From the Alleyway: Anger

Sage Sips is Tarot for day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Emotions are what they are. They are what they are for a reason, usually.

We aren’t robots. We aren’t Vulcans from Star Trek. Honest emotion is normal, natural, and they’re going to happen, even uncomfortable ones like sadness, fear, and anger.

Physical pain is the body’s way of telling us something is wrong. It might be something trivial like an ice cream headache or might be life threatening like a heart attack.

Anger is one of life’s way of telling us something is wrong. It might be as small flare of temper at a little inconvenience or it may be righteous anger at true injustice. Honest emotion is something to experience and deal with.

There is no harm in that.

But there is harm when anger is preserved and propagated. Anger on the offense is where bad things happen.

Feel angry? If it is a small ego bruise, in the words of Princess Elsa – let it go.

James Marcus Bach, author of Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar once said on social media that “people get defensive because they have something to defend.” Anger can be defensive, too. Our righteous anger can show us where we are being harmed. It shows us where the problem exists so we can start solving it.

The Alleyway Oracle of Secrets by Seven Dane Asmund used with permission by Mr. Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC.


This blog and the YouTube channel is not monetized. Private readings and virtual coffees helps to support this free Tarot content. Please visit the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi page to learn more

Hello and Welcome

It’s a little early, but I’m posting our seasonal hello and welcome to new readers for the #KofiPostChallenge that introduces the new pin a post function

Hi everyone! 

My name is Sage. I read Tarot, write blogs and knit stuff. 

I’ve read Tarot cards since 1993, professionally since around 2003. My specialty is email readings. 

Why email? I’m a writer. These Tarot readings are an extra good fit for first time Tarot readings, book lovers, introverts, and very busy people who want a Tarot reading but don’t want to fit another appointment into their schedule.

Typing out the Tarot reading for you is a relaxed mindset that is closer to channeling or automatic writing. Your message gets my fullest attention.  By working online I don’t need a physical location and pass those savings on to you.

All of my readings have flat rate, up front prices $5 – $40

You can order email readings 24/7, no appointment needed. Most orders are to your inbox within 24 hours or so. (It is just me, one real live person pulling real world cards, so the schedule has to be flexible)

You get a photo of your real world layout in your reading.

All of my policies are transparent, up front and spelled out on my main website HERE.

There are years of free general readings on the BLOG. Feel free to browse through them to see if you think we would be a good match to work together (and I hope we are)

If you enjoy a little (almost) daily Tarot, please check out my Sage Sips membership tier which includes on-request one card private Tarot readings for you along with discounts, special offers and exclusive content.

Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee (or whatever you like to sip this time of day)

Cheers!

P.S. It’s still the dog days of summer and the cat is still shambling! Zombie Cat yes/no Tarot readings are still available to purchase until the autumn equinox and are a FREE upgrade to member readings.

Members only Tarot reading for the weekend ahead

Read it here: https://ko-fi.com/post/Members-only-Tarot-Reading-for-the-weekend-ahead-V7V111KR08

Sage Sip membership: $5 per month

  • FREE one card Tarot readings by email
  • DISCOUNTS on larger layouts
  • EXCLUSIVE CONTENT and occasional special offers

Join HERE

Choose your card Tarot: anchor or float.

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


The Heirophant (right): Anchor. Find your footing. What is your foundation? Go with what you know and take comfort in traditions to get through the next few weeks.

Six of Swords (left): Go with the flow. Now is not the time to fight upstream. Choose your battles, this is not the day for conflict. May mean travel for some who chose this card – a leisurely vacation is a better choice that an active, over-scheduled one.

Thanks for reading! The blog and the YouTube channel are NOT monetized by advertising. Your message is the one that matters – not an advertiser’s. Please support this FREE Tarot content through private reading orders and virtual coffee donations: https://ko-fi.com/sagewordstarot.com No appointment needed for email readings!

Pittsburgh neighbors: Fun is in the cards this fall at your local library this October

Support your local library and learn to be “fortune teller” entertainment for your Halloween and Fall gatherings in this free presentation.

Support your local library and learn to be “fortune teller” entertainment for your Halloween and Fall gatherings in this free presentation.

Andrew Carnegie Free Library

Saturday, October 5 at 1 pm in the Lincoln Gallery (2nd floor)

300 Beechwood Ave, Carnegie PA 15106

Please visit http://www.carnegiecarnegie.org for details

Registration is requested but not required. Card decks are first come, first served while supplies last. Y!ou are also welcome to bring your own cards!


Scott Township Public Library

Saturday, October 12 at 1pm in the small meeting room

301 Lindsey Road, Scott Township PA

Please visit http://www.ScottLibrary.org for details

Registration is requested but not required. Card decks are first come first served while supplies last. You are welcome to bring your own deck too!

New Deck, Who Dis?

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

?

New loot* from publishinggoblin.com and Seven Dane Asmund’s recent Kickstarters. With its consistent, stellar quality I recommend Seven Dane Asmund’s work. The story and lore he’s woven around the Alleyman / Alleyway card decks is almost burgeoning mythology. I’m looking forward to working with this new deck, just like the Alleyman’s Tarot has been a delight from the moment it arrived. It really is a masterful deck. It is the Stradivarius of Tarot decks. I suspect this is the equivalent in Oracle decks, or at least one of the best.

I suspect one of the things that raises it a notch above others is the way it lifts up and promotes the collective of artist who contribute to the deck. I see you, Seven. Bringing all of this together and giving the artists all due recognition, the storytelling of the Alleyman lore and podcast, the quality of the physical products…all of it together is genius. Respect.

Intuitively I feel pulled to do this a little differently. Instead of a methodical “learn with me” series like we did with the Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice. Let’s just jump in with both feet and USE this thing for daily meditation readings. I began reading cards with an Oracle deck (Medicine Cards by David Carson and Jamie Sams) There was nothing methodical there – just a Fool-like step off the cliff while still tethered to the guidebook. A sort of psychic bungee jump, it wasn’t until after I switched to the classic RWS that I began to really understand how card symbolism and pure intuition worked together. It might be fun to take the jump in and have at it approach but bring that hard-won understanding and years of experience along for the ride.

I hope you’ll join me. We’ll explore the deck together, but without a plan. You never know when or where you’ll meet the Alleyman.

*Not shown the other two death card enamel pins. They are already gifted to my son the scare actor. So proud. (shout out to Hundred Acres Manor – check them out if you are around Bethel Park PA this fall!)

My Side of the Table: Parallax

“My Side of the Table” gives a behind the scenes look at the philosophy and process of Sage Words Tarot.

This blog is not monetized. Virtual coffees and private reading purchases support this blog and my other Tarot content across social media

I’ve been enjoying Threads lately.

It’s where I do a LOT of void screaming and rage re-posting. It’s fun. It’s another tool in the old stress-reduction toolkit. Blame it on the old Myers-Briggs personality thing. I’m INTP enough to thrive in an idea driven environment.

One of the many good and helpful things about Tarot is that is an environment of ideas, too. The suits of swords and pentacles resonate with that pragmatic, cognitive side of the human psyche. But, importantly, that is balanced by the Cups and Wands, the emotional, philosophical parts. Between the four suits and the major arcana, there are both comfort zones and challenge / balances for pretty much everybody. It helps those of us who are too much in our head to feel the feels when needs be, and it helps people in the middle of big emotions see a way through it all.

That being said, I stumbled across an interesting mini-conversation on Threads about “should professional readers get readings from other professional readers?” Not much was being said about it, so I thought I’d put my long format two cents worth here.

Actually, I put my long format two cents worth here 14 years ago when I originally wrote a blog post “Parallax”(re-printed below from the Modern Oracle Tarot archives)

Long story short, my answer is a qualified yes. It’s important for anyone to use their instincts and find a reader who resonates with them. Chemistry matters. In any Tarot or psychic reading it is important to find someone you instinctively trust, someone whose energy is comfortable, and ideally someone you feel good being around. And yes, all of those things come through email and video too.

Test that theory: surf the web or scroll social media and pay attention to your gut reflex response to a post or a website. What is it that makes you feel that way? Colors? Layout? Well edited vs raw? Pure instinct? The same applies to real world readings with real people. What about them puts you at ease or puts you on edge?

As important as these things are for everyone, it’s multiplied for a professional. We want to be at our psychological and emotional best in order to do good work for our clients – much as a good therapist would. Therapists are a good example of why professional psychics can benefit from readings from another professional. Seeing a process from the inside as well as the outside builds empathy, a good thing for both professions.

Should professional psychic readers get professional readings? Yes but only occasionally and with great focus and purpose from a known, vetted and trusted colleague.

Why occasionally? If a person needs a great deal of guidance, they may not be in a good emotional or cognitive space to be guiding others, at least for a time. Finding a reader who sets boundaries and takes care of themselves is a good sign that they can offer good advice to you.

One of the arguments against pro readers getting pro readings is the self-care aspect turned dark. Instead of an act of self-care so a pro can do their best for you, some people seemed to have the perception that it was a sign of poor quality. If a reader was any good, that they could read for themselves.

We do! All the freaking time.

But like I said in “Parallax” – sometimes two heads really are better than one.

Everything is connected. It takes two eyes to see with depth perception.

Try the “camera 1, camera 2” experiment from the movie “Wayne’s World”. We’ve all done this as kids, I think.

Here is how to experience parallax: Close one eye. Hold up a pencil (or your finger) at arms length. Using only one eye, line the pencil with a distant object – the corner of the room or a tree outside of the window for example.

Now switch eyes. The pencil isn’t lined up with the distant object anymore. A different point of view changes everything.

When you look with both eyes together, things shift again.

Should readers get readings? Yes – for all of the same reasons anyone would want a reading and with all of the same cautions and considerations anyone else would have.

And now here is Parallax from the 2019 update:

“Camera 1, Camera 2, Camera 1, Camera 2” ~ Wayne’s World 2

Ever play with that trick of eyesight? Close one eye, and hold up a pencil so it lines up with an object in the distance. Then switch eyes and the pencil seems to jump to one side. Things don’t line up the same way.

In astronomy, this is called parallax. In anatomy, this phenomenon where the brain combines two slightly different views from two slightly different viewpoint gives us depth perception…it allows us to see distance. Two eyes lets us live in three dimensions. It helps us to not walk into objects and learn our environment the literal hard way.

A similar idea is true in Tarot and psychic work. Getting a reading isn’t predicting the future…it is getting a second look, a separate viewpoint to combine with our own that lets us see with greater clarity and understanding. It helps us be a bit more perceptive, and not have to learn every lesson the hard way.

Two third-eyes are better than one, in other words.

Even those of us who do readings professionally will sometimes GET one to improve our understanding and fill in any blind spots. 

I like to think that when psychics read for themselves or consult a fellow psychic, it works like binocular vision. Two readings from two people gives two views that can be fused together into a higher quality, more useful vision.

Another example is the VLA, “very large array” of radio telescopes. It is made of 27 or so radio antennae all linked together to work together like one big dish, one configuration is over 20 miles across. Working together, the telescopes have capabilities magnetudes more than any individual telescope. If we combine our logic, know-how, and life experience to work together with oracle tools (tarot, runes, palm lines, what-have-you) and other intuitives, we can increase our understanding and spiritual growth by magnitudes.

If one eye is closed, then depth perception doesn’t work. If one telescope is down, the array doesn’t work as well. We each bring our part to a reading. The sitter (learner, seeker, client) has a part to play too. When we do a Tarot reading, we work together. I translate spirit, but it is up to you to understand and apply the message. We work together like the telescopes in the VLA or two eyes together to see farther. Working together, we see with more clarity.

Together we are clairvoyant.

Simple and Complex Together

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

The mysteries of any relationship, but most particularly a romantic one are both simple and complex together.

Ask.

Speak.

Listen.

Listen with your heart and the way will become clear.

Touch Grass Monday

Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Today’s sip: Page of Pentacles

It’s probably that Dan Harris book – or maybe a response to the national news over the past week or so – but stress management is stepping forward as a good idea of everyone.

Buddhist (in the philosophy, not the religious ritual sense) impermanence and detachment step forward.

In other words, this too will pass, so don’t get too wound up in thinking or worrying about it.

Pentacles are Earth, grounding, practicality. Pages are learning, maturing, graduating to the next level. It isn’t always easy, and it isn’t second nature to everyone to wait, watch, and learn before you act, but the wisdom of it is present in a whole list of adages and platitudes:

Keep your powder dry.

Hold your fire until you see the whites of their eyes.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Stay frosty.

Good things come to those who wait.

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen… Keep in the sunlight … He that can have patience can have what he will.”

Benjamin Franklin

Today the page reminds us to wait, watch, learn, then we can act and elevate our response to something extra beneficial.