Tag: tarot reader

You Choose Card of the Week (22 Jan 24)

The people and the numbers have spoken! Introducing an interactive and personal single card meditation card of the week Tarot reading

Private readings are open. Order HERE anytime, no appointment needed.

Interactive: Please watch the video and choose your card.

After the reveal, scroll down for your card reading.*

The people and the numbers have spoken.

I’ve gotten some nice feedback about the “you choose” style of readings. It makes the reading feel more personal than a single collective card BUT the shorter format is better than the longer layouts. I’m still tweeking the timing to give enough time to choose and enough time to see your card. That part will improve in coming weeks.

So BEHOLD! One card meditation readings are back but in you choose style! I plan to do these as a guidance card for the week, but if you have any suggestions or feedback as we go along, I’m open to that – and so are the comments below. Or click over to the Ask Me Anything page and, well, you know what to do. Unless I hear something drastically different, I plan to flow with this for a while. The general plan is for “You Choose” on Mondays, “Learn With Me” posts on Wednesdays, Freestyle on Fridays (I won’t promise those will even be Tarot related) and the weekly Substack newsletter at some point during the weekend.

THAT being said, let’s get on to the good stuff, the cards.

Nine of Cups

I hear “happy endings” from a song that I don’t recognize. Might be something from the 90s, but I can’t dial it in enough to tell. This card is about just exactly that – happy endings.

Classically this card is often associated with contentment and family / holiday gatherings. I often get a fall & winter holiday vibe from it. This feels more like a January card – the holidays are in the rear view mirror and last year is well and truly tucked away.

Earlier today, Theresa Reed posted her card of the week as the Fool…new beginnings. These cards are two sides of the same large zeitgeist energy.

If you chose this card, this is a good vibe week. Things are wrapped or wrapping up in a good way that makes room to roll up your sleeves and get after whatever is next.

Ace of Cups

Cups typically symbolize emotion, intuition, and our closest relationships be they friends, family or romance. The ace always seems closer to the emotion and intuition aspect of the suit than the relationship aspect of it. That is very much the case for today. This card feels more off to the side and individualized than the nine does.

The nine feels like the big, collective energy card but the ace feels much more one to one. There is no way for me to ever know this, but it would be interesting to how many people chose which card. I wonder if more people picked the “collective” card and fewer people picked this one because this is the one they really needed.

If you picked the Ace of Cups today, first of all, well done for following your own intuition instead of the collective energy. This card feels like a validation of just that – your own creativity and instincts. “Muse” comes to mind. Your creative muse may well drop something in your lap soon, if it hasn’t happened already. When inspiration comes, this card is encouraging you to follow it at the same time it is giving you a pat on the back for your natural ability to hear and follow that kind of inspiration.

Judgement

This card stands out as being the only major arcana card of the three.

The energies this week may be important for you and are worthy of your attention and contemplation. Pay attention to the spirit part of your mind, body & spirit life balance.

Give yourself second chances. Never waste a good second chance.

By the same token, use your heart and head so that a second chance isn’t needed. Honor what you know and need and what you know you need. the first time around.

As a secular person, the religious iconography in Pamela Smith’s artwork for this card is always more annoying than inspiring for me. If you picked this card but it just isn’t resonating, by all means, please look for the inspiration you feel. Try googling the Judgement card and looking at other decks to see if another version of the card speaks to you more than this one.

I’ve found that many decks rely on this kind of imagery and options are hard to find. My favorite right now is “Karma” from Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans’ Witches Tarot which uses and eclipse and the term karma to bring ideas like contemplating the consequences of our choices and renewal. There may be dark time during an eclipse but light returns on the other side.

Thank you all for reading. Next up, in Learn With Me, we continue two card Lenormand readings.

See you at the next sip!

*if it went by too fast – left was 9 of cups, center was ace of cups and right was Judgement.

Learn With Me: Lenormand, Sweet & Simple

Learning Lenormand Tarot

This set of cards has the feel of a child who picks a wild flower and gives it as a gift. The energy of it is just that sweet, just that simple. The universe has gifted us with a bouquet of clover and wildflowers.

Life isn’t always good. It seems like we spend a lot of time talking about how Tarot is valuable because it can deal with the shadows and how it isn’t all toxic positive in denial of the realities of a situation. Life isn’t all love & light.

But neither is it all doom and gloom. “It can’t rain all the time” as The Crow movie told us. Sometimes you just have to take yes for an answer.

That is what today’s cards are all about. Lenormand cards have a reputation for being direct, no-nonsense, and not pulling any punches. Maybe it is because so many people turn to Tarot when they are in some sort of emotional upset, but we tend to assume direct and no-nonsense means bad news.

Tarot, both Lenormand and RWS, are excellent at easing that kind of emotional distress. They are equally good at bringing good news and straight up reassurances too.

This is a perfect example. And, coincidentally, this is the first two card combination that is in the guidebook. The combination of The Bouquet (Love, token of affection) and Clover (good luck, like any “four leaf clover” symbolism) is described as “the ultimate combination of good luck and happiness (Buler, p. 16)

For the collective, I think this is a good reminder to unplug from your worries and indulge in feeling that everything is going to be OK. The universe has our back, it’s all going to work out in the end. Let yourself believe in magic for one minute – or a million minutes.

Try it on for size. Just for one day, imagine you are a magnet for all the good things. If you like the feeling, it is yours to keep.

Maybe the best kind of good luck is the kind you believe you have.

See you at the next sip!

Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler (art and text) © 2019 Lo Scarabeo srl, via Cigna 110, 10155 Torino, Italy. All rights reserved, used by permission.

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OPEN for the holidays!

Open for the holidays – announcing January hours

The elves are busy, but not panicked. The squirrels are taking it easy – kicking back munching nuts and drinking spiked eggnog, apparently. I’m going to take the opportunity to spend some quality time with the fam, the kitchen, the knitting needles and an actual library book.

I can slide an email Tarot reading into that scenario pretty easily. Email readings are my happy place, my specialty, my niche and my strong suit in the world of Tarot. Come in to that coziness and read a reading. No appointment needed for this kind of Tarot – order anytime HERE.

I’m @sagewordstarot on Threads, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and TikTok. Threads and Instagram are my favorites, so if you want to say hi that’s the best social media place to find me and have actual conversation. The socials might be sporadically quiet, but stay tuned here on the main blog. I have some new posts planned for the blurry-time between now and New Year.

Next up, however, is a Learn With Me: Lenormand tomorrow. See you then!

Party Tarot is pretty much closed for good except for very local, case by case special appearances. In-person individual readings and live online readings are closed until January 2024. In person will resume in January and be available by appointment on Mondays. Live online/phone readings return in January by appointment.

E-mail Tarot is ALWAYS OPEN. Order anytime 24/7. Delivery times are usually within 24 hours but may vary if you place your order nights, weekends or holidays (US eastern time)

What do you think?

What do you think?

Should I bring back “InkMagick” Tarot for 2024?

Sallie Christensen, author of “The Highest and Best” and gifted psychic (I had my very first in-person reading as a client with her) we were chatting about journaling and manifestation, when she advised “A thought is powerful, the spoken word is more powerful, but the written word is most powerful of all.”

Ask anyone who works with sigils regularly – I’m sure they would agree.

That is why I started doing handwritten, hand illustrated Tarot readings sent by snail mail.

The handful I did received great reviews. My favorite feedback was that the feel of the paper, and the smell of the hand dipped or fountain pen ink gave it the feel of reading a good book.

That’s what I’m aiming for with both the physical “InkMagick” readings and the email readings. I love a good book. I would like nothing better than do readings for readers. Be a reader for readers. InkMagick really is a reader’s reading.

I’m not claiming to have fantastic calligraphy or art skills. The skill is in the Tarot interpretation. The power is in the sigil-like illustrations and in the written word.

What do you think?

Maybe a seasons of the year layout would be the best place to start.

Does a reading like this interest you? Would you like a little touch of arcane magick in your coming year? Please leave a comment and let me know, send an email, find me on Instagram or Threads (@sagewordstarot) or use the “Ask Me Anything” page contact form.

Thank you!

Learn With Me: Lenormand, Two Cards

Learn tarot and intuition with moon card and fish card from the lenormand deck.

I don’t think this works quite the way the guidebook says.

I could be wrong, so let’s stick with two card readings for a while and see what turns up.

With the Lenormand deck, a “tableau” reading puts the cards on the table in a simple grid, with the “Grand Tableau” using the entire 36 card deck.

I’ve used the classic 10 card Celtic Cross layout and one of the first layouts I learned was the 9 card in Sam & Carson’s Medicine Cards. It was interesting to compare those two. Even years into reading experience 9 cards was a tipping point for me. 9 was a lot, but it was a perfectly serviceable layout with plenty of detail, but it was a heavy lift at times to work through it, even later with plenty of reading experience behind me. As soon as I would use a 10 card cross, the energy would get knotty, and contradictory and verge on nonsense. Double digits seems to be a tipping point. Rather than perpetually dancing on the edge of spilling the beans, I wrote the 5 and 7 card Modern Oracle and TaoCraft layouts that I’ve used for private readings from the beginning.

All along the time that we’ve been looking at individual Lenormand cards, the guide book has mentioned how pairings and connections with other cards could modify the individual card’s meaning. We saw energetic connections and flow in the three card reading we did last time, but it was more of a flow of meaning, like making a sentence rather than changing meanings through the series of cards.

It might be interesting to do some two card sets to see if any of those specifically meaning-modifying connections emerge.

In this case, the guide book doesn’t give a modification for either the moon card or the fish card relative to the other. I get the flow, sentence like connection again. The water connections to both cards gives the sense of intuition and flow as being the main message with the fish’s association with prosperity taking a little bit of a back seat to the mental image of actual fish swimming and in motion.

I get no sense of energy at all from the playing card insets, so will let that sit for now. Follow your own instincts if you think they are meaningful. Research the 8 of cups or King of Pentacles if either of those grab your attention.

My hunch is to keep up with the two card sets for a little while. Water, tides, depth all are associated with the images here. In RWS tarot deep water has to do with mystery, deep knowing. My hunch is that there is something here that hasn’t quite shown itself yet.

Let’s abide with it, and see what else two card sets have to say.

See you at the next sip!

Winter Hours: All of them!

While in-person sessions are closed for the holidays, email private readings are OPEN to order 24/7, no appointment needed. Most orders arrive in your inbox within 24 hours.

Delivery times may vary in December depending on the Elfcon status.

Learn With Me: Tarot on Target

I want to take a little break from exploring the Lenormand Tarot deck and talk about something that has been on my mind since a conversation with a potential client yesterday. We’ve talked about it before (don’t forget you can use the search bar to browse the 1500+ posts in the archive) but it’s time to revisit the idea of accuracy in Tarot.

As I see it, accuracy in psychic or Tarot readings begs the question “Accurate compared to what?”

Accuracy of anything is a measurement of that thing compared to some desired goal. Accuracy measures how on-target something is.

To measure anything, you have to make a comparison of one thing that you don’t know with something you do know, like a ruler. Even if one of the things you are using to measure is your eyeballing estimation based on experience – it’s still a comparison.

So what do you use as your ruler to measure the accuracy of a Tarot reading?

Is your measure predicting the future?

I can tell you that level of accuracy right now – zero.

If a Tarot reading tells you what actually happens ahead of time it is one of two things:

  1. Self-fulfilling prophecy – Cause and effect is a real thing. If you choose to DO something based on the reading, that action contributes to the end outcome. In this case, the reading caused the future, it didn’t predict it. Which is a good thing! That means you can use a Tarot reading to help you decide your best course of action. You can use a Tarot reading to help cause (or at least contribute to) the desired effect. The drawback here is that you don’t have control over everything. You can increase the chances of something happening, but you can’t 100% control everything and you certainly can’t 100% predict anything.
  2. Pure dumb luck. A broken clock is still right twice a day.

Is your measure getting good advice?

If that is the case, then there is a very high degree of accuracy, and it happens without regard for distance or delivery method (more on that tomorrow)

Is your measure stress reduction?

With that measure, Tarot has 100% accuracy.

People come to Tarot readings for a reason. There are as many reasons to get a Tarot reading as there are people and moments along their life’s journey.

A Tarot reading is a peaceful moment. A Tarot reading is a moment of hopefulness and optimism. A Tarot reading is a moment of calm, clarity and the hope of finding a solution.

If guidance, advice, and a peaceful moment is your measure, then my Tarot readings are as accurate as they come.

Want to learn to do DIY one card meditation readings to find a peaceful moment whenever you need it?

Order my ebook PeaceTarot HERE

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Ruthless

I’m getting ruthless about keeping my costs low & exploring my Tarot card suit of Pentacles side.

I like food.

Food, clothing, shelter and indoor plumbing are definite personal favorites.

They probably rank pretty high on your list of favorites too.

All along, since starting professional readings in the early Y2K years, I’ve been absolutely ruthless in keeping my operating costs as low as possible. It makes Tarot as affordable and as accessible to as many people as possible.

The ruthless continues. I’m still doing all I can to keep costs down for you – all of the time, no cutesy pants promotions necessary.

Life happens to everyone regardless of bank accounts. We all have stress and times of uncertainty. It’s universal, and so is Tarot. Intuition, creative problem solving, facing difficult emotions can help all of us at one point or another.

Tarot and psychics live in a weird world. People either think we should give our skill and expertise away for free or they assume we are a money making scam. It’s a tightrope to walk. I keep my costs low to make it accessible. I tell you all of this so you see the business side of all of this. Transparency is key to showing legitimacy. So modesty be damned –

I’m a really good Tarot reader, my specialty is email Tarot, my prices are some of the most reasonable around, I’m 100% legit, and I’ve published my policies and disclaimers to prove it.

I hate filling out my taxes as much as you do. I want to earn money doing what I do just as much as you do. That’s why I’m right there with all the small and micro businesses who are taking a vacation from Etsy.

Instead of increasing my prices to cover the increased fees, I’ve moved my Tarot readings from Etsy to Ko-fi. You can order special layout Tarot readings by email on ko-fi through the custom commission menu starting at $5.

More options for purchasing readings through the ko-fi shop are on the way. My ebooks are already there waiting for you. All proceeds from the sale of PeaceTarot through the ko-fi shop in 2022 will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. They are in Ukraine. They are in Syria and have been all along. They were in the United States indigenous and other communities of need during the height of the pre-vaccine pandemic.

You learn how to do DIY daily meditation Tarot readings, and Doctors Without Borders gets five bucks. Sounds like a win-win.

If this Ko-fi thing works out, I may make the migration permanent. PLEASE if you have a minute, check out this new, more affordable second home for TaoCraft Tarot email readings and special layouts. DOUBLE please let me know what you think and what YOU want to see from Tarot arts I create here.

OF COURSE the most popular layouts are right HERE on this website, available to order 24/7/365 no appointment needed through PayPal secured purchases.

If you are in the Pittsburgh area, are willing to come to the beautiful South Hills, and want an in-person reading those are once again OPEN. Click HERE for more details.

What year is it?

It’s 2021.

Did you notice that? Good Grief!

In 1971, I spent the summer with my beloved grandmother. She taught me to embroider and we made apple dumplings. That was 50 years ago. I’m older now than she was that year.

In 1991, I picked up my first set of oracle cards, Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson (which is still in print, by the way) A couple of years later I graduated to full on Tarot and the rest, as they say, is history. All told, I’ve been working with intuition development and card readings of one kind or another for [checks notes]

THIRTY YEARS!

There isn’t any official certification for Tarot readers. Anybody can do it, and all sorts of people….ethical and not, skilled and not….DO.

I don’t have a diploma to show you what I know or a way to prove that I’m really good at this, but I DO have an ebooklet, three decades and one metric crap ton of been-there-done-that to show you instead.

Out of morbid curiosity, I’ve also been doing some googling. The U.S. national average for a Tarot Session (which often lasts less than an hour) is $40 – $60. So my hour-ish 7 card sessions for $40 are on the low end of that average range – a really good value given the level of experience and expertise I’m bringing to the table.

Not to be self-aggrandizing – but 30 years! Daaayum!

I don’t do sales or giveaways anymore. They are a pain in the backside and I keep my prices as low as possible ALL of the time ANYWAY…but 30 years of card slinging has to count for something.

Until the Fall equinox when my operating costs (paypal and such) are set to go up, I’m making the seven card email readings $30, the same price as 5 card readings….one dollar for each year of card reading experience. I’m not making any promises about what the price will go to after that – I still have to take off my shoes and do some counting. If I get more readings per month and/or support through Ko-Fi for the blog and podcast, I hope I can keep prices the same as last year.

Email readings don’t need an appointment. Order anytime, and your reading lands in your inbox within 24 hours on regular business days, often much less. But you know how it is with nights, weekends and holidays. And you know the drill about policies and disclaimers and all of that.

What I’m trying to say is get a reading now before the prices go up in September. And tell your friends.

And holy hell….30 years!

Website purchases only. Policies and disclaimers apply

The Niggles: Means to an End.

“The Niggles” series of blog posts is about ideas that prickle the psyche. It’s that nagging dry hangnail feeling that intuition puts in the way whenever I haven’t understood a message or if I haven’t given a message that needs to be heard by someone.

Today, the niggly thing is gratitude.

I think it is a misunderstanding, really. Or maybe it’s the toxic-positive version of gratitude. There is a sense in some parts spiritual social media that gratitude is a pathway to achieving something that you want.

“Being grateful for what you have” as a means to an end perverts gratitude. It turns being thankful into something artificial even if the end goal is something very good like happiness, a healthy romance, a feeling of abundance or what have you.

I worry that some things I’ve said or written about so-called soulmates may have been misunderstood. When I said that the best way to attract the love of your life is to be happy with your life as it is right now, I never meant that you have to be grateful for being alone.

But when I said be happy, I meant precisely that. I meant to deliberately find the good stuff in the present moment rather than go through life laser focused on something you don’t have. Think about it. Who would you rather have as your soulmate, a person wrapped in the joy of living, or a person wrapped in worry about the future?

There is a difference between a social convention and a genuine emotion. Yes, by all means, say thank you and be polite even if you don’t feel all that. appreciative. If you spontaneously, naturally, authentically feel that way, then by all means live that. BE grateful with gusto.