Tag: tarot card

Summer’s K.I.S.S.

Happy Summer Solstice and the ten of wands.

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 are Sage 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.

Distance Private Readings – Order HERE

Layouts

  • 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.

Live readings by phone

  • By appointment only
  • CONTACT ME by email to schedule
  • 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)

The World You See

Private readings are open

I’ve heard different versions of this adage over the years. It’s been said that the greatest sage is like a mirror. I think it was Earnest Holmes, author of Science of Mind who said something on the order of “As a man thinketh so shall it be.”

“As above so below, as within so without” However you say it, the notion that our inner world has some effect on our outer world (or at least our perception of it) has been with us for a long time.

I like to think of this adage as being more about our lens of perception

As someone who is very nearsighted and has been wearing glasses for 50 years now – lenses make a difference.

Things can go from blurry to clear in a second. The world may not literally change when you put glasses on, but the way you interact with it and feel about it certainly does.

A shift in perception and paradigm can do the same.

Lucky in love? Lucky in money? Psychic? Magical? Loving? Loved?

Live a day as if you already are and see how the world shifts.

A Fresh Start is Just That Easy

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

Click HERE to order email or private share video Tarot readings. No appointment needed.

Most of these distance readings usually arrive in your inbox within 24 hours.

Sometimes there are delays if you order nights, weekends or holidays (USA eastern time) You’ll hear from me within 24 hours with an update, regardless of delivery time for the full write-up.

Live phone and online readings are by appointment only and schedule at least a week in advance.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Or download the FREE Tarot Portfolio booklet for all the behind the scenes details about my distance Tarot.

Zombie Cat’s Summer Shamble Starts this evening.

Private Tarot readings are open this weekend. No appointment needed for email.

After stepping back and sending love and support to Pride Month, Zombie Cat will start to Shamble for the summer.

Ask Zombie Cat Anything on the AMA page OR order a private three card yes/no Tarot reading by email.

As always, Zombie Cat tells it like it is. All of Zombie Cat’s readings are 100% guaranteed to contain words and have a 50% chance of being dead wrong.

canva ai generated image

ps – I NEVER use AI in your readings. This is the first time I’ve tried it just because dammit I’m a writer not a cartoonist.

Mystical Moon

Private Tarot by email is always open for orders, no appointment needed.

In Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao, Diane Morgan interprets the moon card as our “spiritual journey.” The moon means so much in so many parts of our humanity; art, literature, lore, mythology, science, environment. It seems to be one of the most revered and mystical cards among 78 revered and mystical Tarot cards.

Arguably, our spiritual journey is simply the journey of being alive. If we are spiritual beings having a human experience, whatever path we choose we are doing our spiritual journey right. Light incense, dance, pray, meditate, go on long runs or peel potatoes; everything is connected and it is all sacred. Feel it or not, it is all still our right spiritual journey because we not only learn, but we experience the pain and the pleasure of it all.

Thank you for reading.

See you at the next sip!

Card of the Day: Ace of Pentacles, 21 May 24

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

Like I’ve said in PeaceTarot and a bizillion other times, a daily one card meditation is the bread and butter and workhorse and utter delight of learning to read Tarot. And, I’ve found, of living Tarot too.

It’s one thing to learn a skill or philosophy or spiritual practice. It’s another to live with it every day and let it become part of your skin and bones and morning coffee.

The best way to build a relationship with anything like this is bit by bit, day by day. Kick the tires. Test drive it. Take it on a shake down cruise. Lean on it. If it holds you up in troubled times, it will help shine a light on the good times too.

It’s not a religion, it’s nothing special.

In Chinese style martial arts its call gong fu…diligence and practice and work over time resulting in masterful skill. Tarot is the same. Anyone can read them. We all have innate, natural intuition and psychic ability. But it takes diligence and practice and work over time for it to become deeply useful – to become a part of your life and spiritual practice.

Pentacles speak to just that kind of work. Pentacles are aligned with the Earth element and are about exactly this kind of real-world, rubber-meets-the-road work. That is the suit’s window on it’s common meanings: work, career, wealth, and the physical realm.

When you add the images, words, music, sound that imaginatively come to mind, it nudges us toward the best key words to use for the card for the day at hand.

In this case I ‘hear’ the TING sound effect of something metal being hammered – like railroad spikes and railroad building sounds from old western movies.

It’s like movie Esperanto for hard physical work.

The hand holding a gold coin has a TA-DA! feel about it.

Put them together and work TA-DA! has results. In other words, the energy supports a productive day at hand. If it’s late in the day when you read this, no matter what kind of day it has been, do what you can to set up tomorrow to be productive.

And there the energy steps back.

Stop back tomorrow: Another one card like this tomorrow than on Thursday (hopefully, fingers crossed) we’ll do a Choose Your Card video.

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Learn to read Tarot and bring a moment of peace to troubled times. Peace Tarot is available now for instant download in the ko-fi shop.

Spring Break and Summer Schedule

The day job has been a tiny bit extra the past couple of weeks while I’ve been covering for some vacationing folks, so I’m going to give myself a little bit of a vacation too – spring break in Tarot land if you will.

Thought I’d dig out some oldies but goodies out of the archives for this week, and then get back to new readings next week.

In fact, I have an idea for a weekly “Choose Your Card” series. Internet posts live forever, and focusing on a “card of the day” or a “card of the week” can get a little timey-wimey if you stumble on the posts a while after they were published. I believe the right message for you will find you when you most need regardless of when it was written, but some might argue that old readings lose value as time moves on. So my idea is this: draw a card for a theme or choose a theme for the reading that isn’t related to time. That’s how Tarot works best in my experience. Tarot tends to be abstract and conceptual and comes from outside of physical space and human-defined time anyway. That’s why distance Tarot readings work so well. (I have a page available that explains the whole distance Tarot thing HERE)

But back to the idea for that “choose your card” series.

I thought it might be fun to go through the major arcana and have the ‘choose your card’ post give you a more personalized insight into that major arcana card and how it might relate to you right now.

What do you think? I’ll start that project next week. That will give you plenty of time to drop any ideas or suggestions in the comments or use the “ask me anything” button on the home page. I’m always happy to hear what kind of Tarot content you would like to see in the blog.

Meanwhile, if you use the search bar on the right of the page (laptop or PC) or scroll way down to the search bar on the mobile version, then you can search & browse the archives to your hearts content. The old posts are mostly tagged by card, but moving forward I plan to tag each post by card AND topic(s) for easier browsing moving forward.

For example if you search “romance” here is one of the posts that come up. It is from 2011 on my old Tarotbytes blog.

“A Romance Tarot Reading with the Magician and the Lovers Cards”

Q: I met a man who seemed to be all anyone could want…a little older, financially stable, professional, interested in me. But he could be pushy, too, and he pushed me to go on a vacation together, his treat. Turns out he is a horrible gambler. The whole trip was a disaster…shocking. I keep attracting men like this, and after this experience I wonder if I will ever have a good relationship. I had a career reading with you last year, and liked the way you look at things. Can you give any insight to the romance side of things?

A: I think you are right…this experience was shocking, but it got your attention. It helped you see a pattern, and to realize you want something different. As traumatizing as it was in the short term…in the big picture this may actually be a valuable experience.

There are two tarot cards that are exquisitely applicable to your situation: The Lovers and The Magician.

They are both major arcana cards…which speaks to the power and importance of the things your are thinking about.

The Lovers symbolizes desire, and The Magician represents transformation and manifestation.

Your experience with this man, and the way it felt inevitable, shows it is an important and powerful lesson: it shows you that what is deep down matters more than the initial outward appearance…and that the deep down important stuff is what matters to you. Now you know. This will give you a wonderful contrast…the shadow to show you what you want to bring to light.

You know, now, what you DON’T want to repeat…the next step is to define in your mind, very clearly, what you DO want in a relationship…what you do want in your relationships an in your life. The feeling I got reading the first part of your story is that your connection with this man grew out of expectations…your hope for a relationship and what other people define as a good prospect…stable, professional etc etc. That doesn’t, as we see here, necessarily bring the intangible, subtle good things, like respect, caring, compassion, empathy….all those things that are REALLY important.

When I was younger, I saw a psychic, also wondering if I would ever be with anyone. She gave me an exercise…I may have mentioned this last time…that proved to be pure gold. Even if you’ve done this before…try again, start the exercise over, using your new insights and perspectives gained from the trip to vegas…

Make a list of all the things you want in a partner. What kind of relationship do you want? Marriage? Companionship? List every detail, literally, on paper. LIst physical things, interests, personality traits…anything, everything. Don’t put negatives…don’t say “not a gambler” put “enjoys ___________” That part is very important…the energy of the “not” might actually draw the undesirable trait to you rather than block it. Always list ONLY the things you WANT in a positive way.

Then release the list. Put it away, or, if you are inclined to such things, burn it in a respectful ritual of some sort. Whenever you feel the impulse, send a thought to the universe. Pray it…however it feels most powerful to you….not the whole list, just the feeling of desire for “the best of the list” or “husband for the highest and best”…something like that. Send the cry from your heart to the heart of outer space…then let go and trust the universe to guide you to the right path.

There are no time limits. There may be more things to learn along the way…but if you ask for the path to the best, you will find that highest and best journey, no matter how long it takes to get to the destination.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed a deep dive into the old Tarotbytes archive. More archives are available on “Sages Other Words” where I occasionally put off -Topic posts. Feel free to browse there too.

And that summer schedule? There isn’t any. I’m still going full Taoist and just following where intuition and the natural flow of things lead.

Distance readings are still available to order anytime 24/7 – no appointment needed. I usually get the reading to your inbox within 24 hours. If not I’ll be in touch with a delivery time if it is a holiday or some such thing. Distance readings in this case means email and recorded video formats.

The pen and paper readings take a while longer to wind their way through traditional snail mail, but honestly I think they are worth it. Sallie Christensen, one of the most gifted psychics I’ve ever met was right- thoughts are powerful, the spoken word is more so – but the written word is the most powerful of all.

See you at the next sip!

Gentle Integration

Private readings are open, no appointment needed!

Spiritual growth is not an exercise in mass consumerism.

It isn’t a contest to see who is the most woke, the most pious, the most serene, the most wise, the most anything.

It isn’t a sprint. It isn’t even a marathon. It is about the quality of this present moment. It is about you being happy with you – right here, right now.

The most important lessons in our personal growth and evolution and maturity and autonomy are often learned the hard way. They are often hard-won over significant amounts of time. So it is important not to diminish those lessons by moving on too soon.

The two of pentacles is about balance, but it is the quicker, dynamic equilibrium of a unicycle rider. Temperance is the balance of a glacier, it is the balance of Stonehenge.

Temperance is more than just balance, it is about integration.

Balance can be juggling two different things. Temperance’s type of balance is about integrating those two (or more) things into a stable, foundational new thing. The two of pentacles is a balls in the air, juggling kind of balance. Temperance is a low center of gravity, “weebles wobble but they don’t fall down” kind of balance. To borrow from Frank Herbert’s Dune, Temperance type of balance comes from Usul, the strength of the base of a pillar.

When a hungry person eats, they must then digest. The same is true of insights and epiphanies. The work of finding them is lost if we don’t integrate them.

We must change the big lessons and the big progress from a ball in the air that needs to be balanced into the integrated base of the pillar that imparts balance. This is why integration and transformation are integral parts of the Temperance card’s message of balance.

Live as your new self. Live your new truth. Make the new you an integral part of the old you. Then you can move forward again in certainty and – you guessed it – balance.

Next up: more “My Side of the Table” Tarot behind the scenes

See you at the next sip!

You Choose: Tarot Card of the Week 25 March 24

Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee (or whatever you like to sip this time of day)

Seven of Pentacles: Wait. Give the seeds you planted time to grow. Don’t meddle…if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Just wait.

Seven of Swords: Mischief is afoot. Watch your stuff. Don’t fall for phishing. Be on the lookout for petty bs and swat it down if needed.

Nine of Pentacles: Enjoy what you’ve achieved. As one project wraps up, it’s good to take a minute to appreciate what you and your team have done before moving on to the next big thing.

Card doesn’t fit or feel right? Enter the card or any keyword in the search bar on the right side of the page (or scroll down on mobile) to browse the archives. Your message will find you – all you have to do is look and listen.