Tag: tarot blog

Vestigial but Valuable

I follow a fair few Tarot readers on social media. @MadamAdam is a favorite. He posted the other day about those who accuse online psychics of being unethical or a scams after he had spent five or so years building a brand and business with ethics and authenticity.

Preach.

Of course my first response was to go grumpy granny bat and think about the 30 years I’ve spent working with spirituality, intuition development and card readings including the past 20 + years of brand and business building. Being thought of as a scam after pouring every ounce of professionalism you got into a being of service while getting a little fair compensation, all above board and tax paid….it’s enough to put a twist in any professional reader’s knickers.

I may have lost a great deal in the fame and fortune department by doing things with ethics and authenticity, but I can go on with life knowing that I did it right. A life of authenticity is a treasure all its own. I worked every moment above board, with ethics and transparency. Now that TaoCraft Tarot and Sage Sips is a blog supported by my labors of love and readers like you instead of being a full-on Tarot reading business, it seems a little silly to have such a detailed policy page.

It may be vestigial, but it is still valuable.

Ethics and authenticity aren’t selling points. They are character traits. They are how you do business, perhaps, but also how you live your life – if your authenticity is, um, authentic.

So here is my policy page, almost exactly as it has always been. Authenticity and ethical behavior doesn’t stop just because you stop answering the phone for in-person gigs and shift your focus to email readings.

At least this way you know that the readings you get with me are STILL highest quality, ethical, and above all authentic.

P.S. – the readings are fun and helpful too. Order yours HERE.

Must be 18 or over to purchase private readings

WHAT I DO

  • My Tarot readings are customized, ephemeral folk art consisting of a photo of your unique, real world tarot card layout followed by a written discussion of the cards and a purely intuitive summary of the reading.
  • Readings are delivered as a .pdf or . docx electronic document in an email attachment
  • The Sage Sips blog, Ebooks by Sage Snow and all associated social media are intended for artistry, inspiration, personal enrichment and entertainment only. They do not predict the future.
  • The proceeds from readings, memberships, and virtual coffee gifts on ko-fi all go toward the cost to create and web host Sage Sips blog and the TaoCraftTarot.com website.

WHAT I DO NOT DO

  • I do not predict the future,
  • I do not accept medical, legal or pregnancy questions.
  • I do not read anyone without their knowledge and direct consent. This means I don’t read for you without your request first and I don’t read about anyone other than the person getting the reading.
  • I NEVER approach you individually to offer a reading. If that happens, please report the impostor.
  • The information and services on this website and in my writings do not diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any illness. They do NOT replace professional medical care, mental health care or qualified professional advice in any way.
  • No free or sample readings
  • I do not accept any liability of any kind. Use these artistic services or the information contained therein 100% at your own risk.
  • Beginning January 2025 the business portion of this website that offered phone, online, party and in person Tarot readings has closed.

DISCLAIMER, REFUNDS, EXCHANGES

  • Tarot is highly customized ephemeral art, so no refunds, exchanges or replacement are available.
  • Contacting me or making a a ko-fi purchase indicates your agreement with all policies and disclaimers.
  • Again, use at your own risk. No liability of any kind is implied or accepted.

PRIVACY

  • Your privacy is a top priority. In order to create and customize your reading, I collect basic contact information including but not limited to name, age, email, reading topic or question, etc. No information is shared except with your permission or in cooperation with legal authority.
  • Example readings or Q&A readings in the blog are used with the questioners knowledge and consent and with all names, dates or other identifying information removed.
  • For accuracy, the above basic contact information is re-collected with each new purchase or membership reading request.
  • Each reading is customized, ephemeral art. A reading’s relevance decreases as time passes. Readings and contact information are routinely deleted.

PAYMENT

  • PayPal via ko-fi checkout is accepted.

DELIVERY TIME

  • Each reading is unique and made to order. Please allow 3 to 5 business days for delivery.
  • Please expect longer delivery times when the order is placed nights, weekends or holidays US eastern time.

Copyright Notice

  • All written material copyright Sage Snow, all rights reserved.
  • eBook cover artwork as per front matter attributions, all rights reserved.
  • Free Blog posts may be shared or quoted under an attribution, share-alike, non-commercial, no derivatives Creative Commons 4.0 international license.
  • E-mail readings include photos by the author of the client’s individual card layout. The Tarot Waite Smith 1909 card images are public domain. Heart of Stars Tarot 3rd edition used with the direct permission of artist and author, Thom Pham. Animal Wise Tarot used with the permission of DragonHawk Publishing. Alleyman’s Tarot used with permission of Seven Dane Asmund and Publishing Goblin LLC. Other decks are used with publisher’s permission as indicated.
  • All readings are done by a human being with 30+ years of Tarot experience. No AI tools are used in these readings.

Social Media and Blog Policies

  • I reserve the right to block any commenter for any reason at my sole discretion
  • Your support on ko-fi for these free blog readings is greatly appreciated.
  • Blog comments are moderated, no spam or comments containing multiple links are permitted.

reviewed and updated August 2025

Blah induced glow up

I don’t know if I’ve done one of these tidy-up-the-website things since I’ve been on Bluesky or not. If not, Bluesky – let me introduce myself.

If you are not new to Sage Sips blog, then thank you for putting up with yet another one of these. I’ll admit – I’ve followed that “reintroduce yourself for new followers” advice a little too enthusiastically some years. Equally important, I’m grateful to everyone who has read Sage Sips for a while or follows on any of the socials. That goes double for those of you who get private readings with me. I truly appreciate you. If these posts and readings are any little help at all, it’s worth it to keep things fresh around here for you.

The differences aren’t big, nothing that major has happened since the big re-brand in 2018, but a little infusion of energy and attention still helps every now and again. If Halloween is ‘witch’s new year’ consider this the pre-new-year housecleaning in my little corner of cyberspace.

I’m in late August BLAH mode anyway, so it’s a good time to take a week off from the usual readings and recharge a little.

But back to the re-introduce yourself thing. I always feel weird and awkward about the background and bio part. I’d much rather talk about Tarot behind the scenes or do readings or teach Tarot how-to. But still, a refreshed bio is probably for the best so you can know what kind of internet rando you are reading.

Here is the same old bio, edited down a little bit:

Private email Tarot readings, memberships, virtual coffee and shop purchases all support this no-paywall blog

Hi! I’m Sage.

I’m the author of Sage Sips blog, PeaceTarot and free ebook TaoCraft Portfolio

I’ve been reading Tarot cards since around 1992 which adds up to 30 years of experience with intuitive work and intuition development (!)

I didn’t originally start out to be a professional Tarot reader (who does?) At first I did readings for friends (why PAY for it when you can DIY it?) A close friend suggested I go online with my readings (forever grateful!) I’ve given psychic Tarot readings through Keen, Advice Trader and AllExperts. After doing literally hundreds of online readings (I stopped counting at 500) I opened my own Tarot practice with ModernOracleTarot.com, the Tarotbytes blog and the now-defunct Quirk & Flotsam shop on Etsy. In 2018 I re-branded everything as TaoCraft Tarot featuring the Sage Sips blog. In 2025, life happened, and my Tarot work circled back to the beginning as a hobby with this blog (and the private email Tarot readings that help support the cost to create the blog and host a half decent website.)

The TaoCraft name is drawn from my love of Taoist philosophy. My work will always be guided by the principles of simplicity, authenticity, and kindness. The name is also a nod to both magickal craft and and regular crafting including one of my favorite hobbies, knitting.

My pen name, Sage, is inspired by both aromatherapy and the wisdom of Taoism and Tarot.

The herb sage has a comforting, familiar scent and flavor that most of us know from breakfast sausage and holiday turkeys. In aromatherapy, Sage incense and essential oil can support a calm, optimistic mood. Most of all, the word sage means something or someone who is wise. Tarot and Taoism both give us very sage advice.

Comfort, calmness, wisdom and a feeling that things are going to be alright are all qualities that I hope you’ll experience when you read the blog or read your personalized Tarot email.

I’m Sage Sips on Substack and Sage.Sips on all of the usual socials. I mostly interact with BlueSky and Threads, so drop by and say hello.

Email readings are always available 24/7, no appointment needed! Click HERE to order anytime. Email readings have always been my specialty, and my favorite to do. You can trust the process because they are pure intuition and spirit- there is no way for me to read body language cues or ask leading questions.

Thanks for reading. I always appreciate your time and attention along with any likes, follows, shares or kind comments that you can spare. I wish you all well. See you at the next sip!

Measure

Sage Sips is a Tarot meditation in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Martin Luther King Jr. via brainyquotes.com

Private readings by email, $5 up to $30 total cost, no appointment needed

Marriage Q&A: What love language do you speak?

Sage Sips is tarot inspired meditations in the time it takes to sip your coffee

Use the “Ask Me Anything” page to ask any questions on your mind. I’ll answer it here, with a post like this one. Names and everything will be changed to protect your privacy. Most of the time a Tarot card will be involved, but not always. My readings are a folk art form intended for meditation, contemplation and spiritual guidance, NOT to predict the future.

Q: What will be the primary love languages of my destined wife for me after marriage?

A: There are at least two important parts to your answer.

There is a deep spiritual law at play here: “Like attracts like.”

If you want to know what kind of love language your future wife (assuming you get married) you must first ask what love language will you speak to her?

True conversations, true communication, love languages and true love can only exist when it flows both ways.

Another way of thinking of this is embodied in the Six of Pentacles Tarot card which is sometimes read as “reciprocity” – you get what you give.

If you first speak the love language you want to hear, not only does use the spiritual law of “Like attracts like” in your favor, it helps you to find the right partner for you in a real-world way by helping you to find common interests and common bonds with a potential life-mate.

For example, if you love food and would like for good cooking to be your future wife’s love language, then cook for your potential mate or take her to nice restaurants as your love language to her.

An excellent way to find your wife’s love language – and a wife – is to speak your love language first.

Every Little Thing Can Be Magick

Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.

Deck pictured: Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans © 2012 Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive, Woodbury, MN 55125. All rights reserved, used by permission.

What is magic, really?

Being raised on a steady diet of 60s sitcom re-runs, part of me still wants nose twitching, wand waving, hand gesturing, incantation mumbling, midnight margarita saturated POOF! magic.

It’d be fun, you have to admit. But out here in the real world things aren’t so simple. There is magic, and then there is magick. I like making the distinction between stage or fictional magic and the spiritual practice of magick by using the ‘k’ at the end for the latter.

Besides, the K just looks cool.

Regardless of whether you think magic is fictional fun or if magick is your path, The Magician is a very powerful card. It is a card of transformation, in essence, of initiating and controlling change. This differs from the kind of big life change we might see with the Death or Tower card. The key is initiating the change, controlling the change and, importantly, working for the change. They don’t call it working magic(k) for no reason.

TV magic is alluring because it is all instant gratification but it lacks potential and possibility. Real magick is full of potential and possibility, but the gratification it brings is slow, inexorable, deep and lasting.

In a daily collective energy Tarot reading like this, the message is in that potential…and the change. Change really is possible. In this case it is self-initiated and primarily internal. New attitudes, new habits, new feelings, new lifestyles, new philosophies all take time.

The magician is powerful. Tap in to that power – however long it takes. Real magick is absolutely possible, given the necessary time and willingness to put in the most difficult kind of work: personal growth. Change your perceptions and expectations and POOF! you are magick.

The magician extends one arm up and one arm down. We are reminded of Hermes’ quote “as above, so below” but we shouldn’t forget the next part…”as within, so without” Our world can transform by changing the lens through which we view it.

We might not be able to change an adversary into a toad or make a coin appear out of thin air or change lead into gold, but the world within can be expressed without in an instant.

The lyrics to Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero” include “Love and compassion, that day is coming.” That day can be here the moment we decide to be loving and compassionate.

That is the magick that can be found in every little thing and in every passing moment. That is the magick that can change our world.

Thank you so much for reading! This post was originally published in 2020 and updated May 2024

Want a little taste of Tarot magick of your own? Private readings are available HERE. This blog isn’t monetized so a portion of the proceeds from private reading sales support the free Tarot readings on this blog and the YouTube Channel.

Post originally published 2020

Dare to Define Your Own Daring

Tarot isn’t tied to time, even in these little readings that look just at the week ahead.

That is the whole reason I don’t do classic “past-present-future” readings. Tarot is about energy, and energy is all about flux and flow. It doesn’t keep to a schedule. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has tells us … “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” By the same token, the universe is under no obligation to match our calendars and schedules.

Sometimes the best Tarot can do is to help us make our way through the unknowable chaos as best as we can.

As methodical as we may try to be about it, the way Tarot does that is by engaging our pure, raw, natural human intuition.

My method and structure for these readings is that the right side card represents energy that is fading at the moment and probably won’t have a large influence during the week. The middle card is the dominant energy, our primary food for thought or the suggested tactic for getting through the week. The left card is growing energy that may have progressively more influence as the week goes on. This is an idea or issue that is on the horizon and warrants our keeping a weather eye on it as the pirate movies say.

Sometimes intuition comes along and chucks that whole structure right out the window.

Today, the energy is less about the general flow of the week and more about individual processes. Instead of a growing energy that gradually replaces a fading one, this is more about three energies that are simultaneously present, but in different proportions. The mental image here is a sound mixing board, with all of those little slidey things that let you turn up some parts and down others. The CD player I had back in the 80s had something like that on it, and of course we all had the bass turned up to max…but that’s beside the point.

I think the real point is that we are all creating our own individual mixtape of energies this week and there is no real overarching collective zeitgeist for a change. That individuality in the middle of the collective is kind of the core message of the thing: Stand strong in your individuality. That will in turn allow you to better show up for your life and for the important people in it. When that happens, life will in turn show up for you when you need it.

Here the mental image shifts to one of those speckled quartz granite countertops, with all the pieces being part of the one smooth stone. We are individuals with individual integrity (knight of swords), yet we are all connected (three of cups)

Typically the Knight of Swords is about courage, daring, and pushing beyond your comfort zone. But what if your comfort zone IS the daring thing?

We live in – ah – interesting times.

For some, living in their true, authentic comfort zone can be a truly death defying act. For those of us who are not targets of hatred and bigotry (yet), for us to not be our fully authentic self is an act of cowardice by comparison.

In short, occupy your comfort zone. Fully. With gusto.

The internet says to show up for ourselves. When we have the courage to find our comfort zone and stake a claim to it, then we are better able to be there for other people in their quest to do the same. The Knight of Swords connects to the Three of cups.

When you show up for life in a way that is true to yourself and emotionally present for those you care about then life will show up for you. It can and will reciprocate in a deep and lasting way as symbolized by the Two of Cups.

Define your comfort zone Be fully in your comfort zone – with gusto. Then be in your comfort zone for and with others. Then life can meet you at the edges and make the comfort zone a little bigger.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this please remember me if you ever want a private reading. This free Tarot content is fueled by private reading purchases, paid subscriptions* and plenty of coffee**

*ko-fi Sage Sips members get extra benefits including discount email readings and access to FREE one card readings in the ko-fi shop

**Buy me a virtual one on ko-fi…I like those too

No appointment needed Private Tarot readings by email are always open. Please allow extra fulfillment time if you order during nights, weekends or holidays USA eastern time.

What are you waiting for?

Energy path Tarot reading for the week of 15 May 2023

Hello and welcome to Sage Sips. I’m glad you are here and right off thank you for hanging in with this through all the changes in 2023. With the demise of WordPress to Spotify integration and PodCastle not being as free as they made themselves out to be, the podcast is once again on hiatus, possibly permanently.

As we go along, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. Blog comments are open, or you can use the “ask me anything” page on sage words tarot dot com. Substack chats and ko-fi DMs are open to subscribers.

This week we are working entirely from the minor arcana. Sometimes all minor arcana can hint at a low key or low energy week but it doesn’t mean it is an inactive or stagnant week. There is a sense of rootedness in the physical realm thanks to the king of pentacles card. When pentacles are around, there is always a sense of practicality. This is the suit of the physical realm and the classic element of earth and all of the no-nonsense no-drama style that you would expect. The other two cards are both from the suit of swords. Swords is connected to the element of air, but there is nothing airy-fairy about them. Swords also symbolize mind and intellect and action. Put all of that together and this week definitely calls for a head over heart approach. Cool incisive logic is your friend. Compared to the high flying ideals of recent weeks this might seem low energy by comparison, but careful precise action is action just the same. This isn’t the withdrawn or introverted energy we’ve seen recently either. This is deliberate, inexorable forward movement.

The mental image is a glacier flattening the landscape or the slow crumbling ah-ah lava that is just as powerful as the fast flowing type. The energy for this week may be slow, but it is oh so focused on being efficient, effective and enduring. The energy this week seems to be putting the level in level-headed.

Kings are leaders, so if the pentacle card represents concrete wealth, money or career, then the two together hints at a wise use of resources. Don’t let things waste either by sitting and mouldering or by being used frivolously or unwisely. Don’t allow things to sit and spoil, but don’t be a spendthrift either. This is in the fading energy position. Going back to the glacier mental image, I see small rivulets of melted ice, small streams of water flowing quickly down the front of the glacier. That feels like a quicker movement, an influx of resources may come, but not quite yet. It’s not a forever thing, but right now is a time to play the cards you are dealt and work with what you have on hand.

I get the sense of a short time or a not-serious wait. Here I get the mental image of that TV show where chefs compete to make the best dish from the ingredients given to them in a basket.

The current energy card is the knight of swords in reverse. I’ll spare you yet another explanation about how I handle reversed cards. If you have questions about reversals, what that means or how to handle them in a reading – please, ask away in the comments, ask me anything page, or other contacts as listed.

The knight of swords is usually a card of daring, or action and supreme self-confidence. Today the reversal feels significant, it feels like all of those things are blocked or hampered. It feels less like the afraid side of timid and more like a lack of confidence, or negative self-talk. This card isn’t talking to the part of you that is afraid…fear is there for a good reason sometimes. This is talking to the part of you that says “I can’t.” You can. You can do something. Who says you have to do what is expected? Who says you have to do what other people do? Instead of saying “I can’t” figure out what IS within your reach and your resources and do that. Every little bit helps and something is better than nothing in this case.

The growing energy is the eight of swords. Sometimes in a reading a card can serve as a highlight, an underline or an exclamation point to another card’s message. I think that is the case here. The energy of practicality, and level-headed, mind over emotion, deliberate, considered action may with us for a while. The eight of swords is working with the reversed knight to remind us that working within our means and doing what we can do is better than stopping dead in your tracks and giving up, doing nothing.

Take inventory. Make a no-nonsense plan. Act within your means and resources but act. Don’t let “I can’t” take you prisoner. Just because you can’t do one thing doesn’t mean the other things you CAN do aren’t needed or valuable. When it comes to doing the things within your means, what are you waiting for?

Thank you so much for reading and listening.

This free Tarot content is fueled by real coffee, the virtual coffees on ko-fi, paid subscriptions and your private Tarot reading purchases. That allows me to put your message first, not an advertiser’s. Please buy me a coffee or become a “Sage Sips” member with a Ko-fi or Substack subscription today.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!