Introvert Paradise

In this Pathway through week Tarot reading, introverts and extroverts are two sides of the same important energy.

With an emphasis on individualism and alone time, this week’s energy is an introvert’s paradise. Extroverts might have a tougher time ahead and need to go out of their way to stay and feel connected.

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Podcast where you get Tarot contemplations for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

I’m Sage and I’m glad you are here. Thank you all for reading and listening. Personally, I’m thrilled for this kind of energy to come along. After changing the blog and podcast name and all of the re-arranging and updating that’s been going on since the new year began, I’m glad for a little low key time to recharge the batteries a little bit. I hope the respite is as welcome for you.

The cards are less chatty this week and the intuition is back to the typical visuals. First thing that comes to mind is a map of the US with no state lines on it, just an outline with red and blue dots on it, like a new graphic of some sort. I’m not sure exactly what else the visual might be trying to say, but my hunch is that it is pointing to individuality, like the individual dots. It’s a strange way to think about it, but that meme that has been so popular with Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal seems to have planted a seed with the music. The lyrics “Make your own kind of music, sing your own special song” may have planted themselves deeper in our social media loving psyche than we realized.

Unless you accept and include the diversity of everyone else on the planet, in your individuality you will walk alone.

For some alone time is a treasure, that allows us to rest from the drains and demands of life.

For others it is suffocating, isolation from the collective energy on which they thrive.

The energy this week is asking two things of us.

First is to know our own source of strength. If you are the type to need a little down time away from other people in order to rechard, that quiet is essential this week. If you thrive on unplugging for a while, then by all means do that. This isn’t the week to push outside your comfort zone. This is the week to build and protect and strengthen your comfort zone. By the same token, if you thrive on connection, this is the week to ensure that connection for yourself, yes, but also as a kindness to others who might be feeling over-isolated.

Second is to protect your energy. If your energy comes from connection, focus on those in particular. Protect your connection to groups and other individuals. The quality of connection is the important thing. Heath is the emphasis in both directions of the connection. Make sure your relationships and connections are healthy and not dependent or narcissistic or draining.

For those who thrive on disconnecting, do that. Protect your energy in total. Shields up, let it go. My go to reading recommendation when this energy comes along is Psychic Protection by Ted Andrews. That, and his earlier book The Healer’s Manual are two of the most useful books I’ve ever read. Taking care to guard and protect your energy feels especially important for the introverts among us.

Whatever your energy style – no matter whether you thrive on making connections or disconnecting, no matter whether you thrive on a rave or listing to rave music alone, whatever your recharging style may be – honor that style. Protect that energy because that will help you have the clarity to see your way through the path ahead. There is so much potential, so many choices and options for you if you let yourself be true to yourself.

Imagine this. Imagine a hall of mirrors where the reflections in the reflections seem to go on forever. Now imagine a crowd of people all dressed alike in that hall of mirrors. How do you see your way forward if you force yourself to be like everyone else? With that image we go from introvert paradise to introvert hell. That’s why the be true to yourself part is important. It is one good way to find your way forward in a dizzying array of energies and possibilities.

Here I get a sense of this crowded mirror room requiring us to adopt an attitude of radical and fierce compassion for others, for diversity and inclusion. There is room and reflections and possible paths for us all.

That’s the purely intuitive read of these cards that are from The Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC who graciously gave me permission to use the deck in my blog and social media.

The cards today are not traditional Tarot cards, which gives a sort of ‘time out of time’ or ‘time apart from the rest’ feeling.

The first card, the Hole is by Seven Dane Asmund, I’m guessing created for the Alleyman’s deck.

It speaks to the unspoken, the deduced and implicit. It highlights the missing. It is, as I see it, the arrow pointing to the things that are conspicuous in the absence.

There is a scene in one of the Star Wars movies where Qui Gon is was told of a planet, but can’t find it. So Yoda (and his class of younglings) pull up the star system where the mystery planet was supposed to be, but nothing was where the planet was supposed to be. What WAS there were aberrations and irregularities. The planets that were on the moving 3D map were moving as if a planet was there. They found the missing, or actually erased, planet by the evidence left behind where it was not. Qui gon proved the theory true by going there, to the place where the planet was calculated to be based on the movement of other things around the empty space.

As convoluted as that sounds, that is exactly the plane Neptune was discovered in our own star (solar) system.

Uranus was wobbling weird so scientists used Newton’s laws of gravity to calculate where another planet should be based on how Uranus was moving around space we thought was empty. We couldn’t go there yet, so they looked at the spot through a telescope instead and BOOM – hello Neptune. (source nasa.gov)

And such is the power of the empty, the hole, the alone. Introverts thrive on it. Extroverts need a little sip of it every now and then.

The Hole and The Comforter are less fading and current energies so much as they are opposite sides of the same, equally strong current energy. I don’t get the sense either is going to fade either time soon. Again I get the feeling the major message is to know which side of things is best for you and do that. Do that big time.

The comforter is all about the power of connection, of comforting ourselves through connection and the comfort of helping others through our connection with them. This card is urging us to celebrate and cherish, protect and strengthen all of the healthy connections in life or forge new ones if needed. This card was originally created by Natasa Ilincic for the Compendium of Witches Tarot.

The creator of the Thing among Reflections card is supposedly unknown, although I suspect it is the deck creator’s work. He reads the card as a vaguely disconcerted feeling that something is wrong or off. This card hasn’t turned up very often for me so this being a new (to me) card gives it that exact feeling just from its unfamiliarity. It feels more than the embarrassment of riches feeling that the many choices we see in the seven of cups card. This is about so many potential outcomes that it is disorienting and overwhelming. If the seven of cups is a big restaurant menu level of many choices, this card is multiverse, hot dogs for fingers, Everything Everywhere All At Once level of many choices.

Knowing yourself, being yourself, and knowing the best way to protect and recharge your energy will help us through a hall of mirrors if and when we walk through one.

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

Filtered light

Six of Cups and nostalgia turned upside down.

Thoughts inspired by the Six of Cups in Reverse


The Week Ahead: More Please!

Contented? More please! Sage’s Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it take to sip from your coffee

In Tarot, we talk a lot about what to do when things get bad. What do you do when things get good?

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Short Sip podcast where it is all Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

This week’s energy has a lot of the Zen and Taoist philosophy influence that I wanted to honor in my previous blog name, TaoCraft Tarot. To be clear, I don’t mean any of this as any sort of cultural appropriation. When I was in my twenties, at a time when I was running for my life from a toxic subculture, I finally found a safe space and indulged in all of the Tarot, Taoism, Zen and magick reading I could get my hands on. Those ideas and philosophies helped me to grow into a much better person and made my life magnitudes better. Taoist principles like simplicity, honesty and authenticity are the foundation of my Tarot work to this day. The foundation of everything, really.

This week’s cards weave together around that core. The three cards together bring to mind the idea of suffering and satisfaction.

When you say it that way, it reminds me of the scene from Harry Potter where they are learning to read tea leaves and Ron reads Harry’s as something along the lines of “you are going to suffer, but you’ll be happy about it.”

The energy today brings to mind the opposite and begs the question:

Are you happy but suffering about it?

I follow a lot of artists on social media. Bruce Brackett is as fierce and fearless in his self-expression as you would expect a professional artist to be. The fan snaps, cups of love, and “negativity be gone” catchphrase is brilliant. I forget the main point of what he was saying the other day on TikTok. A side comment captured my attention so much I don’t remember the rest of it or even exactly when it posted.

It was about how he was able to take an accomplishment in stride, and wasn’t feeling overjoyed about it, “just” content. I’m paraphrasing heavily, but he said something along the lines of “I suppose I’m not supposed to be overjoyed at everything.”

No, no you’re not. None of us are as far as I can tell.

Where there is yin, there must be yang. Where there is light there must also be dark. Where there is overjoyed, there is also sorrow. Where there is lasting, there is also fleeting. Given the big picture and broad spectrum of all that life can be, content is a pretty darn good thing.

Buddhism talks about suffering. Set illness, aging, injury and physical suffering aside for a moment and let’s think about the mental and emotional side of things. No, not really set it aside – just make it the second domino in our cascading line of thought. Mind affects body and vice versa, so all of this can get around to the physical benefits of stress reduction and so on…but I’ll leave that to the holistic health folks to think about.

Suffering in the philosophical Buddhist sense can be thought of as dissatisfaction, or in other words a lack of that precious content feeling Mr. Beckett described. Suffering can be, and often is totally subjective and completely within our frame of mind.

It’s like that pastina recipe that has been popular lately. Being hungry is a physical suffering . Among those who are well fed, however, a bowl of humble pasta might leave one person comforted and content while a meal at the best restaurant in town might leave another person dissatisfied and secretly filling up later at the fast food joint down the street.

Things are good.

There is a pretty, floaty, quiet little snow happening outside my window right now. I have a private Tarot client this afternoon as tasty leftovers in the ‘fridge for lunch between now and then.

Right here, right now, in this precious moment life is good and I am content. I want to take this opportunity to tell the universe how deeply grateful I am. More of the same please. I wish contentment for us all.

For this week, the two of pentacles is the fading energy card. I don’t think that means things are becoming unbalanced. The two of pentacles hints at a dynamic kind of equilibrium. I think this means the need to pay active attention to our life balance may be fading a bit. It feels like things may be settling into a new normal.

Three years ago this week the world was tossed into the global pandemic. I’m not saying that’s over. That is outside of anything Tarot and way outside of my expertise. But wearing a mask on occasion and keeping up with new vaccine boosters is a new normal that is easy enough to live with. Things are striking a new balance that is solid enough to let us turn our emotions to other places.

Current energy is the nine of cups. The suit of cups symbolizes our emotions, which is why they are so closely tied to romance and relationship issues. This reflects the subjective nature of contentment. Nine symbolizes fulfillment, or a good outcome to something. When is enough ever enough? This hints at that feeling of contentment were just talking about.

Growing energy is back to the practical pentacles. The seven reminds us that you reap what you sow, so might as well sow good things.

That there will be a harvest at all is a magical, comforting thing.

All in all, these cards are reminding us of all the changes we’ve been through. It may have been a struggle to find balance, but we are at a place where we can find new balance points and find a new normal. This new balance (the energy, not the shoes) has brought new good things with it, but it is up to us to realize the good things about here and now. Dwelling on the changes robs us of a new sense of contentment. We may not be overjoyed at life, but neither do we have to despair. Like that old adage says, people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

What are the good parts of our new normal that we can seed for the future and hopefully hang on to for a while?

Sage’s Short Sip blog posts and podcast episode are a Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Thank you so much for reading and listening. I appreciate each of you.

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Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Drink from the Flow

Sage’s Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

Zen teaches us that only an empty cup can be filled.

So what do you do when your cup is full, when things are good?

That CAN happen, by the way. It’s probably  happening right now. Check it out. Shift your attention away from your screen in 3, 2, 1 – NOW. Pay attention to what is around you. 

Are you at work? Cool! You have a job and some degree of income! Are you doom scrolling? Cool! You have a device and internet access to scroll with! Are you in physical danger? If you are, get off your phone and do something about it for cryin’ out loud. Have you had something to eat today? Did you get a little bit of sleep last night? 

I’m not saying that you don’t have anything on your mind. I’m not saying that you aren’t struggling with anything or that your health is perfect or you have no emotions or emotional pain. Everyone deals with something sometimes. Call it the price of admission to this brief and shining spark we call life.

​Pay attention to just this minute for a minute.

Paying attention to right here and right now is what we call mindfulness. 

What fills your cup right now?

If you spend your life waiting for champaign, you are going to miss the clear, cool, clean, life-giving water that is there right now. If things are good, drink up. 

If things are good, drink it in with gratitude, and make room for more to flow in. 

What if the water in a cup is stagnant, or bitter, filled with dirt or germs? Drinking from that would be a bad idea. Instead do what you can to clean out the cup and find a better drink. That requires emptying the cup to make room for more to flow in, too.

How do you know where the good things are to fill your metaphoric cup once there is room in it?

Today’s card is the King of Cups. It symbolizes emotional maturity, emotional protection and healing, mentors, teachers and spirit guides. 

Cups and water are timeless symbols for exactly this kind of spiritual, intuitive, emotional learning. Going back to cups and water as an example. 

How do you know where the clean, healthy, flowing water is? We don’t necessarily know. We don’t have to know that alone. Teachers, mentors, students and mentees all have a way of finding each other when the time is right. When you are thirsty and your cup is empty, ask for directions to the nearest water fountain. If you know where the clean safe water is, it is up to you to give directions to the empty-bottle thirsty people. 

Knowledge and guidance and life flows like water. We all have cups. Drink from the flow even as you help others to do the same.

Thank you for reading and listening! I appreciate each and every one of you.

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The name change from TaoCraft Tarot to Sage Words Tarot is almost finished. There are still a few new things on the horizon, so please follow the free blog for all of the latest. Links are in the episode description for podcast listeners

See you at the next sip!

The Week Ahead: More than meets the eye

The Tarot week ahead in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

My, my. Aren’t we chatty again today.

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I’m glad you are here.

On Mondays, my hope is to do a Pathway Tarot reading for everyone, on all the platforms where you can find Sage Words Tarot. As always, it isn’t a hard core prediction. No Tarot or psychic reading ever is. As I see it this functions a lot like a weather forecast. It isn’t 100% definite most of the time (unless you hear the word “warning” which means it is already happening, so you should do something about it.) If you take a squinty-eyed look at what is probable, then you can be ready for the possibilities and opportunities that cross your path. It’s our mantra here: Tarot doesn’t tell you what is going to happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

​The energy this week is quite a bit like last week. Neil DeGrasse Tyson once said that “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” That is true of hard science, social sciences, and folk art like Tarot. The universe is under no obligation to make one iota of sense and by the same token, it is under no obligation to move or change according to our hopes, aspirations, expectations or schedules.

If a regularly scheduled Tarot broadcast seems repetitive, it isn’t necessarily because the person doing the reading isn’t skilled or that the whole technique isn’t valid. The collective energies are what they are and under no obligation to keep us entertained.

We’ve had this “yeah it’s an annoying pain in the backside but you got this” energy around for a few weeks now. But compare that to 2020 when it was all mental images of hurricanes and a sense of Holy Duck stay focused on the practical problems at hand and batten down the hatches. The feel is totally different. This is feet up sipping coffee time by comparison.

Sometimes the energy changes within a matter of hours. Sometimes things shift over weeks or months. It varies from time to time – and certainly from person to person.

The energy seems fairly steady and low-key at the moment. I personally, will take that. I could use a little steady for a little while. So good news for me, but frustrating news for anyone who is feeling stuck, frustrated or impatient. Like I’ve said before relative to the Hanged Man card…one man’s stuck in the mud is another man’s day at the spa. It’s up to you to decide if the energy reads we get here are good or bad news for you personally.

One of the clue for me that we are still in a bit of the same groove is how chatty the cards are.

By chatty, I mean that the reading is more clairaudient than usual.

Clairvoyant means “clear sight” and refers to intuitive impressions that come in the form of mental images. I use the verb “see” to refer to those.

Clairaudient is that same intuition, just in the form of something sound-related like words or music. When those come along I use the word “hear.” Very seldom are the sounds actual sounds, although right now I’m getting the screeching tires and breaking glass sound effect from a don’t text and drive public service announcement just as an example of what that would be like.

Try putting THAT into words for a blog and podcast.

But back to chatty.

I’ve been getting more than the usual amount of word-driven intuition rather than mental image intuition the past couple of weeks as we begin the new pattern of things under the new name.

The change from TaoCraft Tarot to Sage Words Tarot is mostly finished, by the way.

When I do a private email Tarot reading, the first thing we’ll do is take a look at the general pattern of the cards on the table. This week is starting off with a bang and every single card in the layout is from the major arcana portion of the Tarot deck. I genuinely don’t see that often. I don’t know the math of it. Only 22 of the 78 Tarot cards are major arcana, but there is still some crazy big number of possible combinations in a three card reading….what is it? 78+77+76 to the power of three or some ridiculous thing? I don’t know the precise science-answer, but there are a LOT of possible combinations and only a portion of them include all major arcana cards. So the fact that this layout beat the odds and gave us all majors deserves attention and consideration.

Thinking about this pattern gives sort of a blurry double image, like opening your eyes under water. I am reminded of that old adage about being a duck in an emergency…calm on the surface but furiously paddling underneath.

All major arcana cards are a high energy, rapid change situation. That is in direct opposition to the sedate, steady feeling of the energy.

So how do we reconcile the seeming opposites?

I think the weird juxtaposition is a hint at timing. In the big picture and the overall pattern of things the theme of sedate and steady rules the week, but there may be small or short-lived little “KER-POWs” of energy.

There is an example of both clairvoyance and clairaudience at work. I ‘hear’ or ‘get’ the word KA-POW plus I also get a mental image of it as a cartoon or comic book image of the word, like during the fight scenes in the 1960s Batman TV show that in itself was a parody of even older comic books.

I also see a pebble thrown into a pond…a little splash in a big quiet surface.

I don’t think there is anything much under the surface. We might have to do a little ker-pow of duck paddling at some point this week, but it isn’t a major upset, just a little burst of speed to scoot out of the way of a minor disturbance.

At least on the outside. Here I get the impression that most of the major arcana action is going to be internal, in the spiritual or psychological realm of things, which would certainly fit the symbolism of the duck who seems to be gliding calmly on top but paddling like crazy with its feet under the smooth glassy surface of the water.

The first major arcana card we see is the Justice card. With that I hear “Be fair, including with yourself.” “You are part of the mix and deserve equal fairness with everyone.” This card is in the diminishing energies position within this particular layout, at which point I hear “Let It Go”…. in the form of the song from that Disney movie.

Which in turn reminds us to keep it light, keep your sense of humor, and don’t turn this week’s splash into more of a tidal wave than it really is.

In the current energy position we have the Strength card. This card feels like pure validation and reassurance. You got this. I get the mental image of a weight room or a gym. This is practice. This is a normal workout for your resilience and persistence. Be strong. Don’t whine. Do the do and you can get back to your calm and steady energies shortly.

The growing energy position belongs to the Fool. I see underlines…so this card is reinforcing the idea of lightness and humor. Keeping your sense of humor about things seems important this week.

The Fool card is also symbolic of new beginnings. Our chatty cards are giving me the “break on through to the other side” lyric from some old song from the Doors. Don’t ask me which one. I’m not THAT old. If it grabs your attention as something for you personally, then by all means google it or stream the song or something.

​For our purposes, I think the “other side” is the other side of whatever stress or burst of energy this week brings. Be it next week, next month or next year, this feels like a reassurance that something good is available to us if we put a little effort into it.

It’s weird, but I see grass, and colored eggs on grass on the other side of clear plastic kitchen wrap. Good thing are waiting for us if we are fair to everyone and ourselves, stay strong and make the little effort of breaking on through to the greener grass on the other side of this week.

So stay calm but keep paddling my duckie friends!

Daily Sip members on ko-fi get Tarot every weekday (plus a standing shop discount) Tarot Table members get that plus a personal Sage’s Sip Tarot reading by email on request one per calendar month that they are an active member. People who follow the free blog on SageWordsTaot.com get exclusive weekend content, and the socials are whatever whenever although Instagram is the only one where I actually interact with the comments.

And that is the online week in a nutshell.

Or in a Tarot reading in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. See you at the next sip!

The Week Ahead: Churning a Corner

Churning the corner: a Tarot look at the week ahead

It’s Monday. Let’s talk motivation. Mostly because I don’t have any at the moment.

Hello and welcome to Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I’m glad you are here.

It’s week two of the new schedule where a three card pathway reading for the week ahead posts for everyone on Monday. I appreciate any day that you read or listen. Thank you.

The cards are chatty this week. The intuitive impressions are words as much as mental images. Typically I get more images than words. I don’t thing that shift is particularly significant, I’m fairly clairaudient anyway so let’s just roll with it.

The first card is the knight of cups with the words “emotional churning.” come through here. Knights are generally very active, confident, forward moving cards. In this case, it is in the “diminishing energies” position within the layout. Put those together, and it hints at a time of high emotions, but when that time happens for you as an individual is impossible to say. It may be happening, or it may be close at hand. Either way, I’d guess this time of emotional upheaval and wonkiness shouldn’t last long.

I’ll grant you I’ve had a morning of app and website technical gremlins, so I feel fairly annoyed with that, but those are resolved now and I still feel a sense of malcontent. I get a sense of short tempers, irritability, or of the world getting on every last nerve. Again I get that idea of emotional churning. It might be a residual feeling from the earlier inconveniences, but it it crossing that boundary line we’ve talked about before. If I focus on that boundary between my own mood and the general zeitgeist energy, this feels like more than a stupic app crashing would warrant. Yeah, I was annoyed, but now it feels like so are a lot of other people and over bigger things than that.

Mind that your mood is your own. This card reminds us of two things. First mind your emotional boundaries. What is the objective reality around you right now? Is the stress or emotion you might be feeling objectively warranted, or is it a by-product of worry about the future or dwelling on the past? If that is the case deliberately focusing on right here, right now can help. That’s the mindfulness that people are always talking about.

Let’s try it. Just for a quick moment. Then you can get right back to your regularly scheduled agitation.

First take a deep breath and think about what you feel and how you feel. Good, bad or indifferent, don’t judge it, just name it. How the heck do you feel right now? Is a just a little or is the volume turned up to 11?

Take another deep breath. Now pay attention to right here. Where are you? What is your environment? Pull your attention back from the words on the screen and notice other things like the device itself, the sounds around you, the temperature, how comfortably you are seated or standing.

All of those details.

Pay attention to right now. Forget the past, forget the future, just for a minute. Put all of your thoughts on

This.

One.

Moment.

Is this moment quiet? Does it suddenly feel like “HEY! It’s kinda happy in here!” If that’s the case, you might be resonating with outside energies. If you still feel gnarly and churning, then it’s time to face those emotions. Own them. Even if they are uncomfortable, it’s ok. They are legit. As best as you can, give them…and you…whatever T.L.C is needed. It’s not a personal failure to experience uncomfortable emotions. At worst it’s a signal there is something up that needs some attention, comprehension and problem-solving. At best it’s just you being human.

The good news is that as a diminishing energy, the emotional churn that is our Monday Motivation toward mindfulness (ooooh I do love me some alliteration) probably won’t last long. The high emotional state will churn the corner soon.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

The second thing is mind your own emotions. More than just being aware of the boundary, shore it up and don’t leak out. Feel what you feel. Embrace it, accept it, abide with it. Just please don’t spew it on other people. You never know what is brewing inside their emotional boundary bubble so be nice. We are are annoyed in this together – or so it seems.

The surrounding energy for this week is the Ace of Wands.

I hear “carry a torch for yourself.” which is a phrase that I’ve heard before with this card. Wands are associated with fire, our inner world, and our inner passions. Once we get on the other side of annoyance day, then carrying a torch for ourselves…self love, self improvement, self care….whatever name you want to use for it…give yourself a little of that.

If the emotional churn initially motivates, this self care is one thing that the emotions are pushing us toward.

“Spark an idea” comes through too. I also hear “lightbulb” and see that cartoon trope of a light bulb over someone’s head to show they have had a sudden good idea.

When you get the right idea, your instinct and emotion will light up too. When you know, you know, and when you know where you want to go it lights up the path to get there lights up too.

Churning emotions are a hint that something needs to change, that you need to turn a corner. A spark of an idea will let you know when the change is at hand and just what corner to turn.,

The growing energy is the two of pentacles. That’s where we are headed, and that’s a releaf. I ‘hear’ it will all wash out in the end.

I see pancakes.

Here is why.

Have you ever made pancakes from scratch? Most recipes tell you not to mix too much at the end, and that lumps are OK because they will cook out in the end, and mixing them out now will make the pancake chewy and tough.

That’s sort of the flow of energy here. It’s lumpy and weird at the start, but if we hang in and roll with it, it will all cook out in the end. We’ll churn the corner to a more balanced energy fairly soon.

Hang in there my friends.

Thank you for reading and listening. Please visit the main blog and podcast website. The link is in the episode description for podcast folks. Your support on ko-fi helps me to bring this weekly look ahead reading to everyone. Please click the white coffee mug on the website or the link in the description to learn more.

Many thanks. See you at the next sip!

Is it worth it?

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Everybody loves a free sample

I like samples, especially when they are free.

Those big box warehouse clubs are famous for their free food samples. I’ve found some of my favorite foods that way (looking at you chicken veggie dumplings and big chunk of aged cheddar cheese) Free appetizers are fun, but you don’t see them giving away the toaster oven.

Ever since the big pandemic lockdown back in 20 aught 20 when we were shopping a lot online anyway, I’ve been trying to transition to less plastic and more environmentally friendly versions of, well, everything.

Which is trickier than you might think when you have to factor in family allergies and skin sensitivities along with things like affordability and efficacy. Small and sample sizes, even when they aren’t free, are helpful in figuring out if a product is trustworthy or green washed. Small sizes helped me find good products and switch to the full size without wondering if they would give half of us a rash.

But that is all another story.

Free sample Tarot readings have a similar kind of utility. Free Tarot content is about helping you decide what works for you and what doesn’t. It is about a little sip or a tasty morsel. It’s not about taking home the whole toaster oven.

Over the years, I’ve had people call and ask for a “free sample” Tarot reading.

For private, individual readings? Nope. No free samples. This ain’t cheese and crackers. You gotta pay for toaster ovens and full size Tarot readings.

But I do offer other kinds of free samples. You are looking at it (or listening to it) right now. This blog is free. The podcast is free. The YouTube shorts and Sips of Tarot on social media are all free. Those collective energy readings may not be tailored to you individually the way a private reading would be but it gives a tantalizing little taste of what a one to one private email reading might be like.

I think this kind of openness and transparency is important to building trust like we talk about on the “How to Find a Psychic You Can Trust” page on the website.

Free Tarot readings are all over the place. Free Tarot content is lying around out in the open all over cyberspace but those free samples come at a subtle cost. You have to put in the work of discerning what applies to you and what doesn’t. Spirit speaks in whispers. With free online content you have to do the hard work of interpreting the message for yourself.

In my experience, spirit’s message will find you one way or another with all the energy and intensity of that old Blondie song. All you need is the chutzpah to listen or look for it. Spirit’s message always comes directly to you free of charge.

Spirit message hearing aids and translators are another story.

Even if you paid top dollar for the most famous celebrity psychic in the world, the nitty gritty work of applying that reading to your personal life and personal growth is still 100% up to you.

Paying for a professional reading is not paying for the message itself, it’s paying for a savings in your time and effort. Paying a professional to help you find spirit’s message spares you from a metric ton of trial and error, even though the final step of applying the message to your life will always be up to you. I got really good at intuition and Tarot readings the hard way through study and practice and time. You can get good at this too – through study and practice and time.

But that amount of time and effort is not something everyone wants to spend. The trade-off for borrowing my experience and expertise is paying the consultation fee.

Life and death emergencies aside, let me borrow an example from my friends in the medical profession.

All healing comes from within, from the living organism itself. Even the most advanced scientific medicine can’t create life where there is none. But they can help support the living being’s innate healing process. You could get over your sprained ankle on your own, but consulting a doctor might help you heal better or faster.

Intuition is a natural ability that we all have. Developing it to the level where it can be trusted to help other people is a professional skill. Consulting with a professional intuitive can help you find the message or inspiration that you need more quickly or more accurately than prolonged trial and error on your own.

Last week I combined the “Seat at the Tarot Table” and the “Patron of the Tarot Arts” memberships so that the lower tier price gives you the upper tier benefit of on demand email Tarot readings.You can get all of the details and disclaimers about that at the link below or in the podcast description.

Today I’m introducing a new membership tier. This is not an upper tier with all the benefits of the Tarot Table plus extras. it is an entirely separate and different thing. Right now it is an either / or choice. I don’t think you can do both memberships, but I can’t imagine that anyone would want or need both anyway.

Starting Monday February 20th, the new membership tier will be the only place to get Tarot every weekday. There will be some crossover, but the free content will be more random, less frequent and definitely not daily.

Today, however, I want to give you a sneak peek at what the weekday readings in the new membership level will be like.

The format on the daily post will vary to keep it visually interesting. Some days will have vintage public domain images from the Rider Waite Smith 1909 Tarot deck like the one below. Some will have my photos of a different public domain RWS deck that I have. Some will use my current favorite deck, the Alleyman’s Tarot used with the kind permission of the deck’s creator Seven Dane Asmund of Publishing Goblin LLC

Long story short, the free stuff isn’t really changing, it just won’t be as as frequent as before. The only way to get Tarot content every weekday is through the ko-fi members blog. I’m not sure yet how weekends will work, but watch this space and I’ll let you know what to expect.

What I’m trying to say, and not doing a very good job of it is that the only way to get absolutely everything, is to follow the free blog AND subscribe to the Daily Sip. Long read posts will be here, Daily sips will be there and social media will be whatever whenever.

It’s Saturday evening as I write this. Let’s pull a card for the collective energy for the rest of the weekend … or for whenever you happen to read this. If you are stumbling across this at another time, feel free to apply it personally. It’s a free Tarot reading and you can take it or leave it as you see fit. It’s up to you.

But in the spirit of those delicious free candy samples at the warehouse store, here is a free taste of what the Daily Sip posts will look like.

The King of Wands

A very broad brush rule of thumb for reading face or court cards is that the Queen carries the nurturing, maternal qualities of the suit, while the King carries the protective, paternal energies. Wands cards are associated with the classical element of fire, and can symbolize inner passions or our relationship with our inner selves.

I hear…and by the way, when I say hear that means that the mental intuition is in the form of words or sounds or music instead of images. In this case I hear “The king protects through teaching.” This brings to mind the value of education. Real education about objective facts and useful things. Neil DeGrasse Tyson famously said “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” That is the kind of education the card is referencing. This kind of education is the exact, polar and distant opposite from dogma and indoctrination.

An educated populace is a strong and safe populace. Good teaching does right by people. For the mental image piece of it, I am reminded of some of my favorite Instagram and TicTok creators: Dylan Hollis, GothDad, DadAdviceFromBo, bwb.positivity, MercuryStardust and PoppopBruce Johnson who all teach and inspire with great fun and equal kindness.

Today is a nurturing energy. It is a fostering and supportive energy. Do you have something to teach? Something to learn? Something to do together in mutual support? It feels like a good day for reading, studying, or practicing something you love. Read a book, go for a run, take a deep breath, soak up some sun…no matter whether whether it involves the mind or the body, do something today that nourishes your soul in the process.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. Please follow, subscribe, like, share or just generally stay tuned to the main (free) blog, the free podcast, the memberships and all the socials for the week-ahead reading coming up on Monday.

See you at the next sip!

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Learn more about the Tarot Table and Daily Sip memberships HERE

Sage’s Short Sip Tarot: Wait

Sage’s Short Sip Tarot and the new “daily sip” membership tier is a Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee


Swords are often a card of action. Swords can also represent your relationship with authority, culture and society at large.

This is not the day to impulsively “fight the man.” This isn’t the day to die on any hill. It feels like large forces are afoot. It is a time for we smaller creatures to wait, think, watch from the shadows.

Watch and learn. Your time will come

“For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love” – Carl Sagan

Alleyman’s Tarot Deck used with permission


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Private readings by email are available 24/7, no appointment needed

Weird But Manageable


Now there is something you don’t see everyday, which is probably a good thing.

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot. Today we are doing a full on pathway reading to do a squinty eyed Tarot look at the week ahead. This layout is roughly based on the old school past, present, future layout but I modify it to make it more dynamic. I want to focus on our ability to choose and the cause and effect power our choices have over our path forward in time.

Like I’ve been saying for years now: Tarot doesn’t predict what will happen to you in life. Tarot helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

That’s what these weekly look-ahead readings are all about. It’s not about a prediction, it’s about navigation. The reading is about ideas to help you navigate the energies swirling around right now. If you follow the blog or podcast and get the cards in the week that they were drawn, it can give you a sense of the current zeitgeist collective energies. If you stumble across this post or episode at some other point in time then the message is still valid, it just becomes more personal to you and less connected to the general energies.

For these weekly posts and in private three card readings, I change the meaning for each card position from past, present and future to make it all more dynamic. These cards are tied to the flow of energy instead of time. The timing is unique to you. The energy flow may not connect to you at all. That is up to you to decide if and how any of this resonates for you at all..

The first card points to an energy that is present, but fading in influence. The second card is the surrounding energy that is strongest at the present moment and the final card is an energy that is growing in influence.

I read the card order from right to left for a few reasons.

First, that’s how it’s done in the first layout that I learned way way back in the day. The nine card layout in the Medicine Cards guidebook by David Carson and Jamie Sams was one inspiration for the five card and seven card layouts that I wrote ten years later when I first began professional Tarot work.

Second, it’s how I learned to read auras. When you read a person’s aura, you look at them face on, and their past is on your right, which is their left. It might sound confusing, but it is surprisingly easy and natural if you have ever looked at medical x-rays.

Third, this is the opposite of how we read English, my native language. Reading words is a logical process. By flipping the direction of card interpretation, it disconnects the Tarot reading process from the logical language reading process and opens the way for a more purely intuitive understanding.

That all being said, let’s look at this week’s cards.

Logic is not a factor in the card of diminishing energies, the Devil. Today I’m using the Alleyman Tarot with permission from deck creator Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Gobline LLC . There isn’t information about this individual card save that the copyright for the image is held by the British museum. I couldn’t find anything on an internet search so why this Devil in what looks for all the world like a very vintage card is drawn with ophiological genitalia is beyond me. Snake-boy is not something you see every day. Snakes or no, it takes some outright chutzpah to run around naked with all the confidence and power this image portrays.

Other people may have been trying to take a mile from the inch you gave. People may have been trying to take a mile from an inch that you never gave in the first place. The energy around this card is weird and intrusive and hints at a time where everything has been out of kilter and working on every last nerve. Luckily it is starting to move away, so hang in there.

Next is the Strength card. That is the closest, biggest energy right now and the message is just as simple and clear as it can get.

You got this.

In my readings, “hear” means that the intuition comes as words or music instead of mental images. “See” means the intuition comes as mental images. Sometimes there are feelings, tastes and smell, but that is uncommon. At this point, I hear the phrase “strength comes from perseverance.” Being patient and persistent is your superpower right now. Be the mountain in the presence of chattering monkeys.

The final card is the energy that is growing, moving toward us in the near future if you will. The knight of wands has all sorts of passionate, active connotations and my instinct it to toss them all right out the window.

In the BBC seven episode adaptation of Suzanna Clarke’s novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel the knight of wands is connected with a the coming of a second magician that would allow magic to return to England.

That is the meaning that is front and center and loud for this card this week.

Find your magic. Be that second magician that re-ignites your connection with the magic that is inside. Be your own Jonathan Strange.

In short, this week may be weird but hang in there ’cause you got this.

Thank you for reading and listening! Please follow the blog and podcast for more of these three card readings for the week ahead (whatever week this may be for you.) I do mean both. There will be posts on the blog that don’t go out to the podcast. The free blog is the only place to get all of my free-to-access Tarot content and it has links to the podcast if you prefer audio.

Private readings are open. Ko-fi memberships have been upgraded. I’d appreciate any likes, subs, shares or virtual coffees you can spare. Links are in the right hand column on the blog and in the episode description for this podcast.

See you at the next sip!