Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
I’m taking a couple of days off for the Memorial Day weekend here in the US, but private readings and the ko-fi page are still open for orders. Readings will go out next week starting Tuesday 5-27-25. Happy and safe weekend to everyone everywhere!
Sage Sips is tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
QUEEN OF SWORDS
No boundary can be respected if no one knows it exists. Defining then effectively communicating what the boundaries are is the first step to consistently protecting them. It is a necessary step toward protecting your inner peace.
“Setting boundaries” is a common pop psychology kind of term these days. But, as I understand it, it is rooted in real psychology and very real mental health.
“Self-care” is another term that is thrown around a lot on social media.
Both things boil down to Socrates “know thyself.” You have to know your inner world before you can define and protect that boundary line where the inner world and the outer world meet. You have to know your self before you can care for yourself and protect your inner self.
Setting boundaries isn’t about being antagonistic to other people or indulging in narcissism. Setting boundaries is self defense. Setting boundaries is knowing yourself, knowing what you need to be your best self, communicating that to others and not letting them harm your basic self respect.
It’s all easier to do once you realize that no one can make you happy, neither can anyone take it away. That boundary between you and the outside world is yours alone to set and protect.
KNIGHT OF PENTACLES
Stay steady, be patient. Too many changes can sabotage the plan. Stand strong and call what you need to you.
There is a meme with this card that always gives me a giggle. “Behold, the field where I grow my f* cks. Lift up thine eye and you will see that it is barren.”
There is a kind of happiness, a feeling of being content and at ease within your own skin when you let go of worry about what other people think of you. It is a steady place to stand.
Pentacles (coins, disks) cards are often about physical things; career, money, the nuts and bolts of being in the world. This is no different. Sometimes the key to what you need is steadiness and patience.
This connects with the seven of pentacles card in a recent reading. Sometimes you just have to lean on your rake and let the seeds you planted do their thing. Sometimes you just have to sit still on your horse and pull what you need to you, like Luke Skywalker using the force to pull his lightsaber into his hand.
Making too many changes or giving too many f*cks could throw a monkey wrench into the gears of life right now. It’s ok to be chill every now and then.
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See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
I’m sitting here with a cup of coffee and a slice of leftover pizza (the breakfast of champions) wishing I had some earth shaking Tarot insight, brilliant read or the year ahead, or at least some good advice to offer.
After the traditional playing of U2’s “New Years Day” I have to admit Bono is right in the lyrics “nothing changes on New Year’s Day”.
You know what is same-est thing about New Years Day? It is the way everything changes on New Years Day – and every other day too.
Shift your inner perception, and the whole universe can look just a tiny bit different.
That being said, I still don’t have any particular wisdom to offer about 2025. I don’t have anything to say about today, except to let it be what it is, whatever it is. If it is exactly like yesterday, that’s OK. If it is a profound new beginning, wonderful! If it sucks in uncountable ways, I’m sorry. I feel you. We just have to hold on to the notion that it will suck a little less eventually. It’s New Years Day, and like any other day, it is whatever it is: joyous, tragic, or kinda average.
One of the things I like about Taoist philosophy is the way it embraces seemingly opposite things as part of a bigger wholeness. Today may be a brand new beginning. Today might be the pit of despair. Today might be a massive hangover. Whatever it is, it is part of the biggest big picture. Whatever it is you are not alone. Whatever today may be, old days are still with us and tomorrow brings another new day. Yet still, today is all we have. Might as well be at peace with it.
Whatever this new year may actually turn out to be, my hope and my wish for all of us is for a time of health, happiness, safety and ease.
Happy New Year, everyone!
If a Tarot reading would help you find your way through New Years Day and all of the other days, I’m here. Distance readings are my specialty, so they are open and available to order all of the time.
Most orders are delivered to your email within 24 hours. I’m not a big business, a scam or a media maven, so I don’t have ‘a team’ It’s just me, my laptop, my cards and my intuition. Sometimes there might be delays depending on the day job, holidays with family, needing to sleep and whatnot.
Thanks so much for reading! Please support this Tarot work: Any virtual coffees or private reading orders support this blog, the free readings on social media and the non-monetized YouTube channel.
Private readings are open for the holidays, no appointment needed.
Sage Sips is Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip your coffee Private readings, shop or buy me a coffee all support this non-monetized channel and blog https://ko-fi.com/taocrafttarot
Three of Swords: Guard yourself against the thoughtlessness of others, even if it seems unintentional. The holidays can be a time of both love and pain existing in the same person at the same moment. Be kind, but be cautious. Your peace and happiness has the same right to exists as everyone else’s.
Six of Swords: A journey or transition not of your own making may be at hand. If you aren’t satisfied with the answers at hand, keep seeking – continue contemplating until you are OK to move forward again.
Merry Solstice everyone! Thank you for reading. See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your emotional support coffee
On Fridays, I want to get back to writing “Weekend Oracle” and draw an Oracle card to get a feel for the weekend energies and maybe get a hint how to best navigate this liminal time. Not everyone gets a work break on the weekends, and they may enjoy the same heads up the rest of us like on Mondays. Plus, with the vast majority of folks on a weekday schedule, weekends have a different vibe, they are the space between work week for the majority of us. Weekends have a different vibe, and a touch of that liminality where magic lives.
I started to do that today, but still got the intuitive ‘nope’. Halloween last night might have been a pressure valve. The collective energy here in the US may have taken a deep breath, a long drink of a cold beer and a hefty dose of chocolate last night, but things may re-ramp up as we sprint to the finish line with this election thing as far as the actual voting goes.
So nope.
I’m still going on meatspace sabbatical for collective energy readings. Y’all on your own with whatever coping skills you already have on board (reaches for coffee and emotional support Doritos)
Private readings, however, are a whole different story.
I’ve been doing those all along, and last night was the first time in a while they layouts weren’t all supercharged with big time major arcana energy. There were major arcana cards all around, so no stagnant or stuck-energy messages, but nothing over the top either. All very pleasant and positive, actually.
Encouraged by that, I drew a “weekend update” Tarot card this morning for myself rather than the collective. It may apply to a broader audience – In fact, I hope this is a collective reading even though I’m not inclined to really read it that way.
Eww – no – still too sticky mess melange of right wing-y nazi-ish nastiness out there, despite it being a sunny, cool, pleasant morning where I am…
So still no on the collective energy read, but in a good way.
The card was the Sun which is about as all-good as Tarot gets. It is a card of happiness, optimism, joy, success and all of those things we like to hear. I’m not so overly optimistic as to think of this as a good omen for the election outcome, but it is going to be OK between now and Tuesday.
There is just as much chance of happiness as there is of anything else.
Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
I am LOVING this cooler weather, which means its cool enough to fire up the oven and bake something.
Believe it or not life isn’t all Tarot and out there in the world is where the rubber meets the road with intuitive and psychic learning. What’s the good of it if it doesn’t make everything else a little better? And Tarot can’t make other stuff better if there is no other stuff in the conversation.
I promised you occasional exclusive content, and I want to make good on that promise…with some non-Tarot fun stuff. This month’s “ko-fi challenge” is to share things that give you creative joy. You already know the creative joy of Tarot. Now I’d like to share some of the other little things that bring joy – creative and otherwise – to life for me. It may bore you to tears, and it certainly isn’t the right thing for everyone. I’m sharing these things not because you should do them, but as a little incantation – a little wish that you find the things that bring the same joy to you whatever that joy-bringer is for you. Today, my joy-bringer is baked tater tot hot dish
Y’all know my politics, especially if you follow me on Threads (also reverted to the @TaoCraft handle) And if there is any way on earth to entice me to donate to a political campaign it would be to offer a recipe in return. So who am I to turn down a chance to peep Tim Walz’ hot dish recipe.
Not disappointed in the donation one bit, but the recipe needed a little work. Sorry Tim, but if I have beer in the house Imma drinking it, not boiling onions and brats in it. But it does have plenty of cheese which is the important thing.
Every time I hear them give a speech or see them interact with the public, the more I appreciate, respect both Vice President Harris and Governor Walz. I mean listen to them and LOOK at their eyes and faces. This is real deal compassion and leadership. Governor Walz is amazing and does a million things super well, but I suspect cooking isn’t one of them. Hopefully Kamala will sort that detail out. I am 100% down with her turkey roasting method that went social media viral in 2020. Put those two in charge PRONTO.
All politics aside (sort of – vote Harris/Walz!!!!) here is my tweeked-up practically unrecognizable version of his hot dish recipe available on https://store.kamalaharris.com/tim-walzs-new-ulm-hotdish-recipe-digital-download/
Please donate if you can while you are there. It truly is existential. If you have any regard for spirituality or Tarot or ANYTHING other than authoritarian white Christian nationalism, you are in their culture war cross hairs. It is my deepest wish that we all have a happy, healthy, prosperous, well-fed future from this present moment on.
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Weekend Substack: The Sun Tarot card, Lincoln, and Lau Tzu
He probably didn’t actually say it, but Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as saying “people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
I find it true, but more nuanced than it seems.
It isn’t about conjuring up pleasant feelings from nothing in a rose-glasses toxic positive kind of way.
Oh no, my friend. It is much worse than that.
Making up your mind to be happy is more likely about accepting your circumstances for what they are and allowing the natural contentment and happiness come out. Happiness is allowed, not created.
Time and again life points back to one painting for me. Not one painting but one allegorical theme in traditional Chinese paintings: The Vinegar Tasters.
The painting shows Buddha, Confucius and Lau Tzu (author of the Tao Te Ching, the originator of Taoist philosophy) Buddha and Confucius are making faces while Lao Tzu smiles. It’s been said that they think they vinegar tastes sour, bitter and sweet respectively.
That’s not quite it.
Lau Tzu isn’t just magically or delusionally conjuring up a sweet flavor without the help of any magic berries any more than we conjure up blissed-out happiness out of thin air. Lau Tzu is tasting the exact same thing as the other two. He’s just smiling because that sour and bitter vinegar tastes just exactly how vinegar is supposed to taste. He’s smiling because the vinegar is being true to its authentic nature. He’s smiling because life is what it is.
Lincoln’s making up your mind to be happy is similar. Making up your mind to be happy isn’t making happy out of thin air. Making up your mind to be happy is making friends with life and the people and the things in your life…even the parts are like a big old barrel of sour, bitter vinegar. Smile because they are being exactly what it their authentic true nature to be. Then smile because you, just maybe, can be that way too.
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Tune in tomorrow for a new Monday thing. See you at the next sip!
Be the sparkly fireworks you want to see in the world.
Boom!
Hello and welcome to Sage Words Tarot and the Crystal Cast reading for the week of January 21-28. Happy New Year to our friends celebrating the Spring Festival and year of the yin water rabbit!
I’m still working on the physical mechanics of casting the crystals. Have to admit, this shake and toss and see what comes blowing out of the top of the bag is kind of fun. This one might have been a little overly-enthusiastic on my part. It will take some more practice and experimentation to dial it in. We’ll see how it goes. I’m curious as heck whether or not you all like these crystal reading or not. Good, bad or indifferent, please leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments. Heck, I’d even answer reading questions in the blog comments just for the practice. So have at it. No promises, but if you leave a question, there is a fair to middling chance that I’ll do a crystal reading for it. Which means that podcast people will have to use the link in the show description to leave their questions in the blog comments, but hey, it’s a free psychic reading so what can you say?
Back to these crystals.
The mental image that came when the crystals scattered like this was fireworks. Specifically those extra sparkly ones that glitter and shimmer as the remnants fall. It also reminded me a little bit of those holographic glitter nail polishes. The explosive quality to the energy and the way the crystal felt like they were volcano spewing out the top of the bag is a key point, but the happy glittery shiny celebratory quality to the feel and the energy is the bigger focus. It goes right along with the Lunar New Year celebrations. The sparkle is the thing. Joy and happiness is the fuel for the expansiveness of this week’s energy.
I am reminded of the FDR quote that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. And also the famous Mark Twain quote “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”
This is such a warning against thinking or dwelling on potential problems that I don’t even want to bring it up as a thing to avoid.
The focus is on the sparkle, on the joy.
And it is all inside you.
You are the firecracker. You are the sparkler. This week it is up to you to light the fuse, not wait for external circumstances to do it for you
Don’t let fear be the wet blanket. If you feel it, don’t hold back. Let yourself be an explosion of joy. It’ll help everything go better for you, not to mention elevate the energy and help things go better for everyone around you.
It is said that like attracts like. Think of yourself as a magnet dragging through the week. If you were given the choice, what would you want sticking to you at the end of the week; ridiculous unreasonable happiness in SPITE of everything, or worry and stress BECAUSE of everything?
The visual for that in today’s reading lies in the clear quartz crystal chips. They are a happy sparkling POOF of happy when you look at them intuitively. They are pretty close to being just that literally as well.
The top of the two runes showing is Sowilo, associated with the sun, happiness, light and love. It is an interesting optical coincidence that this particular stone is reflecting light so strongly in the video that it is hard to read the rune.
The other, lower rune is Algiz, which has to do with protection, security, and guidance. It is much easier to feel happy when you feel safe.
Here, too, there is a sense of fearlessness, in a good way. I forget who posted it, but there was an Instagram post a few years ago that has stuck with me. I call it to mind whenever I start to feel any vague or general worry creeping in, especially about stuff that may or may not happen.
The context was a feed about paganism of some sort. They contrasted mainstream or Christian prayer to be protected vs the Germanic pagan mindset of petitioning Odin for the wisdom and strength to be able to protect ourselves.
I prefer the latter point of view.
Why? It just feels better, but also because of compassion.
Which petition has the greater potential to foster compassion? If we seek to be strong and wise, that strength and wisdom can in turn lead to protecting and caring for others. Asking to be pre-emptively protected doesn’t afford that same opportunity.
The desire to grow wise and strong and be a better person is a type of compassion toward oneself.
There are several runestones with their blank side showing. I also read that as potential, as one would expect from any reading that is looking forward. The future is all about seeing the potentials, not making predictions.
Look ahead to this week. Face it with all the courage and happiness you can muster. Light the fuse on a glittering explosion of joy, or at least indulge in a little sparkle. Your little POOF of happiness just might draw the best possible things out of a week full of potential.
Thank you all for reading and listening. Any likes, subs, shares or follows are always greatly appreciated.
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Thanks again. Next up for me is the weekly learn to read Tarot post for the members only blog on ko-fi. After that, it is back to the usual Sage’s Sip of Tarot.
See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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