Pithy & Potent: A Tarot card for the day distilled down into a sentence or two.
Ask Me Anything: Submit a question by email or in the comments & I’ll answer in the blog, unless it’s spam or obnoxious or something. I have a zero tolerance policy for that kind of thing.
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
I’m so grateful for each and every one of you reading this. I enjoy writing this blog so very much.
The time has come to just say it – writing is my forte and typed Tarot readings are my best work. I do live and in-person readings really well – video readings, online readings, and over the years I’ve built some serious party chops at big events (CMU, Nordstroms, Arthritis Foundation of Pittsburgh & more)
I want to spend time and energy in 2024 getting back to where it all started: typed distance readings. I want to give a little love to the blog with some longer reads and deeper dives. So thank you, thank you, thank you for coming along.
“I don’t have ducks. I don’t have rows. I have squirrels and they are hosting a pagan rave.”
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As much as I enjoy a good squirrel rave, this needs a touch of logic and a methodical approach. The “there is no plan” plan is still very much in place, but the general rule of thumb is:
Monday – Choose Your Card. Watch the video in the post or on YouTube. PAUSE the video at first so you can CHOOSE your card, then RESTART the video to see the reveal. A short reading is in the video description and on social media. A more in-depth card of the week reading will be right HERE on the blog. A lot of our holidays fall on Monday here in the U.S so on those days I may not post.
Wednesday – BTS or Learn With Me: Starting today, I plan to do behind the scenes (- ish) posts that give you a peek inside my method and philosophy of Tarot reading. OF COURSE it is mostly shameless self promotion because I want you to buy email Tarot readings from me. But with a little luck we’ll all maybe find a little free fun and inspiration along the way
Friday – something completely random or a quick one card meditation to satisfy my completionist side and fit that nice M-W-F pattern
The weekend newsletter is going on hiatus until I can figure out how to switch it from Substack to WordPress. I’ll keep you posted on that, although I’m hoping you’ll follow the blog (right column on laptop, scroll waayyy down on mobile) Three posts a week isn’t bad and posts go straight to your inbox, just like a newletter would anyway. But that’s to sort out another day.
Comments are always open and you are welcome to CONTACT ME with any questions and get an answer in the blog. Unless it’s spam. Then I’ll prolly block you.
It’s all me
This ain’t my first rodeo as they say.
I’ve been reading cards in some capacity since the early 1990s. You know, when the whole world was black and white and computer memory was still 5 inches across.
At first I just read for friends & for myself because why pay the phone company and Dionne Warwick’s friends huge amounts of money for something you could do yourself? After a while, a friend suggested that I try working on one of those online sites (eternal gratitude, girlfriend!)
Taking her advice, I did Tarot readings on Keen, Advice Trader and Allexperts all under the nickname Baihu. Within a few years of some serious hustle, I’d done hundreds of readings. Yes, you read that right, hundreds. I stopped counting around 400 or so. After a while, enough was enough of the experience building for free or nearly free.
I started my own part time Tarot practice with ModernOracleTarot.com, the Tarotbytes blog, and Quirk & Flotsam Etsy shop. During those years I did in-person, party, phone and email Tarot readings.
The name was fun, inspired by The Oracle character from The Matrix. Despite that, I made sure Modern Oracle had a carefully curated, super sanitized, white-washed image that was nice and non-threatening to any random local conservative suburbanites that might stumble across it. I had a family to protect, after all.
Now, that family is all security minded working adults and I don’t have to be around school district soccer moms any more (whew!) Modern Oracle just didn’t fit anymore, so I re-branded in 2018 to TaoCraft Tarot which was a much more authentic representation of myself and my Tarot philosophy
I’ve studied Tai Chi, and Taoist philosophy as long as I have Tarot and Reiki almost as long. I’ve had an interest in magick and witchcraft longer than any of it, even as a very small person watching Bewitched re-runs on TV. The TaoCraft name was very meaningful to me, but it didn’t seem to make as much sense to new clients. People seemed to stumble over it a bit. That’s a big problem because these Tarot readings that we do together are not about me … they are all about and for YOU.
So re-brand number two: Sage Words Tarot
Easy to pronounce, easy to understand, basic, common words that get the point across on multiple levels.
Sage is an herb with a familiar flavor from sausage and holiday turkeys. Sage in aromatherapy calms anxieties, lifts moods and promotes optimism. Aromatherapy can come in the form of burned incense and dried leaf bundles. Sage smoke can be used to metaphysically clear the energy of a space but should not to be confused with the indigenous practice of smudging. They are two paths from two cultures that wind up in a similar place, but each deserving of its own respect.
I hope that a Tarot session with me leaves you feeling calm, comforted and hopeful, just like sage aromatherapy.
Sage is also a word meaning wise, symbolic of Tarot’s wise advice.
Sage is now my pen name and Sage Words Tarot is the website where it all originates.
TaoCraft is still under there a little bi. It’s like a new business in an old Pizza Hut building. You can’t deny the structure underneath. The same is true here. My work is still guided by the Taoist treasures of simplicity, honesty and kindness. I still follow the Reiki ethic of only doing energy work with those who give knowing consent. I never ever approach or spam an individual to get a reading.
Advertise? Sure. I have coffee to buy and web hosting to pay for. Your reading orders (no appointment needed for video or email) memberships and virtual coffee donations all go toward keeping the lights on in this humble little Tarot shop in cyberspace.
Thanks so much for reading! Next up: One Card Friday. See you at the next sip!
Two of Wands: Prepare. Plan. Get ready. Change or travel may come soon.
Nine of Wands: Live your enlightenment. Live the hard-won lessons you’ve learned. May them your own before you press on
Hierophant: Know what you don’t know. Don’t guess or feel your way through this time. If you don’t know, get help. Go find the knowledge you don’t have right now.
Looking at all three cards, there is a sense of “on the precipice” but in varying degrees. There is a feeling of something about to happen – soonest for those who chose the two of wands, slightly less soon for those who chose the hierophant, longest for those who chose the nine of wands. For all three cards, moving forward depends on you. Either there is some piece of knowledge or information you need to find in order to move forward well, or there is some bit of preparation you need to do for a good outcome, or it just plain isn’t time to move. Go for quality, not quantity in all three cases.
It’s President’s day here in the U.S. so the fam is home for the day – That’s where my energy is at the moment.
If you have any questions or comments, leave ’em below. I’m happy to answer any questions you have here in the blog. Next time: Learn With Me: BTS
I’ve made minor attempts at this since New Years Day, but this time I’m going to back up and do a proper run at some introductory material and give you a real behind the scenes look at how my particular style of Tarot really works. No nonsense, lots of transparency and plenty of shameless self promotion.
”Only an empty cup can be filled” as the proverb goes.
Cups in Tarot has to do with emotions in general as well as emotionally close relationships; sometimes romance, sometimes family, sometimes found family – any relationship. Today, the energy is focused on the general side more than a specific relationship side of the card.
The Ace of Cups today is reversed. Different readers deal with reversals in different ways. I always start with an intuitive gut-check. Does it feel significant or is it just a coincidental by-product of shuffling and handling the card deck? If it feels coincidental, I just flip it upright and keep going with the reading. Today it feels meaningful, so it stays upside down.
In a larger card layout a reversed card can mean that whatever the layout position is about is blocked or turbulent or troubled somehow. In a one card reading, it isn’t that the card takes on an opposite meaning or is somehow bad or negative – it also points to a problem or blocked/turbulent energy flow. In a one card reading it might be a little harder to pinpoint the area of concern.
Of course, here, we are working with general collective energy. It’s a mood, not a crisis.
“Emotionally drained” comes to mind.
So does “catharsis”
The analogy between water in a cup and important emotions is a particularly apt one in this case.
Water left stagnant in a cup can become contaminated, dusty, undrinkable. Ignored emotions can also grow unhealthy. Pouring out, experiencing and coming to terms with emotions is difficult. It can make you feel exhausted and drained in its place. That is the benefit of a little harmless catharsis (have a good cry, vent into the void of a journal, play your favorite song just a little too loud, go for a run, take a long walk)
Emotionally drained is probably better than emotionally toxic.
Only the empty cup can be filled.
May your cup be filled with healing good things.
Next up: You choose card of the week for Feb. 19 (tomorrow)
Interactive: Please watch the video and choose your card.
After the reveal, scroll down for your card reading.*
The people and the numbers have spoken.
I’ve gotten some nice feedback about the “you choose” style of readings. It makes the reading feel more personal than a single collective card BUT the shorter format is better than the longer layouts. I’m still tweeking the timing to give enough time to choose and enough time to see your card. That part will improve in coming weeks.
So BEHOLD! One card meditation readings are back but in you choose style! I plan to do these as a guidance card for the week, but if you have any suggestions or feedback as we go along, I’m open to that – and so are the comments below. Or click over to the Ask Me Anything page and, well, you know what to do. Unless I hear something drastically different, I plan to flow with this for a while. The general plan is for “You Choose” on Mondays, “Learn With Me” posts on Wednesdays, Freestyle on Fridays (I won’t promise those will even be Tarot related) and the weekly Substack newsletter at some point during the weekend.
THAT being said, let’s get on to the good stuff, the cards.
Nine of Cups
I hear “happy endings” from a song that I don’t recognize. Might be something from the 90s, but I can’t dial it in enough to tell. This card is about just exactly that – happy endings.
Classically this card is often associated with contentment and family / holiday gatherings. I often get a fall & winter holiday vibe from it. This feels more like a January card – the holidays are in the rear view mirror and last year is well and truly tucked away.
Earlier today, Theresa Reed posted her card of the week as the Fool…new beginnings. These cards are two sides of the same large zeitgeist energy.
If you chose this card, this is a good vibe week. Things are wrapped or wrapping up in a good way that makes room to roll up your sleeves and get after whatever is next.
Ace of Cups
Cups typically symbolize emotion, intuition, and our closest relationships be they friends, family or romance. The ace always seems closer to the emotion and intuition aspect of the suit than the relationship aspect of it. That is very much the case for today. This card feels more off to the side and individualized than the nine does.
The nine feels like the big, collective energy card but the ace feels much more one to one. There is no way for me to ever know this, but it would be interesting to how many people chose which card. I wonder if more people picked the “collective” card and fewer people picked this one because this is the one they really needed.
If you picked the Ace of Cups today, first of all, well done for following your own intuition instead of the collective energy. This card feels like a validation of just that – your own creativity and instincts. “Muse” comes to mind. Your creative muse may well drop something in your lap soon, if it hasn’t happened already. When inspiration comes, this card is encouraging you to follow it at the same time it is giving you a pat on the back for your natural ability to hear and follow that kind of inspiration.
Judgement
This card stands out as being the only major arcana card of the three.
The energies this week may be important for you and are worthy of your attention and contemplation. Pay attention to the spirit part of your mind, body & spirit life balance.
Give yourself second chances. Never waste a good second chance.
By the same token, use your heart and head so that a second chance isn’t needed. Honor what you know and need and what you know you need. the first time around.
As a secular person, the religious iconography in Pamela Smith’s artwork for this card is always more annoying than inspiring for me. If you picked this card but it just isn’t resonating, by all means, please look for the inspiration you feel. Try googling the Judgement card and looking at other decks to see if another version of the card speaks to you more than this one.
I’ve found that many decks rely on this kind of imagery and options are hard to find. My favorite right now is “Karma” from Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans’ Witches Tarot which uses and eclipse and the term karma to bring ideas like contemplating the consequences of our choices and renewal. There may be dark time during an eclipse but light returns on the other side.
Thank you all for reading. Next up, in Learn With Me, we continue two card Lenormand readings.
See you at the next sip!
*if it went by too fast – left was 9 of cups, center was ace of cups and right was Judgement.
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip from your coffee
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung
The Knight of Cups is classically known for symbolizing travel, flirting, and romance. It’s the card that most closely matches that “you’ll meet a handsome stranger” sort of trope in books and movies.
Dreams is another key word I’ve seen pop up. Intuitively I get “vision quest.” I don’t think it means the old 80s film with the Madonna song.
It’s not the achievement focused “chase your dream” kind of thing either.
This card reminds us of inner questing. Why waste time chasing what is right there inside, right now?
Actually the inner dreams, the gift of insights that our subconscious minds and Jung’s collective unconscious can give can be more elusive than the physical realm dreams of things.
I feel pushed to talk about dream journaling. Journaling as a whole is a wonderful thing. Just grab a pen and a notebook and have at it. The only rule is there are no rules. Keep it as private as you want, write anything you want as much or as little as you want. Write to understand. Writing a journal can explain yourself to yourself in amazingly healing, empowering ways.
The knight is bringing us a cup of water and intuition and an invitation to write our dreams as soon as we wake up and remember them – or just write to make up our dreams while we are wide awake. After all, you can’t chase a dream until you know what it is.
InkMagick and Video readings are back! Visit the updated PRIVATE READINGS page to learn more.
This set of cards has the feel of a child who picks a wild flower and gives it as a gift. The energy of it is just that sweet, just that simple. The universe has gifted us with a bouquet of clover and wildflowers.
Life isn’t always good. It seems like we spend a lot of time talking about how Tarot is valuable because it can deal with the shadows and how it isn’t all toxic positive in denial of the realities of a situation. Life isn’t all love & light.
But neither is it all doom and gloom. “It can’t rain all the time” as The Crow movie told us. Sometimes you just have to take yes for an answer.
That is what today’s cards are all about. Lenormand cards have a reputation for being direct, no-nonsense, and not pulling any punches. Maybe it is because so many people turn to Tarot when they are in some sort of emotional upset, but we tend to assume direct and no-nonsense means bad news.
Tarot, both Lenormand and RWS, are excellent at easing that kind of emotional distress. They are equally good at bringing good news and straight up reassurances too.
This is a perfect example. And, coincidentally, this is the first two card combination that is in the guidebook. The combination of The Bouquet (Love, token of affection) and Clover (good luck, like any “four leaf clover” symbolism) is described as “the ultimate combination of good luck and happiness (Buler, p. 16)
For the collective, I think this is a good reminder to unplug from your worries and indulge in feeling that everything is going to be OK. The universe has our back, it’s all going to work out in the end. Let yourself believe in magic for one minute – or a million minutes.
Try it on for size. Just for one day, imagine you are a magnet for all the good things. If you like the feeling, it is yours to keep.
Maybe the best kind of good luck is the kind you believe you have.
Weekend newsletter card: The Hanged Man. Want a weekly digest instead of every post in your inbox? Subscribe to Sage Sips on Substack!
I adore Hawaii.
And I adore the shaka, you know, that “hang loose,” all good, take it easy, right on thumb-and-pinky hand sign from surf culture. I don’t surf. I’ve only spent a single, glorious week on Maui. But I adore the feeling and attitude of the place and culture just like I adore Tarot, Taoism, Tai Chi, Reiki, Witchcraft and all the other things that have made my life so so so much better just for knowing about it. Just thinking about the shaka sign and all it means while I’m writing this makes me feel just a little bit better.
All of those things, unfortunately aren’t typical to southern American culture. They aren’t typical to the usual Anglo-European connotations that go with the Hanged Man major arcana card. With the Hanged man with think about “stagnation” with the connotation that it is a bad thing. That in turn implies some inherent value to striving, achieving and moving forward.
Not so, bruh.
Today’s energy around the Hanged Man card is more like a kind reminder, a friendly shaka, to take it easy.
Slow your roll.
Stop even.
Take a doggone minute, take a deep breath and be where you are.
Announcements: No COTW in observance of MLK day.
Email private readings are OPEN and the listings now include the VIDEO option. If you order, please let me know which version you want. If no selection is listed, I’ll just do an email by default.
Email readings come to your email as an attached .pdf document that includes a photo of your real-world card layout, typed card interpretation and an open psychic summary that often includes crystal and aromatherapy suggestions.
Video readings come to you as a link to a PRIVATE-share video on the Sage Words Tarot YouTube channel. You are the only person with the link to access the video. The video shows your cards being drawn, a spoken card interpretation and an open psychic summary that often includes crystal and aromatherapy suggestions.
INKMAGICK pen & ink readings are available in 1 card and five card versions, sent by mail (US only.) Handwritten and hand-doodled with a fountain or dip pen on high quality paper, these readings include card interpretations, my terrible sigil and glyph-likd doodles that show you what intuition shows me and the open psychic summary with crystal and aromatherapy suggestions. Feel the potent magick of physical paper and ink.
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Sign up with your email to get every post as it happens direct to your inbox (right hand column on PC, scroll down on mobile)
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