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.
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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
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.
A behind the scenes look at the how – and why – of reading Tarot
Before we get to the WHAT and the HOW of Tarot, let’s start with WHY Tarot.
Why get readings?
Why give readings?
Why do readings for yourself?
Why ask why? (as that old TV commercial said)
As I see it, it all comes down to one thing: freethinking.
Free your mind. Question everything. Ask why and draw your own conclusions. Tarot supports that. Tarot encourages that. Tarot enables that. If a Tarot reader wants you to do what they say without question – run.
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Over the years I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, to trust my intuition. But it is a big ask for you to trust my intuition too. I’m honored whenever anyone trusts me enough to get a reading. I will always treat that trust with the respect and dignity it deserves. That’s why I ask members to request readings each time even though the reading is included in their membership. Consent is an important part of respecting you and the Tarot process. That’s why I won’t read people other than the individual getting the reading. People outside of our conversation have not given consent to be a part of the reading and it is important for us to respect them as well.
The British Psychological Society defines autonomy as “feeling psychologically free and having the ability to control your life.” Psychologist Carl Jung said that “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” That’s another reason why I do Tarot readings the way I do.
No fortune telling.
No predicting the future.
My style of Tarot is all about empowering your choices. It’s about supporting your autonomy. It’s about personal growth and greater understanding. It’s about processing difficult emotions. It’s about breaking free from thought-habits that narrow our experience of life.
That’s why I offer professional readings. That’s why I teach people to read Tarot for themselves. That’s why I use Tarot for myself. This post is a case in point.
On the exact day I was originally planning to publish this post, there was a spate of famous Tarot authors saying exactly these kinds of things on social media. It hit me at a vulnerable moment and I was half a hair away from giving up. If the heavy hitters are suddenly saying the stuff I’ve already been blogging about since 2005 (ish) what’s the use?
I’d been planning this post for months but kept getting interrupted by life, the universe and everything it seemed. So now, why bother? Why should I add my voice to theirs when it seems no one has been listening to us (and maybe still aren’t?)
On the other hand, why shouldn’t I? My voice and intuition is just as valid as theirs (and so is yours, by the way.)
It was literally one of those six of one, half dozen of the other type of decisions. On one hand it would make no difference to the big picture if I trashed the post. On the other hand, adding my voice to theirs might just amplify what genuine Tarot can do.
I did exactly what I would advise a client to do – I drew a card for inspiration.
The Allbright, art by Annalise Jensen for Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund. Deck used with permission
The Alleyman’s Tarot was close at hand and a quick shuffle and cut revealed the Allbright card from one of the expansion packs, not a typical card in the RWS Tarot card structure. I think it was made especially for this deck.
“The Allbright brings hope and illumination to knowledge of the past and to those undertaking difficult tasks. She is never far from those who are faithful, and those who have the courage to ask for aid.” – Annalise Jensen, artist.
I took that as a nudge toward writing and posting this. It is a little leap of faith to act on ideas like posting would be in service to aka “faithful to” the years I’ve put into Tarot work and to the art of Tarot writ large. It felt like a reassurance that the Zeitgeist energies would let me be heard by someone somewhere despite the many louder voices saying the same thing. I’m acting on the notion that the Allbright is a symbol of wisdom and will shine the light that draws in those that need this particular type of Tarot guidance.
The light shines brightest when we lift it up. The message sounds loudest and reaches the farthest when we all speak.
That’s why.
That’s why I’m posting this and is one example how Tarot can help us move from a silly little coin toss dilemma to greater insight.
Why use Tarot cards and Tarot readings? Not because they give us easy answers, but rather because they point to the right questions. These symbolic cards shine a light on the right path for our walking and working to begin.
Thank you so much for reading Sage Sips today. Next up: You Chose: Tarot Card of the Week. Fingers crossed for an upload tomorrow.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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