Tag: tarot

Q&A: Self Care Tarot

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Q: Hi Sage. It’s been a while since we’ve talked, but I still read your blog. The post about rest and the four of swords has been on my mind. I feel like I should do something to take care of myself this week, but I don’t know what to do. What do the cards say?

A: Hey you! So good to hear from you!

I hear you. This week does have that vibe. Given all of the external chaos we all could do with a little inward-directed gentleness.

The intuition here is very counterintuitive, and I don’t think pulling a card or reaching for any kind of oracle is the thing to DO. Follow this train of though for a moment if you will…

The thing to do is nothing. Exactly, precisely nothing.

No card. No special action. No goal. No self-initiated change. Existing is a verb.

Sometimes existence is action enough.

Here is the stream of intuition that came when I read your question:

I am reminded of several people describing meditation as DOing nothing. No special action. No special technique. No need for a special place, incense, music or time….like someone on social medial recently said “you just sit your ass down and breathe.”

The same is true of taking care of yourself. It isn’t necessarily a matter of DOing anything in particular.

I’m reminded of that scene from the movie Pulp Fiction where Jules wants to go “just walk the Earth, like Kwai Chang Caine.”

Maybe that feeling a need for gentleness toward yourself isn’t something to do, but instead is something to stop. Just do what you always do – just walk the Earth as you always do – but do it without pushing, striving, judging, criticizing.

Which spins right into another movie, and the “Dudeism” inspired by the movie The Big Lebowski. Abide. Take it easy. Let everything be what it is for a minute. Or a few days. Or for the rest of your natural life.

I forget which deck it is in. I think it is one of Seven Dane Asmund’s decks, but it is something like ‘the void’ or ‘new moon’ or ‘black sun”. In my mind’s eye, I remember it as a circle, maybe with some rays behind it like a full solar eclipse. A quick search of my decks didn’t find it, but you probably get the idea. It is a reminder of natural cycles of effort and rest, action and inaction, push and pull, doing something and doing nothing.

Or, as Devon Linder observed, “meditation won’t fix your problems, but it might keep you from making them worse.”

I’m not saying you should go meditate. I would never tell anyone to NOT meditate. I don’t think the meditation is the point. I think the point is passive presence with yourself. Just quietly BE there with yourself and your life as it is. That is meditation enough, self-help enough, no Tarot card required.

Thanks for letting me share your question. Talk to you soon.

Worth Sharing

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I don’t often share my own Tarot card draws. It defeats the purpose of looking at the collective energy. Looking at the collective energy benefits us all because the collective energy touches us all in one way or another. Everything is connected, one way or another.

But this week I’ll share the guidance I was given for the week ahead, because I think it is worth sharing. It may not be a reading OF the collective energy, but it is a good way to deal WITH the collective energy this week.

Be still.

Keep quiet. Agitated water stays muddy. Be still to let things settle, to let things become clear as they naturally will. Gravity still works. Things will settle eventually.

Protect your peace.

It is a treasure worth protecting, and protecting it is wisdom worth sharing.

Reasonable Second Chance

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Today’s Tarot: Judgement

The past is the price we pay for the second chance each new moment gives.

And it’s a reasonable one. The past doesn’t disappear, but how emotionally attached you are to it is up to you. If it is a cherished memory – then by all means cherish it. If it is a painful, harmful one, you are perfectly free to let the attachment go.

I’ve always wrangled with the Judgement card in this form, with all the christian religious imagery here. If familiarity breeds contempt, my evangelical upbringing has bred a great deal of contempt for that ideology. The only good thing about the political climate in America since 2015 is now everyone can see what we-who-left have been talking about. Now everyone knows how toxic and insane evangelicals and Christian nationalists are. So dear everyone who said I was over-reacting when I said Republicans and Evangelicals were a bunch of fascists (middle finger) I TOLD you so.

BUT that is also an example in point for the energy of this card today. I can’t pretend that my parent’s and extended family’s religion isn’t a steaming pile of toxic, harmful bullshit. BUT I can choose to make my life a secular sanctuary, free from religion as much as a functioning adult living in America in 2026 can make it.

Alan Watts’ observation rings perennially true “You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”

And THAT is the aspect of the Judgement card that steps forward today: Second Chances.

The judgement has been made (you have decided some aspect of past experience is unhealthy, or somehow unworthy of including in your current circumstances)

The dues have been paid (you lived it, learned from it and made the reasoned choice to shift your perspective)

Another chance is in hand (every moment is a fresh start and a chance be a different person than you were five minutes ago.)

Here is to reasonable second chances.

See you at the next sip

Sage’s Second Cup Sunday

I have no idea if cross posting between blogs is a good idea or not. Nor do I give a fk at this point. That’s the whole idea of being an amateur hobbiest instead of trying to be a professional side hustle. Here goes nothin’

Clearly, this blog is going to be inspired by current events and take the place of the void screaming in my old blog Baihu’s News Haikus.

Lately I’ve been following Dan Harris. His approach to meditation very much resonates with my own (“Inner Peace Mthrfkrs!”) His posts about action easing anxiety came just when I needed to hear it in my personal life and it inspired the Tarot layout by that name. It’s true. I’ve lived it. I’ve used it. And I’ll be posting a reading later today on Sage Sips – if I get the laundry done, supper cooked and the garbage out in time. Funny how these full time jobs tend to take up so much time.

Woke up this morning to more insanity between U.S. and Iran. To those Gen X among us, did you ever in your 1079 remembering life imagine that Iran would wind up sounding almost reasonable in comparison to the White House? Am feeling the Lenormand deck. I think we can use one of it’s pull-no-punches kind of readings.

I’ve recently added a third card to the layout. The first is ‘what it is’ to show the current energy environment. The second is ‘what to do’ suggesting a helpful response to that energy, probably a shift in perception or understanding. The third is ‘how to do it’ which I hope will both support the second card and encourage us to implement it out in the real world. I think of swords cards as sort of the patron saint of this layout….air, intellect AND action.

Making an action plan can go a long, long way toward easing anxiety. But putting the plan into actual action goes that one step further. Even if the action plan goes entirely off the rails as plans so often do.

I’m such a tiny little speck of nothing when it comes to current event and US politics. All I have to offer in this situation at the moment is an internet connection and three congressmen to yell at. Online contact may not do anything, except as one tiny electron tick to some aggregate statistic. But at least I can go sleep tonight knowing I did what I could.

I encourage to send your tiny electron to your representatives, contribute whatever else you can, and above all vote. Check your registration, jump through as many of their obstructive hoops as you can and if you can’t, see if anyone can help.

In the words of TV’s firefly “When you can’t run, you crawl and when you can’t do that you find someone to carry you.” That. Only voting.

Make the midterms look like the Avengers assembling.

People were joking online about being willing to crawl over covid covered broken glass to vote against the fascists in the past couple of elections. (Hopefully it won’t come to that, but don’t give them any ideas) But the idea. Do whatever you can. It doesn’t only help the greater good, it helps you. Action eases anxiety.

Will talk to you later on the main blog. Hang in there. Wishing you some little thing that gives you a ridiculously large amount of happiness in spite of it all. Imma have a second cup of coffee.

Introducing Sage’s Second Cup

I’m resuscitating my other blog that has the old Modern Oracle archives for you to explore.

Hi! I’m Sage.

I’m also a Tarot reader and the author of Sage Sips blog on TaoCraftTarot.com. If you are looking for anything Tarot related, it’s there.

THIS on the other hand is my other blog.

Sage Sips is all Tarot: collective energy general audience readings, behind the scenes, how-to, Q&A (submit a question HERE)

On this blog I settle in for a second cup and write about anything else.

Here is the back story of it all if you are curious:

I started reading Tarot and Oracle cards in 1992 or 1993 (ish) At first I read for myself and my friends (why pay $$$$ to the phone psychic people when you can do it yourself?) My bestie encouraged me to read online (forever grateful!) I worked under the handle Baihu with Keen, Advice Trader and AllExperts. In 2003 (ish) I went full pro and opened my own Tarot practice and Modern Oracle Tarot website doing party, in-person, live online and email readings.

I wrote the Tarotbytes blog (2009ish – 2018) and in 2015-16 was a regular on David Dear’s Menage A Tarot podcast (one of my favorite things ever! David and Kate are the BEST readers I’ve ever had the privilege of working with)

Throw an Etsy shop in the mix and things were getting messy, so in 2018 I rebranded everything as TaoCraft Tarot and renamed the blog Sage Sips.

In late 2024 l ife happened and in January 2025 I retired from the professional part of TaoCraft Tarot. Now I only write the blog as a hobby and I only do private readings as a thank you gift for Sage Sips supporters on Ko-Fi. The Ko-fi support goes toward web-hosting the main blog without ads or paywalls.

It’s liberating, honestly. Without the professional part, I can be as erratic and sweary as I want to be. When you fully follow intuition, Tarot and esoteric topics can be like that.

That’s about it. It’s been a while since I’ve used this blog. It may or may not cross post on Sage Sips or Ko-fi for the long term (haven’t decided yet) but it will initially just to help get the ball rolling with the Second Cup blog.

And yes, in real life I really like coffee, so I’m all in with the analogies.

See you at the next sip!

Today’s Tarot: OK Is OK

It’s ok to be ok.

We’ve had a stressful week here in the US. Even I thought we were going to all die in a flash of mutually assured nuclear destruction at the hands of the republicans. (BTW – this is a personal opinion blog and not a public business. As of today, if you are a Republican, support Republicans, want bipartisan cooperation with Republicans, are Chistian evangelical, are Christian nationalist, racist, or any variety of bigot please f**k right the hell off. That energy is not welcome here.)

THAT being said, today is a good day for a shift in focus. Things have been very yang, very outward, very existential crisis lately. It’s ok to turn off the big world news, pull in your energies and focus on you, your immediate personal space for a minute.

You…yes, you. Take just a moment away from the screen. Look around you.

So, how is it? Are you out of the weather? Hungry? Thirsty? Warm/cool enough? Sitting or standing comfortably? Is the room literally on fire? Are you in any immediate danger?

If not, take a deep breath. It’s ok to be ok for a minute.

Sometimes the best dream to chase is being OK with things as they are right here, right now. It is a dream that is forever already true.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoy Sage Sips, please support the blog on Ko-Fi to help me webhost it ad-free. See you at the next sip!

Persistent Surrender

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I like to think it’s a writer’s thing.

I call it the niggles when a thought captures your creative imagination and keeps poking at you until you write it. The Ten of Swords has been a little like that the past couple of days.

Had the niggling notion to draw a card for Wednesday (two days ago) but didn’t get anything posted after drawing the card because life, day job and everything. I drew the card with the intention of expanding Sunday’s Action Eases Anxiety reading, Cresting Wave.

I originally wrote Action Eases Anxiety as a 2 card layout showing, essentially, what it is and what to do. The cards describe current energies and give a suggestion about how to best navigate them. My thought was to add a third card …. a how-to-do-it card, which would flesh out the sentence, and let the layout echo parts of speech: subject-verb-object in a vague sort of way.

The new, third card was the 10 of swords and it prompted an avalanche of random sayings and platitudes plus a bonus earworm of a song from one of my favorite albums back in the day. It all pointed toward the 10 of swords keyword surrender. Often this surrender is the wave a white flag and admit defeat kind that the dire-looking Pamela Smith artwork would indicate.

In this case the surrender word has a different connotation. It is more like acceptance but not acquiescence. There is an element of going with the flow that we see in the six of swords, but with a much more disturbing undercurrent and context than the six would carry. This card connects to the previous reading in a way the six could not.

Surrender is a way to persist.

Someone on Twitter several years ago captured the absolute essence of this card as it presents today. I can’t remember who it was, but I want to say it was author Chuck Wendig in his You Can Do Anything, Magic Skeleton era. Whoever it was, they described the Ten of Swords something like “yeah, you are laying on the floor in utter defeat, but while you are down there you look under the sofa and find the car keys you lost two weeks ago.”

Today, the so-called negative aspects of the card are only negative or bad from a hyper active, frenetic, pushing, over-achieving point of view. Sure, it’s bad from an all-yang sort of perspective. If you look at it from a more yin-balanced perspective, surrender IS persisting.

Surrender lets you understand your situation and deal with it honestly and rationally (after all, intellect is a swords thing.)

A psychiatrist at a hospital where I worked a long time ago once said that “the decision not to decide is still a decision.”

So by that same token, waiting and watching IS doing something.

Yes, it’s true that if you wait for the perfect time to do something you’ll never do it because the time is never perfect, BUT timing can be better if not perfect. Waiting for perfect is the problem – being thoughtful and strategic is not (again a swords / air / intellect thing)

Surrender and retreat isn’t defeat, it is advancing in a new direction.

“He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day.”

Adaptation is survival, and that is the key to persisting in this energy.

Action Ease Anxiety: Cresting Wave

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The Action Eases Anxiety layout gives us a look at the current energy for today or the week. It shows what the energy is, then suggests a good way to deal with it. Whenever you have some small bit of understanding and an action plan, those ideas together can ease anxiety and worry a little bit. It’s no grand prediction about what will happen, but a solid suggestion how to move through this current energy with a little bit more peace of mind.

Like I’ve always said: Tarot isn’t about predicting what will happen in life – Tarot is for figuring out what to do when life happens.

What it is: New Moon (reversed) – fragile potential

What to do: Five of Winter – persist

There is much potential around you, but it can be easily thwarted. Don’t sell yourself short. Persist. Don’t bail out just when the worst is about to be over.

I ‘hear’ (meaning the intuitive interpretation comes as words or sounds instead of mental images) “It can’t rain all the time” from the 1994 movie version of The Crow.

I am also reminded or the adage to not change horses mid stream.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Don’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

It’s also said that it’s darkest before the dawn. Don’t give up just before the sun peeks over the horizon.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing.

And all the platitudes and proverbs like that.

In other words, yes it’s hard. Yes it’s a mess. Hope is over the crest of the next wave. Don’t wimp out at the last minute. Dig deep you’ll make it over the crest of the biggest wave sooner or later.

shown: The Normal Tarot deck by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permission. Learn more at publishinggoblin.com

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: It’s about the how.

It seems like this is the year.

I don’t know if this is an actual thing out there or just what I’m doing in my little world, but it seems like this the year for dialing it all down. Eat the rich, screw the capitalism, forget the elaborate bougie over the top holidays…it’s about the small, thoughtful and meaningful.

That’s about all that’s affordable these days, anyway.

So maybe it’s the year for some real talk about Tarot. I have nothing to promote, nothing to sell and no one to persuade. If you want a reading with me, great. Support me on Ko-Fi where the proceeds go toward creating Sage Sips and keeping it ad-free. If you don’t want a tarot reading, cool. Keep reading the blog instead. But don’t complain to me if you don’t like the free advice.

Valentine’s Day seems like a good place to start. This is the year for a construction-paper card, a single carnation or a box of chalky conversation hearts.

Love, romance and relationships are a fundamental, important part of being human. Tarot can be wonderfully helpful as we think and feel our way through relationships of every type and definition. It’s incredibly important and it’s no wonder that romance is one of the most asked Tarot Reading questions.

From the beginning, from the very first readings I did professionally in the early 2000’s, I’ve defined Tarot cards in terms of relationships. The major arcana is our relationship with personal growth and life as a whole. Pentacles are our relationship with career, money and the physical realm. Swords are our relationship with authority, culture and society.) Wands are our relationship with ourselves in terms of spirituality, passions, philosophy and so on. Cups are our closest relationships, the ones of emotion and heart, of romance, family and friendship. The suit of cups are Tarot’s Valentine cards, in a way. This feels like the year to turn romantic Tarot readings on its head, like the two of cups reversed.

It’s no wonder that romance readings are the trickiest to do. As good as Tarot is at dealing with deep emotions of a romantic relationship, they are really shitty at dealing with the superficial, outward aspects of it.

How to deal with a broken heart? How do you deal with loneliness? How do you get on the path to a meaningful relationship? How do you shine your light so that special someone can find you? How can you play your part in the relationship you have and help make it last?

Tarot readings can help work through those things.

When will you meet the love of your life? Will your ex come back? Is this the year the big relationship will happen? – No idea. Tarot readings, at least the ones that stem from subtle energy and intuition (spirit if you will) are silent when it comes to that type of thing.

How to find the love of your life?

Simple. LOVE YOUR LIFE.

If you aren’t happy with life without someone, how can you be happy with life with

Think about it.

Think about the type of person you want to be romantically involved with.

Is that person all wrapped up in how lonely they are and preoccupied with wondering when the right relationship will come along –

OR is the partner you envision happy, healthy, and engaged with their life as it is?

Sometimes, the best way to find your soulmate is to let go of the notion of ever having one. Sometimes the best way to find your soulmate is to stop looking for them and be the person you want to have in your life.

When it comes to Tarot Readings, it isn’t about if and when you will meet that special someone. It’s about the how.

Like attracts like. Happy attracts happy. Love attracts love.