Tarot divination: How does it work?

Image: Public Domain; The Tarot de Marseilles

Have you ever had a Tarot reading with someone else, or pulled cards for yourself, and been surprised, mystified or even spooked because the cards were so relevant it was downright uncanny? How does that happen? After all, there are 78 cards in a Tarot deck. For those few cards you chose entirely at random, the others all had to stay in the deck.

The Basics

Tarot is only one of many systems of divination. Others are far older in origin, including astrology, palmistry, the I-Ching, runes and reading bones/entrails etc as in Rome, where Spurinna, the haruspex predicted the assassination of Julius Caesar. The popularity of card games took off after Mamluk game cards were brought to Western Europe from Turkey, and the earliest known set of tarot cards was created in the 14th century. The Tarot, also known as the Tarocchi or Tarock, began as a game of chance in the courts of northern Italy but did not become seriously associated with fortune telling or other psychic divination until much later, by the mid 18th century.

Physically speaking, a Tarot deck is little more than 78 pieces of illustrated, numbered card-stock.

The meanings in the cards need a reader to make them come alive. Study is required. No faith is required, however. No religion, no need to commune with any ‘spirits’ than the spirit of Mankind. I have read for Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Chinese and Jewish clients, as well as for atheists, agnostics and downright skeptics. No problem at all. The imagery in the Tarot crosses cultural boundaries.

But in communing with some ancient, but ‘higher’ part of ourselves, superego, not id, perhaps we are communing with the Divine, depending on however one wishes to define it. Or else tapping into our ancient animal knowing. That we muted or traded in exchange for the great advancement to language.

I see it as a transcendence or suspension of the everyday self. When I am doing a reading for another person, I need to free myself, try and take myself out of the equation, me and my worry about getting it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’; me and my ego.

I sometimes joke as I shuffle the cards, ‘OK, now my ancient inner animal is going to have a little talk with your ancient inner animal.’

We are going to converse on at (at least) two levels, consciously, and via telepathy, enabled by the imagery of the cards.

*Marcus the psychic pig, accurately predicted the result of the EU Referendum, and The US Elections*

Suspension of self and ego notwithstanding, delivery of a professional level of service means I, or any other reader need to do as well or better than the pig.

The reader draws cards blindly and at random, and lays them out in a pattern or spread, using the placement of the cards, the imagery and associated meanings of that card. Why choose this card and not that one? Well, there is the mystery. The central nervous system has a mind of its own, and dictates my movement, in determining the instant at which I stop shuffling. I can think of no better explanation. The choice to stop shuffling is not remotely deliberate.

The reader then interprets the cards, sharing what they sense about a given person, situation or question, past, present and possible future.

This stuff is not omniscience. I don’t KNOW anything. I just say what I see and feel. The thing that amazes, and can even startle the person being read for, and the readers too at times, is the total, immediate and undeniable relevance of cards drawn blindly and at random, and then organised into a pattern or spread for interpretation.

The cards were drawn at random, but the results do not seem random at all.

They fit.

OK, but shaddap! How exactly does this stuff WORK?

Well, OK, OK. But there is no one single, neat and tidy answer.

The reader has ‘uploaded’ a ‘programme’ by learning the meanings and associations of the cards. With much repetition and practice, just as with learning to play an instrument or indeed any kind of rote learning, this programming becomes almost second nature, and the cards may act now, not only as technical support but as a springboard for insights prompted by lateral or associative thinking, backed up by instinct.

This provides them with their starting point, and then their own ideas, empathy or intuition supplies further comment. The cards provide a spring board for the reader’s intuition, but the associations of the cards supply the details enabling greater precision of interpretation. Associative thinking, or lateral thinking helps me a lot in arriving at ‘psychic’ insights or ‘hits.’

I look at the card and there is a kind of a ‘ping’

For instance: I drew the Six of Wands, and this card generally means progress, promotion, a trip but on this occasion, something about the artwork made me say something I had never said on previous occasions, drawing the self same card, and I asked the client, ‘are you thinking of going to Siena?’

And she was, or rather, a place just outside Siena, but how did I arrive at that guess? Firstly, I had already established that we were looking at a travel destination. Secondly, something about it suddenly made me think of the Palio.

palio — *The Six Wands from The Legacy of The Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti*

At other times the six of Wands has told me about motorbikes. Once it ‘showed’ me an upcoming sporting event, a big one and I asked the client, was this correct, and learned he was going to the Paralympics as a reserve member of the wheelchair rugby team. Most recently I drew this card, and said to the lady that it looked as though she may be meeting a man who was into speeding vehicles, but his job involved teamwork. She recognized this description and said he was a firefighter. In this instance then, the six of Wands denoted a fire engine.

Same card, three entirely concrete, different yet related interpretations, talking about the real, modern world.

Synchronicity

The psychologist Carl Jung never learned to read the Tarot himself but was fascinated by its ability to reflect what was going on. Jung theorized that Tarot works by means of a phenomenon he called “synchronicity”, or meaningful coincidence.

Jung was also fascinated by what Tarot could tell us about real people we know as pictured through classic story archetypes, e.g.; The King, The High Priestess, the Wise Man (Magician) the Hermit, and for its insights into the conscious mind working in tandem with the unconscious mind.

quote-synchronicity-a-meaningful-coincidence-of-two-or-more-events-where-something-other-than-carl-jung-52-5-0551

The ‘coincidences’ of the Tarot’s commentary, relating the enquirer/clients own story back to them are so frequent and particular that the enquirer/client strongly feels that they have been heard by some mysterious invisible presence. The reader feels it too.

The reader has ‘uploaded’ a ‘programme’ by learning the meanings and associations of the cards. With much repetition and practice, just as with learning a language or to to play an instrument or indeed any kind of rote learning, this programming becomes second nature, and the cards may act now, not only as technical support, but as a springboard for insights prompted by lateral or associative thinking, and we may go up into the realms of the psychic stratosphere.

The clues in the cards

Each card has many keywords attached. These are the basic building bricks of the reading.

The Chariot card, for instance, has these meanings attached; a vehicle, a driving test, a garage, a road trip, travel, ambition, project, a partnership, teamwork, discipline, and also the zodiac sign of Cancer and the dates associated with this sign (June 21-July 22)

So, let’s imagine I draw this card. Which meaning is the right one here and now?

John William Waterhouse – Sketch of Circe, 1911-1914 (public domain)

How does the reader

1: choose cards which so appropriately describe things you have not yet told the reader?

2: choose which of the many possible card interpretations to go with?

Well, the context of the card is a clue. What are the surrounding cards? The reader studies these with care. Beyond this, the short answer is, the reader doesn’t know. They make a judgement call and go with their first impressions, trusting the unconscious process, then making it conscious again, putting it back into words.

This is presumably working on empathy.

Intuition is one’s inner tuition – one’s instinctive understanding. It’s necessary for survival, and we all possess it to some degree.

Using a learned system such as Tarot helps us give it words.

Sometimes these words are so specific, many call it ‘psychic’ and psychic ability and intuition are often seen as “supernatural.”

But anyone can learn to read Tarot cards, while the degree of proficiency attained depends on a certain natural talent, but also depends to a very great extent on study and practise. Lots of people start learning, but give it up again without ever finding out all they might be able to do with it.

In Summary

Tarot is an art not a science. It is a form of language. You clearly see there’s a process at work. The mechanisms are both apparent and inscrutable. One sees the physical actions of shuffling, drawing and arranging the cards, and then upon card knowledge, feeling and sensing and finally, the right, apposite and meaningful word choice.

Becoming proficient at reading the Tarot, such that one can read to a service level feels like a big responsibility. Well, it is, and it demands a heck of a lot of practice, and the more you work with the Tarot or whatever system of divination you might want to work with, the more confidently you will be able to tap into your intuition, but you do not need to think of yourself as psychic in order to learn to read the Tarot, or to become fluent and proficient.

There is a native understanding beyond your conscious awareness and control. Whether you think that proceeds from your subconscious, the collective unconscious, God, your guides, or your higher self doesn’t matter.

The results are the proof. Sometimes these can be put to the test, observed and validated immediately, as when a reader says something that they could not possibly have known, but the client knows to be correct. But when a reader comments in respect of events many months ahead, it might be turn out to be pie in the sky, or it might prove accurate, but only time will tell.

Is the information potentially usable, actionable or workable here and now?

That is a pragmatic reading. It is my experience that most people welcome an element of pragmatism when they are at a crossroads. The Tarot is no less ‘spiritual’ when it psychically detects a problem with the drains.

We can, and do know more than we know. All of us, and without necessarily knowing HOW we know it. Perhaps there are biological algorithms at work here, and why should this be surprising?

We don’t even know how old we are as a species. Not really. Until 2015 we were told, based on the available evidence, that humanity had been practicing organised agriculture for 12000 years, but subsequent discoveries by the sea of Galilee suggest humanity has been experimenting with crop eugenics for at least 23000 years.

We don’t know everything there is to know about Time.

Six million years of Mankind. 200 000 years of ‘modern’ us. We’ve got nothing on the scorpions, with their 350 million years. Still, we are more ancient and mysterious, it seems, with every new archaeological discovery.

Till next time 🙂

Update: Cartomancy Musings -December General Election

Posted on Twitter 9 Dec 2019:-

Katie-Ellen@ktlncartomancer· Will it be a hung parliament? Let’s look through the lens of playing card cartomancy. No opinions. Just cards. Shuffle blind, draw 5 cards, red/black, central card key. 10 Diamonds, Queen D, Ace Clubs (reps GE & a NO answer) 4 Spades (ugh) Ace Diamonds (future = new start).

Let’s look back to a previous reading on this blog, posted 1 October 2019 in which I used pendulum divination, asking this question and getting this response below……

“Will there be a General Election BEFORE the UK leaves?

The pendulum is swinging to NO. But I don’t know. I keep thinking of that Ace of Clubs card. I don’t see one occurring in September or October and that timing would be exceedingly tight. But, swinging the pendulum again, there’s something here, suggesting however unlikely, there may be one either concluded or announced before Christmas.” – (posted 1 October 2019)

Time permitting I will be posting further before the Election. Meantime, I find it curious that throughout these nearly three and a half years since the referendum, I have not detected any consistent signal for a clean WTO- style exit, nor the date.

Brexit presents itself through my cards as a series of steps. not a definitive event, though certain themes have been consistent during the past three and a half years.

It did look possible, if dubious, throughout September, that we would have a Halloween Brexit from which I deduce that the PM did absolutely sincerely intend to keep that promise, by whatever means. The chances were consistently detected as ranging between 2/5 and 3/5 .

For me, a definite yes, usually shows itself as a 4/5 or a 5/5. But I wasn’t getting a 0/5 either, or a 1/5.

Hedging its bets? Possibly, but the reader has no conscious control whatsoever as to which cards are drawn. The Tarot was perhaps mirroring the feeling and expectations of the collective psyche. But then something shifted and on 13 October, in a prediction written for astrologer Jessica Adams in which I was looking ahead to the month of November (you will be able to read it HERE on Tuesday 5 November) I said, based on 2 Tarot cards, that I was not being shown that the UK had left the EU today, 1 November, BUT it was still coming, events were moving on apace.

After such a long, acrimonious parliamentary stalemate, and bearing in mind deep concerns about the content of the proposed withdrawal agreement, perhaps this new general election campaign is to be regarded as today’s best good news.

I will have clearly have to have a stab at an Election prognostication well before we get there on 12 December if only for the laffs. How we are all laughing.

I still feel, based on my cards, that Brexit will happen. Asking this question, consulting with the cards, two cards have made multiple appearances since the 2016 Referendum.

The World Card has been one of these, Major Arcana 21, and in plain English this translates as the wide world, literally (WTO/global trade) and in terms of the Brexit process, project completion and the start of a whole new cycle.

The dates though. The dates. The figure on this card from the Legacy of the Divine Tarot deck, illustrated by Ciro Marchetti, is reaching out his arms, spanning the Scorpion of Halloween and somewhere between Aquarius and the Fish of Pisces, late February-late March. But is it 2020 or a continuum into 2021?

In other readings, I have noted many appearances of Leo the Lion for some reason I don’t understand, indicating a key development in late July 2020. I’ll have to watch that space.

Divination suggests the future prospects for Britain are actually pretty darn good. Expansive, while at the same time grounded on home soil. Cards of poverty, or war, do not figure in the picture, not because all in the garden is rosy, but they are not the defining destination feared by so many.

Again and again I have asked, what is the ‘destiny’ for Britain and drawn the same card over and over, the Nine of Coins suggesting a slow gathering momentum, a juggernaut, coming decade of hard work and economic achievement.

This card specifically suggests notable prospects including but not limited to financial services, manufacturing, horticulture/agriculture, farmer’s markets and a surge in demand for local produce luxury goods, the heritage industry and hoteliers. I would be happier to see a fish leaping in that pond, though at least there is a pond, and that is clearly vital business pending, fishing rights and fisheries, significant by a silence in the noise around the current withdrawal bill passed by this Parliament. This bill, may presumably, may be superseded by events.

There are 77 other cards I could have drawn, asking to see the future face of Britain. I could have drawn the pauper’s card, the 5 of Coins. I could have drawn The Tower, crash, ruin, war. I could have drawn The Devil, enslavement, entrapment, helpless rage and civil war. Or even the end of the world as we know it.

I have given my cards so many chances these last three years to show me any of these terrible tidings, and must conclude Brexit will somehow be resolved, and Britain should look to its people, and also look up the stars and horizons including Europe and beyond, and have more ambition, looking to the lessons of its history, which are all about the lessons for its future. It is easy to see that Brexit might not happen at all, and the Establishment has demonstrated an absolute determination that it will not.

I can only say that rightly or wrongly, I still detect, based on divination, that the UK will come out of the EU -which is not Europe-and when it does, it is because it must, or else be shattered, and be seen to be shattered at the very heart of its constitutional integrity, and with it, national and international integrity and repute.

In Summary

What outcome card do I get for the Conservatives in the upcoming GE? The Fool. This is a major arcana card, number 0 and 22, the beginning and end of the ouroboros serpent, favourable card, and signifies new beginnings. It is also the birth sign card of Gemini subject, Boris Johnson.

What card do I get for Labour? The Eight of Swords. A minor arcana card and a deeply unfavourable card of getting stuck. I feel there are some good things in the Labour manifesto, but I feel what many previous Labour voters feel, and this card reflects it absolutely, that Jeremy Corbyn has been taken hostage by one section of the party to the wider detriment of the whole, and I sense he feels this, and is deeply uneasy, but can’t see the way out, or a way back to his party’s traditional heartlands. He too is a Gemini subject, so in theory, I could have drawn the Fool for him too, as the Gemini leader of the Labour party.

What outcome card for the Lib Dems? The Page of Cups? This is a court card, a favourable card; a bud, an offer, a young person, but it tends to be correspondingly minor in scale, except as the start of something that could become very big…but not for a while. (Jo Swinson is an Aquarius subject, and ‘her’ major arcana card would therefore be number 17, The Star)

There are other parties in play of course. I’ll hope to look at all this again in more detail before we get to voting time.

Till next time 🙂

Queen of the Heavens, Harvest Goddess Virgo.

“The Virgin with her sheaf belongs to Ceres,” The Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD.

Virgo is known as a sun sign or sign of the Zodiac, but what does the constellation look like in the night sky, and what’s the seasonal story behind it? Let’s investigate Virgo, Corn- Goddess of the Zodiac, also known as Shala, Ishtar, Demeter, Ceres...

Common Associations

Date: August 23-September 22

Symbol: The Virgin

Element: Earth

Quality: Mutable (Sagittarius and Pisces are also Mutable, suggesting these subjects are capable and versatile; and generally inclined to conform, going with the flow if it’s for the greater good.)

Ruling planet: Mercury (Travel and all forms of communication)

House: Sixth, ruling health, habits, and routines

Colour: green, white and yellow

Body: Intestines

Birthstone: Carnelian

Flowers: small bright flowers, clover, buttercup

Tarot card: The Hermit (introspection, perception, analysis, care for nature)

Source Wikipedia: The Hermit from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck

Astronomy

Public Domain

Virgo is the second-largest constellation in the sky after Hydra, and the largest constellation in the zodiac, located between Libra to the west and Leo to the east, and below the Big Dipper.

In the northern hemisphere, it is most visible in the evening sky in May- to late June. In the southern hemisphere, it can be seen in autumn and winter.

Find its brightest star, the brilliant-blue-white Spica, and you will work out the rest of Virgo with her feet pointing east.

It might seem a bit of a stretch, trying to picture a person from that photograph, but add in a few more of her stars, imagine her lounging, dangling a sheaf of wheat from one hand (Spica.)

And now you see her.

Author’s own image

Spica is a double star, brighter than our sun. Its name is from the Latin, meaning an ‘ear of grain’- or a sheaf of wheat.

It’s sometimes called ‘The Lonely One’ because it is so far from the others, and the astronomer and astrologer Ptolemy saw these stars as ruled by Venus and Mars respectively, mated together in a chaste, androgynous union, like the slightly remote purity of Virgo herself.

Vindemiatrix, ‘the Grape-Gatherer,’ seen at daylight, was once seen as a sign that now it was time to pick the grapes.

Galaxies: The Virgo Cluster

It’s mind-boggling to consider that our own Sun is just one star of the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is only one of a collection of galaxies known as The Local Group.

This contains three large spiral galaxies: the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum Galaxy, and a few dozen dwarf galaxies. But The Local Group is just one member of the Virgo Cluster – a collection of 1200-2000 galaxies that stretch across 15 million light-years of space.

And the Virgo Cluster is just one cluster in the Virgo Supercluster.

Wiki Commons: the constellation of Virgo is especially rich in galaxies, with more than 1300 galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. One of these, NGC 4388, 60 million light-years away, is captured in this image, as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3.

But if the constellation of Virgo is most visible in May in the northern hemisphere, why are the birthdates for the sign of the zodiac August 23-September 22^nd?

Astronomy is not Astrology. The sky as we see it is called the celestial sphere: a giant blue ball that rotates around us (its rotation axis crosses the poles). The Sun appears to move along with this sphere every day, rising in the East and setting in the West, but it also appears to move, in this sphere, at a one-degree-a-day pace, on the contrary direction (West-East).

This annual motion is on a circle called Ecliptic, a great circle in relation to the Equator.

Now imagine a belt around this circle. This is the Zodiac. Ptolemy divided this 360-degree belt by 12 for the elegance of arithmetic, based on 12 constellations described by the Babylonians, ignoring a thirteenth constellation, Ophiuchus, so that a zodiac sign represents roughly a 30-degree chunk of this belt.

But the constellations have moved in the last two thousand years, and changed positions relative to Earth, owing to wobbling of the Earth on its axis; an effect known as precession.

The dates for the zodiac signs named after the zodiacal constellations, however, have remained the same, but this great fact of astronomy does not affect the validity of the dates of your Zodiac Sun sign as calculated by Ptolemy.

The exact dates of the Zodiac signs can vary by a day or two each year and are calculated by astronomers every year at sunrise on the day of the Spring Equinox.

History & Mythology

Public Domain: Virgo: Urania’s Mirror

The Sumerians

Shala was an ancient Sumerian deity (later Babylonia, the area now known as southern Iraq and Kuwait) She was the goddess of grain -and also compassion. Why link these two things? Famine is suffering. A good harvest was seen as a blessing of the gods. What is planted in the spring must yield a crop in the autumn, or famine is likely to follow. Shala was married either to the fertility god, Dagon, or the storm god, Ishkur, or possibly both, with one as her consort. This is significant. Virgo the Virgin is not about a state of physical virginity – but refers more to an attitude; a slightly elusive and rather refined quality, male or female.

Shala was associated with the constellation of Virgo, and vestiges of symbolism associated with her continue, such as the star Spica, the ‘ear of grain’, even as the deity’s name changed from age to age, and culture to culture.

In 10^th century BC, the Babylonians called part of this constellation, “The Furrow,” referring back to the goddess Shala, and the Shala Mons is a mountain on Venus named after her.

In Egyptian mythology, the sight of Virgo in the night sky was also associated with harvest time, and with the goddess Isis, while in Indian astrology, she was The Maiden, Kanya.

The Greeks

To the Greeks, she was the harvest goddess Demeter, also called Ceres, (the root of the word ‘cereal’) and also by association, her beloved daughter, Persephone.

When Hades abducted Persephone to live with him in the underworld, Demeter went into mourning. There was no harvest that year. People and livestock starved and Zeus, the king of gods, eventually intervened, insisting that Hades return Persephone to Demeter. But Zeus also stipulated that Persephone must not eat until her return, and Hades, not wanting to part with her, gave Persephone a pomegranate, knowing fine well how much she liked them, and she ate some of the seeds on her way home.

Public Domain

So Persephone went home to her mother, but because of the pomegranate she has to return to the underworld for four months every year, and then Demeter grieves; winter returns, and the land sleeps.

The Virgo Archetype – Personality

Public Domain

Virgos are practical but artistically gifted. They are hard workers who love to better themselves. They love to analyze, and their perceptiveness means that they can always find or create order within chaos. They are honest friends although, being extra discerning, and analytical, they might have a tendency to analyze you, pointing out your strengths and also your mistakes and weaknesses. This will probably be annoying, very, but it’s usually well-meant. They may also give great advice because of those same analytical abilities.

Their quest of self-improvement includes their appearance. They are perfectionists, highly concerned about the impression they give, but at the same time, they are very ready to help others, which can make them targets of those who wish to take advantage of them. Virgo is ruled by agile, communicative Mercury, and Virgo’s brain is in overdrive much of the time. These folks can do great things and get a lot done – if they don’t lose sight of the original vision, and get overly bogged down in non-important detail.

Until next time 🙂

Deal or No Deal? Brexit Brouhaha 11

A cartomancy update on the prospects for Brexit

Update on a reading initially posted on this site May 2019, comments based on cards drawn last night, 10 PM, 30 September 2019. I will post the images later today. for readers interested in the cartomancy.

It is looking unlikely that Jeremy Corbyn will be PM after the next General Election, whenever that date will be. Still possible, certainly, but not likely.

It is looking unlikely that Jo Swinson will be be PM after the next General Election, whenever that date will be.

Of the two, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have the better chance.

Brexit, and the referendum vote to leave the EU bloc may seem almost dead in the water, but it isn’t. Despite repeated and further planned attempts to strangle it slowly and surely to death. A pro-Remain Parliament is dead set against it, and no longer making any bones about this, citing fears of a so- called No Deal (WTO) exit while, as evidenced by Jo Swinson’s letter to Mr Juncker trying to ensure there will be no deal by 31 October. The pro-EU element has a majority in Parliament, regardless of the mandate on which many Remain MP’s were originally elected, and seems to hold all the cards as of 14 September.

But Deal or No Deal, I don’t know more than anyone else, and certainly do not claim to. I am a card reader, not a politician, but looking at this through the lens of cartomancy, the twists and turns are far from done, and Brexit may still happen by that Oct 31 deadline. It is looking more likely it will not, and could slip then till Jan/Feb 2020, but it will still happen. This is the big picture. Brexit has now become a juggernaut loaded with constitutional dynamite, and chaos is the alternative to delivering on the referendum result of 2016. Too much has happened, and political reform is now required it seems, whatever the outcome, and whenever that definitive outcome is finally announced to an angry, weary nation in which no-one is happy and Mrs May’s three years as PM, with her ostensible attempts at compromise seem only to have muddied the waters, compounding the difficulties.

Let’s look back at the cards drawn in August and May.

Tweeted 20 August

#Cartomancy Will UK leave EU by/before 31 Oct 2019? Chance is higher than 3+/5. Read L-R. 8 Spades, stuck state. Joker Rx, ie, new PM. (Gemini) Crux card= 9 Hearts. Red suit indicates yes. King D and 9 D. Money talks last minute. Ace Clubs. A deal. New start. GE?

So then, what does it look like? Will there be a No Deal Brexit, ie, an exit on WTO terms? Will it be a rehashed Withdrawal Agreement?

The so-called No Deal departure is the anathema of many Remain voters and the preferred option of many, though by no means all Leave voters, whether these are Labour voters or Tory voters. Meanwhile the Brexit Party has demonstrated its muscle, not only in the EU Elections, but in the UK sufficient that, although the Leave vote was split in Radnorshire, the very splitting of that vote also demonstrated the power of the Brexit party, even though this worked against both the Tory Party and the Brexit Party, such that the Lib Dem candidate was selected.

Be that as it may, what cards do we get?

Does this look like a No Deal Brexit?

Not really. If it is a NO Deal departure, then there is a special European deal on the side. This is not looking like a straight WTO exit. Or if it is, there is also some kind of a special trade deal with the EU. No, this is a beast of some other form. Is it Leave and is it good news for the UK economy ?

Ultimately, yes. It looks that way. Yes for both, 5 Clubs and Queen of Diamonds.

This reading starts as a classic Line of Five spread, where the cards are read left-right like a storyboard. For a yes or no answer, my system is the classic colour system that says more reds than blacks = a yes answer. More blacks than red = a no answer.

How and why does this work in practice? It’s simply a convention of self-programming. I could do it the other way around, blacks are yes and reds are no, and that would work just as well. But this is how I have programmed myself to read them, and with much repetition, like learning to play an instrument, this is how it actually starts to work and deliver accurate results. Perhaps the brain builds new synapses.

The results will not be accurate every time, any more than with any other form of forecasting. Of course not, and prescience is not omniscience, or anything like it, but this is the basic mechanics of how card reading is done.

So, back to Brexit and what it will look like, what did we get?

1 red suit card

1 Joker

3 black suit cards

The short answer is, cartomancy suggests there will very likely be at least some kind of trade deal with the EU, so that it will not be a complete WTO exit.

Does that mean that it’s going to be a rehash of the Withdrawal Agreement then, presumably minus the Irish Backstop? BRINO? Brexit in Name only?

No, it doesn’t look like that either.

This is looking like a trade- only deal, so far as I can see, possibly because the Backstop issue is resolved adequately for Parliament(just) and Mrs Merkel feels she has obtained for EU members some adequate measure of economic surety.

Let’s look at the individual cards for further comment.

That one red suit card, the 8 of Hearts, is representing the status quo, and the power of the Remain lobby in Parliament.

The Joker– cue the catcalls here from those out of accord with the new PM, (says a former Labour voter)- but this is a destiny card, and does not simply describe an actual Joker or clown or buffoon. But if it did, then take another look at the Joker. See the smile. Watch the eyes. They are serious. So is the skill. As an opponent, he is not to be underestimated.

The Joker is a card of surprises. It is the most powerful card in the deck, symbolically. Turning points in a nation’s destiny. My deck contains two Jokers and both have made an appearance in this 9 card spread.

Astrologically speaking, and rather curiously, this is also the card of the new PM, Boris Johnson, as a Gemini subject three times over. The Joker is Gemini. It suggests that, whatever he does in the end, he is completely in earnest when he says he wants us out. And he is not afraid of the EU, unlike Mrs May, and where she had Ollie Robbins, he has Dominic Cummins, one to be knighted, the other held up to public opprobrium. Mr Johnson is intellectually and politically agile, mercurial even, and not averse to sleight of hand. This is meant neither as criticism or a compliment. The stakes are so high, the situation demands nothing less than utmost cunning, or as others would call it, utmost strategic thinking.

There is a saying, that if you love someone they can do no wrong, but if you don’t like someone they can do no right, and this clearly holds true, and has been setting the tone of public discourse since 2016, to little benefit. Where all civility has gone, violence will surely follow.

So, the next card. The central card in that top row. And we have the 2 Spades. Split. Severance. Divorce. This is a Brexit divorce, so if there is an element of ‘fudge’ or compromise, it may not be as significant, or be the trickery into indefinite entrapment that Leavers fear.

This is reinforced by the next card, the 3 Swords. This is in itself a deeply negative card with grief and mourning attached. Our family of nations is unhappy, angry and uneasy. But here, it is also a 3 way plan and again, it signifies a parting of the ways enacted in law. I feel it represents Mr Johnson, Mrs Merkel and M Macron today, and that Mrs Merkel and M Macron will not be in accord re the best way to proceed. The news media suggests this is probably the case even as we speak.

The outcome card, the 5 Clubs…so what does that mean? Clubs is the suit of government and business. 5 is the number of change…and also conflict. This change is uncomfortable.

But as you see, red suit cards translate as yes in cartomancy, black suit cards translate as no, so my cards, rightly or wrongly, have produced that same card as I drew in May, suggesting some kind of trade deal with the EU either before we leave, or immediately upon exiting.

The central card is key, so I use it as my start point for drawing a new line of enquiry reading top to bottom now, asking, well, if it’s not a straight WTO Exit, what will it look like?

The 7 Swords is negotiation and intense effort. It is the card of the ‘workaholic.’

There seems to be a story line here of Mrs Merkel saying in so many words, we can’t risk the No Deal scenario, this would be crazy. (Joker Reversed) The risk has to be detected as real enough and actually, it is. It looks as though Mrs Merkel will say this if she decides Mr Johnson is not bluffing. And I don’t feel he is. But if he could offer a way out that would be more acceptable to the Remain MP’s, he may take a pragmatic view on that, or cynical as some might say. To get the thing over the line and try to heal divisions, which right now are more of a yawning abyss.

That 5 Clubs card is also a reminder that the UK is the 5th largest economy in the world. Mrs Merkel is naturally, acutely aware of this, and she does not let personal pride or vanity get in the way of her judgement.

This last comment is based on the cards. Mrs Merkel is being shown to me as the eminently pragmatic and shrewd Queen of Diamonds, and the 9 Diamonds says…money talks.

Incidentally, Diamonds is the suit of electricity, and may sometimes suggest a health problem of nervous origin. Nervous as in , signals misfiring in the body, such as with Parkinson’s.

OK, let’s try out a pendulum divination, ie; asking my central nervous system to use a movement to indicate its non-verbal response to a verbalised question.

On what basis does this hocus-pocus work?

Well, it ain’t hocus-pocus. It works on the basis that the mind does not reside entire within the brain, and we know things at a deeper level than language, so the challenge is to distract the conscious mind, notice body cues from the CNS, and turn those into language. This language is of necessity, restricted to yes, no or maybe, in varying degrees of emphasis or intensity, depending on the size of the swing, and the speed of rotation of the swing.

Will the UK leave the EU on No Deal/WTO terms?

The pendulum moves to YES, wobbles a while then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.

Will the UK leave the EU based on some adjusted version of Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement?

Again, the pendulum moves to YES, wobbles there awhile, then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.

OK. So that Ace of Clubs card. I also drew it in May. Classic meanings. A new business agreement. Trade Deal. A new Government. A General Election.

Will there be a General Election BEFORE the UK leaves?

It is swinging to NO. But I don’t know. I keep thinking of that Ace of Clubs card. I don’t see one occurring in September or October and that timing would be exceedingly tight. But, swinging the pendulum again, there’s something here, suggesting however unlikely, there may be one either concluded or announced before Christmas.

When will Brexit be declared as having occurred?

The pendulum is swinging between Scorpio-early Sagittarius

Corresponding dates 22 October-21 December

But the arc stops well short of the later end of this date range. But I can’t shake off the feeling there is a twist to come, or a surprise. The Joker hints at surprises. Something may happen earlier than expected. And that Ace of Clubs can mean a General Election hoving into view, and if that’s correct, it suggests that Boris Johnson has already made a decision in respect of the next GE.

Update: I believe this coming twist was at least in part, the announcement made on 28 August, 8 days following the reading, declaring the proroguing of Parliament in which case that 5 of Clubs card, in addition to its more general meaning, specifically denotes the time frame; 5 weeks. That is, four weeks of the annual conference season plus another week.

In summary, What can I deduce from this cartomancy portrait?

There is a gap here, begging some question not directly articulated. It is very often the case in Divination, that one has to read between the lines and look for what is NOT present in the cards. As a reader for a client, I draw my cards, share my impressions and then I ask the client for their question. Context is crucial for interpretation, and I am but an instrument.

Public discussions have centred on whether Parliament will permit Brexit to proceed, or cancel it, defying the referendum result, which in many cases, would mean MP’s defying the majorities in their own constituencies. And assuming it proceeds, discussions have centred on whether this will be a Deal/No Deal Brexit.

But in terms of cartomancy, what is being sensed here I think, is that there is a third possibility. Another route out.

Excerpt from a much longer article in The Spectator by QC Marcus Howe, Chairman of Lawyers for Britain:

“…to achieve meaningful changes to the WA would require the EU to be willing to accept a massive loss of face. This seems unlikely to say the least. So the only viable route to leaving the EU with a deal is to leave May’s WA unratified in its box and bypass Article 50 altogether. This can be achieved via a free trade agreement (FTA) similar to Canada’s but with enhanced mutual recognition of services, as well as security and criminal justice cooperation.

Since it would take time to negotiate and conclude such a deal, we would need short-term bridging arrangements to keep trade flowing freely in both directions while the details of the long-term FTA were being hammered out. The UK and the EU would continue to recognise goods and services as conforming with their standards, unless and until relevant laws are changed. Most of these bridging arrangements could be implemented (at least in the short term) through the UK and the EU using unilateral powers under the umbrella of a political agreement, as opposed to needing a formal legal agreement.” – 25 July 2019
Lawyers for Britain

Things are mighty peculiar. They are at the same time intransigent, and yet moving on apace.

Back soon with more cartomancy 🙂

Until next time!

Original Post, May 2019

Brexit, hey? Where next? Your guess is as good as mine but let’s take another look at it through the lens of my playing cards, drawn three nights ago, May 4.

Will there be a second referendum, as called for by Labour, The Lib Dems, and a number of high profile campaign groups?

Or will we leave without a second referendum and if so, what does it look like from here?

#Cartomancy reads the rows of cards left to right & also sometimes top to bottom, noting the ratio of red: black cards before looking at the individual meanings of the cards containing extra comments.

ROW 1 Will there be a 2nd referendum?

Probably not. There is a ‘new’ king about to come into play. This is not Mr Corbyn. This is a king of Diamonds, an electric communicator with acute money sense and I always draw Mr Corbyn as a King of Hearts. So, is this is a candidate to replace Mrs May as PM, or it is Mr Farage and any effect of the new Brexit Party, or is both these things, and the same card is standing for two significant (new) figures coming into play (again).

I suspect so. A second referendum would kill Brexit, which would be the aim, and this would be achieved by the ballot design, which would be designed to split the Leave vote as per an idea currently under discussion, but that 8 Spades is a pretty conclusive ‘no’ card.

ROW 2 Will we leave following a successful fourth attempt by TM to push through the deal already rejected on three previous occasions? After all, time and energy are not inexhaustible. Note the Queen of Spades which is clearly here representing Theresa May; a woman consulting the ‘legalese’.

Well, based on these cards, and however crazy it might seem, a deal is still looking possible, and is looking more likely at this point in time than NO Deal; and perhaps this is hardly surprising, since the No Deal negotiating option removed from Mrs May’s tool box.

But WHAT deal? The four of Spades is a tomb, a rout, a retreat. This prospective fourth deal or new deal is not Mrs May’s.

Those Nines surrounding the Queen of Spades represent both the failure of completion on 29 March, and Mrs May’s intense desire to get this deal passed. The 9 Hearts is the ‘heartfelt wishes’ card.

The cards indicate that Mrs May sincerely wants to find a way to (or to be seen to at least) to bring the UK out of the EU (not Europe) but the terms of course, are the issue, as we all know, except for those for whom it is not a question of the terms, but more the determination to see Article 50 Revoked altogether, and the whole thing put back in its box, and the lid slammed shut never to be re-opened. The threat of this seems very real right now, or the hope of this, depending on how you feel about it. But it doesn’t look to me as though it will happen.

ROW 3: A second Referendum?

This threat or hope notwithstanding, the cards indicated there will not be a second referendum, although this may not be necessary for the revoking of Article 50. And I don’t see that, so it look as though we will leave, but when? Is there an underlying sense of what it will look like?

If Theresa May should present the exact same deal to Parliament (shown as the 10 Diamonds) a fourth time, this will jam up the works, suggests the appearance of the 4 Spades. It won’t pass, plus, she may then quit as PM, and a new PM will come in (King Diamonds?) This could happen this summer, suggests the second column as I read it top to bottom like so:

6 Clubs ( within 6 weeks from the date of this reading, or, this is a summer card.

In Summary

What is absent from this spread is the single clean strike of the Ace of Spades, that would say a less equivocal OUT on WTO terms.

Other readers and astrologers are confident in expressing their forecasts of a clean WTO Brexit, even now.

I am probably struggling more than they to see past the noise, but I draw another cards and get the Ace of Clubs. This is BRAND NEW BUSINESS with a broad geographical horizon, but lacks that more black and white binary quality of the Ace of Swords

The Ace of Clubs has another quality to it, transcending matters of business….it’s equivalent to the Tarot’s Ace of Wands. Ignition. Birth, Almost like a rebirth.

So what does this mean in plain English? Well, this cloud is still morphing, but it’s looking like a WTO exit BUT with a ‘special European add-on.’

Or it is a whole New Deal.

For the sake of transparency, I should say that while I would perfectly calmly have accepted a remain vote in 2016, I feel the original mandate should be honoured as a point of principle, according to the self same terms in which it was clearly presented by the government in the run up to the referendum.

Execution of detail follows direction which follows principle.

However, as always, the risk in consulting with any kind of oracle is that the reader will not see what they personally may hope to see, and they may equally see precisely what they do not want to see.

I want to see that I will get outta this wheelchair and walk again one day. So, do I see that in my cards?

No.

I could be wrong, and I never say never, but meanwhile I am living with the fact that I do not see in my cards what I wish to see for myself.

You take my point. The reader asks a question. S/he may have personal ‘skin in the game ‘or not, but either way s/he shuffles and picks the cards blindly, and s/he may misinterpret, and be especially at risk of doing so if reading from a position of bias or prejudice, but s/he cannot fudge the reds and blacks except by doing so deliberately, and what the heck would be the point of that, when time will tell us all what’s what in due course?

Il Matrimonio, bless his ecologically right-on size 11 breathable bamboo socks, says he no longer cares one way or another. He just wants it all to stop, and he doesn’t mind how. And he’d quite like me to shut up with even trying to forecast about it.

What will happen will happen, he says.

Sure.

I have to give this forecasting thing a go, though, because divination is my line of work, and whether I get it right, or I get it wrong, so that I have to go back and figure out how and why I got it wrong with the benefit of hindsight – still, I will learn something, even if I have to fall flat on my face. So what? Life is short and…

I have done a number of readings around Brexit. I’m not being shown a clear No Deal exit, and yet, I see no sign of Remaining either. It is not going to be business as before, however this works out. The UK will not revert to the previous status quo.

We will all find out, *ahem* soon enough, won’t we?

And let us trust, it will be before each and every one of us is rendered utterly and completely….

William-Cheselden-Osteographia-or-The-anatomy-of-the-bones-London-1733-Courtesy-of

Image: Public Domain Review: William Cheselden, 1733, courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.

Of cabbages and kings. Tarot, toilets, tantrums, and -oh yes- Boris and Brexit. An Update:

UPDATE 13. 06. 2019

Let’s just look again at that line of playing cards I posted 30. 05. 2019 when I was enquiring primarily about the outcome of the legal action being brought against Boris Johnson, but there was a sniff of a subtext in respect of the imminent leadership contest to decide the new PM.

Would BJ be found guilty on a charge of public misconduct?

3 Hearts, 4 Clubs, 4 Hearts, 5 Diamonds, Outcome Ace Clubs.

Translation of the outcome card The Ace of Clubs:

“The beginning of a new enterprise or business venture. Focus, direction and singleness of purpose, the exercise of will. Important papers to be signed, legal document, contract, mortgages, a legal will. A building or institution – government, corporate, public, private, financial, educational, or penal. “

(Source: the excellent Kapherus- Art of Cartomancy)

We now know Boris Johnson was not required to appear before the Magistrate. The charge was dismissed as politically vexatious, and today Boris Johnson was one of the seven candidates selected in the final round for deciding the new PM.

Votes in alphabetical order.

Gove 37

Hancock 20

Harper 10

Hunt 43

Javid 23

Johnson 114 There goes the Ace of Clubs again.

Leadsom 17

McVey 9

Raab 27

Stewart 19

It doesn’t mean it’s in the bag for Boris Johnson. Politics just isn’t working that way at the moment. But now the list is down to 7 candidates, I’ll take a fresh look over the coming days, go fishing in the ether and see what cards turn up, and with the legal fracas out of the way, I might find it easier to see the wood for the trees. Back soon.

Read on for a reminder of the original post, 30.05. 2019.

The Eight of Swords from The Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti

This was my card of the day shared on twitter this morning. For anyone not familiar with Twitter, a tweet is a cryptic communication, limited to 240 characters.

“Tarot card of the day. For precision, there needs to be a context. Without that, it’s plucking from the ether. 8 Swords. DRAMA . STRESS. A problem has me/you/us stuck. Refusal to look or move, awaiting rescue. 8 Swords also talks about plumbing AND sure enough, plumber coming.”

The drama and stress in the ether is Brexit. Of that there is no doubt. The figure in the card stands for the mood of many in the UK, the fear, the anger, schadenfreude and finger-pointing that is happening all over the media. This is all of us, stuck, and unable or refusing to get to our feet, and walk out of the cage, picking our way through the gaps between those swords.

But I have also learned through practice, that the 8 of Swords may also be making an entirely immediate, practical and concrete reference to a very recent, current or imminent issue to do with drains, damp, plumbing and flooding – and it happens to be the case that a plumber is coming on Saturday to install a new loo and sink.

If you draw a card without the context of a question, you’re going to access the Tarot’s mirror effect. It is like blindly extending an antenna.

Does the card you then get mean anything that is timely and specific enough in meaning to be more than simple coincidence?

Awww shaddap. What about Brexit and Boris?

These are interesting times, and I’m sure everyone hopes they’re not going to get more interesting. But the action of a crowd-funded private prosecutor, barrister Marcus Ball, in bringing Boris Johnson in front of a magistrate to face charges of misconduct in public office is simply too precisely timed not to smell well…..pre-meditated…fishy. Despite the fact that this action has been three years in preparation, according to Mr Ball, who says he is now going to go quiet while he gets on with this unavoidable service to the nation.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/national/17671394.who-is-private-prosecutor-marcus-ball/

Perhaps this funding should be further investigated on principle, in the interests of fair play not only being done, but being seen to be done, following the recent outcry in respect of crowdfunding of the Brexit Party, which has also declared a major private sponsor, Jeremy Hosking.

Question: Will Boris Johnson be convicted of professional misconduct in Public Office?

I looked in my playing cards yesterday, 29 May, and tweeted as follows:

“Interesting times. Dirtier by the day. Cartomancy re the BJ situation. Row of 5 cards. 3 H, 4 C, 4 H, 5 D, Outcome Ace Clubs. Ace is strongest card =no, indicating no criminal conviction. But ‘ties him up’. Ace Clubs = competition, business handshake and also – a cave.”

I was looking at a classic row of 5 cards.

3 Hearts, 4 Clubs, 4 Hearts, 5 Diamonds, Outcome Ace Clubs.

Three red suit cards and two black suit cards. This, in classic cartomancy would very likely be read as a yes, though a weak yes if I read it according to the colour method.

But I have read Tarot for many more years than I have read playing cards, and have learned through a recent reading on a football question, when I got it wrong using that classic counting method, that I am not necessarily a classical cartomancer, perhaps in consequence of this long Tarot training, and that in my readings, the final card can trump the preceding cards, depending on what that card is, and how powerful a card it is.

If I read this as an open question, that Ace of Clubs trumps the lot. And it says no conviction of Boris Johnson on grounds of public misconduct.

The Aces are the most powerful cards in the deck. The Ace of Spades is the most powerful of all the Aces. It denotes years or even decades for something to happen. The Ace of Hearts denotes months or years, the Ace of Clubs denotes weeks or days, and the Ace of Diamonds days or even hours. Aces of Spades and Diamonds are the Aces that forecast in respect of legal matters, so if I had drawn the Ace of Diamonds, that would read as a yes in answer to the question as stated.

But here we have the Ace Clubs, a black suit card, indicating a final ‘no’, and since it is the last card in the row, I interpret this to mean there will probably not be a criminal conviction of Boris Johnson in line with the charge being brought. But it may hamper him for at least a few weeks, and perhaps that is the true objective.

The favourite rarely wins, historically, and some may rejoice at any spanner in his works, but they are not wise to do so, if it comes at such a cost as this precedent represents; regardless of whether one is a supporter of the Tory Party or Boris Johnson or not.

This action will be damaging, not only to Boris Johnson, but to everyone really, by contributing nothing constructive to a situation that is already way overheated, and poisoned with mistrust, which will only be stoked by the overtly strategic timing of this crowd-funded action.

Here is a characteristically forthright tweet from Old Holborn responding to a tweet from Andrew, Lord Adonis:

Old Holborn✘‏ @Holbornlolz 12 hours ago

Once they start, they can’t stop. EVERYONE should expect a knock at the door at 3am.

Boris Johnson may still be selected as the new PM, I never say never. And he could move this whole situation forward. I’m not asking that question, but I’m not seeing it jumping out at me, looking between the lines as I’m asking about this legal situation.

The King of Wands Reversed. It’s standing for BJ. Maybe this card has come up in token of him being up-ended with a view to silencing him. Not with a view to Justice. Where is the Justice card? Where is Judgement? The reader looks for the cards which do NOT appear as well as the cards that do. This card, the King of Wands, flags up a great communicator, confident, often charismatic, with an instinct for money and business, and a firm thumb on the bottom line.

Astrologically speaking, this card denotes an fire sign king, where Boris is actually an air sign king; super Gemini with his Sun in Gemini. Not only that but apparently he has Venus, Mars and Mercury in Gemini too.

This suggests an arch- communicator, tremendous charisma, widely inquiring, intensely curious, restless and fidgety, and yes, capable of duplicity, absolutely, quicksilver, and tricky as a bag of eels, though any politician who was not, could scarcely be expected to function effectively in key matters of state security or diplomacy either, and we’d be no more savvy than a babe in arms to think so for one minute. The Gemini is archetypal of all of these qualities, but also extremely brave, physically and morally, and while they can be selfish, careless, immature and wasteful, sometimes they are exactly the right key to open a particular door. Gemini is the jester of the zodiac, but jesters could tell kings the truth like no one else, and still not lose their head.

If he got the job of PM. He probably could move Brexit forward to a clear conclusion,no matter what happened after that. Why do I say so? Well, because The World card is about the wider world and world trade (WTO?) but is ultimately a card that is all about completion.

The Two of Cups Reversed. Hinge moment of this legal action. Conversations were had over quiet drinks. They toasted on another. But the parties concerned may not be toasting the outcome.

The Sun reversed A success blocked or delayed. The true objective may be achieved – to help assure BJ does not succeed in a bid to become PM. The Sun card is a moment in the sun. A crowning. But there will be no real winners. The Sun card reversed is a piece of burned toast; a cremation- a pyrrhic victory.

The Five of Swords reversed This card is a real stinker and never, but never, indicates a clear or conclusive outcome for whomever instigates the fight, except with a backlash that renders it…well, a pyrrhic outcome. When I am reading for a client, let’s say that client is considering mounting an attack or challenge, I have to warn them, it will drag on, and cost more than they think, and they will not obtain satisfaction, no matter what, even if they are in the right. And of course, everyone thinks they are in the right.

The Eight of Cups. The card at the bottom looks rather like a rear view of the man of the moment, the crowd funded private prosecutor, here to save the day. This card is about cutting one’s losses and moving on. and may also apply to Boris Johnson himself of course, which is why I’m not feeling he will be the next PM.

Politically, I’m sky blue pink with yellow dots. Sometimes I’m pale pink, other times, pale blue. I vote in line with my response to the prevailing issue as I see it, not along lines of party identification. I haven’t decided who I might want to be the new PM, but I can’t help feeling it would someone right if if he does win. Because of this new development. Or who will they come for next?

I looked recently and did not see there would be a second referendum. Or that Article 50 will be revoked. In terms of when the UK might leave, I can’t say. Although the King Of Wands suggests key developments during Leo (late July to late August) but maybe also …and if so, this would be after the UK should have left on 31 October….Sagittarius (late November to late December).

I’ll be looking again, naturally. It will take me too long to try and ID the front runner for PM at this stage. There are too many candidates still in the running.

Last time I looked, 3 days ago, BJ was, despite this new hullabaloo, shining out somewhat ahead of Mr Gove, and roughly neck and neck with Mr Raab plus there is a ‘quiet man’ on the horizon…Steve Baker? (Update: I think actually this was not Steve Baker but Rory Stewart who has loomed suddenly large in terms of TV exposure) There is a female candidate popping up too, who might make the final three. The Queen of Hearts suggests fair haired and this could be either Ms McVey or Ms Leadsom.

This may all change of course. What the cards are doing here as of todays date is mirroring what I feel from the collective ether.

Pass the popcorn. Meanwhile, let’s all try to accord one another a little more civility, and a bit of charity and not choke. On bile, or chagrin, or indeed on popcorn.

Until next time 🙂

Angels on our Shoulders

Some have called the Tarot ‘The Devil’s Picture book’, but what about the Tarot’s Angels?

Depending on the imagery of the deck, we might see the angel of Judgement. We might see the angel of Temperance,while in other decks the Christian figure of The Devil will be represented instead by the wild god, Pan.

Judgement Gilded Tarot — *Judgement from The Gilded Tarot, permission of Ciro Marchetti*

I do not necessarily see my card readings as overtly “spiritual” in nature or intention. I think that I am attempting divination – to divine what may be hidden or obscure- in communion with an ancient part of the mind- a part of my mind that is older than I am myself, and that this part of myself is communing with the ancient mind of the other person or the ancient communal understanding of a wider collective.

The reader often does not know what they will see in their cards until they look. Or at least, not consciously. They can only prepare to respond, and they could be asked about anything at all. And I do mean anything. I am often asked about relationships, of course, romantic relationships, family relationships, work relationships. I am asked a lot of ‘if’ and ‘when’ questions. When will I move job? When will I move house? Who will I meet and when and will it work out? I’m also asked a lot of business questions, by business owners, and the stakes have been very high indeed.

Once I was asked a truly oracular question, ‘how is my brother? Is he OK? How is he?’

Why was this oracular? Well, it was very sad. The lady’s brother was dead. He had killed himself. But now she wanted to know

Where was he?

Tarot offered me such an answer to this question, it was fit to make my hair stand on end, but in such a wonderful way, that if the Tarot is the “Devil’s picture book”, then the Devil is a whole lot kinder and compassionate than we give him credit for, and he’s overdue a major reassessment.

The Tarot “showed” me via The Sun card that this lady’s poor dead brother was a small boy again, still alive in his own mind, but lost in a timeless moment, happily splashing about in a puddle. I was told he didn’t remember his death, or what had driven him to it. Not a thing.

But …but

I got the feeling this poor soul was coming back again very soon. He was already on his way back to Earth, ready to try this thing called Life again, and he might even land again close by. Then I received a message the following week, very happy and excited, a bit tearful, to the effect that the client’s sister had just found out she was expecting a baby, and maybe…what if….

What if indeed. Maybe this was a reincarnation. Maybe it was something else I picked up along the way while investigating the stated question. It was and is, beyond me to issue any definitive proposition as to which, but it wasn’t me. Not the everyday me.

The promise of a new arrival had come via The Sun card. Meanings: the sun, birth, childhood, happiness, innocence, animals, healing.

The Sun card from The Golden Tarot, by Kat Black

I cannot prepare for a reading. I can only prepare to respond. I tidy the bathroom, I fill the kettle, I prepare the room, the reading table, and I try to settle my mind, and to get ready to point into whatever wind I’m about to feel on my face.

Readings work on flow. I need to make myself as inconsequential as possible, and take myself out of the equation, so, spiritually or non- spiritually, I don’t worry which, kicking the whole thing ‘upstairs’, and saying to myself while getting ready,

“Great angels of the elements, please help me to help (person’s name)

Uriel, great angel of the North

Gabriel, great angel of the West

Michael, great angel of the South

Raphael, great angel of the East.

Earth and Water, Fire and Air

Please help me to see what most needs to be seen

Please help me to say what most needs to be said

For the highest good and harming none

Amen.”

–Uriel represents the north and the element of Earth, and Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn

–Gabriel represents the west and the element of Water, and Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio

–Michael represents the south and the element of Fire, and Aries, Leo and Sagittarius

–Raphael represents the east and the element of Air, and Aquarius, Gemini and Libra

The Tarot, whatever else one thinks it is or isn’t, is a cultural, artistic artefact, and so are angels as depicted in art and literature through the ages.

Uriel, ‘Flame of God,’ angel of earth and the north is the colours of red, gold and amber.

Uriel, angel of self-trust – and therefore, wisdom of decision-making. He ‘stands at the Gate of Eden (Nature) with a fiery sword,’ as pitiless as nature, ‘red in tooth and claw.’ He guards the gates of Tartarus, battling the very baddest of all things bad, though probably some get out again anyway. Uriel needs to be tough, but he is also the archangel of salvation, and opens the gates of Life to let the dead pass safely out and onward, no waylaying by ‘evil nasties’, and he is working alongside the archangel Michael on this job. Uriel is also a culture vulture, depicted as the angel of poetry and patron of the arts, often shown carrying a book or a papyrus scroll representing wisdom. His Tarot card is the Ace of Pentacles/Coins/Earth.

‘Pennies from heaven.’

The Ace of Pentacles, The Gilded Tarot, Ciro Marchetti

Uriel, Wikipedia and The Ace of Pentacles from The Gilded Tarot, permission of Ciro Marchetti

Gabriel, ‘Strength of God,’ is the angel of water and the west, and is the colours of white and silver.

Gabriel is one of the two archangels specifically named in the Bible in both the Old and New Testament, the other being Michael. S/he is God’s messenger, often portrayed as female, she may be holding a trumpet and is the patron of communications, helping writers, teachers, journalists and artists to convey their message, to find motivation and confidence, and to market their skills. S/he helps in overcoming fear and procrastination in all difficult communication, and in areas related to children, during conception, pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing.

‘The Chalice.’

Gabriel by Van Eyck: The Ace of Cups, The Gilded Tarot, permission of Ciro Marchetti

Michael, ‘Who is like the Lord,’ angel of fire and the south is all colours of blue.

This might seem out of keeping, but his fire is blue lightning, and his angelic legions wore armour of blue lightning, both in fighting fallen angels, and cutting free trapped human souls who hadn’t managed to rise upon death, and were vulnerable to attack, drifting loose in the ether, stuck by their own weight in Purgatory. Michael figured as the greatest and most revered of angels in many scriptures and spiritual traditions. In Muslim lore, he is the angel of nature who provides both food and knowledge to man. Michael is the protector of police officers, patron of police departments and law enforcement agencies around the world.

‘The Divine Spark’

Coventry_Cathedral_-_Epstein's_sculpture_of_St.Michael_and_Lucifer.jpg

Wikimedia: Epstein’s Michael and Satan, Coventry Cathedral and The Ace of Wands, Legacy of the Divine Tarot, permission of Ciro Marchetti

Raphael, ‘Healing of God,’ archangel of air and of the east is all colours of green.

Archangel Raphael is the angel of truth, wholeness, healing, body, mind and spirit. Raphael is the rain-man, responsible for precipitation, medicine, also science, mathematics- and music. Many hospitals are named after Raphael in Latin speaking countries today. Pray for help then watch out for clues, ideas and inspiration. Raphael will not intervene to prevent a timely death,’ his war is against prolonged suffering of pain. Raphael is very curious, fascinated by humanity’s innovations, rather like Odin in Norse lore, and like Odin, likes to mingle with Man, travelling earthbound in disguise. He is reputedly the most approachable of the archangels, and is the angel to apply to for protection during travel.

‘The Sword of Truth’

Source: Wikimedia Commons: Raphael, and the Ace of Swords, The Legacy of The Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti

May your angel stay close.

Until next time 🙂

Updated: Brexit Boo/Brouhaha/Boo-hoo

Update on a reading initially posted May 2019. Read on…

Tweeted 20 August

#Cartomancy Will UK leave EU by/before 31 Oct 2019? Chance is higher than 3/5. Read L-R. 8 Spades, stuck state. Joker Rx, ie, new PM. (Gemini) Crux card= 9 Hearts. Red suit indicates yes. King D and 9 D. Money talks last minute. Ace Clubs. A deal. New start. GE?

So then, what does it look like? Will there be a No Deal Brexit, ie, an exit on WTO terms?

This is, by this time, the preferred option of many, though by no means all Leave voters, whether these are Labour voters or Tory voters. Meanwhile the Brexit Party has demonstrated its muscle, not only in the EU Elections, but in the UK sufficient that, although the Leave vote was split in Radnorshire, the very splitting of that vote also demonstrated the power of the Brexit party, even though this worked against both the Tory Party and the Brexit Party, such that the Lib Dem candidate was selected.

Be that as it may, what cards do we get?

Will it be a No Deal Brexit 22 August

Does this look like a No Deal Brexit?

Not really. This is not looking like a straight WTO exit. Or if it is, there is also some kind of a special trade deal with the EU.

I read the cards left-right. This is a storyboard. For a yes or no, my system is the classic colour system that says more reds than blacks = a yes answer. More blacks than red = a no answer.

How and why is this the case? It’s a convention. I could do it the other way around and that would work just as well. But this is how I have programmed myself to read them, and with much repetition, like learning to play an instrument, this is how it actually starts to work. Perhaps one builds new synapses or something.

So what have we got?

1 red suit card

1 Joker

3 black suit cards

The short answer is, cartomancy suggests there will very likely be at least some kind of trade deal with the EU, so that it will not be a complete WTO exit.

Does that mean that it’s going to be the Withdrawal Agreement then, presumably minus the Irish Backstop? BRINO? Brexit in Name only?

No, it doesn’t look like that either.

This looks like a trade- only deal, so far as I can see, possibly because the Backstop issue is resolved adequately for Parliament(just) and Mrs Merkel feels she has obtained for EU members some adequate measure of economic surety.

Let’s look at the individual cards.

That one red suit card, the 8 of Hearts, is representing the status quo, and the power of the Remain lobby in Parliament.

The Joker is a card of surprises. It is astrologically, the card of Boris Johnson, a Gemini subject three times over. It suggests he is completely in earnest when he says he wants us out. And he is not afraid of the EU, unlike Mrs May, but he is intellectually and politically agile, and not averse to sleight of hand. He needs to be cunning. Some might all it strategic.

Then we have the 2 Spades. Split. Severance. Divorce. This is a Brexit divorce, so if there is an element of ‘fudge’ or compromise, it may not be as significant, or be the trickery into indefinite entrapment that Leavers fear.

The outcome card, the 5 Clubs…so what does that mean? Clubs is the suit of government and business. 5 is the number of change…and also conflict. This change is uncomfortable.

The central card is key, so I use it as my start point for drawing a new line of enquiry reading top to bottom now, asking, well, if it’s not a straight WTO Exit, what will it look like?

The 7 Swords is negotiation and intense effort. It is the card of the ‘workaholic.’

There seems to be a story line here of Mrs Merkel saying in so many words, we can’t risk the No Deal scenario, this would be crazy. (Joker Reversed) The risk has to be detected as real enough and actually, it is. It looks as though Mrs Merkel will say this if she decides Mr Johnson is not bluffing. And I don’t feel he is. But if he could offer something to reassure the Remain MP’s, he may take a pragmatic view on that, or cynical as some might say. To get the thing over the line.

This last comment is based on the cards. Mrs Merkel is being shown to me as the eminently pragmatic and shrewd Queen of Diamonds, and the 9 Diamonds says…money talks.

Incidentally, Diamonds is the suit of electricity, and may sometimes suggest a health problem of nervous origin. Nervous as in , signals misfiring in the body, such as with Parkinson’s.

OK, let’s try out a pendulum divination, ie; asking my central nervous system to use a movement to indicate its non-verbal response to a verbalised question. On what basis does this hocus-pocus work?

It ain’t hocus-pocus. It works on the basis that the mind does not reside entire within the brain, and we know things at a deeper level than language, so the challenge is to distract the conscious mind, notice body cues from the CNS, and turn those into language. This language is of necessity, restricted to yes, no or maybe, in varying degrees of emphasis or intensity, depending on the size of the swing, and the speed of rotation of the swing.

Dowsing board

Will the UK leave the EU on No Deal/WTO terms?

The pendulum moves to YES, wobbles a while then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.

Will the UK leave the EU on what some call BRINO terms (Brexit in Name Only?)

Again, the pendulum moves to YES, wobbles there awhile, then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.

OK. So that Ace of Clubs card. A new business agreement. A new Government. A General Election. Will there be a General Election before the UK leaves?

It is swinging to NO almost immediately

When will Brexit be declared as having occurred?

The pendulum is swinging between Scorpio-early Sagittarius

Corresponding dates 22 October-21 December

But the arc stops well short of the later end of this date range.

We’re all watching this space.

Back soon with more cartomancy 🙂

Until next time!

Original Post, May 2019

Brexit, hey? Where next? Your guess is as good as mine but let’s take another look at it through the lens of my playing cards, drawn three nights ago, May 4.

Will there be a second referendum, as called for by Labour, The Lib Dems, and a number of high profile campaign groups?

Or will we leave without a second referendum and if so, what does it look like from here?

Brexit May 4 2019

ROW 1 Will there be a 2nd referendum?

But WHAT deal? The four of Spades is a tomb, a rout, a retreat. This prospective fourth deal or new deal is not Mrs May’s.

ROW 3: A second Referendum?

6 Clubs ( within 6 weeks from the date of this reading, or, this is a summer card.

In Summary

What is absent from this spread is the single clean strike of the Ace of Spades, that would say a less equivocal OUT on WTO terms.

Other readers and astrologers are confident in expressing their forecasts of a clean WTO Brexit, even now.

The Ace of Clubs has another quality to it, transcending matters of business….it’s equivalent to the Tarot’s Ace of Wands. Ignition. Birth, Almost like a rebirth.

So what does this mean in plain English? Well, this cloud is still morphing, but it’s looking like a WTO exit BUT with a ‘special European add-on.’

Or it is a whole New Deal.

Execution of detail follows direction which follows principle.

I want to see that I will get outta this wheelchair and walk again one day. So, do I see that in my cards?

No.

I could be wrong, and I never say never, but meanwhile I am living with the fact that I do not see in my cards what I wish to see for myself.

What will happen will happen, he says.

Sure.

fall flat on your face

We will all find out, *ahem* soon enough, won’t we?

And let us trust, it will be before each and every one of us is rendered utterly and completely….

William-Cheselden-Osteographia-or-The-anatomy-of-the-bones-London-1733-Courtesy-of

Image: Public Domain Review: William Cheselden, 1733, courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.

Deal or No Deal? A Card’s Eye View.

Oh no. Oh yes, we’re talking about Brexit. This blog is about divination, not politics or social commentary, and many practitioners of divination, besides conducting personal readings, are bound to look through their lens at affairs of public life.

Everyone does forecasting or predicting. Humanity is hard-wired that way for survival. Everyone. If you feel you know which way this is all going, you are speculating which is to say, predicting. Knowing what is your prescience and what may instead be wishful thinking, may be harder to judge. The same for readers too, who must beware a) their own fallibility and b) their personal biases in interpretation. For the most honest answer possible, the reader needs to stay like stone while shuffling and drawing their cards.

What are the bookies saying? Hardly surprisingly, it’s a shifting picture. Some think the UK will remain in the EU after 2019. But then again, the bookies did not predict the Leave result in the Referendum. This from The Guardian, Patrick Collinson, 24 June 2016:

In a candid statement, Ladbrokes’ head of political betting, Matthew Shaddick, said: “The truth is that bookies do not offer markets on political events to help people forecast the results. We do it to turn a profit (or at least not lose too much) and in that respect, this vote worked out very well for us.

“Nobody at Ladbrokes’ HQ will be criticising the predictive powers of our odds, they’ll be looking at the money we made.”

More than £40m was gambled in the biggest political betting event in British history.

William Hill said one woman in central London placed her first ever bet by putting £100,000 on the UK voting to stay, while another woman, from Kingston, south-west London, gambled for the first time by staking £10,000 on leave.

Here are the playing cards I drew around this question 12 August 2018.

The cards are shuffled and drawn blind. The most basic rule of interpretation is:-

Red suit cards indicate a yes answer

Black suit cards indicate a no answer….particularly if these are spades.

Will UK leave the EU with an agreed deal?

It is looking highly likely that it will not. Let’s read it as a story-line, left to right.

3 Clubs. Lively discussions, confrontations, a 3- way deal.

Ace Spades. Endings. New beginnings. Lines drawn.

10 Spades. Nadir. Betrayal. Despondency. Despair. A large body of water.

6 Clubs. Back in the saddle. Teamwork. Negotiation. Achievement.

4 Diamonds. This last red card on the line could still turn it into a last minute deal. Financial stability. a strongbox. A cheque book. This is financial conservatism…either UK pays out for the sake of diplomacy in the event of a non-deal so as to minimise the rocking of the boat or else decides to hang on to more of its own money.

What is the likelihood of a No Deal?

At first glance this is looking highly likely; 1 black suit card (no) and 4 red suit cards (yes).

Let’s look at the story-line.

Page Swords, spies, secret communications, legal advice, bad news, dark thoughts, skulduggery, espionage (No! Really?)

6 Diamonds, Research, technology, diagnostics, shyness. The PM is very clever, some fear deceitful, but she is rather shy. This may have added to a few problems in the face of the various manifestations of the ‘page of swords’ – in-house opposition to her stated brief.

6 Hearts, courage, trust, armed forces, all things regarded as ‘typically masculine’

8 Diamonds, utmost caution, balancing books, taxation matters, influential person wearing glasses (several come to mind both sides of the table)

Ace Diamonds, Fresh start, important document, life force, fire, new lease of life.

BUT, for utmost impartiality, at risk of fudging the system, let’s just zoom the lens out, reading both lines as a single story, paragraph one and paragraph two.

Now we have a total of 5 black no cards and 5 red yes cards, and we end up with a row of reds.

Bluffs are being called on both sides. The UK perhaps is doing less calling of bluffs and a deal takes two. There was a reason a referendum came to be called in the first place, after David Cameron’s bluff was called.

Read this way a deal could still happen, and if it does it will be almost last minute, viewing the cards as a kind of graph line where the black cards are succeeded by a row of red cards…look at it as a rising graph line. There is something here that does not line up clearly. There may be a delay or a last minute offer by either side.

Whichever way it goes in the end, for all the rage and worry on both sides, UK and EU, Leave voters and Remain voters, and the undoubtedly dirty machinations and toxicity of this process, and however I look at my cards, as separate lines or as a sequence of continuation, the ‘end’ card, the Ace of Spades appeared early on, representing severance and separation while the Ace of Diamonds is the ultimate final card in this spread. Fresh start, important document, life force, fire, new lease of life

It will not be business as before, whichever way it goes. I think we’re out, no second referendum, but I’m not sure that even if it is a hard Brexit, leaving on WTO rules, that it will happen on the 29 March. There is a strong suggestion that this is not a finality.

I feel the cards were also foreshadowing the recent events of Salzburg. This is a card of betrayal and assassination. Character assassination, political assassination, M Macron may prove to have overplayed his hand.

For the UK the Ace of Diamonds of a No Deal outcome is being shown to me as a far higher, therefore more desirable card of prosperity than the Four of Diamonds of the Deal outcome scenario. Mr Carney’s fears will not prove justified, bar an inevitable period of disturbance and re-adjustment.

Any Ace trumps any other card any time. There is plenty wrong in the UK, and plenty that needs to be done better. But I am not seeing that if the UK does go the way of the open seas, via a ‘hard Brexit’, that it is then on a heading to…