good omen – Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot

Get the most from your holidays – or not.

Sage Sips is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your coffee. Private readings are OPEN for the holidays.

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

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

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Still no, but in a good way

Sage Sips blog is Tarot in the time it takes to sip your emotional support coffee

On Fridays, I want to get back to writing “Weekend Oracle” and draw an Oracle card to get a feel for the weekend energies and maybe get a hint how to best navigate this liminal time. Not everyone gets a work break on the weekends, and they may enjoy the same heads up the rest of us like on Mondays. Plus, with the vast majority of folks on a weekday schedule, weekends have a different vibe, they are the space between work week for the majority of us. Weekends have a different vibe, and a touch of that liminality where magic lives.

I started to do that today, but still got the intuitive ‘nope’. Halloween last night might have been a pressure valve. The collective energy here in the US may have taken a deep breath, a long drink of a cold beer and a hefty dose of chocolate last night, but things may re-ramp up as we sprint to the finish line with this election thing as far as the actual voting goes.

So nope.

I’m still going on meatspace sabbatical for collective energy readings. Y’all on your own with whatever coping skills you already have on board (reaches for coffee and emotional support Doritos)

Private readings, however, are a whole different story.

I’ve been doing those all along, and last night was the first time in a while they layouts weren’t all supercharged with big time major arcana energy. There were major arcana cards all around, so no stagnant or stuck-energy messages, but nothing over the top either. All very pleasant and positive, actually.

Encouraged by that, I drew a “weekend update” Tarot card this morning for myself rather than the collective. It may apply to a broader audience – In fact, I hope this is a collective reading even though I’m not inclined to really read it that way.

Eww – no – still too sticky mess melange of right wing-y nazi-ish nastiness out there, despite it being a sunny, cool, pleasant morning where I am…

So still no on the collective energy read, but in a good way.

The card was the Sun which is about as all-good as Tarot gets. It is a card of happiness, optimism, joy, success and all of those things we like to hear. I’m not so overly optimistic as to think of this as a good omen for the election outcome, but it is going to be OK between now and Tuesday.

There is just as much chance of happiness as there is of anything else.

Thanks for reading! See you at the next sip!

Go Gestalt

Sometimes the big picture is the best picture.

Sometimes the big picture is the best picture

Hi and welcome to the TaoCraft Tarot Blog and Podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Yay! We made it to September. Consider this place magically totally decorated for Autumn and Halloween just like the internet memes. Because it is officially pumpkin spice season, and because I say so. Cinnamon everything for the next six months!!

Today’s card is The World from the major arcana and it fits the mood. The World is a generally positive card, associated with yes in the really old, complicated ways of doing yes-or-no readings. I’m not burning brain cells on memorizing the yes or no implications for all 78 cards, so I’m sticking with my three stack deal and aces method. It works really well for that kind of reading. Older isn’t always better, even in Tarot.

The world card is a good omen card if you work from a predictive stance. The world is the last of the major arcana cards. The Fool is the first card and has come to be associated with new beginnings. In much the same way, the World card connotes happy endings. I’ve always associated it with that saying “the world is your oyster.” The interwebs say the phrase originated with Shakespeare and signifies life giving riches and good things like an oyster produces a pearl. I’m guessing that it might also hint that you are able to make good things happen for yourself no matter what life throws at you just like an oyster makes a pearl out of a grain of sand. That idea in turn resonates with that whole make lemonade out of lemons thing. Put all of those impressions together, and today seems to be a good day to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps despite this avalanche of homespun aphorisms and be confident about it because energies are flowing toward a good outcome if you do.

Looking at life through the biggest of big pictures is a way to help you to create that good outcome, it seems.

German must be a fun language. Part of me wants to learn it, but the part of me that dislikes noun gender tends to win that debate. Still the German language has given us some pretty cool words, like geshundheit to say for sneezes, schadenfreude for when political tea is spilled, Reinheitsgebot for their beer purity laws and the one that always makes me giggle like a 12 year old – krankenwagen for an ambulance.

Gestalt is another useful German word. According to the Google machine, gestalt literally translates as “shape” As it relates to the World card, however, it is more like the gestalt branch of psychology and psychotherapy. In a shorthand sort of way, it is about understanding the shape of things. I think of it as starting from the biggest big picture point of view that you can muster, then see how everything fits together into that – if you will pardon the pun – world view. It’s no surprise that gestalt and wholeness have been added to contemporary meanings for the World card.

When the World card turns up in a reading, consider it a good omen and a sign of a happy conclusion on the way. If that doesn’t fit then consider it a reminder to keep the big picture in mind. Look at how all the pieces fit together. Look at the whole forest, not just one bothersome tree.

Which is why astronaut Ron Garan’s The Orbital Perspective is on my enormous want-to-read list. I’m a gestalt kind of gal. The more I see and understand the big picture the better I like it. That is also why I would urge all of you to read Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot.

Problems shrink when you stack them next to the whole world.

Thank you so much for listening and reading. I appreciate you for doing that. I’d also appreciate any follows, likes, subs, shares, questions or comments that you can spare.

The blog and podcast are not monetized in any way and totally rely on your support. Please visit the TaoCraft Tarot page on ko-fi.com (it sounds like no fee or coffee) Proceeds from the virtual coffees, shop purchases, private readings and exclusive content memberships all help me to create these free to access Tarot readings for everyone.

Thank you again, and I’ll see you at the next sip.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Circles of Life and Fortune

You choose the Tarot card. Pause the video or blogcast if you need some time. Then restart to see or hear the reveal and get your Tarot reading

https://youtu.be/0TC3suFRkGM

Today’s YouChoose works the same as always: pick a card. You choose the card, you choose how to apply it. Pause the video if you want a minute to think about which card you want, then restart to see the reveal and hear the card interpretation.

To keep the reveal a surprise (because I know you have good instincts and will pick the right card for you) the video will stand alone without a transcript so there is no peeking.

Stay tuned for more short sip Tarot reading posts and an update about Spring ’22 hours.

Thanks for watching!

Comments and questions are moderated but welcome below. Select replies post in the blog.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Look or Listen

Whether you watch or listen, you can interact with the cards to choose the message that was meant for you.

https://youtu.be/XxwocWrE9uw

Starting now, you can look or listen to YouChoose Interactive Tarot. Blog posts are available as audio in the TaoCraft Tarot podcast on Anchor FM, Spotify, Stitcher and more.

If you are watching, the videos are the same as always. Choose your card, then see the reveal, just like always.

If you are listening to audio only, you still choose your card and how you apply it. The choice just comes at a different part of the process. If you can’t see or visualize your choice of card at the beginning, listen through to the end and then choose the card and description that best fits your needs. You are still interacting with the cards and still using your intuition to guide you to the parts of the discussion that is most meaningful for you today.

That being said, I’ll leave you to watch the video above.

Thanks for watching, reading AND listening. See you at the next sip!

YouChoose Interactive Tarot July 20-25

Choose a card. Pause the video if you need more time, the restart for the reveal. Don’t over think it, though. Just pick whichever cards seems right at the moment. Or use them all if you like. Then scroll for card highlights.

Here is where things get a little different from before.

As we talked about in last night’s blog post, the basic blog is going to stay largely the same…all the same “my side of the table” behind the scenes and how to posts, all the same Q&A posts, Reiki, Meditation, Niggles….all of that is free to read and follow just like before. “YouChoose” interactive Tarot reading videos will still be here on Sunday or Monday. I expect/hope/intend to do “Today’s Tarot” every Wednesday.

The difference is MORE content, not less. I’ve added a subscription tier to the basic free blog. For a low $5 per month, subscribers will get value-added content over and above the usual free posts that you have seen over the past year and a half of TaoCraft Tarot. Subscriber benefits include longer “YouChoose” card interpretations, extra “Today’s Tarot” posts, subscription only special offers and giveaways, and best of all, access to personal one card readings by email (one reading per month per subscription) The reading alone is a $5 value if purchased separately in the TaoCraft Tarot Shop.

Left: Three of Coins. It’s a ‘nose to the grindstone’ kind of week. Success needs effort.

Center: The World. Good omen card, but don’t forget to look for the big picture so you don’t miss the good stuff.

Right: King of Cups. It is ok to get advice. Look for a mentor or a guide – two heads are better than one.