March 2021 – True Tarot Tales

Spring Equinox and the fiery Sky Ram, Aries

Here comes spring in the northern hemisphere. The spring of vernal equinox officially occurred today, 20 March 2022. Today we enter the turf of Aries the Ram, marking the beginning of the new astrological year in Western (Tropical) astrology.

Common Associations

Symbol:

Date of Birth: variable 21 March to 20 April

Ruling planet: Mars

Lucky Day: Tuesday

Energy: Yang (Masculine/Extrovert)

Element: Fire

Quality: Cardinal (the start of the season of spring)

Key phrase: I am

Body: Head, neck

Birth Stone: Topaz, Aquamarine, Diamond

Colour: Red

Herbs/Flowers: Honeysuckle, tulip, thistle, bryony, peppermint, tiger lily, geranium, hops, impatiens, onions, hollyhock, thorn-bearing trees/shrubs, some firs

Major Arcana Tarot Card: Major Arcana: The Emperor (Masculinity, Fatherhood, Government, Law and Order, Courage, Stability)

Image from The Legacy of the Divine Tarot, illustrator Ciro Marchetti

From The Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti

The Tarot court card correlating with Aries is the Queen of Wands. Note the sunflowers and royal lions on her throne, and the black cat, considered lucky. The Queen of Wands is a warm, kindly but shrewd, capable and insightful figure.

The Minor arcana cards associated the cardinal sign Aries are the 2, 3 and 4 of Wands.

The 2 of Wands, ambition, global trade, agreements, career choices, direction, partnerships.

The 3 of Wands, making ready to launch a ‘ship’, or a ship comes in, trade, export, new horizons, exploration, but the timing and the planning has to be right. No rushing this. No cutting corners.

The 4 of Wands: a house becomes a home, a business puts down solid foundations, professional achievements, qualifications.

Astronomy

Aries is a small, rather dim constellation in the Northern Hemisphere between Pisces to its west and Taurus to its east.Imagine the Ram sitting with his head pointing downwards.

The brightest star in Aries is Alpha Arietis, or Hamal, from the Arabic Al Ras al Hamal, ‘the Head of the Sheep.’ Hamal is the third star up from the bottom, a red giant with a magnitude of 2.0, and is visible to the naked eye, shining about as brightly as Mars when the planet is at its farthest point from Earth.

Below Hamal, the two bottom stars in the photograph are the stars Beta Arietis, also called Sheratan, a blue-white star, and Gamma Arietis, also called Mesarthim, a whitish binary star with two components. These are the horns of the Ram, and their names mean the Two Signs, meaning these ‘horns’ were seen as the two first signs of spring.

The best time to see Aries.

Aries Profile Image on http://www.underthenightsky.com

The three stars of the Head of the Ram are the stars to look out for, especially December around 9 p.m. local time, seen rising in the east. December is an especially good month for viewing Aries, when the Earth is on the other side of the sun .

During spring in the Northern Hemisphere or autumn in the Southern Hemisphere autumn is the worst time of year; Aries is lost in the glare of the sun. In late October, Aries rises in the east at sunset, reaches its highest point in the sky at midnight and sets in the west at sunrise.

Aries reaches its highest point in the sky – at about 10 p.m. local time (the time in all time zones) in late November, 8 p.m. local time in late December and 6 p.m. local time in late January.

History and Mythology

The spring equinox was a time of renewal throughout the northern half of Earth, an event of great significance to people who were much more aware than we are nowadays, of the direct human dependence for survival on the earth and its produce, land, weather and sky.

Aries marked the main lambing season of wild sheep in Europe, 21 March – 20 April. The lambing season extended with agricultural husbandry.

The Sumerians

Sumeria is one of the oldest known urban civilizations in what is now called Southern Iraq, during the Neolithic-Bronze Age, 4500 BC to 1500 years BC. The ancient Sumerians called the sun, Subat, meaning the Ancient Sheep or Ram and the planets were the Celestial Herd.

The Egyptians

In ancient Egyptian astronomy, the constellation known to us as Aries was called ‘Lord of the Head’, referring to its symbolic significance, and it was associated with the sun god Amon-Ra, who was depicted as a man with a ram’s head and represented fertility and creativity. Because it was the astronomical location of the spring (vernal) equinox, it was called the ‘Indicator of the Reborn Sun’. Sources suggest the position of Aries at the zenith coincided with the rising of Sirius in the east and flooding of the Nile.

The Greeks

To the Sumerians, the stars of Aries were a herdsman. Aries was not fully recognized as a constellation until classical times when the ancient Greeks from about 1580 B.C. to 360 B.C. oriented the construction of many of their sacred temples to line them up with the star Hamal.

In Hellenistic astrology, the constellation of Aries was associated with the golden ram of Greek mythology that rescued Phrixus and Helle.

The brother and sister, Phrixus and Helle were the children of the Boeotian king Athamas and the cloud fairy, Nephele. But Nephele died, the king remarried, and his new wife, Ino, feared and hated them as a perceived threat to her own two children by the king, and planned to have them done away with.

They were warned and fled, rescued by a flying golden ram sent by Hermes at the plea of the dead Nephele, watching in anguish from the other world, but poor Helle fell into the sea below and was lost in the Dardanelles, named the Hellespont in her honour. Later, safely in Colchis, Phrixus (rather ungratefully?) sacrificed the Golden Ram, as a way of returning it home to the gods, and presented its fleece as a gift to King Aeetes, who placed it on a tree in a grove under the guard of a terrible dragon, the hideous Hydra, whom Jason later killed in order to steal the magical healing fleece.

Christianity

Founded in a society and at a latitude where ‘shepherds watched their flocks by night’…with a clear view of the night skies much of the year round, Aries speaks of God as The Shepherd, and Jesus as The Lamb of God.

Astrological Profile

Photo by stein egil liland on Pexels.com

Astrology deals in terms of archetypes, meaning a very typical example of a particular thing, person or situation. Of course there is no such thing in reality as THE Aries personality and the same goes for all the zodiac sun signs. Your sun sign is an archetype, a keynote, but it is not your full astrological portrait. We are all unique and it could never be the whole story.

But the archetypes did not come into being for no reason. You don’t mess lightly with The Ram. Aries is number one, the first sign in the Zodiac year, youthful and exuberant. But it is also the sign of a king, and not only that, but a warrior-king, as illustrated in the watchful, slightly weary, Emperor card in the Rider-Waite Tarot, ready armoured, always on guard. Note the Ram’s heads decorating his throne.

Aries is ultra-virile, with a warrior spirit, just as a ram will charge headlong at an intruder, and may even kill a person who enters his field, threatening his ewes and his territory at the wrong moment.

Aries is known for its determination and zest for life, and in the same spirit, Aries can be reckless and with it, accident prone in its general haste to get on and do whatever is the next thing. Aries are at a statistically increased risk of road accidents, in particular with head and neck injuries in comparison with other zodiac signs, and must beware of impatience leading to risk-taking behaviours.

Aries is ready to experiment or pioneer but may not finish what it starts. They are determined but run on a short fuse, and can be sabotaged by their own impatience if they don’t get quick results.

Aries subjects may exhibit careless or even ruthless behaviour with a disregard for others in their desire to achieve and excel. They can bear grudges but, though sensitive themselves, and occasionally a touch too quick to take offense, they are prone to be careless about the sensitivities of others.

However, in their personal relationships Aries are lively, affectionate, pleasant, frank, direct and generous. Full of bounce and joie de vivre, there is much to like and admire about the early springtime subjects of fiery Aries, the Mighty Ram.

Famous Aries in history

The Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. Oh wow. Now there is a surprise. I mean, look at him for goodness sake…..

More famous Aries natives HERE

Below, a video via National Geographic explaining the equinoxes.

Till next time 🙂

The Ides of March and all that -Astrology, Prediction and Politics

The use of astrology and other forms of divination is nothing new in politics. Over many centuries leaders and politicians, both in the West and East, the most highly educated people of their times, and, notwithstanding progress and all the discoveries of science since, they would still be regarded as more generally and highly educated than many people even today, have used the services of astrologers in an advisory capacity.

This brings us to the question, why do people in general use such services?

Well, why do they watch weather forecasts, or conduct polls, buy Lottery tickets, play guessing games, or follow the Stock Exchange?

Forecasting in an activity as old as humankind. It is about coping, control, risk assessment and preparation, and ultimately, survival. The human race has always exercised its wits in trying to sense the future, preparing to meet opportunities, challenges, or even downright threats.

But sometimes decisions need to be taken when we don’t have all the facts we ideally need. This is where an astrological or other divinatory perspective may offer a fresh view of the situation, and a sense of the options, the stakes and the odds.

“Astrology is like a weather report; it tells you what conditions you’re likely to face in the future. If the weatherman says it’s probably going to rain, you bring an umbrella. If you follow that advice, you won’t get wet.”– Lee Goldberg, Meteorologist

Photo by Dziana Hasanbekava on Pexels.com

Julius Caesar

“Beware the Ides of March,” is a famous line from Shakespeare’s play ‘Julius Caesar,’ and is associated with 15 March, the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.

Below, The Emperor from the Legacy of the Divine Tarot deck. Looking very Julius Caesar, though Julius was never actually Emperor, despite lending his name to the later titles of Czar and Kaiser. The Emperor is the card of Aries the Ram, cardinal sign of spring and lambing season, authority, organizations, rulership, fire, daring, and fatherhood and all things masculine.

The truth: there was a bit more to it, but Shakespeare relied solely on Plutarch for his sources. A seer called Spurinna, a haruspex who read animal entrails as a system of divination, had examined the entrails of a bull on 15 February, and had read a bad omen there; some problem with the heart of the bull, we don’t know what exactly, whether it was malformed, or not quite where it should have been.

Spurinna, alarmed at the condition or ‘absence’ of the bull’s heart and possibly also by a few things he had heard, joined these dots and warned Caesar of a serious threat to his life during the coming 30 days, by or on The Ides (15 March)

Caesar heeded the warning and mostly stayed home for the next few weeks, partly because his wife Calpurnia was very worried. Spurinna had a good reputation for accuracy. Not only was he from Etruria, and Etruscan seers were highly regarded for their skill in divination, he was well connected with the elite of Rome, and had no doubt read the mood there.

Caesar was due to depart Rome again on the 18 March, on military campaign in Spain. The conspirators were running out of time.

But on the 15 March, he disregarded Calpurnia’s fears after a bad dream she had the previous night, and was persuaded to go to the Senate by a friend, Decimus, his closest friend or so he thought, but Decimus had aligned himself with the conspirators. Any betrayal by Brutus, with whom he had quite a mixed history, was nothing compared to the betrayal by Decimus.

On his way to the Portico of Pompey (Caesar’s former friend, ally, one time son in law and later enemy) where the assassins waited forewarned and ready, every eventuality planned for, Caesar passed the seer and joked, “The Ides of March are come,” and Spurinna is said to have replied “Aye, Caesar; but they are not gone.” Caesar here was referring back to the fact that on 15 February, Spurinna had warned him of a threat to his life during the next 30 days on or by the Ideas of March.

Caesar was no lamb to the slaughter. He was a soldier. He defended himself. Tried to escape. Tried to fight back and when he finally went down, touchingly, he covered his face with his robe, in an effort, it is thought, to preserve his privacy and dignity at the very end,or in the hope of avoiding facial mutilation.

The political consequences of this assassination were profound. Caesar’s death backfired on the conspirators, largely for big money reasons, and actually brought about the end of the Roman Republic, and the rise of the Emperors, the tragic irony here being, the assassins killed Caesar because they were afraid he was planning to overthrow the republic and become Emperor.

But could Caesar have avoided this fate?

This is the big question, one of those eternal questions, and of course we can never know. Astrologers today would argue our fate is not fixed, and that Caesar might have escaped, and thereby proven the seer wrong, if he had chosen to act on the warning, or “astrological intel,” as some astrologers describe it – astrological intelligence.

John Dee was a 16th century British mathematician, astronomer, geographer, and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth 1. He was briefly imprisoned at one time, on charges of sorcery during the reign of Mary 1 (“Bloody Mary”) but luckily for him, he had powerful friends and was released. and once Elizabeth became queen, he became her trusted astrological advisor and was appointed to choose an auspicious date for her coronation – an application of what is termed today event astrology electional astrology.

What ended the use of astrology as an accepted practice close to the centres of political power?

The Enlightenment during the 17^th century brought new discoveries in astronomy, chiefly and most significantly that Copernicus was right, and the Earth went round the sun, and not the other way round, and they had imprisoned Galileo and burned Giordano Bruno for stating a fact, though in Bruno’s case he had gone rather further than this.

But this threw a new light on astrology, and brought its basis into question.

The German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, famed for his improvements to the telescope and his work on the laws of interplanetary motion, was also a renownedastrologer, and he urged fellow scientists not to ‘throw out any baby with the bathwater.’

They were forgetting or overlooking a key point; that western astrology is an arithmetic symbol system based on a vast, ancient collection of psychological and natural observations and data. Discoveries in astronomy changed the science, expanded its range but did not render this arithmetic model invalid.

But his warnings were not heeded. Astrology was now relegated by mainstream academia to the realm of mere superstition, where it largely languishes to this day, yet while thriving as a Humanities subject, with an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology currently taught at the University of Wales

Meanwhile in China too, the disciplines of astrology and astronomy had drifted ever further apart, and the use of astrology in the Imperial courts was in decline by the end of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD).

Astrology and Politics Today

Politicians today are unlikely to admit employing the services of an astrologer, especially after the excitement of 1998 when the former White House Chief of Staff, Donald Regan, stated that Nancy Reagan used astrologers to help plan the president’s schedule of activities.

Source: Timeline

“Donald Regan, Reagan’s chief of staff until he was ousted amid the Iran-Contra scandal, spilled in his 1988 book, For The Record, what he viewed as “the most closely guarded domestic secret of the Reagan White House.” He wrote that “Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.”

Before long, the astrologer who was advising the White House was identified as Joan Quigley.

The New York Post ran a story with the headline, “Astrologer Runs The White House” and the disclosure became fodder for jokes in Washington. On Capitol Hill, Representative Tony Coelho, the Democratic whip from California, blamed astrology for Republicans backing out of a revised trade bill. “Maybe an astrologer is telling them to object today.” Speaker of the House Jim Wright shot back, “It’s all right with me. I’m glad he consults somebody.”

The Reagans denied this but Joan Quigley herself later wrote that she had been actively involved in activities involving the President’s international relations.

Perhaps they still do. Perhaps they don’t. Astrologers are publicly at least, consigned to the realms of entertainment, but at least they are free to practice their skills and publicly discuss their findings without fear of persecution, imprisonment or execution for heresy or sorcery, while politicians, like anyone else, can consult in private or access free astrological commentary and forecasts via a thriving online and other publishing market.

But politics aside, some might still be surprised to learn who today uses astrology, Tarot and other such services, not for entertainment, not for fortune telling, but for analysis and forecasting, for an extra inside track, using such readings as a sounding board, weighing the odds, exploring the most likely outcomes in respect of a choice from their range of available options.

Black cats are lucky.

Lucky.

But sometimes even luck can use a little help, if only to warn where the cracks are, or potholes on the road ahead.

Happy Ides of March.

Back soon 🙂

The Sun card, Reincarnation and the old Norse rune of resurrection

Nothing new under the sun? Someone once asked me, did I believe in reincarnation? Well, of course, plenty of people do, around the world. Easter is the great Christian celebration of Resurrection, when Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ben Joseph, was said to have risen from the tomb on the third day following his barbaric crucifixion, signifying the hope of the soul’s eternity for all mankind.

Let’s consider The Yew, Taxus Baccata. The Yew tree is widely viewed as a symbol of resurrection. Why is that? Its branches grow down into the ground to form new stems, which then rise up around the old central growth as separate but linked trunks. After a time, they cannot be distinguished from the original tree.

It is susceptible to death by damage or disease but has been described as the the one living thing on Earth that could, at least in theory, however hypothetically, live indefinitely. It’s thought that there are English yews 4000 years old. Hence its popularity in graveyards, as a symbol of resurrection on Judgement Day.

The old Norse rune Eiwaz represents the yew, and its numinous capacity for regeneration. For this reason, it is considered a good omen for recovery if someone is ill.

The Memory is supple as the Yew, the Mind as mysterious and it can play strange tricks.

Some years ago, stirring a pan, standing by the stove, I had an oddly vivid experience, a flashback, and I was standing in an entirely different kitchen, sparse, white painted, with a high ceiling and a door to my left. There was sunlight coming in at the open door from which I knew there was a flight of steep, narrow steps leading down to a courtyard, and I was wondering where ‘Pietro’ had got to, and why he was not home yet. I knew this unknown faceless personage Pietro was a husband. NB The name of the present Il Matrimonio is not Pietro or remotely Peter-ish.

Could this have been an ancestral memory? I am Anglo-Irish-Scottish. Not Italian. A vivid daydream then. A snapshot. A picture from a book maybe, or a film? Possibly. I had never had this particular vision or experience before, and have not had it again, but I ‘knew’ at the time, that I was in Siena.

I have to say, I don’t welcome the idea of coming back once I am done and out of here. I’m not keen on the idea of reincarnation, except as recycled material. Life on Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and we are just the current manifestations of it. If Earth is a closed system, in the sense that material may enter through the atmosphere but not leave it, then in that sense, it may seem unscientific NOT to believe in reincarnation, if only in the sense of particle recycling.

But what if particles could retain impressions, memories? Like those stories of people who have heart transplants, and later develop new tastes, and behaviours, subsequently discovered to have been part of the donor’s personality? You don’t have to look far to come across such stories and make up your own minds. Urban legends? A degree of skepticism is sensible and healthy, except when it is of the howling variety, and I heartily mistrust pronouncements on what may not be possible.

I don’t personally welcome the idea of repeating the human experience, and this is not meant as a complaint. I am pretty sure of this much though. Whatever happens, it won’t be my choice.

I first began to study the Tarot at least partly as an effort to make sense of some deeply strange experiences, downright freaky, a few of them, after which it seemed more plausible to me that our consciousness is not extinguished at the time of bodily death. Death is a process, not an event. The brain is not the mind. Our departure from our home in the body is a process that can take days. The tradition of the Wake was a wise one.

I know a lady near me who runs a care home, and when a resident dies she opens the windows, not only for obvious practical reasons, to keep the room cool and fresh, but to help the newly departed soul on its way to wherever it wants to go.

Some years ago I received a request for an email reading, a young lady who wanted to know, was her brother OK? I asked what exactly did she want me to investigate that she could not ask him herself, and she said he was dead. He had committed suicide. She did not tell me more, nor did I ask about the circumstances.

Her questions were:

Where was he now?

How was he now?

A lot of my work is directed at immediately practical matters, home, work, business, money, relationships, family. I do not work as a medium, not at all, but I had previously done other readings focused on deceased loved ones, on occasion with some very surprising feedback.

I sat down to think about this and among other cards, was particularly struck by an appearance of the Sun card from The Golden Tarot, Kat Black.

The Sun card is life itself, travel, children, health and happiness, success, moments in the sun.

This is a card of innocence and animals. Things in their natural state. You can see this for yourself, looking at this card from The Golden Tarot and in the Rider-Waite decks. In some other decks, those meanings are not necessarily so clear.

The Sun card is a card of birth.

The appearance of this card in particular suggested to me that wherever he was, whatever he was, he was like a child again, sometimes awake, sometimes asleep. He didn’t remember his death, not at all, or the events that drove him to it.

Bless his soul. He was a little boy again. In my mind’s eye, I saw him kicking about in a puddle, not idly kicking, bored, not fed up, but happily, quietly preoccupied. If he had any memories, if he had a consciousness surviving death, if that could be possible, then this was his afterlife.

News of a birth was coming soon, I told the young lady, based on this Sun card. This was a birth close by, probably within the family, and whether it was a boy or girl, the Tarot was suggesting the possibility, however bizarre, that it was her brother being reborn.

Three weeks later I received an email from this young lady, very happy and excited, to say her sister was expecting a baby. Wouldn’t it be weird, she joked, if she was going to be her brother’s auntie this time around?

The returning Star Child from the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey

I would like to think the Tarot’s vision offered this young lady some kind of comfort, however peculiar, for a truly terrible grief, and hope for her brother’s peace. Because not all griefs are equal. Some deaths, as with untimely or violent deaths by suicide or murder, are harder to bear for those who mourn than others.

Reincarnation? I can see it in the genetic sense of the word. Or perhaps I mean epigenetics, and a kind of acquired cell memory. I went through a brief spell at one time of wanting a cup of hot chocolate at night. Not cocoa made with milk in the pan. This was made with water like making an instant coffee, drunk with two cream crackers and a bit of Lancashire cheese. I mentioned this to my mother and she said that was what her father Alfred, my maternal grandfather, always had for supper.

I never knew my grandfather, he died before I was born, of lung cancer, but we share the same birthday. He was a well-known museum curator, who like so many others, took a lengthy leave of absence to serve in the Navy during the war. I worked a short time in Museums after graduating.

Maybe he wanted to send my mother a message, and that was why I wanted his supper. I joked to her that maybe he wanted to say sorry, as he wasn’t always the nicest father he could have been, but she didn’t think that would have been in character.

But where did that very specific temporary new habit come from, I wonder.

Until next time 🙂

Video presentation is a discussion of children’s experiences suggestive of the possibilities of reincarnation with Dr Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia.

The Sounding of The Last Trump?

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

What do the cards currently reflect in terms of a second Trump presidency in 2024? We’ll come to that but context is key. First let’s take a look back at previous readings around these events.

Tweeted 12 February 2021

Tarot re outcome of Impeachment proceedings? Yes/no? Doubtful result currently detected only 1:3 it’s a yes. Mr T will not be impeached.

How does the reader arrive at this finding?

The Reader counts upright cards as a yes answer, upside down cards as a no answer.

Then, reading the individual cards from left to right:

L-R First 2 cards=tradition, law, constitution, central cards =crux, ‘a house divided’/sabotage, final 2= ‘muddy’.

This indicated a one in three likelihood of impeachment. Therefore a likely no.

The BBC 15 March 2021-

“Trump once again avoided conviction by the US Senate because his fellow Republicans, by and large, stuck by his side. The final tally was 57-43, which left the prosecution 10 short of the two-thirds majority required”.

Let’s take a closer look at the cards posted on Twitter 12 February.

Past

Ten of Pentacles = family, legacy, constitution, Government. This card referred to the completion of a presidency, in this case, the Donald Trump presidency

Justice = just what is says on the tin, this was a situation created by due process of justice or law – in this case, an election plus the Supreme Court.

Present

The Ace of Pentacles reversed (drawn from the deck upside down) = a missed or delayed opportunity. Material loss of a job, wealth, income, a home, a business

Seven of Swords reversed = suspicion, fraud, theft, surveillance, sabotage, subterfuge, covert intelligence, secret security services. This card is reflecting the former President’s allegations of electoral fraud, as well as networks of intelligence, both state intelligence, and group intelligence. The supporters who invaded the Capitol building were breaching security, and said they were looking for evidence of electoral or other malpractice in support of the former President’s claims of electoral fraud.

This central column often contains the answer to the question as stated. So in answer to this question, will the former President be impeached, the answer here is read as a probable no, based not only on the individual meanings, but on the fact that two cards were drawn upright and four cards were drawn reversed,in their negative interpretation.

Future

Nine of Cups reversed= wishes granted or denied, in this case, being drawn upside down, it was detecting the wishes of those bringing the case for impeachment. Why did this matter so much to them? This President had been impeached before.

Eight of Cups reversed. Drawn upright, this is a card of walking away sadder perhaps, but wiser from a situation that is no longer tenable or working. The former President contested the election results, and took it to court fifty times over (that Justice card again) He was not ready to ‘walk away.’

The failure to impeach means the possibility remains for Donald Trump to run for office again in 2024. That’s a long way off, but what does that look like from here right now?

Predictions; the terms of reference.

The future is not a lump of concrete waiting to fall on our heads. Sometimes the future exists, as in, we all know we will die one day. Sometimes it doesn’t as in, exactly when or where we will die depends on many factors, some of which are subject to our personal control, and others which are not. The future depends on the consequences of both personal choice and impersonal chance.

The cards are antennae. They reflect what the reader feels deep down.

The psychic element of a tarot reading is in the fact of the complete randomness of the draw, trusting that the relevant or ‘right’ cards will be drawn entirely unconsciously.

Disclaimer: I’m in the UK, not the US and my personal feelings in respect of Trump v Biden were and remain pretty mixed. I had reservations about both of them, and wished there was another candidate in the running.

Elephants In The Reading Room

Card readers like astrologers are only human and fallible, even the most experienced. Even the most psychic. They can misinterpret the cards and miss the bull’s eye, and if they don’t own up to it, they are not being honest.

I found myself really stuck when, July 2020 and again in September 2020 I looked at the forthcoming US Election 2020 Trump v Biden and thought it looked more favourable on balance for Mr T.

His cards were The Ace of Swords (Victory) and The Wheel of Fortune (luck running his way). This looked like a clear victory compared with Mr Biden’s gentler, though still extremely positive Knight of Cups and the Ten of Cups (a healing messenger, bringing the ‘trophy’ ‘home’, contentment, happiness)

This Ten of Cups looked like excellent news for Mr B but it had a strong domestic feeling to it, where Mr T’s Ace of Swords looked decisive, focused, almost military, or at least militant in character, and as we saw soon afterwards, that Ace of Swords card (action, attack) was actually a foreshadowing of the attack on the Capitol. The Ace of Swords is the Ace of Air. Forceful, but cool. This attack with its tragic consequences was organized some days in advance, and was not remotely spontaneous.

So, they both drew strong cards. But Mr T’s were more overtly political in character stronger, a more logical fit, and so I called it for Trump but still, it left me uneasy, extremely perplexed. It didn’t feel right, didn’t make sense.

With hindsight I understood the Tarot was telling me truly, not that Mr T would win the election, but that he would genuinely believe that he HAD won the election, and rather than accept this, an act of ‘war’ was coming, consequent upon the election results.

When I get it wrong, well, boohoo. Too bad. Bad gold star for me.

I must trust myself, or the Tarot could not function. And that trust did not come quick or easy. But now I am older, and I have learned the part of me that is the Tarot is far, far older than I can ever live to be. It can see much farther than I can, or at least, when I say I, this means the everyday me.

Now and then I struggle to understand the message, and that’s on me. But later it will make sense. And there is the ongoing lesson for the reader. This is a study for life.

Stay honest. Stay humble.

I came to the Tarot late, in my early forties, and I had never had a reading before except once at school, when I was 17. The boy predicted a long illness and he was right, but there was not the slightest sign of it at the time, though he also indicated recovery, and there is no sign of that after twenty five years.

But there is more than one way to heal. Not all are physical.

By now, I expect to get things right far more often than wrong, and am annoyed with myself when I don’t. But readers are only human and fallible, and they won’t always hit that nail square on. Of course I won’t, and this is more likely to happen when my logical assessment does not fit with my intuitive impressions.

Logically, I expected to see that win for Biden reflected in my cards, which would have been in accordance with the polls. The polls have been wrong before, more than once. Still, logically, I still expected Mr Biden to win, and for this outcome to be reflected in my cards, hence my perplexity at that Ace of Swords and Wheel of Fortune for Mr Trump.

With the benefit of hindsight, I see the cards were detecting that Mr T was extremely confident of winning that second term, and that he genuinely believed he had been ‘cheated.’

Al Gore also contested his election defeat in 2020, on the same grounds – that he had won the public vote, and the Florida count was in question, but Al Gore conceded after the Supreme Court ruled there was not enough time for further Florida recounts.

The Guardian Thursday 14 December 2000

“Democrat Al Gore surrendered his battle for the White House, accepting Republican George W Bush as the 43rd president of the United States. “I accept the finality of this outcome,” the vice president said.

In a valedictory Wednesday night from the ceremonial office at the White House he will vacate, Gore signalled some of the reluctance to concede defeat that propelled his 36-day legal battle for Florida ballot recounts.

“Now the US Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt,” Gore said. “While I strongly disagree with the court’s position, I accept it.”

He called for his supporters to unite behind his Republican rival Bush. “We close ranks when the contest is done,” Gore said.

There is the difference.

So. Will Donald Trump be elected President in 2024?

I did two readings for comparison, one 1 March using playing cards, the other 8 March using Tarot cards.

The Cartomancy Line of Five Reading

We have here three black suit cards and two red suit cards. This spread is read in terms of colour suits for the answer which is a probable no. The system used here is to treat a red suit card as a yes, regardless of suit, and a black suit card as no, regardless of suit. This is a traditional way of doing a counting spread in cartomancy but you could do it the other way round if you wanted. What matters is you decide your system and then stick to it, like uploading a programme.

For me to be able to rule that out in accordance with the rules of cartomancy, there would need to be 5 black suit cards, and if we had five spades cards, you couldn’t get a more definite no. Just as if you had five diamond cards you could not get a more definite yes.

Let’s take a look at the individual card meanings, read left to right, past to future.

10 Clubs. Past government, business, this is detecting and reflecting the premise and the basis of the question.

Jack Hearts A return to a happy place near water, a place of business, Mar a Lago?

The King of Clubs DJT, a man of material affairs, looking back at a 10, but there is no ten on the future line. 10 is a number of completion, a peak of achievement. The only number than can beat that is a one, an Ace, or else The Joker for a whole new start.

8 Clubs. Near future. The ultimate work card. Busy, busy. Also public speaking and conferences.

5 Diamonds. The further future. Property. Acquisitions. City life. Legal affairs.

The numbers read left to right 10-8-5. The numbers decrease and then the 5 is volatile but unstable.

For another term as President, as a card reader, I might be looking for a future Ace of Diamonds, Hearts or Clubs or a Ten of Diamonds, or any suit except the 10 Spades which is ruin.

Now let’s ask the same question again, but this time using Tarot cards, and let’s see if these two systems agree, as they should, on the outcome.

Will Donald Trump be elected President in the 2024 Election?

As you see, this is a well worn deck, a darling workhorse. I have brought it out of semi-retirement.

Past

10 Swords Reversed and The World card

The 10 Swords, like the 10 Spades, denotes a disappointment, a blow. It may even be or feel like a betrayal. ‘Et tu, Brute?’ Stabbed in the back. Though Caesar was stabbed in the back and the front.

The dancer in the World card is looking into empty space, what is bygone.The World card signifies success, and the end of a cycle.

Present

7 Pentacles drawn reversed symbolizes a poor harvest, a poor ROI, furious efforts do not produce the expected results

King of Pentacles, the earth king, whereas DJT astrologically speaking is a King of Swords, a Gemini air sign king. This King is a banker, a property magnate, though he could work in many other professions, associated construction, farming, mining, medicine, manufacturing or artisanship.

The Ace of Pentacles is sometimes a ring in real life. It could equally be a golf ball.

Mr T is recovering his equilibrium. Look where he is looking, up towards The Strength card in the future column.

Future

The Strength card represents the stakes for the future, a return to full strength. Health and Power. This is the card of Leo, the sun in splendour, zenith of one’s strength, full heat of summer.

An astrologer suggested in The Astrological Journal HERE that Mr T may be a reincarnation of Henry v111.

I really don’t know about that, but funnily enough, I have thought before, not a few times, and I haven’t been the only one to remark on it, that Mr T has a look of him, the stature, the build, the colouring. The mouth, and eyes in particular.

But then we have The Fool. The Fool is the most numinous, powerful card in the deck. The most hopeful, or the most terrifying. He represents possibility, potential, the infinite. He is the gateway of Number Zero. In mundane terms he represents an offer, a whole new start, a birth- or a re-birth.

The Fool is both life and death.

He has been drawn in the bottom right or hinge position in this spread; the events upon which this outcome turns.

He has been drawn reversed.

What Else? There is Trouble ahead for Mr T.

I asked for a freestyle comment and drew The Page of Swords Reversed. This classically denotes a young person, but whomever this refers to, though I have a feeling about it, I will confine myself purely to the question as stated. This is not a personal reading, and I do not have permission to go ‘there,’ intruding on anyone’s private family space.

The Page of Swords represents bad news, sudden developments, not usually welcome. It may represent adverse legal tidings or health problems. These may be minor but may require surgical intervention.

Although Mr T emerged triumphant from the impeachment proceedings, he has not emerged unscathed, as will become apparent should he choose to run again.

The Page of Swords is surveillance, stealth, movement below the radar. It can be like a dagger in the back. Or actually, in the front. It is IT. It is camera footage. It is the unforgettable scenes inside the Capitol.

There is another scandal or another legal challenge to come before the commencement of the next election campaign.

Three of the cards have been drawn upright, three reversed. Strength is upright and mighty but the Fool, whether upright or reversed, trumps any other card, and the Page of Swords reversed swings it towards a probable no.

In Conclusion

Never say never, while life lasts, but it is looking like a probable no.

Other readers may have a completely different take on this. I can’t worry about that. I can only keep faith with the cards that appear and those which do not, and say what I do or do not see. This blog is not about politics but the processes involved in Tarot reading and other approaches to divination .As ever, time will tell.

One could say it now comes down to Mr Biden’s performance. (Declaration of bias: I am not a fan of either of these Presidents)

One could say the onus is now on the Democrats to reach out to Republican voters, not all of whom are necessarily supporters of Mr Trump.

Meanwhile, water under the bridge, and for all that has been said about Mr T running again, it looks as if time may do its work. That Page of Cups, the happiness by the water in a place of business, which may be Mar a Lago, and other media or new property ventures, may turn out to be where Mr Trump decides he really wants to place his main focus, for all the political thunder and fury.

But no, I think he is sincere in his belief that there has been some kind of fix, he is not a person to let that go, and we haven’t heard the last of it.