THE FOOL: Sometimes a new beginning is a thousand mile journey that starts with a single step. Other times it’s a thousand foot drop that starts with being shoved off the edge of a cliff. Either way, adaptability is a survival skill.
SEVEN OF PENTACLES: Focus on what you have, not what you don’t.
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Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee (or whatever you like to sip this time of day)
Seven of Pentacles: Wait. Give the seeds you planted time to grow. Don’t meddle…if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Just wait.
Seven of Swords: Mischief is afoot. Watch your stuff. Don’t fall for phishing. Be on the lookout for petty bs and swat it down if needed.
Nine of Pentacles: Enjoy what you’ve achieved. As one project wraps up, it’s good to take a minute to appreciate what you and your team have done before moving on to the next big thing.
Card doesn’t fit or feel right? Enter the card or any keyword in the search bar on the right side of the page (or scroll down on mobile) to browse the archives. Your message will find you – all you have to do is look and listen.
The most difficult and deepest healing
“Time heals all wounds”
Deep healing requires the tincture of time.
Time is often the bitterest pill to swallow in our emotional healing. The slow changes time brings are often the most bittersweet. Patience with ourselves and everyone else is necessary medicine, but often the most difficult to create.
The seven of coins calls us to be patient and let the most difficult medicine of all, time, work its healing magic.
Sage Sips is Tarot wisdom in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.
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.
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Thanks again. See you at the next sip!
It’s time.
Things are circling back.
What you’ve given is about to return.
Efforts are about to pay off if they aren’t already.
It’s a time of power. Accept the boons the universe is offering gratefully, and place intentions for the future.
It’s a good time to both reap what you’ve sown and sow again well.
Timing can help you work smarter, not harder
It’s like the difference between taking a lunch break and quitting your job.
Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Seven of Pentacles. It picks up on a thread from yesterday’s Ace of Cups. Remember how there was a sense of a seasonal shift in season toward a quieting to balance peak summer. You have to give the seeds time to grow before the harvest can happen.
The same idea applies generally, not just to medieval farmers on Tarot cards. Persistence is important. Perseverance is a key to success.
The other day I was browsing the Psychology Today website (as one does) and stumbled on a review of Angela Duckworth’s book Grit: The Power of Passion of Perseverance by Michael Page. Angela Duckworth is a psychologist who studied the psychology of success. She listed the qualities exemplified by successful people in a wide variety of careers and industries. According to the review, grit was defined as perseverance combined with passion and it was more often present then talent or genius. Grit and persistence topped genius and giftedness.
The seven of pentacles is reminding us to protect our grit.
There is a difference between a pause or a short rest and giving up altogether.
The occasional pause to rest and reevaluate is as essential to success as the passion part is essential to the persistence part to create Duckworth’s grit of success.
Blindly, rigidly plowing ahead keeps us from adapting and it can be a recipe for burnout. Even if you manage to persist through the burnout, you lose the passion that is equally a part of the overall success.
This strikes me as the yang side of the four of swords’ rest and contemplation vibe. The four of swords is inwardly contemplative. This card, the seven of pentacles is more outwardly focused, evaluating and assessing and re-evaluating more than meditative. It’s physically quiet but mentally active. This kind of rest is full of evaluation, planning and mentally preparing for the next step (as opposed to more active preparation advice that you might see with the three of wands)
Pentacles represent our relationship to wealth, career, and the physical realm. It is only fitting that a pentacle card would remind us to preserve a key element of long term success.
Take a pause, protect your grit, then get back to persisting.
Thank you so much for reading and listening! Your likes, subs, shares, follows, questions and comments are always appreciated!
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See you at the next sip!
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Today: 7 of pentacles. Feedback is a gift that is payed forward.
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee
Today’s card is the seven of pentacles.
The energy environment has been trying to tell us something for the past few days. We are being asked to pay attention.
If this message came from the major arcana, it would come thundering in on the Chariot card. This is a very similar sort of message but with less hoopla. The Chariot is about being in the present moment and paying attention to your surroundings in the way a test pilot might. Keep your head where you are at or risk slamming into the side of a mountain at mach 1.
Today’s energy is more low key. It is more earthy, grounded, and less urgent, but still important to our well being. You can’t be on Chariot level high alert all of the time. It is important to be present and pay attention to pleasant things too.
I am reminded of that scene from the 1994 version of The Crow with Brandon Lee where Eric Draven said that “Little things used to mean so much to Shelly. I used to think they were kind of trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial.” Today’s energy reminds us that little things mean a lot and are worthy of our attention.
Instead of a test pilot level “pay attention” message, this is more of a whistling teakettle level of “pay attention” For some reason the word “hygge” (forgive me, I’m not sure how to pronounce it) Comfort comes to mind. Like a cold morning in wooly socks and fixing a cup of your favorite tea kind of comfort. Or in my case this morning, cinnamon spiced coffee.
Yesterday, the king of cups asked us to listen to the subtle hints from intuition. Today the seven of pentacles is asking us to soak in the subtle hints on the physical level.
A few key words for this card include assessment, feedback and planning. That takes information first of all, and attention to things both big and small to do.
It may seem a little self-serving, but the feedback part especially caught my attention.
I had been reading product reviews for something I’d like to get, and it amazes me how tantrum-ish and emotive so many of them are. There wasn’t much substance to many of them. One, however, got my attention. It gave specific details, point by point, how the item differed from the description and made it lesser value for the money spent.
I appreciate what that person said, both as a consumer and as a service provider.
You know that meme that says kindness costs nothing so sprinkle that stuff everywhere? The same is true about feedback. I’ll admit, I delete the eternal spambot surveys from big box stores that are probably going to ignore it anyway, but I try to give feedback for small or local businesses whenever they ask. It costs just a few minutes of time and might be a legitimate help to someone. Thoughtful feedback, attention to little pleasures in life, giving a little time and attention to the mundane everyday things is a gift to the people that receive that information. Thoughtful, calm, kind feedback is a gift that is payed forward when that information is used to make things better for everyone.
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See you at the next Sip
Thank you for listening, watching and reading TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your favorite beverage. Mine is coffee. Thank you all for your support through the virtual coffee tip mug, and all of your likes, subs, shares, and follows. I appreciate you and I am glad you are here.
Today’s card is the seven of pentacles:
Typically, the pentacles are work, career, practical real-world related ideas. Today the energy is more thoughtful than usual. Overall, it feels connected to the Hermit energy that came through for the Quiet Night post a few weeks ago. I’ll link to the blog post in the show notes for those of you listening through the podcast.
Speaking of the podcast – I’m really loving this text to speech automatic conversion thing wordpress and anchor fm has going. It puts the best of me – my writing – into the podcast. I know some people don’t like the robot voice, but I’m just cyberpunk enough to enjoy letting Siri’s second cousin Remy do the heavy lifting with the narration thing.
But back to the seven of pentacles
When I was very young, my father was manager of a local retail store in a small Appalachian town. Other than a mechanical cash register I don’t think they had calculators much less any sort of computer. Every January, it was common for businesses like that to close for a few days in January to take inventory of all of their goods and to go over the books and reconcile everything and who knows what all. I just remember it was a lot of work and a few very long days for dad. They always had inventory clearance sale to get as much stuff out of the store before starting that whole process. That was always a big thing, It’s how I got my favorite mickey mouse umbrella. Yay clearance sales!
There is a little bit of that kind of energy here.
Tarot cards, especially these one card daily meditations, are more helpful when they are put into context.
In a larger, multiple card layout, you get context from the client’s questions and concerns combined with the layout as a whole. That’s why multiple card layouts are more difficult and time consuming to do. Not only do you have more individual cards to interpret, but you have more connections and context to knit together too.
In a single card draw, you can get context from purely intuitive cues, but also, as is the case here, from the environment around you. My attention is drawn to the cold weather, the snow I can see out the window, the time of year, and that memory of inventory time. The context for this card is, in a way, the time of year.
All things considered, I think this card is telling us it is inventory time.
If the part about clearance sales and mickey mouse umbrellas appeals to you, then yes, maybe it is time to clean and clear and let go, as is traditional at new years, including next week’s lunar new year.
Happy Year of the Tiger by the way.
I see a greater energy flowing toward the inventory part. It is a very introspective energy, again it feels similar to the Hermit energy. Today feels like a good time to stop, take a deep breath and take account. What is the realistic situation around you? What are your hopes and aspirations, really. When you dig down to the root of it all, what is the cause, what the reason behind what you hope and dream and do. What resources do you have at hand? What seeds do you need to plant? What seeds do you need obtain to plan to plant later when spring comes?
It’s not a time to beat up on yourself for falling short of goals. But it may be time to make new ones. Sometimes you have to count your ducks before you worry about getting them in a row.
A deep breath and a little mental quiet time can help figure it all out.
Thank you again for reading, watching and listening. See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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