thanksgiving – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

When the pumpkin pie tastes just as it should

It takes a certain courage and generosity of spirit to be kind to yourself. It is OK to be grateful to yourself for that kindness.

What seems flawed on the surface can contain great beauty when we look at it as a whole. Scars are lovely souvenirs of the life you have survived. Removing yourself from unhealthy environments and toxic relationships can cause an ever changing mixed bag of emotions. It can make you exponentially grateful for the good ones. Yeah, this is a time for family…but hopefully it is family defined by love and relationship – shared DNA is optional. Personally, I think the whole Friendsgiving thing is kind of brilliant now that we are years into being a country divided by bigotry, racism, religion, politics and more. I don’t know that it is entirely a bad thing – many have learned the hard lessons that come with living fully, authentically, and protecting your peace.

Expectations are the enemy of a happy holiday. You don’t expect the pickles to taste like pumpkin pie. Smile when vinegar tastes sour because that just means it tastes just like it should. Life can be both bitter and sweet, but it always is as it is. The bitter times make it all the nicer when the pumpkin pie tastes as it should, too.

I’m thankful for all of you, and thankful to still be able to read Tarot for you.

Please like, follow, share and all of those good blog and social media things. We will be circling back to the beginning for a while, focusing on daily meditation Tarot. Some might have videos, many will not. Some might be morning, others will be evening or night. Private readings by email are OPEN and available on the ko-fi page. All proceeds support Sage Sips blog going toward the cost to create it and to keep it ad-free with no paywall.

The blog here on TaoCraftTarot.com, the YouTube channel, the Substack and most of the ko-fi blog are free to read for everyone. Members on ko-fi also get free private tarot readings and member-exclusive content on the ko-fi blog.

Back with a card for tomorrow. See you at the next sip!

Reverse Engineering Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving week U.S. friends! I’m thankful for anyone and everyone around the world who reads this. Don’t forget the blog readers special. This week, I’m giving everyone on the free blog the same offer that members get ALL of the time – a private one card reading on request. Seeing your name, email, topic, question or permission for an open reading is what helps me connect to your individual message, so if you put that information in an email I’ll reply with a free one card private Tarot reading. It would be a big help if you put THANKS23 in the subject line so I don’t accidentally get it confused with a question for the blog. Offer ends for free blog readers on 11-30-23.

Now to that reverse engineering thing.

Instead of pulling a card to see what ideas it brings to mind, let’s start with an idea and see what card it brings to mind.

Friendsgiving has had my attention lately.

Admittedly, this is focused on us here in th USA. Much love to the rest of the world, but right now I’m up to my eyeballs in dysfunctional family vibes and not dialing in very well to more universal themes at the moment. Thinking about Thanksgiving this year, The World comes to mind.

Worlds tend to collide during the holidays. Things that mean the world to us as individuals might mean little or nothing to other people. Sometimes, when the holidays bring together people who only gather out of social obligation or genetics, it can feel more like a game of billiards than a homecoming or reunion.

Holiday gatherings can also be comfort and warmth and a heartfelt celebration of the people who are, as the song goes, most dear to us.

Here I am reminded of the book The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. The holidays can make us feel lonely by comparison to the rest of the year and by comparison to others who have connections that we don’t have.

You don’t have to connect through the holidays. You can connect to the whole universe anytime, anywhere with anything. According to Talbot, with actual 3-D holograms, every part of the projection material contains the information to project the whole image. Conceptually, that can be extended to our world in general. Pick up a pebble and you are holding the whole world in the palm of your hand.

Even if you are alone, if you celebrate your holiday your way (or even just allow yourself to enjoy some sort of non-holiday fun) then you are connected, you are a part of the whole holiday season. It doesn’t matter what you celebrate, or if you celebrate anything at all. You are a part of the wholeness of the universe. You are connected even if you are alone. Even if you are rejected by one group, there are others that would welcome you as one of our motley crew without hesitation.

There are reasons Friendsgiving is a thing – and to my thinking it is a wonderful thing at that.

It is probably a modern internet misappropriation of some old, misunderstood quote, but I think it exists in the collective consciousness for a reason. It is a much needed idea: “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” meaning that chosen bonds are real, are powerful and are important regardless of how you feel about your genetic family. This is a time of year to celebrate and be thankful for the family we’ve found out there in the wide world just as we celebrate, when able, our birth family.

As someone who has been literally and explicitly told by my mother that she thinks I’m going to hell, I’m here to tell you that religion and politics have affected family relationships. I don’t know how many families, to what extent or what percentages – but I can vouch for one.

I can also vouch that it is possible to be happy without the idyllic holiday. It is possible to make your own.

It’s not for me to know much you want to be a part of a genetic family that rejects you to whatever extent for whatever reason. But I hope that you know this:

Pick up a pebble and you hold the wholeness of Earth in your hand. Take a breath and know that you are a part of all humanity. There are people on this pebble hurtling through space that accept you for who you are. There are people that love the things that you love. There are people that love you.

They might not know it. You might not know it. It’s only been since the advent of internet access that we are beginning to see the threads of this level of connection, but world-bonds of found family do exist.

For that I am thankful.

And thank you so much for reading! Please visit Wednesday when we will look at the Lenormand deck. It feels like time to start weaving them into a larger reading than the one card meditations we’ve been doing. Next Learn With Me: Lenormand will be a three card energy path reading again with Thanksgiving as our focus.

See you at the next sip!

Foresight

Two wands and a little foresight can work magic.

When past and future, logic and intuition, planning and action all meet it can seem like magic.

Few quick announcements:

The podcast is going on short hiatus until December 1
Email readings are OPEN order anytime.
Check out the new, improved, PayPal secured, single contact ordering process. (No more sending your question in a separate email!)
My schedule now through December is pure unadulterated Elfcon 1 chaos so I’m not making any promises about anything until after New Year’s Day. Delivery times for email readings will vary – a LOT – but don’t worry. Your reading will indeed happen. Thanks in advance for your patience.
Happy Thanksgiving U.S. folks! Have a great weekend everyone!

A Sip of Tarot: Back Burner

Today’s card is the Seven of Cups

It’s easy to think yourself into circles. This is a card for all the over-thinkers of the world, but anyone can become overwhelmed.

Sometimes the seven of cups is a good problem to have. If you only have one really viable option, then deciding is easy. This card is about an embarrassment of riches when it comes to options and choices. That’s not the worst problem to have. But however good or bad the problem may be, how do you solve it?

The back burner is your friend.

I grew up in a very rural place south of the Mason Dixon line. Whatever else you may think of southern culture in the U.S. the food is fantastic. It seems like everyone is born knowing how to cook and cook well. In that elite company, regardless how many potluck dishes or helping hands you have in the kitchen, making the turkey for Thanksgiving was the black belt test. In our family the hoopla was at the house wherever the turkey baker lived and everyone helped but if you own the kitchen and you make the bird you are in charge. To put it in Star Trek terms, if you are Captain Turkey, you have the con. The way they could get everything together, hot and tasty, all on the table all at the same time was a wonder to behold.

Even cooking a comparatively small meal for our own little household, getting it all in the same place at the same time takes a little strategy. The Thanksgiving meals I make are far more Cowboy Bebop than Captain Kirk. But it is still a hint about how to deal with an overwhelming number of choices, tasks or side dishes: Shift your attention.

Take a break and work on something else. It works for too many choices and for a lack of ideas. If you feel like a deer in headlights or feel like you “got nothin'” to give to the situation. rotating your attention to a different project works a magic of its own.

Time Lording Is Hard

It’s way easier said than done.

It is true that we are time lords in a sense, creating meaning and holidays at will. People created holidays in the first place, so we have the power to change them at will and then change them right back if we choose to do so.

Easy enough.

The hard part is the emotions, the pain of separation, the homesickness. Nurturing, closeness, being with those we love is a deep, primal need. It’s no wonder that language ties separation to physical illness; homesick, heartache. We can celebrate any darn holiday on any darn day in any darn way we want. It is, however, really hard to feel celebratory when the people are out of place.

Which is why people traveling and gathering at Thanksgiving last week in spite of the warnings and covid dangers is a tragedy in the making.

I understand what might drive people to do it. Heartache, homesickness, loneliness and separation are powerful motivators. I get it. I feel it when certain songs trigger certain associations with past events…we’ve all been there one way or another. We would do anything for one more holiday, one more moment with a loved one.

Why would you put something so precious so at risk when a small shift in perception and a shifting a man-made habit now could preserve the future? Time lords see bigger pictures and far beyond instant gratification.

I understand the need to be with loved ones and the pain of being separated from them at holidays, but at the same time I would undergo any exile in order to keep them safe and healthy. The only thing that takes precedence over the consuming desire to be with them is the desire to protect and care for them.

It’s hard, but you can celebrate your chosen holidays any damn time you want, twice if you take a notion. Celebrate all the way from Thanksgiving to Groundhog Day if you want to. You can bring celebration to any day you want. You can’t bring back the dead. The worst may still happen, but wouldn’t you want to know you did all that you could to prevent it?

The world card is a great comfort in these kinds of times. It shows us the bigger picture in terms of space in addition to time. It gives us that wider perspective we need in times like this. All of the cosmos is connected. As long as your loved ones are in the World, we are together for the holidays. Keep them them safe, keep them here. Stay here with us. Be safe. Be well. Take a look at the big picture, and take your place in that wider world. Time and space can’t take the togetherness from you when the whole wold is one place in a connected cosmos.

The Niggles: Time Lords 2020

Emperor Tarot, magic spells and Time Lords

public domain card image via sacred-text.com

The idea of time niggles at me when it gets close to a new year. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Doctor Who. Consider this if you will: Time is arbitrary and a portion of time is as much under our control as it is for the fictional Gallifreyans.

Actually, not time itself, but rather the way we name and talk about time is arbitrary. This present moment is the one time under our control.

Right now for me it is a Friday night in November 2020. Cool. Gregorian is good. According to the Julian calendar, it’s something like two weeks ago. 2020 a crazy year? No problem – just call it 5780 as it is on the Hebrew calendar. Let’s hear it for 2563 B.E.!

“Time has no meanings except the ones we give.”

I honestly don’t remember if that is something I read, saw on a poster somewhere, or if is from one of the poems I chucked out in the final edit of Triquitera – but it captures the niggly idea about the arbitrary side of time. Take Thanksgiving, for example. It’s less the day than it is the things we DO. No doubt holidays are deeply tied to the time of year in their aesthetic and energy. I suspect it comes from a time when we celebrated the natural seasons rather than cultural or religious things. Thanksgiving is, essentially, a harvest festival. Regardless of season, couldn’t any gathering with family to enjoy a special meal be Thanksgiving? If you can’t celebrate on the exact day you usually celebrate, would it be any less meaningful if you did the exact same things with the exact same people a week later? Or months later?

Have you caught where this is going yet? Yes, I’m looking at you bare faced germ bags that value your individual fleeting entertainment over human life. Cultural events and social stuff change all the time. It won’t kill you to stay home, wear a mask and celebrate differently this year – but catching a potentially lethal contagious illness just might. Or kill someone you love. Or kill someone that someone else loves. If you put your “freedom to celebrate the holidays” over life and love, then you are a slave to present moment, not a master of it.

With the slightest effort we can all be Time Lords.

We are the ones to place meaning on time…we are powerful enough to observe and celebrate whatever thing at whatever time we choose, either individually or collectively. Thanksgiving or Christmas or what-have-you can happen any day or time that we say it happens. That’s exactly how it all started. Thanksgiving happens on the fourth Thursday in November in the U.S because the 1941 congress said so. Or it is celebrated the second Monday in October because Canada said so. Christmas is the 25th of December NOT because of anyone’s actual birthday, but because Emperor Constantine ordered it – probably as a tactic in archaic culture wars.

Holidays and traditions derive their meaning from the intense personal emotions and connections we place on them. If we give holidays their power, then we have the power to assign when and how they happen. If by necessity, the time and manner of celebrating a holiday has to change for the sake of human life, so be it. We have the power to change it. We have the raw power to imbue any time, any place and any activity with all the love, all the emotion, and all the meaning of a holiday. We have the power to help each other through the normal, natural feelings and disappointments that come in times of change and uncertainty. And we have the power to change it all right back again when the crisis is over. We can dominate time through compassion and adaptation. We can take time itself in our stride if only we have just the tiniest bit of the compassionate, protective strength that the Emperor card teaches.

Or, if you prefer, the lesson the Grinch teaches. Even if a green furry dude take all the stuff, the holiday still happens. Even if one year out of your life is different, the holiday still happens because your intention makes it so. Holidays happen inside of you, not out in the world in the best of times. If you give the day meaning, if you suffuse any time with emotion, meaning and commemoration, then that holiday – that time – is yours.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Home Is Where Your Nose Is

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating next week. For the holidays, remember the classic TV specials: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Charlie Brown and friends shows us that Thanksgiving can happen with any food, with any one (or alone.) Just like Whoville after the Grinch stole all the STUFF, the time, the holidays still come. Maybe next year we can better appreciate how the holidays always are for those who can’t gather with friends or family for whatever other non-pandemic reason every other year. Home is where the heart is. Home is where you hang your hat. This year, home is where you nose is …or it should be. The day will come and go with precisely the energy and import that you give it. If you give it bitterness and resentment because you have to change your usual plans in order to keep the people you love alive…then that is just what you will get – a day of bitterness and resentment. If you give the day the same good will and cheer that you always do, then you get a day of celebration regardless of circumstances. It’s about the people, not the circumstance. In this oddest of years, the best way to show love for the people you card about is to keep your nose, and any germs that might be lurking in it, home where you live.

Left: Six of Swords. Go with the flow. Obstacles are more perceived than actual, which goes right along with the rant about Thanksgiving. The art on the card tells the whole story of this energy and advice from the card. From the seated figure’s point of view, the swords are looming, perhaps intimidating obstacles, blocking the view at the very least. But the standing, rowing figure can see that their canoe is in wide open water, able to go in any direction, clear sailing and smooth water all the way to the distant shore. How good or bad this week is all depends on your perspective, and your willingness to look, steer, ride with the water’s flow.

Center: Queen of Pentacles. “Hearth and home” comes to mind. Since everyone and their nose will be home, do what you can to make the here and now, the home where we are, all just as comfy as possible. Make a round of hot cocoa for everyone. Pop a little popcorn, and set as much of a lighthearted tone as you can. If you just aren’t feeling it, that is ok. Honor the mood. Drawing from the Charlie Brown cartoon – be Snoopy. Use whatever is at hand to make as much relaxation and fun for everyone in your current bubblespace AND for yourself.

Right: Three of Swords. This is much of a watch-your-back card as the minor arcana has to offer. Watch out for pettiness, politics, family squabbles. This isn’t to the level of the Devil card, by any means. But look at it this way – if we all shelter at home, we are also sheltered from toxic disagreements and toxic energies whe might otherwise tolerate for the sake of the holiday. Don’t let them drag you down. Distance is a help for that in any year.

Wishing you all the very best of the season. Not sure how this coming week is going to go schedule-wise. I’m OPEN for the season for email readings. Being at home just us is pretty normal, so I don’t see any delays changes because of the holiday. It IS still that elfcon time of year, so I’m not sure what will happen with the socials and YouTube channel.

Don’t forget to comment with your ideas for naming the “Year Ahead” layout. The winning name will be announced Dec. 1. The best name suggestion gets a reading by email. Insert all disclaimers here.

It’s Thanksgiving in the USA, but anyone can claim one of these three giveaway readings. Merry Thursday to all!

Free Three Card Pathway Tarot reading to the first three people to email all of the following to TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com

your name
your question, topic or consent to an open whatever comes type reading
your consent to get your reading through the website/blog. It will be written in a way to totally protect your privacy…no names or identifying details. Your email is never shared.

Tag: thanksgiving