writing – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Adventures in Meatspace.

I’m re-reading Neuromancer. It’s an all-time favorite and has had a big influence on my blogger-life. William Gibson is credited with coining the term cyberspace after all. That’s also where we get calling the physical body ‘meat’ and the term ‘meat puppets’ I don’t know who came up with ‘meatspace’ for the offline world (Adam Savage maybe?)

The pull to Meatspace has been strong lately. I think that it is a general, collective energy for us all. We are all way past touching grass. I saw a meme on social media yesterday that said something like “I don’t need to touch grass I need to melt into the forest floor”

Personally, I’m caught between wanting to ground and take a little bit of meatspace sabbatical as I call my offline vacations – and wanting to plug into cyberspace hard and minimize some big meatspace stress I have coming up over the next few days.

I get called out by Tarot cards too. It’s not just you.

Pulled a card to write about here and found my own stress staring me in the face.

Welp, that fits.

I often sense the seven of swords in terms of a fiction character trope; a lovable scamp, untrustworthy but helpful petty thief, a character in a heist movie like Ocean’s Eleven or one of the informers in an old episode of Miami Vice.

Today, though, I’m drawn toward Seven Dane Asmund’s interpretation of carrying the burdens of our decisions. Decision making speaks to the mental, intellectual, active, air-element nature of the suit.

In other words, consider the consequences of your decision. If you choose to carry a few swords of your decisions, don’t forget they are sharp and it’s gonna hurt. But see the swords sticking in the ground? Don’t forget you can drop those babies any time you want, stick them in the ground to discharge and detox and get you back on your merry way.

The idea here is very similar to the 10 of wands except pointier, sharper, heavier. This is black belt level burden dropping stress management, not just tossing sticks that we make heavier than they really are.

Doing it all with a sense of irony and humor helps too.

I chose to do the stressful thing this weekend because the consequences of doing it are shorter term and less consequential. If I don’t do the thing, there is 100% chance of blowback. And so here I go with my hands full of swords. When you hear that big crash of dropping metal you’ll know I’m home.

Meet you back here in cyberspace for the next sip.

Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Like what you read? Buy me a coffee from the “readings” menu on Ko-Fi and a portion of the September 2026 proceeds goes to the American Library Association in honor of Love Your Library month and their upcoming Banned Book Week.

Action Eases Anxiety Tarot: The Plan

Last week, in the You Have to Make Before You Can Break It post we talked about card layouts, how making an action plan is in itself an action that can ease anxiety, and that a good plan also plans on the plan going completely sideways.

A two-card is great little reset when you are tackling the twists, turns and gone-sideways adjustments you have to make but, like we said last time, you have to make it before you break it. The Plan layout is about setting direction in the first place, making the plan that you plan on adjusting (or throwing away) later.

Reading left to right, the layout positions are:

Let it rest: You have been giving too much energy here. Dial it down, give it some space, let it simmer until the time is right again.
Let it go: This is getting unhealthy or is not serving you as well as it has in the past. This is something to consider releasing for good, or at least putting into cold storage for a good, long time.
Que it up: Pay attention here. Look for opportunities that aren’t quite here yet. This is something that isn’t quite ready but may be soon.
Let it roll: This needs your attention now. Full focus here. Roll with it.

Notice how the position names mostly start with “Let” that’s on purpose. This is about allowing the nature of energies as they are, not forcing things or fighting the flow. This is about navigation directions, not a list of do-or-die achievements.

Let it rest: Two of Wands

Well, isn’t this ironic in the middle of my little rant about planing. That is exactly what the two of wands is often about…strategic planning, preparation, watching for the right time.

The message here is clear. KNOCK IT OFF. The time will never be right. The only time is now. The only place to start is here. CHOOSE and START already.

Don’t let fear of making the wrong choice paralyse you. You can learn from your mistakes, change plans, adapt, re-adapt, re-plan and generally nope out of whatever direction you want to at any point you want to.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
Carl Jung

THIS is what Tarot is all about. It isn’t about predicting your future. It is about showing you your power, your choices, your part in creating your future. The two of wands in the let it rest position is nudging us to let the planning rest and do something. You can’t break it unless you make it. You can’t learn from mistakes until you make a few. You can’t change directions until you move in one.

Let it go: Seven of Wands

Pick your battles. Stop beating that metaphoric dead horse. Stop throwing good money after bad. Cut your losses. When you are in a hole, stop digging. Where are the costs too high?

Que it up: Nine of Swords

There is never a time for useless regrets or overwhelming anxiety. This isn’t talking about that. This is talking about stepping outside of your comfort zone. It isn’t time for emotional risk just yet, but what are you going to do when it comes? Even good things can put on pressure. Stress happens, even during good things. Something has to change for things to get better and emotions may bubble when they do. What are you going to do when that happens? Get ready.

Let it roll: Ten of Pentacles

What if….not saying it’s possible…but what if you could….

What would it be like to just be happy with things as they are now. Be happy that you’ve decided to do every single thing within your power to change every single thing you want to change – AND be happy with just having made that decision. What if, having made a choice to be happy with things as they are AT THE SAME TIME that they are changing and AT THE SAME TIME that things are in progress instead of waiting to be happen when things are done?

There is a parable about a student who asked a Zen master about how to be happy. “I want to be happy” they said. The master said to drop the “I” because that is ego and to drop the “want” because that is attachment. Then all that is left is “be happy.”

Happy? Let it roll.

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September 2026 Brew It Forward will go to the American Library Association in honor of their protection of our freedom to read and in honor of their upcoming banned books week.

Improve Your Groove

From the archives, September 1, 2019

I love it when people talk in T-shirts.

My husband is a drummer. This morning we were watching and interview / demo video on with Stanton Moore, the drummer for Galactic. If you like music and/or drums even a teensy bit, and you don’t know Stanton Moore or Galactic, run don’t walk YouTube or his website or where ever you listen to music and check it out. It may not be your taste in music, but it is worth a listen just for the sheer skill and musicality of it all. At the moment, my personal favorite is “Ha di ka” from the album Carnivale Electricos because it totally reminds me of The Magician card from the Black Cat Tarot.

But that’s another story.

In the middle of all the music stuff he said that you can always “improve your groove” which would make a pretty good t-shirt, I think.

He’s talking about a music groove and learning / improving your skill as a drummer, but to me the non-musician, it invokes the notion of dynamic balance, comfort, ease, being “in a rhythm,” a sort of wu wei state of mind. You know, just rolling with things as they come and it’s all good.

So how do you improve on that? Why would you want to? After all it is OK for everything to be OK, at least every now and then.

Acknowledging the groove improves it.

There is a vaguely toxic version of gratitude floating around out there. I had a client one time that was going to be grateful goddammit until she got the romance she wanted. She had heard that gratitude brings the things that you want, and was essential to the spiritual Law of Attraction. Being grateful for what you have brings you what you want. Valid point – sort of. I had to wonder how grateful she really, genuinely FELT if she was as miserably laser focused on her current loneliness and that new relationship as she said.

Scott Cunningham wrote that “the feeling is the power.” Empty gratitude as an exercise to gain something can’t feel all that terrific. The magick happens when you feel the gratitude for the stuff that is right here, right now. When that happens, the gratitude brings you a wealth of good things that were right there under your nose, perhaps unacknowledged.

Gratitude is a comfortable groove. It is not some ecstasy, not something you can force or do as a means to an end. If you aren’t grateful now – OK. If things are bad – OK. Acknowledge that realistically too. You have to understand how things actually are before you can improve them, right? Gratitude can come in the form looking around and feeling that things aren’t so bad after all. As I type that, I “hear” (which is how I describe intuition that comes as sounds, words or music instead of mental images) a song by Esperanto reggae artist Jonny M, “Malacxa” which means “not awful” or “not bad”

The Magician, all songs aside, is a good card for the concept. The process of finding a groove, being in it, acknowledging it, improving it, can work a sort of magic. Gratitude CAN attract good things, but not by doing it come hell or high water to get some specific thing. The groove magic comes when you appreciate and improve the groove you are already in more than you throw your mind and energy at something that is not in your groove right now at all.

Low Tech Ritual

Also on Sage’s Second Cup blog

Our hot water is out.

Sure, I’ve done my fair share of complaining about boiling water on the stove to keep us and the kitchen sanitary like I’m Ma Ingalls and this is 1826 or something. That’s in spite of the fact that I’m doing it in an air conditioned house with an electric stove and not over a wood fire in some hovel hole of a cabin in the wilderness. I LIKE it here in the future with electricity, indoor plumbing and whatnot.

But you know what they say about clouds and silver linings. Or as author Richard Bach put it “there is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands.”

Hmm. Maybe that plus the narrow mountain top ridge image from the “Summit and Crossroads” and “Move with Charisma” tarot readings is a solid hint to re-read Bach’s Illusions or finally get around to reading The Razor’s Edge. That’s idea, too. Book reviews over on Second Cup – but none of that is the point. Back to the hot water thing.

The problem with the stovetop hot water is that it is a sloooow way to do things.

The beautiful part of the stovetop hot water is that it is a slow way to do things.

I especially noticed it bathing. The slow acts of putting the water on to heat, cleaning the sink, moving the soap from its usual shower spot to a place on the countertop within reach; trivial things to be sure, but it takes on an almost ritual-like quality.

It was a mindfulness trap.

Without intending it, it dropped me into a meditative mindset. Instead of quick, thoughtless and profoundly mundane, I found myself engaging with the moment. It wasn’t the usual quick hop shower. This was a thing.

The same can, and does, apply to Tarot reading.

It doesn’t matter what you ritual IS – it matters what your ritual DOES.

Whatever your process or ritual, it shifts you from the everyday world into an engaged frame of mind. The ritual and process of a Tarot reading shifts us from mindless to mindful. Whatever your ritual, habit or process might be, it makes tarot reading into a thing.

Spirit speaks in whispers. Tarot and its attendant rituals, even the casual ones, helps us to hear those whispers.

Using a reading cloth, or a particular shuffle pattern, having a dedicated space, lighting candles or incense or whatever you do when you do a reading all has the effect of slowing down our normal pace. Those objects and activities aren’t sacred, but the mindset they create is.

Tarot reading rituals are a mindfulness trap.

The pattern quiets and comforts. It is like giving a toddler a new toy or handing a banana to a hungry monkey. Some routine or ritual that is a built in part of beginning a reading comforts and quiets our logical mind enough to help us hear our intuition and the quiet whispers of spirit and energy.

A wonderful as the modern age and its indoor plumbing may be, some things are ancient and still powerful. Often the most powerful things are the quietest, and the simplest, like a low tech ritual.

Raise a mug to civil rights

“Buy me a coffee” on Ko-fi during the month of June 2026 and get a daily meditation style Tarot reading by email as a thank you gift. All proceeds will be donated to the ACLU in support of their work to protect LGBTQIA+ equality and civil rights. Happy Pride Month!

A Mask That Lets You Dance

Today’s card is from The Normal Tarot second edition by Seven Dane Asmund. They describe the card as being connected to dreams and deeper meanings. I get the sense of two threads of meaning connected to the card today. One, connected to the dreaming part, another tied to the visual image on the card of masks and dancing. Of the two, the mask part seems to carry the larger energy.

For the dream part, I get a sense of yes, you are right. If you have a hunch about what a dream meant, you are right, it is what you think. The next few days to maybe a week feel like the right time to do shadow work, dream journaling, read about dream symbolism and so on.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”
Carl Jung

Visually, my attention is drawn to the masks in the masquerade scene. Masks are a kind of safety. Literally when it comes to airborne viruses. Socially masks can be a shield of safey that shows a carefully curated portion of our authentic self so we can dance freely until our full face can be free too. You are not lesser if you protect some inner, precious side of yourself. Sometimes a mask is like the face shield on a hockey helmet. Sometimes a mask is the thing that can let you dance fearlessly.

“Live the best life you can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck.”
Frank Herbert, in Chapterhouse Dune

Tarot and the Lo-Teks

Yesterday’s post was, obviously, about a new shop item on my ko-fi page. All the proceeds from my ko-fi page go toward web-hosting Sage Sips without ads, keeping the Substack paywall-free, and maybe generating a few donations for causes I care about (more about that in a later post.) I’m not going back into business. Handwritten Tarot readings are not a money-maker.

Trust me, I’ve tried it before.

I originally offered tangible, pen and paper Tarot readings years ago, when AI was the stuff of cyberpunk fiction – not anything anyone actually used in normal day-to-day life.

I’ve always been a William Gibson fan, dating back to Neuromancer. I originally offered handwritten Tarot because it was cool and niche. Bringing back handwritten Tarot is more the Lo-Teks from Gibson’s short story turned Keeanu Reeves movie, Johnny Mnemonic.

I never imagined that a person to person email with a digital photo would seem low-tech next to computer-generated art and writing, but here we are. Physical paper and handwriting seems like ancient, mysterious wizardshit by comparison.

If you want a talking type of reading – eesy peesy. There are psychics by the dozens out there doing that and it is up to you to figure out if they are trustworthy or not. (The Tao of Finding a Psychic might help) As far as I know, there are only a handful of us working in the typed-word and email formats, and fewer still that do handwritten pen and ink readings.

“A thought is powerful, the spoken word even more so, but the written word is the most powerful of all”

Sallie Christensen, psychic and author

I’m not going back into business, but I am offering these readings as a quiet rebellion against AI. This is my Lo-Tek Tarot.

Handwritten Tarot is magical and powerful – arguably even more so than spoken in-person ones. This kind of Tarot can never be digitally replicated. My bad handwriting and cringy doodles show you they are 100% real, 100% HUMAN .

Handwritten Tarot has all the advantages of any distance reading: You can’t unintentionally give body language cues. There are no leading questions, no stage mentalism, no tricks – these readings are pure spirit and intuition. No drama, no AI slop – just quiet wisdom in the ancient way of pen and ink writing.

Please include your name, U.S. mailing address, and question for the reading with your order. If you don’t include a question or topic, no problem! I’ll automatically do an open style reading and let intuition lead the way.

Sent folded into a standard #10 envelope, this Tarot reading is discreet and private. This is highly customized folk art with no refunds or exchanges. Available to USA mailing addresses ONLY.

This nominal charge is only to cover the cost of paper, postage, driving to the post office and the extra effort that these take to create.

Just like always, these readings are highly customized ephemeral folk art for entertainment and personal spritual enrichment, and do not predict the future. No refunds or exchanges or any of that other business-y stuff. Caveat emptor and whatnot.

Order one from my ko-fi shop HERE if you are interested in giving it a try.

Today’s Tarot: Echoing Silence

It’s a shocker, I know.

I follow a number of Taoist, Buddhist, Accupressure, Traditional Chinese Medicine and other such social media feeds.

This being the waning weeks of the year of the snake has popped up several times over the past few days, associating the end of the year with a metaphoric shedding of skin, as a snake does when it grows and enters a new cycle.

It reminds me of the ouroboros, the image of a snake or dragon eating its own tail that is said to symbolize cycles destruction and rebirth.

Drawing the Star card from the major arcana fits exactly that energy today.

This card is sometimes associated with guidance – like ancient sailors using the stars for navigation. Of course, this winter holiday season, the Christian minded among us might think of the star in the three kings legend. But that isn’t the energy this time at all.

Reference after reference connects The Star with rebirth and renewal.

This is much more cyclic. This is snake skin and ouroboros circles. It’s not about a singular point of guidance. It’s much more complex than that.

When I drew the Star card, I intuitively ‘heard’ “echoing silence” and was reminded of winter nights with a clear sky over snow-covered ground. Even if you are in a city parking lot or a suburban driveway, the night and silence are profound, the quiet echoing behind any noise you might hear.

We are at a cusp. We are at the tail of the ouroboros snake. No one star guides us through this transition.

An entire galaxy of stars promise rebirth.

As dark as this night may be, as anxious and terrifying as the echoing, frigid silence may feel, the stars burn on.

Even the stars move. Everything changes. And that includes changes for the better just as much as the tragedies our fears so often imagine.

Thank you for reading. Sage Sips is always free to read, and is supported by Tarot fans like you. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where private readings, memberships, and the virtual coffee mug tip jar all goes toward creating this blog and its Substack.

Blah induced glow up

I don’t know if I’ve done one of these tidy-up-the-website things since I’ve been on Bluesky or not. If not, Bluesky – let me introduce myself.

If you are not new to Sage Sips blog, then thank you for putting up with yet another one of these. I’ll admit – I’ve followed that “reintroduce yourself for new followers” advice a little too enthusiastically some years. Equally important, I’m grateful to everyone who has read Sage Sips for a while or follows on any of the socials. That goes double for those of you who get private readings with me. I truly appreciate you. If these posts and readings are any little help at all, it’s worth it to keep things fresh around here for you.

The differences aren’t big, nothing that major has happened since the big re-brand in 2018, but a little infusion of energy and attention still helps every now and again. If Halloween is ‘witch’s new year’ consider this the pre-new-year housecleaning in my little corner of cyberspace.

I’m in late August BLAH mode anyway, so it’s a good time to take a week off from the usual readings and recharge a little.

But back to the re-introduce yourself thing. I always feel weird and awkward about the background and bio part. I’d much rather talk about Tarot behind the scenes or do readings or teach Tarot how-to. But still, a refreshed bio is probably for the best so you can know what kind of internet rando you are reading.

Here is the same old bio, edited down a little bit:

Private email Tarot readings, memberships, virtual coffee and shop purchases all support this no-paywall blog

Hi! I’m Sage.

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

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

I didn’t originally start out to be a professional 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 given psychic Tarot readings through Keen, Advice Trader and AllExperts. After doing literally hundreds of online readings (I stopped counting at 500) I opened my own Tarot practice with ModernOracleTarot.com, the Tarotbytes blog and the now-defunct Quirk & Flotsam shop on Etsy. In 2018 I re-branded everything as TaoCraft Tarot featuring the Sage Sips blog. In 2025, life happened, and my Tarot work circled back to the beginning as a hobby with this blog (and the private email Tarot readings that help support the cost to create the blog and host a half decent website.)

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 both magickal craft and and regular crafting including one of my favorite hobbies, knitting.

My pen name, Sage, is inspired by both aromatherapy and the wisdom of Taoism and Tarot.

The herb sage has a comforting, familiar scent and flavor that most of us know from breakfast sausage and holiday turkeys. In aromatherapy, Sage incense and essential oil can support a calm, optimistic mood. Most of all, the word sage means something or someone who is wise. Tarot and Taoism both give us very sage advice.

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 Sage.Sips on all of the usual socials. I mostly interact with BlueSky and Threads, so drop by and say hello.

Email readings are always available 24/7, no appointment needed! Click HERE to order anytime. Email readings have always been my specialty, and my favorite to do. You can trust the process because they are pure intuition and spirit- there is no way for me to read body language cues or ask leading questions.

Thanks for reading. I always appreciate your time and attention along with any likes, follows, shares or kind comments that you can spare. I wish you all well. See you at the next sip!

The Dregs of Summer

It’s August

Late August

I don’t like summer, especially the ass-end of it when my patience with blazing sun, heat and humidity is long gone. There is always a little bit of an energy shift when dog days end, even more so around the 21st when we are closer to the end of the season. It is the glimpse of cool darkness at the end of a blazing white hot tunnel if you’ll pardon the color-flipped metaphor.

Maximum yang, like peak summer heat, demands a healthy dose of yin in response. All this summering asks for some resting. Rest doesn’t have to be a full on vacation or a power nap (although a power nap is ALWAYS a good thing when you can manage it.) Sometimes it is just a matter of cutting yourself a little bit of slack. Take your foot off the gas on the downhill, if that makes any sense of it.

That’s what I’m doing for a few weeks. I’m retreating to my cyberspace comfort zone instead of taking the usual full break from the Internet. My basic plan is to drag some stuff out of the archives to post and do a basic re-set here on the blogs and newsletter. It’s time to collect myself and get ready for fall, that most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Pumpkin Spice Everything to those who celebrate!

PS – Private readings by email are ALWAYS OPEN, sabbatical, real holiday, fake pumpkin spice holiday or otherwise! Order your private email Tarot reading 24/7, no appointment needed HERE

Chase Your Dreams Without Moving a Step

Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung

The Knight of Cups is classically known for symbolizing travel, flirting, and romance. It’s the card that most closely matches that “you’ll meet a handsome stranger” sort of trope in books and movies.

Dreams is another key word I’ve seen pop up. Intuitively I get “vision quest.” I don’t think it means the old 80s film with the Madonna song.

It’s not the achievement focused “chase your dream” kind of thing either.

This card reminds us of inner questing. Why waste time chasing what is right there inside, right now?

Actually the inner dreams, the gift of insights that our subconscious minds and Jung’s collective unconscious can give can be more elusive than the physical realm dreams of things.

I feel pushed to talk about dream journaling. Journaling as a whole is a wonderful thing. Just grab a pen and a notebook and have at it. The only rule is there are no rules. Keep it as private as you want, write anything you want as much or as little as you want. Write to understand. Writing a journal can explain yourself to yourself in amazingly healing, empowering ways.

The knight is bringing us a cup of water and intuition and an invitation to write our dreams as soon as we wake up and remember them – or just write to make up our dreams while we are wide awake. After all, you can’t chase a dream until you know what it is.

InkMagick and Video readings are back! Visit the updated PRIVATE READINGS page to learn more.