Tag: go with the flow

Snow Day Six

This week we had our first snowy day of the season.

It’s one of those things where you just have to roll with it. You can’t stop it. Not much you can do about it except brave the bread and eggs crowd at the grocery store and shovel when it’s all said and done.

Life is one big snow day in that respect. Do what you can when you can and roll with it otherwise.

The six of swords is giving that energy today. Go with the flow is the best way through. All is not always as it seems anyway.

The swords are on the boat…not blocking the boat;s way.

The figures behind the swords seem huddled and seem miserable while the standing (and steering) figure sees the way ahead, the direction the current is flowing, and can nudge things toward a brighter horizon.

Why fight the current if you can use it to your advantage? Why huddle behind imagined blockages when the natural flow of is taking you in the general direction that you want to go?

Mindfulness and being aware of the present moment is like standing up for a minute and seeing the current flow, the bigger picture, and the way ahead.

The six of swords is a reminder to enjoy unexpected snow days, so to speak.

See you at the next sip!

Week Ahead Tarot: Choose Your Flow

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

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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 

We’re gonna need a bigger boat

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

“Going with the flow” sounds relaxing, doesn’t it?. More often than not, the six of swords carries that kind of energy. Most of the time it talks about healing, progress, transition and placid waters ahead.

It isn’t always that way.

A roller coaster is going with the flow of gravity. A kayak expert in class V rapids is going with the flow too.

The more insane the spins, the stronger the current, the flowing it takes. Going with the flow can be quite a ride sometimes. Going with the flow can seem like crazy advice when life is at its most turbulent.

But on the other hand, can you imagine fighting a current like that?

Sometimes, it is OK to seek out a little comfort, sameness and nostalgia. It can be the bigger boat you need to flow with the fast waters of stressful times.

Which is why I’m going back to my emotional support cup of coffee. See you at the next sip!

Summer hours update:

I’ve been trying to give myself a little patience and grace as TaoCraft Tarot transitions from “freelance business” status to “it’s a hobby”. As it stands now, I don’t do in-person or other live readings. I still do private readings by email (let’s face it – those are my best readings anyway)

What all of that means is that the posting schedule will be more erratic than ever.

BUT

Private readings by email never needed a schedule in the first place. Order anytime. The delivery window is 48 hours but it’s worth it to get the equivalent of a one hour Tarot reading for about half of what most one hour live sessions would cost.

The proceeds from private email readings, ko-fi memberships, and ko-fi virtual coffees all go toward creating and webhosting Sage Sips as an inspiration and lifestyle Tarot blog.

Flow and perspective

You can’t go with the flow until you get in the boat.

But then where are you going to go, and why?

Whenever I cite a Tarot deck, I always, always, always cite the artist no matter who wrote the book that goes with it. The book is nice, it gives the particular spin to match the particular deck for each card, but the art is where the real utility of a deck comes in. After all, there is nothing inherently special about Tarot cards, oracle decks, runes, tea leaves, I Ching coins and the like. They are all tools, gateways that help us access our normal, natural, innate intuition. They are the microphone, not the ear. They are the telescope, not the eye. Just as these things were brilliant, world-changing innovations in enhancing physical senses, putting detailed artwork on pip cards was equally revolutionary in the world of Tarot.

You can do intuitive readings just fine with the game-playing deck and no artwork at all. Like all oracles, the pip decks and gaming deck are just a tool to help access intuition. They are just a bit less sophisticated of a tool. Pip cards are a fine enough set of screwdrivers, but a fully illustrated Tarot deck is a set of watchmaker’s tools by comparison. The artwork raises the utility and versatility of the deck exponentially.

Today’s card is an example.

The deck resource books from Edward Waite talks about travel on water. Ellen Dugan talks about “smooth sailing ahead.” Diane Morgan talks about “yielding.” I’ve written here about perspective. All of these things, although different, are perfectly valid in the time and the background energy context of the time that the card interpretation was done. The human brain is a brilliant information filter and triage device. Attention is a real and very valuable psychic tool. Pay attention to something when it captures your attention. This is precisely how the artwork expands our Tarot understanding so dramatically. In the previous six of swords post, perspective and point of view stepped forward as a message after drawing attention to the swords stuck in the canoe. Today, my attention is much more strongly drawn to the image of the water, which in turn connects to the idea of flow, going with the flow, and the “yielding” that others have seen.

A full intuitive message often comes as a daisy-chain of ideas or a line of falling dominoes. Connect these ideas with the ideas from the Lovers card yesterday: goals, drive, desire and achievement from yesterday.

Put it all together, and we get to a point of balanced energy that I’ve seen be a bit out of balance lately. There needs to be balance between goals, achievement and progress toward a defined end point and the flow of life, of experience, of mindfulness of the present moment, of simple being.

We need both direction and mindfulness. Desires can both guide and frustrate, motivate and imprison. It is a balance of experience vs aspiration. It is a diet vs a lifestyle. My sense is we need more mindfulness and attention to the present moment. As we vaccinate and all too many people abandon mitigation too early we need to stop fixating on when we “get back to normal” and stay in the flow of the moment or else we may sink the boat.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Tao Te Ching

Today’s Tarot: Dam it

Or more accurately, don’t.

Accidents happen. Poor choices are made, more often than not unintentionally. We wouldn’t set out to hurt anyone, but sometimes we are less careful with ourselves than with others.

There are some times, hopefully minor ones, where we are our own worst enemy and our self sabotage is our own damn fault. I have a theory that is the precise time when obstacles are a potent spirit message and life lesson.

When the challenge comes from things outside of us, all of the adages and advice about persistence come into play. When the obstacle is our own doing, then it is more a matter of beating our own head against our own wall until we get our own clue.

The feeling with the card today is not really preventative. It feels like the message is about something now, something in progress, something where the cosmos is telling us to knock it off already. Where are you putting on the brakes (or building a dam) when you need to go with the flow?

I’ve discovered that I like making playlists. Not going to put the brakes on that just yet. Here is another one for your enjoyment: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6hDnolAabh3u3g4vcGpS68?si=19ee6787bdcd47be

12 Second Tarot: Seven of Swords (23Dec 19)

Cunning and cleverness with a big dash of street smarts will serve you well. A day for agility and adapting. Enjoy the ride, resisting only makes it harder.