sage sips – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…

Oh for the luvva….

I thought we put this to bed yesterday.

Love and relationships are the whole ballgame when it comes to being a human – um – being.

But I was hoping to move on to the half price chocolate and leave the whole My Tarot Valentine thing behind.

But then, maybe we did. Leave it to Lenormand cards to roll up smack us in the face with a frying pan and put the last nail in that coffin.

My intention was to do a nice, normal “action Eases anxiety” reading for this week, but noooo, here we go zooming back to yesterday’s annual Valentine’s day rant.

Here’s the beef:

Valentine’s day (at least here in America *rolls eyes*) seems to be all about white heterosexual romance.

If you are in a relation like that or adjacent to that, then it can be sweet and romantic and a great time to pay attention to the people that mean the most to you. It can and does extend to friends and family.

But it can, and does, make some people feel bad because they don’t have the romance or life partner they want in their life right now, and that right there is where it all goes off the rails.

And that right there is where today’s cards grabs us by the head and turns it for one more look

One of the many things I like about this Healing Light Lenormand deck by Gerard Butler is the way it makes both male and female versions of both The Lady #28 and The Gentleman #29 cards. It lifts the deck beyond binary gender roles to include any romantic relationship, and in conceptual extension, to any relationship at all. I like to think this card showing up today is a validation of being the love you want in your life. In giving love, in loving the things and people in our lives now, we put the whole Valentine’s Day soulmate thing into perspective.

And makes those relationships when they are in our lives doubly important, valued and appreciated. They become love heaped upon love. It makes relationships more valued and precious when they are an expansion of a love-filled life, not filling for an empty spot.

Looking at today’s cards as they usual ‘what it is’ and ‘what to do about it’ we see the lady/gentleman paired with the hear.

The lady/gentleman cards are a self significator…they stand in for you in the reading. This reading is aimed at purely internal, subjective perception. What you think these cards mean, is exactly what they DO mean. The reading is between you and you…all I did was pull the next card for you to contemplate.

The heart card is the star of all of this…relationships. Not just one to one romance…any connection, anyone or anything that is significant to you…anyone or anything that you love. YOU love is the key. Not expectations. Not ideals. What do you love in your life right here, right now? What connections need to be nurtured and grown? What connections need to be trimmed or cut? What connections need to be built? What connections are right there, just waiting to be seen and discovered?

It is at once the simplest and the hardest part of life.

What it is – you

What to do about it – love.

I wish you a peaceful week free from ridiculous commercial holiday expectations. Happy half priced chocolate to those who celebrate.

See you at the next sip!

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My Tarot Valentine: It’s about the how.

It seems like this is the year.

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.

And there spirit steps back

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.

My Tarot Valentine 2026

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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

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My Tarot Valentine is a collection of Tarot meditations with the theme of love, romance, and relationships of all kinds. 44 pages.

My Tarot Valentine

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My Tarot Valentine is a collection of love, romance and relationship themed daily meditation Tarot readings from the Tarotbytes (Modern Oracle) and Sage Sips archives

Today’s Tarot: Only You

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Happiness isn’t at your fingertips. It’s inside them.

Looking for happiness is like trying to buy a one of a kind item that you already own. Or to paraphrase the adage Mark Salzman references in Iron and Silk – looking for happiness is like looking for the donkey you are already riding on.

Only you can decide what, if anything, makes you happy. Only you can decide if and when you are happy. No one can else can make you happy – only you.

And if that is true, then no one else can take your happiness away.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

image: public domain

Tarot for the Week: Portals and Possibilities

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I’m loving the Alleyman card today – mostly because I am in my happy place, at home drinking coffee, watching the Olympics and knitting.

Very often, the Four of Wands is associated with community celebrations in support of the family or individuals within that community – think birthday parties, weddings or baby showers.

Sometimes there is a sense of sanctuary, with some sort of shelter in the art work, be it open and symbolic or a literal structure. The Pamela Smith RWS deck artwork shows both a wedding chupah and a fortress or castle.

The open shelter images also give a sense of a portal or a gateway. This kind of energy doesn’t come as often as the other, but it steps forward today.

Today is the most optimistic week-ahead energy I’ve felt in a long time.

I hear “ripe with potential.”

I know, I know – that’s not the exact adage, but I’m not going to go all grammar police on the powers that be. I hate pedantry.

I also get “opportunities are what we make of them.”

This isn’t the time to let up. Keep up the pressure. When the christofascists rock back on their heels even a little bit…push harder.

Doors can be shown, doors can be opened, but we can’t walk through them for another.

We must each walk through each door for ourselves.

Or shove unwanted energies out of them.

It is a week of portals and possibilities.

It’s up to you what to draw in, push out or walk through.

Deck in video: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC

RWS Card image: public domain

Quick Sip: What they are

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Feel what you feel. Emotions are what they are. They come. They go. They are valid while they are here, but it is OK to let them flow away as easily as they bubbled up.

Be gentle with yourself and kind to what you feel today.

Sage’s Sip of Tarot: Be The Cause

“Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.”
Emily Dickenson

This is always a good new card.

Think of it as a fortune cookie reminding you that your efforts will pay off, sooner or later.

Cause and effect is the engine of the universe. Be the cause of good things.

Sage’s Sip of Tarot: Pine and Cypress

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“…the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and stability.”

Life can be a dumpster fire. Or a sudden storm. Or a dumpster fire in a storm.

When that happens…and it always does at some point for everyone…you do what you have to do to make it through.

During those times stability and comfort zones are sometimes more helpful than striving, goals or lofty ideals – even our so-called “personal growth.”

When the dumpster fire is particularly raging, it can help to get granular, get smaller but more stable. A lower center of gravity is more stable.

But so is flexibility. The tree that bends in strong winds doesn’t break. That is why coastal cypress trees are a classic symbol of strength in the storm.

When the storm comes, it is an opportunity to be the creator and protector of your own little bubble of strength and stability. You alone can’t stop the storm, but you can control your reaction to it. You can control your hunkering down and seeking shelter, protecting you and yours as best as you can.

The protective, competent, powerful, self-confident energy of the Emperor card reminds us of this.

Anything helps. Anything is better than nothing. This is where all the little milquetoast platitudes and meme-ish affirmations take on some actual value. Anything you can do to create a little stability for yourself, anything that will foster the strength and flexibility that you need has benefit. Meditation for even a few minutes, sitting and staring at your morning coffee for a few minutes, say that affirmation to yourself in the mirror, scroll and inspirational social media feed – draw that Tarot card.

You don’t have to be a towering redwood. A short and supple pine tree will do just fine.

If enough of us become our own little cypress tree, soon we can have a whole forest that can withstand any storm.