tarot reading – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…

Oh for the luvva….

I thought we put this to bed yesterday.

Love and relationships are the whole ballgame when it comes to being a human – um – being.

But I was hoping to move on to the half price chocolate and leave the whole My Tarot Valentine thing behind.

But then, maybe we did. Leave it to Lenormand cards to roll up smack us in the face with a frying pan and put the last nail in that coffin.

My intention was to do a nice, normal “action Eases anxiety” reading for this week, but noooo, here we go zooming back to yesterday’s annual Valentine’s day rant.

Here’s the beef:

Valentine’s day (at least here in America *rolls eyes*) seems to be all about white heterosexual romance.

If you are in a relation like that or adjacent to that, then it can be sweet and romantic and a great time to pay attention to the people that mean the most to you. It can and does extend to friends and family.

But it can, and does, make some people feel bad because they don’t have the romance or life partner they want in their life right now, and that right there is where it all goes off the rails.

And that right there is where today’s cards grabs us by the head and turns it for one more look

One of the many things I like about this Healing Light Lenormand deck by Gerard Butler is the way it makes both male and female versions of both The Lady #28 and The Gentleman #29 cards. It lifts the deck beyond binary gender roles to include any romantic relationship, and in conceptual extension, to any relationship at all. I like to think this card showing up today is a validation of being the love you want in your life. In giving love, in loving the things and people in our lives now, we put the whole Valentine’s Day soulmate thing into perspective.

And makes those relationships when they are in our lives doubly important, valued and appreciated. They become love heaped upon love. It makes relationships more valued and precious when they are an expansion of a love-filled life, not filling for an empty spot.

Looking at today’s cards as they usual ‘what it is’ and ‘what to do about it’ we see the lady/gentleman paired with the hear.

The lady/gentleman cards are a self significator…they stand in for you in the reading. This reading is aimed at purely internal, subjective perception. What you think these cards mean, is exactly what they DO mean. The reading is between you and you…all I did was pull the next card for you to contemplate.

The heart card is the star of all of this…relationships. Not just one to one romance…any connection, anyone or anything that is significant to you…anyone or anything that you love. YOU love is the key. Not expectations. Not ideals. What do you love in your life right here, right now? What connections need to be nurtured and grown? What connections need to be trimmed or cut? What connections need to be built? What connections are right there, just waiting to be seen and discovered?

It is at once the simplest and the hardest part of life.

What it is – you

What to do about it – love.

I wish you a peaceful week free from ridiculous commercial holiday expectations. Happy half priced chocolate to those who celebrate.

See you at the next sip!

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My Tarot Valentine 2026

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When you love, you win. It’s the act of giving love that matters.

Love heals the deepest wounds without dwelling on them including – perhaps especially – when that love and healing is directed toward yourself.

Loving others is its own reward, no matter how others respond.

Love is a living tree. Water and tend to it, always. It will give air and fruit and color and life in return, if not in this season, then in another. Love will outlive the pain.

“The only thing stronger than hate is love” – Bad Bunny

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My Tarot Valentine is a collection of Tarot meditations with the theme of love, romance, and relationships of all kinds. 44 pages.

Today’s Tarot: Only You

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Happiness isn’t at your fingertips. It’s inside them.

Looking for happiness is like trying to buy a one of a kind item that you already own. Or to paraphrase the adage Mark Salzman references in Iron and Silk – looking for happiness is like looking for the donkey you are already riding on.

Only you can decide what, if anything, makes you happy. Only you can decide if and when you are happy. No one can else can make you happy – only you.

And if that is true, then no one else can take your happiness away.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

image: public domain

Tarot for the Week: Portals and Possibilities

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I’m loving the Alleyman card today – mostly because I am in my happy place, at home drinking coffee, watching the Olympics and knitting.

Very often, the Four of Wands is associated with community celebrations in support of the family or individuals within that community – think birthday parties, weddings or baby showers.

Sometimes there is a sense of sanctuary, with some sort of shelter in the art work, be it open and symbolic or a literal structure. The Pamela Smith RWS deck artwork shows both a wedding chupah and a fortress or castle.

The open shelter images also give a sense of a portal or a gateway. This kind of energy doesn’t come as often as the other, but it steps forward today.

Today is the most optimistic week-ahead energy I’ve felt in a long time.

I hear “ripe with potential.”

I know, I know – that’s not the exact adage, but I’m not going to go all grammar police on the powers that be. I hate pedantry.

I also get “opportunities are what we make of them.”

This isn’t the time to let up. Keep up the pressure. When the christofascists rock back on their heels even a little bit…push harder.

Doors can be shown, doors can be opened, but we can’t walk through them for another.

We must each walk through each door for ourselves.

Or shove unwanted energies out of them.

It is a week of portals and possibilities.

It’s up to you what to draw in, push out or walk through.

Deck in video: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission Publishing Goblin LLC

RWS Card image: public domain

Quick Sip: What they are

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Feel what you feel. Emotions are what they are. They come. They go. They are valid while they are here, but it is OK to let them flow away as easily as they bubbled up.

Be gentle with yourself and kind to what you feel today.

Sage’s Sip of Tarot: Pine and Cypress

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“…the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and stability.”

Life can be a dumpster fire. Or a sudden storm. Or a dumpster fire in a storm.

When that happens…and it always does at some point for everyone…you do what you have to do to make it through.

During those times stability and comfort zones are sometimes more helpful than striving, goals or lofty ideals – even our so-called “personal growth.”

When the dumpster fire is particularly raging, it can help to get granular, get smaller but more stable. A lower center of gravity is more stable.

But so is flexibility. The tree that bends in strong winds doesn’t break. That is why coastal cypress trees are a classic symbol of strength in the storm.

When the storm comes, it is an opportunity to be the creator and protector of your own little bubble of strength and stability. You alone can’t stop the storm, but you can control your reaction to it. You can control your hunkering down and seeking shelter, protecting you and yours as best as you can.

The protective, competent, powerful, self-confident energy of the Emperor card reminds us of this.

Anything helps. Anything is better than nothing. This is where all the little milquetoast platitudes and meme-ish affirmations take on some actual value. Anything you can do to create a little stability for yourself, anything that will foster the strength and flexibility that you need has benefit. Meditation for even a few minutes, sitting and staring at your morning coffee for a few minutes, say that affirmation to yourself in the mirror, scroll and inspirational social media feed – draw that Tarot card.

You don’t have to be a towering redwood. A short and supple pine tree will do just fine.

If enough of us become our own little cypress tree, soon we can have a whole forest that can withstand any storm.

Learn From The Dark

Knowledge is power.

Two things piqued my interest in Lenormand Tarot. First, a friend described them as giving blunt, direct, plain-talking, hit-you-over-the-head. That alone was enough to prompt me to get a deck and explore. Then an episode of The Circle is Podcast with Mat Auryn and Rachel True confirmed my experience with the deck with their own observations: The cards connect in a linguistic, sentence-like way.

It is part of the Lenormand technique to interpret cards in the context of adjacent cards instead of the context of layout position meanings as in RWS style Tarot. The cards seemed to me to be a combination of short, direct, blunt, frying-pan-to-the-face messages in a short but very connected format, like a two word sentence. In the case of these “Action Eases Anxiety” layouts it is noun-verb, specifically current energy and what to do about it.

Today, the cards are so blended they don’t even keep that minimal subject/verb sentence order. They meld together into a single message. The book hints at knowledge. Lenormand doesn’t usually pay any attention to reversals, but in the reversal feels significant, and related to the hidden and inner knowledge energies in recent readings with the queen of wands and the last Action Eases Anxiety layout. Christopher Butler, in the Healing Light guidebook connects the stork with change and “upheaval” – both an understatement here in the U.S.

In essence we are advised to study the old, lofi, hidden, analog, offline, real world ways to learn how to survive the upheaval at hand. Humans have done this before. The knowledge about how to choose your side and live well in it exists, but is hidden, to protect it.

Keep your head. Seek your tribe. Learn the way.

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Action Eases Anxiety (for a snowy weekend)

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This reading can resonate with anyone, anywhere, at any time – if it feels right for you, it’s yours. The reading also feels like it is directed at those of us in the US who are forecast to (GASP!!) get a bunch of snow in the middle of January. Get your snackies, beer, stuff for sandwiches if the power goes out and ingredients for soup and cookies if it doesn’t. It’s a good excuse to stay home, and stick it to capitalism by not buying a damn thing extra all weekend. Stay safe, stay warm and be good to yourself. This is an introvert’s paradise, so extroverts are on their own for this one. Imma knit and read and putz around on the website.

This layout lends itself well to Lenormand decks. It’s like a simple sentence, subject and verb. It shows us what the energy is and suggests a good thing to do about it.

Doing something (even if that something is wait, watch or conserve) can take the edge off of worries. Just having an action plan can help, even if you don’t wind up using it.

Current energy: The Stars.

I ‘hear’ “the road to riches is close at hand but hidden” This is a good omen type of card similar to the Star card in the RWS major arcana. It speaks to good fortune at hand, but it also has elements of subtle guidance. It hints at doing the necessary mental work for find your good fortune. Look before you leap, think before you act, but in the end, actions speak louder than words. You have to take steps in order to walk the road to good fortune.

What to do: The Bear.

Protect what you have. Don’t be a spendthrift just now. As Ben Franklin said “a penny saved is a penny earned.”

The deck author, Christopher Butler describes this card as a very mama bear energy.

Don’t just stand up for what you believe in, sit with it. Share space and spend time with the things and people most important to you as far as you are able. Send your thoughts and check in with friends and loved ones if you can’t physically be there.

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Action Eases Anxiety: This is it.

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CURRENT ENERGY: The Tower. You can’t control the world, but you are 100% in control of how you respond to it. Don’t pray for protection or to be given something. Pray instead for the strength and resources to keep yourself safe, to make or create the things you want.

WHAT TO DO: The Stork. This is the birth of something new and different. Change strategies. DO things differently to get different or better results. This is it. It’s your time to step up and do what you need to do for your own well being and those you love. Now is a good time to be the change you want to see in your inner world, and maybe the outer one too.

Today’s Tarot: Feel the Feels

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TEN OF SWORDS:

Not every moment is perfect. Happy, anxious, afraid, joyous, calm, apathetic, bored, angry, content: all of it is part of the human experience. It’s what you DO as a response to emotions where things get complicated and carry consequences.

Whatever you are feeling today, sit with those feelings. Lie face down with them. Abide with whatever it is and it will change in time as everything always does. Sit with the emotions for a minute and think about the best thing to do.

Swords are the element of air, mentality and intellect. Swords govern action, even when the advice is to act slowly and deliberately. Today is a day for head over heart kind of day. Avoid impulse, think before you act.

Other image: Public Domain