Page of Wands meets Seneca on Luck and opportunity
Thoughts on the nine of wands, holding space, and the energy sensitive person tomorrow (or maybe Saturday)
Late winter schedule: none. We are in full pirate radio squirrel rave mode until further notice.
Have a good day! – Sage
You’ve heard the term “hold space” but what kind of space are you holding?
What is inside that space we are always talking about holding?
Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Or tea. Or adult beverage. Or whatever it is you are sipping this time of day. I’m glad you are here.
Every profession loves its jargon and jazzy acronyms. Spiritual or psychic work is no different. Speaking just for Tarot readers, we have a whole glossary of terms that make sense to us, but may or may not make sense to people who don’t spend their day immersed in the woo woo.
The phrase “hold space” is an example.
It is a little hard to imagine, since there isn’t a really good physical world analog. How do you hold space? In a jar with a lid? Does a bowl or coffee mug count?
Holding space is a mental and emotional process more than a tangible thing, although there are tangible things that one can do to symbolize and support the internal process of holding space. That’s why sometimes people who want to find long term romantic partnership are sometimes advised to clear out a drawer or a closet and literally make space in their life for the soulmate that they hope to find. It creates a mindset as much as it creates a later convenience.
It’s a hard thing to put into words, but I would define holding space as “mindfully allowing” combined with the far more familiar “save my seat.”
When we say hold space it also relates to the principle from science that “nature abhors a vacuum.” When we create space, nature tends to flow something into it. If you put a bowl out in a rainstorm, it collects more water than a brick because of the space the bowl holds that the brick doesn’t have. When you pull back on the plunger of a syringe, it holds space in the barrel for the medicine to flow in.
When we admit that something can be a part of our life, then we save its seat, we save that thing’s spot in line next to us. Admit can mean confess or confirm the truth of something, or it can mean allow someone in, as a ticket to an event is admission to that event. When we admit that we want something, that is a step toward admitting that thing into your life.
Doing the literal work or preparing a literal space is another step.
Today’s nine of wands points out another aspect of that process. It’s an aspect that I don’t think gets much thought or attention sometimes.
Desire and a fear and desperation that you may never get what you want can make the whole holding space thing messy if not impossible .
If you want to save space, to hold space for something or someone to come in, the quality of the space may affect the admission process.
Think of a literal room.
If a room is cold or noisy or missing a window or missing a big part of the outside wall…who or what would want to inhabit that space? If a room is secure, comfortable, quiet and inviting, who or what is going to want to stay there?
If that room is metaphor for part of your heart, mind, awareness or emotions, what are you asking in? What is that inner room going to attract? More importantly, is that inner space you are holding one you are willing to live in one the hoped-for person, thing or situation arrives?
The theory applies to anything. If you hold a peaceful place within, then you can be safe and warm and comfortable and happy while you are waiting for your invited guest to arrive. You can be safe and warm and happy even if the invited guest never comes.
Whether you are hoping for prosperity or a soulmate or whatever it is, pay attention to the mental and emotional space that you are inviting the wanted person or thing to enter. The more peaceful the space, the happier the end result.
Thank you so much for reading and listening. I have a few more thoughts about this card and empaths, but we can pick up that thread another day.
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Thanks again! See you at the next sip!
Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee
Some days you just call it a day
Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the five of swords. It’s one of those cards that gives the swords suit its reputation for being doom and gloom bearer of bad tidings. Not everything in life is all cotton candy and unicorns. It’s Tarot’s job to get in our face about the messy parts of life as much as it is to inspire us with the pretty ones. Tarot’s symbolism is both because life and nature is both, to borrow the sentence pattern from that line in that movie The Craft.
The five of swords is, at least in part, about winning at all costs and when the costs are too high. Hannibal and the elephants he used to cross the alps and win a victory in one battle against the Romans, but ultimately lose the war is the classic example of this. He started with 37 elephants and only one survived or some such thing.
Of course, my favorite telling of the Hannibal story is Eddie Izzard’s brilliant stand up bit about the Latin language including something about elephants looking like squirrels in the front and pigs in the back.
Thinking of that favorite piece of video (it’s on the internet, and I recommend it) might be a little carry over from yesterday’s Tarot Turnover where we talk about how to read Tarot on the members only blog. Yesterday’s card was the Page of Cups, which always carries a little bit of humor and absurdity. I mean, it shows a dude on a beach staring at a fish in a cup. Whatever other symbolism that may hold, it is on its face a little silly.
So are pigs and squirrels.
When we combine the two cards we get a reminder very apropro to a Monday morning like this.
Ridiculousness and absurdity might be a clue.
When things are dramatically not going your way, when you run headlong straight into a wall, it might be time to pack up your pigs and squirrels and cross the Alps another day.
Winston Churchill may have equated victory with survival, but is that really the victory we are stressing over? If this card speaks to you today, it may be time to stop and evaluate your goals. If it is survival, yes, by all means do that.
If your goal is a quick mocho-choco -frozo-latte when there is a line at the coffee shop, then this is your cue to ease up, and define victory a little differently. Be kind to yourself AND the local barista. Is this really as big of a deal as it feels? Is it worth it? What do we define as a success? Do we need to re-visit and change our goals and our definition of success? What is really, really worth every bit of your persistence and resources and what should be left for another day?
Thanks so much for reading and listening. I wish you and all of your pigs and squirrels a lovely Monday.
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See you at the next sip!
Some days are more absurd than spiritual
It’s not a particularly well known interpretation – but the Page of Cups with the Pamela Smith artwork always brings to mind a certain whimsy and a reminder to not take things so deadly serious all of the time. It’s ok to have a sense of humor about things, even the spiritual and abstract. It’s ok to embrace the absurd and let your freak flag fly and let life be what it is in all of it’s glorious absurdity.
I’m also reminded of the Sigmund Freud quote “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” I see an element of that in the Page of Cups. Some days just aren’t cut out for serious, ponderous, high flying, deep thought spirituality. Some days just hand you a fish in a cup, which is infinitely better than a cup of cigars, don’t you think….
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There is plenty of room for everyone.
The universe is a pretty wide road.
Have you ever seen an official balance beam for gymnastic competitions? They are 10 cm or around 4 inches wide. It’s hard enough to walk on one, much less do what olympic gymnasts do. Staying centered and balanced and in the middle of one of those is a darn good trick.
Now think of a flat path or sidewalk that is, lets say, about 1 meter or a little over 3 feet wide. Compared to a balance beam, how hard is it to find and walk down the middle of that?
Or walk down the middle of a football field?
The advice here is don’t make your path narrower than it has to be. Don’t make life narrower than it is. When life is wide, the middle way still encompasses a lot of territory.
The middle way of a wide path is big enough to encompass your comfort zone.
The middle way of a wide path is big enough for everyone.
Be kind to yourself and be kind to those who walk alongside of you. In a path as wide as the cosmos, there is plenty of room for all of us and every definition of middle, balanced and OK.
Look for slightly, not so slightly and completely unrelated content on Sage’s Other Words blog
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A lot.
Part of my brain thinks changing names is Internet suicide while another part of thinks it is genius because, let’s face it, Tao could just as easily be a Chinese boy band member as could be a philosophy reference and Craft brings glue guns and Martha Stewart to mind just as much as anything witchy.
So much for trying to be clever. Thank you from the bottom, top and middle of my Tarot heart for sticking with this through all of the renaming nonsense. At least now we are back to normal words that everyone can recognize and spell and whatnot.
Here is the rest of the 2023 overhaul:
If you have followed for a while, you know I’ve sworn off sales, giveaways and all of those cutesy pants promotions. That will stay the same.
THIS on the other hand is a sincere thank you, from me to you, in appreciation of you being here at the end of the chaos and for joining up as everything moves forward. Welcome and THANK YOU.
As a way to say thanks, I’m doing this once, right here, right now, only on this blog and only until February 28, 2023. If you email me at the new address (SageWordsTarot@gmail.com) before with:
I’ll reply with a one card Tarot reading just for you …yes YOU…as an individual, not a general audience reading like we usually do for blog posts or the podcast.
That’s pretty much it.
I hope you like the new energy vibe. Names are symbolic mini-affirmations of who we are, what we have done and what we still hope to achieve.
New name, same trustworthy Tarot
The Empress reminds us to attune with nature. Find a way to enjoy the weather that is, not the weather you wish it to be. When is the weather is your favorite kind, enjoy it all the more. Email readings are OPEN and support this channel, the blog, and the podcast.
What is it about money that ties people up in knots?
Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot, a nano blog-cast and Tarot reading in the time it takes to sip from your coffee, or tea, or adult beverage or whatever it is you sip this time of day. I’m glad you are here!
Today’s card is the six of pentacles. Pentacles are associated with the physical realm, often with career or wealth. The six in particular is said to represent generosity, money flow, sharing, paying kindnesses forward, that sort of thing.
Many long years ago, way back in the before times, in the very early days of my professional reading career, I had one of the nicest experiences with getting paid for my Tarot skills and it didn’t involve actual money at all.
After the reading, and after my modest fee was paid (I’m still super affordable by the way) the client and I were chatting about Reiki and natural health services in our area, and business cards for her new side venture as a masseuse. I forget the exact context, but the thing that rocked my world was when we shook hands at the end she said something like “I have money luck, now I’m sharing some of it with you.”
That was the last time I talked with that charming, vivacious lady. I don’t know how her new business turned out, but I do know this. Here mindset in that moment was a treasure, and I was touched by her easy generosity in sharing it.
In these days of supply chain issues, inflation, dire news about government money management and the general cost of living, finances can be a fear inducing to mildly terrifying thing.
I can’t promise you crazy things like attracting or manifesting wealth, but I can share a few thoughts that might take the edge of a little bit of the worry.
First I’m reminded of the quote from Disney’s Mary Poppins that “enough is as good as a feast.” Defining your “enough” simply and within your means may not actually pay the bills, but it might help untwist the gut-knots a little bit.
Yeah, I know. It’s a very Tao Te Ching kind of idea. Just because I changed the name of the blog and podcast doesn’t mean the influence went away.
The other helpful thing is the client’s gift to me.
Try it once. Just stop for a second and think of yourself the way she thought of her joyful self. Think of yourself as someone who is fortunate and the things you need come to you almost without effort. Just for a minute allow yourself to have money-luck.
That isn’t going to make things magically happen. This isn’t about the law of attraction or some cultish prosperity gospel. You still have to work and plan and hustle just like before. But try it. Thinking of yourself as having money luck shaves a tiny bit off of the fear of not having enough. When you are just that tiny bit less stressed, you might think a little clearer. You might find a solution or an option that was missing before. When you think of yourself as having money luck it gives you a particle of optimism that all of your work, planning and effort will pay off in the end after all.
Knowing how you are going to go about getting what you need is money luck and riches indeed.
Thanks for reading and listening. I hope you’ll hang around and explore all the free to read Tarot content on the website. It’s easy. Just enter a Tarot card or any key word in the search bar on the right hand side of the page.
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Thanks again! See you at the next sip.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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