Tag: update

Meet Your Reader Fall & Winter ’24

The seasonal hello: reintroducing myself, the website and the blog

The holiday season is zooming in and our first glimpse of snow is forecast for tomorrow. Time flies when you are having fun – or having occasional existential crises as the case may be. I hope it is the former and not the latter for you.

I‘ve recently restarted the Substack again. They say third time is the charm. I’m not charging for it, but at the same time I’m hoping it will appeal to people who don’t care for algorithm driven social media or the traditional blogosphere.

Speaking of social media, I’m Sage.Sips on Bluesky now too. Still on the meta platforms, Tumblr and YouTube with no plans to leave. Bluesky is the most enjoyable at the moment and the best place to actually interact if you want to say hi.

Given the new-ish newsletter, new social media and impending new season it seems time to do yet another refresh and re-introduction. If you are new, welcome. If you’ve been here – you have my deepest thanks.

Hi! I’m Sage.

I’m also the author of Sage Sips blog, PeaceTarot and TaoCraft Portfolio

I’ve been reading Tarot cards since around 1992 which adds up to 30 years of experience with intuition development (!)

I didn’t originally start out to be a Tarot reader (who does?) At first I did readings for friends (why PAY for it when you can DIY it?) A close friend suggested I go online with my readings (forever grateful!) I’ve offered professional psychic Tarot readings through Keen, Advice Trader and AllExperts under my old internet handle, Baihu. After doing hundreds of online readings (I stopped counting at 400 and that was a long time ago) I opened my own Tarot practice with ModernOracleTarot.com, the Tarotbytes blog and the now-defunct Quirk & Flotsam shop on Etsy. It was all good, but had become a hodge-podge of things over the years. In 2018 I leveled it all and re-branded everything as TaoCraft Tarot featuring the Sage Sips blog.

The TaoCraft name is drawn from my love of Taoist philosophy. My work will always be guided by the principles of simplicity, authenticity, and kindness. The name is also a nod to magical craft and my favorite hobby, knitting.

Sage is a pen name, which protects both of our privacy. White christian nationalism and evangelical bigotry are a reality here in the US. I want this to be a safe space for you. While religion and certain politics are not permitted in readings, I want my writing and online presence to feel warm and welcoming to anyone interested in the subject of Tarot. My strict privacy policy and use of a pen name is a part of that.

The herb sage has a comforting, familiar scent and flavor that most of us know from breakfast sausages and holiday turkeys.

In aromatherapy, Sage incense and essential oil can clear negative energy, calm anxiety and promote a feeling well being.

Most of all, the word sage means something or someone who is wise. The word sage speaks to all of the wisdom that Tarot can bring to our lives.

Comfort, calmness, wisdom and a feeling that things are going to be alright are all qualities that I hope you’ll experience when you read the blog or read your personalized Tarot email.

I’m Sage Sips on Substack and some version of Sage.Sips or SageSipsBlog on all of the usual socials. Party, phone and in-person readings are currently closed, please follow the blog for further details.

Click HERE if you would like to order a private reading by email, no appointment needed.

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.

Warmest Welcome and Hello Friends

Welcome Followers old and new! I’m so glad you are here.

Thank you so much to everyone who has ordered private readings and subscribed to the free blog over the past couple of months! It really means a lot.

A lot.

Part of my brain thinks changing names is Internet suicide while another part of thinks it is genius because, let’s face it, Tao could just as easily be a Chinese boy band member as could be a philosophy reference and Craft brings glue guns and Martha Stewart to mind just as much as anything witchy.

So much for trying to be clever. Thank you from the bottom, top and middle of my Tarot heart for sticking with this through all of the renaming nonsense. At least now we are back to normal words that everyone can recognize and spell and whatnot.

Here is the rest of the 2023 overhaul:

  • Email, this site, the podcast, Ko-fi (shop, member’s blog, email readings) the YouTube channel, Facebook page, Instagram, Tumblr, and TikTok have been changed to the new name.
  • Closed the Twitter account because I wasn’t really interacting with it after the whole Musk/Trump’s back kerfuffle. If you want to say hi, and I hope you will, Instagram and TikTok have become the two accounts I actually scroll every day.
  • Party Tarot is CLOSED (let’s just say it didn’t survive covid)
  • In-person, live online, and small group Tarot are OPEN and available by appointment on a limited basis in select Pittsburgh (South Hills) neighborhoods.
  • EMAIL READINGS are open for purchase 24/7. Email is my specialty, my true Tarot love, and my priority. Reading orders are usually fulfilled within 12-18 hours but may take longer when you order nights, weekends or US holidays. Vacations and emergency closures are announced here on the main blog.
  • Social media content is not on any particular schedule. THIS BLOG is the one and only place to get ALL of the free Tarot content. If you follow the blog by email, it all shows up in your inbox – even if it isn’t on youtube, the podcast or the socials (like this post)

If you have followed for a while, you know I’ve sworn off sales, giveaways and all of those cutesy pants promotions. That will stay the same.

THIS on the other hand is a sincere thank you, from me to you, in appreciation of you being here at the end of the chaos and for joining up as everything moves forward. Welcome and THANK YOU.

As a way to say thanks, I’m doing this once, right here, right now, only on this blog and only until February 28, 2023. If you email me at the new address (SageWordsTarot@gmail.com) before with:

  1. Your name
  2. Your age
  3. Your question (or permission for an open reading)
  4. and the coupon code BLOGREADER

I’ll reply with a one card Tarot reading just for you …yes YOU…as an individual, not a general audience reading like we usually do for blog posts or the podcast.

That’s pretty much it.

I hope you like the new energy vibe. Names are symbolic mini-affirmations of who we are, what we have done and what we still hope to achieve.

Psychic schmicic, I’m sciencing this one

Here is the Tarot part: 7 card readings by email are $30 (instead of the usual $40) These 7 card readings are $1 for every year of card reading experience that I put into each and every session, regardless of whether it is in-person or distance. Email and phone readings are EXACTLY the same information that you’d get in-person. You get it FASTER with email, too. No appointment is needed, you can order distance readings any time, 24/7. The reading is usually in your inbox within 24 hours although nights, weekends and holidays can slow things down a little bit. This reduced price ends on the equinox…September 20, 2021 so get ’em while they’re hot.

Here is the science part: Starting now, I’m using the CDC reported community transmission rates for Allegheny County as the determining factor whether in-person / party readings are available or not, because reasons and logic and an abundance of caution. If you want the details, or want to know the current status of in-person readings please don’t hesitate to email TaoCraftTarot@gmail.com or text me at the contact number listed.

Vaccination rates have stalled, and community transmission rates have increased back into the moderate range. Since in-person readings use public venues and parties are typically indoor groups, rather than risk exposing my clients or their contacts to this crazy contagious new varient in-person services are back on hold until community transmission rates return to the low range.

Who am I to second guess the AMA for goodness’ sake?

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/what-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-dangerous-delta-variant?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social_ama&utm_term=5201053682&utm_content=Boost&utm_campaign=Public+Health

https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/velshi-breakthrough-infections-do-not-mean-vaccines-don-t-work-117331013789ll

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view

Dressed for work

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Page cards in Tarot are about learning. Swords can denote several things: the element of air, taking action, our relationship with culture, society and authority, or they can symbolize the mind and intellect. My attention is drawn to a combination of intellect and action. It reminds me of that quote where Emerson describes common sense as “genius dressed in its working clothes.”

Genius at work is our learning mode, which can apply to anyone, anywhere, in any stage of life. Learning is a lifelong thing whether we are running particle accelerators or poking something with a stick to see what happens. Mind and body are one whole, so learning and action are an integrated whole as well. Even if big genius ideas drop into our head seemingly out of nowhere, something triggered it or some unique set of material experiences hit critical mass and turned on the proverbial light bulb over our head. However they happen, genius insight doesn’t help us much unless we do something with them. Physical realm interacts with the intellectual realm which prompts action in the physical world and so on in an unending dance of learning and experience gathering. It is about figuring out a method and trying something, admitting failures and trying again. That applies to all sorts of learning. Science is a way of learning about the outer, tangible world. Tarot is one method of learning about the inner, intangible one. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, far from it. If anything they are bound together as intimately as space and time, locked in the complex dance of our humanity.

Today’s card is asking us to use what we know, and fearlessly learn what we don’t.

In the spirit of learning and doing, I have a quick announcement.

As you know, I don’t keep an office or any sort of brick and mortar location, primarily to cut my overhead and keep my prices lower than they otherwise would be.

Since that means bringing people out into the public sphere for an in-person session I’ve decided to use CDC reported community transmission rates for Allegheny county as the guide for in-person sessions. The rate is on the rise, and we have been upgraded from low to moderate. Due to that, starting Sunday July 25 in-person services are on temporary hold again until community transmission rates drop back to low.

Distance Tarot is my specialty

I say that because I’m just as good at writing and doing readings by email as I am doing them in person. I know a lot of psychics and Tarot readers who do both in-person and distance readings equally well, but several of them have commented to me that they don’t enjoy working by email as much as they do in person or by phone. I do both equally well and I enjoy both too.

So PLEASE – while we all endure these last hills, bumps and turns of this roller coaster ride of a pandemic, don’t hesitate to make use of the email version if you are interested in getting a reading. I promise you will get the same information as you would if we were meeting face to masked up face.

Plus don’t forget the cutesy pants promotional $1 TAROT SALE where 7 card email readings are $1 for each year of Tarot reading experience that I bring to your reading (AKA – $10 off the usual price). Offer ends 20 September 2021

Order email readings 24/7 on the home page or HERE