spirituality – Page 4 – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Papa Hierophant

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Or comfy, cool and inside with the air conditioning. Either way, Distance tarot fits any schedule, even a hectic summer one. Sage sips iced coffee on occasion. Enjoy this sip from 2019. Feel free to browse the archives with the search bar to the right or in the menu on mobile.

Some cards come more naturally than others.

Tarot readers are people too, and have our emotional triggers. Some cards push our buttons more than others. Giving a reading touches our hearts and minds as much as getting a reading. The Hierophant card is a challenge for me when it is drawn in full pointy hat christian-heavy regalia. Just not my wavelength. Fairly or not, my life experience and point of view made the RWS Pope look wrapped in rules and judgement. Until – thank you social media – I read a framework for the card that made sense out of it. At the same time I found decks with artwork that fit the new conceptual fit. In short order, the dogmatic, pedantic pope-ish character morphed into a Grandpa.

Think stories by a campfire. Think shamen. Think wise elder. Think teacher. Think Yoda.

Whichever deck we use, when the Hierophant comes into a reading for a client, intuitively, it seems to take one of those two tracks, whichever best suits the client’s needs I assume. It either vibes with rules or traditions.

On one hand, it seems to have to do with social conformity, playing by the rules. It is compliance with a Papal Edict. Or, it could have to do with nonconformity, breaking social convention, rejecting other people’s expectations. It seems like the sense of it doesn’t follow whether the card is reversed or not. It seems more triggered by the clients nature. If the client is a natural conformist, then it seems to nudge toward being their own person, pushes them a bit toward freer thinking. If, on the other hand, the client is naturally a freethinker, or a rule-bender, then it may be a nudge to “play by the rules” a little more in some respect.

Now that the ‘keeper and teacher of traditions’ notion has crossed my path, it comes through at times even if I happen to be using the RWS deck. It seems to come through with that energy at times when the client is feeling a little uprooted, or disconnected, emotionally or spiritually orphaned somehow. When this is the energy, the Hierophant is a call to join the circle, learn of the past, learn of roots and connections. Just as we are each our own best minister or pope, we are at times our own hierophant, finding and adopting our own spiritual tradition on a path apart from our past or upbringing. Either way, it is about learning a new pattern.

It is a pattern of twos, of balance, in understanding the Hierophant. Comply with rules or find your own path. Embrace or rediscover your tribe and deep traditions or celebrate your initiation into a tribe of one, of you. Either way, the Hierophant is teaching us our path and spiritual tradition.

We’re gonna need a bigger boat

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“Going with the flow” sounds relaxing, doesn’t it?. More often than not, the six of swords carries that kind of energy. Most of the time it talks about healing, progress, transition and placid waters ahead.

It isn’t always that way.

A roller coaster is going with the flow of gravity. A kayak expert in class V rapids is going with the flow too.

The more insane the spins, the stronger the current, the flowing it takes. Going with the flow can be quite a ride sometimes. Going with the flow can seem like crazy advice when life is at its most turbulent.

But on the other hand, can you imagine fighting a current like that?

Sometimes, it is OK to seek out a little comfort, sameness and nostalgia. It can be the bigger boat you need to flow with the fast waters of stressful times.

Which is why I’m going back to my emotional support cup of coffee. See you at the next sip!

Summer hours update:

I’ve been trying to give myself a little patience and grace as TaoCraft Tarot transitions from “freelance business” status to “it’s a hobby”. As it stands now, I don’t do in-person or other live readings. I still do private readings by email (let’s face it – those are my best readings anyway)

What all of that means is that the posting schedule will be more erratic than ever.

BUT

Private readings by email never needed a schedule in the first place. Order anytime. The delivery window is 48 hours but it’s worth it to get the equivalent of a one hour Tarot reading for about half of what most one hour live sessions would cost.

The proceeds from private email readings, ko-fi memberships, and ko-fi virtual coffees all go toward creating and webhosting Sage Sips as an inspiration and lifestyle Tarot blog.

Weekend Oracle: Keep Clearing

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This is a direct continuation of the energy we saw in the Action Eases Anxiety: Clear Away post from Wednesday

“Keep cutting away the unnecessary to find (and protect) the blessings beneath” Precision and minimalism are your allies. It is a time for scalpels, not sledgehammers.” Intuitively comes through here.

The key point of this card, as I understand it, is that personal growth is a double edged sword. The reversal of the card feels significant here, pointing toward shadow work in particular. It is painful to face the darker side of ourselves, but leads to peace and emotional health in the long run.

Shadow work is the emotional equivalent of a blade that cuts through our defenses causing painful feelings – but opening the way to calmer, more peaceful, more fulfilling emotions as well.

“We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.”
Alan Watts

This is the same energy seen in the Heart and the Crane Lenormand cards from our previous reading. Cut away the excess. Clear away the unneeded. Love exists, whole and complete but obscured, just like the beauty within Michelangeo’s sculpture:

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”
Michelangelo

In this orientation, the sword on the Blessings oracle card resembles the Ace of Swords, which is associated with clarity and truth among other things. The Lenormand reading, the Oracle reading and the hinted-at RWS tarot card all point toward the same basic idea: simplify, clarify, do the hard personal growth work to uncover the obscured now and it will reveal great benefit in the end.

You can be yourself with me. Happy pride month!

Deck: Alleyway Oracle of Secrets by Seven Dane Asmund used with permission from Publishing Goblin LLC

Weekend Oracle: Progress

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“Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.”
Noam Chomsky

Even though it is a long holiday weekend here in the US, it may feel like a continuation of the week with all of the travels and get-togethers and summer kick-offs and whatnot.

Maybe it is because of rumors of a new covid strain just as the vaccine program is being sabotaged. To be honest, this might be a projection on my part, but I think a little bit holds true for the collective energies as well.

It doesn’t feel peaceful. It feels like we are being thrown into dynamic, change-filled energy. Again.

One keyword for the Eight of Wands is “progress.” Progress is impossible with out change, without movement. Progress in any direction is still progress.

If you are moving toward failure, great! At least there is something to be learned.

If you are moving away from failure, great! At least you’ve learned from the situation and are making corrections.

If you are moving toward something better, great! Savor the moment.

If you are not moving much at all, great! At least you are getting a chance to rest and recharge. Enjoy it.

Change is a part of life and living. There is always the potential for progress.

The blog will be quiet over the holiday weekend and any reading orders will go out May 27, 2025 or after. Have a happy and safe weekend everyone! See you at the next sip!

Action Eases Anxiety: Trust Fall

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The “Action Eases Anxiety” layout is inspired by the sentence-like quality that Lenormand style tarot readings tend to have. We’ve talked about that before in he “learn with me” series about Lenormand

In this layout, the left card functions as the subject of the sentence. It is the thing that is, be it your current situation or our shared energy environment.

The right card is like the verb in a sentence, the action, the thing to do now that might help the situation – or at lease easy your worry a tiny bit.

Today, the mental image that came with both cards is an advertisement where a person goes “trust fall” and falls backward into a huge pile of dried plants to demonstrate the plant stems and leaves that they don’t use in their select flower-only suppliment.

As much as I like that product, I’m not here to endorse anything. The trust fall bit of it is the key to the intuitive image.

“When things seem terrible, it can feel impossible that they will get better. if the future is too big for a leap of faith, then all you can do is take a trust fall into the present moment.” comes through here.

The “what it is card” is the bouquet. If today isn’t stressed, enjoy the beauty of it. Enjoy the moment. If you are feeling stressed, try to sort out what of the stress is rooted in the past and future. Try to see the present moment for what it is. Look around you. Are you in life threatening danger? If you are – then you aren’t reading this. If that’s the case you have bigger things to do than read blogs and scroll social media. So if you are seeing this, stop: Take in this moment for what it is. Stop and smell the flowers the bouquet card is offering. It also reminds me of that quote attributed to Mark Twain “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, the most of which never happened.”

What it is is not so bad when you eliminate the parts that are actually worries about a future that may never happen.

What to do is the Clover card. It is a card of luck. The doing is simple in this case. Simple, but easier said than done when anxiety is raging. Acknowledging and accepting that things aren’t so bad and are getting better. When anxiety or sadness is raging in your brain, it’s hard to feel as lucky as you really are.

Acknowledging your luck attracts it to you.

Tell yourself that you are lucky.

Blind, rote, repeated affirmations even when you don’t feel them isn’t going to magically manifest the thing you want. They won’t do that even if you do feel it. But what that can do is bring your feelings and your energy into better alignment with the flow of things and help you find what you really need, even if it is different from your original desires and expectations.

You are lucky, it is just a matter of finding it. And it may look like something you never in a million years imagined.

Thanks for reading!

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Cheating at Choosing

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Week Ahead Tarot is an interactive reading. Pause the video & choose your card. Restart the video to see the reveal, and get your reading in the description below the video. YouTube and the socials get a very short reading. The reading in the TaoCraftTarot.com blog, the Ko-Fi blog and the Substack newsletter are usually a little longer, with more background explanation and detail.

Q: Why do you show the cards at the end? Isn’t there some way to hide it? It goes so fast to pause. Isn’t it cheating if I choose my card after I see them both?

A: In Shorts, Reels, Tik Toks, or any short format video, it can be hard to read the instructions and pause in time before the cards are flipped. Especially if you are on an older device or have some lag for any reason.

But that’s just a glitch in the experience, not a problem with the reading itself.

Contrary to what you may think, seeing the card first isn’t cheating….it’s doing it the hard way. Choosing between two cards you can’t see operates on pure intuition and instinct almost subconsciously. When you can see the cards, you have to use your intuition more consciously and deliberately.

If you choose after you see the pictures, you suddenly have a bigger intuitive job to do because you add in the options of BOTH or NEITHER.

Of course, no matter when you choose, in the end you still have to use discernment along with intuition. You have to decide if the message is right for you or not. You have to decide whether you should take it to heart of let it go by.

The important thing is that all of the ways of choosing a Tarot card are equally valid, because in the end, it is still YOU making the choice.

Thanks so much for your question!

See you at the next sip!

Week Ahead Tarot: Steady Face Value

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Pause the video if you want more time to think. Think of a question, or simply think of guidance for the week ahead. Choose your card, then restart the video to see the reveal and get your reading below:

KING OF PENTACLES: If life has been chaotic, this is a reassurance that stability will slowly return. If life has been steady, don’t force change. All is as it should be, at least for now.

Take advantage of the steady, low key energy environment to get mental, emotional and spiritual rest as much as physical rest. This isn’t Hanged Man major arcana energy. This isn’t a sign of unhealthy stagnation no matter how frustrated you may feel with the pace that things are moving. Take advantage of this pace before things pick up and start moving – perhaps sooner than you think.

SIX OF CUPS: Consider taking things at face value this week. For better or worse, sometimes things really are what they are.

In other words, don’t make things harder than they really are. It’s OK for things to be easy. That doesn’t make them less valuable. People tend to complicate things or make them harder because we think the hard work or complexity somehow makes the result more valuable somehow. That very tendency is why simple and easy with no ulterior motives is a beautiful thing. Enjoy it when comes along.

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See you at the next sip!

Weekend Oracle: Vibe Check

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It will probably be majorly cringe in a few years. Saying cringe will be cringe. Still, vibe check is my current favorite way to describe what these collective energy Tarot readings really do.

It’s a vibe check for your next few days. If you are reading this, those next few days are a weekend. If you are reading this in the timelessness of cyberspace who-knows-when, then it applies even more. If this post and this card caught your attention, no doubt it is for some reason or another.

These “one card daily meditation” readings, be it with tarot or with Oracle cards, aren’t a prediction. They just let you know the energy environment around you. It’s a check of the vibes you’ll be dealing with and maybe give you some idea about how to best navigate those vibes over the next day or so.

Meanwhile, the NO! card reminds us that no is a complete sentence.

Help when you can…be kind always…but kindness extends to yourself too. Don’t Don’t put your responsibilities on others or expect the universe to hand you the good life on a silver platter, but at the same time, don’t take on responsibilities that aren’t really yours to carry.

In Tarot card terms, think ten of wands energy. This is a good weekend – or a good few days at any time – to think about the times you need to say no. Or as Scisavage says on instagram, “protect your peace”

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See you at the next sip!

Deck: Oracle of Secrets by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC

Daily Meditation Tarot

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Available for purchase in the TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi shop

May is both National Meditation Month and National Mental Health Awareness Month.

Tarot has a part to play in both, especially in the form of one card daily meditation style Tarot readings.

I explain how to start your own daily meditation Tarot practice, which is kind of a misnomer since you don’t have to do it every single day. As I see it, the “daily” part comes from the way the Tarot reading takes a “just for Today” approach, much the same as the Reiki precepts.

By not focusing on personal development, past events, predicting the future or any other thing, drawing a card just for today is very akin to mindfulness meditation.

Tarot in general can be very stress reducing, and have helpful mental and emotional benefits in that way. I’ve seen it dozens upon dozens of times when I was doing in-person readings. The body language was clear as a bell; people’s shoulders would drop, their face would relax, they’d sit back in their chair a little more. Tarot readings offer a degree of healthy mental and emotional relief.

Life is less stressful when we understand the situation a little better or can formulate a plan for moving forward, hopefully both.

Tarot can help with that understanding. Like a meditation practice, when you add up those small, incremental bits of relief it can amount to something larger.

Meditation and mental health advocates have been saying these things for years. Reiki’s “Just for today” precepts is an example. Taoism and Buddhism give us the idea of change and impermanence. Everything is always in motion and change is a part of life. Death, Temperance, The Moon, The Wheel, the Two of Pentacles and other cards carry many of the same ideas.

PeaceTarot can teach you to find this Tarot comfort for yourself, even if you don’t own a Tarot deck. This simple method teaches you how to draw and read a daily Tarot card, gives a peace-themed meaning for every card in a RWS style Tarot deck PLUS three different techniques for choosing a Tarot card meaning if you don’t have a Tarot deck at hand.

PeaceTarot is available as a .pdf download and is available for purchase now from the Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot ko-fi shop

Action Eases Anxiety: Hard Road to Wisdom

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What it is (left)

THE COFFIN: Something has ended. No one decides the depth of that loss for you but you. Grief and sadness are valid emotions. Honor them as you see fit for as long as you need.

The platitude “don’t be sad that it’s over, be glad that it happened” rings as profoundly toxic and wrong-headed here.

No one gets to tell your emotions but you. They are yours to be named, faced, and released in your own good time.

It isn’t a matter of healing. This assumes with great hubris that the processes of grief and loss are unhealthy. The feelings aren’t unhealthy. Processing them, sitting with them, feeling them IS the healthy thing. Suppressing them, bottling them, ignoring them, smothering emotions in toxic positivism….THAT is the thing that needs healed.

It’s hard to trust in the face of profound losses. Fault or blame is of no value. Even if you can’t trust others enough to share your emotions with them, trust yourself enough to feel them, face them – and survive the experience of it.

What to do (right)

THE LILIES: I don’t know how it is in other cultures, but in the Appalachian evangelical culture where I was born, lilies are a common flower for funerals. It has an almost exclusively religious meaning in that context. It was always connected to Christian symbolism like redemption, resurrection, a return of the soul to heaven – a litany of things that hold no truth or significance for me individually.

If those things are meaningful for you here, please, by all means embrace them in any way that they help you.

I think there is another message here, drawn from the general symbolism of giving flowers, any flowers, as a gesture of good wishes. We give flowers as a message of sympathy, condolences, love and support for those who grieve at a funeral, but we also give flowers in celebration of holidays, birthdays. They are a part of weddings for good reasons. This is the energy I see around the lilies card.

It is a reminder of the whole spectrum of human emotions. Flowers are a reminder of all we feel and all that is possible. Loss of any kind is never easy. Grief exists within its own timeline and it exists side by side with all the other emotions in life.

It takes particular strength to choose the flowers of love and compassion from the bouquet of everything that life hands us. Choosing kindness toward your own emotions and that of others is a beautiful flower within our humanity. Choosing compassion in the face of loss is perhaps the hardest thing to do, the hardest flower to grow.

Wisdom is always hard-won.