The tiny little sliver of my brain that tries to understand business and marketing and convince people to get their Tarot readings with me thinks that the name changes and re-branding and re-re-branding is…what’s that technical term? Bonkers. It’s bonkers.
Tarot is not a normal business and the best I can do is let you know I do affordable readings, email is my specialty, and I have very affordable prices. Especially for the no appointment needed email readings that are the best thing I do.
It’s true.
The more comfortable a psychic is as they work, the better psychic reading you get. When we are in a comfy happy place we can put all of our bandwidth on the reading and not have to worry about other details, like uncomfortable social silences while we listen to intuition / spirit, for example.
I don’t know what possessed me to make the switch to Sage Words Tarot except as a smoke screen to soften my political rhetoric (Christian nationalism is dangerous, vote for Harris/Walz on November 5) and maybe protect our privacy from said Christian evangelical white nationalists.
Vote as is your life and our democracy depends on it, because it does. That’s fact, not Tarot, not intuition.
Long story short – welcome back to TaoCraft.
One more change before we can settle in and get to some serious coffee sipping:
Pause the video if you need time to think. Restart to see the reveal
The Hierophant: The energy is a little toxic this week. Know when to lay low and when to fight the power. Camouflage is a legitimate tactic. Guard your boundaries regarding social norms and institutional authorities.
Three of Cups: You are dealing with the same energy zeitgeist but have more leeway to be direct and open, to take the bull by the horns, so to speak. You do you, but don’t forget to keep friends and support close at hand for validation if you need it.
I don’t know if this is true everywhere, it may be a fairly local read – local meaning the U.S. at the moment. There is an enormously important election soon, there have been natural disasters, the change of seasons (or for some the hot-as-heck summer that just won’t quit), a comet, freakishly southern northern lights: It’s all screaming climate change, both literally and metaphorically. The energy out there is, for lack of a better term, weird.
I think the foundation of both cards’messages is how to deal with that weird, general, Zeitgeist, collective energy. It reminds me a little bit of the run up to the pandemic – big looming energy on the horizon that isn’t a personal or individual crises but can feel that way. Sensitive intuitions may be resonating strongly right now. If you feel like something’s not quite right but can’t put your finger on what it is, or if you feel like you are reacting with more fear, anxiety, or emotion than usual that could be outside energy pushing on your psyche. It’s like when the sound of a tuning fork of one frequency can cause a bell or another tuning fork of the same to vibrate too.
I have logical reasons for this that may be intruding on this intuitive read, but the good news is this isn’t covid related. My guess is that this uncomfortable energy is being driven by the election. There is an old saying that when the US catches a cold the rest of the world sneezes. Lately it feels more like if the meth lab that is the US explodes, the rest of the world will get flaming debris landing on their roof.
If there is a single carry away message for this week – this coming month really – it is to pay attention to your personal energy and where it touches the outside world. Pay attention to how opaque vs transparent the boundary is. Over sharing feels dangerous. Choose your battles, but fight bravely when do engage. Guard your energy, and feed it when needed. Get support and validation when you need. Isolate if that is what you need to be healthy, protected and strong.
During re-entry from orbit, the Apollo astronauts experienced radio communications blackout for a few minutes. I feel like that is where we are in this election energy thing. It feels like we are locked in and whatever is going to happen is going to happen. The cake is backed, the spam is in the can, and we are surrounded by the ionizing atmosphere of re-entry headed toward splash down.
I just hope it is a good landing that we can all walk away from.
Take care of yourself, and each other.
Watch this space. I plan to be back Wednesday with something much happier and more fun for Spoopy Season.
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
I am LOVING this cooler weather, which means its cool enough to fire up the oven and bake something.
Believe it or not life isn’t all Tarot and out there in the world is where the rubber meets the road with intuitive and psychic learning. What’s the good of it if it doesn’t make everything else a little better? And Tarot can’t make other stuff better if there is no other stuff in the conversation.
I promised you occasional exclusive content, and I want to make good on that promise…with some non-Tarot fun stuff. This month’s “ko-fi challenge” is to share things that give you creative joy. You already know the creative joy of Tarot. Now I’d like to share some of the other little things that bring joy – creative and otherwise – to life for me. It may bore you to tears, and it certainly isn’t the right thing for everyone. I’m sharing these things not because you should do them, but as a little incantation – a little wish that you find the things that bring the same joy to you whatever that joy-bringer is for you. Today, my joy-bringer is baked tater tot hot dish
Y’all know my politics, especially if you follow me on Threads (also reverted to the @TaoCraft handle) And if there is any way on earth to entice me to donate to a political campaign it would be to offer a recipe in return. So who am I to turn down a chance to peep Tim Walz’ hot dish recipe.
Not disappointed in the donation one bit, but the recipe needed a little work. Sorry Tim, but if I have beer in the house Imma drinking it, not boiling onions and brats in it. But it does have plenty of cheese which is the important thing.
Every time I hear them give a speech or see them interact with the public, the more I appreciate, respect both Vice President Harris and Governor Walz. I mean listen to them and LOOK at their eyes and faces. This is real deal compassion and leadership. Governor Walz is amazing and does a million things super well, but I suspect cooking isn’t one of them. Hopefully Kamala will sort that detail out. I am 100% down with her turkey roasting method that went social media viral in 2020. Put those two in charge PRONTO.
Please donate if you can while you are there. It truly is existential. If you have any regard for spirituality or Tarot or ANYTHING other than authoritarian white Christian nationalism, you are in their culture war cross hairs. It is my deepest wish that we all have a happy, healthy, prosperous, well-fed future from this present moment on.
Interactive Tarot: use your intuition to make your card choice and get your Tarot message for today
High Priestess: Read between the lines. Look for the mysterious wrapped up in the obvious. Know the real story before snapping to judgement or jumping into action.
Seven of Wands: Life isn’t all smooth sailing. Conflicts happen, so this card is as much about HOW you handle them, not if they will happen. When the inevitable hiccup happens, handle it with compassion, humor, and style. Bring the logic, kindness and all the rizz you can muster.
The website might be a little redecorated, BUT email private Tarot readings are OPEN. Private Tarot readings by email are my specialty and I have 30 years of Tarot experience to bring to YOUR private reading.
Order HERE 24/7, no appointment needed. Most readings get to your inbox within 24 hours.
Sage Sip Members get FREE one card email readings at your request (up to 3 per calendar month – $15 value for $5 monthly membership) PLUS discounts on larger layouts and exclusive ko-fi blog content.
Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
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New loot* from publishinggoblin.com and Seven Dane Asmund’s recent Kickstarters. With its consistent, stellar quality I recommend Seven Dane Asmund’s work. The story and lore he’s woven around the Alleyman / Alleyway card decks is almost burgeoning mythology. I’m looking forward to working with this new deck, just like the Alleyman’s Tarot has been a delight from the moment it arrived. It really is a masterful deck. It is the Stradivarius of Tarot decks. I suspect this is the equivalent in Oracle decks, or at least one of the best.
I suspect one of the things that raises it a notch above others is the way it lifts up and promotes the collective of artist who contribute to the deck. I see you, Seven. Bringing all of this together and giving the artists all due recognition, the storytelling of the Alleyman lore and podcast, the quality of the physical products…all of it together is genius. Respect.
Intuitively I feel pulled to do this a little differently. Instead of a methodical “learn with me” series like we did with the Publishing Goblin’s Oracle Dice. Let’s just jump in with both feet and USE this thing for daily meditation readings. I began reading cards with an Oracle deck (Medicine Cards by David Carson and Jamie Sams) There was nothing methodical there – just a Fool-like step off the cliff while still tethered to the guidebook. A sort of psychic bungee jump, it wasn’t until after I switched to the classic RWS that I began to really understand how card symbolism and pure intuition worked together. It might be fun to take the jump in and have at it approach but bring that hard-won understanding and years of experience along for the ride.
I hope you’ll join me. We’ll explore the deck together, but without a plan. You never know when or where you’ll meet the Alleyman.
*Not shown the other two death card enamel pins. They are already gifted to my son the scare actor. So proud. (shout out to Hundred Acres Manor – check them out if you are around Bethel Park PA this fall!)
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
The light that you shine is a reflection of the star that guides you.
I’m currently reading The Witches Coin by Christopher Penczak. In it he writes:
“The way you look at the world is the way the world looks back.” and “how you see the world is how the world sees you.”
This reminds us of the two way flow, the interconnection between our inner intentions and the outer world. Affirmations, actions all conspire to co-create the world we desire.
Like attracts like. Birds of a feather flock together.
The Star is traditionally a card of hope and success. Today it feels like a promise. If you look for good, you’ll find it. If you look for connection, you’ll find it because if you make that the lense through which you see your world, that is how the world will see you, attracting like-minded people and like-energy circumstances to you.
Choose well the star that guides you because that is the light by which the world sees you – and the kind of world you will see.
Sage Sips members get longer, detailed one card readings by email included in the membership along with discounts on larger layouts, special offers and exclusive content. Join HERE.
Anyone can order private Tarot readings by email or video 24/7 no appointment needed HERE.
KISS as in “keep it simple stupid.” I frequently have to remind myself of that timeless little piece of advice. This summer definitely has a “keep it simple” vibe so far.
Just like pulling weeds from a garden, things grow better when the weeds are out of the way. It’s a clarion call to clarity if you will. Open spaces and clean energy are a path to prosperity.
And apparently also alliteration.
When it’s brutally hot out, when it is summer solstice and maximum yang, that calls us to adapt and respond with maximum yin. Think watermelon at a summer picnic – a very yin food to nourish and comfort on a very yang day.
It feels like a season of relentless simplification and lightening our load. I’m thinking Ten of Wands energy: Put down the unnecessary and get out of your own way.
I’ve been given the advice to reintroduce myself and my work periodically. It’s a chance to welcome new followers and thank The old ones. The change of seasons seems to be the natural time to do that. Summer solstice is in two days, so this is as good of a time as any to say hello for the season.
This long post is everything all in one go. I know I’ve been harping on re-introductions, explanations and promotions a lot lately – but writing it all down has helped me to organize and, you know, simplify. Sometimes writing is as much a process of self-discovery as it is an act of self-expression. Thank you all for your patience with that process. There will be less promotion and more Tarot content moving forward I swear!
Here we go:
Meet Your Reader
I’m Sage and I’ve been reading cards since 1993, professionally since around 2003. I started with online work under my old internet handle “Baihu” on Keen, Advice Trader, and AllExperts. After that I worked independently with my old website modernoracletarot.com and its blog Tarotbytes. In 2018 there was transitional rebranding to TaoCraft Tarot. Since 2023 everything is under the name Sage Words Tarot on the website and socials. My current blogs areSage Sips and Sage’s Other Words.
Free, Three, One
In addition to the free general audience Tarot readings on the blog and socials, I offer private distance readings in THREE layouts, THREE formats and THREE prices. No appointment is needed for distance readings.
I offer ONE live reading in ONE format at ONE price, by appointment only.
Sage’s Sip (one card meditation) for general advice, food for thought or a highly focused follow up to a recent larger reading with me – $5
Eclipse (three card pathway) shows fading energies, current message, and growing energies. Shows the path you are on – $15
TaoCraft (five card full layout) gives your energy path like the eclipse layout but adds pivot point (advice & choices) plus an alternate path cards – $30
Seasonal and Special Request
Available by special request or seasonal special offers.
Email format only
To request one of these when they are off season, please contact me
Modern Oracle – (seven cards) the same features as the TaoCraft layout plus additional “helping energies” and “potential challenges” cards – $40
Year Ahead (five cards) one theme card for each of the four seasons ahead and an advice card for the year as a whole – $25
Time Flow (four cards) designed to help us get organized: Let it rest, let it go, line it up, and let it flow.
Formats
Email: Pdf document sent to your email that includes a photo of your real world cards, a detailed explanation of the cards and a psychic summary with crystal energy and intuitive aromatherapy suggestions
Private share video: video reading files are too large to attach to an email. Pre-recorded video readings are privately shared with you through my YouTube channel and can only be accessed through the link that I will email ONLY to you.
InkMagick: pen and paper handwritten reading sent by USPS available to US residents only. Available in one and three card layouts. Members discounts are not available for InkMagick physical paper readings.
Schedules in advance – no same day appointments are available
Five Card format only – $30
Includes follow up email and photo of your real world layout
Membership
Sage Sips memberships are through my ko-fi page – join here
$5 per month
Members receive up to 3 FREE one card Sage’s Sip Tarot readings by email per calendar month, discounts on larger and seasonal layouts, random special offers, DM access and occasional exclusive content.
REMINDER: members please request your monthly free readings through ko-fi DM or by contacting me here (link above)
Ask Me Anything
Ask any question through the Ask Me Anything website page and get a FREE answer as a blog post (not a private response) Spam and inappropriate questions are deleted and blocked.
Party and in-person readings are currently closed.
All policies and disclaimers apply to all readings in all formats. You can read the details here, including appointment policies for the live readings.
In short, this is a customized, ephemeral folk art service. No refunds or exchanges are available. These readings are intended for personal enrichment, entertainment, general advice and as a spiritual practice. They do not predict the future. No medical, legal or third party questions please.
Accepted payment: PayPal via ko-fi checkout for distance readings. PayPal invoice for live readings.
Valid email required to participate.
There you have it. Welcome everyone. I appreciate all of you. Thank you so much for reading!
See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee (or whatever beverage you like this time of day)
Private Readings by email / recorded video are OPEN, no appointment needed.
Three of Swords: The first step in healing a broken heart is acknowledging it exists. It’s ok not to be ok. You don’t have to be ok. You only need to be. Moment by moment, day by day it slowly gets better. Dharma Drum Mountain gives the best advice I’ve ever seen for dealing with heartache and problems.
Face it
Accept it (accept it is real, not that it is right – more on that later)
Deal with it
Let it go
Nine of Pentacles: It’s a good place. It’s a good day. It’s OK to be OK. You don’t have to be broken. You don’t have to be overjoyed. You might be (or be on the road to being) one of the lucky ones. At the same time, you don’t have to be anyone else’s savior either. You only need to be. The good things around you will take care of the rest.
The Wheel of Fortune: Up or down, we are all riding the same wheel. As the wheel of life turns, your direction up or down depends on which way you look. Shift your perspective and you are suddenly moving toward instead of away from and vice versa.
Even with your choice, this is still a collective energy reading. You get to choose which card was for you, but the card’s message was still drawn from the larger, Zeitgeist, collective energy today.
Choosing to participate at all led you to the three descriptions together. If one of the other interpretations matches you better – that’s OK too!! The process still brought you to a message that resonates with you. That’s what really matters. Keep eyes and ears open and your right message will find you, one way or another.
Want a truly personalized, private, just-for-you reading? Email and recorded video readings are open now – no appointment needed, prices from $5 to $30 total cost, no hidden fees or per minute rates.
Email readings have a picture of your individual real-world card layout. Videos show your cards being drawn. No matter whether I type it or say it – you get the same reading and the same message. It makes no difference to the process if I say it to a mic, type it on a keyboard to tell you live on a phone call. The words are the same regardless of how the words get to you.
Ask Zombie Cat anything (link below) to get a free Tarot reading answer in the blog.
Happy Pride Month! I hope you know by now that this is a lgbtquia2+ safe space.
We are past the “unofficial” Memorial Day start to summer. It’s officially meteorological summer and hurricane season here in the northern hemisphere.
To make it super-duper official, Zombie Cat is shambling.
Zombie Cat yes/no readings throw caution to the wind and answer any questions you want with the caveat that these readings have at least a 50% chance of being dead wrong. So ask me, I mean, Zombie Cat anything – at your own risk of course. Zombie Cat readings are all tongue in what’s left of his cheek entertainment only.
Zombie Cat shambles through the summer until the equinox. For anyone new since last summer, meet Zombie Cat.
“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly… time-y wimey… stuff.”
– Doctor Who in the “Blink” episode written by Steven Moffat.
There are two words that make me cringe a little when I read (or hear) them in a Tarot question: “Will” and “When”.
Predictions and time are knotty subjects in this work.
Predictions are actually a scientific thing. A scientific prediction is in many ways an expert opinion about what should happen based on existing data and past results. For example, we can predict where in the sky Mars will be a year from now based on laws of gravity, planetary motion, existing observations and so on. As I understand it, that is the kind of “prediction” that a law of physics or scientific principle has to be able to make in order for the principle to be considered valid within the scientific method.
Science spends so much time and energy bashing and demeaning “psychic predictions” when they are, in essence, the same as the scientific kind of predictions. The psychic reader is an objective observer, knows human nature, and can see trends that the person getting the reading may not see. A Tarot reader can predict where things are going in a relationship just like a scientist can predict where Mars is headed over the next year. The only real difference is psychic predictions are based on non-linear logic and de facto psychology instead of linear logic and hard data.
And that is looking at it from a very superficial, everyday experience point of view. This is Isaac Newton kind of stuff. It’s like predicting that when an apple detaches from the tree, it will fall down. What if we go a just a little bit quantum about it?
In theory, once the experiment is set up and started, the cat could come out of it alive or not. But why not both if you are into zombies? Or neither one if the cat suddenly ceased to exist? Disappearing / Zombie Cat could happen…it’s just extreme magnitudes of unlikely as I understand the BBC Horizon Series’ program “Parallel Universes” (hosted by Dr. Michio Kaku, based on his book “Parallel Worlds”)
When the moment of discovery is still in the future, the possibility and attendant probability exists for all outcomes. In the mysterious and undetermined future, all four conditions exist, even our unlikely disappearing / undead pet. Can you predict which way THAT is headed using nothing but your brain and handful of Tarot cards? If you “predict” the more likely dead vs alive construct, is that psychic or science? If you predict Zombie Cat, is that quackery or was the intuitive vision simply dialed into a different part of a far flung multiverse?
Zombie Cat may well exist out there. We don’t know because multiverses, as the video says, is unproven. No-cat and Zombie Cat might be out there, but they just don’t make the jump from possible to probable to IS, at least not in this world. All potentials exists until “the wave collapses” and the moment becomes NOW instead of future, and then slips instantly into the past. Now and Past are fully collapsed probability waves. They exist – ska-doosh! – done deal, nothing to predict. The future on the other hand, that’s a different animal still.
Now, just to make things really interesting, let’s introduce Zombie Cat to Alice the Vampire.
In the movie Twilight, the psychic vampire Alice could see the future insofar as people have decided what they want to do. If someone changes their mind or changes their action, then her vision changes. She can predict but with uncertainty. Her predictions are predicated on the course people are on, not any one fixed outcome. Alice the vampire’s visions and Zombie Cat’s existence are a matter of probability, not “accurate prediction.” And so it is with Tarot and psychic readings.
Let’s say our cat has human-like intelligence and has a choice rather than being a victim of circumstance as in the classic thought experiment. Using the Einstein gunpowder version of things, what if there was some choice the cat could make or some action it could take that would keep the gunpowder from exploding? What if it could disconnect the fuse? Now how do you make predictions under that set of conditions?
Imagine your psychic vision was of a dead cat? (a 50% probable outcome in the original experiment.) What if the cat heard you make that “psychic prediction” and blew out the fuse when it otherwise wouldn’t have? Was the prediction wrong?
Will you get that job? I dunno. Did you apply for it? Update your resume? Schedule an interview? Check the classifieds for other options? (What has the cat done to keep the powder from exploding) Has the person doing the hiring made any decisions or taken any actions? (collapsed the probability wave)
A reading can’t predict a specific outcome, but it can give you advice and it can help you make decisions that nudge the probabilities of getting the job in your favor such as be flexible (4 of swords), emphasize your skills and experience (The Emperor) or show you’d be a hard working team player (3 of coins). A good advice reading is like the psychic yelling at the cat in the thought experiment bunker to blow out the fuse to improve the chances that it won’t blow up.
When will you get married? I dunno. The future is just as wibbly-wobbly as the Doctor told us. But Tarot can give you ideas about how to bring love and happiness of all sorts of things into your life. Intuition can help you make the best possible choices along the way, not predict what lies at the end of the road.
If you do nothing, take no advice, make no choices, then it is all just a coin toss. You might get anything from an explosion right up to a Zombie Cat. But who knows? Meeting a friendly Tarot reading Zombie Cat might be a lot of fun.
Seriously…meet Zombie Cat at 2015 prices…get your own private three card reading by email HERE ($15) or Ask Zombie Cat ANYTHING and get a FREE ZOMBIE CAT Tarot answer in the blog.
Videos by Minute Physics, via youtube.com creative commons permissions Please watch! I highly recommend them!
Sage Sips blog is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
Does this collective energy reading resonate for you? If not, private readings are available HERE
In this series of “Choose Your Card” posts, we are looking at topics instead of time. Instead of a “Card of the day” or a “look at the week ahead” let this reading guide whatever is on your mind.
At the same time, I’ll frame the reading through the lens of a major arcana card. We can grow our understanding of they major arcana card through the other cards.
I love when things have a little nuance, depth and complexity. This format adds YOUR intuition to the reading because YOU CHOOSE which card carries the best message for you. The lower cards help us understand the upper card and vice versa.
Choose a card.
Pause the video if you need more time to decide.
Restart to see the reveal.
Today’s major arcana companion card is the Magician. The magician often symbolizes manifestation, transformation, attraction. These are all about energy and energy is all about flow.
King of Pentacles: Manifesting money is one thing, but knowing what you want the money FOR is the real magic. If you want money to pay your bills and meet your needs focus on having those things, not on the money itself. Focus on the thing, not the money that helps you get it. More so if that thing the money helps you get is something intangible, one step beyond material things.
For example, think of someone who thinks they want money for an expensive car, but what they really want is the attention the car brings or the self worth that the attention brings. Focusing on manifesting or attracting money won’t be as powerful as focusing on the end product and core issue. In this example, don’t focus on gaining money, focus on gaining feelings of self-worth. Something like that is the real treasure that the Magician manifests and the King of of Pentacles protects.
Nine of Swords: Sometimes worry is worse than useless. Use real world stress management strategies to calm anxiety so your fear doesn’t become self fulfilling prophecy.
In their brilliant 1988 Oracle deck “Medicine Cards” Jamie Sams and David Carson frame the seemingly timid rabbit as a fearless warrior.
A rabbit could easily be paralyzed by fear. Bunnies are small, soft and don’t have a lot of protection. There are a bunch of bigger animals who would love to eat rabbit for dinner. But no. Rabbits use their small size to hide and their speed to run to that shelter. They are alert and literally get the jump on danger by being quick to run. Rabbit lives in happiness and contentment in the middle of a dangerous world by using its strengths which aren’t obvious at first. . Rabbit is a lesson in how to live with fear by facing it and dealing with it without wallowing in anxiety and potentially calling those fears into reality.
The nine of swords, as with rabbit, reminds us to deal with fears in real world ways so we don’t unintentionally activate the magician’s powers and call empty worries to us.
The Fool: A new beginning is the easiest magic of all. Take a deep breath. Remember every moment is a new one. Now begin again.
It’s said that every day above ground is a good one. It is also said that there is no time like the present. Clocks and calendars are man-made inventions. Life and energy is under no obligation to follow them.
There is only one moment: right here and right now. You can use it as a fresh start any time you want.
Thanks for watching and reading! Sage Sips blog is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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