Sage Snow – Page 10 – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

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.

You Choose Card of the Week (22 Jan 24)

The people and the numbers have spoken! Introducing an interactive and personal single card meditation card of the week Tarot reading

Private readings are open. Order HERE anytime, no appointment needed.

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.

Chase Your Dreams Without Moving a Step

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.

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Learn With Me: Lenormand, Sweet & Simple

Learning Lenormand Tarot

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.

See you at the next sip!

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Shaka Card

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.

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Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Housekeeping!

New stuff! Same Stuff! Website update stuff!

Just finished a little light housekeeping on the website…

New! Handwritten “InkMagick” readings and video readings are back!

The same! Order Tarot readings 24/7 no appointment needed

Limited availability! Live online and in-person readings are only available on Monday afternoons by advance appointment.

2024 Schedule: There is none

Blog: Monday (your choice card of the week) Wednesday (Learn With Me) and Friday (quotes, reviews, random stuff) – maybe.

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Please enjoy the FREE collective energy Tarot readings here on the blog and social media.

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2024 as you make up your mind for it to be

Weekend Substack: The Sun Tarot card, Lincoln, and Lau Tzu

He probably didn’t actually say it, but Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as saying “people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

I find it true, but more nuanced than it seems.

It isn’t about conjuring up pleasant feelings from nothing in a rose-glasses toxic positive kind of way.

Oh no, my friend. It is much worse than that.

Making up your mind to be happy is more likely about accepting your circumstances for what they are and allowing the natural contentment and happiness come out. Happiness is allowed, not created.

Time and again life points back to one painting for me. Not one painting but one allegorical theme in traditional Chinese paintings: The Vinegar Tasters.

The painting shows Buddha, Confucius and Lau Tzu (author of the Tao Te Ching, the originator of Taoist philosophy) Buddha and Confucius are making faces while Lao Tzu smiles. It’s been said that they think they vinegar tastes sour, bitter and sweet respectively.

That’s not quite it.

Lau Tzu isn’t just magically or delusionally conjuring up a sweet flavor without the help of any magic berries any more than we conjure up blissed-out happiness out of thin air. Lau Tzu is tasting the exact same thing as the other two. He’s just smiling because that sour and bitter vinegar tastes just exactly how vinegar is supposed to taste. He’s smiling because the vinegar is being true to its authentic nature. He’s smiling because life is what it is.

Lincoln’s making up your mind to be happy is similar. Making up your mind to be happy isn’t making happy out of thin air. Making up your mind to be happy is making friends with life and the people and the things in your life…even the parts are like a big old barrel of sour, bitter vinegar. Smile because they are being exactly what it their authentic true nature to be. Then smile because you, just maybe, can be that way too.

Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Tune in tomorrow for a new Monday thing. See you at the next sip!

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Hello 2024: Meet Your Reader – again

Happy New Year! Re-introducing the re-introductions

Happy 2024 everyone!

We’ve made it to the other side of blurry time and it was, well, blurry. Did you make any resolutions for the new year? Mine is resolution is to give up on resolutions.

One of the reasons I flirted with the “TaoCraft” name for a while is because year after year, time and time again Taoist philosophy proves itself right and useful. I’m gratefully at a point where I can let the nature of my Tarot work be what it is.

“The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Intuition, like the universe, is under no obligation to make sense OR to follow best marketing practices OR to follow any calendar or schedule. I’ve been doing this professionally since 2003 and it hasn’t fit into a set schedule yet.

It’s time to be in harmony with the nature of Tarot. I’m willing to be at peace with the fact that the schedule for 2024 is that there is no schedule at all.

Do you have anything that is free form and flows like water into the empty spaces of life? It’s really relaxing to have SOMETHING like that. Tarot, by its naturea, is one of those things.

Here, now, as we look at this screen together outside of time – thank you for reading this blog. I hope we can go on through 2024 flowing as a river of peace and relaxation in these moments together. That is what Tarot is really for – finding moments of peacefulness in life’s torrent of emotions and bustling activity.

I’ll be the first to admit that blurry time got the better of me this year, although the cookies were really very good. (More about stuff like that on Sage’s Other Words blog.) I had originally intended to use the holiday time to “reset” as they say in broadcasting. I wanted to pause for station identification and to re-introduce my work, the new name, the website, Tarot in general – all of it – to everyone. I introduced myself and the Sage Words / Sage Sips name in

Just because we ate all of the cookies doesn’t mean the guided tour has to stop. You can still expect those re-introduction posts to filter in over the next few, slightly less blurry weeks.

For clarity, let’s start with the easy stuff like the 2024 schedule.

There isn’t any.

For the whole year. Nada. Zip. Zero. None.

I have a general plan, but absolutely no promises about consistency. I do, however, promise to keep the blog up to date. If you ever want an affordable, convenient Tarot reading this is the first and best place to look. All the socials are @SageWordsTarot (add a YT on YouTube) and they are pretty caught up as well. I’ve been enjoying Threads a lot lately so that’s the best place to catch me for an actual conversation.

In any case, I’m aiming for a loose structure but letting it do whatever it is going to do in the end. I’m not forcing my Tarot to fit a schedule or forcing the rest of my schedule to fit Tarot.

It is what it is.

There are reasons why Lau Tzu, purported author of the Tao Te Ching, is the one looking smiley and chill in the classic motif of The Three Vinegar Tasters. The others are reacting to the bitterness and sourness that they taste. Our buddy Lau Tzu is just happy that the vinegar tastes just like vinegar should.

You may or may not like the taste of vinegar. You may or may not like an unpredictable blog or social post schedule, but both are true to their nature, just as they should be.

The not-really-a-plan plan:

Blog posts are mostly going to be Monday and Wednesday but other random times too.
Social media will post whenever there is something new on the blog, but other random times too. Fair warning: I’m a bit of a rage re-poster so look out for that.
Member exclusive content on the ko-fi blog is going to be totally random (the main membership benefit is FREE one card private readings by email upon your reqest)
Good or bad, I’ve been enjoying Threads lately. If you want to actually communicate, that’s the best social media place. Email is the fastest and most reliable contact otherwise.

NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED: Private Readings by email (with photo) video or pen & ink can be ordered anytime, 24/7 in the shop. Delivery times vary depending on when you place your order.
Live online and in-person Tarot readings by appointment only are very limited this year. Please contact me for details.

P.S. The New Year 2024 Tarot reading is HERE.

See you at the next sip!

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