Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Order private readings here

I doomscroll way too much.

Still, it’s amusing how you can read social media a bit like you read the cards to get a sense of the big picture, zeitgeist, collective energies. To do that you have to keep a meta-analytic mindset and look to the biggest big picture you can intuitively see. To read this level of energy, you have to look at the big picture.

Today’s big picture Zeitgeist is – the big picture. Perhaps perspective would be a better word. I wish I could give credit where credit is very much due, but as always, I can’t find the post I want to tell you about now that I’ve scrolled away from it.

I can’t even remember which platform it was on. Probably BlueSky or Threads (I’m @Sage.Sips on both) In any case the original post that caught my attention was from a small business owner who is stressing over the holiday rush and was told by her friend “It’s a craft show. In CLEVELAND” not to belittle this person’s efforts, but to in that oh-so-bestie way remind her that it wasn’t so earth-shaking when you keep it in the big picture perspective.

German has given the world some very fun and useful words. Zeitgeist is one. Shadenfreude is a personal favorite. Another is gestalt, the whole seen as the sum of its parts and occasionally more.

Mindfulness is like that.

Mindfulness is not just a supreme focus on the present moment or small detail of our current experience alone. It is awareness of the present moment AND the backdrop of the connected everything in which our current present moment experience is happening. Mindfulness and gestalt are connected. Small and large, this moment and eternity, yin and yang…now you know why I named my website and potential book “TaoCraft” in honor of the Taoist philosophies that have so enriched both gestalt and present moment for me over the years.

In her book Magical Tarot Mystical Tao, Diane Morgan reads the World major arcana card as being the gestalt, or a big picture point of view. That has always been my favorite interpretation of the card, even though as a practical matter that isn’t the meaning the World card most often brings. Most of the time it resonates with completion (World is the last card in the major arcana series) good omens, success, generally a “the world is your oyster” feeling. Major arcana cards carry more energy, and to my way of thinking, they all carry two or more potential threads of message. They can mean different things, and can bring one or more of those varying meanings to any given reading.

Every now and then, the World card carries its reminder to look to the gestalt, to remember the biggest picture. That is its energy today.

I want to connect that to the holidays. Usually this time of year is full “Elfcon 1” as they called it in the Santa Clause movie. For reasons beyond my control, it isn’t like that this year. This year the mood is less festive and more middle age INTP genX fresh out of fucks to give. But I’ve learned something important here. Getting the most out of the holidays isn’t about full throttle festivity, unless that is the thing that sparks full throttle joy for you.

It is just as fine to make the most out of the holidays by not making the most out of the holidays. Small, meaningful and thoughtful things ARE making the most out the holidays.

Mindfulness aware of and within the big picture is an excellent holiday gift to give yourself.

Happy Thursday. I hope it is a good one for you.

-Sage

---

Private readings are OPEN to order 24/7, no appointment needed. Starting at $5, a Tarot reading is an easy moment of mindfulness for you during the holidays, or any season.

“Seasons” look ahead at the coming year are now available. Happy Winter Solstice everyone!