New exclusive content for members today: “Other Oracles”
Believe it or not, Tarot isn’t the only intuition amplifier in town.
No matter what kind of Oracle or divination technique you use, the real engine underneath it is your human connection to universal energies – your intuition.
We all have that natural intuitive connection, but sometimes spirit speaks in whispers. I’m here to help you turn up the volume and translate those whispers into actual English sentences that you can use.
Email Tarot is my specialty. As a writer by nature, I can give you a very convenient and enriched Tarot reading at a distance through email – the same or better than an in-person reading. We can talk about all of the advantages of that another time.
Today, on the members only blog we are starting a series about other oracles, other tools and techniques for accessing and amplifying intuition.
First up: I Ching. Join Sage Sips members on ko-fi to learn more about this ancient divination technique
Sage Sip Membership: $5 monthly
Free one card Tarot readings upon request up to 3/month
Automatic Discounts on larger reading layouts
exclusive content
special offers
Click HERE to join and read more about the I-Ching and other oracles over the coming months
Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Private Tarot readings are OPEN and support this free public blog and the Sage Sips YouTube channel.
We are having a blissfully rainy day here in the ‘burgh. The energy this week has been kinda chaotic and funky. Weird even. The energy right now is the reset we need to shake off the funky mojo and get back to the normal squirrel rave of life.
If you are working this weekend – thank you. Stay chill, hang in there until your next time off. If you have this weekend off, stay chill, do what needs done and relax when you can.
I do weird things on the weekend like think about reverse engineering. Reverse engineering Tarot to be exact.
It is an interesting exercise at any skill level of Tarot reading to take an idea, anything, and try to find a Tarot card that best exemplifies that concept. Instead of going from a random card to its keywords, go from a random idea to its key card.
It doesn’t always work. Sometimes it takes a few cards to capture the essence of the idea, but I would guess that is why card layouts were invented. We’ll get back to talking about layouts another day. For today, I’ve been thinking about which one of the 78 cards best communicates the idea of authenticity.
Authenticity is a big, stage of life, personal growth, life-lesson kind of concept so my first instinct is to look toward the major arcana. Of those, my attention is drawn to the World card.
In my opinion, this card are best summed up by not just “the World” but by “Cosmos” and “Gestalt.” Together, it gives the feeling of the biggest of big pictures and everything in it.
Everything in the world includes the masks we wear AND the beauty behind them. Everything, the Gestalt, the cosmos includes truth, lies and everything in between. That includes the authentic self of each and every human being. Whoever you are, whoever you want to be, however you want to be perceived – every facet of your true self – is included, accepted and connected with the grand everything that The World card symbolizes.
Authenticity is a part of that everything.
Every part of you is a part of that everything.
That everything-ness of the World card in particular and of Tarot in general gets behind our social masks. It flows both ways. When you allow a reading to touch the real you and not all the “could” “should” and “will” you get a higher, more potent level of guidance and help.
Should you choose to work with a professional reader instead of taking the DIY approach, the reader’s level of authenticity also enhances the quality of your reading experience.
No two readers are alike. Some are con artists. Some are artist-artists. Some are voices from a higher realm. Some are practical, grounded, roots as deep as a tree. Some are therapists in artists clothing. Most of us are out here doing our thing just trying to make it through life ourselves and hopefully help some folks along the way.
You’ll know the difference when you see it. You’ll know when someone genuinely believes in what they are doing, or at least what they think they can do. The trick is finding someone whose authentic self vibes with your authentic self. Unfortunately there is no way for us readers to know when that is the case. It’s up to you to listen to your inside authentic self.
Thank you so much for reading today. Next up: You Choose interactive reading. See you at the next sip!
We’ve probably all seen it by now. NPR cites K.C. Green as the creator of the famous “This is fine.” dog. We’ve all witnessed epic levels of denial, coated in metric tons of cognitive and emotional dissonance in the public space over the 10 years since this famous web comic was created.
It isn’t fine.
I’ll leave my void-screaming political views for Threads. For now, I want to stay in my lane and talk about my area of expertise, Tarot.
I think the trick to surviving social media is much like life: look for the big picture, and don’t take it all quite so personally. Curate your space. With that little bit of a step back, social media feels less like being a wide-eyed ingenue in the middle of a conflagration and more like an endless source of writing and art prompts.
Here is today’s thought-provoking juxtaposition.
One Tarot reader offered a breathy, pink chakra, love-and-light video about avoiding scams and finding breathy, heart-filled, pink chakra, love-and-light psychics.
Not my style – but a legit point. There really are bad people who have done bad things under the guise of psychics and Tarot and they have made this work a minefield of problems for the rest of us, whether we are annoyingly toxic positive or otherwise.
The problem here is the way they offered themselves up as the solution to the problem they were fussed up about.
Another reader has a dissenting view. Their thought that these kind of “how to find a good psychic” posts are little more than fear-mongering.
True, but incomplete.
When you caution people about real dangers you have to take great care to offer real solutions that work across the board – not just offer up yourself as the sole solution. If you put yourself out there as the only solution, then you are the scam you are warning about.
As a professional, a genuine high-level psychic reader has an obligation to take on difficult subjects for the sake of the clients we all wish to serve. That includes fear mongers. That includes scams. That includes taking on the subject of finding a trustworthy psychic in this crazy-pants world of “spiritual businesses.”
If we don’t talk about scams and impersonators and the very real pitfalls of finding a psychic we fail to serve the best interests of our clients – and ourselves. If we DO talk about scams and impersonators, to some extent we are engaging in the exact fear mongering that we are warning against.
This business is as fraught for an ethical psychic as it is for the person looking for them.
The best solution I can offer is a middle way where we take on the touch topics but hopefully avoid any problematic narcissism. As always, I take inspiration from Taoism and Chan (Zen) Buddhism. In this case, Dharma Drum Mountain says it best:
Face it : face the difficulty squarely Accept it : accept the reality of the difficulty Deal with it : deal with the difficulty with wisdom and compassion Let it go : afterwards, let go of it
Let’s apply this to the issue at hand.
The difficulty is that crime exists. Psychic scams have been around as long as psychics and scammers. Those crimes has made life much worse for authentic psychics and their clients, both.
No amount of breathy woo woo or stalwart avoidance of fear mongering is going to help. Being a psychic and finding a trustworthy psychic is fraught with real, legitimate problems.
The best solutions I can think of are drawn from the non-psychic, non-spiritual realm: Transparent communication.
Get a recommendation from someone you trust, just like you would for a plumber or a hairdresser.
Be careful when reading third party reviews. Some reviews are scams in themselves containing websites and phone numbers unrelated to the psychic they are ‘reviewing.’ That is a reflection of the reviewer – not the business)
Follow your instincts. If you feel pressured, walk away. A psychic is not an emergency room. You have every right to take the time you need to find the right reading for you.
Don’t trust any psychic that targets you INDIVIDUALLY for a reading. Would you trust spam, email phishing or a stalker? Discounts, giveaways, or sales offered to the GENERAL PUBLIC are normal practices for any business. If you approach the psychic, that is one thing. If the psychic approaches you that is entirely and disturbingly different.
Look at websites, blogs, social media and advertising to get some sense of their personality. If you think they are a good match for you, talk or email with them BUT be sure to keep it neutral and professional yourself. Ask about normal business related things like hours, appointments, prices, refunds, and so on. Don’t pour your heart out to a stranger or interrogate them like a criminal. If they are open, patient and professional with your average business questions, chances are they will treat your reading with the same respect. High pressure sales, demanding a set number of sessions, promising a specific result, or blaming you for any outcome are all warning signs. If something feels off, trust those feelings.
The letting go step is the hardest part and perhaps the most dangerous point in all of this. YOU are the expert in how you feel. If you try a psychic and it doesn’t work out, by all means walk away and find someone else. With the internet, you have a world of psychics and Tarot readers to choose from. You should never feel pressured into getting more sessions or paying more money. You never have to see a psychic again if you don’t want to. You are the one who must decide if and when you get your next reading.
Follow your instincts. We professionals are spirit translators and intuition amplifiers – not ultimate answers.
Follow your instincts. If they lead you to a reading with me, great! Let’s get to work. If not, great! That means you are honoring your path even as I honor mine in writing this.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 
You must be logged in to post a comment.