king of pentacles – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Week Ahead Tarot: Steady Face Value

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Pause the video if you want more time to think. Think of a question, or simply think of guidance for the week ahead. Choose your card, then restart the video to see the reveal and get your reading below:

KING OF PENTACLES: If life has been chaotic, this is a reassurance that stability will slowly return. If life has been steady, don’t force change. All is as it should be, at least for now.

Take advantage of the steady, low key energy environment to get mental, emotional and spiritual rest as much as physical rest. This isn’t Hanged Man major arcana energy. This isn’t a sign of unhealthy stagnation no matter how frustrated you may feel with the pace that things are moving. Take advantage of this pace before things pick up and start moving – perhaps sooner than you think.

SIX OF CUPS: Consider taking things at face value this week. For better or worse, sometimes things really are what they are.

In other words, don’t make things harder than they really are. It’s OK for things to be easy. That doesn’t make them less valuable. People tend to complicate things or make them harder because we think the hard work or complexity somehow makes the result more valuable somehow. That very tendency is why simple and easy with no ulterior motives is a beautiful thing. Enjoy it when comes along.

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See you at the next sip!

Choose a Card / Holiday Hours

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

Holiday Hours: all of them!

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King of Pentacles: As always, the pentacles are real-world and practical. Think of the king of pentacles as a steady, reliable, trustworthy protector of the kingdom who has done the hard work to succeed. Perseverance and practicality win the day.

Four of Swords: Wait. Watch. Meditate. Contemplate. Rest while you can. Now is not the time for impulsive or radical changes. You are not alone in this energy. This card has been popping up a LOT lately.

Don’t comply in advance, but don’t panic either.

Both cards together give a sense that it is important that cooler heads prevail.

Choose Your Card: The Magician

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

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In this series of “Choose Your Card” posts, we are looking at topics instead of time. Instead of a “Card of the day” or a “look at the week ahead” let this reading guide whatever is on your mind.

At the same time, I’ll frame the reading through the lens of a major arcana card. We can grow our understanding of they major arcana card through the other cards.

I love when things have a little nuance, depth and complexity. This format adds YOUR intuition to the reading because YOU CHOOSE which card carries the best message for you. The lower cards help us understand the upper card and vice versa.

Choose a card.

Pause the video if you need more time to decide.

Restart to see the reveal.

Today’s major arcana companion card is the Magician. The magician often symbolizes manifestation, transformation, attraction. These are all about energy and energy is all about flow.

King of Pentacles: Manifesting money is one thing, but knowing what you want the money FOR is the real magic. If you want money to pay your bills and meet your needs focus on having those things, not on the money itself. Focus on the thing, not the money that helps you get it. More so if that thing the money helps you get is something intangible, one step beyond material things.

For example, think of someone who thinks they want money for an expensive car, but what they really want is the attention the car brings or the self worth that the attention brings. Focusing on manifesting or attracting money won’t be as powerful as focusing on the end product and core issue. In this example, don’t focus on gaining money, focus on gaining feelings of self-worth. Something like that is the real treasure that the Magician manifests and the King of of Pentacles protects.

Nine of Swords: Sometimes worry is worse than useless. Use real world stress management strategies to calm anxiety so your fear doesn’t become self fulfilling prophecy.

In their brilliant 1988 Oracle deck “Medicine Cards” Jamie Sams and David Carson frame the seemingly timid rabbit as a fearless warrior.

A rabbit could easily be paralyzed by fear. Bunnies are small, soft and don’t have a lot of protection. There are a bunch of bigger animals who would love to eat rabbit for dinner. But no. Rabbits use their small size to hide and their speed to run to that shelter. They are alert and literally get the jump on danger by being quick to run. Rabbit lives in happiness and contentment in the middle of a dangerous world by using its strengths which aren’t obvious at first. . Rabbit is a lesson in how to live with fear by facing it and dealing with it without wallowing in anxiety and potentially calling those fears into reality.

The nine of swords, as with rabbit, reminds us to deal with fears in real world ways so we don’t unintentionally activate the magician’s powers and call empty worries to us.

The Fool: A new beginning is the easiest magic of all. Take a deep breath. Remember every moment is a new one. Now begin again.

It’s said that every day above ground is a good one. It is also said that there is no time like the present. Clocks and calendars are man-made inventions. Life and energy is under no obligation to follow them.

There is only one moment: right here and right now. You can use it as a fresh start any time you want.

Thanks for watching and reading! Sage Sips blog is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee See you at the next sip!

You Choose: Card of the week, March 5, 2024

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Pick a card from the picture above. Watch the video to see the reveal. Get your reading below.

Magician: This is a card of manifestation and transformation. It is also a card of co-creating, in other words working with the universe to bring your intentions into reality. Often this kind of magickal working is heavy on the WORK. The magician must do their part.

King of Pentacles: Survey your kingdom. Focus on what you have. Don’t spend your energy wanting what you don’t have this week. Once you see what you have on hand, it becomes clearer what you truly want, what you need and how to get what is really missing. Wanting what you have is contentment.

Death: Change is inevitable. Seven Dane Asmund, creator of this Tarot Deck (Alleyman’s Tarot, used with permission) He calls this the “dancing death” of the several versions of the Death card in this deck. Dance with this moment. Embrace it. Fully be a part of it because, for better or for worse, this moment will change momentarily.

Holiday Tale

A cautionary tale for the holiday season from the King of Pentacles

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You don’t often start a sunny November and the holiday season with a cautionary tale, but here we are.

Maybe it’s because the social media collective declared an early spooky season this year in response to the apocalyptic heat this summer, and we are all feeling a little fatigue at the end of it. I get a strange sense of melancholy blowing in the wind today, which seems an odd way to start the Holiday season. It’s all turkey dinners and holiday shopping this month – I’ve already heard Carol of the Bells in advertising. That’s hard core.

A sunny Thursday like this doesn’t often start with a feeling of caution but here we are.

Today’s card is the king of pentacles, in reverse (meaning the card turned over upside down relative to the person doing the reading.)

“So what?” you might ask.

Every Tarot reader handles reversals in their own way. Some always reverse the meaning into ‘darker’ meanings. Some make it into the opposite of the upright meaning. Some disregard them outright. As we are learning in the Wednesday “Learn With Me: Lenormand” series, Lenormand readings handle reversals by not handling them. They just flip the card and go on as usual.

In true Taoism influenced style, I do a blend of both. The cards embody both light and dark, positive and negative aspects all the time anyway. I take all of those aspects into consideration with every reading regardless of the card’s orientation. When a reversal comes along, I let intuition lead. Either it is a hint that the card’s layout position is blocked or turbulent or somehow problematic OR it can feel energetically neutral and I just flip it upright and move on like the Lenormand folks do.

In this case, it feels like it is telling us something.

The phrase “risky buiseness” comes through. The King of Pentacles can reflect material success, a breadwinner, a provider, a good payoff for hard work.

Reversed, it can mean that sort of prosperity flow can get jumbled up.

To be literal about it – don’t get carried away this holiday season. Don’t go into debt or live beyond your means just for the sake of social expectations about how holidays are “supposed” to be celebrated, whatever your chosen holiday may be.

Here, I am reminded of a meme…”tradition is just peer pressure from dead people.” I have a sense that this meme might be particularly true this year. We’ve all been through a heckuva thing with the pandemic and such. We have an opportunity to re-define our Holidays. Let go of the peer pressure from dead people and make this year into something heartfelt more than material.

The suit of coins / pentacles is focused on the material realm, career, wealth and so on – but this is Tarot. The whole point of Tarot is understanding and spirituality, not physical realm predictions. Tarot isn’t made for physical realm except where physical and mental/emotional/spiritual all meet. The whole suit has esoteric threads intertwined with its real-world practicality. The whole suit has a “money can’t buy happiness” element to it.

My hunch that is what the inverted King is telling us. This isn’t the year for materialistic celebrations OR for forced traditions. Friendsgiving is a thing. This is a year for found family and perhaps a chance to let go of toxic or forced traditions that bow to the peer pressure from generations past.

That isn’t to say be overly austere. Celebrate. Indulge in the traditions and treats that speak to your heart. But don’t spend money or energy or emotion necessarily forcing yourself (or trying to coerce anyone else) into following old traditions that no longer serve or excesses that are no longer needed. Do, but do the truly meaningful, heartfelt things. Do, but let go of the forced, habitual, or ostentatious. Mind your bank account – both physical and emotional – this holiday season.

Thank you so much for reading!

There won’t be a newsletter next week or US Thanksgiving week.

In fact, the blogs and socials will go quiet November 9 – 13 and again November 22 – 27. I’m setting a pretty low bar for the holidays myself, but I do need to finish that sweater I’m knitting for a gift, sooo….

Merry Elfcon 5 for 2023!

BUT – private email Tarot will be OPEN those dates and all through the Holidays. You can order any time HERE. Your reading purchases, Sage Sip (ko-fi) memberships, and virtual coffees all support this FREE collective energy Tarot readings in this newsletter, the blog and the socials. None of this is ad monetized, so your Tarot message comes first with me. Any ads you see with any of my content is generated by the platform and all proceeds go to them – so in other words, please support me on ko-fi or by your likes, subs, follows and shares here and on social media.

What are you waiting for?

Energy path Tarot reading for the week of 15 May 2023

Hello and welcome to Sage Sips. I’m glad you are here and right off thank you for hanging in with this through all the changes in 2023. With the demise of WordPress to Spotify integration and PodCastle not being as free as they made themselves out to be, the podcast is once again on hiatus, possibly permanently.

As we go along, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. Blog comments are open, or you can use the “ask me anything” page on sage words tarot dot com. Substack chats and ko-fi DMs are open to subscribers.

This week we are working entirely from the minor arcana. Sometimes all minor arcana can hint at a low key or low energy week but it doesn’t mean it is an inactive or stagnant week. There is a sense of rootedness in the physical realm thanks to the king of pentacles card. When pentacles are around, there is always a sense of practicality. This is the suit of the physical realm and the classic element of earth and all of the no-nonsense no-drama style that you would expect. The other two cards are both from the suit of swords. Swords is connected to the element of air, but there is nothing airy-fairy about them. Swords also symbolize mind and intellect and action. Put all of that together and this week definitely calls for a head over heart approach. Cool incisive logic is your friend. Compared to the high flying ideals of recent weeks this might seem low energy by comparison, but careful precise action is action just the same. This isn’t the withdrawn or introverted energy we’ve seen recently either. This is deliberate, inexorable forward movement.

The mental image is a glacier flattening the landscape or the slow crumbling ah-ah lava that is just as powerful as the fast flowing type. The energy for this week may be slow, but it is oh so focused on being efficient, effective and enduring. The energy this week seems to be putting the level in level-headed.

Kings are leaders, so if the pentacle card represents concrete wealth, money or career, then the two together hints at a wise use of resources. Don’t let things waste either by sitting and mouldering or by being used frivolously or unwisely. Don’t allow things to sit and spoil, but don’t be a spendthrift either. This is in the fading energy position. Going back to the glacier mental image, I see small rivulets of melted ice, small streams of water flowing quickly down the front of the glacier. That feels like a quicker movement, an influx of resources may come, but not quite yet. It’s not a forever thing, but right now is a time to play the cards you are dealt and work with what you have on hand.

I get the sense of a short time or a not-serious wait. Here I get the mental image of that TV show where chefs compete to make the best dish from the ingredients given to them in a basket.

The current energy card is the knight of swords in reverse. I’ll spare you yet another explanation about how I handle reversed cards. If you have questions about reversals, what that means or how to handle them in a reading – please, ask away in the comments, ask me anything page, or other contacts as listed.

The knight of swords is usually a card of daring, or action and supreme self-confidence. Today the reversal feels significant, it feels like all of those things are blocked or hampered. It feels less like the afraid side of timid and more like a lack of confidence, or negative self-talk. This card isn’t talking to the part of you that is afraid…fear is there for a good reason sometimes. This is talking to the part of you that says “I can’t.” You can. You can do something. Who says you have to do what is expected? Who says you have to do what other people do? Instead of saying “I can’t” figure out what IS within your reach and your resources and do that. Every little bit helps and something is better than nothing in this case.

The growing energy is the eight of swords. Sometimes in a reading a card can serve as a highlight, an underline or an exclamation point to another card’s message. I think that is the case here. The energy of practicality, and level-headed, mind over emotion, deliberate, considered action may with us for a while. The eight of swords is working with the reversed knight to remind us that working within our means and doing what we can do is better than stopping dead in your tracks and giving up, doing nothing.

Take inventory. Make a no-nonsense plan. Act within your means and resources but act. Don’t let “I can’t” take you prisoner. Just because you can’t do one thing doesn’t mean the other things you CAN do aren’t needed or valuable. When it comes to doing the things within your means, what are you waiting for?

Thank you so much for reading and listening.

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Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: The Face Value of Bull Horns

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: you choose the card and get a one card meditation style Tarot reading.

https://youtu.be/zKX524iQEN4

You know how this works:

Pick a card. Hit pause if you want some time to think about it before you see or hear the reveal.

The podcast audio is coming directly from the video, so the video speaks for itself today, without a transcript.

Thanks for watching, reading and listening! See you tomorrow for the usual weekday short sip: Tarot in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee.

The Founder of the Feast

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: The Founder of the Feast with the King of Pentacles

Thank you for reading, watching and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee. Today’s card is the King of Pentacles

Saying thank you to the people who work so that you can eat and live is the best grace that you can say.

In A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit proposes a toast to Mr. Scrooge, the “founder of the feast” which prompts a room sized rant about how terrible Scrooge treats Bob. It’s a valid point and necessary to the story.

But I wonder – who thanked Bob for working that awful job that let them put a flaming dessert on the table? Or thanked Mrs. Cratchit for cooking a big family meal in a nineteenth century kitchen?

When I was young, the extended family would get together for Christmas and my uncle, the evangelical minister would pray over the food in dramatic fashion for what seemed like hours when all I wanted to do was dive in to the ham and grandma’s cornbread dressing. To his credit, in the middle of the conspicuous baby jeebus rhetoric, he always managed to throw in a one sentence thanks to the “hands that prepared” the food.

To my mind that is where the real grace was said.

If you work and provide food and shelter – thank you. If you cook a meal – thank you. If you work in grocery stores, deliver the mail, give entertainment, or do anything to make anything work and help the tribe of humankind survive the longest night – thank you.

Time to make the sausage

Today’s card is the King of Pentacles

It’s Monday.

At least it is as I pulled this card and type this post.

Intuition is weird. It is very Heisenberg uncertainty principle. If you look at a card reading through the lens of a moment in time, it cuts it off from the greater flow of time. Kind of like screen capturing a movie as it plays.

Some readings, like today, are meant for that. They are intended for the moment.

Doing Tarot readings on the internet is weird.

Whatever you read or write can be accessed anywhere at any time by anyone. Tarot, intuition, energy and spirit are good with that. After all, this present moment is a connected, unified part of that big giant wibbly wobbly lump of everything. If you look at a card through the lens of that unified timelessness, it cuts it off from the present moment a little bit.

Like Heisenberg, you can know a particles exact location or you can know how fast it is moving but not both at the same time. Same thing here. You can connect a card to this present moment and hope it resonates with whatever other moment someone stumbles across it, or you can connect it to the larger energy which doesn’t capture the moment of the reading.

This card, here, now today is resonating with a reading for the moment.

It’s Monday.

Be kind to the head of your household, whoever it might be. Mom. Dad. You.

It is one of those pour some coffee, time to make the donuts, this is how the sausage gets made, get to it, get through it, no frills kind of Mondays. Good luck and godspeed *raises mug of coffee*

Speaking of mugs, any support you can spare goes toward creating the Clairvoyant Confessional podcast, the card draw videos, and the blog. A Sip of Tarot (almost) daily meditation nano-episodes are available on multiple platforms. Thank you so much for listening, watching and reading!

Your Very Own Seat at the Tarot Table

The October announcement included the NEW membership tier on K0-fi. This blog is STILL 100% free, will contain everything in one place, including reminder links to the memebers-only content. Of course, only members can view the post at the end of the reminder link.

There will STILL be blog-only content here that you can’t get anywhere else on the web. What I’m trying to say is be a member & follow this blog and you get EVERYTHING, every scrap of Tarot content I create. The monthly premium is the same cost of a one card meditation reading except that you get a three card reading per month plus all the rest. Since domain and web hosts won’t take Tarot readings in barter, there is a nominal fee to support the blog, the podcast and the time put in to creating it all including the YouTube shorts (almost) everyday.

*infomercial voice* That’s right folks! For the low, low cost of $5 a month, you get a three card member’s reading each month PLUS random special offers and giveaways PLUS a private, personal “Year Ahead” reading by email when you join.

Here is an example of what the “month ahead” members only reading look like each month, with each card serving as a them for about 10 days or so in the first, middle and last thirds of the month.

As I type this,* that sounds way more complicated than it actually needs to be. Come to think of it, I’m going to do “pathway” style readings instead…your path through the month.

Either way, bottom line, you get a THREE card member’s reading for the price of ONE card meditation reading.

October is the anniversary of TaoCraft Tarot’s “grand opening” in 2018. It fits that October is our first members-only monthly reading.

Just for this first layout, I’ll open the reading up to everyone on the main website in a few days, to let them know about this new feature. After that, you’ll have to be a member or supporter to see the three card “month ahead” readings. ONLY monthly members get a free “year ahead” reading by email when you join.

October has a regal energy. I’m no astronomer or astrologer, but I get the mental image of Saturn. I don’t get a general – energy sense about what that could mean, but let’s just mention it in case it resonates with someone…a birth month or astrology association would be my guess.

The early part of the month has a practical get-things-done sort of feel. The energy reminds me of when I was young and my grandmother canning everything under the sun from their garden. Things may be busy, but it seems short lived and will pay off later. Like the soup she would make in the winter. Don’t wait for someone else to lead the way. It’s up to you to decide what to can and what soup to make later, to extend the analogy.

Pages are learning, swords are mind and intellect. The middle part of the month is time to feed your mind, to free your mind. New ideas are important. Curl up with a good book

Wands are fire and passion. Toward the end of the month, take what you’ve done, take what you’ve learned and light it up, metaphorically speaking. Apply the ideas that the page part of the month brought to you.

This month, the reading is mostly an example of what to expect in the months to come. You can roughly apply each card as a theme for 10 days at a time or just follow your intuition and sense the shifts in energy as the month goes on.

As an extra celebration for TaoCraft’s anniversary month, I’d like to offer a free Zombie cat yes/no reading to the supporters and members who claim it before October 31, 2021 – my Halloween treat to you! Just email TaoCraftTarot@gmail with your question. Ask anything and Zombie Cat will have at it! The usual disclaimer of a 50% chance of being dead wrong applies.

Who’s Zombie Cat? My slightly snarky feline alter ego inspired by Schrodinger’s thought experiment and an episode of Menage A Tarot (a 2015 podcast I did with David Dear, of “Ninth World Journal” and Kate of “Daily Tarot Girl” You can read the original Zombie Cat blog post here.

* “No plan survives first contact with implementation” – Adam Savage, I think.

photo: Witches Tarot, art by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans used with permission http://llwellynpublishing.com/permissions

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