choose your card – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

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THE SNAKE: Stay quiet and camouflaged, use logic and observation to learn who you can trust – or not.

THE DOG: Someone trustworthy is near. Find them, and be as good of a friend to them as they are to you. The sum will be greater than the parts for all concerned.

If your individual intuition is the engine that drives a Tarot reading, symbolism is the steering wheel.

Like a car in Pennsylvania during pothole season, it’s very easy for that steering to get out of alignment. Symbolism is very influenced by culture and time and has to be kept in context. It has to be in alignment with the reader and the sitter and the intuitive vibe of the reading.

Take the color black, for example.

For some, black is seen as aligned with “evil.” In western traditions black has been associated with death, funerals and mourning, but also with evening elegance and fashion, men’s tuxedos for example.

In Japan, novice monks and many lay people wear black as a symbol of their dedication to practice and as a symbol of community.

The symbolism for snakes is just as varied. Sometimes they are seen as symbolizing lies or deception as in the Christian garden of Eden myth or someone being a “snake in the grass” in an old western movie.

In Chinese cultures, snakes are associated with wisdom, intelligence, charm and grace. In many places they are connected to personal growth and transformation through their ability to shed their old skin as they grow.

Dogs on the other hand, are all just good bois and gurls. How an individual person treat dogs and other small animal is the tell here more than any broad cultural reference. If a dog likes you, you must be OK. If you like dogs, there must be some kindness in your heart. Dogs symbolize great loyalty and deep friendship almost everywhere. Only after they have been through horrors do they devolve into aggression and threat.

If you chose the snake card, beware deception – use observation, cleverness and intellect to understand who to trust. Take inspiration for the snake to adapt and transform yourself.

If you chose the dog card, know others by their proven trustworthiness and kindness. Be a friend, find a friend, hold on to your friends.

Week Ahead Tarot: Choose Your Flow

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You can’t cheat this. This is all your choice, your intuition. You choose what you are going to do this week with or without the cards. You choose how you interact with the cards. You choose if to use the guidance or not. You choose if you want to pick your card before seeing it. If you look at the cards first, you are still following your instinct to the right message for you. If you read the interpretations below, and choose which one is for you – great! It’s still you choosing your path in tandem with the spirit/energy guidance. It’s all valid, because it all comes from YOU.

The same is true for private readings and larger layouts. You know your truth when you hear it. If a reading makes you mad, it’s the mad that counts -not the reader being right or wrong. How you feel about a reading and what you do with the information is what Tarot is all about.

“Tarot doesn’t tell you what is going to happen in life, Tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.” – Sage Snow

THE CHARIOT: Things are happening fast. Pay attention. Head over heart, keep emotions in check. This is not a time to let your mind wander or lose your temper. Stay frosty.

SIX OF SWORDS: Gentle progress is still progress. Go with the natural flow. Now is not the time to make waves.

Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission @publishinggoblin1072

Dichotomy: Choose Your Own Tarot Card

Choose your card Tarot reading: Pause the video. Focus on your question or guidance for the day(s) ahead. Restart the video to see the reveal and get your reading below.

This is an interactive Tarot reading – you choose your card. That way we work together for a more personalized experience for you in today’s video. If you want a Tarot reading by email that is truly private and personal, get yours HERE. Private readings, memberships and virtual coffee all support this blog.

Sometimes when there is a strong general, public energy the two cards in the interactive reading are closely related. Sometimes when the general energy is quieter, more personalized energies can step forward. In these quieter times, the two cards can seem almost opposite, like today.

When dichotomies and contradictions like this turn up in reading, especially in one of the larger card layouts, it can get pretty confusing. Over the years, I’ve learned that the best thing to do when this happens is to shift focus. Instead of looking for granular detail, look for the bigger picture. Look for the biggest gestalt picture that you can and then try to connect the seemingly opposite dots within the big picture. When you think of it as using a wide angle Camara lens instead of a zoom lens. When you look at the big picture, often your opposite-seeming cards are really just different parts of a larger whole.

Different, sometimes conflicted cards within the same Tarot reading are like the parable of the blind men describing an elephant. One touches the trunk and says elephants are a lot like snakes. Another touches the leg and says that elephants are just like tree trunks. Yet another blind man touches the elephant’s side as says elephants are just like a big wall. Individually they are each wrong, but in the big picture, they are all right.

Of course, that only really applies to multiple card readings. In a one card daily meditation like we are doing here, all you have to do is follow your instincts to the card that is right for you today. The other card might still apply, even though it seems very different from the other. Follow your intuition to the one that is asking for your attention the most today. The other card might apply to you too, but in the background or on another day.

But for now:

The Fool: Alan Watts famously wrote “You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” New beginnings can happen at any moment. Take all of the happy memories and life lessons you want moving forward, but take care not to bring old emotional baggage into a new beginning.

Two of Swords: This is a liminal time, a portal between worlds and experiences in a way. It is like those seemingly impossible stacks of Zen rocks. There is a pause, a truce between forces, a delicate balance that is easily disrupted. All is connected. This fleeting moments of balance are delicate but powerful times that can tip the balance of things in any direction. Use your influence and the power of cause and effect wisely.

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See you at the next sip!

Choose Your Card: Two paths, same mountain.

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Queen of Pentacles: Walk your talk. Show who you are through what you do. Make your actions your love language. LIVE what you have learned before moving on to new lessons. Integrate the emotional and spiritual into your physical realm existence. Not a week to walk around living inside your own head.

High Priestess: Think first. This is not a week to phone it in. Listen to your heart. Use your head. Understand deeply. Act thoughtfully. Know why you are doing what you are doing. Choose well the spiritual engine that motivates you actions.

Although both paths are different, both can lead to a place of balance and compassion. Both are good, so choose your path fearlessly!

Choose Your Tarot Card: 23 May 24

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PAGE OF WANDS: “Know thyself” Act natural. Do you, and the path of least resistance will nudge you in the right direction.

That isn’t to say we should melt and fade at the first sign of a challenge. There is a lot to be said for persistence. At the same time, insanity is defined as doing the same thing persistently while expecting a different result. Sometimes roadblocks are there for a reason.

As a general rule, walking in harmony with the real you is the best way to go

THREE OF WANDS: Make plans, but keep your eyes open for unexpected opportunities. Good things come to those who wait.

Another way to say it is don’t sleepwalk through this thing on your mine (today, tomorrow, the upcoming week, a relationship, a career – whatever you had on your mind when you picked your card) Observe deeply. Little details might be the bright light bulb you need to light the way.

FIVE OF WANDS: Life is never all rainbows and roses. Train. Know what to do when the inevitable bad day happens for things to be ok in the end. Charge your batteries before the storm.

A paramedic instructor once said “prepare for the emergency and the emergency goes away.” When you are ready for life’s little stresses, the stress can go away even if the situation doesn’t fundamentally change.

Thanks for watching the video and coming to the blog for a few extra thoughts.

See you at the next sip!

CYC: The Fool

Choose Your Card: Collective energy readings with a personal touch

PAUSE the video
Take a breath
Decide how you want to use the card – guidance for the day, the week ahead, anything on your mind
Choose Your Card
Restart the video to see the reveal and hear a little bit about your card.
Collective energy card not resonating with you? Private one card readings are free on demand for Sage Sip monthly members and available for order 24/7 no appointment needed HERE for non-members

Judgement: Use your good judgement, reason. Head over heart for this decision. You must rationally decide when & how to begin.

Death: Something has to changed or released in order to make your start or to get a fresh start. Is this new thing worth what you must give up to get it?

10 of Pentacles: Yup. This is solid, practical, a good omen. Go for it.

Choose Your Card Tarot: week of 15 April 2024

Sage Sips blog is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

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Ugh…forgot to set the thumbnail AGAIN. Sorry about that. Guess your choices are that half-covered one on the right, the Flippy one in the middle, or the normal one on the left.

Am thinking about doing next week’s CYC with the non-RWS oracle-like Alleyman’s Tarot cards. What do you think? Or would you prefer the classic Pamela Smith artwork for a while? Lenormand? Comments are open if you have an opinion or any questions at all.

Ace of Swords: Head rules heart this week. Listen to your emotions but try not to let them cloud your thinking. Decisive action is needed.

High Priestess: It may feel like other people may know more than you, but they don’t know more about you. Don’t sell yourself short. You are the absolute expert about you. You know best what you need even when what you need is help or guidance.

Judgement: The boat never moves forward if people on the boat are all rowing in different directions. Use clear-headed judgement combined with courage to put the most harmful people off the boat and onshore all together. The boat moves forward very slowly if there is no one left to help you row. Use clear-headed judgement combined with wisdom to be be as generous as you safely can with second chances.

Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot, used with permission

Tag: choose your card

Week Ahead Tarot: Cleverness and Trust