Tag: fool

Portal to the New

Sometimes the best way to is through – don’t give up!sag

In his classic science fiction novel, Dune, Frank Herbert famously wrote

“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.”

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I don’t have much to add to Frank Herbert’s famous quote because that essentially sums up the reading for this week.

That, and I also intuitively hear that “the best way around is through.”

The quiet, introspective, introverted, wait, watch, listen energy from last couple of weeks is still lingering for the collective zeitgeist if you are reading or listening to this close to the time when its posted. If you are coming across this at a later time, The Queen of Cups is validating any emotional fatigue or philosophical, thinking, introspective feelings you may have experienced recently. The 1909 Pamela Smith artwork we see in today’s card draw video shows the queen of cups near water, gazing into a cup. Sometimes that has intuition connections and you might resonate with the idea of fortune telling. The stories of Nostradamus gazing into a bowl of water to make his predictions come to mind. I don’t know if that was an inspiration for the artist or not. My sense is that the connection for this week is to the idea of water representing the depths of the human psyche and the queen is gazing to understand deep emotions and subconscious motives more than some superficial, shallow movie style prediction.

This energy is in the fading position, so the time is coming soon when we need to ease up on plumbing our psychological and emotional depths. Knock it off with the emo for a little bit. We need to go heads up and eyes open for a little bit.

There is a certain practicality to the Devil Card. This week it is asking us to take up the terrifying task of staring reality in the eye. There are things in this world we can’t control. There are terrible people making terrible decisions. Malicious intent exists. Putting it on the line to stand up for yourself and stand up for what is right is a fearful thing.

Which takes us back to the Litany Against Fear. Sometimes the only way around is through.

Here I am reminded of a scene from the pulp fiction based 1985 movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Granted, we aren’t talking about super brainy high class cinema here, but it is a fun movie. One of my favorite parts is where Chun, the martial arts master tells student Remo “Fear is just a feeling. You feel hot. You feel hungry. You feel angry. You feel afraid. Fear can never kill you.”

Which also reminds us of the very real life quote from President Franklin Roosevelt that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.“

Whenever we confront external danger we are confronting our own fear as well.

Sometimes the demons we most need to slay are the internal ones.

Only then are we free to begin and begin and begin again if we need to do that. The Fool reminds us that we can begin again as many times as we need. Moment by moment if necessary. Sometimes the only way to that new moment is through the fear we feel in this one.

Thank you so much for reading and listening!

This free to access Tarot blog and podcast is supported by your purchases, memberships and virtual coffees on the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi page. Please visit the links below and in the podcast episode description. Any likes, follows or shares you can spare are greatly appreciated. Private readings are still open, with no appointment needed for email.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

Beginning Is Changing

It really does happen. When it does, it is both spooky and cool and don’t you dare ignore it.

Hi and welcome to Sage’s Short Sip Tarot – a contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your morning coffee, or evening tea, or daytime adult beverage or whatever the case may be.

It probably should have felt spooky or ooky or something but it actually felt more like ok, ok, I can take the hint.

When I first filmed today’s card, I got the Fool card but got the edge of the reading cloth in frame and it all just looked wonky so I scooped up the cards and re-shot the whole video. Granted, I didn’t re-shuffle because it was morning and that second cup of coffee was calling my name. Wouldn’t you know it. Cut right to the Fool again.

A tiny part of my brain was all “oooh I should feel all freaky about this” but the best I could really come up with was “welp, I guess YOU have something you want to say, don’t ya.”

I wish I could say there was something earth shaking about it.

No big revelation about all the new name change energy. No change your life pronouncements. No big wave of energy from the collective zeitgeist.

Sometimes little ideas can be big ah-HA moments for someone, somewhere.

The one simple little idea the Fool card brought today is just this: that in order for something to begin, something has to change.

No beginning, no change and no change, no beginning.

The proverb says that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. To take that step, you have to let go and give up your current location.

Frustrated that things aren’t moving, that things aren’t beginning? What are you holding on to? Why are your feet so firmly planted where they are?

To take your journey’s first step, you have to change where you are standing.

The TaoCraft Tarot archives and lots of free Tarot posts are available on the newly re-named Sage Words Tarot website & blog. There is a link to the website in the podcast show description. Like what you see? Buy Sage a coffee to sip while she reads Tarot for you. Readings and memberships all support this non-monetized blog, podcast and social media Tarot content.

Thanks for reading and listening. See you at the next sip!

Q&A: Change or Persist?

yes or no career tarot reading with behind the scenes explanation

Yes or no questions seem predictive: Will X happen, yes or no?

Yes/no readings are a fun to play with. I could sit here, play Zombie Cat* and make predictions all day just as long as everyone realizes that it is all really coin-toss random-ass probabilities and not really a serious “prediction.”

Yes/no Tarot readings can be much more than a magic black ball entertainment prediction. They can give legit, genuinely helpful, short term guidance. It is all a matter of focus and application.

Tarot’s greatest value is overarching, big-picture, life path guidance. It is all about spiritual enrichment, spiritual expression, personal cultivation….you know – generally trying to be a better person and live a good life. Tarot readings, especially the bigger 3, 5 and 7 card layouts, are all about understanding the current situation, making better choices and moving ahead in the best way possible. Big readings are like GPS directions to where you ultimately want to go.

Instead of long term GPS, a yes/no reading is like a single sonar ping of any given moment. It gives a very helpful, but short term, close range nudge in the right direction when you are choosing between two seemingly equal things or want a quick follow up to a previous big reading. Yes/no readings help you deal with right here and right now, but not much else.

Today’s question is a little bit of both. It is one of those all-else-equal things, and also follows up a longer reading from a few weeks ago. It is about a fine tuning a current solo project, nothing to do with long term plans or that would affect other people. Considering all of that, a yes/no reading is ideal for this question.

Q: Should I switch _____ back to _____ or should I continue as it is?

Ok, to start with, a yes-or-no layout can’t answer a this-or-that question. I don’t mean for that to sound harsh. I get it. It is hard to distill things down to a yes-or-no question when you have all sorts of options and resources and different possibilities all swirling around in your head. If you could focus things down to a clear yes or no question, chances are you wouldn’t need a Tarot reading to help make up your mind.

In the early days of my professional practice, I would ask the questioner/sitter to rephrase the question, thinking that it was important for them to put the question into yes/no format in order to properly connect to their spirit message. Learning from experience, I don’t do it that way anymore. They’ve got enough on their mind. That’s why they are here. I convert the question into yes/no format and then proceed with their consent.

Today’s question has two main components; changing and continuing, which begs the question of which part do you ask yes or no about?

After all these years of experience, I’m totally comfortable with just following intuition, and focusing on the component part that seems to carry the greatest energy signature….in other words, which part seems to step forward to carry the weight of the question. If you are reading for yourself I suggest doing the same. If you don’t feel comfortable with shoot from the hip pure intuition, there are lots of different randomizing strategies you could use to help you pick between “Should I change yes or no?” and “Should I persist, yes or no?”

In a two option question like this one, it really doesn’t matter which you choose. A no on one automatically gives you a yes on the other and vice versa. If it is a multiple componant question, things get a lot more complicated. You could do a series of yes/no readings on each of the components, but that gets muddy, convoluted, contradictory and very confusing super fast.

Don’t.

Trust me, just don’t. Write down the components and pick them out of a hat. Triage, and take the most time critical piece first. Do eenie meenie miny moe….anything. Just don’t do strings of of yes/no readings in a row. If the question is too complex, either use a larger, more nuanced layout OR simplify the question and focus on one key part.

The process of dealing into 3 stacks until you either get an to an ace or to 13 cards (whichever comes first) is an old, common knowledge, nobody knows where it came Tarot reading. I like to take it one step further and interpret the final three cards together as if they were a pathway reading in order to get more guidance from the whole process than just a yes or no answer alone.

If that seems like a big, complicated, pain in the ass process to get a good result from a simple yes-or-no question…it is. If you don’t want to yes/no read for yourself, please, order a yes/no reading from me. It’s affordable and I could sort the whole thing out in half the time it took me to explain it all just now.

New Q: Should I change?

A: Maybe but lean yes. Probably yes, actually.

The Fool card speaks to the fresh start and a new infusion of energy and enthusiasm that the new direction would bring to the project. Being a major arcana card, the Fool lends an extra push in the “yes” direction.

The Ace of Swords speaks to the creative and intellectual energy a change could bring. There is a very upward, uplifting quality to the energy.

Of course, seeing the Ace of Pentacles is always a good sigh in any kind of work or career related reading, even a quick yes/no like this one.

All things considered, this hints that making the change in the project is a good idea. Intuitively I feel very positive about it. My attention is drawn to the gold color on the Pentacles card. It isn’t so much about the precious metal as it is the color psychology and the resonance with the solar plexus chakra which in turn has to do with confidence and optimism and personal power. Wear gold or gold tone jewelry if you can. Pyrite or Tiger Eye are also good crystal energies here. It feels temporary…not a long term alliance between you and the tiger eye, however. Again the gold tone feels like a better fit. Grounding, centering woody scents seem important, like sandalwood in particular comes to mind. Pretty standard kinds of recommendations. After a time, I get the sense the tiger eye energy will drift back to the light blue and blue lace agate for communication that we talked about before, but for now the sun / yang energy and warmth of the brown and gold feels more forward.

Thanks again for your permission to do your reading as an example. I’m pulling for you and hope this works out really well, especially for a financial and name recognition boost.

Best Wishes – Ronda

*AZCA is still a thing . You can ask Zombie Cat Anything for free. Use the contact form HERE to ask anything, even for a prediction. Your answer will come in a redacted-for-privacy blog post (like this one, but without the video.) All Zombie Cat answers are for entertainment only, 100% guaranteed to contain words, and have a 50% chance of being dead wrong.

Plan 21

I have a theory.

You have to HAVE a plan before life, circumstances and general random crap can blow it all to pieces. Life can get pretty Darwinian sometimes. Adapt or die. But you have to have something TO adapt. You have to be in the water before you can go with the flow. Plan/adapt, yang/yin: I doubt anyone is surprised to see me go kind of Taoist with all of this.

My original plan lasted all the way through 9 am yesterday. So step one is declare time and calendars to be merely arbitrary (they are) and just roll all of this out now instead of a nice, neat Monday morning. This is my general game plan for 2021, subject to change. Everything is, subject to change that is.

  1. Video/blog combos twice per week: YouChoose week ahead on the weekend (or early Monday morning) and Today’s tarot on Wednesdays
  2. One card Tarot readings on the blog other days as often as possible, with longer reads sprinkled in as the inspiration (or reader questions) hit.
  3. No more cutesy pants marketing promotions. The prices are very affordable and the quality of the readings are high. What I offer is a solid value as it is. I’m good at this. I love doing this. I’m here to help. Let’s do some Tarot together.
  4. 20% of the proceeds from all one card distance Tarot readings by e-mail will be donated to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank throughout the year.
  5. No more seasonal shenanigans. All the readings I do are available all of the time. You can find a price and layout to fit any budget, mood or question, all on the home page.
  6. Announcements weekly in the youchoose posts, or in the blog / Twitter for emergencies/cancellations
  7. Expect delays nights, weekends and U.S. holidays.
  8. In-person sessions and parties will remain closed until the Halloween season 2021
  9. Comments and social media are OPEN. Talk to me people! Let me know the kind of content you like, don’t like and want to see and I can, you know, adapt. (comments are still curated and spam is still obliterated in a blinding flash of hellfire)

That being said, let’s DO this thing.

The energy IS different than it was last year. I still get the mental image of the U.S. map with lot’s of little tornadoes all over it, but they are fading. I also get a dry, windy ‘aftermath’ feeling, like a scene from a disaster movie, with a feeling like coming out of the storm shelter with a rock in the pit of your stomach as you see the damage, and start to process what just happened and that it was just as bad as it seemed. Or maybe that is just my gut twisting when I hear how many people traveled over the holidays. We’ve turned a sort of corner, but now comes damage assessment, realizing the losses, and the first inklings of the beginnings of the beginning of recovery. Don’t put away your chaps just yet. There is still plenty of Mad Max style dystopian post apocalyptic energy out there. They aren’t kidding. It is probably going to be a dark-energy winter, at least locally (U.S. vs global) Spring and summer have that ‘aftermath’ feel. I feel pretty optimistic about Fall, although I usually do since it is far and away my favorite time of year.

Nature is adapting, but it is also cycles. No new forward looking new year planning is complete without a little retrospective. Thank you all for reading, following, commenting, liking and making this all worth doing. I’m grateful.

Today’s Tarot: The Fool / Taroko Por Hodiaŭ: La Malsaĝulo

IMG_20181207_110655_227.jpg

“A journey of a thousand miles (kilometers) begins with one step” – proverb, Tao Te Ching

I’ve always wanted to be bilingual.

It’s a bucket list kind of thing. Had 2 years of French in high school, but never quite made it past the three most important sentences in any language: J’ai faim. J’ai perdue, Ou sont la toilette pour la femme s’il vous plais (I’m lost, I’m hungry, where is the ladies room please?)

I also discovered that I do not like noun gender. The whole bilingual thing was not as interesting if it meant climbing over noun gender to get there. Then along comes Esperanto. It is a language that makes freaking sense: no exceptions, no irregular verbs, no friggen’ noun gender. The concept of Espranto, its raison d’etre if you will, speaks to why I want to be bilingual in the first place. It was designed from the ground up to be able to be communication for diverse, eccletic people anywhere, everywhere, no matter where you were from. Being bilingual seemed global. It was worldly. Speaking another language was urban and streetwise and cool, especially to a kid growing up in rural Appalachia where being different is a sort of cardinal sin. Any other language, natural or constructed, was a way to touch the world from inside the evangelical shoe box without anyone noticing. I mean, you had to have foreign language credits for college, right?

Fast forward 10 years. The kid from Appalachia started studying martial arts, and picked up a few words of Mandarin, at least enough to order my favorite take out, no noun gender required. Global and cool was mine! Those pesky full time jobs, though. They tend to get in the way of things, especially language lessons in the days before the internet. No fluency there.

Now we have TA-DAH….technology! Back to Esperanto (because noun gender). Still global, still cool, and FREE on DUOLINGO . The language name Esperanto is based on the word for hope, espero. The idea was to create an accessible second language any one can learn so everyone can communicate, with the hope of gaining understanding, conducting business and diplomacy all from an equal footing. The hope of Esperanto was to create a better world through communication. I hope to learn a bit of fluency before I croak. To that end, I’m also taking advice from a TED talk about language learning, do something fun in your new language. I’m combining hope with passion and writing Tarot posts in Esperanto.

Richard Delamare, “Evildea” of Youtube fame once mentioned in an episode that part of his inspiration for starting an esperanto YouTube channel was its uniqueness. How many Esperanto vlogs were there at the time? I wonder the same. Even now, I wonder how many people read Tarot online in Esperanto. I haven’t stumbled across any yet. But on the other hand, my skill level isn’t high enough to do a real dive into the Esperanto speaking internet. Even if there are a zillion of us, so what? There are a zillion English speaking Tarot readers and I still manage to contribute a little somethin’ somethin’ every now and then.

Mi estas komenkanto. I am a beginner. Mi faros multejn erarojn. I will make many mistakes. Mi foje faros Tarokajn lagelojn en Esperanto cxi tie. Sometimes, I will do Esperanto Tarot readings here. Gi estos amuza se nenio alia. It will be fun if nothing else.