“If turbid waters are stilled, they will gradually become clear.”
Tao Te Ching, Victor Mair translator
It is hard to see the way forward when emotions are running high. The suit of cups, in addition to close romantic or family relationships, symbolizes emotions in general. Cups are connected to the element of water, so water analogies are common, especially here with the Ace. Ace cards carry the essence of the suit. Today, the energy is more akin to water-emotion energy than its water-intuition connotations. Water can be the depths of our human psyche but also deep emotion.
Churning water stirs up all sorts of dirt and debris from the bottom of a stream. Stormy waters are dark. Raging rapids and a broad ocean is far beyond our ability to still them. Sometimes, as with real storms, we have to metaphorically take shelter until the storm passes, and the waters become quiet.
Still waters run deep it is said. We have more emotional resilience and maturity after the reflex response has passed and we’ve calmed down. When churning water becomes still, all of the dirt, sand and silt can settle out of it. Emotions settle down, debris settles out of water, both become more clear.
Nothing about this energy is suggesting suppressing or artificially quieting emotions, any more than it suggests you could (or should) stop a hurricane. By the same token, it isn’t suggesting that we should let emotions rule and ride the pure impulse of the emotions roughshod over the whole situation, either.
There is a middle way.
Sit still. Feel the feels however painful and difficult they may be. Abide your time. Waves can’t stay high unless energy is added to them.
Don’t feed the upset.
Sit still.
Just as gravity and friction and time will eventually quiet a stirred up cup of water, as long as you don’t keep stirring the cup, emotions can naturally get quiet too.
Hurricanes are an apt analogy too. On the leading edge, winds are high. Things caught up in the storm and pushed by the wind cause damage. Go to shelter. From the quiet eye in the center of the storm you can see what you need to do next.
The song “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House comes to mind with the lyric “trying to catch the deluge in a paper cup.” Let the deluge pass, and your paper cup can be filled in a puddle instead of destroyed by a wave.
Or, in the words from The Crow starring Brandon Lee – “It can’t rain all the time.”
Sit still, abide. It’s hard – but this too will pass. Stillness results in the calm and clarity you are looking to find.
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee.
The light that you shine is a reflection of the star that guides you.
I’m currently reading The Witches Coin by Christopher Penczak. In it he writes:
“The way you look at the world is the way the world looks back.” and “how you see the world is how the world sees you.”
This reminds us of the two way flow, the interconnection between our inner intentions and the outer world. Affirmations, actions all conspire to co-create the world we desire.
Like attracts like. Birds of a feather flock together.
The Star is traditionally a card of hope and success. Today it feels like a promise. If you look for good, you’ll find it. If you look for connection, you’ll find it because if you make that the lense through which you see your world, that is how the world will see you, attracting like-minded people and like-energy circumstances to you.
Choose well the star that guides you because that is the light by which the world sees you – and the kind of world you will see.
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I’d originally intended to continue our series with the major arcana and the High Priestess where we would choose a card, and then connect it to the High Priestess to let it illuminate the chosen card and vice versa.
But staring at the cards before starting the video, it was clear that this is still all about summer season vibes and sure enough, cards are repeating the messages that have come through recently both in general audience readings and in private readings. A theme of “be patient with the pace, but start the journey” is emerging.
You know that adage about a journey of a thousand miles beginning with one step? It’s like that. It doesn’t matter how fast the journey goes as long as you are taking those steps. Now is a great time to take that first step, even if the next one is slower than expected.
Deck: Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission
Private readings are OPEN. Order video or email HERE, no appointment needed
Deck citations: top row Alleyman’s Tarot by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission. 2nd and 3rd rows Black Cats Tarot by Maria Kurara copyright 2013 all rights reserved, used with permissions granted on llwellynpublishing.com
Tarot readers are as bad as everyone else.
As deeply as we know that the future is fluid, subject to choice, controlled by simple cause and effect and not subject to exact Tarot predictions – we love a good game of magic 8 ball and will instinctively try to peek at the path ahead as much as anyone else.
Back when I used to work as a Tarot reader for parties and events, I would sit and do yes/no readings to amuse myself until the event opened or until guests wandered over to my table. Shuffling and turning the cards would also let people know exactly what was happening at a glance.
In any case, I’d do three card yes/no readings (exactly like the “zombie cat” yes/no readings available for the “summer shamble”) for silly, fun, trivial questions like “will it rain tomorrow” or more importantly (depending on who you talk to) “will the Penguins win the Stanley Cup next season?” or something like that.
The three card yes/no Tarot layout that I use deals three stacks of cards, stopping at thirteen cards or an ace card whichever comes first for that stack. no aces =no, but easily changed; one ace = flat no; two aces = flat yes; Three aces = yes, but easily changed.
For individual private readings, I’ll add any intuitive thoughts the individual card meanings prompt to fill out the total reading, including the usual psychic / intuitive summary paragraph.
The down side to this is that it doesn’t tell you squat for nothing about open ended questions like “who will win tonight’s presidential debate?” You have to break it down into multiple yes or no components to get any sort of insight at all.
In the photo above, the top row of three was the response to “will President Biden win tonight’s (27 June 2024) debate?
The second row is will (the fascist, racist, rapist, convicted felon whose name will never be mentioned) win tonight’s debate
Dealing and shuffling all of this was a little tedious to do much less video, so you are going to have to trust me that after shuffling 7 times each and dealing right to left to each stack these are the end results.
Will President Biden win? – flat yes
The ace of wands hints that the President will express his true self and true character. If he wins the election this would be his last term, he has nothing to lose by making an impassioned, authentic case. The knight of pentacles and ace of pentacles in the artwork used in this deck (a favorite for yes/no layouts) both hint at a journey in progress. Pentacles themselves hint at physical realm success and wealth – perhaps a bump in fundraising but both cards have an energy overall positive outcomes.
Will the fascist, racist, rapist, convicted felon win? – flat no
Interestingly, in spite of re-shuffling the cards seven times and re-dealing the stacks from scratch, both have the ace of wands in the same position. I think it holds the same meaning for both men, that they will show their true colors. How those colors are seen and received will, as always, depend on the lens through which the audience views them. But the Star card is interesting. I think it is directed more toward audience perceptions then evil orangefuhrers debate performance. The Star card is very much a ‘guiding light’ kind of star. Perhaps the debate will have a greater impact on voting decisions than originally thought. Maybe, must maybe, it will dawn on people who haven’t cared before or haven’t followed the news before what, exactly, is going on.
I have too much personal bias to fairly interpret the final card. In my eyes the Hierophant (Pope) card speaks to evangelical support for this candidate and their blind fanaticism for his candidacy, which mirrors their blind, dogmatic following of their religion so they will not be swayed. While not technically a ‘win’ overall or to 2/3 of the nation, his evangelical base will not be lost either.
But take all this with a giant grain of salt. I thought Bernie Sanders was going to win in 2016.
Let’s hope the timeline we land in tonight is a brighter one than we landed in back in November 2016.
Like with Tarot, your choice matters more than any thin attempt at “prediction” – political or personal.
James Carville’s famous quote applies just as much to Tarot and intuition as it does to politics: “…I’d rather not predict, I’d rather affect.”
Same.
I’d rather not predict. I’d rather give you the conceptual tools to make choices that will affect your future, to help you create the future you hope for.
See you at the next sip. Or rather large drink, depending on your political leanings.
KISS as in “keep it simple stupid.” I frequently have to remind myself of that timeless little piece of advice. This summer definitely has a “keep it simple” vibe so far.
Just like pulling weeds from a garden, things grow better when the weeds are out of the way. It’s a clarion call to clarity if you will. Open spaces and clean energy are a path to prosperity.
And apparently also alliteration.
When it’s brutally hot out, when it is summer solstice and maximum yang, that calls us to adapt and respond with maximum yin. Think watermelon at a summer picnic – a very yin food to nourish and comfort on a very yang day.
It feels like a season of relentless simplification and lightening our load. I’m thinking Ten of Wands energy: Put down the unnecessary and get out of your own way.
I’ve been given the advice to reintroduce myself and my work periodically. It’s a chance to welcome new followers and thank The old ones. The change of seasons seems to be the natural time to do that. Summer solstice is in two days, so this is as good of a time as any to say hello for the season.
This long post is everything all in one go. I know I’ve been harping on re-introductions, explanations and promotions a lot lately – but writing it all down has helped me to organize and, you know, simplify. Sometimes writing is as much a process of self-discovery as it is an act of self-expression. Thank you all for your patience with that process. There will be less promotion and more Tarot content moving forward I swear!
Here we go:
Meet Your Reader
I’m Sage and I’ve been reading cards since 1993, professionally since around 2003. I started with online work under my old internet handle “Baihu” on Keen, Advice Trader, and AllExperts. After that I worked independently with my old website modernoracletarot.com and its blog Tarotbytes. In 2018 there was transitional rebranding to TaoCraft Tarot. Since 2023 everything is under the name Sage Words Tarot on the website and socials. My current blogs areSage Sips and Sage’s Other Words.
Free, Three, One
In addition to the free general audience Tarot readings on the blog and socials, I offer private distance readings in THREE layouts, THREE formats and THREE prices. No appointment is needed for distance readings.
I offer ONE live reading in ONE format at ONE price, by appointment only.
Sage’s Sip (one card meditation) for general advice, food for thought or a highly focused follow up to a recent larger reading with me – $5
Eclipse (three card pathway) shows fading energies, current message, and growing energies. Shows the path you are on – $15
TaoCraft (five card full layout) gives your energy path like the eclipse layout but adds pivot point (advice & choices) plus an alternate path cards – $30
Seasonal and Special Request
Available by special request or seasonal special offers.
Email format only
To request one of these when they are off season, please contact me
Modern Oracle – (seven cards) the same features as the TaoCraft layout plus additional “helping energies” and “potential challenges” cards – $40
Year Ahead (five cards) one theme card for each of the four seasons ahead and an advice card for the year as a whole – $25
Time Flow (four cards) designed to help us get organized: Let it rest, let it go, line it up, and let it flow.
Formats
Email: Pdf document sent to your email that includes a photo of your real world cards, a detailed explanation of the cards and a psychic summary with crystal energy and intuitive aromatherapy suggestions
Private share video: video reading files are too large to attach to an email. Pre-recorded video readings are privately shared with you through my YouTube channel and can only be accessed through the link that I will email ONLY to you.
InkMagick: pen and paper handwritten reading sent by USPS available to US residents only. Available in one and three card layouts. Members discounts are not available for InkMagick physical paper readings.
Schedules in advance – no same day appointments are available
Five Card format only – $30
Includes follow up email and photo of your real world layout
Membership
Sage Sips memberships are through my ko-fi page – join here
$5 per month
Members receive up to 3 FREE one card Sage’s Sip Tarot readings by email per calendar month, discounts on larger and seasonal layouts, random special offers, DM access and occasional exclusive content.
REMINDER: members please request your monthly free readings through ko-fi DM or by contacting me here (link above)
Ask Me Anything
Ask any question through the Ask Me Anything website page and get a FREE answer as a blog post (not a private response) Spam and inappropriate questions are deleted and blocked.
Party and in-person readings are currently closed.
All policies and disclaimers apply to all readings in all formats. You can read the details here, including appointment policies for the live readings.
In short, this is a customized, ephemeral folk art service. No refunds or exchanges are available. These readings are intended for personal enrichment, entertainment, general advice and as a spiritual practice. They do not predict the future. No medical, legal or third party questions please.
Accepted payment: PayPal via ko-fi checkout for distance readings. PayPal invoice for live readings.
Valid email required to participate.
There you have it. Welcome everyone. I appreciate all of you. Thank you so much for reading!
See you at the next sip!
Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee (or whatever beverage you like this time of day)
I’ve heard different versions of this adage over the years. It’s been said that the greatest sage is like a mirror. I think it was Earnest Holmes, author of Science of Mind who said something on the order of “As a man thinketh so shall it be.”
“As above so below, as within so without” However you say it, the notion that our inner world has some effect on our outer world (or at least our perception of it) has been with us for a long time.
I like to think of this adage as being more about our lens of perception
As someone who is very nearsighted and has been wearing glasses for 50 years now – lenses make a difference.
Things can go from blurry to clear in a second. The world may not literally change when you put glasses on, but the way you interact with it and feel about it certainly does.
A shift in perception and paradigm can do the same.
Lucky in love? Lucky in money? Psychic? Magical? Loving? Loved?
Live a day as if you already are and see how the world shifts.
Private Readings by email / recorded video are OPEN, no appointment needed.
Three of Swords: The first step in healing a broken heart is acknowledging it exists. It’s ok not to be ok. You don’t have to be ok. You only need to be. Moment by moment, day by day it slowly gets better. Dharma Drum Mountain gives the best advice I’ve ever seen for dealing with heartache and problems.
Face it
Accept it (accept it is real, not that it is right – more on that later)
Deal with it
Let it go
Nine of Pentacles: It’s a good place. It’s a good day. It’s OK to be OK. You don’t have to be broken. You don’t have to be overjoyed. You might be (or be on the road to being) one of the lucky ones. At the same time, you don’t have to be anyone else’s savior either. You only need to be. The good things around you will take care of the rest.
The Wheel of Fortune: Up or down, we are all riding the same wheel. As the wheel of life turns, your direction up or down depends on which way you look. Shift your perspective and you are suddenly moving toward instead of away from and vice versa.
Even with your choice, this is still a collective energy reading. You get to choose which card was for you, but the card’s message was still drawn from the larger, Zeitgeist, collective energy today.
Choosing to participate at all led you to the three descriptions together. If one of the other interpretations matches you better – that’s OK too!! The process still brought you to a message that resonates with you. That’s what really matters. Keep eyes and ears open and your right message will find you, one way or another.
Want a truly personalized, private, just-for-you reading? Email and recorded video readings are open now – no appointment needed, prices from $5 to $30 total cost, no hidden fees or per minute rates.
Email readings have a picture of your individual real-world card layout. Videos show your cards being drawn. No matter whether I type it or say it – you get the same reading and the same message. It makes no difference to the process if I say it to a mic, type it on a keyboard to tell you live on a phone call. The words are the same regardless of how the words get to you.
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
Click HERE to order email or private share video Tarot readings. No appointment needed.
Most of these distance readings usually arrive in your inbox within 24 hours.
Sometimes there are delays if you order nights, weekends or holidays (USA eastern time) You’ll hear from me within 24 hours with an update, regardless of delivery time for the full write-up.
Live phone and online readings are by appointment only and schedule at least a week in advance.
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
Tarot readers are good listeners.
We listen to our clients so we can focus on their energy and their message. (That’s why I always ask you to restate your name and question, topic, or request for each reading, even if you are a Sage Sips members and getting one of your free readings. Reading that is how I connect to your energy message.)
Then we listen to intuition / energy / spirit to tell you what we see/hear/feel
Listening to spirit can be a little fuzzy and a learned skill, but listening to clients is basic. It’s the foundation that the best readings are built on. Listening to YOU is when explicit, plain-language conversation is needed.
Tarot isn’t about reading minds (nothing does that, really. Stage mentalism can trick you into thinking that it does, “trick you into thinking _____” is the operative phrase there.)
So to make Sage Sips and the collective energy readings better I need the collective, YOU, to use the big-kid words and tell me what you want, like and need from these readings.
Just like we chat or email at the beginning of a private reading to make it the best it can be, polls and questions are a way to converse with the collective and make those readings the best they can be, too.
The comments are always open for your feedback, or contact me through the Ask Me Anything page. I’ll be posting some polls every now and then to make it even easier for you. Here is one:
Sometimes the questions will be focused on improving your blog & reading experience. Sometimes they will be just for funsies. I hope you’ll play along either way.
Thanks! See you at the next sip!
Want a private conversation (reading) instead of taking the collective poll? Order private readings HERE. Prices start at $5. No appointment needed for email/video readings.
Ask Zombie Cat anything (link below) to get a free Tarot reading answer in the blog.
Happy Pride Month! I hope you know by now that this is a lgbtquia2+ safe space.
We are past the “unofficial” Memorial Day start to summer. It’s officially meteorological summer and hurricane season here in the northern hemisphere.
To make it super-duper official, Zombie Cat is shambling.
Zombie Cat yes/no readings throw caution to the wind and answer any questions you want with the caveat that these readings have at least a 50% chance of being dead wrong. So ask me, I mean, Zombie Cat anything – at your own risk of course. Zombie Cat readings are all tongue in what’s left of his cheek entertainment only.
Zombie Cat shambles through the summer until the equinox. For anyone new since last summer, meet Zombie Cat.
“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly… time-y wimey… stuff.”
– Doctor Who in the “Blink” episode written by Steven Moffat.
There are two words that make me cringe a little when I read (or hear) them in a Tarot question: “Will” and “When”.
Predictions and time are knotty subjects in this work.
Predictions are actually a scientific thing. A scientific prediction is in many ways an expert opinion about what should happen based on existing data and past results. For example, we can predict where in the sky Mars will be a year from now based on laws of gravity, planetary motion, existing observations and so on. As I understand it, that is the kind of “prediction” that a law of physics or scientific principle has to be able to make in order for the principle to be considered valid within the scientific method.
Science spends so much time and energy bashing and demeaning “psychic predictions” when they are, in essence, the same as the scientific kind of predictions. The psychic reader is an objective observer, knows human nature, and can see trends that the person getting the reading may not see. A Tarot reader can predict where things are going in a relationship just like a scientist can predict where Mars is headed over the next year. The only real difference is psychic predictions are based on non-linear logic and de facto psychology instead of linear logic and hard data.
And that is looking at it from a very superficial, everyday experience point of view. This is Isaac Newton kind of stuff. It’s like predicting that when an apple detaches from the tree, it will fall down. What if we go a just a little bit quantum about it?
Think Schrodinger’s Cat.
In theory, once the experiment is set up and started, the cat could come out of it alive or not. But why not both if you are into zombies? Or neither one if the cat suddenly ceased to exist? Disappearing / Zombie Cat could happen…it’s just extreme magnitudes of unlikely as I understand the BBC Horizon Series’ program “Parallel Universes” (hosted by Dr. Michio Kaku, based on his book “Parallel Worlds”)
When the moment of discovery is still in the future, the possibility and attendant probability exists for all outcomes. In the mysterious and undetermined future, all four conditions exist, even our unlikely disappearing / undead pet. Can you predict which way THAT is headed using nothing but your brain and handful of Tarot cards? If you “predict” the more likely dead vs alive construct, is that psychic or science? If you predict Zombie Cat, is that quackery or was the intuitive vision simply dialed into a different part of a far flung multiverse?
Zombie Cat may well exist out there. We don’t know because multiverses, as the video says, is unproven. No-cat and Zombie Cat might be out there, but they just don’t make the jump from possible to probable to IS, at least not in this world. All potentials exists until “the wave collapses” and the moment becomes NOW instead of future, and then slips instantly into the past. Now and Past are fully collapsed probability waves. They exist – ska-doosh! – done deal, nothing to predict. The future on the other hand, that’s a different animal still.
Now, just to make things really interesting, let’s introduce Zombie Cat to Alice the Vampire.
In the movie Twilight, the psychic vampire Alice could see the future insofar as people have decided what they want to do. If someone changes their mind or changes their action, then her vision changes. She can predict but with uncertainty. Her predictions are predicated on the course people are on, not any one fixed outcome. Alice the vampire’s visions and Zombie Cat’s existence are a matter of probability, not “accurate prediction.” And so it is with Tarot and psychic readings.
Let’s say our cat has human-like intelligence and has a choice rather than being a victim of circumstance as in the classic thought experiment. Using the Einstein gunpowder version of things, what if there was some choice the cat could make or some action it could take that would keep the gunpowder from exploding? What if it could disconnect the fuse? Now how do you make predictions under that set of conditions?
Imagine your psychic vision was of a dead cat? (a 50% probable outcome in the original experiment.) What if the cat heard you make that “psychic prediction” and blew out the fuse when it otherwise wouldn’t have? Was the prediction wrong?
Will you get that job? I dunno. Did you apply for it? Update your resume? Schedule an interview? Check the classifieds for other options? (What has the cat done to keep the powder from exploding) Has the person doing the hiring made any decisions or taken any actions? (collapsed the probability wave)
A reading can’t predict a specific outcome, but it can give you advice and it can help you make decisions that nudge the probabilities of getting the job in your favor such as be flexible (4 of swords), emphasize your skills and experience (The Emperor) or show you’d be a hard working team player (3 of coins). A good advice reading is like the psychic yelling at the cat in the thought experiment bunker to blow out the fuse to improve the chances that it won’t blow up.
When will you get married? I dunno. The future is just as wibbly-wobbly as the Doctor told us. But Tarot can give you ideas about how to bring love and happiness of all sorts of things into your life. Intuition can help you make the best possible choices along the way, not predict what lies at the end of the road.
If you do nothing, take no advice, make no choices, then it is all just a coin toss. You might get anything from an explosion right up to a Zombie Cat. But who knows? Meeting a friendly Tarot reading Zombie Cat might be a lot of fun.
Seriously…meet Zombie Cat at 2015 prices…get your own private three card reading by email HERE ($15) or Ask Zombie Cat ANYTHING and get a FREE ZOMBIE CAT Tarot answer in the blog.
Videos by Minute Physics, via youtube.com creative commons permissions Please watch! I highly recommend them!
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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