knight of swords – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Taijitu Tarot Reading

Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. This longer read is a real world example of my new Taijitu Tarot layout.

This is a real life email Taijitu Tarot Reading that the client generously gave permission for me to share with you. This shows how the new layout works and what an email private reading with me is really like. You can order your own private reading anytime, 24/7, no appointment needed. Most of the time I can get the reading back to your email within 24 hours or so.

Get your own private Taijitu Tarot reading HERE

For added privacy, email readings have a photo or your individual real-world cards instead of a YouTube video. Videos are just for blog readings.

Q: Thanks for doing a reading for me. No problem. You can use the reading as an example on your website. I’ve seen you do these before and trust you to black out all the right stuff.

So much is going on I don’t even know where to start. Could you do an open reading?

A: Thanks ****** I appreciate it. I hope the reading helps you the most, but I also hope it helps other people who might stumble across it.

General Patterns

This layout reminds me a little bit of those lenormand “Action Decreases Anxiety” readings I was telling you about. We can do one of those for you someday if you want. The energy here is very straightforward and to the point the way those two-card Lenormand readings tend to be.

But I hear you about a lot going on. Two major arcana cards in one small three card layout is saying something.

I ‘hear’ (meaning the intuition comes as words, sounds or music instead of the usual mental images) “Liminal” while I get the impression of some sort of hallway. This high energy time is a transitional one from some phase or cycle or another. I hear “big moves” and “afoot” like when Sherlock Holmes says ‘the game is afoot” So you are right to think something is up, it’s just a matter of figuring out what, and and then figuring out what is the best thing to do about it.

Hallways are symbolic of transition and portal-like liminal spaces, so the hallway image makes sense. There is a sense of reassurance that even if there is chaos now, there is something waiting on the other side. It’s hard now, yes, but something is waiting on the other side. There is no guarantee that the other end of the hallway is euphoric dreamland – but by the same token there is a feeling of reassurance that it is all going to be OK sooner or later.

These cards are not at all tied to time, but are all about energy flow. It takes as long as it takes, but you’ll feel it when things shift. You’ll know when the energy changes. It’s not a past-present-future thing at all. It’s all about shift and flow. Here I see river rapids and a kayak, all rocks and white water and turbulence and noise, but ending in a wide, quiet, shallow, calm, sunny area with wide grassy banks.

I get the image of being caught in a rainstorm. It’s hard to say exactly how long any given rain will last, but you can often have a good sense whether it is a quick storm or settling in for a long, dreary day. The hallway is all shades of blue too, for whatever that is worth. If there is any crystal connection here, it feels like a reference to lapis lazuli which has a connection to intuition and the third eye. It might help support your own good intuition and help you navigate the next period of time, at the end of the hallway, whatever that turns out to be.

Yin: Judgement

Yin is energy you are drawing in toward you, which can be a very good thing. Yin is as powerful as yang, but in a different way. A strong magnet can pick up a car. This card can represent what you are manifesting, but can also point out weak spots that you can change for the better to help attract and manifest for the highest good..

Of the three cards, this one is really grabbing my attention. This feels like where majority of the energy is flowing for you right now.

The Judgement card is a two edged sword and it feels like you are getting both edges.

On one hand, there is jugdement in the sense judgementalism It feels like you have been misunderstood and misjudged harshly and unfairly to some extent, although you may have perceived this misjudgements as larger or harsher than it was intended at times. On this side of things you may come face to face with the idea of reputation. How much do you care about what other people think of you, and whose opinion really matters to you? By the same token, whose opinion is meaningless and irrelevant to you? Why should you care what distant acquaintances think of you?

The other side of the Judgement card is one of second chances. The phrase “to hell and back” comes to mind. I’m not sure where that comes from or exactly what it means in this context, but there it is. I’m also reminded of an old TV where one of the characters literally goes to hell and comes back. That character got a second chance in a big way and turns out to be the hero of the plotline.

I am also reminded of an internet meme that “religion is for people who want to stay out of hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.”

So for you…it’s a little both. You may be forced to come face to face with whether or not you care about what people think about you, and what you do when you are judged incorrectly or unfairly. But on the other hand, beyond this current turbulence you get a second chance at life in a larger sense. That doesn’t necessarily mean rekindling the relationship with ***** as much as part of you might wish for that. It means that you are going to be ok and have a second chance at inner peace whatever outer form that may or may not take.

Yang: Knight of Swords

Sometimes this card can represent something you need to push away, or release, to literally ‘blow off’ as the phrase goes. In your case I think this is something to embrace, lean into, and pump up the volume. In face I ‘hear’ the song “pump up the volume” by MARRS. Cool video, you might like it. I think it’s on YouTube.

Now the phrase “fake it until you make it” comes through – but not in the sense you might think. It’s not telling you to be fake – its saying to use both sides of the mind-body connection to your benefit. Just as reducing stress can improve physical health, physical environment can impact mental health.

This isn’t to say you have to an hour of cardio every day. This energy feels more like a recommendation to DO the things you know bring you joy. Double especially for those inexpensive, abundant “simple pleasures”. Have a favorite meal for no reason. Feng Shui the heck out of your living space. Light that jar candle that you enjoy, and get another if you need it. That sort of thing.

I’m also reminded of one of those inspirational saying things from somewhere “Don’t think yourself into a new way of doing, do yourself into a new way of thinking.” BE the change you want to see in the world. Imagine what life would be like if you already had a quality or condition that you want, and live that as if it were true for a day. Just a day. Try a mindset on for size, so to speak. Mat Auryn described it in Psychic Witch as if you want to be a powerful psychic, live for a day as if you already were. What’s different from the things you do now? If you like the feel of it, why not make the changes long term or permanent?

People see you as more confident and daring than you may feel. Be the badass you want to see in this world.

Harmony: Empress

I always know things are on the right track when I ‘hear’ the song “Bamako” by Youssou N’Dour which is the case here.

Rocks and trees and flowers and bees kind of nature is all well and good. In fact here I get the mental image of a wide, slow moving river with rocky banks. If you can get yourself into that natural environment, it can only be a good thing. Next best is forest, under shady, cool trees (here I see a local park with trees and a gazebo by a small creek.)

But the other kind of ‘nature’ is stepping forward more strongly for you. As in be true to your nature.

The way to move forward toward inner peace is to be authentic. You may have given away too much of yourself in service of others, to the extent there is nothing left for others to connect to. Moving forward with authenticity is the best path to that promised second chance. It is a way to call back the energy you have over-expended in order for it to enrich the connections you still have and to (re) build future connections.

Easier said than done, but simple and clear does not mean easy.

This is the point where the energy is short and to the point, like that Lenormand thing I mentioned earlier.

Summary

This is the part where I listen to pure intuition. The images might connect to the cards, or it might not. This is a chance for any other important messages to come through, especially in an open reading where there is no specific topic or question to guide the conversation.

Here I get blue lace agate to help calm stress and restore peace of mind.

I also get sage to release negativity BUT later changing to something sweet woody or resin-ish like sandalwood, amber, or copal as your confidence returns.

A flash of a teapot, which is sort of my universal symbol for hello from a grandmother or other crossed over loved one who was close to you.

Now I get the scent of pipe tobacco and a wood shop, which reminds me of my grandfather. That may be a cosmic hello too from someone who identified male when they were on earth.

Tea comes to mind. I don’t know if that is a literal ‘drink green tea’ thing or encouragement to find the Zen things in life that you enjoy, Zen in the spirit of mindfulness like a Japanese Tea Ceremony.

And there the energies step back.

I hope that helps in some way. As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me here or DM on ko-fi. I have ko-fi DM set to open for all levels of supporters.

All Best Wishes,

Sage

Solar Eclipse Tarot Reading

Science!

Science is the best way humans have to learn about the physical world and navigate the public sphere. In the physical world and civic life reason is our ultimate guide.

Yet, the subjective inner world lies outside of science’s grasp. Psychology comes close. There are reasons that there is much overlap between the work of Carl Jung, Taoism and Tarot. Science and spirituality are two sides of humanity’s coin so to speak. Tarot can help us understand and navigate the inner, spiritual world as much as reason must guide us through the outer one.

I’m no expert.

NASA says there are 2-3 eclipses a year. There are various degrees of solar coverage, and they happen in wildly different spots all over the globe. Total eclipses are just one of several types (partial, annular etc). To have a total eclipse land in your front yard is, indeed, a once in a lifetime gift.

And that is just the global perspective.

Open the perspective to the galaxy. Or the universe. How many planets have a moon that is just the right size at just the right distance in just the right orbit for a total eclipse to happen at all – ever? Somebody like Neil DeGrasse Tyson will have to answer that for us, but I’m guessing that it is mind blowingly, achingly rare. No one knows how many planets have intelligent life. How many places do both of those things converge. How many planets in the universe have eclipses like ours AND beings who can understand and appreciate them? Even if it’s not rare, it is a beautiful, powerful experience well worthy of every bit of hype and reverence it receives.

Yes, solar eclipses are just the shadow of the moon falling on parts of the earth. Period. Our internal subjective experience of this wonder of the Cosmos is where the magic resides with all the validity of science and shadows.

@SpiralSeaTarot on Threads, who shares my preference for smaller layouts, brought up the topic of a Solar Eclipse Tarot layout. I don’t know of any existing ones offhand, but it seems like an easy one to write.

I think the energy path reading that we do here all of the time could be adapted and amped up a little to meet the occasion.

Card 1: Waning Light

This card represents issues and energies that are fading away. This is something we are strongly advised to release once and for all. This is what must happen for our transformation, for life to progress to something better. The death card has turned up frequently lately in readings I’ve done and in social media posts by other well respected readers. Eclipses are traditionally associated with transformation and change. Change energy may be both ancient and a modern collective, but that doesn’t make it any less valid or powerful. Eclipses are a portal to change and this card hints at what must change for good and for all – or at least be put on the back burner for a good long while.

Card 2: Totality

The eclipse at totality looks like a portal to another dimension. This is a moment ripe for total communion with the spiritual experience of being a conscious human at this place and this time. Of every being in the entirety of the universe, you are here, now, witnessing this beautiful, unique thing. It can be, it must be, a moment of full presence.

In this layout, this card represents your spiritual guidance in this moment. This is what the universe most wants you to know. This can represent a moment of being your most powerful and profoundly authentic self. This represents your life path and life calling in this moment. This points to your portal, your connection to your highest and best.

Card 3: Emerging Light

This is hope and optimism and the other side of your powerful transformation. This is the thing to reach for, the thing to choose, the path most open to you. As the light of the sun returns, it spotlights the place to put your hopes and energies. It spotlights the path to take and direction to go. This card lights up the way and path forward.

Here is a solar eclipse reading for the collective, but I encourage you to get or do a reading for yourself. The profoundly spiritual is the profoundly individual.

Waning Light

Stop pushing. You don’t have to be in control. You don’t have to push and strive every moment. If you are content with the way things are, you’ve already won. If you aren’t happy, maybe you are courageously pursuing the wrong things. Hold up a moment. Is all of this frenetic action serving you, or some idealized purpose? Figure out what you really want. If you have it, great, call it a day. If not…charge in that new direction. If it is the right thing, you’ll get there without all the fuss and fury.

Totality

The essence of change is a new beginning.

The death card led us here. When you change what you do, what you think, how you live, how you show the world who you are, then the old thing, the old way, the old you essentially dies to this moment. BUT time – and you- continues. Moment slips into moment, and as the old slips away, the new emerges. Alan Watts famously said that “you are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” This eclipse is the perfect opportunity and excuse to make a change and let the new you make a grand entrance. Physically, in the real world, do what you need to do to be safe. For your inner world – this is your permission from the universe to begin to fearlessly be who you really are and always wanted to be. Do it! Now is the time! Let yourself be yourself, no matter how carefully you let the world in to your new beginning.

The way to your highest and best is to stop waiting, and simply begin.

Things don’t have to be perfect immediately, but they can never progress if you don’t start to move. They say it is the journey that matters, not the destination. For there to be a journey at all, you must take your first step.

Emerging Light

The new you is magic.

The knight of swords is active power. It is yang power. Now is the time for yin power. Magnets can be powerful. This is the time to attract. Draw your power and best life to you like a lightning rod. But that requires that you do your part. Working magic means working, albeit working smarter not harder.

To catch lightning in a bottle you have to brave a lot of storms.

If you want to attract attention, you have to let your light shine where people can see it

Transformation requires change – releasing and beginning.

It is circles and cycles within circles and cycles – just like the literal eclipse.

Watch the eclipse in person if you are able. Watch online if you can. If you are night side or far away – know that eclipses exist. Reach out with your intuition and imagination and know that its energy of transformation and magic exists for you too.

After all, you are an Earthling with the privilege of living on a planet where a total solar eclipse occurs.

See you at the next sip.

It isn’t fine – and it isn’t fear.

It’s a meme.

We’ve probably all seen it by now. NPR cites K.C. Green as the creator of the famous “This is fine.” dog. We’ve all witnessed epic levels of denial, coated in metric tons of cognitive and emotional dissonance in the public space over the 10 years since this famous web comic was created.

It isn’t fine.

I’ll leave my void-screaming political views for Threads. For now, I want to stay in my lane and talk about my area of expertise, Tarot.

I think the trick to surviving social media is much like life: look for the big picture, and don’t take it all quite so personally. Curate your space. With that little bit of a step back, social media feels less like being a wide-eyed ingenue in the middle of a conflagration and more like an endless source of writing and art prompts.

Here is today’s thought-provoking juxtaposition.

One Tarot reader offered a breathy, pink chakra, love-and-light video about avoiding scams and finding breathy, heart-filled, pink chakra, love-and-light psychics.

Not my style – but a legit point. There really are bad people who have done bad things under the guise of psychics and Tarot and they have made this work a minefield of problems for the rest of us, whether we are annoyingly toxic positive or otherwise.

The problem here is the way they offered themselves up as the solution to the problem they were fussed up about.

Another reader has a dissenting view. Their thought that these kind of “how to find a good psychic” posts are little more than fear-mongering.

True, but incomplete.

When you caution people about real dangers you have to take great care to offer real solutions that work across the board – not just offer up yourself as the sole solution. If you put yourself out there as the only solution, then you are the scam you are warning about.

As a professional, a genuine high-level psychic reader has an obligation to take on difficult subjects for the sake of the clients we all wish to serve. That includes fear mongers. That includes scams. That includes taking on the subject of finding a trustworthy psychic in this crazy-pants world of “spiritual businesses.”

If we don’t talk about scams and impersonators and the very real pitfalls of finding a psychic we fail to serve the best interests of our clients – and ourselves. If we DO talk about scams and impersonators, to some extent we are engaging in the exact fear mongering that we are warning against.

This business is as fraught for an ethical psychic as it is for the person looking for them.

The best solution I can offer is a middle way where we take on the touch topics but hopefully avoid any problematic narcissism. As always, I take inspiration from Taoism and Chan (Zen) Buddhism. In this case, Dharma Drum Mountain says it best:

Face it : face the difficulty squarely
Accept it : accept the reality of the difficulty
Deal with it : deal with the difficulty with wisdom and compassion
Let it go : afterwards, let go of it

Let’s apply this to the issue at hand.

The difficulty is that crime exists. Psychic scams have been around as long as psychics and scammers. Those crimes has made life much worse for authentic psychics and their clients, both.

No amount of breathy woo woo or stalwart avoidance of fear mongering is going to help. Being a psychic and finding a trustworthy psychic is fraught with real, legitimate problems.

The best solutions I can think of are drawn from the non-psychic, non-spiritual realm: Transparent communication.

Get a recommendation from someone you trust, just like you would for a plumber or a hairdresser.
Be careful when reading third party reviews. Some reviews are scams in themselves containing websites and phone numbers unrelated to the psychic they are ‘reviewing.’ That is a reflection of the reviewer – not the business)
Follow your instincts. If you feel pressured, walk away. A psychic is not an emergency room. You have every right to take the time you need to find the right reading for you.
Don’t trust any psychic that targets you INDIVIDUALLY for a reading. Would you trust spam, email phishing or a stalker? Discounts, giveaways, or sales offered to the GENERAL PUBLIC are normal practices for any business. If you approach the psychic, that is one thing. If the psychic approaches you that is entirely and disturbingly different.
Look at websites, blogs, social media and advertising to get some sense of their personality. If you think they are a good match for you, talk or email with them BUT be sure to keep it neutral and professional yourself. Ask about normal business related things like hours, appointments, prices, refunds, and so on. Don’t pour your heart out to a stranger or interrogate them like a criminal. If they are open, patient and professional with your average business questions, chances are they will treat your reading with the same respect. High pressure sales, demanding a set number of sessions, promising a specific result, or blaming you for any outcome are all warning signs. If something feels off, trust those feelings.

The letting go step is the hardest part and perhaps the most dangerous point in all of this. YOU are the expert in how you feel. If you try a psychic and it doesn’t work out, by all means walk away and find someone else. With the internet, you have a world of psychics and Tarot readers to choose from. You should never feel pressured into getting more sessions or paying more money. You never have to see a psychic again if you don’t want to. You are the one who must decide if and when you get your next reading.

If you would like to read how I do things, you can download the ebooklet TaoCraft Portfolio HERE for free.

Follow your instincts. We professionals are spirit translators and intuition amplifiers – not ultimate answers.

Follow your instincts. If they lead you to a reading with me, great! Let’s get to work. If not, great! That means you are honoring your path even as I honor mine in writing this.

And that is a fearless, daring thing for us all.

Ordinary Days

The road to magick is lined with ordinary days.

Please remember me whenever you want an affordable, ethical, professional Tarot reading. Email readings start at $5

*Po-tay-toes!* Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew… Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (movie 2001)

Some days don’t feel magical. Some days you just have to peel the damn potatoes.

But if you can do that, when you get through the ordinary, there is magic at the end. Or at least a meal full of filling, satisfying, starchy comfort.

Today is a little like potatoes for me. It is utterly, delightfully, magically ordinary. It is a day off from the day job – but no pressing errands, no frenzy of summer recreation. Just simple household things to do.

This is where the magic lives.

We talk about attracting and manifesting and living our dreams. But where will the dream live? Where are we attracting TO? Manifested dreams live in our ordinary world, regardless of whether you attracted them there – or if they were there all along just waiting to be seen. Either way, the path to magick is lined with ordinary days.

You may not think it takes courage to live an ordinary day. For some, an ordinary day is a monumental task, made large and seemingly insurmountable by every type and kind of human challenge. For others an ordinary day is a precious commodity made rare by stress and circumstance.

You never know when ordinary will make you a dashing hero or when the potatoes you peeled will light a child’s smile for the golden chips that they made.

Have courage, do the ordinary, and look for the magic that hides there every day.

Sage Sips blog on wordpress no longer contains premium content. This blog and all of the free to access Sage Sips social media content is fueled by your private reading purchases, monthly memberships, and lots of coffee.

Dare to Define Your Own Daring

Tarot isn’t tied to time, even in these little readings that look just at the week ahead.

That is the whole reason I don’t do classic “past-present-future” readings. Tarot is about energy, and energy is all about flux and flow. It doesn’t keep to a schedule. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has tells us … “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” By the same token, the universe is under no obligation to match our calendars and schedules.

Sometimes the best Tarot can do is to help us make our way through the unknowable chaos as best as we can.

As methodical as we may try to be about it, the way Tarot does that is by engaging our pure, raw, natural human intuition.

My method and structure for these readings is that the right side card represents energy that is fading at the moment and probably won’t have a large influence during the week. The middle card is the dominant energy, our primary food for thought or the suggested tactic for getting through the week. The left card is growing energy that may have progressively more influence as the week goes on. This is an idea or issue that is on the horizon and warrants our keeping a weather eye on it as the pirate movies say.

Sometimes intuition comes along and chucks that whole structure right out the window.

Today, the energy is less about the general flow of the week and more about individual processes. Instead of a growing energy that gradually replaces a fading one, this is more about three energies that are simultaneously present, but in different proportions. The mental image here is a sound mixing board, with all of those little slidey things that let you turn up some parts and down others. The CD player I had back in the 80s had something like that on it, and of course we all had the bass turned up to max…but that’s beside the point.

I think the real point is that we are all creating our own individual mixtape of energies this week and there is no real overarching collective zeitgeist for a change. That individuality in the middle of the collective is kind of the core message of the thing: Stand strong in your individuality. That will in turn allow you to better show up for your life and for the important people in it. When that happens, life will in turn show up for you when you need it.

Here the mental image shifts to one of those speckled quartz granite countertops, with all the pieces being part of the one smooth stone. We are individuals with individual integrity (knight of swords), yet we are all connected (three of cups)

Typically the Knight of Swords is about courage, daring, and pushing beyond your comfort zone. But what if your comfort zone IS the daring thing?

We live in – ah – interesting times.

For some, living in their true, authentic comfort zone can be a truly death defying act. For those of us who are not targets of hatred and bigotry (yet), for us to not be our fully authentic self is an act of cowardice by comparison.

In short, occupy your comfort zone. Fully. With gusto.

The internet says to show up for ourselves. When we have the courage to find our comfort zone and stake a claim to it, then we are better able to be there for other people in their quest to do the same. The Knight of Swords connects to the Three of cups.

When you show up for life in a way that is true to yourself and emotionally present for those you care about then life will show up for you. It can and will reciprocate in a deep and lasting way as symbolized by the Two of Cups.

Define your comfort zone Be fully in your comfort zone – with gusto. Then be in your comfort zone for and with others. Then life can meet you at the edges and make the comfort zone a little bigger.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this please remember me if you ever want a private reading. This free Tarot content is fueled by private reading purchases, paid subscriptions* and plenty of coffee**

*ko-fi Sage Sips members get extra benefits including discount email readings and access to FREE one card readings in the ko-fi shop

**Buy me a virtual one on ko-fi…I like those too

No appointment needed Private Tarot readings by email are always open. Please allow extra fulfillment time if you order during nights, weekends or holidays USA eastern time.

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.

This free Tarot content is fueled by real coffee, the virtual coffees on ko-fi, paid subscriptions and your private Tarot reading purchases. That allows me to put your message first, not an advertiser’s. Please buy me a coffee or become a “Sage Sips” member with a Ko-fi or Substack subscription today.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Zombie Cat’s Year Ahead Reading for 2023

Zombie Cat’s Tarot reading for the year ahead 2023

Happy New Year Hoomans!

Had my hooman pull the cards for this year for me because she’s the one with the opposable thumbs and all.

I’m Zombie Cat, black sheep of the feline family and Schrodinger’s Cat’s fictional renegade cousin who decided to come out of that famous thought experiment as “both” after the experiment was finished instead of during the experiment. Don’t think about it too hard…quantum physics will break your brain. Didn’t do much for the hooman when she made me up back in a 2015 blog post that was about Tarot, not science, so go all pedantic about it (it makes her cranky when people do that.)

Anyway, I decided to pitch in and help the hooman out so she can sit over there and knit and drink coffee and maybe do something about that hair that looks like post-explosion Veronica end of the movie Heathers. (The cat’s not wrong. 2022 finally caught up with me – I haven’t brushed my hair today and I am feeling very post-explosion Veronica. Now where is that red scrunchie…)

Ahem. My turn hooman.

Just as a brief introduction to this particular layout, here’s what is going on.

The human wrote this several years ago to be used at any time of year, not just New Year. It’s fun for birthdays, graduation, or any time really. There are four cards, one for each of the upcoming season, starting whenever the reading is done and going in order from there. It is intended to look at the direction energy seems to be flowing. It isn’t a definite prediction, but it is a guiding theme for the time period in question. Same for the fifth card which is the theme, over-arching energy or primary lesson for the year as a whole.

Or that’s what the hooman says.

I say it is what it is, I see what I see, I say what I say, you get what you get and we are all just going to have to cope with life however it actually turns out to be. But that’s the difference between us – she is the thoughtful human type, and I’m – not.

Here we go.

The general pattern makes me think there is going to be a lot of energy overall. Stuff is going to happen. You know how when you opposable thumb types are yanking on something that is stuck, and you keep yoinking on it until it suddenly gives way? That’s the feel for this year. We’ve spent the past two years trying to pull ourselves through and out of some real weirdness. 2023 might start out like more of the same but once it starts to move it is going to give way suddenly & move like crazy for a short bit until we get a new grip on it.

While there is only one major arcana card, all of the minor arcana cards are court cards. Court cards might not have the major change, major life lesson ka-pow of energy that the majors have, they still carry a little more catnip than the numbered minor arcana cards.

Winter

This covers roughly the time right now through mid-March or so. The Queen of Pentacles is the card for this season. Just like the peak pandemic times in 2020-21 there is a strong sense of practicality. Pentacles are about earth energy. Find your inner rock, find what anchors and grounds and centers you and do that. The queen is about nurturing and leadership. The king may protect the kingdom, but the queen nurtures it. This time is about taking care of business. This is close to home, hearth and family type stuff. When your efforts harmonize with the energy flows of the time, you get the most bang for your buck as the saying goes. If you try to be too expansive and far flung and boundary-pushing you might meet some resistance or have a rougher than necessary road ahead. If you focus on taking care of what you already have at hand, if you focus on care and maintenance close to the home front, the energies will life you up and your efforts go farther and need less, well, effort. Work smarter not harder so you can slide in a healthy dose of self care too. You know how health and fitness is a fad for five minutes every January? Take advantage, and take care of yourself. Who knows? You might accidentally stumble across something you actually like and can sustain all the way to maybe February this time.

Spring

We stay with the practical, earthy, grounded energy of Pentacles, but the Page of Pentacles moves it from the large-and-in-charge nurturing of the queen to a more intellectual, outreaching quality. Pages symbolize learning, which is something that can be done in the context of any minor arcana suit. The page of pentacles is softer, more practical, more application and less pure theory than the colder more incisive intellect energy we see in the suit of swords. Holistic health is stepping forward as a concept. The mind and learning aspects of sword cards is more like a modern surgeon, while the page of pentacles is closer to the mind aspect of holistic health where mind, body and spirit are one. The page of pentacles is reminding us to use our head, but not heartlessly. Spring is a time of logic and intellect, yes, but logic and intellect with compassionate practical application. Learn all you can, but you will go farthest when you put your energy into learning things that have practical, useful, helpful application.

To put it another way, this energy this spring is more helpful to practical engineering rather than cutting edge theoretical quantum physics.

What is that word? Hygge? Both winter and spring have that warm fuzzy sort of feel to them. Make yourself comfortable the first half of 2023, whatever comfortable means to you. This isn’t the time for pushing too hard outside of your comfort zone. 2020 & 2021 shoved us out of it hard enough already. 2023 may at last be our chance to re-define, re-establish, re-stabilize our new comfort zones to get ready for the next push, no matter whether that push come from us on the inside or from the outside of said comfort zone.

Summer

Here we pick up the spirit part of that mind, body, spirit holistic paradigm.

This is our only major arcana card, the Moon. The moon has long been associated with dreamyness, psychic ability, intuition, spiritual growth, spiritual journies and the like. First the soft jazzy song “Summertime” from Porgie and Bess comes to mind to capture the mood of the card. Then it shifts to the opening few lines from the Madonna song “Crazy For You” from the 1985 movie Vision Quest. Which is a real side-door into the concept that intuition is trying to communicate, I think. The vision question in question here is more like the genuine hamanic kind than the feel good movie 80s pop culture kind. Here my mind is drawn to the early books by Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan from 1968 in particular. It’s been so long since the human had read it, neither of us are entirely sure what that reference is about, if anything, other than to encourage all of us to explore our spiritual life with courage and openness. Here I see starry, moonlit night with warm wind, candle or firelight perhaps. Night steps forward strongly. Night time is particularly important during this season for some reason. It feels like sunset and night time is the most potent for you to indulge in your deepest thinking, deepest feeling, and most important spiritual questing.

Fall

Here, it seems, is where all the yoinking and nurturing and caring and questions pay off. The Knight of Swords is best summed up by screaming “Geronimo!” or doing your best Tenth Doctor Who impersonation and yelling “allonz-y.” Here is where things move fast albeit for a short time. Whether that rapid giving way results in something good or something problematic remains to be seen. But it will be seen. Here is get the word “clarity” good or bad, at the end of 2023’s burst of movement there won’t be any doubt about what the problem actually is now. It might be a brand new dilemma, or it might have its roots in everything that has been going on for the past few years.

We may not get much fixed this year, but by the time next winter rolls back around, at least we might have a clear idea what the fix is.

Year 2023

The card of the year is the King of Cups.

The message is simple, but multifaceted.

Kings are leadership. You are in charge of the whole mess. You own your own mind, body, and spirit so it is up to you to care for, nurture and respect all the facets of yourself within yourself. That inner autonomy and maturity will in turn allow you to be present, emotionally available and nurturing to those you love and care about. That intimate inner circle is the relationship that cups cards symbolize. Cups cards are about emotions and those most important relationships; romance, family, found family and more.

Cups are also about intuition so I would guess that the spiritual aspect of life will be a prominent thread throughout the year despite the other energies that may be slightly more dominant for a time. Spirituality will be the constant even as the other energies comes and go.

Taken together, the King of Cups as an individual card symbolizes a mentor, or some sort of emotional teacher. The word “guru” comes to mind here. I don’t see it as the traditional Yoda-ish meditation or martial arts master. It feels like something low key – a real person or a writer or someone somewhere that you admire in some respect and want to emulate their success. Not in a tangible or materialistic way, and not in toto as some sort of child-like hero worship. “Take the best parts” comes to mind. Little inspirations from multiple reliable sources is more the feel of it.

The color blue steps forward as a good color for this year. To my mind it looks like a lovely sapphire or cobalt blue. That would go along with supporting the third eye chakra (energy center) and the spiritual component to the year.

That’s the inner world for 2023. The outer world is anybody’s guess. Personally I’m hoping for a piping cup of hot political schadenfreude that is full to the brim of deserving indictments. I hope that the forces for inclusion, compassion, support, safety, and environmentalism own the year like Greta Thunberg owns pizza eating criminals on the internet.

With that, the energy steps back.

With that the human and I wish every one of you a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Contemplation: Not just for coffee and morning

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day (or in this case, your evening) in the time it takes to sip from your coffee (or tea or whatever you like)

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

This evening’s card is the four of swords and it couldn’t be more perfect for this flipped schedule post and podcast.

I worked a different than usual shift on the day job…it really was a day job today. I like the evening shift, because I am so very extremely not a morning person. My favorite TV quote is Sheriff Hopper from Stranger Things sushing a secretary saying something like “Mornings are for coffee. And contemplation. Coffee. And contemplation.”

I am grateful for the privilege of starting most weekdays with exactly that, a steaming mug of coffee and spending time in my happy place chair writing Tarot contemplations for the day.

I’d forgotten how nice Tarot can be at sunset.

In the morning readings tend to be a pep talk, giving us a heads up about the energies ahead. Morning Tarot tends to focus on how to do our best work with the energy ahead and make the best choices possible with the physical, mental and spiritual resources we have at hand.

Not everyone has the mighty, mighty caffeine metabolism needed to sip coffee at bedtime. Hot chamomile tea works just as well for Tarot sips. If morning Tarot has a “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” energy, evening Tarot has a introspective, decompressing, emotional processing sort of vibe.

Let’s make this as self referential as possible. Morning Tarot readings have a knight of swords style, while evenings have a – you guessed it – four of swords style.

Take a deep breath. A long, slow quiet breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

See how Pamela Smith drew the hands of the knight with the tips of the fingers touching. Touching fingers is an actual energy thing. What do you do when you are deep in thought. Do you touch your fingers like the card, touch your chin, run your fingers through your hair or something else? Give it a try. Adopt that posture, whatever it is for you. How do you feel? Does the physical change help you quiet the mental noise and stress of the day at all?

If you don’t know your particular physical tell that shows when you are in deep thought, try this: Unless you are driving or something, lace your fingers together. Keep them laced and rest your hands however is comfortable. This is said to seal your aura and stabilize your energies.

I like to think of this as a psychic emotional faraday cage. A Faraday cage is a container or enclosure that protects anything inside from electromagnetic energy from the outside. Imagine that while your fingers are interlaced it blocks out stress or any empathic influences from other peoples energies. Imagine that while your fingers are laced, your inner world is quiet, isolated from outside stress. Imagine that you can hear your own inner wisdom, feel your own emotions, all with perfect clarity and understanding.

If you try it, please let me know in the comments. I’d be interested to know if it works for you, and what you experienced with this simple little exercise.

Take that deep breath, lace your fingers. Now, how was your day? What is your energy level? What emotions do you feel? Does anything bubble up to top of mind wanting your attention? Is there anything inside your emotional faraday cage that needs to be kicked out of the door and dealt with on another day?

The hands on the four of swords card is our hint for this evening. It’s a small, harmless physical gesture that can help you find some evening style contemplation.

Contemplation isn’t just for mornings and coffee. Contemplation, like Tarot, is a soothing sip any time of day.

Thank you so much for listening!

If you enjoy these Tarot sips, please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on Ko-fi. None of these videos, blog posts or podcast episodes are monetized, so the ko-fi shop, memberships and virtual coffees support the creation of this free to access Tarot content.

As far as I can tell, things back to the usual squirrel rave playlist of a schedule. Short sip posts and podcasts are on weekdays, usually much earlier than this one. There are at least 6 posts of exclusive members-only content on the ko-fi blog per month. Email readings are open all the time so you can purchase them anytime (delivery times vary a bit.) Your questions and comments are welcome and appreciated.

Now it is time for me to have a real world cuppa tea. See you at the next sip!

Fear of the Unknown and the Shower Cap Lady

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: fear of the unknown and the annoyed shower cap lady.

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

When this card turned over, my first and only thought was “what the actual heckin’ heck is that?”

It’s got a horse, a sword (or maybe it is a stick) and a pissed off looking woman in a shower cap. Queen of swords maybe? Knight of wands? Bad hair day card?

At first, I didn’t even know what the card was much less what to think or say about it. Which, I think, is the message. The words “fear of the unknown” popped to mind. Which makes logical sense because I wasn’t sure if it was a knight, a queen, a sword or a wands card.

For a flash, I had a snowballing moment of fearful not-knowing. Not knowing the card means I’ll write a terrible post, so I’ll never get paying work as a Tarot reader ever again, which means decades of effort goes down the drain because I’ve wasted my life on woo woo spooky shit and oh-my-god-we’re-all-gonna-die.

That, my friends, is a living example of psychological stress and exactly what Tarot and mindfulness is designed to help.

Sometimes, the best thing you can know is that you don’t know. It prompts you to prepare, think, act and adapt.

Sometimes the worst thing you can do is let fear of the unknown drag you into dwelling on the future instead of being mindful of the present reality.

Fear of the unknown isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Fear unbridled puts your heart in prison. Fear utilized sets you free. As has been attributed to all sorts of people from Mark Twain to President Roosevelt quote courage is not the absence of fear but rather the ability to act in spite of it end quote.

Turns out all I needed to do was walk into the next room and pick up the deck guidebook and do a little googling. Looks like we might survive after all, folks!

On a small scale that’s exactly the kind of thing that goes with the Knight of Swords which is what shower cap chick turned out to be.

The Cary-Yale visconti tarot deck published by US Games in the 1980s is made up of reproduced images from a 15th century partial Tarot deck. According to author Stuart R. Kaplan as quoted by google books, the original deck is in the Cary card collection in the rare books and manuscripts library at Yale University. New cards were created to fill in the missing cards and create a full, functional deck. I don’t know if this particular card is original or a fill-in, but Kaplan also points out that the court cards in the original deck is a mixture of male and female figures, which is interesting for the time period. I don’t know about the shower cap, but it turns out that it really is an annoyed looking woman on a horse. The way she is holding the sword reminds me of an internet meme of Qui-Gon from Star Wars jumping up and drawing his light saber with the caption of “When you are home alone and you hear a noise”

Seven Dane Asmund writing as the Alleyman interprets the card as sudden opportunity, rapid movement, advice to take advantage of sudden opportunities or you could miss it. This is spot-on for the Knight of Swords imagery in every other deck I’ve seen.

So NOW what do we do? Is there anything that reconciles the Cary-Yale image and the flash about fearing the unknown with the typical daring imagery of the knight of swords we see in so many other decks?

I think the idea of being on guard combined with taking advantage of sudden opportunities builds the bridge between this very old card and the common modern interpretations for the knight of swords.

If fear of the unknown paralyses us, and keeps us from acting, then we might miss key opportunities. If fear of the unknown takes us into a new situation prepared and alert and ready to make the most of a sudden opportunity, then fear of the unknown has served us well.

Just don’t forget to take your shower cap off.

Thank you so much for reading, watching and listening.

The TaoCraft Tarot blog, podcast and youtube channel are not monetized and depend solely on audience support. Your reading purchases and ko-fi memberships contribute toward creating this unique Tarot content. Links to them are clickable in the blog or located in the podcast episode description.

Your likes, subs, shares, and follows are always appreciated too!

See you at the next sip.

Making donuts

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Today’s card is the Knight of Pentacles.

One of the best clues that your wrinkled backside is getting older is when you get the references that old an old commercial made when people younger than you don’t remember the ad making the reference.

Way back in the 1980s, a certain very popular and rather delicious donut chain had a tv ad where a hardworking and longsuffering baker would plod out of the front door ridiculously early in the morning because it was “time to make the donuts.” This repeated until one time he opens the door to find – himself coming home.

Never mind any jokes about him “finding himself, ” I don’t know how many people remember the “Time to make the donuts” commercial much less the visual reference to the phrase “meet yourself coming and going” which is an old school way of saying that you are so busy and bothered and working so hard and moving so fast that well,you meet yourself coming and going. Which is pretty sci fi violate-the-time-space continuum notion for the ancient before times if you think about it.

But anyway – donuts.

Beside the fact that donuts are a pure soul-level goodness in and of themselves especially when paired with a cup of coffee, the making the donuts thing speaks to the knight of pentacles and today’s Monday morning energies.

Some days are mystical and magical and ideal for contemplating the spiritual. Other days are for just doing, focusing purely on the physical. Some days are for frenetic effort where you meet yourself coming and going. Other days are for regular, reliable and routine donut making. Today feels like the latter type to me. Pentacles are earth element, focused on practicality, the physical realm, work and career. Knights are symbolic of action and activity. Put them both together and you have a reminder that it is time to make the donuts.

Sometimes the simplest donuts are the best. They all don’t have to be jelly filled with sprinkles on top. Some days there is nothing better than a no-frills sour cream old fashioned.

The word “plodding” comes to mind. Pamela Smith uses the posture of the horses to communicate the energies of the knight cards. This guy is standing still, as opposed to the full gallop you see on the knight of swords card. This is another reference to the solid, rooted, balanced, grounded energy that the Pentacle cards posses.

Not every moment has to be joyful. Not every moment has to be tragic. Some moments you just make your donuts without any drama. That resonates with the Taoist notion of wu wei, accomplishment without undue effort. Just because it isn’t a big struggle doesn’t make it lesser. Donuts that were easy and routine to make taste just as sweet.

By the same token, it’s not about doing nothing at all. It’s not about being neglectful and careless and just phoning in the bare minimum. Bakers who make donuts like that won’t stay in business for very long. The Knight of Pentacles today captures an energy of wu wei, of doing what needs to be done and doing it well but without a lot of unnecessary fuss or bother. It’s a day of making easy but excellent donuts.

Thank you so much for listening! Your support for this blogcast through Tarot reading purchases, likes, subs, shares, follows and Tarot Table memberships is always, always appreciated.

Just a reminder that things are going to be a little chaotic this week on the blogcast and on social media. For example, if I do a “You Choose Interactive Tarot” reading at all this week it will probably be tomorrow. Maybe. It’s spring break 2022 at our house so social media is low on my priority list. Email Tarot readings, however, are the same always. Email Tarot is open and available to purchase 24/7 without appointment.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!