Tag: tarot reading

Upside Down From a Certain Point of View

A Tarot reading for the week ahead, depending on your point of view

Most of us have seen Star Wars. If you haven’t, stop what you are doing, put this post down and go watch. Then go read Joseph Campbell’s book The Power of Myth and you’ll understand why Star Wars is a classic, epic movie that shouldn’t be missed even if you aren’t typically a science fiction fan.

Point of view comes into play with Tarot readings too.

I’m happiest when I take the most gestalt, holistic point of view that I can muster, Tarot readings included.

Was feeling the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck this morning (used in the video with Publishing Goblin‘s permission) We’ve talked before about reversals, which is when a card turns over upside down relative to the person doing the reading. The Alleyman’s deck tends to feel a little wild and woolly and slippery and a little chaotic and prone to reversals – which makes it perfect for capturing the cacophony of big picture humanity and that collective big picture energy we read in these weekly posts.

Today, all three cards are reversed.

You could take that to mean we are heading into a gnarly catawampus upside down kind of week (which is entirely possible.)

Or you could take it as a reminder that if we walk around to the other side of the table and look at this from a different point of view, then everything is right side up, just as we want it to be.

I’ve said it dozens of times, but it is worth repeating when ALL of the cards are reversed. In a private reading, I’ll follow intuition about any given card’s reversal. It might just be happenstance, the by-product of slippery cards and lots of shuffling. Or it might be a real clue about something that is blocked, turbulent, challenging, stagnant or otherwise complicated.

My hunch today is that it really doesn’t matter. It is like a double negative that gets you right back where you started. The reverse of fading energy is growing energy and vice versa.

I get the mental image of a seesaw. The yin yang symbol strongly comes to mind. Balance whatever turns up this week with its opposite. The yin yang symbol, the taijitu, is actually intended to be dynamic. The balance is in constant motion, like we’ve talked about so many times before with the Two of Pentacles (you can use the search in the right hand side of the page or scroll down on mobile to browse the 2 of pentacles archives)

My hunch is that the real carry away message for this weeks reading is to be adaptive. Be light on your feet and in the moment, willing to change and balance a situation. In order to do that, we need to remember there are 360 degrees in a circle around these cards and many points of view to any given situation.

So chalk one up for Old Ben.

Let’s look at each card. But this time I’ll let you decide the point of view. You decide which side of the table you are on. The center card is the dominant, current energy either way you look at it. But you can decide if it is blocked or not, reversed or not, complicated or not.

Fading energy reversed / growing energy upright: Two of Swords

In the classic Pamela Smith artwork and the many decks based on that, the two of swords reverses. This card, made by Sean S. LeBlanc, looks and means the same thing either way. It fits right in with the gestalt thinking and adaptive balancing that the reading as whole is giving us. The classic meaning is being “of two minds” about something. Swords are associated with mind, intellect, and action. It is hard to act when we don’t know what to do and the mind is locked into a “six of one, half dozen of the other” stalemate. The image on this card is a guillotine. Right side up or up side down, fading energy or growing energy, the message of this card is cut to the chase. Get to the point of points. Strip away all of the fluff and nonsense and distractions and get to the real heart of the matter. THEN you can decide, act and find balance as needed.

Central Energy, reversed or upright: The Sun

Sunrises are beautiful.

But so are sunsets.

The sun card is about warmth, beauty, positivity and happiness. I am reminded of that quote of unknown origin (although often credited to Abraham Lincoln) that “Most folks are as happy as they make up their mind to be.”

Although the card is overwhelmingly positive, the reversal component reminds us not to go overboard in either direction of our chosen happiness.

Forced happiness doesn’t count. Walking around in a sparkly cloud of self indulgent toxic positivity doesn’t help anything. Forget happy. Take off those rose colored glasses, see things as they are and find a way to be content in the here and now. That’s the happy that lasts.

As much as I love a healthy dose of cynicism and good old GenX style sarcasm, the Sun card flows in both directions. Sometimes you have to take off those jade colored glasses and allow a little unprovoked unreasonable joy into your life.

Growing energy in reverse/ fading energy: Four of Swords

Alleyman deck creator, Seven Dane Asmund, reads this card as “the many angles of our self doubt” … again perfect for the point of view theme of today’s reading.

I ‘hear’ “how do you heal?” Basically the feel is to do something restorative for yourself especially where self confidence is concerned. That area may have taken some dings lately and you might need some repairs. I see the mental image of that social media picture of a little kid who stuck colorful stickers all over themselves (and the puppy next to them) The phrase “bandaids for the soul” springs to mind too.

Also the word “normative” comes to mind, but not in the sense of imposing norms of behavior. It feels more like adaptogenic herbs or essential oils – something that brings a thing back into normal range from either direction. Jojoba oil is an example from aromatherapy. It can moisturize excessively dry skin while helping oily skin to produce less oil.

In short this card encourages you to take care of yourself with meaningful little things as you hit the inevitable little bumps in the road this week.

Again the word “adaptogenic” comes to mind.

I see labradorite, which is a classic stone for easing transitions through life stages and adapting to change.

If you’ll allow me a little rando fangirling, my friend Amanda (Universal Crystal Love on Etsy) makes beautiful wire wrap jewelry and has a particularly good eye for labradorite. The pictures can’t do it justice.

And there the energy steps back.

If you want something like this only much more personalized, private email readings are open 24/7 no appointment needed.

It’s just me, my cards and my chromebook, so delivery times vary, especially nights, weekends and holidays here in the eastern US. They may be slow at times, but my readings are authentic and secure and real and just for you.

See you at the next sip for another oracle dice Learn With Me.

Portal to the New

Sometimes the best way to is through – don’t give up!sag

In his classic science fiction novel, Dune, Frank Herbert famously wrote

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I don’t have much to add to Frank Herbert’s famous quote because that essentially sums up the reading for this week.

That, and I also intuitively hear that “the best way around is through.”

The quiet, introspective, introverted, wait, watch, listen energy from last couple of weeks is still lingering for the collective zeitgeist if you are reading or listening to this close to the time when its posted. If you are coming across this at a later time, The Queen of Cups is validating any emotional fatigue or philosophical, thinking, introspective feelings you may have experienced recently. The 1909 Pamela Smith artwork we see in today’s card draw video shows the queen of cups near water, gazing into a cup. Sometimes that has intuition connections and you might resonate with the idea of fortune telling. The stories of Nostradamus gazing into a bowl of water to make his predictions come to mind. I don’t know if that was an inspiration for the artist or not. My sense is that the connection for this week is to the idea of water representing the depths of the human psyche and the queen is gazing to understand deep emotions and subconscious motives more than some superficial, shallow movie style prediction.

This energy is in the fading position, so the time is coming soon when we need to ease up on plumbing our psychological and emotional depths. Knock it off with the emo for a little bit. We need to go heads up and eyes open for a little bit.

There is a certain practicality to the Devil Card. This week it is asking us to take up the terrifying task of staring reality in the eye. There are things in this world we can’t control. There are terrible people making terrible decisions. Malicious intent exists. Putting it on the line to stand up for yourself and stand up for what is right is a fearful thing.

Which takes us back to the Litany Against Fear. Sometimes the only way around is through.

Here I am reminded of a scene from the pulp fiction based 1985 movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Granted, we aren’t talking about super brainy high class cinema here, but it is a fun movie. One of my favorite parts is where Chun, the martial arts master tells student Remo “Fear is just a feeling. You feel hot. You feel hungry. You feel angry. You feel afraid. Fear can never kill you.”

Which also reminds us of the very real life quote from President Franklin Roosevelt that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.“

Whenever we confront external danger we are confronting our own fear as well.

Sometimes the demons we most need to slay are the internal ones.

Only then are we free to begin and begin and begin again if we need to do that. The Fool reminds us that we can begin again as many times as we need. Moment by moment if necessary. Sometimes the only way to that new moment is through the fear we feel in this one.

Thank you so much for reading and listening!

This free to access Tarot blog and podcast is supported by your purchases, memberships and virtual coffees on the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi page. Please visit the links below and in the podcast episode description. Any likes, follows or shares you can spare are greatly appreciated. Private readings are still open, with no appointment needed for email.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Groot With Jingle Bells

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Today’s card is the Seven of Bells, from a woodcut print for a deck of sixteenth century playing cards by German artist Peter Flotner. This particular card is part of the Alleyman’s Tarot Deck, used with permission of Publishing Goblin LLC

On seeing the card, my impression was a clear, urgent single word.

Wait.

In all fairness, it is Wednesday morning as I write this and you could chalk this whole thing up to a rampaging case of the mid-week blahs. In fact that might be the whole point of it. A case of the midweek blahs might be a message to wait, to indulge in some stillness. If you ever feel hugely UNmotivated, listen to that feeling. Understand it and adjust accordingly.

This very much feels like a continuation of the energy from our week-ahead reading two days ago. It’s still an introvert’s energy paradise, but I’m getting a small sense of how an extrovert might be feeling a little restless today.

Still, I feel like the message is crisp, clear and succinct. It feels like a command to stop, be still, and wait. It feels almost like a being held still or caught in a science fiction tractor beam or force field. I hear the phrase “enforced stasis” Lots of science and science fiction words and images are coming through today.

Now I get the mental image of an old school mario video game. I don’t know if you have ever played a video game with those swinging or jumping obstacles. Running flat out at full speed will get you knocked down every time. The trick is to wait. You have to make your run in short bursts or to time the jumps just right.

Have you ever heard of psycho neuro immunology? Is that still a thing? It was in vogue back in the 80s during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Basically it is modern scientific medicine finally taking a side eye look at the ancient mind body connection and who would have guessed – lo, and behold! Stress impacts your health and can legit affect immunity. Shocker, eh? By measuring T cells and cortisols and all sorts of technical stuff that I can’t remember , mainstream medicine figured out a thing that holistic wisdom has known all along: if you don’t get rest on your own when you need it, Mother Nature will step in and make you rest through a cold, or flu or something. Go down for a nap or be taken down for a week. Taking care of yourself mentally and physically isn’t going to 100% prevent or cure infectious diseases, especially not very serious illnesses like AIDS or Covid, but it can help your immune system do its thing when minor things come along.

So wait.

Stop.

Be still.

Listen.

I’m taking this one personally. It has been a busy couple of months here in the cyberspace as TaoCraft Tarot was renamed to Sage Words Tarot, I finished & uploaded TaoCraft Portfolio (the free behind the scenes ebook) and the Tarot Table subscription blog was changed, updated and changed again. It is seriously time to stop mucking around with all of this. I hope you’ll visit the links in the podcast episode description or browse the blog website or browse the ko-fi page. Comments are open on the blog and DMs are open to supporters on ko-fi. I really hope that you’ll take a look and tell me the features you like, don’t like and what you would like to see in the future. I’m listening.

I think that may be part of the “pause” or “wait” energy that is coming through this week. Listening is part of the stillness and quiet. You can’t listen to other people when you are chattering nonstop. I have things situated so that it suits my needs. It has come to the point of simply letting you know what I have to offer and if it resonates with you then great! Let’s get to work! But if it doesn’t, no worries. There are a lot of us sincere, trustworthy psychics out here – someone is bound to match your vibe. You keep looking for what you need. And as the seven of bells suggests, I’ll keep listening for what is needed.

The figure on the card seems to be made of wood, like Marvel’s Groot surrounded by jingle bells, or maybe Treebeard from Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings or the Tree people of Cheem from Doctor Who – only centuries before any of those characters were created. Actual trees that aren’t science fiction humanoids are living beings, after all.

Listen to the wind in the trees. They may be listening back.

Seven Dane Asmund, the Alleyman’s Tarot creator connected this card to change – both changing to meet the needs of others AND more importantly reminding us that we can change back to our true selves.

Here I am reminded of the Face Dancers from the original Dune book series by Frank Herbert. Face Dancers were shape shifting assassins who could take on any person’s appearance and never showed their true form while on assignment. Take out the assassin part and we all do a little bit of behavioral face dancing. To one extent or another we adapt our language and behavior to the situation. I think the connection to the card comes from the idea of a strong inner core. Like an oak tree or towering pine, our authentic self can remain still, quiet, and strong no matter how our branches sway in the wind. Still, quiet and strong, our true selves wait for us to return no matter how our outer social face dances.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. See you at the next sip!

If you enjoy this free Tarot content, please consider a private Tarot reading, subscribing to the members blog or gifting a virtual coffee on the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi page. Links are in the podcast episode description or click the white coffee mug on the blog page.

Filtered light

Six of Cups and nostalgia turned upside down.

Thoughts inspired by the Six of Cups in Reverse

The Week Ahead: More than meets the eye

The Tarot week ahead in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

My, my. Aren’t we chatty again today.

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I’m glad you are here.

On Mondays, my hope is to do a Pathway Tarot reading for everyone, on all the platforms where you can find Sage Words Tarot. As always, it isn’t a hard core prediction. No Tarot or psychic reading ever is. As I see it this functions a lot like a weather forecast. It isn’t 100% definite most of the time (unless you hear the word “warning” which means it is already happening, so you should do something about it.) If you take a squinty-eyed look at what is probable, then you can be ready for the possibilities and opportunities that cross your path. It’s our mantra here: Tarot doesn’t tell you what is going to happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens.

​The energy this week is quite a bit like last week. Neil DeGrasse Tyson once said that “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” That is true of hard science, social sciences, and folk art like Tarot. The universe is under no obligation to make one iota of sense and by the same token, it is under no obligation to move or change according to our hopes, aspirations, expectations or schedules.

If a regularly scheduled Tarot broadcast seems repetitive, it isn’t necessarily because the person doing the reading isn’t skilled or that the whole technique isn’t valid. The collective energies are what they are and under no obligation to keep us entertained.

We’ve had this “yeah it’s an annoying pain in the backside but you got this” energy around for a few weeks now. But compare that to 2020 when it was all mental images of hurricanes and a sense of Holy Duck stay focused on the practical problems at hand and batten down the hatches. The feel is totally different. This is feet up sipping coffee time by comparison.

Sometimes the energy changes within a matter of hours. Sometimes things shift over weeks or months. It varies from time to time – and certainly from person to person.

The energy seems fairly steady and low-key at the moment. I personally, will take that. I could use a little steady for a little while. So good news for me, but frustrating news for anyone who is feeling stuck, frustrated or impatient. Like I’ve said before relative to the Hanged Man card…one man’s stuck in the mud is another man’s day at the spa. It’s up to you to decide if the energy reads we get here are good or bad news for you personally.

One of the clue for me that we are still in a bit of the same groove is how chatty the cards are.

By chatty, I mean that the reading is more clairaudient than usual.

Clairvoyant means “clear sight” and refers to intuitive impressions that come in the form of mental images. I use the verb “see” to refer to those.

Clairaudient is that same intuition, just in the form of something sound-related like words or music. When those come along I use the word “hear.” Very seldom are the sounds actual sounds, although right now I’m getting the screeching tires and breaking glass sound effect from a don’t text and drive public service announcement just as an example of what that would be like.

Try putting THAT into words for a blog and podcast.

But back to chatty.

I’ve been getting more than the usual amount of word-driven intuition rather than mental image intuition the past couple of weeks as we begin the new pattern of things under the new name.

The change from TaoCraft Tarot to Sage Words Tarot is mostly finished, by the way.

When I do a private email Tarot reading, the first thing we’ll do is take a look at the general pattern of the cards on the table. This week is starting off with a bang and every single card in the layout is from the major arcana portion of the Tarot deck. I genuinely don’t see that often. I don’t know the math of it. Only 22 of the 78 Tarot cards are major arcana, but there is still some crazy big number of possible combinations in a three card reading….what is it? 78+77+76 to the power of three or some ridiculous thing? I don’t know the precise science-answer, but there are a LOT of possible combinations and only a portion of them include all major arcana cards. So the fact that this layout beat the odds and gave us all majors deserves attention and consideration.

Thinking about this pattern gives sort of a blurry double image, like opening your eyes under water. I am reminded of that old adage about being a duck in an emergency…calm on the surface but furiously paddling underneath.

All major arcana cards are a high energy, rapid change situation. That is in direct opposition to the sedate, steady feeling of the energy.

So how do we reconcile the seeming opposites?

I think the weird juxtaposition is a hint at timing. In the big picture and the overall pattern of things the theme of sedate and steady rules the week, but there may be small or short-lived little “KER-POWs” of energy.

There is an example of both clairvoyance and clairaudience at work. I ‘hear’ or ‘get’ the word KA-POW plus I also get a mental image of it as a cartoon or comic book image of the word, like during the fight scenes in the 1960s Batman TV show that in itself was a parody of even older comic books.

I also see a pebble thrown into a pond…a little splash in a big quiet surface.

I don’t think there is anything much under the surface. We might have to do a little ker-pow of duck paddling at some point this week, but it isn’t a major upset, just a little burst of speed to scoot out of the way of a minor disturbance.

At least on the outside. Here I get the impression that most of the major arcana action is going to be internal, in the spiritual or psychological realm of things, which would certainly fit the symbolism of the duck who seems to be gliding calmly on top but paddling like crazy with its feet under the smooth glassy surface of the water.

The first major arcana card we see is the Justice card. With that I hear “Be fair, including with yourself.” “You are part of the mix and deserve equal fairness with everyone.” This card is in the diminishing energies position within this particular layout, at which point I hear “Let It Go”…. in the form of the song from that Disney movie.

Which in turn reminds us to keep it light, keep your sense of humor, and don’t turn this week’s splash into more of a tidal wave than it really is.

In the current energy position we have the Strength card. This card feels like pure validation and reassurance. You got this. I get the mental image of a weight room or a gym. This is practice. This is a normal workout for your resilience and persistence. Be strong. Don’t whine. Do the do and you can get back to your calm and steady energies shortly.

The growing energy position belongs to the Fool. I see underlines…so this card is reinforcing the idea of lightness and humor. Keeping your sense of humor about things seems important this week.

The Fool card is also symbolic of new beginnings. Our chatty cards are giving me the “break on through to the other side” lyric from some old song from the Doors. Don’t ask me which one. I’m not THAT old. If it grabs your attention as something for you personally, then by all means google it or stream the song or something.

​For our purposes, I think the “other side” is the other side of whatever stress or burst of energy this week brings. Be it next week, next month or next year, this feels like a reassurance that something good is available to us if we put a little effort into it.

It’s weird, but I see grass, and colored eggs on grass on the other side of clear plastic kitchen wrap. Good thing are waiting for us if we are fair to everyone and ourselves, stay strong and make the little effort of breaking on through to the greener grass on the other side of this week.

So stay calm but keep paddling my duckie friends!

Daily Sip members on ko-fi get Tarot every weekday (plus a standing shop discount) Tarot Table members get that plus a personal Sage’s Sip Tarot reading by email on request one per calendar month that they are an active member. People who follow the free blog on SageWordsTaot.com get exclusive weekend content, and the socials are whatever whenever although Instagram is the only one where I actually interact with the comments.

And that is the online week in a nutshell.

Or in a Tarot reading in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. See you at the next sip!

The Week Ahead: Churning a Corner

Churning the corner: a Tarot look at the week ahead

It’s Monday. Let’s talk motivation. Mostly because I don’t have any at the moment.

Hello and welcome to Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I’m glad you are here.

It’s week two of the new schedule where a three card pathway reading for the week ahead posts for everyone on Monday. I appreciate any day that you read or listen. Thank you.

The cards are chatty this week. The intuitive impressions are words as much as mental images. Typically I get more images than words. I don’t thing that shift is particularly significant, I’m fairly clairaudient anyway so let’s just roll with it.

The first card is the knight of cups with the words “emotional churning.” come through here. Knights are generally very active, confident, forward moving cards. In this case, it is in the “diminishing energies” position within the layout. Put those together, and it hints at a time of high emotions, but when that time happens for you as an individual is impossible to say. It may be happening, or it may be close at hand. Either way, I’d guess this time of emotional upheaval and wonkiness shouldn’t last long.

I’ll grant you I’ve had a morning of app and website technical gremlins, so I feel fairly annoyed with that, but those are resolved now and I still feel a sense of malcontent. I get a sense of short tempers, irritability, or of the world getting on every last nerve. Again I get that idea of emotional churning. It might be a residual feeling from the earlier inconveniences, but it it crossing that boundary line we’ve talked about before. If I focus on that boundary between my own mood and the general zeitgeist energy, this feels like more than a stupic app crashing would warrant. Yeah, I was annoyed, but now it feels like so are a lot of other people and over bigger things than that.

Mind that your mood is your own. This card reminds us of two things. First mind your emotional boundaries. What is the objective reality around you right now? Is the stress or emotion you might be feeling objectively warranted, or is it a by-product of worry about the future or dwelling on the past? If that is the case deliberately focusing on right here, right now can help. That’s the mindfulness that people are always talking about.

Let’s try it. Just for a quick moment. Then you can get right back to your regularly scheduled agitation.

First take a deep breath and think about what you feel and how you feel. Good, bad or indifferent, don’t judge it, just name it. How the heck do you feel right now? Is a just a little or is the volume turned up to 11?

Take another deep breath. Now pay attention to right here. Where are you? What is your environment? Pull your attention back from the words on the screen and notice other things like the device itself, the sounds around you, the temperature, how comfortably you are seated or standing.

All of those details.

Pay attention to right now. Forget the past, forget the future, just for a minute. Put all of your thoughts on

This.

One.

Moment.

Is this moment quiet? Does it suddenly feel like “HEY! It’s kinda happy in here!” If that’s the case, you might be resonating with outside energies. If you still feel gnarly and churning, then it’s time to face those emotions. Own them. Even if they are uncomfortable, it’s ok. They are legit. As best as you can, give them…and you…whatever T.L.C is needed. It’s not a personal failure to experience uncomfortable emotions. At worst it’s a signal there is something up that needs some attention, comprehension and problem-solving. At best it’s just you being human.

The good news is that as a diminishing energy, the emotional churn that is our Monday Motivation toward mindfulness (ooooh I do love me some alliteration) probably won’t last long. The high emotional state will churn the corner soon.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

The second thing is mind your own emotions. More than just being aware of the boundary, shore it up and don’t leak out. Feel what you feel. Embrace it, accept it, abide with it. Just please don’t spew it on other people. You never know what is brewing inside their emotional boundary bubble so be nice. We are are annoyed in this together – or so it seems.

The surrounding energy for this week is the Ace of Wands.

I hear “carry a torch for yourself.” which is a phrase that I’ve heard before with this card. Wands are associated with fire, our inner world, and our inner passions. Once we get on the other side of annoyance day, then carrying a torch for ourselves…self love, self improvement, self care….whatever name you want to use for it…give yourself a little of that.

If the emotional churn initially motivates, this self care is one thing that the emotions are pushing us toward.

“Spark an idea” comes through too. I also hear “lightbulb” and see that cartoon trope of a light bulb over someone’s head to show they have had a sudden good idea.

When you get the right idea, your instinct and emotion will light up too. When you know, you know, and when you know where you want to go it lights up the path to get there lights up too.

Churning emotions are a hint that something needs to change, that you need to turn a corner. A spark of an idea will let you know when the change is at hand and just what corner to turn.,

The growing energy is the two of pentacles. That’s where we are headed, and that’s a releaf. I ‘hear’ it will all wash out in the end.

I see pancakes.

Here is why.

Have you ever made pancakes from scratch? Most recipes tell you not to mix too much at the end, and that lumps are OK because they will cook out in the end, and mixing them out now will make the pancake chewy and tough.

That’s sort of the flow of energy here. It’s lumpy and weird at the start, but if we hang in and roll with it, it will all cook out in the end. We’ll churn the corner to a more balanced energy fairly soon.

Hang in there my friends.

Thank you for reading and listening. Please visit the main blog and podcast website. The link is in the episode description for podcast folks. Your support on ko-fi helps me to bring this weekly look ahead reading to everyone. Please click the white coffee mug on the website or the link in the description to learn more.

Many thanks. See you at the next sip!

Enjoy The Heck Out Of It

Enjoy the heck out of the holidays.

You heard me – enjoy

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot Blog and podcast.

Today’s episode is truly short, because I want to leave you with this one simple idea: indulgence can serve as a way of showing gratitude.

There is a tendency, at least in our puritan-influenced American culture to hold back the things we find most precious. From a place of fear, we lock life away in an attempt to revere and protect it.

I tend to think and feel that way. Probably far too often.

That is where the indulgences of the holiday season serve an interesting subtle purpose. Yes, by all means it is – and should be – a celebration and a stress relief. But it is also a means of expressing gratitude for life and all the little pleasures it provides.

For example, a cookie isn’t just a cookie at the holidays. It is a treat and a tradition. Eating that cookie and a half dozen others with joy and abandon is not only celebration, it our gratitude in action, our thankfulness for the flour and sugar in the cupboard and the bakers in our grocery stores. It is a child-like enthusiasm and unpretentious thank you.

Now substitute cookie for your favorite parts of whatever winter holiday you happen to celebrate.

And with that, I reach for another cookie and raise my gingerbread spice coffee to you in a wish for health, happiness and prosperity for us all in 2023!

I’ll talk to you in January, but Zombie Cat will be stopping by later this week with his so-called predictions for the New Year.

Merry Happy Everyone!

Thank you all so much for reading and listening in 2022 and always! I’m still pondering a name change. TaoCraft Tarot resonates with me because it is a reflection of my deep-down, life-long philosophies.

BUT

It is more important that this Tarot website resonates with YOU. Tarot readings, the really good ones, are a conversation and a collaboration between the reader and the sitter (seeker, querent, whatever term you like to use) I want to make this a warm, inviting cozy place for us both to contemplate Tarot and related topics together.

Conversations are made up of words. Words are the net we throw over ideas to draw them into our conversation.

In 2023, TaoCraft Tarot will (probably) become Sage Words Tarot to match my personal blog. It’s still me (under my pen name Sage) and we’ll use our words to talk about Tarot and do readings for you.

I hope everyone who has followed this Tarot work under Modern Oracle (1002 – 2018) will stick around through one more, hopefully more welcoming name change.

Happy New Year to all!

Offering

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

But you can have a long cool drink of your own.

This card’s advice and energy might be a little connected to a private reading I did earlier today, but nevertheless it is one of those proverbial truisms that applies to everyone.

We can’t control other people, but we sure as hell can control ourselves.

We can offer our love, but can’t make other people accept it – much less requite it.

We can accept the love that is given to us. We can choose to reflect, return and magnify that love.

We can choose to close ourselves off, but don’t dare be hurt when other people turn away and stop offering their emotions and energies to a closed up lump.

Let emotions flow – there are always more where that came from.

Yes, absolutely, choose, control and curate how you express them and who you express them to. You can control that much, but not how -or if-they will react.

“You do you boo” is as demeaning and dismissive as it feels when someone says it to you…but it is also full, unbridled permission to let your freak flag fly and to do just exactly that…you.

“People are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln among others.

So what do you do about people who choose differently than you had hoped or just generally make up their mind to be miserable?

I don’t know.

I suspect the answer is to let them.

Respect their choices. Respect the mind they’ve made. But just as importantly, respect yours just as strongly.

Choose happy, and it is yours.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous Yuletide Solstice time and New Year.

Thank you for reading and listening in 2022. Please stay tuned for a shiny new and improved blog, podcast and other new surprises coming in 2023.

Wishing all the best to everyone,

Sage

How Tarot Works

How Tarot really works

You are just perfectly enough just exactly as you are.

Right here. Right now. You already are all you need to be in this moment. Take a deep breath. Are you in any real danger right this very second? If you are, what in the living heck are you doing reading a blog or listening to a podcast? Take care of yourself for goodness sake! But if you are reading or listening to this, chances are things are OK enough to allow for a little screen time. Even if things are fantastic, take a little time off from that emotional energy and let the time it takes to read this or listen to the episode be a bubble of emotional rest for you.

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to all our U.S. friends. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the King of Cups, in reverse. Like we’ve talked about before, I read inversions pretty much the same as upright cards, taking all of the keywords and meanings into consideration all of the time anyway. If the card turns over upside down relative to the person doing the reading, or “reversed” as we call it in Tarot parlance, it looks right side up to a person on the other side of the table. Reversed or upright, considering the big picture is key in this kind of work. Abstractions, ideas, archetypes, and intuitive nudges all make a tiny bit more sense when you keep the cosmic perspective in mind during the whole card reading process. When you think big picture, the orientation of the card on the table matters less.

In any reading, public collective or private, a reversal speaks more to the position in the layout than the individual card. Layout position plus a reversed card is a clue to an area of life that may be conflicted, slowed, problematic or blocked. In a one card reading, a reversal can mean a broadly applicable slowing or turbulence in the person’s energies or in the collective, zeitgeist energy

Or not.

Freud once said that “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Sometimes a reversed card is just a random happenstance from shuffling the deck.

Some decks, I’ll grant you seem to be more reversal prone than others, no doubt due to mundane physical properties like card size and paper coatings and what have you. My beloved Alleyman’s Tarot Deck is especially wild and wooly in that respect, so I tend to give reversals from that deck a little more creedence for whatever reason. On the other hand, the back on my favorite RWS deck feels more staid and proper and it’s reversals chalk up to shuffling and general. It’s funny how we humans like to anthropomorphize our favorite work tools. I get it why BB King named his guitar Lucille. Some stuff has vibe and zing and personality, especially things that we have given our time, creativity and our life energy.

Except today. Today the RWS deck came up reversed and it feels like it means it.

The reversed king of cups is about emotional maturity. It connects to the feeling of defeat and brokenness that the Ten of Swords spoke about in “The Lemonade” post/episode.

Clairaudience (intuitive hearing) gives the words “Own what you feel.”

2022 may be more bittersweet in retrospect than we realized. There are ribbons of darkness in the onrush of holiday celebration.

My mind again goes to those lost to gun violence, or as one newscaster put it to all the chairs that will be tragically empty this holiday season. It is perfectly understandable how grief of this magnitude can leave its mark on the collective energy, both on a conscious and unconscious level. Emotions of every kind tend to run high during the holiday season.

Whatever the emotion, whatever the intensity, whatever the reason, you have to own them and validate them even if no one else will. The emotions exist. They are valid and they are real and, more importantly, they are yours. How you express them and how you act upon them are your responsibility just like a kingdom is the responsibility of the king.

Once acknowledged, emotions can be let go. Once understood, they are less likely to resurface in disruptive ways. It’s not magic. It’s social science. It’s human psychology.

And it’s how Tarot works. Tarot works, not to accurately predict the future, but to help us own and understand our emotions. Psychologist Carl Jung taught that “Until the unconscious is made conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Tarot helps us find exactly that kind of insight.

It’s not my intention to equate Tarot readings with qualified clinical therapy, or a cure for any sort of mental health issue. It is, however, a great tool for stress management and personal growth for a healthy individual. I say that based on hundreds of readings over the course of twenty years of doing public professional Tarot readings. Time and time and time over again I would see people relax as a reading progressed. As we talked about new ideas, explored possibilities and validated their own intuitive hunches, shoulders would go down, foreheads would smooth. As readings go on, people would sit back in their chairs and the tone of their voice would soften. The easing of emotional tension was obvious, even to someone with no formal psychology or body language training.

Tarot works by helping us all own our emotions, understand our situations and create a more reasoned way forward.

Tarot doesn’t predict our fate, it frees us from it.

Thank you so much for reading and listening. I wish you a happy and healthy holiday season.

Craving for Sameness

TaoCraft Short Sip blog & podcast episodes are Tarot readings for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

I get it.

I kind of feel the same way myself.

Welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

The Tower card is about chaos, suddenness and the unexpected. It sums up the past several years of politics and pandemics better than any other card I can think of at the moment. Today the Tower is reversed, which begs the question of what do you get when you turn chaos on its head?

Sameness.

Sudden change and chaos has its benefits, believe it or not. There are reasons for that proverb that there is opportunity in chaos. There has to be a bolt of lightning before you can catch it in a bottle. Chaos often forces us to the top of the tower to gain perspective and get above the fracas. Chaos can force us to be mentally and emotionally agile. Change forces adaptability which is in turn a path of evolution and survival.

No energy is – or should be – forever.

Change is part of the fabric of the universe. The universe is expanding. Stars go nova. Mountains weather. Tectonic plates shift.

But sometimes enough is freaking enough.

Too much change for too long can take a toll on the human psyche. Just as bodies need rest, mind and emotion needs respite before change turns into chaos turns into full on stress.

It is normal and natural to crave sameness after a time of stress and upheaval. That is a warrior, protective energy. “Protective” is the key word here. Craving sameness and a respite from stress is a matter of protecting the good parts of reality and right now. It is a matter of protecting peace and quiet but NOT a matter of regressing to an imaginary past dreamed through rose colored glasses.

And of course, the other extreme is not a good thing either. Too much sameness breeds stagnation and decay.

Here again we see the mind-bending, paradoxical but repeatedly repeatedly proven true interplay of opposites from the philosophy side of Taoism. Anything in its extreme fosters the seed of its opposite. Too much stress and change fosters a craving for sameness. Too much sameness fosters a craving to shake things up with a little chaos. Chaos which, in due time, gets turned on its head back into sameness.

Thank you for reading the blog and listening to the audio version aka podcast. I appreciate it. I also appreciate any likes, subs, follows, shares, questions or comments that you can spare.

See you at the next sip.

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