Four of Cups: You can speak from the heart, but you can’t force others to hear what you say.
Accepting people for who they truly are is an act of love, even when that includes a painful rejection, even when that requires that you let them go.
Other people’s happiness is not your responsibility. It’s up to you to give love. It’s not up to you whether or not it is accepted.
The only happiness you are responsible for is your own.
Available for instant download in the Sage Words Tarot ko-fi shop
Yeah, I know what I said. But it’s my blog and I’ll give a special offer if I want to. My Tarot Valentine is back for 2023
I know, I know…I said no cutesy pants promotions.
I was planning to make this a members-only offer, but it’s February, it’s cold out there, and love is for everyone.
So anyone can order –
Please visit the Tarot readings by email menu where you can get a personal one card Tarot reading focused on love and romance PLUS a copy of the My Tarot Valentine ebook.
*PRO TIP* scroll the whole readings menu! There’s something to fit any question, any budget. Prices start at $5. Zombie Cat will yes/no answer any question about anything – crazy cat.
Stay warm! That Nine of Wands part two we talked about yesterday will post over the weekend, so stay tuned! – Sage
March 10, 2023 – special offer has closed.
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.
Honesty is healing even when it is harsh.
No. uh-uh. Cards say noooo.
Hi and welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here. Short Sip episodes are Tarot contemplations for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee.
Yesterday we had a whole mug full with the rewrite of “Meet Zombie Cat.”
Today we are to sounding like that insurance company commercial that knows a thing or two because they’ve seen a thing or two. I’ve done a lot of Tarot readings. I stopped counting at 300 plus way back in my online “Baihu” days.
Tarot is best suited to answer”Am I doing the right thing?” but Tarot is most often asked things like “Will we get back together?”
Not, mind you, that it’s a bad question.
There are a billion different circumstances that are bad and worse that could lead to this question, but for now, let’s think of in terms of a non-married shorter term romantic break-up.
These types of break-up questions, while common, are the best and worst of Tarot all at the same time.
The bad part is the “will…” Can Tarot predict what will happen? Nope. Can Tarot read your significant other’s heart or mind or feelings or intentions or know what they will do? Big nope.
On the other hand, this is exactly the kind of situation where Tarot is at its best.
Have you ever noticed that criticisms of Tarot and psychic work are all laser focused on the prediction part and ignore the rest, which is missing the point as completely as you possibly can? Nothing is ever said about the real value of Tarot and Psychic readings: personal development, personal enrichment, spiritual expression, facing and understanding emotional distress, brainstorming creative solutions and spitballing ideas about how to CHOOSE and to ACT to make things better.
Nothing else in the human experience can make you feel like every bone and vital organ has been shattered into a million pieces like the loss of a beloved relationship. If Tarot readings can help soothe that kind of hurt for a moment, it is more than worth it, no matter what the critics say.
But it has to be a sincere reading, an authentic reading without the onus of accurate predictions. So-called accurate predictions are impossible to make anyway and only open the door to greater hurt. As with physicians, we must do no harm.
There is a big difference, however, between doing harm and uncovering anger. Anger is an honest emotion that may, if faced, lead to better things.
If you are the one hearing the “nope” then it is normal, natural, even expected to get angry when you get the answer that you’ve been dreading the most. In the long run a harsh truth is more healing than a sugar coated platitude. I’ve gotten nopes like this before and stomped off angry like the self-involved early twenty-something brat that I was. But looking back it was one of the best readings ever. Honesty heals even when it hurts. More so when it is given kindly and with the sympathetic tone of someone who has been through this kind of experience before – which is pretty much everybody. Calling you on your -ah -stuff – is what people who care about you do. It’s like telling someone when they have food stuck in their teeth. It might zing a little in the moment but it spares them greater embarrassment later on.
WILL you get back together? A better question would be SHOULD you. WHY did the relationship end? Has any of those things changed one iota? Has the past itself changed? Nope. Unless you’ve talked things through, time has passed, and trust has been re-built, it’s still a nope. Even if you wind up back together, unless something has changed, from the “should you” perspective it’s still a big no. Without those changes, what good is it for you to return to the same situation all over again?
Will you get back together? According to a one ace layout, no. Should you get back together? Still not a good idea.
Consider the Queen of Wands symbol of nurturing leadership and inner passions. How are you owning this breakup? What role did you play? What have you learned. Are you willing to lead the relationship part of your life in a new direction? Or not? What feeds and protects your inner flame: trying to rekindle a failed relationship or being on your own with a passion for the life you have (as opposed to obsessing over the life you don’t have.)
Consider the Ace of Cups. This is about emotions. Are the emotions that ended the relationship healthy or unhealthy? Are the emotions driving your desire to get back together healthy? Or, on the other hand, are emotions that make you want to never ever ever get back together the healthy ones?
Consider the Temperance card. Are you in a balanced state of mind when you ask this question? Are all parts of life in balance or is the break-up taking all of your mental and emotional resources? Are you obsessed with romance and ignoring all the other good things in life? What do you need to release to re-balance the scales? What is missing OTHER than the relationship that may be throwing things out of balance?
Zombie Cat tells it like it is. Will you get back with your ex? Nope. BUT there is a lot of good advice under that big, fat NO. Balance this loss with other happiness and other relationships, and other parts of life. Be the leader of your own inner life. Take ownership of your own emotions and our own role in the thing that happened. Be honest about your emotions.
Then the the big, fat nope might not sting quite so much.
Thank you all for reading and listening.
I appreciate you and any likes, subs, follows, shares, question or comments that you can spare.
The blog and podcast are not monetized so your spirit message comes first, not the advertisers’. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi where the shop, memberships and virtual coffees all support the creation of this (almost) daily Tarot content
Thanks again! See you at the next sip!
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TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: Ace of Cups and holding space for good things to flow in.
Hello and welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the Ace of Cups. Cups are associated with emotion, inner circle relationships, romance, and the classic element of water. The ace is the essence of the deck. Today, the ace of cups has a feeling of abundance overflowing like a cornucopia. The universe provides. It may be in unexpected or under appreciated ways, but if we are alive it has provided that much and that is extraordinary.
The water part is catching my attention too. It reminds me of the famous interview where Bruce Lee says to quote Be water, my friend, end quote.
Water takes on the shape of whatever hold it. If there is no room for the water, it spills over and goes somewhere else.
Today’s card is simple and to the point. If you want good things to come into your life, then they have to have somewhere to land. If you want good things to flow into your life, they have to have some place to flow into.
This can be as literal or esoteric as you want it to be. For example, it is standard issue boilerplate advice for those who are looking for a long term romantic partner, their soulmate if you will, to make literal space for that person. Clearing out a drawer, getting an extra toothbrush to have on hand, getting a pair of matching coffee mugs, having figurines around in pairs; all of those physical things can send an energy signal that you are living your life, but have made space in that life for a special someone.
Creative visualization, alters, journaling all sorts of things can hold space on an energetic level for good things to flow into.
No wonder spring cleaning and decluttering is believed to remove negative energy and attract or positive energies. Remember that Zen proverb that only an empty cup can be filled? I’m not saying you have to get rid of your stuff, but maybe dust it off and get it organized.
Be specific. Never invite just any old thing into your life. In my mind’s eye, I see one of those reserved parking spaces for a particular person or a particular building.
I also see a figure holding a bowl up to the sky, to be filled with golden light. Nice visualization there. Feel free to use it. The more we all lift our empty bowls to the sky, the more we can call an energy of abundance and provision into the world.
Thank you for reading, watching and listening.
This blog, podcast and the companion videos are not monetized – they depend on your support. Tarot readings purchased through this website*, Tarot Table memberships, likes, subs, shares, and follows all support the creation of this unique Tarot content for you.
Once again I’m working with my new Alleyman’s Tarot deck, which features both original cards by Seven Dane Asmund, creator of the Normal Tarot and cards gifted and licensed from a hundred or more decks and artists. The card shown was made by Vicente Molina for the Tarot Morandi.
Thanks again. See you at the next sip.
*email readings are available for purchase 24/7, no appointment needed
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today, Soulmantes and the sum of the parts with the two of cups.
Hey there. Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip: a Tarot contemplation for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card it the Two of Cups.
Nevermind the Lovers from the major arcana, THIS is the card you want to see in a love, romance or relationship reading. This is a card that most often resonates with long term, committed, loving, satisfying relationship. It is associated with marriage, handfasting or any life long commitment between any two human beings.
But like anything this is a yin-yang, giving-getting two-sided coin.
Remember that old candy commercial about chocolate and peanut butter? Peanut butter is delicious on its own. It’s something to eat by the spoonful if you ask me. Chocolate is sublime, the more cacao the better in my book. Love the dark stuff. Together they are extra. Together they are more than either alone.
The best romances are like that.
The worst ones are too, except the “extra” is added to the not-good side of things. Kind of like those generic candies that use terrible quality ingredients and are tasteless, weird textured and generally unpleasant.
Personally, I don’t buy into the whole other half, twin flame idea. I mean, think about it for a minute. Who would you rather spend your life with? Would you rather be with someone who expects you to complete them or someone who is a true partner adding their battery to your mutual light? Would Ironman have flown away yelling “you complete me” if Pepper was anything less than a fully independent phenomenon in and of herself? If you need someone to complete you, isn’t that a way of controlling you too? If someone needs you to complete them isn’t that controlling you too?
Good romance isn’t built on need. In a good romance both parts give and get, get and give. It isn’t about two parts completing a circuit, it is about two fully charged batteries powering up the full circuit and shining a light brighter than either one battery could alone.
Romances are like those candies. The best result doesn’t come from peanut butter looking for more peanut butter in order to make them into better peanut butter. The best result doesn’t come from cocoa butter looking for a cacao beans to make it into better chocolate. The symbiotic extra can’t happen if you are looking for another half to make a whole. The extra only happens when two free standing and fully good things work together to make the magic happen.
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Thanks for reading & listening. I’ll see you at the next sip!
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!
TaoCraft Short Sip is Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. Today: seven 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 seven of cups.
For the past several years, on the first fourteen days of February, I did a series of posts called “My Tarot Valentine” where the one card daily coffee fueled Tarot contemplation was focused on love, romance, and relationships. From one sentence affirmations to a few paragraphs of advice, whatever card that turned up was viewed through as much of a pink hued Valentines Day lens as I could muster.
There were fewer cups cards than you would expect over the years. Interestingly, here we are back in early February and we have a cup card with no romantic or relationship vibe around it whatsoever.
The essence of the message is vague and generally as it always is when you are reading for a wide audience online like this. It can apply to anything, really, including romance. The vibe is basically: don’t be arrogant in your decision making, let kindness lead the way.
Cups symbolize emotions, and the emotion often associated with the seven is feeling overwhelmed, or feeling a level of anxiety because of overthinking things. It can also be a sort of decision paralysis as it is called. That is the feeling you get when there are so many delicious sounding things on a menu that you can’t decide what to order. Instead of an embarrassment of riches, it is an embarrassment of choices.
Having too many good choices, like the delicious menu is a privilege. Feeling boxed in by nothing but equally bad options is a dilemma. Both are solved by letting logic rest and letting heart and kindness lead the way. Look, as many have said, for the highest good with harm to none, yourself included.
Thank you for watching, reading and listening. Neither this blog cast nor the YouTube channel are monetized, so these Tarot card readings depend on your support. Your likes, subs, shares, private reading orders, Tarot Table memberships and ‘buy me a coffee’ donations are always greatly appreciated.
Thanks again, and I’ll see you at the next sip!
Q: Can you tell me what my boyfriend is hiding from me? He’s acting secretive, and I think I know what it is. What is he going to do and when?
A: There is a lot more to this question than you might think.
Can I tell you what your boyfriend is going to do and when? The short answer is – no.
That sort of thing only happens in movies, TV, and the occasional outright scam. In my opinion, if someone promises to fix your love life or promises to give 100% accurate predictions you should run in the opposite direction.
That being said, even if I could tell what your boyfriend is thinking, I wouldn’t. My personal ethics are to protect everyone’s privacy. I don’t read anyone’s energy without their consent. There is a little bit of nuance to that when it comes to relationship questions, but we can talk about that in another blog post because it doesn’t apply here.
When you see the phrase “no third party questions” on a psychic’s website or disclaimers, that’s what it is talking about. We don’t read anyone other than the person who comes to us and asks the question. No matter what you believe about whether it is even possible to read minds, a real professional will respect everyone’s privacy. That goes for both real world privacy and the mental & spiritual kind too.
What a Tarot reading CAN do is help you build on that “I think I know what it is” part. A good Tarot reading helps you to get your head around the big picture and empower YOUR intuition and empower your part in the relationship.
For example, when I draw a card for this I get…..
The Queen of Cups
Queen cards are about leadership, just as much as king cards are but queens have leadership with a nurturing spin while kings have leadership with a protective quality. The nurturing here is directed at you. There is a sense that it is time to put on the big girl panties and face what is going on. Be a leader in this. The only way to really know what he is thinking is to ask him. Talk about it. Be prepared to start the conversation and be prepared to deal with the fallout. There are reasons why the Queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. Would Elizabeth the 1st ask a wizard what to do or would she do what needs done keep the kingdom healthy?
Cups cards do symbolize romance, but older meanings connect them to the element of water and to intuition. What are your instincts? Cards can have different spins, or flavors of meaning. In this case, it is validation. Follow your instincts how to start a conversation with your boyfriend and – importantly – listening to your instincts as the conversation goes on. Listen. Learn from what is said. Follow your intuition about what is said as it happens. Don’t go into it with any preconceived notions. See how the queen is looking into the cup? She’s looking for the deep truths, not surface conclusions. Look, listen and learn, then take the lead and do the right thing.
Thank you for sharing your question with us. You never know who else it might help. Questions are welcome in the comments and will be answered in the blog & podcast. If you would like a detailed private reading by emial, you can order them HERE 24/7 no appointment needed.
Be safe. Be well. Best wishes to you.
Today’s card is the Lovers from the major arcana
Just like the Death card, The Lovers has a TV & movie reputation apart from the card’s actual, traditional meaning. Everyone loves the Lovers. But it isn’t always about finding the love of your life or a grand romance.
The Lovers card is about any deep down desire, not necessarily the torrid romance novel kind. Often in a reading this card will advise figuring out what you really want in order to take steps toward it. Choice is less popular as a card meaning, but it has been associated with the Lovers across many decks and references.
Not only do you choose who and what you love, you choose TO love at all.
There is a quote attributed to Sitting Bull*: “Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.”
Put that with today’s card and you get the message to, metaphorically speaking, choose the dog you feed.
If you have followed the blog over the past year or so, we’ve talked about general zeitgeist cultural energies, and how all those stresses had affected energy sensitive people. The fear surrounding the pandemic and political upheaval here in the U.S. had been ringing a lot of peoples bells so to speak.
That general energy resonance is still fairly strong, but it has changed. It’s been shifting for a while now. The resonant bell-ringing among clients seems a little less widespread. The focus has shifted from the collective to the individual, from external to the internal, from practical physical realm survival to internal emotional and spiritual quality of life. It is a time for choosing the dog we feed.
And I have to emphasize the part where Sitting Bull describes it as an internal struggle. If it is projected as anything but a personal internal choice, the adage can go entirely off the rails.
My mind is also drawn to the Tina Turner song “We Don’t Need Another Hero” from the 1980s movie Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome . We’ve survived the energy and emotional thunderdome of 2020-21.
We have a once in a lifetime chance to choose how we step out of the dome and move beyond it. Every moment of every day we have a chance to choose which parts of ourselves we nourish. Today’s card suggests that we choose love.
Sage Words Tarot 