A Beginning
Tag: taoism
Today’s Tarot: Meditation Comes To You
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
May is both National Meditation Month and Mental Health Awareness Month.
Tarot can play a part in both. This month, I’m returning to where it all began with daily meditation style Tarot readings on the Sage Sips main blog, the Substack and the socials. Your private readings, memberships and virtual coffees all support these free collective Tarot readings.
EIGHT OF PENTACLES: Meditation meets you where you live. It can be found in almost any simple, repetitive task. The mindless can be a portal to the mindful.
I’ve quoted Alan Watts so many times before, but it applies here again – “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.“
True to Tarot, even the earthy, ground oh-so-practical Pentacle cards have a spiritual side. Pentacle spirituality is particularly akin to Zen and Taoist spirituality.
Simple productivity can feed your soul as much as a job feeds your bank account and in turn your stomach. That isn’t to say that your job has to be ultra spiritual. Any work can be of service and finding a job that you love is a treasure beyond money.
Feeling and being productive improves mood: Action eases anxiety, literally.
Easy, repetitive, ‘mindless’ activity is relaxing. No wonder things like knitting, crochet, jogging, hiking, gardening, sports of all sorts are all popular hobbies. Anything that occupies your hands and body while bringing your mind to the moment at hand is meditation. In these million different ways, meditation meets you right where you live if you allow it to be there. Meditation meets you where you live and brings a little mental health help right along with it.
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deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC
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Weekend Oracle: It’s Different
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
May is National Meditation Month. I’m going back to where my blogging began with one card daily meditation readings all month long.
Today’s card is “The Patient” from Seven Dane Asmund’s Alleyway Oracle of Secrets, created by artist “a paranoid zombie” used used here with permissions from Publishing Goblin LLC
Right away the keywords that light up are about “the acceptance of things as they really are, not the version we wished them to be.”
This is a life lesson that comes to us both from Tarot and Taoism. Think of the classic Chinese painting The Three Vinegar Tasters which has been a lifelong philosophical touchstone for me
Very loosely, the figures represent the three major philosophies of ancient China. Confucius finds the vinegar bitter, and his solution is to teach the vinegar makers better knowledge and technique. Buddha finds the vinegar too sour, and his solution is to learn to deal with the unacceptable flavor. Lau Tzu, the mythical writer of the Tao Te Ching just smiles – because the vinegar tastes just exactly like vinegar.
It is what it is and that is exactly as it should be.
That is acceptance. But critically – acceptance is very different than acquiescence.
Just because you acknowledge and accept the harsh reality of a situation does NOT mean that you’ve given in to it. It doesn’t mean that it is impossible to change or to move forward into a new set of conditions.
The first step in solving a problem is accepting that it exists. The next step is to understand – and accept – what the problem really is. Then you can get to solving the problem and fixing things.
Acceptance is a first step, not the end result.
To take a journey of a thousand miles, the first step has to happen.
For the first step to happen, accepting the existence of the journey is required.
May your journey be a happy one this weekend.
The Squirrel Rave This Week (30 March 25)
Hi everyone!
I don’t know what the squirrels have planned, but here is what I’m aiming for this week:
I’ve been putting off making an “introduction” video for my ko-fi page for ages. If all goes as planned, instead of the usual “choose your card” for the week ahead, I’d like to video and upload an intro video welcome message for the ko-fi page that ALSO introduces the new layout.
Inspired by the Taijitu (the name of the famous yin-yang symbol) I wrote the “TaoCraft Taijitu” layout to show three key things for the short term path ahead.
The first card is the Yin card, that symbolizes the energies that are growing in influence or are being drawn into your life. The manifesting / attracting energy is like the black part of the symbol. The growing influence part is like the white dot in the black side of the symbol.
The second card is the Yang card, showing the energies that are or need to be pushed away. That is outward pushing is like the white part of the symbol. The shrinking influence of this energy is like the black dot in the middle of the white field.
The third card puts it all together to show the movement. This card can show the best way to move forward in balance and harmony during the short-term path ahead.
Stay tuned this week to see a video of this new layout in action.
If all goes very well, I hope to post a Wednesday “action decreases anxiety” reading plus a Thursday or Friday “Weekend Oracle” if the squirrels behave.
Happy Sunday – see you at the next sip!
The Way of I Ching
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Please support this free to read blog on ko-fi
Sometimes when I write members-only posts we’ll talk about other forms of intuition and divination. Sometimes it will be something aimed at fun, with no spiritual meaning at all. In this series of member-only posts we are talking about the I Ching or book of changes as a spiritual guide, like Tarot.
Although “Sage Sips” is the more public facing blog name, under the hood the website and such is still TaoCraft Tarot, a name inspired by exoteric Taoist philosophy. Exoteric or philosophical Taoism is just that, a way of living and understanding, not a religion per se. Esoteric Taoism is closer to what we in the west think of as religion and it is often a closed cultural practice. If you would like to learn more about that part of Taoism and many other wonderful things, I highly recommend The Tao of Craft by Benebell Wen.
And no, I didn’t borrow from her title. It was one of those things where I’d been climbing the mountain and when I got to the Taoism meets spiritual ritual part, there was Benebel waiting – we took very different paths to kind of the same words.
Diane Morgan was there ahead of both of us with her book Magical Tarot Mystical Tao, which has been one of the biggest inspirations and influences for my own Tarot work over the years. But I digress, but still whole-heartedly recommend both books.
Openness and inclusion are so fundamental to the exoteric, philosophical type of Taoism that any book written about it is basically accepted as canon...
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Happy New Year 2025
Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee
I’m sitting here with a cup of coffee and a slice of leftover pizza (the breakfast of champions) wishing I had some earth shaking Tarot insight, brilliant read or the year ahead, or at least some good advice to offer.
After the traditional playing of U2’s “New Years Day” I have to admit Bono is right in the lyrics “nothing changes on New Year’s Day”.
You know what is same-est thing about New Years Day? It is the way everything changes on New Years Day – and every other day too.
Shift your inner perception, and the whole universe can look just a tiny bit different.
That being said, I still don’t have any particular wisdom to offer about 2025. I don’t have anything to say about today, except to let it be what it is, whatever it is. If it is exactly like yesterday, that’s OK. If it is a profound new beginning, wonderful! If it sucks in uncountable ways, I’m sorry. I feel you. We just have to hold on to the notion that it will suck a little less eventually. It’s New Years Day, and like any other day, it is whatever it is: joyous, tragic, or kinda average.
One of the things I like about Taoist philosophy is the way it embraces seemingly opposite things as part of a bigger wholeness. Today may be a brand new beginning. Today might be the pit of despair. Today might be a massive hangover. Whatever it is, it is part of the biggest big picture. Whatever it is you are not alone. Whatever today may be, old days are still with us and tomorrow brings another new day. Yet still, today is all we have. Might as well be at peace with it.
Whatever this new year may actually turn out to be, my hope and my wish for all of us is for a time of health, happiness, safety and ease.
Happy New Year, everyone!
If a Tarot reading would help you find your way through New Years Day and all of the other days, I’m here. Distance readings are my specialty, so they are open and available to order all of the time.
Most orders are delivered to your email within 24 hours. I’m not a big business, a scam or a media maven, so I don’t have ‘a team’ It’s just me, my laptop, my cards and my intuition. Sometimes there might be delays depending on the day job, holidays with family, needing to sleep and whatnot.
Thanks so much for reading! Please support this Tarot work: Any virtual coffees or private reading orders support this blog, the free readings on social media and the non-monetized YouTube channel.
Get the most from your holidays – or not.
Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Private readings are OPEN for the holidays.
I doomscroll way too much.
Still, it’s amusing how you can read social media a bit like you read the cards to get a sense of the big picture, zeitgeist, collective energies. To do that you have to keep a meta-analytic mindset and look to the biggest big picture you can intuitively see. To read this level of energy, you have to look at the big picture.
Today’s big picture Zeitgeist is – the big picture. Perhaps perspective would be a better word. I wish I could give credit where credit is very much due, but as always, I can’t find the post I want to tell you about now that I’ve scrolled away from it.
I can’t even remember which platform it was on. Probably BlueSky or Threads (I’m @Sage.Sips on both) In any case the original post that caught my attention was from a small business owner who is stressing over the holiday rush and was told by her friend “It’s a craft show. In CLEVELAND” not to belittle this person’s efforts, but to in that oh-so-bestie way remind her that it wasn’t so earth-shaking when you keep it in the big picture perspective.
German has given the world some very fun and useful words. Zeitgeist is one. Shadenfreude is a personal favorite. Another is gestalt, the whole seen as the sum of its parts and occasionally more.
Mindfulness is like that.
Mindfulness is not just a supreme focus on the present moment or small detail of our current experience alone. It is awareness of the present moment AND the backdrop of the connected everything in which our current present moment experience is happening. Mindfulness and gestalt are connected. Small and large, this moment and eternity, yin and yang…now you know why I named my website and potential book “TaoCraft” in honor of the Taoist philosophies that have so enriched both gestalt and present moment for me over the years.
In her book Magical Tarot Mystical Tao, Diane Morgan reads the World major arcana card as being the gestalt, or a big picture point of view. That has always been my favorite interpretation of the card, even though as a practical matter that isn’t the meaning the World card most often brings. Most of the time it resonates with completion (World is the last card in the major arcana series) good omens, success, generally a “the world is your oyster” feeling. Major arcana cards carry more energy, and to my way of thinking, they all carry two or more potential threads of message. They can mean different things, and can bring one or more of those varying meanings to any given reading.
Every now and then, the World card carries its reminder to look to the gestalt, to remember the biggest picture. That is its energy today.
I want to connect that to the holidays. Usually this time of year is full “Elfcon 1” as they called it in the Santa Clause movie. For reasons beyond my control, it isn’t like that this year. This year the mood is less festive and more middle age INTP genX fresh out of fucks to give. But I’ve learned something important here. Getting the most out of the holidays isn’t about full throttle festivity, unless that is the thing that sparks full throttle joy for you.
It is just as fine to make the most out of the holidays by not making the most out of the holidays. Small, meaningful and thoughtful things ARE making the most out the holidays.
Mindfulness aware of and within the big picture is an excellent holiday gift to give yourself.
Happy Thursday. I hope it is a good one for you.
-Sage
Private readings are OPEN to order 24/7, no appointment needed. Starting at $5, a Tarot reading is an easy moment of mindfulness for you during the holidays, or any season.
“Seasons” look ahead at the coming year are now available. Happy Winter Solstice everyone!
Behind the Scenes: Tarot and Religion
I guess it’s time.
I’ve done my fair share of social media doom scrolling and void screaming over the years. Oddly enough, social media can also be a source of inspiration. Especially if you can pull back and look at big picture trends within your individual feed (not the big platform-wide trending topics.)
Lately I’ve been seeing all the usual tensions between Easter and those of us raised in evangelical fundamentalism who get a little twitchy this time of year. Plus there is a presidential election this Fall here in the U.S. The very real dangers of Christion Nationalistism are (finally!) being recognized. I’ve added what I can on the side of church-state separation. One person called me a “bafflingly atheist Tarot reader.” Well, I am an atheist and I am a Tarot reader. I’ve been planning to write a post like this to un-baffle things a little bit.
Unsurprisingly, I follow a lot of Tarot readers on Threads and Instagram. We are in the business of provoking thoughts so when @pixiecurio (creator of the brilliant Light Seer’s Tarot deck! www.chris-anne.myshopify.com) outright asked for our thoughts about religion and spirituality, I knew it was time for this particular behind the scenes peek.
The root problem, as I see it, is when we use religion and spirituality interchangeably or think of them as being essentially the same thing.
They are not.
No matter how thin a coin may be, it still has two distinct and opposite sides. Both religion and spirituality deal with the intangible mysteries of human life. In that sense, they are part of the same coin, but they approach life’s mysteries in distinct and vastly different ways.
Spirituality is internal and moves from the inside out. Spirituality is our individual, direct experience of life’s mysteries and can be expressed but not taught. A spiritual teacher can lead you to the doorway, but only you can cross the threshold into direct experience and direct understanding. This internal experience directs external behaviors.
Religion is external and moves from the outside in. Religion is a group consensus about life’s intangible mysteries and is taught from one generation to another. The external behavior strives to direct the internal experience.
Rather than two sides of the same coin, I find it more helpful to think of religion and spirituality as two circles of a Venn diagram.
For some people, their group, cultural, external religion is also an expression of their sincere, individual, internal spirituality. In that case, their circles overlap a great deal. For others, like me, the circles don’t touch at all.
Tarot falls 100% within the circle of spirituality and not at all within the circle of religion. Tarot doesn’t touch religion unless there is already some degree of overlap in your individual, personal religion-spirituality Venn diagram.
The original Tarot images emerged in sixteenth century Europe where religious and cultural diversity was less common. The original Tarot decks are rife with Christian images and symbols because at that time, Catholicism was culturally and politically dominant. Their circles had a lot of overlap.
Here, now, the circles need not touch and are still perfectly valid. In 21st century America an atheist Tarot reader is both possible and understandable.
Centuries of use and practice have shown that Tarot is a tool for our spirituality – it is a mechanism that enables our individual understanding and experience. Tarot doesn’t tell you what to think or do. Tarot shows a world of possibilities, options, and guidance. Tarot only serves to enrich our internal understanding.
Tarot is a means of spiritual experience from the inside out, not a means to impose dogma from the outside in. Tarot does not make concrete predictions or impose anything from the outside.
Like Taoism and Buddhism, Tarot concerns itself with living human experience and doesn’t say anything one way or the other about any particular god or gods. Tarot works well with any religion, especially with modern, diverse (and sometimes abstract) Tarot decks.
In 30 years of reading Tarot and Oracle cards, both privately and publicly, I’ve never received the slightest hint of a message for or against any religion. There is never a sense of ‘this is the ultimate truth for everyone.’ Tarot is always individual. Tarot is always well within the realm of the spiritual.
If religion comes up in a private individual reading at all, it is emotional chicken soup. Sometimes the cards will remind the individual to take comfort in their chosen religious practices whatever they are.
With every passing year, religion has become increasingly radioactive as a public topic. I actively avoid religion and politics in my public collective energy Tarot readings. I want my work to be inclusive and compassionate – to the best of my ability I will not allow toxic energies into this blog, this website or any of my readings, even if it comes in the guise of religion.
Religion in the mainstream despises Tarot. Religion despises atheists.
Spirituality embraces both with open arms. There is nothing baffling about that at all.
It’s Not Time Yet
I have plans. Plans within plans.
One of which is to (hopefully) go see Dune 2 this weekend.
Other than that, you would think I would have learned my lesson about the plan thing by now.
I HAD planned to do the first big, juicy behind the scenes post, but it just isn’t happening.
So for realz this time – no schedules, no plans. Intuition doesn’t flow that way. Once again for about the bazillionth time in this lifetime – Taoism proves its wisdom to me.
Here is our behind-the-scenes for today: If you are going to read the energy, you have to flow with the energy. You have to be in harmony with the nature of it – and in harmony with your own nature.
I’ve never surfed, but I imagine that Tarot is energy surfing – to read the waves, you have to ride the waves, flow with the waves, making millions of tiny adjustments to hold your balance along the way.
That.
Let’s do that and see where the waves take us.
Private readings HERE – no appointment needed.
The Way of Zombie Cat
Zombie Cat’s unique way of yes/no Tarot readings. Order your private yes/no with Zombie Cat, no appointment needed
There are lots of ways to do a yes or no reading.
In my experience, the most essential thing is to have a question in mind and keep it mind throughout whatever process you use. It’s the same intention-setting process that Tarot readers use to write a layout. Throwing cards willy-nilly isn’t as helpful as having a clear layout and layout meanings clearly in mind before turning the cards.
For yes/no readings, there are lists of cards that are yes or no, and you do a single card draw for a succinct answer. Some of the lists I’ve seen don’t have much rhyme or reason for the yes or no connotations assigned to each card. I’ve seen some methods that say swords and wands mean no while cups and coins mean yes, which leaves a much shorter list of yes/no associations for the major cards.
Years ago in an intuition development class led by Joy Star, I learned a more complex, interesting and (in my experience) helpful three card method:
Deal the cards into three stacks. Stop dealing to a stack when it gets an ace or 13 cards, whichever comes first.
Three aces means yes
Two aces means maybe, leaning yes
One ace means maybe, leaning no
No aces means no.
Of all the possible yes/no methods, this was my favorite. It’s the only yes/no method I use, but with a couple of minor twists.
Most of the time, once you’ve determined the yes or no, the reading ends there, kind of like one of those Magic 8 ball toys. I add an extra layer of depth to take this reading over and above a simple yes, no, or maybe. I look at the three cards that are showing, whatever the yes/no answer turns out to be. That extra layer of meaning can either help you to support the answer if you are happy with it or give clues on how to change it if you aren’t.
Just like with the five card layout that I wrote in 2003, I want these readings to empower your choices and empower your control over your future through basic cause and effect. I changed the number of aces meaning to align with a three coin toss from Chinese I Ching divination.
The I Ching (Book of Changes) is rooted in Taoist philosophy, and the principle of yin and yang. In the taijitu, the familiar yin-yang symbol, the opposite color dots remind us that anything in its extreme holds the seed of its opposite. In I Ching, three coins are used to determine if any given line is yin, yang, yin “changing” or Yang “changing.” A changing line is one believed to be so strongly yin or strongly yang that it is in the process of changing into its opposite. We can do a “learn with me” later to describe the rest of the I Ching divination process, but the changing line is the only part we need for now.
To bring the changing line concept into Tarot yes/no, I adapted the meanings connected to the number of aces that wind up showing at the end of the three-stack dealing process. If the pattern is akin to a changING line in I Ching, I read it as a changABLE result in the yes/no Tarot layout. A yes-but-changable or no-but-changable answer puts the ball most strongly in your court so to speak. The time and place and energy is extra amenable to you making a real impact on the outcome.
So Zombie Cat does a yes/no Tarot reading this way:
The cards are shuffled holding the question clearly in mind
The cards are dealt into three piles, stopping when there are 13 cards in the stack or an ace appears, whichever comes first.
One ace is a hard no, it may be very difficult to change course
Zero aces is no, but things are easier to change
Two aces is a hard yes, this is the way things are likely to go if you do nothing
Three aces means yes, but can change if you act.
I write these under my Zombie Cat persona, which means the reading takes a more lighthearted, playful tone with plenty of cringe attempts at humor.
Zombie Cat is going to be the member’s special for March. Between now and March 31, 2024 Sage Sip members can get an upgrade to Zombie Cat readings as a substitute for any of the one card Sage Sip readings that are included in the monthly membership.
Non-members can order a zombie cat yes/no readings anytime HERE, no appointment needed. Scroll down through the menu list of readings to find the Zombie Cat layout.
Have a good weekend everyone! See you at the next Sip!
Sage
Zombie Cat doodle – by the author
Cat image from the public domain, modified by the author
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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