BTS: It’s all me

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I’m so grateful for each and every one of you reading this. I enjoy writing this blog so very much.

The time has come to just say it – writing is my forte and typed Tarot readings are my best work. I do live and in-person readings really well – video readings, online readings, and over the years I’ve built some serious party chops at big events (CMU, Nordstroms, Arthritis Foundation of Pittsburgh & more)

I want to spend time and energy in 2024 getting back to where it all started: typed distance readings. I want to give a little love to the blog with some longer reads and deeper dives. So thank you, thank you, thank you for coming along.

“I don’t have ducks. I don’t have rows. I have squirrels and they are hosting a pagan rave.”

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As much as I enjoy a good squirrel rave, this needs a touch of logic and a methodical approach. The “there is no plan” plan is still very much in place, but the general rule of thumb is:

  • Monday – Choose Your Card. Watch the video in the post or on YouTube. PAUSE the video at first so you can CHOOSE your card, then RESTART the video to see the reveal. A short reading is in the video description and on social media. A more in-depth card of the week reading will be right HERE on the blog. A lot of our holidays fall on Monday here in the U.S so on those days I may not post.
  • Wednesday – BTS or Learn With Me: Starting today, I plan to do behind the scenes (- ish) posts that give you a peek inside my method and philosophy of Tarot reading. OF COURSE it is mostly shameless self promotion because I want you to buy email Tarot readings from me. But with a little luck we’ll all maybe find a little free fun and inspiration along the way
  • Friday – something completely random or a quick one card meditation to satisfy my completionist side and fit that nice M-W-F pattern
  • The weekend newsletter is going on hiatus until I can figure out how to switch it from Substack to WordPress. I’ll keep you posted on that, although I’m hoping you’ll follow the blog (right column on laptop, scroll waayyy down on mobile) Three posts a week isn’t bad and posts go straight to your inbox, just like a newletter would anyway. But that’s to sort out another day.
  • Comments are always open and you are welcome to CONTACT ME with any questions and get an answer in the blog. Unless it’s spam. Then I’ll prolly block you.

It’s all me

This ain’t my first rodeo as they say.

I’ve been reading cards in some capacity since the early 1990s. You know, when the whole world was black and white and computer memory was still 5 inches across.

At first I just read for friends & for myself because why pay the phone company and Dionne Warwick’s friends huge amounts of money for something you could do yourself? After a while, a friend suggested that I try working on one of those online sites (eternal gratitude, girlfriend!)

Taking her advice, I did Tarot readings on Keen, Advice Trader and Allexperts all under the nickname Baihu. Within a few years of some serious hustle, I’d done hundreds of readings. Yes, you read that right, hundreds. I stopped counting around 400 or so. After a while, enough was enough of the experience building for free or nearly free.

I started my own part time Tarot practice with ModernOracleTarot.com, the Tarotbytes blog, and Quirk & Flotsam Etsy shop. During those years I did in-person, party, phone and email Tarot readings.

The name was fun, inspired by The Oracle character from The Matrix. Despite that, I made sure Modern Oracle had a carefully curated, super sanitized, white-washed image that was nice and non-threatening to any random local conservative suburbanites that might stumble across it. I had a family to protect, after all.

Now, that family is all security minded working adults and I don’t have to be around school district soccer moms any more (whew!) Modern Oracle just didn’t fit anymore, so I re-branded in 2018 to TaoCraft Tarot which was a much more authentic representation of myself and my Tarot philosophy

I’ve studied Tai Chi, and Taoist philosophy as long as I have Tarot and Reiki almost as long. I’ve had an interest in magick and witchcraft longer than any of it, even as a very small person watching Bewitched re-runs on TV. The TaoCraft name was very meaningful to me, but it didn’t seem to make as much sense to new clients. People seemed to stumble over it a bit. That’s a big problem because these Tarot readings that we do together are not about me … they are all about and for YOU.

So re-brand number two: Sage Words Tarot

Easy to pronounce, easy to understand, basic, common words that get the point across on multiple levels.

Sage is an herb with a familiar flavor from sausage and holiday turkeys. Sage in aromatherapy calms anxieties, lifts moods and promotes optimism. Aromatherapy can come in the form of burned incense and dried leaf bundles. Sage smoke can be used to metaphysically clear the energy of a space but should not to be confused with the indigenous practice of smudging. They are two paths from two cultures that wind up in a similar place, but each deserving of its own respect.

I hope that a Tarot session with me leaves you feeling calm, comforted and hopeful, just like sage aromatherapy.

Sage is also a word meaning wise, symbolic of Tarot’s wise advice.

Sage is now my pen name and Sage Words Tarot is the website where it all originates.

TaoCraft is still under there a little bi. It’s like a new business in an old Pizza Hut building. You can’t deny the structure underneath. The same is true here. My work is still guided by the Taoist treasures of simplicity, honesty and kindness. I still follow the Reiki ethic of only doing energy work with those who give knowing consent. I never ever approach or spam an individual to get a reading.

Advertise? Sure. I have coffee to buy and web hosting to pay for. Your reading orders (no appointment needed for video or email) memberships and virtual coffee donations all go toward keeping the lights on in this humble little Tarot shop in cyberspace.

Thanks so much for reading! Next up: One Card Friday. See you at the next sip!

My Tarot Valentine ’24: Ace of Wands

Relationships begin with you.

Loneliness hurts.

It doesn’t feel good to want to be in a romantic relationship but not be. It is painful to feel cut off if you are an extrovert and it is painful to be pushed into uncomfortable social situations if you are an introvert. That particular kind of romantic loneliness can take over your mood and your mindset. It can grow large and block out the view of other things. After all, that particular kind of love and connection is profoundly important to so very many people.

Shallow platitudes are everywhere: “Be grateful for the things you already have” “Happiness comes from within.” People in the throes of loneliness aren’t necessarily in the mood for a namby-pamby woo-woo hand holding kumbaya viewpoint. Sometimes you just want to have a glass of wine and feel sorry for yourself.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your search for that special someone is just give up.

Don’t look for your soulmate, be their soulmate first.

The ace cards are the first card of a suit so they carry a “beginning energy” but not necessarily the brand new beginning energy that you see with the Fool card in the major arcana. It’s not quite the full on second chance new beginning of the Judgement card either. Ace cards are more like a fresh direction within an ongoing process or project.

If you are feeling lonely the Ace of Wands is suggesting a new direction, an adjustment, a minor rethinking about romance.

Ace cards also carry the essence of the suit. Wands are associated with the classical element fire, inner passions, philosophy, spirituality and our relationship with ourselves.

How can something so seemingly self involved help you to find and nurture an intimate relationship with someone else? Isn’t this exactly the realm of Cups cards?

It has to begin with you.

What do you want in a soulmate? (Or whatever you want to call them. I’m an old school Richard Bach reader, so “soulmate” feels like the natural term.)

What would you think of a person who is attracted to a victim? What would you think of someone who was attracted to or aroused by someone who is hurting? Are they compassionate – or are they a predator? Do you want to be loved – or pitied?

Who do you find attractive? Would YOU be more attracted to someone who is laser focused on the very thing they lack and and wrapped up in an imagined but uncertain future – or would you be more attracted to someone who was happy and content and fulfilled right here and right now?

Like attracts like. Be the soulmate you want to have in your life.

Put your time and attention into all the OTHER things you love EXCEPT the search for a soulmate. Do every darn thing ELSE that you enjoy and that makes you happy and makes you fully you. Lighting those inner fires also lights a signal flare. It shines a spotlight on where you are so the right relationships for this place and time can find you.

Think of the ace of wands as giving you the spark to start the process.


My Tarot Valentine is a collection of romance themed Tarot readings from Tarotbytes blog and TaoCraft Tarot blog. It is available as an instant download in the Sage Words Tarot shop

Housekeeping!

New stuff! Same Stuff! Website update stuff!

Just finished a little light housekeeping on the website…

New! Handwritten “InkMagick” readings and video readings are back!

The same! Order Tarot readings 24/7 no appointment needed 

Limited availability! Live online and in-person readings are only available on Monday afternoons by advance appointment.

2024 Schedule: There is none

Blog: Monday (your choice card of the week) Wednesday (Learn With Me) and Friday (quotes, reviews, random stuff) – maybe.

Social Media: I’m on Threads most days if you want to say hello. You can find Sage Words Tarot content on Facebook, Tumblr, TikTok and Instagram, too.

Please enjoy the FREE collective energy Tarot readings here on the blog and social media.

Subscribe to the free blog in the right hand column on PC or scroll down on mobile.

If you want a weekly digest instead of every post as it publishes, please subscribe to the Sage Sips newsletter on Substack.

New and improved Member benefits

members: better benefits for 2024!

Click the coffee mug to join today!

Only $5 per month for free readings, discounts on larger layouts, DM access and exclusive content.

Your memberships and coffee mug tips all support the free collective energy readings here and on social media. If you enjoy the YouTube channel, Your Choose interactive Tarot, Learn With Me series or anything on Sage Sips blog please support me on Ko-fi!

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!

Comfort

Free Tarot (or oracle) content on Sage Sips is fueled by paid subscriptions, private Tarot reading purchases, virtual coffee and sips of literal coffee. Please support this free blog – and let me know in the comments if you are interested in an audio version (Sage Sips podcast)

Alleyman Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund used with permission

It’s Time


It’s time.

Things are circling back.

What you’ve given is about to return.

Efforts are about to pay off if they aren’t already.

It’s a time of power. Accept the boons the universe is offering gratefully, and place intentions for the future.

It’s a good time to both reap what you’ve sown and sow again well.


Like what you read? Buy me a coffee! Please click the white coffee mug to support the free Tarot content in the blog, podcast and socials.

Fall/Winter Schedule ’22-23

Spooky Season ’22

The TAO in TaoCraft is about living in harmony with the flow of life

HOURS

There are none. The schedule going forward is there is no schedule.

Email Tarot is ALWAYS available. Order anytime you want, 24/7/365.

Delivery times will vary because I’m closed nights, weekends, US holidays and whenever my family needs me to be.

Seriously, I do mean vary – anywhere between a few hours to a few days depending on when you place the order. If you don’t get SOME sort of confirmation from me within 24 hours of placing your order, PLEASE send a follow up email and I’ll give you an update on the status of things: TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com

Live online readings (Zoom or Skype), local in-person readings and party appearances are all by appointment only.

Ebooks for instant download & distance Reiki sessions are always available in the ko-fi shop

LOCATIONS

There are none.

I don’t keep an office or physical location and pass those savings along to YOU (compare my $40 for a one hour in-person reading to the national average of $99 per hour)

Local in-person readings are in a mutually agreeable quiet, public place.

Local party appearances are at your event location.

Everything else happens online. Read about in-person vs online HERE

MEMBERSHIP / PATRON

“Tarot Table” members on ko-fi get a monthly 3 card pathway reading (through the ko-fi blog) monthly newsletter and automatic ko-fi shop discount. “Patron of the Tarot Arts” membership tier gets all this plus a private individual email 1 card reading on request, one per calendar month.

BLOG / PODCAST / SOCIAL MEDIA

The best way to interact with me directly is on Instagram or Twitter. TaoCraft Tarot content is also on Facebook, Tumblr and TikTok. “Short Sip” one card Tarot readings post most weekdays, but nothing is on a specific schedule.

NONE of this is advertising monetized! I don’t get a penny from any of the ads you may see, so your reading orders, memberships, and virtual coffee donations are very needed and very, very appreciated!!

THANK YOU

Happy Father’s Day ’22

Happy Father’s day to anyone who has ever mowed a lawn, fixed a thing, led by example, or grilled outside for another human being.

The members-only Tarot Turnover intuition building exercise and mid month newsletter is up on the ko-fi blog

NEW member benefits!

Tarot Table members ($5 monthly)

  • Pathway Tarot every month
  • Unique content: Tarot Turnover (behind the scenes, tarot how-to, intuition building exercises, newsletter
  • By request, single-card meditation private Tarot reading by email (one per calendar month)

Patron of the Tarot Arts ($10 monthly)

  • All Tarot Table benefits
  • By request, single-card meditation Tarot readings by email (up to three per calendar month)
  • special offers and giveaways