I don’t know if this is an actual thing out there or just what I’m doing in my little world, but it seems like this the year for dialing it all down. Eat the rich, screw the capitalism, forget the elaborate bougie over the top holidays…it’s about the small, thoughtful and meaningful.
That’s about all that’s affordable these days, anyway.
So maybe it’s the year for some real talk about Tarot. I have nothing to promote, nothing to sell and no one to persuade. If you want a reading with me, great. Support me on Ko-Fi where the proceeds go toward creating Sage Sips and keeping it ad-free. If you don’t want a tarot reading, cool. Keep reading the blog instead. But don’t complain to me if you don’t like the free advice.
Valentine’s Day seems like a good place to start. This is the year for a construction-paper card, a single carnation or a box of chalky conversation hearts.
Love, romance and relationships are a fundamental, important part of being human. Tarot can be wonderfully helpful as we think and feel our way through relationships of every type and definition. It’s incredibly important and it’s no wonder that romance is one of the most asked Tarot Reading questions.
From the beginning, from the very first readings I did professionally in the early 2000’s, I’ve defined Tarot cards in terms of relationships. The major arcana is our relationship with personal growth and life as a whole. Pentacles are our relationship with career, money and the physical realm. Swords are our relationship with authority, culture and society.) Wands are our relationship with ourselves in terms of spirituality, passions, philosophy and so on. Cups are our closest relationships, the ones of emotion and heart, of romance, family and friendship. The suit of cups are Tarot’s Valentine cards, in a way. This feels like the year to turn romantic Tarot readings on its head, like the two of cups reversed.
It’s no wonder that romance readings are the trickiest to do. As good as Tarot is at dealing with deep emotions of a romantic relationship, they are really shitty at dealing with the superficial, outward aspects of it.
How to deal with a broken heart? How do you deal with loneliness? How do you get on the path to a meaningful relationship? How do you shine your light so that special someone can find you? How can you play your part in the relationship you have and help make it last?
Tarot readings can help work through those things.
When will you meet the love of your life? Will your ex come back? Is this the year the big relationship will happen? – No idea. Tarot readings, at least the ones that stem from subtle energy and intuition (spirit if you will) are silent when it comes to that type of thing.
How to find the love of your life?
Simple. LOVE YOUR LIFE.
If you aren’t happy with life without someone, how can you be happy with life with
Think about it.
Think about the type of person you want to be romantically involved with.
Is that person all wrapped up in how lonely they are and preoccupied with wondering when the right relationship will come along –
OR is the partner you envision happy, healthy, and engaged with their life as it is?
Sometimes, the best way to find your soulmate is to let go of the notion of ever having one. Sometimes the best way to find your soulmate is to stop looking for them and be the person you want to have in your life.
When it comes to Tarot Readings, it isn’t about if and when you will meet that special someone. It’s about the how.
Like attracts like. Happy attracts happy. Love attracts love.
It was either Carl Jung or Buddhism or both that teaches that the very things that annoy the hell out of you are some of your best teachers.
Valentine’s day annoys the hell out of me, but I’ve been doing the “My Tarot Valentine” thing for years.
Why?
Because I get it how deeply important relationships – of all kinds – are to a happy, healthy, fulfilling life.
But also because it’s popular and I wanted to advertise my professional Tarot readings back when I was doing that.
Stay tuned for what may well be the really, actually, truly last “My Tarot Valentine” with the mic drop piece of advice when it comes to romance.
Don’t wait on someone else – BE the love you want in your life. GIVE the love you want in your life. Then the love is inseparable from your life. No if or when required. That’s how, and that’s right now.
When you give love and kindness and strength and fun – to others AND yourself – all of those things become an integral part of your life. A soulmate and life partner is the frosting on the cake, not the cake itself.
If you have that special someone – love them with your whole heart and every cell like you love the air you breathe. That is a whole other kettle of fish, as the saying goes. This is for those still waiting.
The Tarot’s advice is stop waiting and start loving whatever you can that is here and now – including you. Do that and the whole Valentine’s Day idealized romantic relationship thing will take care of itself.
When you love, you win. It’s the act of giving love that matters.
Love heals the deepest wounds without dwelling on them including – perhaps especially – when that love and healing is directed toward yourself.
Loving others is its own reward, no matter how others respond.
Love is a living tree. Water and tend to it, always. It will give air and fruit and color and life in return, if not in this season, then in another. Love will outlive the pain.
“The only thing stronger than hate is love” – Bad Bunny
Deck: Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler copyright 2021 all rights reserved, used with permission found on llwellynpublishing.com
available for download from the TaoCraft Tarot shop on ko-fi. Please click the cover to order
My Tarot Valentine is a collection of Tarot meditations with the theme of love, romance, and relationships of all kinds. 44 pages.
In this simple layout is almost like a sentence: what it is and what it does – more accurately what you can DO with the collective energies around us all today. Actions eases worries, in this case worries about relationships or connections with people.
The ship hints at a time of prosperity & progress. The emphasis is on progress, on forward movement. The ship implies smooth sailing, much like with the smooth waters / go with the flow collective energy I’ve seen lately with the Six of Swords in collective and private readings alike.
The bouquet hints at affection and, more importantly, showing it. Not is not the time to bottle up feelings. If you feel kindness, compassion, love, amusement, or any good thing – now is the time to show it. Show it in no uncertain terms.
If you feel less pleasant things, show that too. Yes, by all means, communicate those feeling too, but the key here is to show it with emotional maturity and kindness. The Bouquet card with its pretty flowers reminds us of those wise old adages: “You catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar.” and “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
Again the phrase “emotional maturity” comes to mind. Pitch kindness, not a fit. A little calmness and reason will go a long way for you in this energy environment.
The outer world may be chaos, but it is a good time to show love and kindness. If it is returned, soak it in. Even when it is unrequited, you can feel good about loving in the first place. That moment, that feeling existed and added to the good in the world and still does.
When you love, you win.
Deck: Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler copyright 2021 all rights reserved used with permission llwellynpublishing.com
It’s an ancient idea. Buddhist teaching long ago realized that taking action – or even making a decision or making a plan of action – can ease worry and anxiety. Practice and role play are a crucial part of emergency training.
Action eases anxiety, even in tarot. Knowing your energy environment and thinking about a good next step can go a long way to easing turbulent emotions.
Today’s Energy
THE HEART: Hope and love exist. It is near, but tangled in the maze and weeds of daily living. Don’t lose the forest in the trees as the saying goes. Don’t lose the love in the background noise, either.
Next Step
THE CRANE: Something new must deliberately be created. Clear away the mindless, the outdated, the harmful, that which has lost usefulness and the love and hope surrounding you will become clear. It is like Michelangelo’s sculpting method:
“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” ― Michelangelo
The love and hope energy is already there.
Clear away the extra and unneeded, and love will emerge.
Deck: Healing Light Lenormand Tarot by Christopher Butler, copyright 2021 all rights reserved, used with permissions granted on llwellynpublishing.com
Take a deep breath and relax. Think about a question for the cards or think about your week ahead. Follow your first impulse and choose a card.
Restart the video to see your card and get the reading below:
The World (reversed)
I don’t always read a lot into reversed cards. If you think about it, it is right side up for someone sitting across from you. It’s a perspective thing. Reversed cards always ask for a little extra thought about context and perspective. Sometimes it can be a cue that a particular energy or topic or part of life is turbulent or blocked. Sometimes the context is this deck is printed on very glossy cardstock and chucks out reversals all of the time that don’t necessarily carry meaning.
In this case, the reversal is, intuitively, screaming for attention. It means something. The world is a major arcana card so it is a cue to high energies, key messages, possibly life lessons close around you.
The World is the final card in the major arcana suit. It has connections to completion, success, wholeness. It is also connected to connection…everything touches everything, and every part in a way contains the whole, touches the whole, hologram style. The card is pointing to this gestalt, holistic thinking today.
I’m not usually a heavy metal music fan, but thanks to family members I’ve heard some and “The Future is a Foreign Land” by Ghost, especially the part with the lyrics “when it all burns down.”
What do you do when your world has been turned inside out and upside down? What do you do when the person you thought was the one person who would be there for you when it all burns down is the one lighting the match?
Time may seem desperate, but when you get to the end of the major arcana then you go back to the Fool card and begin again, heartbreak and all.
Four of Cups
The pouring cup gets all of the attention here.
This is why I love the Alleyman’s Tarot deck. Sometimes it is profound. Sometimes it makes you feel “wut?”
That disconnected, ‘it’s just not resonating’ feeling is an element of the message today. The baseball imagery just isn’t getting it for me today…but that’s the message. It’s not about me.
And your concern may not be about you.
To be psychological about it, this is about intention and control. Despite our best intentions, we can’t control other people. You could pour a tanker truck of love and energy out but you can’t make someone feel any certain way. As the old proverb says: You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.
Cups cards are about emotions. Regardless of the response, to love is the victory. To love is the means and the ends and all that matters. Pour your cup of love, hopefully it will water the roots of a tree rather than wet the feet of a statue.
Thank you so much for watching and reading.
I wish you all a deep drink of love and wholeness.
See you at the next sip!
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission, Publishing Goblin LLC
Use the contact form on the Ask Me Anything page to – you guessed it – ask me anything. I’ll answer in a blog post like this one. It might contain a Tarot reading. It might not. But it will be intuition based and free. Unless your question is spam, religious, or inappropriate. Then it will be deleted. Other than that – ask me anything.
Q: I would like to know if the man I am currently in love with loves me and if we will ever be in a serious committed relationship.
Hi *****
Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, I have both good news and bad news. You may not like this answer at all. It might make you furiously angry. Hopefully, over time, the reading will prove more helpful than not – even if it triggers a few feels right now.
The other good news is your question is letting me showcase the new TaoCraft Path layout that is taking the place of my old Modern Oracle/energy flow layout. What follows is exactly like a paid, private email reading, which means you are getting a $30 Tarot reading for free. So maybe it won’t be so bad after all.
The first thing we need to do is give everyone a reminder about how Tarot really works. It is NOT like what you see in the movies or on TV. It doesn’t predict the future because of simple cause and effect. Your choices and actions are what really matters. What you do makes the so-called “prediction” happen or not.
Relationship questions like this are even more complicated. You have no control over what your love interest feels or does. There is only one person in all the universe who can answer if the man you love loves you too – and that is the man himself. All this reading can do is give you insight and understanding and ideas about how to approach this relationship and your feelings about this relationship.
Which begs the question – why are you asking a stranger on the internet if he loves you? Have you told him how you feel?
If you are asking the question because things have been said, things have been left unsaid or neglected or you have any reason to doubt him – we need to look at the cards to find ideas and encouragement for you to talk to HIM about this. You have every right to be safe and happy. If he isn’t right for you, then you need to know from him so you can move on and do whatever you need to do in order to be safe and happy.
If you think maybe he does love you and you are afraid of rejection, afraid of finding out that he doesn’t – welcome to club! You are facing the biggest, most consequential feeling that human beings can experience. Good for you for giving this the care and attention it deserves! Let’s look at the cards and see if we can find you the courage to talk to HIM about this.
Either way, Tarot can’t predict if you will ever be in a serious, committed relationship because it all depends on if you two ever talk about your feelings and it depends on the things in his mind and in his heart – things no other person can know or control.
But now let’s move on to the part that is just like a private email reading.
First we talk about the general pattern of the cards and how they fall in the overall layout. This layout is read from the bottom up, and right to left – exactly the opposite of the way we read words. That helps disrupt logic & language habits, and encourages a purely intuitive reading.
Your card today are:
The Past and its influence: Five of Wands
The Energy Now: The Lovers
Advice & Cautions: The Tower
The Greater Path: Knight of Cups
The Lesser Path: Wheel of Fortune
In the Tarot deck, there are 56 minor arcana cards but only 22 major arcana cards. Minors outnumber majors slightly more than 2 to 1. So when the majors outnumber minors in any layout it is usually significant.
In your case, I think the major cards dominating has two messages.
First and foremost, this speaks to the intensity of emotion at play. This is a big, important, potentially very wonderful thing for you. There is a lot on the line. It is ok to feel big feelings about that. Big emotional energies get the big energy cards.
The other message is that this is a big energy time for everyone, especially here in the U.S. Big political things are happening, there is a comet in the sky, two big storms have just passed, seasons are changing – some of the charged emotions and worries may be coming from the outside. Intuitive people feel resonant energy as if it is their own sometimes. You can see it in physics. If you sound a tuning fork at a particular pitch, a bell at that same pitch can vibrate and create sound even though the bell hasn’t been touched.
Almost every five card reading I’ve done lately has this three major arcana and two minor arcana pattern. That repeating pattern for many unrelated people and readings tells me that a general, environmental, Zeitgeist sort of energy is at play in this reading too. The energy environment may be amplifying your worries a bit. The advice in that situation is simply don’t be impulsive. Be sure before you act. Trust your instincts, but be gentle and patient as much as you can with everyone – both yourself and your love interest.
The Past: Five of Wands
Wands symbolize the element of fire, passions, inner philosophy, and your relationship with yourself. This card gives a feeling of inner conflict. Although the five of wands has to do with conflict it also hints at a positive outcome after that conflict if you put in some effort. If we connect that to relationships, if you have had past bad experiences, don’t assume the same things of this person. Put in your work to be fair to the other person. Be open, aware – don’t be fooled again, but neither should you make assumptions or expect the worst. “Don’t assume” steps forward for emphasis. It’s very important not to jump to conclusions about this person. Again that brings my mind to what we said earlier about talking to him. That kind of direct communication is essential to avoid assumptions or false expectations that may be based only in old bad experiences. Don’t let conflicted emotions get in the way of clear understanding.
Current energy: The Lovers
The Lovers card is one of the most misunderstood. I wouldn’t blame you if you took one look at this and though ‘woo hoo! he loves me and we’re getting married!”
That’s not it at all. It doesn’t say anything about how he feels. It has nothing to do with committed stable relationships (that’s the two of cups, by the way, not the lovers card)
The lovers is about a lusting type of desire, and it can be about a passionate desire for anything, not just a romantic partner. Lust burns bright. Love lasts long. Follow your passion, yes, but that can’t be everything. This card shows how much this relationship has captured you heart and mind. Don’t forget you. Don’t lose yourself. If you love him as you say, then give him the best of you – a whole, healthy you. Don’t forget all the things that make you into the right match for him.
Advice & Cautions: The Tower
It is very common for major arcana cards, like the lovers and the tower to have multiple threads of meaning. The tower most commonly can mean sudden news or an unexpected thing that throws everything into chaos. Adaptability is key in surviving chaos. Think about what you would do, how you would react to whichever way things go with this man. If he doesn’t return your love and doesn’t want a long term relationship – as terrible as that would feel, what would you DO in response? And, crucially, if he returns your feelings and wants to deepen your relationship, as wonderful as that would be what would you want to DO next?
Another less well known meaning is perspective. If you climb to the top of a tower, you can see the big picture, even when things are chaos at the ground level. To understand and better know how to adapt to unexpected things, to understand and better know what you want to do, look for the big picture. Don’t focus only on the relationship. Give time and attention to all aspects of life.
The Greater path: Knight of Cups
This is the direction most open to you, and most likely to lead to a good outcome. Cups cards have to do with the element of water, and symbolize emotions. Knight cards denote action. There is a feeling of smooth sailing, and calm action. Don’t approach this with anxiety. Approach this with calmness and love. Very old interpretations of the card have to do with a message coming to you or travel over water. Calm, cool water comes to mind. Be at peace. You being in a calm, steady emotional place will help things go better. Message is key. Action is key. Talking and communicating with this person is key. Talking and communicating about strong emotions is difficult, but that is the path to a good outcome.
Lesser Path: this is open to you if you choose it, but it isn’t the way things are headed naturally right now.
The Wheel is a card of change. Things will change naturally, whether you do anything or not. This feels like the path of not communicating. This feels like the path things would take if you choose not to talk with him about how he feels. This feels like a path of inaction, just “let the chips fall where they may”
If you don’t talk with him about how you feel and how he feels – then what are the chances he takes that silence to mean that you don’t care?
There is a chance of a good outcome here, but not talking feels riskier than taking a chance on heartfelt, kind, gentle conversations.
Summary
In all of my private readings I end with a psychic summary that lets any last intuitive messages come in no matter whether they have to do with your question and cards or not.
If you feel nervous about talking about big emotions, flower aromatherapy like rose and lavender might help. Also the stone blue lace agate is very soothing to anxiety and connects to the throat chakra to support communication.
I go back to the Lovers card. Keep career, work, health, hobbies, friends – keep a total life balance in the picture. Try not to focus on the romance relationship so much that you lose touch with other things. Especially keep an eye on career, and keep in touch with close friends.
I get a flash of a teapot, which sometimes is symbol for grandmother.
Again the color light blue comes through as something helpful. A flash of a light blue jar candle with a linen or light citrus scent.
Love and Romance Tarot Layout at a special introductory price for Valentine’s day
Over the years, I’ve done one card love & romance themed Tarot readings in the blog. I’ve collected all of those in an eBook in the shop. You can read them for free if you are willing to rummage around in the archives.
It’s pretty clear that the one card reading in the blog idea has run its course.
This year I wrote the “My Tarot Valentine” romance reading layout, inspired by the poetry collection Triquetra: The Dance of Worlds. The collection has three sections, the reading has three cards with similar themes. The three cards in this reading are:
The Inner World: personal growth, your relationship with yourself
The Outer World: the big picture, your relationship with life in general
The Dance of Worlds: Close interpersonal relationships – romance, marriage, family, children (whatever is top of mind for you when you seek the reading)
These readings are intensely personal and not at all well suited to a collective energy reading. I cant ever really bring myself to try. The overall structure is the same as with ALL of my email and video readings. It starts with a photo of your real world card layout plus general impressions, then it goes card by card and wraps up with a “psychic summary.” The summary is an opportunity to put any purely intuitive impressions that might connect to the cards – or not. Sometimes there are aromatherapy or crystal impressions that come through…
For example right now I’m getting the impression of rose scent (ugh…not my favorite) and clear quartz points. Why clear quartz and not the usual lovey-dovey rose quartz? I dunno. Maybe someone needs to think about making a connection to their higher selves to get through a hallmark holiday that jabs at their loneliness, or to better speak their love language to those already in their life. That’s for you to say if and how that random tidbit resonates with you
Since this kind of reading simply doesn’t translate well into blog content, these special My Tarot Valentine layouts are $5 OFF compared to all the other three card readings. Please try one today. You can purchase anytime, no appointment needed. Please allow 2-3 business days for delivery.
This special introductory price and the My Tarot Valentine layout both end 29 February 2024
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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