Tag: sage's short sip Tarot podcast

Are You Evil?

Question: Is Tarot evil?

Answer: It depends. Are YOU evil?

It has been said that a wise person is like a mirror, holding no opinion, teaching only by reflecting things as they are.

Tarot is like that.

Tarot is an amplifier for our own innate, natural intuition just like the shiny surface behind the light bulb makes a flashlight seem brighter. The eyes are said to be a mirror of the soul. Tarot is a mirror that lets us look ourselves right in the eye, right in the soul. That can be a terrifying thing. Or it can be the ultimate liberation allowing us to see and therefore become our most genuine self.

That is the power of Tarot.

Sure, the prediction thing is all fun and giggles and a great storytelling device for books, movies and TV but the real power in Tarot lies in its ability to hold up a mirror to who we are and give us a hint about how to help that person in the mirror be a little better and live a little happier.

Everyone is at least a little bit afraid of the unknown.

If you don’t know what to expect from a reading and all you know of Tarot is poltergeist movies and religious hysteria, something would be wrong if you DIDN’T worry about Tarot being evil. No one wants doors slamming, knives flying around the kitchen or red eyes growling in the night. No matter how good a mirror may be, it can’t reflect light that isn’t there. Setting clear, strong, positive intentions is the thing that turns on the light and puts some safety rails around the whole thing. Clear, positive intentions and shining your own inner light will spare you from gut twisting dread when cards like the Devil or the ten of swords show up.

The Devil and all of the other ominous looking cards are important, but they aren’t evil. They are part of the mirror. Dark, uncomfortable, frightening, terrible things are necessary in the deck to accurately reflect life on Earth which has dark, uncomfortable, frightening, terrible things in it.

Mirrors don’t come with background removal software.

Let’s be very clear: when dark or frightening cards turn up in a reading for you, it doesn’t mean that YOU are evil or doing something wrong. It doesn’t mean that someone you know has done something wrong or is out to get you. Tarot readings aren’t always that personal. Sometimes they reflect the human condition in which we all live. A mirror shows you looking into it but it also shows what is behind you and around you. Like the mirrors in a car show the traffic around you and help to reduce your blind spots, the cards show the energy around you. Knowing the energy environment can help you to adapt and thrive even in the middle of life’s biggest gnarliness.

Mirrors don’t come with special effect filters. They show you life as it is, not sprinkle pixie dust on it just to make you feel better. The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging that it exists and exactly what it realistically is. Good Tarot points out problems and suggests possible solutions.

The best Tarot does all of that with kindness.

Common courtesy and business transparency, with a generous helping of compassion while still telling hard truths are hallmarks of a genuine psychic or a skilled Tarot reader. If you are worried about Tarot being evil but still want to give it a try, it is all the more important that you find a trustworthy reader that makes you feel at ease without sugar coating everything.

I have some more thoughts about finding a psychic you can trust on the blog website. A link is in the episode description for podcast listeners. To help decrease the fear of the unknown by eliminating the unknown about my readings, the free ebook Tarot Portfolio is available for instant download in my ko-fi shop. There’s a link for that too.

Thanks so much for reading and listening. If you like Q & A posts like this, send some questions to be answered! You can use the AMA form on the website, use the blog comments, ko-fi DMs or the email contact listed on the website. If you like any of this Tarot content, virtual coffee and membership on ko-fi supports the creation of this free blog and podcast.

See you at the next sip!

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Portal to the New

Sometimes the best way to is through – don’t give up!sag

In his classic science fiction novel, Dune, Frank Herbert famously wrote

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I don’t have much to add to Frank Herbert’s famous quote because that essentially sums up the reading for this week.

That, and I also intuitively hear that “the best way around is through.”

The quiet, introspective, introverted, wait, watch, listen energy from last couple of weeks is still lingering for the collective zeitgeist if you are reading or listening to this close to the time when its posted. If you are coming across this at a later time, The Queen of Cups is validating any emotional fatigue or philosophical, thinking, introspective feelings you may have experienced recently. The 1909 Pamela Smith artwork we see in today’s card draw video shows the queen of cups near water, gazing into a cup. Sometimes that has intuition connections and you might resonate with the idea of fortune telling. The stories of Nostradamus gazing into a bowl of water to make his predictions come to mind. I don’t know if that was an inspiration for the artist or not. My sense is that the connection for this week is to the idea of water representing the depths of the human psyche and the queen is gazing to understand deep emotions and subconscious motives more than some superficial, shallow movie style prediction.

This energy is in the fading position, so the time is coming soon when we need to ease up on plumbing our psychological and emotional depths. Knock it off with the emo for a little bit. We need to go heads up and eyes open for a little bit.

There is a certain practicality to the Devil Card. This week it is asking us to take up the terrifying task of staring reality in the eye. There are things in this world we can’t control. There are terrible people making terrible decisions. Malicious intent exists. Putting it on the line to stand up for yourself and stand up for what is right is a fearful thing.

Which takes us back to the Litany Against Fear. Sometimes the only way around is through.

Here I am reminded of a scene from the pulp fiction based 1985 movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Granted, we aren’t talking about super brainy high class cinema here, but it is a fun movie. One of my favorite parts is where Chun, the martial arts master tells student Remo “Fear is just a feeling. You feel hot. You feel hungry. You feel angry. You feel afraid. Fear can never kill you.”

Which also reminds us of the very real life quote from President Franklin Roosevelt that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.“

Whenever we confront external danger we are confronting our own fear as well.

Sometimes the demons we most need to slay are the internal ones.

Only then are we free to begin and begin and begin again if we need to do that. The Fool reminds us that we can begin again as many times as we need. Moment by moment if necessary. Sometimes the only way to that new moment is through the fear we feel in this one.

Thank you so much for reading and listening!

This free to access Tarot blog and podcast is supported by your purchases, memberships and virtual coffees on the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi page. Please visit the links below and in the podcast episode description. Any likes, follows or shares you can spare are greatly appreciated. Private readings are still open, with no appointment needed for email.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

If Einstein said it…

Sage’s Short Sip is a Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

If Einstein said it…then it must be true, right? I don’t know if the attribution is correct, but if it is a feel validated. We’ve been getting this exact kind of message from the Two of Pentacles for ages.

That sort of dynamic equilibrium – be it molecules across a permeable membrane, a clown on a unicycle, or an Austrian physicist on a bicycle, movement is a part of balance just like change is part of life.

Members read more HERE

Where Attention Flows

Keep your eyes on the road because you drive where you look.

Hi and welcome to Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast where we take a Tarot look at the week ahead in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Or Tea. Or adult beverage. Or whatever it happens to be that you are sipping whatever time of day you happen to see this. No matter what is on the menu, I’m happy you are here. Let’s look at some cards, once again drawing from the Alleyman’s Tarot, used with the permission of deck creator Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC.

If you are reading on the blog, you already know this. If you are listening on the podcast, when you get a chance, take a peek at the blog or at the Sage Words Tarot YouTube channel. There is a companion video posted that shows the real world card draw for today’s collective energy reading. It’s real. It’s me. This is exactly what it would look like if we did an in-person reading together, just like the email readings I do are a written transcript of exactly what I would say to you in a live reading.

Actually no, I take that back. It would be better than live. That’s why I love this text to voice setup between WordPress and Spotify for podcasters. I am so much better as a writer than I am as a social media presenter. You are getting something next level when I can use a keyboard and get into writer mode. It’s a little like the old school Batman comics. Letting me use a keyboard to communicate is like using the big red direct line Bat Phone in the police commissioner’s office. Writing and typing for me is a direct hotline right to intuition. But that is all stuff you can read on the blog.

Let’s look at the cards for this week.

The “wait” energy is lessening, but it is still not time to start or run. The introvert vibe has not quite yet swung in the opposite direction. Don’t worry. It will. It always does. We’ll be back on the Be Strong! Persist! You got this! bandwagon soon enough.

For now – we’ve persisted. We’ve done the thing. We’ve made it through the 2020s decade so far. The worst may be over for the moment, but we are probably feeling worse for the wear it took to get to this moment.

The cards today are the “wound man” as fading energy, the Queen of Ravens as current energies, and the Seven of Cups as the growing energies.

The “Wound Man” card feels like the 10 of swords and the nine of wands rolled into one.

This time, this week, is less about assigning blame and more about understanding and solving the problems at hand.

In internal martial arts like Tai Chi from China, it is thought that energy flow is directed by our sight and attention. Looking where you want to place power not only helps bring the head and body posture into alignment, but it also leads the chi, the life energy where it needs to be.

It’s just like drivers education classes long ago in the dark before times. We were told to keep our eyes on the road because where you look is where you steer and that’s where the car goes. Attention is crucial, so we can add the Chariot card energy into the mix today too. The Wound Man card is bringing in elements of the nine of wands, the ten of swords through their connection with woundedness and

For physical wounds to heal, there has to be enough blood flow. Blood flow and the chi life energy go hand in hand. Healing needs attention. Neglected wounds are at risk of infection. That fits with both our modern scientific understanding of infections and with the notion of healing energy flowing with our attention. This is put into practice energy wellness systems like Reiki, acupuncture, acupressure and Reiki.

All of that, every physical bit of it is outside of the realm of Tarot. Emotional wounds, however is right in Tarot’s wheelhouse. Here I am very much reminded of the quote from psychologist Carl Jung who said that “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

It may not be long term psychotherapy, but Tarot can be part of the wound cleaning and fresh bandages for emotional injury. It helps to narrow our focus or broaden our understanding. When we are unseen or invalidated or demeaned by others or suppress or neglect our own feelings, problems can turn up just as certainly as allowing a physical wound to fester – as nineteenth century as that sounds.

The wound man reminds us that accidents can happen or we can caught in the crossfire of cruelty. But then what?

The Queen of Ravens is akin to the Judgement card without the religious overtones. There is also a sprinkle of the Seven of Pentacles with a reaping what you sow quality. There is a sense of quick and dispassionate karma. What you give reflects back to you quickly. I hear “choose”

The next bit is hard to put into words. It feels akin to “Treat your own wounds with kindness.” and “Allow the Raven Queen, punishment isn’t yours to give this time.” A richly colored natural sunstone comes to mind, with the sense that the Queen of Ravens is protective in the same way, reflecting ill intent back to the source, and providing a warm protected bubble for you to tend your wounds and begin to heal.

Finally the growing energy is the Seven of Cups, the card of abundant options. Often this card is a caution against dithering or overthinking. Sometimes this card is advice to, when all logical things seem equal, to follow your intuition. Today I hear “growing hope” and a connection with last weeks “wait” message, as if to say more options are coming. Be hopeful, and wait for the right thing. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but don’t let the good be the enemy of the better simply because of an inattentive lack of patience.

And there the energies step back.

Thank you all for reading and listening today. The whole thing turned out to be a little more ponderous and heavy than I expected. It will be interesting to see if there are any other big shifts when we look at the collective energy next Monday. I hope you will meet me here to find out how things feel then.

Have a great week and I’ll see you at the next sip!

Groot With Jingle Bells

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Today’s card is the Seven of Bells, from a woodcut print for a deck of sixteenth century playing cards by German artist Peter Flotner. This particular card is part of the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck, used with permission of Publishing Goblin LLC

On seeing the card, my impression was a clear, urgent single word.

Wait.

In all fairness, it is Wednesday morning as I write this and you could chalk this whole thing up to a rampaging case of the mid-week blahs. In fact that might be the whole point of it. A case of the midweek blahs might be a message to wait, to indulge in some stillness. If you ever feel hugely UNmotivated, listen to that feeling. Understand it and adjust accordingly.

This very much feels like a continuation of the energy from our week-ahead reading two days ago. It’s still an introvert’s energy paradise, but I’m getting a small sense of how an extrovert might be feeling a little restless today.

Still, I feel like the message is crisp, clear and succinct. It feels like a command to stop, be still, and wait. It feels almost like a being held still or caught in a science fiction tractor beam or force field. I hear the phrase “enforced stasis” Lots of science and science fiction words and images are coming through today.

Now I get the mental image of an old school mario video game. I don’t know if you have ever played a video game with those swinging or jumping obstacles. Running flat out at full speed will get you knocked down every time. The trick is to wait. You have to make your run in short bursts or to time the jumps just right.

Have you ever heard of psycho neuro immunology? Is that still a thing? It was in vogue back in the 80s during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Basically it is modern scientific medicine finally taking a side eye look at the ancient mind body connection and who would have guessed – lo, and behold! Stress impacts your health and can legit affect immunity. Shocker, eh? By measuring T cells and cortisols and all sorts of technical stuff that I can’t remember , mainstream medicine figured out a thing that holistic wisdom has known all along: if you don’t get rest on your own when you need it, Mother Nature will step in and make you rest through a cold, or flu or something. Go down for a nap or be taken down for a week. Taking care of yourself mentally and physically isn’t going to 100% prevent or cure infectious diseases, especially not very serious illnesses like AIDS or Covid, but it can help your immune system do its thing when minor things come along.

So wait.

Stop.

Be still.

Listen.

I’m taking this one personally. It has been a busy couple of months here in the cyberspace as TaoCraft Tarot was renamed to Sage Words Tarot, I finished & uploaded TaoCraft Portfolio (the free behind the scenes ebook) and the Tarot Table subscription blog was changed, updated and changed again. It is seriously time to stop mucking around with all of this. I hope you’ll visit the links in the podcast episode description or browse the blog website or browse the ko-fi page. Comments are open on the blog and DMs are open to supporters on ko-fi. I really hope that you’ll take a look and tell me the features you like, don’t like and what you would like to see in the future. I’m listening.

I think that may be part of the “pause” or “wait” energy that is coming through this week. Listening is part of the stillness and quiet. You can’t listen to other people when you are chattering nonstop. I have things situated so that it suits my needs. It has come to the point of simply letting you know what I have to offer and if it resonates with you then great! Let’s get to work! But if it doesn’t, no worries. There are a lot of us sincere, trustworthy psychics out here – someone is bound to match your vibe. You keep looking for what you need. And as the seven of bells suggests, I’ll keep listening for what is needed.

The figure on the card seems to be made of wood, like Marvel’s Groot surrounded by jingle bells, or maybe Treebeard from Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings or the Tree people of Cheem from Doctor Who – only centuries before any of those characters were created. Actual trees that aren’t science fiction humanoids are living beings, after all.

Listen to the wind in the trees. They may be listening back.

Seven Dane Asmund, the Alleyman’s Tarot creator connected this card to change – both changing to meet the needs of others AND more importantly reminding us that we can change back to our true selves.

Here I am reminded of the Face Dancers from the original Dune book series by Frank Herbert. Face Dancers were shape shifting assassins who could take on any person’s appearance and never showed their true form while on assignment. Take out the assassin part and we all do a little bit of behavioral face dancing. To one extent or another we adapt our language and behavior to the situation. I think the connection to the card comes from the idea of a strong inner core. Like an oak tree or towering pine, our authentic self can remain still, quiet, and strong no matter how our branches sway in the wind. Still, quiet and strong, our true selves wait for us to return no matter how our outer social face dances.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. See you at the next sip!

If you enjoy this free Tarot content, please consider a private Tarot reading, subscribing to the members blog or gifting a virtual coffee on the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi page. Links are in the podcast episode description or click the white coffee mug on the blog page.

It’s that time

The center of the busy sandwich is here with the 8 and 9 of pentacles

Monday, the current energy card was the 8 of pentacles (coins, disks – whatever name your deck uses.

Today is that day, the productive day sandwiched in between working to find and keep balance.

It’s not the productivity I expected

With the intent of one day, right here, right now, collective blog audience guidance the card is the 9 of coins.

The 9, like all of the coins cards is down to earth & practical. But in keeping with the nature of Tarot as a whole, the ideas are also esoteric. Tarot is more than mere predictions and more than pictures on a piece of cardstock paper. Like any fine art paintings, they represent ideas and emotions. Like the 10 of pentacles to come, the 9 of pentacles represents higher ideals and the most valuable things in life that money can never buy.

The nine re-states and re-emphasizes the maturity and the “apply lessons learned” message from the weekly reading . Like the 7 and 8 before it, there are shades of manifestation, where hard work pays off. The payoff in this case is more than monetary. It is about self-confidence, deep competence, and self-sufficiency. This card lets you know that you are enough. Which reminds me of Al Franken’s old Saturday Night Live character. I don’t mean to turn into some sort of Stuart Smalley parody, but your are good enough, smart enough and doggone it people like you.

Do what needs done in balance and in your own truth and good things will come of it.

But don’t forget to keep it in balance. Don’t forget that Temperance stands beside us and the two of pentacles is on the horizon.

This isn’t about frenetic activity or slavish goal orientation. It isn’t about single minded focus or work-a-holic-ness.

This is about doing something that touches your soul. This about action not waiting. This is about taking a step toward your dream.

There are reasons that a spell is called a magical working. There are reasons why dreams are chased and not just thought about. Actions speak louder than words. Actions are needed to speak your truth and chase your dreams too.

Yes, you have to do what you have to do to pay the bills and put food on the table. But if you can, today at least, spend a little time with your dreams, your hopes, your own inner authentic self and your truth as you know it.

Feed it. Nurture it. Most of all DO something for it, even if the only action that you can give your truth today is simply thinking about it. That attention and energy is something and something is better than nothing when it comes to giving thought, energy and action to your truth and to your dreams.

Thank you for reading and listening. Please visit the blog website or the Sage Words Tarot Ko-fi page. Your memberships, shop purchases, commissioned private readings and virtual coffees all support this free Tarot blog and podcast.

See you at the next sip!

Busy Sandwich

The two of pentacles is back to sandwich productivity between calls to seek balance.

Some times you have ebb and flow. Sometimes you have grab and sandwich and go.

Hello and welcome to Sage Words Tarot blogs and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I’m glad you are here. As always, these short sip readings are Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. On Mondays we get close to the whole cup by taking a three card look at the week ahead.

Also as always, none of this is a prediction. That whole fix your love life, meet your soulmate, win the lottery nonsense stems from horror movies, fiction and fantasy. Genuine Tarot has more in common with weather reports, folk art and psychology than predicting the future. If someone approaches you individually and offers you a reading that is on a par with those Nigerian prince spam emails and should be treated as such.

Finding a psychic you can trust is one of the things I talk about in Tao Craft Portfolio, but I’ll shamelessly self promote that later. Back to this week. The three cards reflect the general, collective energy environment and give general collective energy food for thought. These readings are made of ideas to inspire you or strategies to help you navigate the energy environment.

Or, like I’ve said for years under the Modern Oracle and TaoCraft Tarot blog names….the future is yours to create, not mine to predict. Tarot doesn’t predict what will happen in life. Tarot helps you to figure out what to do when life happens.

Balance is what is happening – or what we need to create this week.

The fading energy is Temperance, the current energy is the eight of pentacles and the growing energy is the two of pentacles. Long story short, it is a productivity sandwiched between advice to stay balanced.

The Two of Pentacles was fading previously. Now it’s making a comeback on the other side of the layout compared to last week. That hints at ebb and flow, or dynamic equilibrium.

The idea of dynamic balance, of balance in motion like a gyroscope, has been attached to the two of pentales a lot lately. Lately meaning the past couple of years, really.

Both the Temperance card and the two of pentacles card are associated with balance. Temperance is the gentler side of balancing, and today has the feeling of little nudges on both sides of the balancing equation. It reminds us of moderation, and not letting things get too out of control in the first place, but it also gives little nudges when we need to up the volume or intensity of something to achieve balance, like pouring into an empty cup. Temperance reminds of gentle mixing back and forth in order to gently moderate opposites before either gets extreme. There are other keywords like combining, creating, experimenting, but the moderation kind of balance energies are prominent today.

The two of pentacles is more active, and feels like the bigger adjustments that are needed when things have already gotten out of balance. The two of pentacles is more about hauling in the edge of the envelope after pushing it to the limit or pulling back when you are too far out over your skis.

You’ll notice both of these are active, moving concepts. Unless you are stacking Zen rocks or something, when it comes to human life, balance is tied to change. Inanimate, motionless object don’t maintain balance. They just fall.

My favorite example of dynamic balance is a unicycle rider. Watch someone on a unicycle. Staying balanced upright on a single wheel is a pretty good trick. It is difficult enough when you are constantly moving forward, but the really impressive thing is the way they can stay upright without travelling forward. But even then, they are not completely still. If you watch, the unicycle rider is making constant tiny back and forth movements in order to stay upright even when they aren’t moving over a distance.

Movement lends itself well to progress and productivity too.

This week we have movement sandwiched between two other kinds of movement.

“In the zone” comes to mind. There is a lot of science and physics images coming through with this reading.

First we had angular momentum and gyroscopes. Now I see a wave graph. The balance we need this week isn’t about a single point, like a ballerina holding a perfect arabesque, its about wave amplitude and staying in a range. It’s about dialing in the ups and downs to stay within a managable range, not about stopping the changes.

If there is one piece of advice in all three cards put together for this week it would be to keep moving, but adjust your tolerances. Things may be active and changing and productive and busy, but the trick to get through it all is to adjust the amplitude of the ups and downs so that they are managable.

You might not be able to turn of the noise, but you can adjust the volume.

You might not be able to hold the unicycle of life perfectly still, but you can adjust the movements so that it seems like you are staying upright in one place.

Be productive – go for it. Just don’t forget to put the busy in a sandwich of balance.

Thank you so much for reading and listening! Please visit the blog website or the ko-fi page. Your private readings, shop purchases, and virtual coffees all support creating these free weekly readings for everyone.

Want to learn how to find a psychic you can trust? Want to get to know me and the behind the scenes details of a reading with me? Read the new FREE ebooklet TaoCraft: Portfolio and a reading with me will meet your expectations because you will know exactly what to expect. Links are in the episode description for podcast listeners.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Protector

“The Daily Sip” is the members only blog with Tarot for your weekday in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Tuesday – Friday

“The Protector” daily Tarot reading on The Daily Sip membership blog. Today’s card is the the King of Swords.

Sage Words Tarot:

The Week Ahead: More Please!

Contented? More please! Sage’s Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it take to sip from your coffee

In Tarot, we talk a lot about what to do when things get bad. What do you do when things get good?

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Short Sip podcast where it is all Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

This week’s energy has a lot of the Zen and Taoist philosophy influence that I wanted to honor in my previous blog name, TaoCraft Tarot. To be clear, I don’t mean any of this as any sort of cultural appropriation. When I was in my twenties, at a time when I was running for my life from a toxic subculture, I finally found a safe space and indulged in all of the Tarot, Taoism, Zen and magick reading I could get my hands on. Those ideas and philosophies helped me to grow into a much better person and made my life magnitudes better. Taoist principles like simplicity, honesty and authenticity are the foundation of my Tarot work to this day. The foundation of everything, really.

This week’s cards weave together around that core. The three cards together bring to mind the idea of suffering and satisfaction.

When you say it that way, it reminds me of the scene from Harry Potter where they are learning to read tea leaves and Ron reads Harry’s as something along the lines of “you are going to suffer, but you’ll be happy about it.”

The energy today brings to mind the opposite and begs the question:

Are you happy but suffering about it?

I follow a lot of artists on social media. Bruce Brackett is as fierce and fearless in his self-expression as you would expect a professional artist to be. The fan snaps, cups of love, and “negativity be gone” catchphrase is brilliant. I forget the main point of what he was saying the other day on TikTok. A side comment captured my attention so much I don’t remember the rest of it or even exactly when it posted.

It was about how he was able to take an accomplishment in stride, and wasn’t feeling overjoyed about it, “just” content. I’m paraphrasing heavily, but he said something along the lines of “I suppose I’m not supposed to be overjoyed at everything.”

No, no you’re not. None of us are as far as I can tell.

Where there is yin, there must be yang. Where there is light there must also be dark. Where there is overjoyed, there is also sorrow. Where there is lasting, there is also fleeting. Given the big picture and broad spectrum of all that life can be, content is a pretty darn good thing.

Buddhism talks about suffering. Set illness, aging, injury and physical suffering aside for a moment and let’s think about the mental and emotional side of things. No, not really set it aside – just make it the second domino in our cascading line of thought. Mind affects body and vice versa, so all of this can get around to the physical benefits of stress reduction and so on…but I’ll leave that to the holistic health folks to think about.

Suffering in the philosophical Buddhist sense can be thought of as dissatisfaction, or in other words a lack of that precious content feeling Mr. Beckett described. Suffering can be, and often is totally subjective and completely within our frame of mind.

It’s like that pastina recipe that has been popular lately. Being hungry is a physical suffering . Among those who are well fed, however, a bowl of humble pasta might leave one person comforted and content while a meal at the best restaurant in town might leave another person dissatisfied and secretly filling up later at the fast food joint down the street.

Things are good.

There is a pretty, floaty, quiet little snow happening outside my window right now. I have a private Tarot client this afternoon as tasty leftovers in the ‘fridge for lunch between now and then.

Right here, right now, in this precious moment life is good and I am content. I want to take this opportunity to tell the universe how deeply grateful I am. More of the same please. I wish contentment for us all.

For this week, the two of pentacles is the fading energy card. I don’t think that means things are becoming unbalanced. The two of pentacles hints at a dynamic kind of equilibrium. I think this means the need to pay active attention to our life balance may be fading a bit. It feels like things may be settling into a new normal.

Three years ago this week the world was tossed into the global pandemic. I’m not saying that’s over. That is outside of anything Tarot and way outside of my expertise. But wearing a mask on occasion and keeping up with new vaccine boosters is a new normal that is easy enough to live with. Things are striking a new balance that is solid enough to let us turn our emotions to other places.

Current energy is the nine of cups. The suit of cups symbolizes our emotions, which is why they are so closely tied to romance and relationship issues. This reflects the subjective nature of contentment. Nine symbolizes fulfillment, or a good outcome to something. When is enough ever enough? This hints at that feeling of contentment were just talking about.

Growing energy is back to the practical pentacles. The seven reminds us that you reap what you sow, so might as well sow good things.

That there will be a harvest at all is a magical, comforting thing.

All in all, these cards are reminding us of all the changes we’ve been through. It may have been a struggle to find balance, but we are at a place where we can find new balance points and find a new normal. This new balance (the energy, not the shoes) has brought new good things with it, but it is up to us to realize the good things about here and now. Dwelling on the changes robs us of a new sense of contentment. We may not be overjoyed at life, but neither do we have to despair. Like that old adage says, people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

What are the good parts of our new normal that we can seed for the future and hopefully hang on to for a while?

Sage’s Short Sip blog posts and podcast episode are a Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Thank you so much for reading and listening. I appreciate each of you.

Just a quick reminder about the links in the episode description. Nothing I do is advertising monetized, so I can put your Tarot message absolutely first. Private readings by email along with the paid subscription blog “The Daily Sip” supports the free Tarot readings here and across the socials. Please visit the links and support the blog and podcast if you can.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Drink from the Flow

Sage’s Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

Zen teaches us that only an empty cup can be filled.

So what do you do when your cup is full, when things are good?

That CAN happen, by the way. It’s probably  happening right now. Check it out. Shift your attention away from your screen in 3, 2, 1 – NOW. Pay attention to what is around you. 

Are you at work? Cool! You have a job and some degree of income! Are you doom scrolling? Cool! You have a device and internet access to scroll with! Are you in physical danger? If you are, get off your phone and do something about it for cryin’ out loud. Have you had something to eat today? Did you get a little bit of sleep last night? 

I’m not saying that you don’t have anything on your mind. I’m not saying that you aren’t struggling with anything or that your health is perfect or you have no emotions or emotional pain. Everyone deals with something sometimes. Call it the price of admission to this brief and shining spark we call life.

​Pay attention to just this minute for a minute.

Paying attention to right here and right now is what we call mindfulness. 

What fills your cup right now?

If you spend your life waiting for champaign, you are going to miss the clear, cool, clean, life-giving water that is there right now. If things are good, drink up. 

If things are good, drink it in with gratitude, and make room for more to flow in. 

What if the water in a cup is stagnant, or bitter, filled with dirt or germs? Drinking from that would be a bad idea. Instead do what you can to clean out the cup and find a better drink. That requires emptying the cup to make room for more to flow in, too.

How do you know where the good things are to fill your metaphoric cup once there is room in it?

Today’s card is the King of Cups. It symbolizes emotional maturity, emotional protection and healing, mentors, teachers and spirit guides. 

Cups and water are timeless symbols for exactly this kind of spiritual, intuitive, emotional learning. Going back to cups and water as an example. 

How do you know where the clean, healthy, flowing water is? We don’t necessarily know. We don’t have to know that alone. Teachers, mentors, students and mentees all have a way of finding each other when the time is right. When you are thirsty and your cup is empty, ask for directions to the nearest water fountain. If you know where the clean safe water is, it is up to you to give directions to the empty-bottle thirsty people. 

Knowledge and guidance and life flows like water. We all have cups. Drink from the flow even as you help others to do the same.

Thank you for reading and listening! I appreciate each and every one of you.

The Daily Sip ko-fi membership is the only place to get Tarot every weekday, in addition to an ongoing shop discount. Tarot Table members get weekday Tarot, a shop discount and access to on request private email readings. Please visit the Sage Words Tarot Ko-fi page for details.

The name change from TaoCraft Tarot to Sage Words Tarot is almost finished. There are still a few new things on the horizon, so please follow the free blog for all of the latest. Links are in the episode description for podcast listeners

See you at the next sip!