience was shocking, but it got your attention. It helped you see a pattern, and to realize you want something different. As traumatizing as it was in the short term…in the big picture this may actually be a valuable experience.
There are two tarot cards that are exquisitely applicable to your situation: The Lovers and The Magician.
They are both major arcana cards…which speaks to the power and importance of the things your are thinking about.
The Lovers symbolizes desire, and The Magician represents transformation and manifestation.
Your experience with this man, and the way it felt inevitable, shows it is an important and powerful lesson: it shows you that what is deep down matters more than the initial outward appearance…and that the deep down important stuff is what matters to you. Now you know. This will give you a wonderful contrast…the shadow to show you what you want to bring to light.
You know, now, what you DON’T want to repeat…the next step is to define in your mind, very clearly, what you DO want in a relationship…what you do want in your relationships an in your life. The feeling I got reading the first part of your story is that your connection with this man grew out of expectations…your hope for a relationship and what other people define as a good prospect…stable, professional etc etc. That doesn’t, as we see here, necessarily bring the intangible, subtle good things, like respect, caring, compassion, empathy….all those things that are REALLY important.
When I was younger, I saw a psychic, also wondering if I would ever be with anyone. She gave me an exercise…I may have mentioned this last time…that proved to be pure gold. Even if you’ve done this before…try again, start the exercise over, using your new insights and perspectives gained from the trip to vegas…
Make a list of all the things you want in a partner. What kind of relationship do you want? Marriage? Companionship? List every detail, literally, on paper. LIst physical things, interests, personality traits…anything, everything. Don’t put negatives…don’t say “not a gambler” put “enjoys ___________” That part is very important…the energy of the “not” might actually draw the undesirable trait to you rather than block it. Always list ONLY the things you WANT in a positive way.
Then release the list. Put it away, or, if you are inclined to such things, burn it in a respectful ritual of some sort. Whenever you feel the impulse, send a thought to the universe. Pray it…however it feels most powerful to you….not the whole list, just the feeling of desire for “the best of the list” or “husband for the highest and best”…something like that. Send the cry from your heart to the heart of outer space…then let go and trust the universe to guide you to the right path.
There are no time limits. There may be more things to learn along the way…but if you ask for the path to the best, you will find that highest and best journey, no matter how long it takes to get to the destination.
Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed a deep dive into the old Tarotbytes archive. More archives are available on “Sages Other Words” where I occasionally put off -Topic posts. Feel free to browse there too.
And that summer schedule? There isn’t any. I’m still going full Taoist and just following where intuition and the natural flow of things lead.
Distance readings are still available to order anytime 24/7 – no appointment needed. I usually get the reading to your inbox within 24 hours. If not I’ll be in touch with a delivery time if it is a holiday or some such thing. Distance readings in this case means email and recorded video formats.
The pen and paper readings take a while longer to wind their way through traditional snail mail, but honestly I think they are worth it. Sallie Christensen, one of the most gifted psychics I’ve ever met was right- thoughts are powerful, the spoken word is more so – but the written word is the most powerful of all.
Same (or better) reading as you would get in-person
Lower cost than in-person
No appointment needed
It’s a learned skill.
And an internet meme.
James Bach, author of “Secrets of a Bucchaneer Scholar” once posted on social media that “People get defensive because they have something to defend.” It’s a normal, natural response and part of the learning process. After you read Tarot professionally for a while you learn not to take it personally. They’ll get over it. Or not. It’s up to them.
Sometimes the thing people are defending is something they actually need to change. Sometimes the “it” they are getting over is an honest answer that they didn’t want to hear. Nobody enjoys being called out on their s**t.
Sometimes being called out is exactly what we need.
As much as we enjoy indulging our confirmation bias, tempers flare when our biases are challenged instead.
As I read the cards, Tarot is usually a world of ideas, empowerment, encouragement, expanding horizons and gentle nudges. A little diplomacy goes a long, long way.
On the other hand, if subtle messages and gentle nudges are ignored, after a time our spirit guides (or however you think of these things) roll up their sleeves and break out the frying pan to the face method of communicating.
That’s the case here. Cups cards deal with emotions and close relationships. The emotion in question for the inverted four is moping and self-pity. There is no nonsense around the card today. Short, sweet and to the point, kind of like a caveman club over the head, the reversed four is telling us to stop moping, it’s time to move on. Wallowing in self-pity serves no one here. AKA …Knock it off!
Fire alarms aren’t quiet, subtle or diplomatic. They are loud and in your face and don’t care about feelings.
It isn’t fun for anyone when things get tense or feel confrontational. That’s never the intent of a Tarot reading. The intent is to shake us out of a stuck place or turn up the volume on a spirit message loud enough that we can finally hear it. The more important it is for us to hear a message, the more blunt, loud and direct the spirit message will become. A good Tarot reader can reflect that sense of urgency without being mean about it.
Even when spirit is telling it like it is, a little Tarot diplomacy (and humor) can go a long way.
Thanks so much for reading! Please follow the blog to get all of the latest posts direct to your inbox. See you at the next sip!
For the record, I wrote the bulk of this post yesterday, so no (private client from this morning) this isn’t directed at you. We all need a little bit of brutal honesty from the cards every now and then.
Sage Sips Blog is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
YOU CHOOSE:
Your choices are everything. They are the cause that brings your future into effect. Tarot helps to guide those choices so you can make good ones.
Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life. Tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.
Death: OF COURSE this is your eclipse day card. Eclipses symbolize change and transformation. That is exactly what the death card is about. Only an empty cup can be filled. Let the old and toxic go and welcome the new and better in.
Five of swords: The price of victory is too high. Is this really a hill worth dying on? Redefine your goals. Work toward a victory that makes sense. You don’t have to prove your point based on blind principle.
High Priestess: Magic and spirituality come only from within. Yes, it really is nothing more than the moon’s shadow. The magic and mystery is up to you to feel and find. music via youtube shorts Allyman’s Tarot Deck used with permission @publishinggoblin1072
Science is the best way humans have to learn about the physical world and navigate the public sphere. In the physical world and civic life reason is our ultimate guide.
Yet, the subjective inner world lies outside of science’s grasp. Psychology comes close. There are reasons that there is much overlap between the work of Carl Jung, Taoism and Tarot. Science and spirituality are two sides of humanity’s coin so to speak. Tarot can help us understand and navigate the inner, spiritual world as much as reason must guide us through the outer one.
I’m no expert.
NASA says there are 2-3 eclipses a year. There are various degrees of solar coverage, and they happen in wildly different spots all over the globe. Total eclipses are just one of several types (partial, annular etc). To have a total eclipse land in your front yard is, indeed, a once in a lifetime gift.
And that is just the global perspective.
Open the perspective to the galaxy. Or the universe. How many planets have a moon that is just the right size at just the right distance in just the right orbit for a total eclipse to happen at all – ever? Somebody like Neil DeGrasse Tyson will have to answer that for us, but I’m guessing that it is mind blowingly, achingly rare. No one knows how many planets have intelligent life. How many places do both of those things converge. How many planets in the universe have eclipses like ours AND beings who can understand and appreciate them? Even if it’s not rare, it is a beautiful, powerful experience well worthy of every bit of hype and reverence it receives.
Yes, solar eclipses are just the shadow of the moon falling on parts of the earth. Period. Our internal subjective experience of this wonder of the Cosmos is where the magic resides with all the validity of science and shadows.
@SpiralSeaTarot on Threads, who shares my preference for smaller layouts, brought up the topic of a Solar Eclipse Tarot layout. I don’t know of any existing ones offhand, but it seems like an easy one to write.
I think the energy path reading that we do here all of the time could be adapted and amped up a little to meet the occasion.
Card 1: Waning Light
This card represents issues and energies that are fading away. This is something we are strongly advised to release once and for all. This is what must happen for our transformation, for life to progress to something better. The death card has turned up frequently lately in readings I’ve done and in social media posts by other well respected readers. Eclipses are traditionally associated with transformation and change. Change energy may be both ancient and a modern collective, but that doesn’t make it any less valid or powerful. Eclipses are a portal to change and this card hints at what must change for good and for all – or at least be put on the back burner for a good long while.
Card 2: Totality
The eclipse at totality looks like a portal to another dimension. This is a moment ripe for total communion with the spiritual experience of being a conscious human at this place and this time. Of every being in the entirety of the universe, you are here, now, witnessing this beautiful, unique thing. It can be, it must be, a moment of full presence.
In this layout, this card represents your spiritual guidance in this moment. This is what the universe most wants you to know. This can represent a moment of being your most powerful and profoundly authentic self. This represents your life path and life calling in this moment. This points to your portal, your connection to your highest and best.
Card 3: Emerging Light
This is hope and optimism and the other side of your powerful transformation. This is the thing to reach for, the thing to choose, the path most open to you. As the light of the sun returns, it spotlights the place to put your hopes and energies. It spotlights the path to take and direction to go. This card lights up the way and path forward.
Here is a solar eclipse reading for the collective, but I encourage you to get or do a reading for yourself. The profoundly spiritual is the profoundly individual.
Waning Light
Stop pushing. You don’t have to be in control. You don’t have to push and strive every moment. If you are content with the way things are, you’ve already won. If you aren’t happy, maybe you are courageously pursuing the wrong things. Hold up a moment. Is all of this frenetic action serving you, or some idealized purpose? Figure out what you really want. If you have it, great, call it a day. If not…charge in that new direction. If it is the right thing, you’ll get there without all the fuss and fury.
Totality
The essence of change is a new beginning.
The death card led us here. When you change what you do, what you think, how you live, how you show the world who you are, then the old thing, the old way, the old you essentially dies to this moment. BUT time – and you- continues. Moment slips into moment, and as the old slips away, the new emerges. Alan Watts famously said that “you are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” This eclipse is the perfect opportunity and excuse to make a change and let the new you make a grand entrance. Physically, in the real world, do what you need to do to be safe. For your inner world – this is your permission from the universe to begin to fearlessly be who you really are and always wanted to be. Do it! Now is the time! Let yourself be yourself, no matter how carefully you let the world in to your new beginning.
The way to your highest and best is to stop waiting, and simply begin.
Things don’t have to be perfect immediately, but they can never progress if you don’t start to move. They say it is the journey that matters, not the destination. For there to be a journey at all, you must take your first step.
Emerging Light
The new you is magic.
The knight of swords is active power. It is yang power. Now is the time for yin power. Magnets can be powerful. This is the time to attract. Draw your power and best life to you like a lightning rod. But that requires that you do your part. Working magic means working, albeit working smarter not harder.
To catch lightning in a bottle you have to brave a lot of storms.
If you want to attract attention, you have to let your light shine where people can see it
Transformation requires change – releasing and beginning.
It is circles and cycles within circles and cycles – just like the literal eclipse.
Watch the eclipse in person if you are able. Watch online if you can. If you are night side or far away – know that eclipses exist. Reach out with your intuition and imagination and know that its energy of transformation and magic exists for you too.
After all, you are an Earthling with the privilege of living on a planet where a total solar eclipse occurs.
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
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CHOOSE your card from the snapshot above, then watch the video to reveal your card and get the reading in video description or below.
Strength: Never confuse blind fanaticism with strength. The strength you need requires a presence of mind and compassion not just brute physical endurance.
“Digger” Death: Change is not only inevitable, sometimes it is a relief. Bury that thing and walk away. Let it go.
“Bones” Death: Look for what lies beneath. Knowing the whole story can change your perspective, your feelings, your decisions. In other words, knowing the whole story changes everything.
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund used with permission
Spiritual growth is not an exercise in mass consumerism.
It isn’t a contest to see who is the most woke, the most pious, the most serene, the most wise, the most anything.
It isn’t a sprint. It isn’t even a marathon. It is about the quality of this present moment. It is about you being happy with you – right here, right now.
The most important lessons in our personal growth and evolution and maturity and autonomy are often learned the hard way. They are often hard-won over significant amounts of time. So it is important not to diminish those lessons by moving on too soon.
The two of pentacles is about balance, but it is the quicker, dynamic equilibrium of a unicycle rider. Temperance is the balance of a glacier, it is the balance of Stonehenge.
Temperance is more than just balance, it is about integration.
Balance can be juggling two different things. Temperance’s type of balance is about integrating those two (or more) things into a stable, foundational new thing. The two of pentacles is a balls in the air, juggling kind of balance. Temperance is a low center of gravity, “weebles wobble but they don’t fall down” kind of balance. To borrow from Frank Herbert’s Dune, Temperance type of balance comes from Usul, the strength of the base of a pillar.
When a hungry person eats, they must then digest. The same is true of insights and epiphanies. The work of finding them is lost if we don’t integrate them.
We must change the big lessons and the big progress from a ball in the air that needs to be balanced into the integrated base of the pillar that imparts balance. This is why integration and transformation are integral parts of the Temperance card’s message of balance.
Live as your new self. Live your new truth. Make the new you an integral part of the old you. Then you can move forward again in certainty and – you guessed it – balance.
Next up: more “My Side of the Table” Tarot behind the scenes
Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee (or whatever you like to sip this time of day)
Seven of Pentacles: Wait. Give the seeds you planted time to grow. Don’t meddle…if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Just wait.
Seven of Swords: Mischief is afoot. Watch your stuff. Don’t fall for phishing. Be on the lookout for petty bs and swat it down if needed.
Nine of Pentacles: Enjoy what you’ve achieved. As one project wraps up, it’s good to take a minute to appreciate what you and your team have done before moving on to the next big thing.
Card doesn’t fit or feel right? Enter the card or any keyword in the search bar on the right side of the page (or scroll down on mobile) to browse the archives. Your message will find you – all you have to do is look and listen.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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