free tarot – Sage Words Tarot

The Week Ahead: More Please!

Contented? More please! Sage’s Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it take to sip from your coffee

In Tarot, we talk a lot about what to do when things get bad. What do you do when things get good?

Hello and welcome to the Sage Words Tarot blog and Short Sip podcast where it is all Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

This week’s energy has a lot of the Zen and Taoist philosophy influence that I wanted to honor in my previous blog name, TaoCraft Tarot. To be clear, I don’t mean any of this as any sort of cultural appropriation. When I was in my twenties, at a time when I was running for my life from a toxic subculture, I finally found a safe space and indulged in all of the Tarot, Taoism, Zen and magick reading I could get my hands on. Those ideas and philosophies helped me to grow into a much better person and made my life magnitudes better. Taoist principles like simplicity, honesty and authenticity are the foundation of my Tarot work to this day. The foundation of everything, really.

This week’s cards weave together around that core. The three cards together bring to mind the idea of suffering and satisfaction.

When you say it that way, it reminds me of the scene from Harry Potter where they are learning to read tea leaves and Ron reads Harry’s as something along the lines of “you are going to suffer, but you’ll be happy about it.”

The energy today brings to mind the opposite and begs the question:

Are you happy but suffering about it?

I follow a lot of artists on social media. Bruce Brackett is as fierce and fearless in his self-expression as you would expect a professional artist to be. The fan snaps, cups of love, and “negativity be gone” catchphrase is brilliant. I forget the main point of what he was saying the other day on TikTok. A side comment captured my attention so much I don’t remember the rest of it or even exactly when it posted.

It was about how he was able to take an accomplishment in stride, and wasn’t feeling overjoyed about it, “just” content. I’m paraphrasing heavily, but he said something along the lines of “I suppose I’m not supposed to be overjoyed at everything.”

No, no you’re not. None of us are as far as I can tell.

Where there is yin, there must be yang. Where there is light there must also be dark. Where there is overjoyed, there is also sorrow. Where there is lasting, there is also fleeting. Given the big picture and broad spectrum of all that life can be, content is a pretty darn good thing.

Buddhism talks about suffering. Set illness, aging, injury and physical suffering aside for a moment and let’s think about the mental and emotional side of things. No, not really set it aside – just make it the second domino in our cascading line of thought. Mind affects body and vice versa, so all of this can get around to the physical benefits of stress reduction and so on…but I’ll leave that to the holistic health folks to think about.

Suffering in the philosophical Buddhist sense can be thought of as dissatisfaction, or in other words a lack of that precious content feeling Mr. Beckett described. Suffering can be, and often is totally subjective and completely within our frame of mind.

It’s like that pastina recipe that has been popular lately. Being hungry is a physical suffering . Among those who are well fed, however, a bowl of humble pasta might leave one person comforted and content while a meal at the best restaurant in town might leave another person dissatisfied and secretly filling up later at the fast food joint down the street.

Things are good.

There is a pretty, floaty, quiet little snow happening outside my window right now. I have a private Tarot client this afternoon as tasty leftovers in the ‘fridge for lunch between now and then.

Right here, right now, in this precious moment life is good and I am content. I want to take this opportunity to tell the universe how deeply grateful I am. More of the same please. I wish contentment for us all.

For this week, the two of pentacles is the fading energy card. I don’t think that means things are becoming unbalanced. The two of pentacles hints at a dynamic kind of equilibrium. I think this means the need to pay active attention to our life balance may be fading a bit. It feels like things may be settling into a new normal.

Three years ago this week the world was tossed into the global pandemic. I’m not saying that’s over. That is outside of anything Tarot and way outside of my expertise. But wearing a mask on occasion and keeping up with new vaccine boosters is a new normal that is easy enough to live with. Things are striking a new balance that is solid enough to let us turn our emotions to other places.

Current energy is the nine of cups. The suit of cups symbolizes our emotions, which is why they are so closely tied to romance and relationship issues. This reflects the subjective nature of contentment. Nine symbolizes fulfillment, or a good outcome to something. When is enough ever enough? This hints at that feeling of contentment were just talking about.

Growing energy is back to the practical pentacles. The seven reminds us that you reap what you sow, so might as well sow good things.

That there will be a harvest at all is a magical, comforting thing.

All in all, these cards are reminding us of all the changes we’ve been through. It may have been a struggle to find balance, but we are at a place where we can find new balance points and find a new normal. This new balance (the energy, not the shoes) has brought new good things with it, but it is up to us to realize the good things about here and now. Dwelling on the changes robs us of a new sense of contentment. We may not be overjoyed at life, but neither do we have to despair. Like that old adage says, people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

What are the good parts of our new normal that we can seed for the future and hopefully hang on to for a while?

Sage’s Short Sip blog posts and podcast episode are a Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Thank you so much for reading and listening. I appreciate each of you.

Just a quick reminder about the links in the episode description. Nothing I do is advertising monetized, so I can put your Tarot message absolutely first. Private readings by email along with the paid subscription blog “The Daily Sip” supports the free Tarot readings here and across the socials. Please visit the links and support the blog and podcast if you can.

Thanks again. See you at the next sip!

The annual rant

Is it worth it?

The Daily Sip Tarot membership is the only place to get Tarot content from Sage every weekday. Some days, the posts will share with free social media in the afternoon – but the Daily Sip gets it first, with lots of exclusive content days!

Or if you want a more personalized approach, the Tarot Table membership gives you two private email Sage’s Short Sip Tarot readings on request per calendar month.

Both memberships get a shop discount.

All purchases through the ko-fi page including virtual coffees ->

all support this blog, the podcast and all of the free-to-access social media Tarot content!

It’s Time

Private readings

It’s time.

Things are circling back.

What you’ve given is about to return.

Efforts are about to pay off if they aren’t already.

It’s a time of power. Accept the boons the universe is offering gratefully, and place intentions for the future.

It’s a good time to both reap what you’ve sown and sow again well.

Like what you read? Buy me a coffee! Please click the white coffee mug to support the free Tarot content in the blog, podcast and socials.

A Cup of Cigars

Some days are more absurd than spiritual

It’s not a particularly well known interpretation – but the Page of Cups with the Pamela Smith artwork always brings to mind a certain whimsy and a reminder to not take things so deadly serious all of the time. It’s ok to have a sense of humor about things, even the spiritual and abstract. It’s ok to embrace the absurd and let your freak flag fly and let life be what it is in all of it’s glorious absurdity.

I’m also reminded of the Sigmund Freud quote “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” I see an element of that in the Page of Cups. Some days just aren’t cut out for serious, ponderous, high flying, deep thought spirituality. Some days just hand you a fish in a cup, which is infinitely better than a cup of cigars, don’t you think….

Members can read the full post including the intuition development practice step on the Ko-Fi members only blog. Join today for exclusive content, shop discount, Three card path through the month Tarot reading on the blog and more.

Join us HERE

Speaking of cups…if you like what you read here on the free Tarot blog, please click the white coffee mug icon to support the blog and podcast on ko-fi!

Warmest Welcome and Hello Friends

Welcome Followers old and new! I’m so glad you are here.

Thank you so much to everyone who has ordered private readings and subscribed to the free blog over the past couple of months! It really means a lot.

A lot.

Part of my brain thinks changing names is Internet suicide while another part of thinks it is genius because, let’s face it, Tao could just as easily be a Chinese boy band member as could be a philosophy reference and Craft brings glue guns and Martha Stewart to mind just as much as anything witchy.

So much for trying to be clever. Thank you from the bottom, top and middle of my Tarot heart for sticking with this through all of the renaming nonsense. At least now we are back to normal words that everyone can recognize and spell and whatnot.

Here is the rest of the 2023 overhaul:

Email, this site, the podcast, Ko-fi (shop, member’s blog, email readings) the YouTube channel, Facebook page, Instagram, Tumblr, and TikTok have been changed to the new name.
Closed the Twitter account because I wasn’t really interacting with it after the whole Musk/Trump’s back kerfuffle. If you want to say hi, and I hope you will, Instagram and TikTok have become the two accounts I actually scroll every day.
Party Tarot is CLOSED (let’s just say it didn’t survive covid)
In-person, live online, and small group Tarot are OPEN and available by appointment on a limited basis in select Pittsburgh (South Hills) neighborhoods.
EMAIL READINGS are open for purchase 24/7. Email is my specialty, my true Tarot love, and my priority. Reading orders are usually fulfilled within 12-18 hours but may take longer when you order nights, weekends or US holidays. Vacations and emergency closures are announced here on the main blog.
Social media content is not on any particular schedule. THIS BLOG is the one and only place to get ALL of the free Tarot content. If you follow the blog by email, it all shows up in your inbox – even if it isn’t on youtube, the podcast or the socials (like this post)

If you have followed for a while, you know I’ve sworn off sales, giveaways and all of those cutesy pants promotions. That will stay the same.

THIS on the other hand is a sincere thank you, from me to you, in appreciation of you being here at the end of the chaos and for joining up as everything moves forward. Welcome and THANK YOU.

As a way to say thanks, I’m doing this once, right here, right now, only on this blog and only until February 28, 2023. If you email me at the new address (SageWordsTarot@gmail.com) before with:

Your name
Your age
Your question (or permission for an open reading)
and the coupon code BLOGREADER

I’ll reply with a one card Tarot reading just for you …yes YOU…as an individual, not a general audience reading like we usually do for blog posts or the podcast.

That’s pretty much it.

I hope you like the new energy vibe. Names are symbolic mini-affirmations of who we are, what we have done and what we still hope to achieve.

The Lemonade

The hardest lemonade to make

And that’s how lemonade is done.

Hello and welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Before we get to the ten of swords, I want to give you a quick reminder about my winter Tarot reading schedule.

There is none.

It was a nice surprise to have a few minutes to write this. I’m expecting a jam packed schedule between now and January. I’m so, so, so thankful for the text to voice audio blogging that WordPress, Anchor FM and Spotify have available.

And I’m also grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you for reading and listening despite the erratic, random posting non-schedule. I’m cautiously optimistic that I can get back to trying to follow social media best practices after the new year. I’m in awe of all of the wonderfully talented people who create “content” on a regular schedule. I have yet to make that work for Tarot. Energy, intuition and the ebb and flow of life doesn’t give a flying rat’s patootie about posting schedules. Intuition and creativity has its own agenda and I owe it to all of you to go where my real strength lies which is Tarot readings and blog writing, not social media presentation.

Speaking of which, the new “crystal cast” posts that I had planned for Mondays will have to wait until after Thanksgiving, possibly until after New Year, too.

But stay tuned. Right or wrong, accurate or not, Zombie Cat is going to try his paw at a fast and loose Tarot reading for 2023. That cat is a little unhinged (as zombies often are) so whatever predictions he makes – don’t blame me. Look for that in December.

All in all, I still like to think of this utter lack of a schedule gives the blog a little bit of an underground, renegade, pirate radio sort of vibe. I hope you’ll come along for the ride, such as it is.

On top of it all, Elf-con 1 has officially been declared at my house. I got knitting to do and stuff to bake.

So before I have to hop out to shop for flour, sugar and that one last skein of yarn, let’s take a look at the Ten of Swords.

Just to show that spirit and energy operates on its own schedule, here is some context for today’s card.

I had an appointment in the afternoon, so when the morning obligation rescheduled, I had every intention of indulging in a second cup of coffee and a leisurely scroll through Instagram. That’s when I stumbled across one of those social media talents we were talking about earlier. Digital creator Barry Brandon (instagram.com/forallhumans.co aka @queerindigo) posted a video about personal authenticity, the Colorado Springs shootings and a variety of other things. I can’t begin to capture it here, and urge you to watch it for yourself.

When he said “…it shouldn’t be this challenging to exist in one’s skin. It shouldn’t be this challenging to be oneself…” it made a solid landing right in my wheelhouse.

I’m an atheist, Taoist, solitary eclectic witch, Tarot reader and the hardcore evangelical christianity in my family has diminished if not outright severed most of those relationships. But that is nothing … NOTHING … compared to the level of hate and bigotry that the LGBTQIA+ community has to face every single day. As someone who cares very deeply for multiple people in the community, it is absolutely terrifying to even think about everything they face … and meet with such grace, courage and love.

When that ton of emotional bricks hit, I punted the leisurely scroll and followed the intuitive impulse to pull a card and see where that would lead. It led to the 10 of Swords card draw that you can see in the video above (the link is in the episode description as always for podcast listeners) and that led me here.

To my mind, that context and this card are all of the same collective energy in the context of the Club Q shooting this past weekend.

In these times, it is natural and so easy to be furious and terrified and just … done.

We all know the line from Yoda and Star Wars about “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Which, along with the ten of Swords, begs the question of how to deal with hate and anger and defeat and suffering.

There is no easy answer.

There may be no answer at all.

For me personally, the only answer I know is to be the best ally I know how to be, to advocate for gun control and equality legislation to the best of my ability and to urge those I love to be as careful and safe as it’s humanly possible to be while still living their happiest most authentic life.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

In lighter times and easier energy, the 10 of Swords is akin to that old adage of “fall down seven times, get up eight” or “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”

To plan, to act, to be righteously angry, to rebound from defeat and to do so from a place of love is difficult, but it is the most potent lemonade we can make.

Thank you all for listening and reading.

TaoCraft Short Sip Tarot is a contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. If you enjoy them, please visit the TaoCraftTarot ko-fi page where shop purchases, readings, memberships and virtual coffees all support these free Tarot readings on this non-monetized blog and podcast.

Listen

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the King of Cups

The energy of the card today isn’t quite typical for a King card. It fits a minor arcana court card, just not the usual boilerplate interpretation of the Kings per se. Often court cards, or the face cards as they are called in the modern game playing deck, are an in-between energy. They have more zing than the number cards in the minor arcana, but not quite the wattage of the major arcana cards. Kings represent the yang side of leadership. They are outward facing energy, very proactive and protective. This card is still connected to leadership, but in a quieter, more castle and keep sort of way. Cups are tied to closeness and emotion. The King of Cups is but in an intimate one to one sort of way. The King of Cups is an leader within the emotional and intuitive realm. The King of Cups is a mentor.

Here I am reminded of that old TV show Kung Fu. My Grandfather loved it because it was essentially a western and anything with cowboys and horses was high on his list of things to watch. We used to watch it together all the time, but my favorite parts were the flashbacks to the Shaolin Temple with “grasshopper.” I guess my affinity for Taoism and Chan Buddhism started at a pretty young age, come to think of it. That is so not a typical thing for 1970s evangelical appalachia, believe me. I think that memory comes to mind just now because of the mentoring relationship between Master Po and Kwai Chang. Yoda, Luke and Obiwan also come to mind if you prefer the Star Wars mythology.

Mentoring is an interesting relationship somewhere in between friendship and detached mass education. It is far more than just a one to one tutor. It is a friendship with a little airspace, allowing for correction and redirection.

Chingliang Al Huang, who collaborated with Alan Watts on Watts’ masterwork The Watercourse Way, wrote an excellent book on the topic The Tao of Mentoring. I’m guessing none of you will be surprised to learn I read both of those ages ago. But I highly recommend the Tao of Mentoring for anyone who is considering a career that involves one to one guidance like, for example, holistic health consulting or Tarot readings.

There aren’t many Yodas or Master Pos around these days, but guidance and mentoring is available to anyone willing to listen.

I don’t remember it exactly, but I once read a quote about how it is ok, even good to spend time alone. Sometimes we have to be alone to realize just how deeply connected everything really is. It has also been said by Robin Williams, Maya Angelo and others that it is far worse to be in the middle of people and life and things….but still feel alone.

Whether we are literally alone or feeling alone in the middle of other people, the King of Cups reminds us that we are never cut off from guidance and mentoring. The volume gets very very low sometimes, but never quite goes away. I’ve said it many times. Spirit speaks in whispers. Intuition is our ability listen to those whispers.

You would think I’d like the ASMR thing on social media. But honestly, I hate it. I must be wired differently from most people. Those whispery, breathy vocals especially make me want to yeet something at the TV or chuck my headphones across the room. But it comes to mind as an example for that process of listening to the whispers of guidance that comes from the collective unconscious, spirit guides, angels or however you name such things.

The King of Cups is quieter today than a typical king card reading. That indirectly reminds us to listen to real world mentors. The King of Cups, being a leader, reminds us that the best mentors listen too.

And thank you for listening to this blogcast now. See you at the next sip!

The blogcast and the companion videos are not monetized so they depend on your support. Tarot readings purchased through this website, Tarot Table memberships & “buy me a coffee” donations on ko-fi all contribute toward creating this unique, freely available Tarot content . Please support this project as you are able. Your likes, subs, shares and follows are always appreciated too.

A Wide Variety of Strengths

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplations in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: Strength from the major arcana

Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.

Today’s card is Strength from the major arcana.

This card is easy to sum up with the adage “He who conquers others has force. He who conquers himself has strength.” There are dozens of different iterations for the quote just as there are I have no idea how many different translations of the Tao Te Ching. The same basic concept exists in Zen, Buddhism, the Bhagavad Gita and probably every school of thought or organization that espouses personal growth and self development. As we’ve seen with the recent war in Europe, personal strength is far more rare and far more valuable than raw political or military power.

That kind of personal growth, self-development, and strength of character is exactly what this card is always about.

While we all agree that this is a valued thing, it all falls apart when we start trying to figure out how to do it.

The title “Tao Te Ching” has been as been translated a variety of ways including the way of Virtue. Virtue means lot of different things to lots of different people. That is the point where interpreting the Strength card gets dicey. It’s not the what that’s the problem, it’s the how.

So how do we become better people? What IS a good person?

Books, religions, entire philosophies have been dedicated to just exactly that, and we sure as heck aren’t going to solve anything here.

When the Strength card comes along it might just be validating the strengths you have. It might be validating the strength choices you’ve made or the importance of a decision that you are pondering. Regardless of the context, the Strength card always reminds us to do the right thing, the difficult thing, the strong thing, not the easy or cowardly thing. It’s no accident that lions are iconic and used in many many Tarot decks for this card. To put it in Disney terms, this is a card that asks you to be Mufasa, not Scar.

But on second thought, maybe the how of inner strength isn’t so hard after all. Look at the woman figure on the card that seems to be tending to the lion.

Maybe a little Zen Taoist Hakuna Matata is the key. As always, it is the present moment to the rescue. Harmonize with your nature as it is to find your path to strength.

Nurture the strengths you already have. Restrain the flaws you already have. This strengthens (aka conquers) the inner self.

Thank you so much for listening! I’ll see you at the next sip.

The blogcast and its companion shorts and reels are audience supported and are not monetized in any way. This unique content depends on your help. Tarot readings purchased through this website and Tarot Table memberships on ko-fi all contribute toward bringing these free Tarot contemplations to you.

Any likes, subs, shares and follows you can spare are always appreciated too. Thank you.

You Can’t Make Them Drink

TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Today: Four of Cups

Hello. Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip – Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the Four of Cups.

There is an old adage that says “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.”

Maybe it is because the hallmark holiday is in four days. Today’s vibe is a lot like that old My Tarot Valentine vibe I was telling you about the other day. Or was it yesterday? Anyway, cups are back into romance mode.

You can lead a relationship to water but you can’t make it drink. And I’m not talking about adult beverages.

The heart knows.

The heart knows when words are empty or actions are made of inertia and habit.

Not everyone is present and focused on the two of you every. Single. Moment. People get tired, stressed and distracted. It’s easy to understand that and it’s easy to give a little extra TLC to someone you care about who is having a bad day. Bad days happen for everyone, and they are just that – a day. You do what you can to help and life goes on. This is also a good time to remind ourselves to leave stress at the door and love your loved ones. They know when something is up.

They know when a bad day turns into a bad month, or a bad year.

The heart knows when words are empty and actions are built out of inertia and habit.

The message the card gives today is scary for both people involved and oh so hard to give. I’ve seen it in relationship readings lately. It brings to mind one particular reading I did for a client a few months ago. The energy here feels exactly like it did then. Specific past readings almost never come up in a general blog reading like this. Maybe someone somewhere out there is in a similar situation as that client was. All light and best wishes to you, listener and client, wherever you are. Or it could be that this is just a matter of the universal energy giving me a specific cue to a specific message. Here goes.

Sometimes you pour everything you have into a relationship and for whatever reason, the other person just can’t give anything back. At some point you have to stop the bleeding, turn off the faucet that is flooding the bathtub, stop digging the hole you are trapped in. Love is a precious thing to pour away into an abyss. If it can’t be given to another, perhaps it is time to give it to yourself.

Sometimes absence is better than empty presence.

None of this blog, podcast or YouTube Tarot content is monetized and it all relies on your support. The private email readings you purchase and Tarot Table memberships on Ko-fi all contribute toward producing this free Tarot content. Likes, subs, shares and follows all help too.

Thank you so much for watching, reading and listening. I’ll see you at the next sip!