Today is the kind of day this new layout is all about. Action dissolves anxiety. Making an action plan helps. Doing the plan helps even more. Action dissolves (or at least decreases) anxiety. Many thanks to Dan Harris for sharing that concept with everyone. I heartily recommend his Substack and social media
Today’s energy has a genX meme, “suck it up buttercup” feel to it. It’s time to put on the big kid britches and do the thing. Today needs practical action. Be as level-headed, logical, and practical as you can be. Go with what you already KNOW. Just for today, put intellect ahead of emotions and head over heart as best as you can.
Be kind to yourself if you can’t. If emotions get the better of the situation, step back, cool off and try again later. It’s ok.
It’s ok to be kind to yourself even on the days when your self is a bubbling hot mess.
Be a cool headed as you can, and bandage up the rest later.
There are reasons why the horse is standing still and strong on the knight of pentacles card. Rock on, but rock steady, one logical step at a time. The King of Swords is all about cool, cutting intellect and decisive leadership. Good leaders know when to get help and look for resources.
It isn’t easy. It isn’t about perfection. It is about step by step making it through.
It might have immediate blowback, or it might be building foundations or planting seeds that pays off later.
Potential lies in the hands of action.
All of the cards this week are swords. Swords are associated with air and action, intellect, and our relationship with authority, culture or society at large.
The fading energy card is the Page of Swords. Pages are students and learners. With this being in the fading position, it is a clue to a change of phase. It is the end of the beginning. It’s time to put on the big kid underwear and get to work. At some point you have to leave school and do the thing. For many, now is that time. Now is the time to make old efforts pay off, true to the harvest season, lending this card a sense of rapid expansion. The page is supposed to represent a knight in training. Knights can become kings. With these two cards side by side, it gives a feeling of rapid expansion, a rise through ranks, rapid progress after a dely.
Current energy is the king of swords. King cards are protectors and leaders. Again intellect and action mixed. This is a time of head over heart. Kings protect the kingdoms boundaries. This is a hint to set and protect and enforce our boundaries. Insist on respect but give it in equal measure and with equal discipline.
Anything in its extreme contains the seed of its opposite
Rapid expansion can also translate to ‘in over your head’
The growing energy card, the three of swords is a caution against falling prey to your own naivete and inexperience. Know what you don’t know, and know enough to ask for help when its needed to avoid problems. The faster you move, the harder it is to see and avoid pitfalls in time. Heads up. Problems may come at you faster as the week rolls on.
Thank you for reading. Good luck and be careful out there!
Next up: Learn with Me: Lenormand on Wednesday. See you at the next sip!
FREE : Ask me anything and get a Zombie Cat style yes or no reading in the blog
FREE “Several Sips” 3 card week-ahead Tarot reading on both blogs, the podcast and the socials on Mondays.
“The Daily Sip” membership blog $4/month includes Tarot every weekday plus 5% shop discount
“Tarot Table” membership blog $5 includes Tarot every weekday, 5% shop discount, DM access plus one “Sage’s Sip”on-demand PRIVATE email Tarot Reading per month
Occasional long read or Q&A posts on both blogs, podcast
Live phone or online (audio) readings (includes follow up email with photo of your cards) by appointment only. Contact SageWordsTarot@gmail.com to schedule
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: the King of Swords teaches us to surf the upside down.
Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the King of Swords, in reverse.
This big, slide prone Alleyman’s Tarot deck seems to like reversals. They feel the same and have the same message energy as reversals with other decks, despite being more frequent. That being said, the reversals with this deck seem to still be significant, despite being more frequent. So far, I haven’t gotten any of those “meh, it’s random, just turn it over and go on moments” like we’ve talked about before when it comes to reversals. This feels like turbulent energy more than an outright blockage.
Swords are air and intellect. Kings are leaders. They are in charge. Put those two together and you get a dispassionate, cool headed energy. In his interpretation of the card for the Alleyman’s Deck, Seven Asmund points out a sense of orderliness about the card.
Some people blame it on our view of Mercury in the sky. Some people blame it on a full moon. Hard data debunks any correlation between moon phase and human behavior, but my days working inpatient psychiatry begs to differ. Whatever the cause or irrational correlation, we are nevertheless left with the reality that life is messy. Things get irrational, chaotic, problematic, and way out of our control sometimes.
To quote the essence of Taoism according to the 1980’s T-shirt about world religions: shh -stuff happens.
I keep getting mental images of a knight in armour or the king of swords on a surfboard. Surfing is an apt analogy for today’s card. You can’t control the ocean. You can line up and order every wave that comes to shore.
If the king of swords in reverse hints at chaos, you can surf the wild changes. Chaos may reign, disorder may abound, everything may be outside of your control, but you are still in perfect control of you and your response to the upside-down-ness of it all. If you can’t control the wave, surf it in to shore. If you can’t turn things right side up, ride the upside down until it turns on its own.
Thank you so much for reading and listening. Your likes, subs, shares, virtual coffees, questions and comments are always, always, always appreciated.
Neither the blog nor the podcast are monetized and depend on your support. If you enjoy these blogcasts, please visit the ko-fi page (link below or in the episode description. Proceeds from there contribute toward creating the free to access Tarot content here.
I need to do a little real life upside down surfing myself, so short sip will return on Friday. Have a great week everyone!
There were a lot of things that sprang to mind with this card today. I’d just been watching the news, and the draconian law in Texas was still fresh in mind of course. Young social activists came to mind: Greta Thunberg, Yolanda Renee King, the March for our Lives Rally and more.
But the card isn’t speaking TO them, it is speaking to the rest of us ABOUT them. Listen to them. Help them. Protect them. The king is leadership and sometimes leadership means putting someone else better suited to the job in charge. Sometimes leadership is showing others who to follow by following them.
I’m old.
I’m on the leading edge of the GenX cohort. THAT’s who I want to talk to today, because brothers and sisters, we have fucked up. As we came of age in the Reagan era, we failed to vote. We failed to do what these kids are doing and if we had we might not have eliminated their problem but we certainly could have lessened the desperation that we all now face.
We blew a lot of things on our watch…not that it’s over. There is no hope that I can see of winning the hearts and minds of boomers. All we can do there is to listen to and support the few badasses that generation has left. We may have blew our chance to be the vanguard of real progress, so now is our time to kick down the doors and get out of the way of the kids who are.
The sword on the card speaks of protection. The king image speaks of decision and leadership. It falls to us to protect and facilitate and lend any scrap of wisdom or insight we might posses as a new wave of activism comes crashing in behind us.
You might have thought we were beyond it, but welcome to the bigger Thunderdome, GenX. We aren’t the children of the apocalypse. We are Mad Max now. We don’t need a hero. We need to BE the hero. Our time has come to fly these kids out of the hellscape we allowed to happen.
It’s still summer allergy season, and my voice is showing it today. This week, the YouChoose Interactive reading is going to be a hybrid of blog post and YouTube video like we usually do during the week for the “Today’s Tarot” posts.
But it works the same. Pick a card. Choose on impulse, or if you want more time, pause the video then restart to see the reveal. Try not to read ahead if you want the full interactive, just-for-you experience.
Either way, even if you get a glimpse of the writing below, at least you know that this post, like all of them, is a reflection of a real-life, real-cards, random card drawing. Just like my InkMagic handwritten pen-and-paper Tarot readings, you get the best of both worlds: old school physical cards meets the convenience of internet access.
It doesn’t happen often, but two of the cards are reversed. If you pick one of them, please read this post about card reversals along with the short reading about this week’s energy for you.
Left: King of Swords. The energy here matches with the air-element, mentality & intellect connotations of the card. There isn’t as much of an outward leadership energy. It is more of inward sense of responsibility. Be a leader of yourself, for yourself…the king of your inner world. The cutting edge of the sword comes to attention and I hear “cut away the chaff” Cut through the noise and unnecessary details “cut to the chase” and get to the heart of the matter this week. It’s a good time for root cause analysis.
Center: Queen of Wands (reversed). Don’t hold back the joy. Celebrate your authentic self, and be joyful in other people’s authentic self expression too. Related post: Something Fabulous This Way Comes.
Right: Nine of Pentacles (reversed) Don’t draw things out past their prime – bring this puppy in for a landing. There is an energy of wrapping up, gathering up or gathering in. Pick up the leftovers and fall out and take inventory of all you have on hand. Sweeping up the confetti, and seeing how much glitter is left can help you plan your next parade. Finish, put the final touches and polish on a project. Finish something well and on a high note in order to build a good feeling and strong foundation for your next project or the next big phase of something in progress. Lots of career and work energy around this card.
This is one of those times, where the video actually seems to get to most of the message. The theme, it seems is “pay attention.” Interestingly, the theme touches a little bit on mind, body and spirit.
As always, stop, rest a moment. Let your self set aside work or whatever has been on your mind for a moment. It will all still be there when you are done reading this. It is OK to be here, now, looking at the screen. Take a breath, pick a card, think about something different for a moment. Pick a card. If you want a few more nice, quiet moments, pause the video. Stare at the screen, let people think you are doing something important (you are – you are paying attention to your intuition and inner world for a moment) When you are ready, restart the video to see the reveal. Read more about your card below.
Four of Cups: Pay attention to other people. It is easy to get wrapped up in our thoughts and live inside of our own heads. You don’t always have to have answers or know the right thing to say. Sometimes platitudes and easy advice is the worst thing to hear. Presence, being with a person, being with the moment is the best thing of all. In a way this resonates with obsidian as a protector, because you are championing the person you share your mindful presence with.
The High Priestess: Pay attention to the subtle things. Spirit speaks in whispers. Hints and signs and omens are there. There are some who believe these things are a reflection of ourselves. The world around us reflects our innate wisdom back to us in forms that we are able to accept and understand be that cards or stars or tea leaves or simple coincidence. If it seems meaningful, it is. This resonates well with the amethyst as it is associated with the crown chakra and spirituality.
King of Swords: Think. Pay attention to what needs done but also when to hold back. Waiting, watching, understanding ARE actions. Deciding to move ahead…and deciding not to decide until later…are both decisions, both leadership actions. Whatever the choices may be this week, whether you choose to act or to not act, it is the deliberate mindful choosing that matters as much as the chosen path itself. Rhodochrosite is connected to the heart chakra. Making decisions and taking action ….especially when that action is to wait or decide later… takes heart, takes courage.
I learned a long time ago that the fastest way to torpedo a plan is to 1. make one and 2. publish it on the blog.
Which is precisely why I like the quote that Adam Savage had on Tested.com…”Follow the process, not the plan.” Very Taoist, that. Follow the natural flow of things, which changes, often randomly. It looks like these YouChoose posts are going to be either Saturday afternoon or Monday morning. Hopefully. In one time zone or another. Maybe. I find myself unable to get pedantic or fussed up about it. In my opinion/experience being to rigid, or finicky about these things is antithetical to good Tarot. Tarot and intuition is about reading the dynamic flows of the energy. Imposing your will, your schedule, your expectations on the Tarot experience is seldom helpful. At the same time, it helps to have some internal structure, some common ground or else we can get disoriented and drown in the flow. It is a little like a soft stuffie with a poseable wire skeleton. Adaptable underpinning is what I think I’m trying to say. And the adaptable underpinning for these videos will be to look for them on Monday mornings. Except when they post early, on Saturday – but they will still be here waiting for you come Monday. You get the idea, so let’s get on with this.
If I were to put all three cards together in a sentence, it would be evaluate and persist. Or, look how close you are – don’t give up now.
Left: King of Swords. The air and intellectual aspects of swords step forward, along with the decisiveness of a king. “Be the decider” comes through along with “Evaluate.” Let your head lead this week. Fly by instrument. Feelings can bubble and surge, but use logic and reason to navigate it all. Evaluate where you are – you might be farther along in the process of things than you thought.
Center: Five of Pentacles (coins) Times have been tough, many have been generous. Don’t stop giving, helping, cooperating just yet. Keep doing what you have been doing to survive. “Some winters are long” Don’t give up now. Persistence is our way out of the cold.
Right: Nine of Cups. Nine is the largest single digit card. Things are close to wrapping up. The nine of cups has to do with family celebrations. “Don’t be tied to time.” again with a feeling of head rules heart this week. “Do what needs done to prepare” because things delayed before may be coming back to play in days ahead if we are disciplined and prepare just a little more.
I can almost hear some of you out there asking “when?” Tarot does not predict the future…it tells you how to create it. Our three dimensional universe runs on an engine of cause and effect. If you give up or change course you get one set of results. If you keep doing what logic, intellect and reason dictate then you get another, different (in this case better) result. And yes, as a matter of fact I am referring to keep wearing a mask until a real expert and not an idiot right wing politician says to change. The virus is a prime example of why persistence is valuable. If we stop masking and distancing too soon, then the mutant strains keep mutating and we lose the ground we’ve gained with vaccines and people die necessarily. Public health has two parts to it. One part is the community at large: what you do affects how many people get sick and die in total. The other part is your personal health: what you do affects your chances of getting sick or dying. Wearing a mask and staying home away from indoor groups helps BOTH parts.
Thus ends my public service announcement for today, the same as it was roughly a year ago…wear a mask, stay the heck at home and wash your hands.
Don’t stop. A year is an arbitrary thing that human beings made up. The virus don’t give a damn about calendars, so you have to give a damn about yourself and the health of others. Don’t give up now.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
You must be logged in to post a comment.