Tag: 8 of cups

At Face Value

Sage Sips: a Tarot look at the week ahead in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

Hello and welcome to Sage Sips the blog, the newsletter and, so it seems, the podcast.

I think we finally and for real have everything set up under th new name. Sage words tarot is the main website with links to all the good stuff including private readings you can order anytime, no appointment needed.

Sage Sips is the name of the active podcast. The old feed under the title “Sage’s Short Sip Tarot” has been deleted or soon will be. Sage Sips is the name of this blog on ko-fi and substack where you can also get these Pathway readings for the week ahead on Mondays, but also subscriber exclusive content at other times.

Simple! And hopefully easier to spell and remember than the name Tao Craft was. So now that all of that is apparently nailed down for the moment, let’s look at the cards and energies ahead for this week. When I say energies ahead I don’t mean what is going to happen.

Nope.

That is 100% up to you and your individual circumstances. These pathway readings are all about the energy conditions that you have to work with, the vibe ahead can help you to make better decisions and take the best actions for you as an individual. It’s like how the general weather report for everybody helps you to decide what to wear out of your individual wardrobe.

You can decide to bring an umbrella if pouring rain is on the horizon, that sort of metaphoric thing.

This week has big energy, but it is big yin energy. There are two major arcana cards, death and the high priestess. Both cards are inverted, and that feels very significant this time.

If you’ve listened or read for any amount of time, you know that I use pure intuition when it comes to reversed cards, that is to say cards that appear upside down relative to the person doing the reading.

Every card has every shade of meaning: black or white, positive or negative, encouraging or discouraging and every shade of grey in between. I tend to reach for all the shades of feeling for every card anyway, so a physical reversal may or may not be meaningful. It might hint that the part of life represented by the card’s position in the layout is blocked, or hindered or difficult somehow. Just as likely, it could be a hint at a particular set of meanings or key words for the card rather than the layout position. Or, just as likely as either of those, it could mean nothing at all.

In this case it feels like a pull. It feels like advice so slow down, to pull back. I’ve never actually done this, but I imagine this is the mental and emotional equivalent of swimming in thick syrup. There is power here, but it is like the power a bowl holds…its usefulness is in the empty space as much as the bowl that defines it.

There is a sense of tension and expectancy, a period of necessary emptiness and quiet to give future progress somewhere to go. That’s why the two major arcana cards are standing on their heads.

The mental image here is two things:

First is the three of wands card. I don’t think that card is significant with regard to its meaning or key words. It’s more of the feeling that is evoked by the artwork on the card, usually of a figure gazing at the horizon. That lends a sense of waiting and expectancy and holding space for hopes like the bowl analogy earlier.

Second is a diagram that looks like a circle within a circle acting as a hinge or a joint. As quiet or empty as this time may seem, it is necessary in order for things to turn in a better direction. It feels almost like the stars are pivoting around this space in time.

The Eight of Cups is the fading energy. That suits the nature of the card so well, that it may not really begin to fade all that much until we are well into the week. It may stick around for a while, actually. The eight of cups is about endings, about walking away from something for your own good or for the good another. It hints at a bittersweet or melancholy separation that at the same time is utterly necessary. It’s about moving on toward something better even when letting go of the past isn’t a joy or delight. Bittersweet, yes, but very very necessary. This card hints at one of those times where you must acknowledge those melancholy or nostalgic feelings even as you definitively let go and move on.

The current energy is death in reverse. Death is the card of change. It is different from the change we see in the Wheel of Fortune card. This change isn’t cyclic. It isn’t about change within a larger or grander pattern. The change in the death card is more permanent, and much more transformational. There are reasons this is inverted death rather than the wheel card or the hanged man card. This isn’t a pattern of progress – wait – more progress. This is cocoon time. The caterpillar is dead and gone, but it isn’t quite time for the butterfly to emerge either. The cake is in the oven, the butterfly is in the cocoon. Profound change is happening, but it is happening slowly, quietly, and subtly.

The High Priestess is sitting in front of one black and one white pillar. There is a very Tao Te Ching feeling here. The Priestess is usually a symbol of cosmic mysteries with very yin, dark, hidden qualities.

Here is where the Taoism part comes in.

You can’t have darkness without light. The mysterious and obvious are opposites that define each other just like light and dark define each other and the solid parts and empty parts of a bowl define each other.

As for the growing energy card, the High Priestess in reverse reminds us that sometimes you can take things at face value or, as Sigmund Freud famously said, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

As big and soul-shaking as the walking-away energies in the eight of cups and the death card may be, the advice here is to not read more into things than are already there. The recent past has been difficult and chaotic and changing enough without us heaping unfounded assumptions on top of everything else.

During this time of quiet transformation it is probably best to take the week at face value.

Thank you all for reading, and once the podcast is back up and running, for listening too.

All of my free Tarot content is readers and listener supported. No monetization means your Tarot message comes first with me, not an advertiser’s message. If you like what you see in these weekly readings, please consider a private reading, subscribing the exclusive content on ko-fi or substack or sending a tip to the virtual coffee mug.

Thanks again, see you at the next sip!

Free Yourself

Healing requires a change of heart and mind

They don’t call it a hook for nothing.

Hello and welcome to Sage’s Short Sips: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m Sage and I’m glad that you are here.

Sometimes, when things go a little wonky, you just pick up the pieces and go on without a second thought. It’s like the upside down or reversed cards we’ve talked about before. Sometimes it feels like nothing so I flip the card and keep going. Sometime the reversal feels significant so I read it as a caution that some aspect of the energy is blocked or turbulent.

The same process applies to making the youtube videos of the real world card draw that inspires all of the short sip posts and pods. Sometimes things get clumsy or stuck filming the card draw for the day. Most of the time I just scoop up the cards and re-do it so it fits into a 15 second tiktok or youtube short. Today I was the stuck one instead of the two cards that stuck together for this video. I thought about scooping up the cards and re-shooting, but I felt stuck on this and got a niggly little feeling that the other card…both cards together really… might be important.

Today we get the eight of swords PLUS the eight of cups.

The second card surprised me by being an eight card too. Getting two eight cards back to back feels significant. It might just be validation that the two cards are indeed connected and working in together for today’s message, but it feels bigger than that. Eight isn’t ringing any bells for me personally. What about you? Anybody with an August birthday? Anyone connecting to any August event: a birth, death, or any anything from any August in the past? Any connection with the eighth of any month? Any eight connection at all with the number 8 that lights up for you?

Is that vague and stage cold reading enough for you? Anybody and everybody can probably drum up some connection with either the number 8 or the month of August. All of these suggestions are the standard, banal, boilerplate interpretations of repeating numbers in a Tarot reading. I only mention it because it feels important to the collective energy part of this reading. Like everyone on the planet, I can think of a connection for me with August…so trust me. Your gut will undoubtedly know if your 8 or August connection is energetically significant or not. You’ll know if this is something meaningful that you should pay attention to, or if it is just coincidental B.S. that you can brush right off.

That, I suspect, is where all the scammy hype rip-off Tarot readers and psychics go off the rails by making some big, ego-inflating deal out of common coincidence rather than supporting your individual intuition.

Don’t listen to me, don’t listen to the cards. Listen to your own instincts. The cards, and my role as a reader is just to support your understanding with a few little nudges, creative prompts and lots of food for thought. In the end, your thinking matters more than any coincidences that might come along to fuel it.

Which brings us circling right back around to the the two-card message for today.

Swords have to do with mind, intellect and action. I’m reminded of a line from some 90s song “free your mind, and the rest will follow.” It was some pop song girl group, and I don’t remember a single thing else about it other than that one lyric, but that one line has always stuck. They don’t call it a hook for nothing. This is the message from the 8 of swords today. The card is talking about freeing your mind.

The figure on the card is surrounded by swords and blindfolded. One of the key ideas of this card is that freedom is still possible even when the odds seem stacked against you. The key is to use creative problem solving. In this Pamela Smith card image, the figure’s feet are bare but unbound, and there is a gap in the swords encircling the person. They’d have to be really, really REALLY careful but they could feel their way to freedom given enough time. There would be a price to pay in shallow cuts, but the freedom is possible with the right action.

The eight of cups is connected to emotions more than the cutting intellect and precise careful action suggested by the eight of swords. The eight of cups is about the bittersweet moving on from heartbreak into the future, from emotional devastation into emotional healing. Sure – there were good times. Sure – there were painful times. But sometimes the only way forward is through, and the only way through is to let the past go.

Now put both cards together – free your mind AND free your heart. For true freedom, both mind (attitude, understanding) and heart (feelings, intentions) have to change AND move on from the old ways. Both cards imply movement from a bad situation toward a better future.

Thank you all so much for reading and listening today. I hope everyone, including podcast listeners will follow the free blog, as I always have some blog only content in the works. You can opt in by putting your email in the box in the right hand column of the blog website (link is in the episode description for podcast folks). You can unsubscribe at any time, although obviously I hope you won’t. Instead of unsubscribing, send a blog comment. I use the feedback to improve things or get content ideas. So thanks in advance for any comments, questions, likes, subs, follows or shares that you can spare.

The blog, podcast and youtube channel are not monetized in any way and depend on audience support. Please visit the Ko-Fi page where your shop purchases, no appointment needed email tarot readings, memberships and virtual coffees all help me to bring you this free to access Tarot content.

Thanks again! See you at the next sip!

CrystalCast for week of 5 Dec 22

The story continues. It always does.

Hi and welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and Podcast. I’m glad you are here. I hadn’t planned on doing one of these this week, but when the time presented itself, well, the schedule is that there is no schedule so here we are.

This is a new blog & podcast feature that I’m developing. It’s purely intuition driven, using crystal chips and rune stones tossed randomly on a reading cloth as a prompt, or a sounding board, or an amplifier for the intuition. But then, that is exactly how Tarot readings work so it isn’t so much develop as practice. You get the idea.

I like the way this energy picks up where the last one leaves off. Remember how the runestones made a line, a wall of sorts a few weeks ago. The advice was to chill and not to push and wait for the energy to flow again.

This is our cue. We are past whatever that blockage or “wait” energy was. Energy is on an upswing. It’s time to climb. It’s time to move again…or time to move on.

Here the images go all pop culture. I get a snippet of that old Doors song, about “break on through to the other side” (Where did that come from? I’m listening to my goth playlist right now, for crying out loud.) Here is another reference for the gen X and boomers out there. Cue the kool-aid “oh yeah” commercials with the pitcher mascot guy breaking through walls and stuff. I think that means we are definitely on the other side of whatever that blockage might have been.

But it isn’t as lighthearted as flavored sugary sugar drinks might imply. There is a catch in the throat and a little heaviness in the pit of the stomach with this one. It is definitely time to move on, but it isn’t necessarily with with a light heart or a dry eye. This is a very nostalgic time of year. It is the hardest time to think of leaving anything behind, even things that have proven harmful or long past due. There is a strong eight of cups sort of bittersweet feeling here.

As much as I love Halloween, there comes a time to get rid of the moldy jack o lantern and that turkey carcass has got to go.

It is also a very forward looking time of year. We all hold hope that next year will be just a little better. That happens. I live in the United States so I can only compare the local energies, really, but compare 2022 to the toxic dumpster fire explosion that 2020 here. NOW covid vaccines and real treatments actually exist, unemployment is remarkably low, things are getting fixed because there actually was an infrastructure bill,there is a good man in the White House and toilet paper in the stores. I might have to make a loaf of sourdough just for old time’s sake, but that’s another story.

The larger piece of raw quarz at the top gives a sense of amplified energy “from above.” We are moving again, and headed in a good direction.

My logical side throws in “don’t screw it up” in what sounds a lot like Han Solo telling Luke Skywalker not to get cocky.

The Raidho rune is expansive, and speaks of will power, personal power, discipline, self-control, motivation, action…all of which fits the narrative of movement, rising, moving on.

Ihwaz speaks of an awareness of karma, and personal responsibility. We reap as we sow, and the seeds we plant now brings a future harvest. Act as if what you give to the universe returns to you three times as much.

The light and dark crystals seem even in amount, a reminder to be as steady and balanced as you can be. Solid footing is more important than speed. Slow and steady is still moving ahead, still moving on, just the same as a sprint. This isn’t a race.

The lone chip off to the side reminds that what is said isn’t for everyone. You must decide if it resonates or if you are an outlier to this cast’s message.

And there the energy steps back.

I was around more than planned in November, but the blog and podcast are going to be on for-real hiatus from December 5 to December 22. Happy Holidays to all of you, whatever holiday you may or may not celebrate.

I celebrate the human spirit that survives the long night and the diverse multitude of colorful lights that you all are. Best wishes to you. See you soon.

Flow Forward

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today’s card is the eight of cups.

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee

Today’s card is the eight of cups.

The eight of cups always seems to have a bittersweet sense of resignation about it, and today is no different. Cups cards have to do with emotions and our closest relationships in life. Very often the eight in particular has to do with a needed, healthy, healing, necessary parting of ways. Often when we see this card, something is being left behind, even if it is as minor as a bad habit. It reminds me a little bit of an exercise the therapists would give the clients when I worked as medical support on an inpatient rehab unit long ago. They would write a letter breaking up with their addiction, essentially saying goodbye to their drug of choice.

I’m not suggesting that everyone hearing this is addicted to something or anything so dramatic, by intuition seems a little stuck on the idea of a bad habit. This is the time of year for making those healthy lifestyle resolutions. If you have any inkling that you need something like that, then this is a good time of year for it. The collective energy is working in your favor and you have plenty of company along that path.

That’s on the nuts and bolts physical level. It feels like there is something more subtle, more esoteric, something on the emotional and spiritual level coming through for this card as well. That piece of it is not connected to the “bad habit” idea.

I want to connect it to the famous quote by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who said that “no man can step in the same river twice. It’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

We all leave everything behind all of the time whether we like it or not just by virtue of the passage of time. It’s kind of a terrifying prospect when you put it in those terms. But moving forward can include moving to a place of remembrance and appreciation.

We are always moving forward through and ever-changing river of time. That unavoidable forward movement is easier if we move our attention forward with it. Turn to the past too much for too long and you get an awful lot of water splashed right in your face. You can carry the good parts of the past with you, and you can leave the harmful parts behind but you can never walk through the same river twice. We can only flow forward.

Thank you so much for reading, watching and listening to these (almost) daily short sip Tarot clips. The virtual tip mug and memberships on ko-fi supports the creation of the blog, podcast and youtube shorts. Your likes, subs, follows and shares are always, always appreciated. See you at the next sip.

Bittersweet by Choice

Like all the cards, there is a yin and a yang, multiple threads of energy and meaning, which is a different thing from a reversed card. A reversed card is one that turns over upside down relative to the person doing the reading. That speaks more to blocked, slowed, complicated or turbulent energy around the card, which isn’t the case here at all.

Either way you look at it, life changes and sometimes those changes suck.

It is bittersweet to walk away from things that once were pleasant and good but have run their course. People, things, circumstances have their time, but that time doesn’t always last forever. Sometimes those things leave us against our hopes…other times we have to take the walk.

Being a cups card, it’s almost automatic to think in terms of relationships evolving or ending. Romantic relationships, close friendships….all kinds of relationships…are important things. But the card can reach much farther than that. It doesn’t have to mean relationships. It can mean saying goodbye to thought habits, physical habits, addictions, comfortable routines, physical objects – anything.

Our feelings about change and releasing old things are as varied as the things we left – or that left us.

My mind goes to a couple of personal examples. For one thing, leaving my parent’s religion was a toxic, gut wrenching experience, but was ultimately a very good thing. Best decision I ever made. If the card was a picture of THAT experience, the cloaked figure wouldn’t be walking away in an air of contemplation, it’s be doing a happy dance like the grim reaper at the end of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. On the other hand, when I left my first job – as bad as the job itself had gotten- I was moping around the last day like the ghost of Hamlet’s father “farewell, farewell, remember me.” While I was thrilled to move on to a new opportunity, I was going to legit miss working with some of the people a great deal. Both situations meant walking away from something gone very wrong, both had a swirling melange of emotions. Both experiences were bittersweet in the moment of leaving, but a positive, even joyous thing in the end.

Such is the message from the eight of cups today. Leaving (or being left by) anything or anyone can be bittersweet, even if the thing in question is terrible and toxic to us. It may be bitter now, but the sweet can come in time.

It’s not 2020 anymore. Things are shifting. Can you feel it? On thing isn’t changing – prices for distance readings when you order through TaoCraftTarot.com. Current prices on the website will remain through December 2021. Order anytime! No appointment needed for distance Tarot

New Etsy fees may force some price adjustments in the shop as the year goes on.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: October 11-17

Hello and welcome to a new week. Fall colors are near their peak here. The forecast is for a lovely rainy day this evening and tomorrow, so am hoping to knit a bit. The last couple of weeks have been a giant maelstrom of energy for intuitives and sensitives. So thankful for Twitter friends who were willing to share their sense of it. No matter how experienced you are, everyone can benefit from a little “whew! It’s not just me camaraderie. I’ve had to unplug a little bit just to stay centered. This week feels like it might be shifting, thankfully. The theme is bittersweet and bravery.

As always, pick a card. Pick on impulse, or take a moment and deep breath to clear your mind and choose the card that calls to you. If you need a minute, feel free to pause the video and restart to see the reveal.

Left: Eight of Cups. “Things end. That’s all. Everything ends, and it’s always sad. But everything begins again too, and that’s… always happy.” as Steven Moffet wrote for Doctor Who. The Eight of Cups is very much like that. Walking away from something that is toxic or broken or just didn’t work out or a moderately bad idea. There is change and loss and sadness and ending both in admitting that a thing is broken or wrong, but also in the leaving of it. It is a necessary heartbreak that is welcome in the healing that it ultimately brings. If none of that makes sense to you, simply take this as a reminder to take out the trash, or do a little light housekeeping. SOMEthing needs to be let go.

Center: Four of Cups. As long as we are doing TV and movie quotes, this card reminds me of “Peace be the journey” from Cool Runnings. Supporting someone isn’t necessarily rapid fire platitudes, unsolicited advice or saying something. Sometimes the greater love is a silent presence. The energy here is very introspective. You wouldn’t go into a temple blasting an airhorn. When someone else is hurting and introspective, quiet and also-introspective might be the best way to help. Cups are water and intuition. You’ll know when to sit with emotions and when to cheer or use humor. The best advice is sometimes none at all. Perhaps your calling isn’t to fix things, but rather to bring a peaceful presence to this week’s journey.

Right: The other two cards have an element of the bittersweet endings or some sort of melancholy met with bravery. If you chose this card, you might need just need the bravery kind of bravery. This card is about old fashioned stick-whomping competition. There is strong advice energy around this card. Your quote is from Zen and the Martial Arts by Joel Hyams “The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life.” Brave and angry are not the same thing.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot for May 17-23, 2020

Left: Eight of Cups. This card always has a bittersweet feel to me, but in the end it is a very triumphant sort of message. It validates courage that has been gathered, progress that has been made. It take both to be able to move on emotionally from difficult situations. Moving ahead does not require that you leave memories or behind. This is more about going on with life with those things, neither abandoning nor stagnationg with them.

Center: Two of Wands. This is a week of opportunity, you can have the world in the palm of you hand, but timing is critical. Discretion really is the better part of valor. Be thoughtful, diplomatic, careful … look before you leap … but when the time comes, when the time comes, jump in. Watching, analysing and couragous action may all be needed.

Right: Seven of Pentacles. Plant seeds that are worth the wait. Thus is the week for foundation building, not instant gratification. Plant seeds that will a good harvest. Build a foundation for something to stand the test of time. In my minds eye I see precisely cut white marble or granite like greek temples or the Washington monument. Precision, attention to detail, and best effort (here Deadpool pops up with “two swords and maximum effort”) Long story short, focus on quality now to create domething that will be worth the wait later.

Related post: https://taocrafttarot.wordpress.com/2020/05/07/todays-tarot-worth-the-wait