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Tarot is a language of words, images and symbols embedded in pieces of card stock. Anyone who wants to learn it, can, and one does not need to see oneself as psychic in order to become a fluent reader. However the interactions between cards trigger left-field and sometimes downright psychic insights that detect/reflect a past or current situation, which may then be directed to forecast/predict/project likely future developments.
What’s the point of a reader telling us something we know already?
It’s critical. We need that benchmark. How else do we know we are on the same page? You may already know what the reader is telling you. But usually -at least in a personal reading- they didn’t already know, and that is largely the point.
That initial mirroring is an affirmation, valuable feedback in evidence of what the reader has initially ‘seen’ -this is the baseline for further investigation.
Therefore, there is likely nothing new here in the following readings. But the point is to illustrate how we can work with the Tarot bearing in mind that not every reader works the same way. Many more readers now focus on using the Tarot more for applied psychology and counselling purposes than for old fashioned divination or prognostication. This has largely fallen out of fashion for a variety of reasons, but I like to do both, or at least I will attempt both.
I woke late today, not feeling terribly well, and turned on the news to see that Mr Putin has today apparently withdrawn some units from the Ukraine border back to their bases. A hopeful sign? although this withdrawal is disputed by the US and of course, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings. If then.
This isn’t the end of it, is it?
Late last night I was looking in my playing cards about this, romantically bending Il Matrimonio’s ear on Valentine’s Day. Whispering sweet nothings of impending doom and apocalypse. Was it war or not? There was no clear sign of it as yet. I did not see that Mr Putin had decided on war.
19/2/2022 The reader must work with the cards, which as the days go on, seem to agree less and less with what we are seeing unfolding in front of us. Logic says it’s coming and Mr Putin will simply deny involvement and say Russian forces are there to protect the Russian separatists from Ukraine aggression. He will say it is a war waged by Ukraine on Russian separatist states of Ukraine, presenting it as a civil war.
Question: Will there be war between Russia and Ukraine?
Meaning, soon, imminently, or in the near future.
Left hand column: the premise/situation:
Nine Clubs standing alone, independence, pride, stubbornness, courage in adversity, long distance travel, business
Ace Spades Power, stress, act of war, act of law. Sudden decision. Victory. Death.
Well, that figures.
Central Column: the answer to the question as stated.
Ten Diamonds Financial prosperity. Diamonds is also the earth suit and in cartomancy, though you might naturally assume electricity correlates with the suit of Wands as the fire suit, diamonds encompasses electricity and all flammable materials, which could here mean gas. Diamonds also suggests events that develop at great speed.
Jack Spades Threat, attack, new intelligence, potential de-escalation of the Ace of Spades
Mr Putin has amassed troops on the Ukraine borders to issue a warning and this is at least partly in reaction to a sincerely perceived threat to Russia’s economy.
Right hand column: reasons/factors affecting answer contained in the central column
Two Clubs: business deal, alliance of interests
Five Diamonds: home life, money at home. Again, we see that earth suit/energy reference. I associate this card with anxiety, worries about money and a great fear of being isolated or ‘left out in the cold’, physically or emotionally.
The reader also weighs it up by looking at the overall balance of colours and suits. I read a black suit card as a no (Spade) or a maybe (Club) and a red suit cards as a yes. We have here 2 red suit cards and 4 black suit cards, leaning the answer towards a no.
The second most powerful card in the deck, and the card that can say WAR, the Ace of Spades, is on the left of the reading. So, yes, it is in the mix already but that risk does not appear to compound or deepen looking left to right. Had I drawn it top right, or had I drawn more spades cards I would be more alarmed.
The Joker
This is the card that worries me most. What is the most powerful card in the deck? I would say it is The Joker. The Unknowable. Just as in the Tarot deck it is The Fool. The power of zero. The portal. The hand of destiny.
This is a biggie. Destiny is at work.
The Joker has also made an appearance in this reading. And so I feel there is no finalized strategy on the part of Mr Putin. He is testing the waters. He is warning the West and he wants China to watch as well. Any backing down from him now, is not really a back-down given the state of the gas industry, should the West continue along the green path, with new greener technologies and recent advances in nuclear fusion an exciting prospect, but still decades away from viability.
15 Feb on Twitter
Follow-up on 11/2 10 PM 14/2. Will there be war? Central column= answer. 50:50/less. Reduced from Ace Spades to Jack Spades. Overall no, 4 black no:2 red yes but 5 Diamonds (=money/cyber/electric) +Joker v dangerous/volatile. Key=future 2 Clubs=agreement/Nordstream2.
I have looked at this same question a few times in recent days.
Here was my reading posted on Twitter, February 11.
Katie-Ellen@TrueTarotTales·Feb 11#Tarot Ukraine Russia, 10 Swords (past ruin, betrayal, backstabbed + Gemini =B.J) 10 Pentacles (homeland/’family treasures’) King Cups (Biden) Ace Swords + World Rx. A clash/’test’ incident looks likely but Hermit (standoff) says not yet/escalation not inevitable/imminent.
But this isn’t so simple. We don’t need to know much about geo-politics to know that.
What does Mr Putin want?
What is his motivation in this situation? I have drawn this same card, the Two of Pentacles a number of times in recent days.
Tarot Ukraine What does M Putin want? What is his motivation. Huge amount of history as well as strategy embedded. A card that keeps coming up is the 2 Pentacles. Land/sea/trade. He wants/needs for Russia access/influence 2 seas? Black Sea and the Baltic.
Continued:
#Tarot This card, 2 Pentacles, showing a juggling act where finance/economy and bi location are key factors, – a pictorial reflection of Russian motivation, fear of the JOKER /factor X =potential future power of Ukraine/western support to weaponize Nord Stream 2 once operational.
Mr Biden has threatened that Nord Stream 2 will not happen if Russia invades. Asked how he will make sure Nord Stream 2 will not happen, he has simply said, it won’t and that’s a promise. But the new German Chancellor, Mr Scholz has said he is on board with the US position, with Germany a critical element, the primary client in this equation.
The Joker is the wild card here. This is the risk that Mr Putin, for one, is currently weighing, or at least this is how my Tarot is explaining it to me.
These are the cards Mr Putin is juggling right now. The risk that Ukraine will in future definitively lend itself as a weapon to the West. Or that Nord Stream 2 could be denied certification even at this very late stage, given the stakes for Russia and the scale of investment, with the major stakeholder in Nord Stream 2, Russian state owned company Gazprom.
The Joker has been drawn because no one knows the answer. The benefits to Russia of supplying gas to 26 million German homes is a pudding of which the tastiness is not yet available for proof, to offset the advantages to Russia of attempting to neutralize the mutual unease of Ukraine. It isn’t even a case of a bird in the hand and two in the bush.
19 2 2022 Mr Putin wants to have the cake AND eat it, and is trying to figure out how to have both.We are back to that 2 of Pentacles. He he wants the 2 separatist states in the Ukraine to be consolidated within Russian control, and this would mean civil war for Ukraine which is actually a proxy war between Russia and Ukraine but without jeopardizing Russian interests; money and Nord Stream 2.
It might come down to his assessment of the determination of Mr Scholz, backed by Mr Biden.
Everyone is making their point, and everyone is frightened. But the problem can’t go away. This for now is the trap, the dangerous dance, the Faustian pact. Push to shove, do national governments prioritize COP 26 eco policy or national security, saving ourselves from subjugation by a hostile Other? Which devil do we dance with? No Russian Ukraine war now does not mean no war at all. That is the message of The Joker.
But at least we don’t have the Tower or The Devil or Judgment Day. Not today.
19 2 Feb I will be watching this space to see what more the Tarot has to say. I don’t know geopolitics. The cards are chosen at random, a movement of the hands directed by the unconscious mind. I do not know why I stop shuffling when I do. The challenge is them to interpret those cards using the conscious mind, sticking to the meaning in the cards, regardless of what their intellectual opinion is, or what their logic tells them. On the face of it, war looks well nigh inevitable, but that isn’t how it is being shown to me so far. It is being shown as possible. But still not inevitable. The reasons why it may still not happen may hinge on Germany. But Mr Putin will not wish to wreck Ukraine in order to annex it. The 2 of Pentacles depicts Vladimir Putin making a weighing of the likely financial cost.
Till next time 🙂
True Tarot Tales 