sage sips blog – Page 4 – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Choose Your Tarot Card: 9 Jan 25

Thanks for reading! I appreciate all of you!

Choose your card. First impulse is usually best, but if you want to take more time feel free to pause the video and restart to see the reveal

Strength: Work hard, play hard. You are strong. Use that strength in all aspects of life: for others, for yourself, for work, for play, to grow, to rest…you got this.

Hanged Man: Timing is everything. A little wait now could have benefits later. Watching, waiting, planning are all doing something. Mental and emotional activity counts, even if it isn’t outwardly visible.

Private reading orders, shop purchases, memberships and virtual coffees all support this blog, the non-monetized YouTube channel and free readings on the socials.

No Reason Not To

New Years Private email Tarot readings are OPEN all week, no appointment needed.

“Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that’s no reason not to give it”
Agatha Christie (probably my spirit guides too)

New Years readings (Seasons layout, look at the year ahead – $30) are OPEN all week, no appointment needed. Order yours HERE

Caution and Contemplation: Sage Sip 12-20-24

Private readings are open for the holidays, no appointment needed.

Sage Sips is Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip your coffee Private readings, shop or buy me a coffee all support this non-monetized channel and blog https://ko-fi.com/taocrafttarot

Three of Swords: Guard yourself against the thoughtlessness of others, even if it seems unintentional. The holidays can be a time of both love and pain existing in the same person at the same moment. Be kind, but be cautious. Your peace and happiness has the same right to exists as everyone else’s.

Six of Swords: A journey or transition not of your own making may be at hand. If you aren’t satisfied with the answers at hand, keep seeking – continue contemplating until you are OK to move forward again.

Merry Solstice everyone! Thank you for reading. See you at the next sip!

Get the most from your holidays – or not.

Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Private readings are OPEN for the holidays.

Order private readings here

I doomscroll way too much.

Still, it’s amusing how you can read social media a bit like you read the cards to get a sense of the big picture, zeitgeist, collective energies. To do that you have to keep a meta-analytic mindset and look to the biggest big picture you can intuitively see. To read this level of energy, you have to look at the big picture.

Today’s big picture Zeitgeist is – the big picture. Perhaps perspective would be a better word. I wish I could give credit where credit is very much due, but as always, I can’t find the post I want to tell you about now that I’ve scrolled away from it.

I can’t even remember which platform it was on. Probably BlueSky or Threads (I’m @Sage.Sips on both) In any case the original post that caught my attention was from a small business owner who is stressing over the holiday rush and was told by her friend “It’s a craft show. In CLEVELAND” not to belittle this person’s efforts, but to in that oh-so-bestie way remind her that it wasn’t so earth-shaking when you keep it in the big picture perspective.

German has given the world some very fun and useful words. Zeitgeist is one. Shadenfreude is a personal favorite. Another is gestalt, the whole seen as the sum of its parts and occasionally more.

Mindfulness is like that.

Mindfulness is not just a supreme focus on the present moment or small detail of our current experience alone. It is awareness of the present moment AND the backdrop of the connected everything in which our current present moment experience is happening. Mindfulness and gestalt are connected. Small and large, this moment and eternity, yin and yang…now you know why I named my website and potential book “TaoCraft” in honor of the Taoist philosophies that have so enriched both gestalt and present moment for me over the years.

In her book Magical Tarot Mystical Tao, Diane Morgan reads the World major arcana card as being the gestalt, or a big picture point of view. That has always been my favorite interpretation of the card, even though as a practical matter that isn’t the meaning the World card most often brings. Most of the time it resonates with completion (World is the last card in the major arcana series) good omens, success, generally a “the world is your oyster” feeling. Major arcana cards carry more energy, and to my way of thinking, they all carry two or more potential threads of message. They can mean different things, and can bring one or more of those varying meanings to any given reading.

Every now and then, the World card carries its reminder to look to the gestalt, to remember the biggest picture. That is its energy today.

I want to connect that to the holidays. Usually this time of year is full “Elfcon 1” as they called it in the Santa Clause movie. For reasons beyond my control, it isn’t like that this year. This year the mood is less festive and more middle age INTP genX fresh out of fucks to give. But I’ve learned something important here. Getting the most out of the holidays isn’t about full throttle festivity, unless that is the thing that sparks full throttle joy for you.

It is just as fine to make the most out of the holidays by not making the most out of the holidays. Small, meaningful and thoughtful things ARE making the most out the holidays.

Mindfulness aware of and within the big picture is an excellent holiday gift to give yourself.

Happy Thursday. I hope it is a good one for you.

-Sage

Private readings are OPEN to order 24/7, no appointment needed. Starting at $5, a Tarot reading is an easy moment of mindfulness for you during the holidays, or any season.

“Seasons” look ahead at the coming year are now available. Happy Winter Solstice everyone!

Order private readings Here

Measure

Sage Sips is a Tarot meditation in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Martin Luther King Jr. via brainyquotes.com

Private readings by email, $5 up to $30 total cost, no appointment needed

Second Chances come at the price of learning

Sage Sips Blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

Private readings (not ads) support this blog & the YouTube channel: Order HERE

Prices $5 to $35 Open all holiday season!

Page of Cups: life is full of distractions, but you can still learn to plumb the depths of emotion

Judgement: Second chances come at the high cost of changes

The Layouts Explained

Tarot behind the scenes. Private readings are OPEN throughout the holiday season.

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When we talk about the “layout” or “card spread” in Tarot, it literally means how the cards are placed on the table during a reading. The photo above shows a three card layout.

Anything beyond that becomes arbitrary, symbolic and part of the internal intuitive process of doing a reading. In this three card example, the cards could mean past, present and future. It could be read left to right or right to left. It could be a yes-or-no layout (a “no” in this case) Owl and Bones on Instagram once posted a layout where three cards like this could be read as “embrace, face, erase.” The possibilities are endless.

With layouts, the most important thing is the position meanings.

For the layout and reading to be helpful, it is important to have a clear, set idea about what each card position means. If we think of the cards in the picture as a past-present-future reading, before you even shuffle, know for sure which card will mean which thing. Are you reading right to left or left to right? Is the high priestess being read as past or future? Know before you go as they say.

You can write a layout to have as many cards with whatever card position meanings that you like. It is all perfectly fine, as long as you decide before you begin. That decision is a key thing that helps the right message and meaning to come through your reading.

Here are the layouts that I’ve written that I use for my private Tarot readings:

Seasons

five cards
layout intended to give advice about how to best navigate the energy environment for the upcoming year
four cards for each upcoming season, read left to right in calendar order beginning from the current season when the reading is ordered
One card above the others to summarize the year as a whole

TaoCraft Path

Five cards
intended for understanding the current situation and guidance navigating the near-future path at hand
read right to left: the past’s influence, the current energies, the best way to move forward, the ‘greater path’ (the direction things are headed, the most accessible path forward) and the lesser path (a path forward that is open to choose, but holds more challenges)

Yes / No

Three cards
elaborate shuffling and dealing method to reach the final three cards
uses all three showing cards to determine a simple yes or no answer
each of the three cards is then used to give a message relative to the question that was asked

Sage Sip

One card
general guidance, daily meditation, or focused follow-up to a larger reading
Ancient and ubiquitous, no one knows the origins of the one card layout.

Sage Sip members on ko-fi get free one card readings by email (at your request only) up to 3 per calendar month, discounts on the larger layouts, exclusive content and special offers. JOIN HERE.

Image credits: all photos by the author using public domain Waite Smith cards except “seasons” layout image, also photo by the author using Witches Tarot deck by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans copyright 1996 used with permission Llewellyn publishing

Holiday Hours: Elfcon 2024 is cancelled

Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee

Due to a situation beyond my control (don’t ask) Elf-con is cancelled this year. This is going to be the lowest energy, lowest expectation holiday season I’ve ever experienced. Like Chinese take-out on Christmas day levels of non-celebration.

SO…

I have oodles of time to do readings. I’ll be open for readings throughout the holiday season.

Are you at Elfcon 1? Ready to take a moment for yourself? Ready to take a deep breath, relax and spend a few minutes with something that was created 100% just for you?

Order a reading HERE

Meet Your Reader Fall & Winter ’24

The seasonal hello: reintroducing myself, the website and the blog

The holiday season is zooming in and our first glimpse of snow is forecast for tomorrow. Time flies when you are having fun – or having occasional existential crises as the case may be. I hope it is the former and not the latter for you.

I‘ve recently restarted the Substack again. They say third time is the charm. I’m not charging for it, but at the same time I’m hoping it will appeal to people who don’t care for algorithm driven social media or the traditional blogosphere.

Speaking of social media, I’m Sage.Sips on Bluesky now too. Still on the meta platforms, Tumblr and YouTube with no plans to leave. Bluesky is the most enjoyable at the moment and the best place to actually interact if you want to say hi.

Given the new-ish newsletter, new social media and impending new season it seems time to do yet another refresh and re-introduction. If you are new, welcome. If you’ve been here – you have my deepest thanks.

Hi! I’m Sage.

I’m also the author of Sage Sips blog, PeaceTarot and TaoCraft Portfolio

I’ve been reading Tarot cards since around 1992 which adds up to 30 years of experience with intuition development (!)

I didn’t originally start out to be a Tarot reader (who does?) At first I did readings for friends (why PAY for it when you can DIY it?) A close friend suggested I go online with my readings (forever grateful!) I’ve offered professional psychic Tarot readings through Keen, Advice Trader and AllExperts under my old internet handle, Baihu. After doing hundreds of online readings (I stopped counting at 400 and that was a long time ago) I opened my own Tarot practice with ModernOracleTarot.com, the Tarotbytes blog and the now-defunct Quirk & Flotsam shop on Etsy. It was all good, but had become a hodge-podge of things over the years. In 2018 I leveled it all and re-branded everything as TaoCraft Tarot featuring the Sage Sips blog.

The TaoCraft name is drawn from my love of Taoist philosophy. My work will always be guided by the principles of simplicity, authenticity, and kindness. The name is also a nod to magical craft and my favorite hobby, knitting.

Sage is a pen name, which protects both of our privacy. White christian nationalism and evangelical bigotry are a reality here in the US. I want this to be a safe space for you. While religion and certain politics are not permitted in readings, I want my writing and online presence to feel warm and welcoming to anyone interested in the subject of Tarot. My strict privacy policy and use of a pen name is a part of that.

The herb sage has a comforting, familiar scent and flavor that most of us know from breakfast sausages and holiday turkeys.

In aromatherapy, Sage incense and essential oil can clear negative energy, calm anxiety and promote a feeling well being.

Most of all, the word sage means something or someone who is wise. The word sage speaks to all of the wisdom that Tarot can bring to our lives.

Comfort, calmness, wisdom and a feeling that things are going to be alright are all qualities that I hope you’ll experience when you read the blog or read your personalized Tarot email.

I’m Sage Sips on Substack and some version of Sage.Sips or SageSipsBlog on all of the usual socials. Party, phone and in-person readings are currently closed, please follow the blog for further details.

Click HERE if you would like to order a private reading by email, no appointment needed.

Here we go – again.

Sage Sips is tarot meditation in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

Welcome to my childhood: eyeballs deep white Christian nationalism everywhere you turn.

I wish I had words of wisdom for this.

The best I can offer is that we are surrounded. As in 2016, we are again faced with the terrifying and heartbreaking reality of just how many racists, fascists and bigots actually exist in America in 2024: one precise metric fuckton.

As with the 8 of swords, the situation is dire, but we have to find the way forward. It IS there. We just have to find it the hard way with persistence, courage, and out-of-the-box thinking. It’s a giant problem that will require an equally giant amount of problem solving, creative and otherwise.

Evangelicals hate Tarot readers (and honestly, speaking for myself, the feeling is pretty mutual). WHATEVER your identity may be, unless you are a wealthy, white & christian, you are on the outs with the people in power. It feels like we are the minority but if you define “them” that way, then ALL of the rest, ALL other identities besides that particular combination, becomes “us” That feels like an “us” large enough to maybe, just maybe, mutual aid our way through this catastrophe.

Like Obi Wan, we may have to hide in a desert cave for a bit. I feel compelled to redecorate around here again, bringing the nice, whitewashed, safe sounding “Sage Sips” and coffee theme to the forefront. The word Tarot may have to go hide in a cave for a while, but TaoCraft is still in here, same as always. Same stuff, different paint job. Again. Dammit.

This is exactly the lesson of the 10 of swords. Stay put. Plan. Heal. Stay frosty. Prepare. Become stronger. Become willing and able to get up again. And again. And again if needs be.

“You are not defeated when you lose. You are defeated when you quit.”
Paulo Coelho