winter solstice – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Offering

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

But you can have a long cool drink of your own.

This card’s advice and energy might be a little connected to a private reading I did earlier today, but nevertheless it is one of those proverbial truisms that applies to everyone.

We can’t control other people, but we sure as hell can control ourselves.

We can offer our love, but can’t make other people accept it – much less requite it.

We can accept the love that is given to us. We can choose to reflect, return and magnify that love.

We can choose to close ourselves off, but don’t dare be hurt when other people turn away and stop offering their emotions and energies to a closed up lump.

Let emotions flow – there are always more where that came from.

Yes, absolutely, choose, control and curate how you express them and who you express them to. You can control that much, but not how -or if-they will react.

“You do you boo” is as demeaning and dismissive as it feels when someone says it to you…but it is also full, unbridled permission to let your freak flag fly and to do just exactly that…you.

“People are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln among others.

So what do you do about people who choose differently than you had hoped or just generally make up their mind to be miserable?

I don’t know.

I suspect the answer is to let them.

Respect their choices. Respect the mind they’ve made. But just as importantly, respect yours just as strongly.

Choose happy, and it is yours.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous Yuletide Solstice time and New Year.

Thank you for reading and listening in 2022. Please stay tuned for a shiny new and improved blog, podcast and other new surprises coming in 2023.

Wishing all the best to everyone,

Sage

YouChoose Interactive Tarot

https://youtu.be/p4tVrya3m54

Happy Holidays everyone!

This is the last YouChoose reading of 2021, and if everything works the way it should, it will be the first video in the podcast stream before the name changes in January 2022. I’m changing Clairvoyant Confessional to TaoCraft Tarot Podcast, and it will be, at least partially, an audio version of the blog here. This is still going to be the only place with ALL of the content in one place, so I hope you will sit tight and follow the blog BUT you have the option to listen if you prefer.

Speaking of listening – I’ll leave you to listen to the YouChoose video. I hope your time of winter quiet and contemplation is a wonderful one.

Holiday Hours: still have no idea exactly what time things will happen this week. All I know is that E-mail Tarot is OPEN all season long. The holidays can be as weird as they are wonderful, as disconcerting as delightful…all alliteration aside, if a Tarot reading would be of some comfort, I got you. Order anytime, 24/7 no appointment needed.

In-person and Party Tarot are currently closed and will re-open based on covid-19 community transmission rates as reported by the CDC for Allegheny County PA. As of today, 12-14-21 the transmission rate is HIGH.

Every Year Has a New One In It

A bunch of new ones, actually.

When something is a circle, it doesn’t particularly start or stop at any one place. That is true of a year. Not only is it a circle, it is kind of an arbitrary way to chunk up time into manageable pieces. People invented the year as a way to describe time. Naturally, one of the best ways to do that is, well, nature. Seasons turn in the great circle of a year (yes, I know seasons are caused by planetary tilt and orbit which is actually an elipse, but I’m in no mood for pedantics)

Either way, when and how you mark the new year is pretty arbitrary. Celebrate it any time you like…or multiple times. Perception and emotions change in a blink. Each new moment can be a fresh start. Any day can be New Year’s Day.

This is that new school year time of year. We parents, I suspect, are a bit sentimental at the passage of time. Students, I suspect, are a mix depending on how they feel about school. I’m not sure what anyone is feeling or doing with the pandemic sized wrenches that have been thrown in everyone’s schedules.

I’m a fan of Fall, so I always look to this part of the year with a fairly high degree of anticipation. Even now that I’m no longer connected to the school year per se, I still feel a sort of anticipation. It brings the hope of cooler weather, back to business and a more predictable work flow, and of course, pumpkin spice everything. Harvest and Halloween as the mark of a new year resonates with me as much as confetti and champagne in January, maybe more so.

It felt right to do a Year Ahead reading today.

(I’m still trying to think of a better name for the layout. If you have any suggestions, please drop it in the comments. I’ll do a ‘year ahead’ email reading for you if I pick your name for the layout.)

By any name – any day is a good day for a new year. All you need to do is choose your moment and begin. Two “nine” cards is particularly draws my attention to September. Whether you are connected to the American school year or not, it feels like September might be an opportune energy environment for productivity. The song “Danger Zone” comes to mind, especially the part about “overdrive” In all fairness and full disclosure, that is when I’m planning to let some schemes out into the wild, so this bit might be projection on my part…take all of that with whatever size grain of salt you’d like.

Like the year ahead layout says, let’s begin with right now.

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Speaking of seasons and the equinox – That’s when the $10 off special price (website only) for the 7 card email Tarot reading disappears. Until then, you can get a full 7 card reading (the same layout used for in-person sessions) by email for only $1 for each year I’ve been reading Tarot cards.

Solstice Special Tarot: Year Ahead

Since tomorrow is the solstice, instead of the usual “YouChoose” interactive reading, this is a full year ahead (four seasons, seasons of the year – I STILL dunno what to call this thing. If have any suggestions PLEASE leave a comment. I’m not saying that I’d impulsively give a year ahead reading by email to the person who suggests the best new name, but stranger things have happened.)

Stay tuned to Clairvoyant Confessional podcast. New blog to audio posts will drop this week followed by Confession #6 which talks about doing readings in cyberspace (like this one.)

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Merry Happy Everything

Happy Merry Everything!

If the worlds belief systems were Venn diagrams, there would be a lot of overlap this time of year. Light overcoming darkness, the triumph of human spirit over adversity, days literally becoming longer are core themes within every solstice season celebration. As I see it, that is where attention and energy and celebration are best focused – on the shared, universal, deep, primal underlying humanity of it all. Although you won’t see me turning down any mulled wine or Christmas cookies regardless of the reason they were made. It makes happy to know the fixins for some soft gingerbread cookies are waiting in the kitchen. And yes, the lights are lit on the tree even though it is broad daylight just because.

Not much by way of announcements. Email readings are open for the holidays. Order anytime 24/7. Am also working on some “Mindful Moments” bracelets to photograph and list in the shop

Before we get to this week’s cards, Happiest Holidays to everyone, everywhere. Wishing you health, safety and prosperity at the solstice and all the year.

Left: Page of Cups. One of my favorite cards 🙂 Traditionally, the fish in the cup is said to represent the mysteries of the deep soul and psyche. I like the playful happy quality the artwork takes on with the Witches Tarot, used here. Mark Evans’ artwork is far and away some of my favorite. The Pamela Smith artwork gives the card a sort of conversational quality. When you think about it, having conversation with a fish in a cup is a little bit absurd. Roll with it. See the humor. A spoonful of humor brings out the light in almost any situation. If you can’t see beyond the mystery or the misery of a situation, maybe find the humor in it if you can instead.

Center: King of Pentacles. Any day above ground is a good one, any little thing is a win. Have toilet paper? Win! Scraped together dinner? Win! Found a moment for a cup of coffee (or a beer, or whisky) Win! Things held together with bubble gum and baling twine are, nevertheless, together. Make the most of what you have on hand then lead your merry band of misfits (a bit of Robin Hood energy here) into a place of celebrating and enjoying whatever-it-is that you have. If you are the one who popped the top off of the can of spam, you still are founder of the feast and qualify to enjoy the moment as much as anyone. Whether other people follow your lead or not, whether there is another living soul around or not, make the most of what you have and enjoy the celebration. Make merry in your heart, just like that big old red clad ghost of Christmas present in that version of “A Christmas Carol” that always seems to be on TV this time of year. Cheers to you!

Right: The High Priest. This is one of the major arcana cards I tend to wrangle with a bit. And it is one of the other reasons I like this deck so much. The Marseille deck among others calls this the Pope, which makes sense given the Catholic church’s dominance in the countries where Tarot first evolved, Italy and France. Pamela Smith’s classic artwork for the card fuels that specific religious association and imagery despite using the more general term Hierophant (defined by Oxford Languages as “a person, especially a priest in ancient Greece, who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles.”) The name High Priest is, in my opinion, much more in keeping with the Hierophant name and the intent of the card. I’m going on about the hair splitting semantics because it makes a point about the cards energy for the week.

Vesak, Hannuka, Diwali have all happened recently. Today is the winter solstice and Yule. Secular and religious Christmas, Festivus, and the start of Kwanzaa are coming up this week. Sure, it’s never good to slavishly follow traditions if they have become detrimental. There is something laudible about making up your own, or bending old traditions to suit new beliefs and circumstances. By the same token, there is no reason to discard old established traditions if they are harmless, meaningful or a comfort. If there is any little tradition that makes you feel comforted or happy then yes, if at all possible, indulge. In the middle of chaos and crazy is precisely where repetition and tradition does the most good.

Whatever your Holiday, wherever and whenever you celebrate – or don’t – I wish you a safe and happy week. Merry Happy Everything!