I think I’ve found a new text to speech alternative.
I get it. Audio is a good thing. I love to listen to music and live with a family of musicians, so I appreciate the whole audiophile sound quality thing. It is helpful when words make sounds at all. Some folks just learn and retain information better from the spoken word. Some people have vision issues and rely on spoken word media. Some people just like to listen while they drive or do other things (that’s me – I listen to podcasts while I knit.) There are any number of reasons why it is a good idea to have an audio echo of this blog.
I get it about listening to spoken word content.
On the other hand, creating spoken word content isn’t my strong suit. Put me in front of a keyboard and I’ll write anything you want and imagine I’m giving Shakespeare a run for the money in the process. Put me in front of a microphone to speak and I’ll sound like drunk Yoda at best.
Spotify pooched the old podcast (with the Clairvoyant Confessional episodes) in the switch from Anchor Fm to Spotify for Podcasters and of course things are weirder still as WordPress integration ends. I’m closing the old feed.
If you are an audio person, please be sure to follow the “Sage Sips” feed that matches the free posts here, on ko-fi and on substack.
Right now, the podcast will consist of the Monday week-ahead pathway Tarot readings, but that can change – so this is your chance to influence what content goes into the podcast. Let me know in the comments below what else you want in the podcast and I’ll see what I can do.
Sorry this popped up just when I thought everything was consistent and settled. Ah well, if it’s not one thing it’s another. Life is nothing if not change.
See you tomorrow for the Path reading for the week of May 8-14!
It’s Wednesday! Let’s revisit the middle card (current energy) from our look-ahead reading from Monday and see how the energy is unfolding for this week.
It’s an interesting phenomenon in professional Tarot reading.
Sometimes the cards will piggyback a message or energy for me along with the collective message for the blog or the specific message for a private client. Sometimes it feels sort of disconnected, like being the pizza delivery person with no connection to the party going on inside the house.
Three card Pathway reading for the week ahead. Sage Sips is Tarot contemplation in the time it takes to sip from your coffee
Modern art!
Matt Smith was so excellent as the Doctor, when he left and Peter Capaldi came into the role, I wasn’t sure what to think, as is the case for most Doctor Who fans when regeneration time comes around. Then they showed the old “Fires of Pompeii” episode where Capaldi had previously played the role of Caecilius the marble merchant during David Tennant’s time as the Doctor. When toga-clad Capaldi raised his arms in a BEHOLD gesture and declared the Tardis to be “MODERN ART!” I’m like ok, ok…he can be the Doctor now.
If Tom Baker was the Doctor you wanted to be your dad, and Tennant and Smith were the Doctors you wanted to be your very best friend, then Capaldi was the Doctor I wanted to BE.
Why is my Whovian fan-girl side bringing up this obscure Doctor Who reference? Because Caecilius’ enthusiasm is exactly the vibe for this week’s reading, except maybe turned up to volume 11.
This is the week for passionate artists and creatives. It’s giving me itchy knitting fingers.
The fading energy card feels like early week energy more than anything that is fading, really. There is a ‘ get while the getting is good’ vibe about it. If you are feeling inspired, act sooner rather than later. This is the knight of cups after all. Knight cards are all about action. Cups are emotions. Grab the chance to express yourself and how you feel as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Don’t wait to appreciate your modern art!
The current energy card, which we will revisit later this week with paid subscribers, is the Ace of Swords. Sword cards are more precise and intellectual than cups, but they too can hint at action. Swords are connected to the classic element air, and the single upright sword on the ace card has a sweeping, lifting, rising energy. The word INSPIRATION comes strongly to mind here. If you have been in a creative slump, or feeling uninspired in any context, keep your eyes open and be ready, that may turn around soon. Inspiration is on the way, it seems.
For those of us who have had to focus on practical, mundane day-job energies this past weekend, the ace feels more like getting a second wind, a revitalization rather than some sort of beginning inspiration. Which energy carries the week for you depends on where you are starting out today (Merry Monday everyone!) If you are coming into the week fresh after the weekend, then fresh starts ahead. If, like me, you have been in practical, time-to-make-the-donuts mode, hang in there. A fresh gust of wind beneath your wings is on the way.
The Chariot from the major arcana is the growing energy. This also gives the impression of growing energy and movement through the week as a whole. I get the mental image of that Japanese painting The Great Wave. That’s the nature of the Chariot card, but we are also moving from minor arcana into major arcana energy. Heads up, pay attention, stay on target. The energy this week is on the upswing, a growing wave that hasn’t crested yet. Growing energy and faster movement also needs more focus and attention. Early week may be the time for daydreams and wandering minds that make the initial creative connections, but later in the week comes the time to execute. Later on, as the energy grows, we will need focus and attention to make those misty drifting creative ideas into a more tangible reality.
There is absolutely no logical reason why, but clear quartz points and herkimer diamonds come to mind too. Lore around clear quartz is that it is an energy amplifier. Quartz points, especially tourmalated quartz (clear with small spiky inclusions of black tourmaline) are thought to support guidance (the spikes and points symbolize something ‘pointing the way’ for us.)
The keys for the week are self expression, creativity, art, increasing energy, increasing need for focus and attention.
So go, make life into your own work of modern art.
And if you like what you see in these general audience collective energy readings, I hope you’ll consider a private reading. I’ve really been vibing with email readings lately. No ‘bots here. Just me, my deck, and my laptop creating something unique and special, attuned to you individually plus a photo of your real world cards. We both can have a high level of confidence in email readings because let’s face it, there is no room for shenanigans in email Tarot. I can’t read your body language or ask leading questions – suspect cold readings or stage mentalism just isn’t possible this way. On my side, not only do I get to stay in my comfy work from home clothes and sip all the coffee I want, it’s easier mental work. I don’t have to be on guard for some sort of ego trip from unconsciously slipping into a body language leading question kind of cold reading. Doing email readings keeps you honest. It’s just us and intuition / energy / spirit, no buffer or go between or shady stuff for either of us.
I hope you enjoyed the free for all posts last week. Please consider joining the Tarot Table on Ko-fi or subscribing to Sage Sips on Substack to get the deeper dive Tarot long reads and Q&A posts that are on the way.
If Einstein said it…then it must be true, right? I don’t know if the attribution is correct, but if it is a feel validated. We’ve been getting this exact kind of message from the Two of Pentacles for ages.
That sort of dynamic equilibrium – be it molecules across a permeable membrane, a clown on a unicycle, or an Austrian physicist on a bicycle, movement is a part of balance just like change is part of life.
The center of the busy sandwich is here with the 8 and 9 of pentacles
Monday, the current energy card was the 8 of pentacles (coins, disks – whatever name your deck uses.
Today is that day, the productive day sandwiched in between working to find and keep balance.
It’s not the productivity I expected
With the intent of one day, right here, right now, collective blog audience guidance the card is the 9 of coins.
The 9, like all of the coins cards is down to earth & practical. But in keeping with the nature of Tarot as a whole, the ideas are also esoteric. Tarot is more than mere predictions and more than pictures on a piece of cardstock paper. Like any fine art paintings, they represent ideas and emotions. Like the 10 of pentacles to come, the 9 of pentacles represents higher ideals and the most valuable things in life that money can never buy.
The nine re-states and re-emphasizes the maturity and the “apply lessons learned” message from the weekly reading . Like the 7 and 8 before it, there are shades of manifestation, where hard work pays off. The payoff in this case is more than monetary. It is about self-confidence, deep competence, and self-sufficiency. This card lets you know that you are enough. Which reminds me of Al Franken’s old Saturday Night Live character. I don’t mean to turn into some sort of Stuart Smalley parody, but your are good enough, smart enough and doggone it people like you.
Do what needs done in balance and in your own truth and good things will come of it.
But don’t forget to keep it in balance. Don’t forget that Temperance stands beside us and the two of pentacles is on the horizon.
This isn’t about frenetic activity or slavish goal orientation. It isn’t about single minded focus or work-a-holic-ness.
This is about doing something that touches your soul. This about action not waiting. This is about taking a step toward your dream.
There are reasons that a spell is called a magical working. There are reasons why dreams are chased and not just thought about. Actions speak louder than words. Actions are needed to speak your truth and chase your dreams too.
Yes, you have to do what you have to do to pay the bills and put food on the table. But if you can, today at least, spend a little time with your dreams, your hopes, your own inner authentic self and your truth as you know it.
Feed it. Nurture it. Most of all DO something for it, even if the only action that you can give your truth today is simply thinking about it. That attention and energy is something and something is better than nothing when it comes to giving thought, energy and action to your truth and to your dreams.
Sage’s Short Sip is Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee: Path Through the Week Tarot reading, Mondays on the blogs, podcast and socials.
The two of pentacles is back to sandwich productivity between calls to seek balance.
Some times you have ebb and flow. Sometimes you have grab and sandwich and go.
Hello and welcome to Sage Words Tarot blogs and Sage’s Short Sip Tarot podcast. I’m glad you are here. As always, these short sip readings are Tarot for your day in the time it takes to sip from your coffee. On Mondays we get close to the whole cup by taking a three card look at the week ahead.
Also as always, none of this is a prediction. That whole fix your love life, meet your soulmate, win the lottery nonsense stems from horror movies, fiction and fantasy. Genuine Tarot has more in common with weather reports, folk art and psychology than predicting the future. If someone approaches you individually and offers you a reading that is on a par with those Nigerian prince spam emails and should be treated as such.
Finding a psychic you can trust is one of the things I talk about in Tao Craft Portfolio, but I’ll shamelessly self promote that later. Back to this week. The three cards reflect the general, collective energy environment and give general collective energy food for thought. These readings are made of ideas to inspire you or strategies to help you navigate the energy environment.
Or, like I’ve said for years under the Modern Oracle and TaoCraft Tarot blog names….the future is yours to create, not mine to predict. Tarot doesn’t predict what will happen in life. Tarot helps you to figure out what to do when life happens.
Balance is what is happening – or what we need to create this week.
The fading energy is Temperance, the current energy is the eight of pentacles and the growing energy is the two of pentacles. Long story short, it is a productivity sandwiched between advice to stay balanced.
The Two of Pentacles was fading previously. Now it’s making a comeback on the other side of the layout compared to last week. That hints at ebb and flow, or dynamic equilibrium.
The idea of dynamic balance, of balance in motion like a gyroscope, has been attached to the two of pentales a lot lately. Lately meaning the past couple of years, really.
Both the Temperance card and the two of pentacles card are associated with balance. Temperance is the gentler side of balancing, and today has the feeling of little nudges on both sides of the balancing equation. It reminds us of moderation, and not letting things get too out of control in the first place, but it also gives little nudges when we need to up the volume or intensity of something to achieve balance, like pouring into an empty cup. Temperance reminds of gentle mixing back and forth in order to gently moderate opposites before either gets extreme. There are other keywords like combining, creating, experimenting, but the moderation kind of balance energies are prominent today.
The two of pentacles is more active, and feels like the bigger adjustments that are needed when things have already gotten out of balance. The two of pentacles is more about hauling in the edge of the envelope after pushing it to the limit or pulling back when you are too far out over your skis.
You’ll notice both of these are active, moving concepts. Unless you are stacking Zen rocks or something, when it comes to human life, balance is tied to change. Inanimate, motionless object don’t maintain balance. They just fall.
My favorite example of dynamic balance is a unicycle rider. Watch someone on a unicycle. Staying balanced upright on a single wheel is a pretty good trick. It is difficult enough when you are constantly moving forward, but the really impressive thing is the way they can stay upright without travelling forward. But even then, they are not completely still. If you watch, the unicycle rider is making constant tiny back and forth movements in order to stay upright even when they aren’t moving over a distance.
Movement lends itself well to progress and productivity too.
This week we have movement sandwiched between two other kinds of movement.
“In the zone” comes to mind. There is a lot of science and physics images coming through with this reading.
First we had angular momentum and gyroscopes. Now I see a wave graph. The balance we need this week isn’t about a single point, like a ballerina holding a perfect arabesque, its about wave amplitude and staying in a range. It’s about dialing in the ups and downs to stay within a managable range, not about stopping the changes.
If there is one piece of advice in all three cards put together for this week it would be to keep moving, but adjust your tolerances. Things may be active and changing and productive and busy, but the trick to get through it all is to adjust the amplitude of the ups and downs so that they are managable.
You might not be able to turn of the noise, but you can adjust the volume.
You might not be able to hold the unicycle of life perfectly still, but you can adjust the movements so that it seems like you are staying upright in one place.
Be productive – go for it. Just don’t forget to put the busy in a sandwich of balance.
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