Sage Advice

This week I'll be using the Russian Lubok Tarot, created and self-published by Eugene Vinitski and Sergey Savchenko. I'll also be using a digital deck I call the Oracle of Alice's Leaves. At age 87, Alice Thoms Vitale wrote a historical herbal called Leaves in Myth, Magic and Medicine. She hand-collected over 100 leaves and made beautiful ink prints of them to illustrate her book. Today's draws are the Five of Swords and 'Sage:'

          Two men play a card game for money; the one not cheating is losing. Yet there seems to be another conversation going on behind them of which these men are unaware. It appears there is a 'fix' in on this game by the behind-the-scenes duo who will profit from it, but the players are merely pawns. In fact, when the truth is eventually revealed, the card players may get caught up in the blame while the real slimy sneaks make off with the money. While it might hurt our pride, the only way to avoid getting tarnished in such situations is to walk away. The more we try to prove ourselves, the more tangled things will likely get. Sage, Salvia officinalis, has been touted over the centuries for most everything - from an herb for immortality to a cure for various ailments. Though its culinary uses are widespread, sage's medicinal uses have little evidence to back them up. The thujone present in Salvia extracts may even be neurotoxic. These two cards reinforce the idea that we shouldn't believe everything we hear (or read on the internet). We might do well to heed some 'sage' advice from Peter Abelard: "By doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth."