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Marriage Q&A: What love language do you speak?

Sage Sips is tarot inspired meditations in the time it takes to sip your coffee

Use the “Ask Me Anything” page to ask any questions on your mind. I’ll answer it here, with a post like this one. Names and everything will be changed to protect your privacy. Most of the time a Tarot card will be involved, but not always. My readings are a folk art form intended for meditation, contemplation and spiritual guidance, NOT to predict the future.

Q: What will be the primary love languages of my destined wife for me after marriage?

A: There are at least two important parts to your answer.

There is a deep spiritual law at play here: “Like attracts like.”

If you want to know what kind of love language your future wife (assuming you get married) you must first ask what love language will you speak to her?

True conversations, true communication, love languages and true love can only exist when it flows both ways.

Another way of thinking of this is embodied in the Six of Pentacles Tarot card which is sometimes read as “reciprocity” – you get what you give.

If you first speak the love language you want to hear, not only does use the spiritual law of “Like attracts like” in your favor, it helps you to find the right partner for you in a real-world way by helping you to find common interests and common bonds with a potential life-mate.

For example, if you love food and would like for good cooking to be your future wife’s love language, then cook for your potential mate or take her to nice restaurants as your love language to her.

An excellent way to find your wife’s love language – and a wife – is to speak your love language first.

How are you doing so far?

Sage Sips is tarot inspired meditations in the time it takes to sip your coffee

Special shout out to all of the energy sensitives in the US.

What a couple of weeks it has been *insert your favorite interjection or expletives here*

I don’t know about you, but I’m furious. I have a hunch we’ve entered into a crash course on shadow work and have to make fast friends with our dark side so we can survive theirs. Last week was not unicorn farts and marshmallows. Although the energy hasn’t quite stabilized yet – it feels like the pouring rain scene in the Star Wars prequel on that planet where Obi Wan discovered the clone army- it does feel like the storm front is starting to pass and we are beginning to get early glimpses of the aftermath.

Or put another way, the lightning bolt from the Tower card hit, and now we are in ten of swords mode.

I’ve done some private reading, for which I am SO grateful. The individual messages are breaks in the clouds and rays of sunshine in the storm of collective energy. Thank you all. I hope the readings help you as much as it has helped me to put things in a little more perspective.

Perspective looks both ways.

Perspective shows us where we are right now in the grand scheme of things (think World card). It includes our best guess and firm intentions for the future but it also includes lessons from the past that we can use now.

Camouflage is a survival technique seen in nature, and perfectly fine to use as long as you remember what is really underneath. Protection is valid too. Protect, preserve, celebrate and honor the true you, always.

I see you. I appreciate you.

The squirrels rave again. Blog posts are as unpredictable as ever. Private readings by email are always OPEN (even if delivery times vary and even if the superficial appearance changes a bit.)

Stay tuned. We’ll muddle through one way or another.

You Choose Card of the Week 12 Feb 24

PAUSE the video
PICK your card
RESTART to see the reveal
READ about your card below the video

The Fool: A week full of opportunity and new beginnings
Ace of Pentacles: The more grounded and balanced you can be, the more you efforts pay off
The Devil: Don’t panic. Use calm, common sense to stay on the safe side. Not the time for unnecessary risk

If you picked one of the two major arcana cards, that may hint at a high energy time near by. Both cards have a “shields up” cautioning energy. The Fool may be stressful in a good way. A lot of opportunity and business on your plate is still a lot on your plate, so take care to manage your stress even if the pressure is on because of very good things happening.

The difference between the two majors is The Fool feels an “it might be stressful and busy but worth it” feel. The Devil on the other hand is a “pull back” “be cautious” sort of energy. If you chose this card, take it extra easy this week.

The Ace of Pentacles is an all-good energy. Prosperous, but low-key. Not really any cautions to take it easy. I ‘hear’ “Things unfold but gently.”

When I say ‘hear’ in a reading, that’s shorthand for clairaudient intuition. It means the intuitive message takes the form of words, sound or music. Instead of a mental image, it’s mental words or sounds. I’m not hallucinating, honest. Intuition if often much like imagination with a purpose. Remember your favorite song – that memory gives you a sense of what clairaudient intuition is like.

Thanks for taking a look.

What do you think about this format? Comments are open and I’m on Instagram and Threads every day. (@sagewordstarot for both)

Wednesday I’ll post a collective energy example reading using the new “My Tarot Valentine” layout. I’d really like your feedback about that too. If you like it, it can stand as a regular “love and romance” themed reading. If no one voices and opinion, I’ll make it a seasonal thing. What say you?

Talk to you Wednesday. See you at the next sip!

My Tarot Valentine ’24: Build a Cup

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My Tarot Valentine is a series of blog posts with one card Tarot readings from the collective energy with a focus on love, romance and relationships. I’ve collected the old posts from my previous blogs (TaoCraft Tarot and Modern Oracle Tarot) into an ebook. This year I’m continuing the series with a look at finding your soulmates (twin flame, life partner – whatever term you like to use) all through the lens of the Tarot suit of wands.

Wands are symbolic of fire, philosophy, spirit, and your relationship with yourself.

What does ‘self’ have to do with romantic relationships?

Everything.

Like attracts like. Be the soulmate you want to have in your life.

For example the Three of Wands is about active preparation, optimism, looking forward to a bright future.

If you have found your soulmate, actively cherish them. DO thoughtful things, emphasis on the the thoughtful. In this respect, all of the card suits are engaged, no just the wands. Even if you’ve been together for decades, it’s ok to show your emotion (cups) with thoughtfulness (swords) in any tangible (pentacles) way that hints at the depth (wands) of your feeling.

If you don’t have a relationship like that in your life, and if you want one, then the idea of preparation for something that may or may not ever happen seems odd.

But, on the other hand, how can that special someone step in where there is no room.

If loneliness and searching for your soulmate fills your psyche, there is little room for an actual soulmate to come in. If you are filled with certainty that they exist, the same thing can happen.

Only an empty cup can be filled. Hold space in your life for love to come in. The walls of that room, the sides of that cup are constructed of you – you being happy and healthy and living the best life that you can. That’s the thing that creates the space. That is the thing that prepares the place in your life for soulmate to walk in.

My Tarot Valentine ’24: It Takes Two (Wands) to Tango

My Tarot Valentine is a series of one card romance themed Tarot readings from the collective energy. Private readings are available through the link below

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It’s easy to say the number two cards of the minor arcana are about balance. Pentacles talk about moving balance, swords about the known vs the unknown and so on. Beyond the easy to say idea of balance, the two cards hint at something more philosophical: duality.

To say “balance” is to imply that there are two or more things that need to be balanced. Even if you have just one plate spinning on just one stick in the circus act of life, you are still balancing the plate vs gravity vs angular momentum vs why are you doing a circus act in the first place…

The Two of Wands is particularly dialed into this aspect of balance. Where there is duality there is choice.

When it comes to relationships, choice isn’t control.

You have total agency over what you do and say and give and take from a relationship, but you have no say in your love interest’s response.

It is heartbreaking when their response is rejection.

Which shows how precious it is when the response is love in return

But whatever happens, the choice always returns to you. When you are given the precious thing, it is up to you to make choices that protect and nurture it. If you are given the heartbreaking thing, it is up to you to make the choices that help you heal. That includes the choice to reach out to other people in other ways and get help when it is needed.

Either way, our response is our choice and our responsibility. Like the two upright wands on the card, our choice is our portal. It our doorway to relationship, to the great privilege of loving and nurturing others but also to loving and nurturing our own path through life, whatever shape that takes.

The Two of Wands’ Tarot Valentine for you is simply this: choose love.

That doesn’t mean other people will choose to give it back to you. It does mean that you always have the option of giving love be it to another person or to healing your own life path.

It takes two to tango and two to make a romance happen but it only takes one person to choose love even when it is out of our control where that love lands.

Learn With Me: Lenormand, Soft Landing

What Tarot would you like to learn next?

It’s the end of the month, and tomorrow I hope to start a new series with a different spin on “My Tarot Valentine” – a look at the fourteen cards of the suit of wands with an eye to your relationship with yourself, a key step on the path toward finding a good long term relationship. That being said, this feels like the right time and the right cards to bring the Lenormand series of Learn With Me posts in for a soft landing.

Lenormand and RWS has both key differences and key similarities. Lenormand is much more reliant on the layout and the connection between the cards than RWS style. One card readings aren’t as useful because the connection to other cards is so essential to the overall understanding. With the smaller deck, Lenormand does seem to be more forthright, and less nuanced. Lenormand relies on pure intuition, or so it seems to me, with regard to reversals, use of the playing card insets, and so on. The grand tablau layout is rediculously muddled, chaotic and unhelpful to my eye, while a two card reading is incisive and clarifying.

They typical decks, from what I’ve seen, have a muted vintage color palatte. The Healing Light deck by Christopher Butler used here is a stand-out with its rich colors and artwork. Of all the Lenormand decks I’ve seen, this is far and away my favorite.

Today we have Clouds and The Anchor.

Clouds to Mr. Butler’s reading symbolizes confusion, foggy vision, lack of clarity. If it to the left of other cards, as it is here, then the difficulty is read as temporary.

The Anchor is steady, routine, something intractable. Especially when paired with the Coffin card, it can reference a bad habit or something else that needs changed but is very resistant and difficult to change.

Today the core of the reading occupies a place between the two of pentacles and the Temperance card. Rather than clouded vision, fogginess or confusion, the thing that grabs my attention with the cloud card is change.

It is in the left side position that the guidebook suggests is most likely to change. Clouds change often and easily. “Mercurial” and “capricious” comes to mind. Anchors are the opposite. They resist change. They are employed to stop change. Avoiding all change is as effective as tying an anchor to a cloud. If these cards resonate with you, what do you need to anchor and what do you need to let drift away naturally

It’s time to end the series. It’s time for a soft landing. It’s time to anchor the important things and let this topic drift away – at least for now.

What would you like to learn next?

See you at the next sip!

You Choose: Card for the Week (29 Jan 24)

You choose your Tarot card to guide this week

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This is an interactive reading! Pick a card from the photo above, then click HERE to see the reveal.

Get the short reading in the video description or come back here to get the full reading below.

King of Wands

The kings have been conferencing! The right message will always find you even if it seems like a mistake at first. I’ve mis-typed ‘king of pentacles’ twice. It feels like the king of pentacles is chiming in along with the king of wands. It’s a blend, not a substitution, so there are two threads of energy running through this card’s message.

There is a sense of practicality from the pentacle’s energy along with a strong sense of self from the wand’s energy. Kings are leaders and protectors. Combine it all and go do what needs done. Pay attention to details. Do all due diligence. That kind of work, practicality and prevention are a form of self protection and self care. Remember it is always easier to put out small fires before they turn into big ones.

The Hierophant

Sometimes called the Pope or the High Priest, this major arcana card is all about internal growth and personal development. It feels like this is the week to break old habits, make new ones, step outside of your comfort zone – especially in terms of social conformity. Use your inner wisdom. If this is a week for other cards to share energy with the ones we see, the Queen of Cups is the one chiming in here. You have deep knowing. Use it to go your own way (in fact, the Fleetwood Mac song by that name pops up here) Take the wisest action, even if it is unpopular at first blush. Being a people pleaser isn’t always the wisest thing for you, or for the people you are trying to please.

The High Priestess

The High Priestess is the guardian of the mysteries. Unlike the other two cards, this energy is all her. The word “portal” comes to mind, along with “the flow of time.”

“Time and inspiration must intersect” is the core of it.

It’s ok to not know something. It’s ok to not have the answers. One of my all time favorite ideas in Tarot actually comes from a physicist. Richard Feynman, known for his work in quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, once said “I’d rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”

And there is more to life that facts and knowledge. Emotion, spirit, wisdom, experience and all the many facets of being human have their role to play. Those things come in time, at their own time.

So often people come to Tarot to know the unknowable future. Tarot doesn’t have all the answers. Sometimes its best function is to help you ask the right questions – and then wait for the right time for the answers to come.

Learn With Me: Lenormand, Standing Ovation

Well done, Healing Light Lenormand Tarot!

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“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter” – Yoda

Well done, Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler. Well done.

Gender doesn’t matter one tiny bit in a romance reading. I’ve been doing this Tarot thing for a LOT of years. I lost count how many readings I’ve done for the public decades ago.

One thing hasn’t changed in all of those years.

We don’t look like us. Gender, clothing, hair color, eye color…all of it. It’s all like a video game skin or your favorite bitmoji. Whenever I get a sense of another person lending their energy to a reading (a rare but beautiful thing) they don’t show physical form. They are blobs of light, just like the dead people in the movie Ghost.

Yoda was right.

Luminous beings are we.

Tarot itself has been around for a hot minute. So much so that it is still wrapped in arcane ideas and assumptions, like my personal nemesis, the highly christianized iconography in early decks including the RWS and many of its derivatives.

Some decks change the page to princess in some attempt at gender equality, but the deck largely adheres to a gender binary: king/queen, emperor/empress, high priest (pope, hierophant)/ high priestess. Fortunately the vast majority of the deck is neutral pips, numbers, objects and abstract ideas.

Lenormand is similar in that number 28 and 29 “The Gentleman” and “The Lady” respectively are the only gendered human figures. With the exception of the easily gender neutral “Rider” (courier) the remainder of the deck is non-human, non-gendered animals and objects.

Most of the time, The Lady and The Gentleman by and large seem to be significators, stand-ins for the person getting the reading. If I’m understanding it correctly, you just swap out the card in the layout to suit the gender identity of the read-ee (be it yourself, a querent, a sitter, a client, or whatever term you use for the person getting the Tarot reading.)

Other times, the guidebook hints at these cards can be general archetypes, like yin or yang, anima or animus, the divine feminine or the divine masculine.

However, when these cards are paired with the stars card, it can hint at that special someone or a spouse / life partner. In a larger layout, it is possible to have both a significator card and a romantic interest card. This deck gives duplicate cards so the cards can accomodate the gender identities of both, even in same sex instances.

Bravo, Christopher Butler! Bravo!

Today, we have the male presenting silhouette of “The Lady” Card paired with the Crossroads card.

My first impulse was a roaring, protective EFF the establishment! Be your true self!

The crossroads piece of it is self-evident. Purely about decisions, choices – and important ones at that. It feels like it is about choosing a life direction.

The advice seems to be, that if you have a choice you are pondering right now, consider this-

What choice would you make as your truest self? What choice would you make if, in a perfect world, you could have things turn out any way you want? What choice would you make if you were completely unhindered and had absolutely zero f*cks to give?

What is stopping you from doing exactly that?

Be safe, friends, always. But be your true self whenever you can because that true self is a beautiful, wonderful, luminous being.

Next up: Free-for-all Friday. Those posts are pure in the moment who-knows-what.

See you at the next sip!

Learn With Me: Oracle Dice, Collector of Selves part 2

Time is an ingredient for learning.

Deep understanding is seldom instantaneous.

Sometimes you have to abide, sit with something for a while, squint at it and poke it with a stick before you can really integrate and use a new idea.

That is where I am with this die and lord card. Even after sleeping on it after a late night part 1 post, I still don’t have much to offer. I’m still in the squint and poke stage with the relationship die and its lord card, The Collector of Selves.

The basic “card meaning” level symbolism is easy enough. This is the relationship cube. I connect that with the relationship energies of Tarot’s suit of cups. This seems a little broader, encompassing any level of relationship, not just the cup’s intimate ones. This feels a little like the sword’s broader community and collegial relationships too.

My hunch is that it will make more sense once it is in context with other dice and on the reading cloth.

The Collector of Selves is interesting. I didn’t get it right away, but Mr. Asmund writes about masks and social roles a bit in the guidebook. The die talks about multiple levels of realationship between people it seems, but the lord card seems to pull in our relationship with ourselves, which in Tarot I connect to the suit of wands.

See what I mean about the cards adding layers of meaning and nuance?

As I understand it, the card asks us to evaluate the aspect of ourselves that are involved with the relationship in question, whatever level of intimacy or closeness that relationship may have in the bigger picture our lives. He portrays that facet-of-self quality as a mask. What part of ourselves are we showing, what mask are we wearing? How close to maskless does this relationship come?

Is there such a thing as a completely maskless relationship?

The mask we wear for ourselves is often the hardest of all to remove.

Thank you so much for reading along with this learning process. I hope it is helpful to you in some way. Thanks for coming along as I walk my talk about life long learning.

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*Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice used with permission