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Current Energy: THE KEY. This is a time of transition, a liminal portal from one cycle to another – not quite finished, not quite begun. This energy is akin to a blend of the RWS eight of cups and the Magician energy than the pure beginning energy of the Fool card. This isn’t pure beginning. It is manifesting in the context of a new cycle. This resounding quiet is a potent time to plant the seeds of being and set intentions to manifest in the future.
Next Step: CLOUDS. Endings and beginnings both carry potent emotions. When endings and beginnings come close together, as in a closed circle, the emotions can be intensified. Be kind to yourself. Remember moods and emotions are transient as clouds. Let go. You can’t grasp the mist.
Action, doing something, can ease the anxiety and worries that can’t help but persist if we do nothing but wonder ‘what if…’ Action is necessary for there to be change, for anything to actually manifest. But the first step in any action begins in the invisible, begins with thought or decision. Making an action plan is as essential as the action itself, no matter how quickly that thought or decision or plan happens.
Making a decision – even the decision to do nothing – is in itself an action that eases anxiety.
Deck: Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler copyright 2021 all rights reserved used with permission Lo Scarabo / Llwellyn publishing.
In this simple layout is almost like a sentence: what it is and what it does – more accurately what you can DO with the collective energies around us all today. Actions eases worries, in this case worries about relationships or connections with people.
The ship hints at a time of prosperity & progress. The emphasis is on progress, on forward movement. The ship implies smooth sailing, much like with the smooth waters / go with the flow collective energy I’ve seen lately with the Six of Swords in collective and private readings alike.
The bouquet hints at affection and, more importantly, showing it. Not is not the time to bottle up feelings. If you feel kindness, compassion, love, amusement, or any good thing – now is the time to show it. Show it in no uncertain terms.
If you feel less pleasant things, show that too. Yes, by all means, communicate those feeling too, but the key here is to show it with emotional maturity and kindness. The Bouquet card with its pretty flowers reminds us of those wise old adages: “You catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar.” and “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
Again the phrase “emotional maturity” comes to mind. Pitch kindness, not a fit. A little calmness and reason will go a long way for you in this energy environment.
The outer world may be chaos, but it is a good time to show love and kindness. If it is returned, soak it in. Even when it is unrequited, you can feel good about loving in the first place. That moment, that feeling existed and added to the good in the world and still does.
When you love, you win.
Deck: Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler copyright 2021 all rights reserved used with permission llwellynpublishing.com
Sage Sips is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip your coffee
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Left (the current situation or energy) Four of Pentacles: Hoarding out of fear vs budgeting, taking care, setting boundaries. Does the real-world part of life triggering fear or does it need a little practical management right now? Diane Morgan read the four of pentacles as “secret treasure” Sometimes our greatest treasure is to ground ourselves, move past fear and work through the fear.
Right (what to do next, a good next step) Nine of Swords. Whenever the right card is a swords card, the reading is in the title. Swords symbolize action (among other things) Avoid toxic positivity. It is ok to not be ok. There will be dark times. Actively manage your stress. To manage stress or worry or anxiety or any problem, the first step is to acknowledge it exists. That acknowledgement may feel hopeless and overwhelming, but it is just the first step in solving the problem.
Here, my mind is drawn to some of the panic and anxiety management techniques I’ve seen on social media lately. Both cards point to that kind of energy and action today. If you are worried or anxious, ground yourself in the present moment and your environment. Send yourself a clear message that you aren’t in life or death danger in this specific present moment.
Dan Harris, one of the most practical, accessible, down-to-earth, meditation advocates I’ve ever read describes mindfulness as the capacity to notice. Those social media anti-anxiety techniques draw on exactly that. Use your ability to notice. Try naming five things that you can see. Try naming a pleasant sensation you can experience right now (a soft shirt, a cool breeze, the feel of your feet on the floor, the smell of your coffee…anything) Think of one thing that is going right that you can be thankful for (my coffee is still warm, a glimpse of blue sky, a song on the radio…anything) Think of someone, anyone, and mentally wish them well. Think of yourself and wish yourself peace and safety. Buddhist meditators call those last two Metta practice.
Noticing is an action, albeit a mental one. That still counts. Action decreases anxiety.
“Let your brain abide” is advice from the Nine of Swords that is easier said than done.
Hello Sippers!
One of these days, I’ll come up with a creative, fun way to begin and end these things. In the meantime, hello! And welcome to the Daily Sip membership on ki-fi, Sage’s Sip of Tarot podcast and the Sage Words Tarot Blog.
The Daily Sip will sometimes share a card with my posts on other platforms, but the Daily Sip gets it first – sometimes by a lot. The Daily Sip is the one and only place where I post every single weekday. The free blog is the only place for long reads and weekend posts. The podcast, the YouTube channel and the socials are not on any schedule whatsoever. Following both blogs is the only way to get absolutely everything if you are at all interested in doing that, and believe me I am grateful if you are. Member or not, you might as well follow the free blog on my main website because it is, you know…free.
As much as we might not want to admit it, Friday is technically a weekday, so here we are. Weekdays I focus on the “short sip” one card format where we get a Tarot contemplation for our day in the time it takes to sip from our coffee. Or tea. Or adult beverage. Or whatever it is that you sip at the time of day when you read (or hear) this.
The nine of swords is one of those cards where the interpretation seems to strongly rely on the artwork of the particular deck you are using. The Three of Swords, for example, always seems to give the same vibe regardless of the deck or image. This nine gets some interesting refinements in the way it connects with the image on the card. The classic Pamela Smith artwork prompts key words like regrets, worry, anxiety – anything that keeps running through your mind and keeping you awake at night. Corrin McCullough’s Nine of Swords from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck hints at genuine terror, and any overwhelming dark emotion.
The Witches Tarot with artwork by Mark Evans is one of my favorites all around, but particularly for the nine of swords. It hints at a whiff of self-sabotage and the guidebook author Ellen Dugan nails it with the phrase “drama queen.”
Underneath it all, however factually serious the objective, external situation may (or may not) be, the subjective, emotional, internal situation is dark, intense and dire.
So what do we do about that. My philosophy about Tarot has always been that Tarot (or any psychic reading or divination method for that matter) does not tell you what will happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens. So what do you do when you life over-runs you with intense dark emotions?
Oddly enough – nothing. This totally falls into the “easier said than done” category of advice.
Actually it’s not nothing … it is more like allow the emotions to run their course. When it comes to something as painful as this level of so called negative emotion, allowing is not nothing. The hard part is convincing your brain to abide with profoundly uncomfortable emotions for a while. The crushing and terrifying moments are as much a part of a normal human existence as the joyous and euphoric moments.
This is where life’s inevitable change is your friend. Where there is capacity for change, yes, there is the possibility of things getting worse, but there is equal capacity for change toward the better, too.
When it is the darkest night, dawn follows. When a tide of emotions wash over you know that they will, eventually, recede.
I’m a science fiction fan. The famous litany against fear from 1965 classic novel Dune actually works. In its full version, it talks about exactly the same strategy in the face of strong emotion that the nine of swords card points toward today. In the words of Frank Herbert:
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Thank you all for reading the blog and listening to the podcast! I’ll see you all Monday for the big sip, for the whole cuppa Tarot when we do a full three card pathway reading for the week ahead.
Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot where we contemplate Tarot in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today we are picking up on a second thread of meaning that parallels the meanings we talked about in the Hold Peaceful Space post and episode.
Please feel free to go back to that part of this Nine of Wands reading at the link above or in the podcast episode menu.
Today, instead of thinking about the space within, the nine of wands asks us to think a little bit about the boundary that defines that space.
Last time we talked about the tone and energy and environment of a space, be it a physical space or mental one. The two are parallel. Think of a literal room. If it is cold and noisy and missing a window, would you want to spend the night there? The same is true of our mental and emotional spaces. You might be in a literal unpleasant space but still hold a warm peaceful place within. It isn’t easy, but sometimes one can lead to the other. An inviting and comfortable literal space supports a happy, confident mindset. A happy, whole, and peaceful mindset supports creating a better literal situation. Nature abhors a vacuum and will fill whatever kind of space you hold accordingly.
But you can’t hold or create any space at all without some sort of boundary. A teacup is the classic Zen example. Without its sides, the teacup doesn’t exist. A teacup needs substance, like wood or ceramic. A teacup made from rice paper isn’t going to work for very long. Yet, almost paradoxically, it is the empty space that the teacup bounds and defines and holds that makes the teacup what it is. The space it holds in essence and function defines the teacup. No empty space, no room for tea and it’s not a cup. Only the empty teacup that is holding space can be filled with tea.
That was the main message. The undercurrent of energy, focused on the cup holding the space instead of the space itself.
For an intuitive, energy sensitive person sometimes the teacup is thin to the point of not knowing where the tea begins and air around it ends. To a very sensitive person it’s all tea. For anyone, if the boundary is damaged, the tea is drained away.
I’ve been working with cards and intuition since the early 1990s and reading Tarot professionally for almost – good gravy – twenty years now. In my experience, Tarot clients are an intuitive and energy sensitive group of people. Otherwise, they probably wouldn’t have been drawn to Tarot in the first place. It takes some modicum of intuition and insight to be able to use Tarot for the inspiration, comfort, personal growth and creative problem solving that Tarot was always intended to provide. (We’ll save my ranting about predicting the future for another day.)
Because of that inherent sensitivity, I did readings with some really uncomfortable people in late 2019 and 2020. Many had a vague sense of something wrong, but couldn’t quite figure out what. Other people felt overwhelmed by one specific thing, but the feeling was stronger than usual for the situation. All sorts of things came to the Tarot Table that year. Many of them felt as if the issue was outside of them, not internal. Even though I was reading for them about their specific concern, it also felt like something on the outside was tapping on their teacups like that movie trope of tapping on a wine glass to get attention for a toast. One reading after another, the message was that they were individually OK but that they were also resonating and vibrating with the high voltage zeitgeist energy of the times. It’s like that physical phenomenon where if you sound a note loud enough, nearby bells or instrument strings that are tuned to that note will vibrate along with it. The stress and fear of the pandemic had all of our intuitive teacups quivering.
When that kind of resonance happens, it can be helpful to think about our boundaries. In other words, when the outside world is ringing your teacup, know your teacup and make it as strong as you can.
Here is an imagination experiment to show what I mean.
Take a deep breath, close your eyes and imagine.
Imagine you are surrounded by something that symbolizes protection to you. Imagine you are are in a submarine or a safe room. Imagine you are in a fort or a castle keep. Imagine you are holding a black crystal or wearing a superhero cape. My favorite is to imagine wearing one of those bomb squad blast suits or one of those hazmat suits with the big clear visors like in the movie Outbreak. Whatever symbol you choose, imagine you are surrounded, safe, and protected from any outside influences on your mood.
I’m not talking about you being attacked by psychic vampires or hexes or being beset by negative influences….I’m just saying leave your stress-y mess at the door and be your own true self for half a minute.
Here’s the thought experiment – when you imagine that protected place, how do you feel in there? If you go into your mental bomb shelter and still feel that something is wrong, then you have a different problem. It isn’t a matter of resonance to outside energies. If you go into your hazmat suit and feel like “HEY! It’s kinda happy in here” then that also shows you what you need to do next.
This mental exercise shows you whether your next step is yin or yang. If you still feel bad inside your imagined shelter, then you need to turn your attention inward with self care, self love and healing. If you feel happy inside your mental safe space, then that is a call to turn your attention outward for a little practical, down to earth planning and problem solving.
You can’t hold space without something to hold it in.
This kind of mental exercise helps you learn your teacup.
Don’t save this quick little boundary check just for when times are tough and situations are stressful. The nine of wands came along today to remind us to pay attention to energy boundaries and healthy psychological and emotional boundaries at other times too. Try the mental exercise when things are fine. Learn what it feels like when things are OK both inside and out so you can recognize when things are OK inside but you are reacting to stress from outer collective energies.
Tend to your teacup so it holds good space for your tea when you need it to, so to speak.
Thank you so much for reading and listening!
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Thanks for watching, reading and listening to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.
Today’s card is the Nine of Swords.
Nine cards strike an interesting balance. Cups and coins are often associated with completion, satisfaction or a job well done while wands and swords are more somber and challenging. The nine of swords, as portrayed by Pamela Smith in the 1909 Waite Smith deck, is often interpreted as restlessness, insomnia, worry and useless regrets.
Today, the energy is a little different.
The Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans is one of my favorite decks for a few different reasons. First and foremost is Mark Evans’ gorgeous artwork. The color palette has richness, depth and substance without being overly dark. To my eye, his color choices have just the right mix of warm and cool, reds and blues in any given card. The colors enhance the underlying tone and message of the card. My other favorite part is the composition of the images in general. While it generally follows the Rider Waite Smith model, it has less of the religious imagery that can be frankly toxic to many of us in the modern era. As I understand it, Dugan and Evans deliberately made it more culturally and religiously neutral than the RWS deck. Ellen Dugan’s writing about the cards definitely resonates with my own views about Tarot much more than Waite’s writing.
That’s not main reason why the Witches Tarot came to mind today. In this case, Evans’ portrayal of the nine of swords emphasizes a different thread of energy: The drama queen. The Smith artwork is very sympathetic, even empathetic in the way it reminds us of sadness, worry, and upset. Evans’ image reminds us of the unnecessary aspect of the suffering. Earlier card interpretations write about that unnecessary aspect, but this image shows it visually, too.
The older card is gentler, more kindly, almost grandmotherly about the message, something akin to “I understand how much this hurts, but take care not to dwell on it over long.”
Today’s energy has a very modern, blunt, to the point message. It is closer to a “Suck it up buttercup and stop blowing things out of proportion” vibe.
We’ve all had big worries. We’ve all had big things happen. Sometimes those things keep us up at night or wake us up in the middle of it. And at times we’ve probably all made things out to be harder than they really are.
So many of us are work-ethic oriented. Things and activity and experiences have a so-called sweat equity. Easy things somehow seem less valuable or less satisfying.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Something that is easy and no-drama can be just as important and valuable as something that is difficult. The other half of yang, is yin. The other half of pushing the envelope is hauling it in. The other half of wakeful worry is being at easy peace.
Quite a few years ago, I consulted with editor and “professional muse” Gina Mazza. She said something that was an epiphany for me at the time and still resonates with the nine of swords today. Even though it was the early days of self-published e-books, she told me of author who had just published his first book. In three weeks. After describing the process, she wrapped up the conversation with “I can be just exactly that easy. Why not?”
Why not, indeed. Suffering for your art (or work or whatever) doesn’t necessarily make it inherently better. NOT suffering for your art doesn’t necessarily diminish it. Enjoying your creative process and life experience just might make the end result better. Ease and enjoyment of what you are doing has its own value.
That is a lesson I intend to take to heart here in my own work.
This combined blog post and podcast episode wraps the podcast for season 2. In January, the podcast will morph from Clairvoyant Confessional into TaoCraft Tarot Podcast. It will functionally be the audio version of the blog. The podcast won’t have 100% of everything. There will still be some print-only features like the Sunday Turnover intuition building exercises. At the same time that the podcast name changes, the content will expand too. It will have Short Sip episodes most weekdays but will add weekly “YouChoose” interactive readings, Q&A, behind the scenes and other blog content. If you get the podcast through Spotify, the YouChoose episodes are in video format. On other platforms YouChoose will be audio only.
Clairvoyant Confessional will drop back to be a rare episode title. The pirate radio evil villain monologue didn’t turn out to be quite the way I’d hoped. I’m happy to hand over most of the vocal performances to Siri’s cousin Remy. It’s easier that way. Dang it, I’m a writer not a media presenter. The text to speech technology makes the whole podcast thing more enjoyable for me. In turn, I’m hoping it will all make the podcast more enjoyable for you, too.
Thank you again for watching, reading and listening. I appreciate each and every one of you. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. May we all enjoy the time, and let our easy and happy light shine. See you at the first sip of 2022. Happy New Year!
*Witches Tarot by Ellen Dugan and Mark Evans used with permissions granted by Llwellynpublishing.com
I’m a clairvoyant and I have a confession: The floor is my friend.
I write a lot of one card meditation readings for the TaoCraft Tarot blog. I pulled the Ace of Pentacles, which means that it’s a good day to make friends with your floor.
I’m not suggesting anything weird. Well, at least not THAT weird. You won’t even have to sweep up when you are done. All you need is your feet.
We hear about being “centered” or “grounded” but what does that really mean?
In physics, or at least in my puny understanding of it, electricity goes along the path of least resistance. That’s how lightning rods work. Metal wires provide a safe path for lightning to go into the ground instead of blasting its way through a building.
The emotional kind of grounding is similar. Instead of re-routing a lighting bolt, emotional grounding reshapes strong emotions.
So what does lightning and emotions have to do with the Ace of Pentacles? Emotional grounding is one of the classic meanings for the card. Pentacles as a group are associated with the alchemical element of earth. The literal earth is a safe place to send lightning but symbolically the earth is a safe place to send strong emotions like fear or anxiety.
Connection is key to both types of grounding. Wires connect electricity to the ground. When we feel connected to another person, to a group or to some identity outside of ourselves it helps with the emotional type of grounding.
The mind is a powerful thing. Imagination and visualization are like the wires in a lightning rod. You can use them to make friends with your floor and find a little emotional grounding.
The science kind of grounding was discovered through experiments. Let’s try a mental experiment to see if we can find some of that emotional grounding.
Put your feet flat on the floor.
That’s it.
It doesn’t matter if you are sitting or standing. Just pay attention to your feet touching the floor. Allow yourself to be aware of the actual physical sensation. Let your sense of touch remind you that you are connected to the floor
… and to everything else for that matter. You are part of this whole planet and a member of the entire human race whether you feel that connection right now or not.
It’s a big planet. Earth can handle your worry, your fear, or your anxiety. Imagine any stress that you have right now going through your feet, out into the floor then safely out into the ground – just like lightning goes through the wires of a lightning rod. Give it a try for a few seconds. Right here, right now as you listen to this, feel the floor through your feet and let the floor carry your stress safely away.
Now, how do you feel? How did that little experiment work for you? If you were feeling good when you started, has the quality of that feeling improved at all? Maybe it feels a little more solid or a little more durable than it did at the beginning.
If you were feeling stressed at the beginning of the experiment, did that feeling change at all? Does anything feel even a tiny bit calmer or a little bit more confident?
If not, that’s ok. Failure is always an option in these kinds of exercises, no harm done. You can learn by doing no matter what the results are. It is an easy thought experiment to do. Try this visualization a few different times and you’ll get a sense of whether it is right for you or not.
That’s it. That’s the confession. When emotions run high, the floor is our friend.
Do you have a question about clairvoyants or tarot readings that you’d like to have answered on the podcast? Please visit the clairvoyant confessional podcast page on taocrafttarot.com to submit a question. It doesn’t cost anything except a minute of your time. The link is in the episode description. While you are there, feel free to browse the website for the print only Tarot readings and other blog content.
As always, any podcast follows, blog follows, likes, or shares that you can spare are always greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for listening! I’ll see you on the print side and talk to you next time in the clairvoyant confessional.
Worry, anxiety and fear comes to us all, some more than others. It isn’t an emotion to be ignored or belittled. If the risk and problems match the emotions, plan and act to ease them. If the emotions far outweigh the actual situation, that too is a call to action. The action is to understand and when needed to reach out, to speak. Share the weight of it. Even in the alone times, whisper to the ethers, and the web of the world will hear.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
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