Through a glass of Tarot, darkly…the contest for the new PM (again)

And here we are again…embarking on the selection process of a new Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party

I will be looking further in the Tarot as this new contest unfolds. We will all know sooner or later of course, and in that respect, one might say there is no need and little point in doing any Tarot reading. But this is a Tarot blog, and I am writing this for those people who are interested in divination or psychic thinking and its workings. That’s what this blog is about, getting the Tarot’s Eye view on a real life situation and then seeing how that works out on the ground.

Rishi Sunak is the obvious front runner at the time of writing, and he could well get the post. I have drawn the Nine of Cups for him (the card means wishes granted) But I have twice in a row drawn the Nine of Wands for him, offsetting that Nine of Cups. Not an encouraging card in this context.

The Nine of Wands is courage and stamina, but someone has dug themselves into a furrow. Are they a one trick pony? This may prove to be a reference to Rishi Sunak’s position re taxation. Whatever his support within the party, if they are keeping a sharp eye on the prospects for winning the next general election, this seems at present to be the star to which he has hitched his wagon, and it is not classic grass roots conservatism.

Boris Johnson had wanted Rishi Sunak to cut taxes in line with previous manifesto promises, and notwithstanding the economic effects of the global pandemic crisis which hit almost as soon as Boris Johnson came into office. We have all been given to understand that this had set them at loggerheads, and we now see that Rishi Sunak has been quietly preparing for this moment for some time.

It is also I feel a reference to the emergency in Ukraine. The situation won’t go away. It is a direct longer term threat to Britain’s security and the economy. There is no appeasing Putin. How will Rishi Sunak handle it?

Ben Wallace draws positive cards and is clearly very well liked indeed, but the cards drawn last night were not looking strong at this juncture for him as the next Prime Minister. The same for Suella Braverman. Penny Mordaunt drew stronger cards than either of these two potential candidates

This however was merely te briefest look. The Tarot outlook may change. I will be watching this space and reporting further. Meantime, you can read on here for a reminder of what the Tarot had to say in June 2019 about Brexit, which was not yet ‘done’ (and arguably still isn’t completely done) and also what it had to say about the last leadership contest in 2019.

Original Posting 19 June 2019

Prescience is not omniscience. Tarot cards are used to facilitate divination via the language embedded in their imagery. Generally this means that they allow a reading of the present situation, but with hints about the past or hints about the future reading events in respect of an evolving continuum.

The puzzle of this, and not infrequently the wonder, is what the reader may pick up when reading for complete strangers, while knowing nothing or little of them, or their present circumstances.

Fortune_teller,_Albert_Anker,_1880.png — *Public Domain: The Fortune Teller, Albert Anker, 1880*

Sometimes the cards enable forecasting or sudden leaps of insight, not easy to account for through the standard meanings of the cards themselves. It is a conundrum that sometimes the future exists and sometimes it does not. As the saying goes, nothing is certain but death and taxes.

People may scoff all they like about the method. But this is a method that has to be learned, and we all make forecasts all the time. That is what planning is based on, and what forecasting activities are based on…projection of some pattern or algorithm. The tricky thing about ‘psychic’ predictions are generally disbelieved, even by the person making them, because unlike numerically based forecasts, they indicate a lack or break in some easily seen pattern. We don’t get to see the whole audit trail.

Experience tells me prediction with cards is possible, though of course not infallible, while others point out that it can’t be done, full stop, and that tarot is actually a meditation or counselling tool.

I am not in the business of telling other people what to think, or that they are wrong. But it has happened far too many times in my work to agree that tarot prediction can’t be done with an accuracy rate that goes far beyond the chances of the random hit, way beyond 50:50.

Reading the cards for predictive purposes was one of the earliest functions, if not the raison d’ etre of tarot reading in the first place, going back possibly even further than the renaissance, and as early as the thirteenth century.

Too many times, peering through the dark glass of my cards, looking into the unknowns of this or that; the answers proved correct. This does not mean that I knew the answers. I did not. How could I? had to sit with my cards, have a look, and have a think, deciding how I felt about them.

When, as here, I am looking at politicians through the cards, who or what am I trying to read? There is no direct personal connection. How am I coming at it? What am I trying to read, actually? Future news headlines? The thoughts of people who do not know I exist, who are not asking me any question, who have not entered into a ‘telepathic’ dialogue with a reader like me?

I do not know, and I don’t ‘know’ anything more than anyone else, but of course I will give it a go, for the experience, and to learn, and test myself in new ways.

These were the cards I drew 18/19 June 2019 in respect of

-Brexit and

-the contest for the new PM.

Context: These cards were drawn forty five minutes ahead of the announcement that Dominic Raab was now out of the contest for Prime Minister.

I drew further cards after the cards discussed below. Unfortunately the photo evidence didn’t make it to my lap-top. IT glitch but the bottom line of the lost cards was that the UK will eventually leave the EU as per the referendum mandate 2016, and may yet achieve a trade only special deal with the EU.

I drew the Ten of Cups twice, Scorpio timing, late Sept-late Oct, indicating that the UK government may deliver on its new promise to leave by or before 31 October. If not, it could slip until at least May/June 2020 (Knight of Swords =Gemini, and we are still in Gemini now, with 2 days still to go of Gemini in 2019) To what extent does this depend on the choice of the next PM?

UPDATE: So now that we know for a fact that Boris Johnson is the new MP, will we leave the EU by or before 31 October 2019?

The cards:

The first card, the 8 Spades, denotes a stalemate, imprisonment or benighted state of affairs and this is the start point of the answer. 1 Black suit card, the Joker signifying a need for a fresh start, and then 3 red suit cards out of a total of 5 indicates that it can be done in fact, and very likely will be.

Will it be a rehash of the Withdrawal Agreement? I don’t think so, I may need to frame that as a direct question and look again, especially in view of suspicions expressed by the Brexit Party. The 9 Diamonds promises a tough time, with obstacles and delays, but an extra comment card is an Ace, (new start) while of the four Aces, the Ace of Clubs in particular refers to a new Government or a new Act of Government. The central card, the 9 of Hearts represents the crux of the answer, yes or no, and here it is saying yes, because

A) it is a red suit card and

B) the 9 Hearts is the ‘wishes’ card, indicating that The new PM will realise, or see realised, the stated wish of his leadership contest manifesto.

Who Will be the New PM?

NB I am not asking who should be PM. I will leave that to others. I am not enquiring into the ‘worthiness’ of the candidates, only asking for signs as to whom it will be, and what might prevent them from succeeding, or what might help them, as suggested by the cards and only the cards, but connecting these to the known evidence where possible. This is about divination, not a political opinion piece.

Boris Johnson

The Magician, The 9 Swords, The Knight Swords, FUTURE? THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

Reflecting the current state of voting, these are the strongest cards, and this is the longest write-up for the same reason, but there is a but.

Mr Johnson is a Gemini subject, which interestingly for a reader, correlates astrologically with The Magician card. The Magician is Odin/Woden, the god of Wednesday. It is ruled by Mercury, combining agility, intellect and intuition. The Magician can get things done but is sometimes also regarded as a figure of mistrust, the Trickster. Sometimes this suspicion is justified. But the mercurial quality here means that the thinking happens so fast, others cannot follow it, and suspect a sleight of hand where actually, there was none.

Gemini is ruled by Mercury, planet of Trade. Another name for The Magician is The Jester. Mr Johnson is up for fun, can laugh at himself, or present himself as a figure of fun to many, a buffoon some say, But his mind remains separate and cool.

The 9 Swords is a horrible card of stress and sometimes sadness. There is a fair degree of stress suggested here, maybe headaches, literally. Insomnia. This situation weighs heavy on Boris Johnson, irrespective of appearances and how would it not? There is also a worry about something personal, close to his own home. Women and children feature in that picture.

Update: headlines followed a few days after this blog was posted re Mr Johnson’s domestic argument with Carrie Symonds. It would seem that the 9 Swords was foreshadowing this event, and possibly something more besides, but it really is private, and it doesn’t feel appropriate for me to speculate in public. Someone was listening in on a private conversation and by questionable means, always somewhat unsavoury.

The Knight of Swords attacks head on, but with a cool head. It’s not personal but get in his/her way, he/she strikes you down and carries on going. The objective is everything.

The Wheel of Fortune is a big card; a destiny card. THE destiny card, bespeaking forces greater than any individual’s ability to control. This is not up to him. He has been here before and it did not go his way. But the Wheel has been drawn the right way up. When the Wheel is drawn reversed, change is coming, but you’re riding the downward wheel. The Wheel is not only a major arcana card, it is a Number 10 card.

Mr Johnson has drawn two major arcana cards out of four cards drawn. That strikes me as significant. These cards are not straightforward, however.

The votes suggest this is almost in the bag, but that isn’t how it feels. This situation is, I feel, weighing heavy on Mr Johnson. Not shown here but looking on previous occasions I have twice drawn the 3 of Cups as the outcome in respect of his candidacy. A celebration. Still, there is that 9 of Swords…and a sense of perhaps entirely natural guarded reserve.

Jeremy Hunt

The 3 Coins, The Sun Rx , The Ace Coins RX, FUTURE? THE ACE SWORDS (?)

3 coins legacy divine — *Image: Ciro Marchetti: Legacy of The Divine Taro*t

The 3 Coins denotes conscientiousness, skill and attention to detail. I’d be inclined to rule out Mr Hunt’s chances of the top job based on these cards. The 3 Coins is a positive card, but here it is combined with The Sun RX (success denied or delayed) and the Ace of Coins RX (no new job, no new house) Except I can’t yet decide he won’t be in the final two, notwithstanding these cards, because of the presence of the Ace of Swords; ‘the seeds of a victory as yet unseen’ – a coup…though it could be foreshadowing a metaphorical coup de grace, the sword of Damocles, looming over the next round. Update: As we know know, Mr Hunt made it to the final two.

Cards drawn the evening of 22 July

Top Line: Boris Johnson: 1 character card followed by 4 yes cards

Bottom Line: Jeremy Hunt: 1 character card followed by 4 no cards

BJ’s Joker is picking up on his reputation of course, but in cartomancy it means ‘all change’. It can mean a risk taker. It can mean tricky dealings, or recklessness, but what it never means is stupid.

JH’s Three of Diamonds is a good communicator and team worker. But for significance it lacks the weightiness of The Joker. In cartomancy, BTW, it does not usually matter if a card comes out right way or not.

But again, The Joker seems to be making some additional comment attached to Mr Johnson’s personal life and relationship matters. Here is someone with an irregular domestic situation going on, but this is not someone who is a ‘womaniser’ on anything like the scale of a John F Kennedy, or a David Lloyd George, and by their final public record have they been judged by posterity, and in view of the gravity of their times, I’d say rightly so. Perhaps the jury of public opinion will stay out for now at least, and concern itself only with the performance of Boris Johnson the Prime Minister. But of course it won’t.

boris or Jeremy for prime minister cards drawn evening of 22 7 2019

The Other Candidates

Michael Gove

Strength, The 8 Wands, The Empress, FUTURE? The 10 CUPS

Mr Gove’s cards start strong. The Strength card does what it says on the tin. Plus it hints at a health kick. Could this card be showing us Una, taming the Lion of Britannia? As an individual contender, it is not that Mr Gove trumps Boris Johnson in terms of ability, but he does seem to have an edge in terms of a gift for teamwork. Strength is a Number 8 card, auspicious in both western and Chinese astrology; a good card of money and trade. This card trumps the dedicated craftsmanship and attention to detail of the Three of Coins of Mr Hunt. Then we have The Empress – harvest home, and the 10 of Cups.

Mr Johnson has the 10 of the Wheel of Fortune. Mr Gove has the 10 of happiness. Could it be the hearth at 10 Downing Street? Theoretically, perhaps, but it’s a smaller echo , the 1o Cups is more domestic in character, when weighed against the ‘destiny’ card, and that weightier 10 of The Wheel of Fortune.

Update: As we know now, Mr Gove made it to the final 3, amid rumours that tactical voting had ensured Mr Hunt made it through to the final two, and if so, perhaps this was done a) to remove what was seen as a chief threat to Mr Johnson’s chances and b) to offer party voters the advantage of a clear choice between two very different candidates with different approaches to delivering Brexit.

Sajid Javid

The Hermit, The 7 Cups RX , The 8 Cups FUTURE? The 9 COINS.

Hermit Golden — *Image: Kat Black: The Golden Tarot*

The Hermit suggests commendable qualities suggested in these cards; personal kindliness, a marked degree of self- sufficiency and also keen analytical abilities, and Mr Javid’s future with the conservative party seems set to continue with some senior role as indicated by the future 9 Coins. But the 7 of Cups is reversed, castles in the air. The 8 of Cups is about moving on, and 9 Coins is about managing a sector, running a ‘hotel’ or a financial department, tending a ‘garden’. But it’s not an Ace (beginnings) and it’s not a 10 (arrival at a destination, end of a cycle, crossing the line, completion)

Update: That senior role suggested by 9 Coins and 8 Cups, running a ‘financial department’ as we have now seen, turned out to be Mr Javid’s appointment as Chancellor of The Exchequer.

Rory Stewart (typing this section at 18.05, having just heard the results of today’s round while typing up Mr Raab’s cards.)

The Ace Cups Rx. The 2 Wands Rx, The Page Cups, FUTURE? 4 COINS Rx

ace cups reversed — *Image Public Domain The Ace Cups Reversed: Rider-Waite*

This was the weakest row of cards yesterday.Weaker than Mr Raab’s, and on this basis, I expected that Mr Stewart would go out of the contest before Mr Raab for all the sudden media push of positive publicity on Mr Stewart. And that expectation was wrong. WRONGGGG. I award myself a bad gold star. I thought Mr Stewart would go out before Mr Raab. And as it turned out, there was only one day between them, but there it is. Mr Raab went out first despite the fact of his stronger cards, and there may be in that, another suggestion of tactical voting at work. No matter. Bad gold star for me.

So what was weak about Mr Stewart’s cards? Out of four cards, three were drawn reversed. We had the reversed Ace of Cups, meaning, ‘a cup is emptied on the ground’, while the 2 Wands RX is nicknamed the ‘sorrow of Alexander’. Disappointment in expansion and conquest. The most positive card in this spread, the page of cups- denotes a ‘new kid in town,’ and a surge in goodwill and popularity, which is certainly being borne out in the media. But in terms of the Tarot, Mr Stewart has done very well to get so far as he has in the face of this card portrait. The 4 Coins Reversed were saying, literally, as literally as the Tarot can speak ‘NOT round 4.’

Dominic Raab

The Chariot, 4 SWORDS Rx, High Priestess (Out)

The Chariot RiderWaite Public Domain — *Image Public Domain: The Chariot, Rider-Waite*

It was the 4 Swords that was warning of Mr Raab leaving the contest yesterday, 18.06.2019. One may think I should have been expecting that? Saw that coming yesterday? Nah. Not with my everyday hat on, I was surprised to see Brexiteer Mr Raab go out so soon.

The Chariot card suggests Mr Raab could have made progress on driving Brexit forward, but those voting decided he was a horse (or the griffin) pulling The Chariot, rather than the charioteer himself, while the 4 Swords Reversed is a ‘sick’ bed, or a ‘tomb’. Perhaps pro-Brexit voters in the conservative party were not sufficiently convinced of his having the wherewithal to guide The Chariot? The 4 Swords suggests that this was based on the circumstances of his earlier resignation as Brexit Secretary.

Update: The Chariot, a weighty, Major Arcana card, turns out to denote diplomacy and travel. Mr Raab has been appointed First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. That High Priestess leaves him as a new Number 2. A much consulted figure.

The Four of Swords came up more than once before in previous readings, asking about the Withdrawal Agreement, and whether that would get through Parliament.

‘No’, suggested the Four of Swords back then, and we saw how that turned out.

The solitary figure of Mr Raab’s High Priestess is Number 2 in the Major Arcana whereas Boris Johnson has drawn that equally solitary figure, The Magician, is Number 1 in the Major Arcana.

One might have thought pro- Brexit conservatives would want to hedge their bets, ensuring that an unequivocally pro-Brexit ‘Number 2’ stayed in the race as back-up, but no. We are all seeing, politics at the moment just isn’t working according to what might seem to be obvious dynamics.

These are strange times and the cards are strange. I have been looking out for an appearance of The Emperor, Judgement, Justice, The Sun or The World against the name of one of these candidates.

Maybe tomorrow.

There remains a sense that the UK will eventually leave the EU as per the referendum 2016, and may agree a trade only special deal with the EU. But the battle is not over.

I drew the Ten of Cups twice, correlating with Scorpio timing, late Sept-late Oct, indicating that the UK government may deliver on its new promise to leave by or before 31 October.

If not, it could slip until at least May/June 2020 (Knight of Swords =Gemini, and we are still in Gemini now, with 2 days still to go of Gemini in 2019) But the Knight of Swords is a card sudden, speedy development and conclusive actions. Whose style is that? Mr Hunt has said that if he wins, he will have Mr Johnson on his team. And maybe Mr Hunt will yet do it, but that’s not sufficiently clear for me to feel he’s closed the gap enough yet.

Back soon 🙂

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 🙂

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– 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 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.

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 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.

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?

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

#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…

fall flat on your face

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.

Brexit Jingle Bells

abstract-art-blur-749386

Season’s Greetings.

Brexit. I don’t know any more, or better than or anyone else, how it is all going to work out, but I’m bound to look in my cards, aren’t I?

And whether I get it right or wrong, I will learn something, by having the opportunity to look back, and see where and how I got it wrong in interpretation. There is no other school. That’s how readers develop.

I drew these cards on Friday 30 November, sat on them, and posted them on Twitter on Saturday 8, December during a frenzy of media and of course, public speculation ahead of Monday 10 December when Theresa May was due to put the proposed EU Deal to the vote in Parliament.

Cards Drawn 30 November

The most basic way of reading a yes or no from playing cards is to decide on your system and stick to it.

My system says red cards = yes, black suit cards = no, irrespective of the positive or negative meanings of the individual cards. Then I count. Then I may look at the individual cards for further ideas.

I laid out three rows of 5 cards. Using an odd number is helpful in yes/no counting spreads. Readers typically use 1, 3, 5 or 7 cards. This is simply a matter of personal preference.

Row 1: Will Parliament pass the Deal?

Row 2: Will there be another General Election called soon?

Row 3: Will there be a so-called ‘hard Brexit’?

card reading re brexit

Row 1: Will Parliament pass the Deal?

Still possible but highly unlikely. This picture had not shifted over the course of the week.

Row 2: Will there be another General Election called soon?

Still possible but highly Unlikely. That 7 of Spades in the final position is a real sinkhole of a card.

Row 3: Will there be a so-called ‘hard Brexit’? Far from certain. It’s almost ‘even Stevens.’ We have 2 red suit cards = yes, 2 black suit cards =No and the Joker which could go either way.

However. The Joker says, expect sudden changes, surprises and risk- taking behaviour – it is not necessarily irresponsible, while the 10 Diamonds as the final card raises the chances of a yes answer, because a red suit = yes as a kind of last word and a 10 is the number symbolic of completion.

A hard Brexit therefore, while looking far from certain, is at this date looking more likely than the other two scenarios.

I was interested to compare this with a reading shared here on True Tarot Tales in August re Deal or No Deal? The indications were that it would probably be No Deal, but the picture now in my cards is more fraught and complicated, which is perhaps entirely to be expected, given that we’re in the midst of the very fraught latter stage boilings of the process.

This is such a major and volatile situation, I drew another spread the following week, on Saturday 8 December, to see if, a week later, the cards were still telling the same story in respect of what Parliament was going to do on Monday 10 December in passing the proposed Deal or Not.

Is Parliament going to pass this Deal day after tomorrow, 10 December 2018?

I shared these cards and the interpretation on Twitter, tweeting it on 8 December at 4.32 PM

Parliament 10 Dec 2018

Future’s not a lump of concrete. Forecasting, by whatever means is @ sensing probabilities. This line of 5 cards confirms MPs will PROB not approve deal. QD =PM. AC =Pment The 2D MIGHT still just poss make a diff. Reps amendment re backstop? 2S and 4S =any exile of NI =a tomb.

The Queen of Diamonds is Theresa May.

The Ace Clubs is Parliament

The 2 Diamonds is a business partnership

The 2 of Spades is severance of a partnership. UK -EU-N Ireland border

The 4 Spades is sickness, entombment, retreat or even a rout.

Looking back, we see that the drawing of the final cards, the Four of Spades – ‘a tomb’- manifested in practise (UK spelling) as the cancellation or deferment. Or as it may yet emerge, shelving.

What does that venerable purveyor of prognostication, Old Moore’s Almanack have to say about it all?

Old Moore, published in Britain since 1697, famously uses Astrology as its go-to system of divination, and as many will be quick to point out, doesn’t always get it right, but historically predicted the Wall Street Crash and the start of WW2.

old moore

Old Moore has done an extensive report into Brexit as one would expect, but basically suggests that the UK is coming out as per Article 50, probably without EU deal, and says it sees no sign of a second referendum.

Economics post Brexit, it characterises as bumpy but not calamitous, some sectors grow/stabilise even early 2019 including Tourism, Education, the NHS and the service industries.

The national mood is very ‘Saturnian’, it says, whatever the power of the movement in favour of a second referendum, but that there is a strong current afoot in the national psyche of a Saturnian will to work, and an equally Saturnian drive for self- reliance (which is not necessarily to be confused or conflated with isolationism).

Time will tell of course, as with all forecasting, whether by polls, pundits, politicians or indeed, economists and top banking people. No need for sceptics of all findings of a supposedly non- rational provenance to point this out.

The workings of Divination are not supernatural, but based on the wonders of our natural human biology. Science knows full well that the gut speaks directly to the head, and often, if not always, it’s the gut that speaks first.

Perhaps Brexit could also be understood in the context of a grass-roots, if apparently delayed after-shock in response to the seismic shock of the financial crash of 2007.

Old Moore suggests Britain will keep calm and carry on…while suggesting possible major changes at No 10 later in 2019, maybe in June.

dont panic

I had a weird dream about Theresa May last night. I’ve forgotten most of it, but she said she dreaded going to see the Queen.

Until next time.

Saturn says Season’s Greetings 🙂

And also, being Saturn, says ‘Bah Humbug’.

Cartomancy’s Sneak Peek at the EU Repeal Bill

KTLN 2

Late on Monday evening Il Matrimonio reminded me that the vote for the EU Repeal Bill was due to take place that night, and I reached for my playing cards. It was already 10.00 PM, just hours to go as I drew the cards illustrated below, asking, would the Bill be passed? I left the cards out on the table, made my initial assessment which was that it was a yes answer, then went to bed and tried to forget about it till morning.

These were the cards left out overnight. The top line contained the yes answer, but on what basis did I arrive at that interpretation?

Repeal bill

To get at a yes/no answer, you lay out a row of cards using an odd number, 3, 5 or 7.

It’s a question of preference. On such a weighty and hugely multi-factorial question, 3 might seem too few, and by now I’ve trained myself to read in fives. That’s what this stuff is about. You learn your chosen system of divination, whether that’s playing cards, Tarot, runes or whatever. You study it. You learn and you practise, practise, practise until you internalise the code, the programme, or whatever you like to call it, until, if you persist, it feels like second nature.

You activate your internal oracular programme on request. The most psychic psychic in the world – whoever that is, and it isn’t me, doesn’t go round being psychic all the time. Do they heck. They wouldn’t be able to function. Prescience isn’t omniscience, with tools, you learn to manage, instruct and direct that innate human capability. So, how do you direct it?

If it’s cards you’re reading, you do it simply by stating your question aloud as you shuffle. Not for the purpose of enlisting any rogue, random spirits in the room (or, wait… no, are they…are they… aaaggghhh…imps of Satan come to steal your soul?)

No. It is just so that you will hear yourself say it. Then stop shuffling when you feel ready. That’s it. You just stop shuffling when you feel ready, then you take off the top five cards and lay them out from left to right, creating a story-board moving forward in time.

The red card suits are Hearts and Diamonds, simplistically read as supportive or positive.

The black card suits are Clubs and Spades, simplistically read as challenging or negative.

5 red suit cards represents a definite yes

4 red suit cards represents a probable yes

3 red cards represent a likely yes

2 red cards represent a likely no

1 red card represents a probable no

0 red cards says forget it. The answer is no.

So what did we have here? 3 red cards and 2 black cards, suggesting that it was more likely than not, that yes, the Repeal Bill would pass. But we had those 2 black suit cards. What else could be gleaned?

The first card out, the 10 of Clubs, is a card of business and far-flung travel and clearly represents the bottom line. Additionally, the 10 Clubs also represents the idea of a body of water. It might be a sink or a bathtub, or it might be a sea or a channel. For the first card out to say ‘The Channel! La Manche!’ provides quite a benchmark.

The second card out, the 8 of Hearts, speaks of a gathering, a convocation. It looks surprisingly cheerful here, there would appear to be more goodwill than so much other evidence suggests. It is strongly suggestive of togetherness (huh? eh? really?) It is suggestive of total sincerity at least, on both sides, whichever side of the argument you personally happen to support.

The third and central card, the pivot or hinge card here, is the 3 of Clubs: a card of confrontation but also collaboration. Three way deals. My goodness, there have been some mighty interesting conversations behind the scenes both sides of the House.

The fourth card here represents a male figure, highly significant in this debate. It might be David Davis, Jeremy Corbyn, or both. Any one card may have multiple meanings. My initial impression was that while David Davis was, despite everything, within his personal comfort zone, while Jeremy Corbyn was faced with a perplexity; needing not to alienate Labour voters who voted to leave, whilst needing to reconcile opposing elements within his party.

The final outcome card, the 4 of Hearts, is traditionally a card of a settled home, indicative of a solid, foursquare outcome. Because this card falls in the final position, this swung the cards more strongly towards a yes answer, denoting a solid but hardly sweeping result, and we now know there was a majority of 36 votes, with 126 challenges and amendments already tabled.

And if you got this far, you might be wondering about those other cards. What were they about?

When a question is so heavily loaded, supra-personal and complex, I cross- reference, coming at the question from different directions, looking for repetition, pattern and breaks in pattern.

The second row is talking about Theresa May herself. I had asked, would she achieve the result she was looking for? Again, we had 3 red suit cards and 2 black translating as, yes, more likely than not. The 2 black suit cards here however, were spades, which are to do with intellect, focus, strategy, loss – and stress, suggesting that while Theresa May will hold her nerve going forward, she is acutely aware of past mistakes and errors of calculation (the jack of spades is bad news, tricky in the extreme.)

The 9 of Spades together with the Queen of Diamonds, speaks of stress and strain, loss, attack and grief, concerning a reserved, pragmatic woman of quick instincts and warmth. It also seems, interestingly, to have foreshadowed the challenge of the 9 Conservative MP’s now tabling amendments

There is no doubt the Prime Minister has felt the sad and terrible events of 2017 no less profoundly on the personal, human level than the rest of the general population, and if anything, more intensely because some of her responses were criticised, and, wherever the culpability lay, because these things happened on her watch.

See it here below. The black dog.

Below: the Nine of Swords(Spades) from The Golden Tarot by Kat Black, by kind permission of US Games Systems

9 Swords Golden

The third row of cards was looking at those opposed to the passing of the Repeal Bill. Would they be happy with the outcome? We see here 4 black suit cards and only 1 is red. The King of Spades here is Jeremy Corbyn again, or Keir Starmer, but those who were disappointed can be assured that some concessions will be negotiated or obtained, especially and broadly pertaining to business affairs, as suggested by the outcome card on this line; the lively, mercantile Jack of Diamonds.

In laying out the final row, I had no specific question but was looking for a general sense of how things seem set to progress. The indications here are that the UK will leave the EU more or less according to the scheduled deadline. If there had been a spades card at the end of this row, it would have suggested delays, perhaps even significant delays, and if it had been the Ace of Spades, may even have detected an aborted exit process. The only spade card here however, is at the commencement of this row and it is the 6 of Spades; a positive if solemn card, denoting a departure; charting a new course. It represents progress, though of course, not without effort, cost or struggle.

Below: The Six of Swords (Spades) from The Gilded Tarot by kind permission of Ciro Marchetti

6-swordsg

The outcome card, the 2 of Hearts, suggests a 2 year time-frame, possibly accelerated by whatever is being flagged up here by the 9 of Diamonds sitting just in front of it. It looks as though, because of the electricity of the diamonds suit, that certain significant dealings in respect of transport or travel, and possibly also power stations, may be settled somewhat more advantageously to the UK than many fear. Let’s all hope so.

This is not about politics, promoting any political viewpoint. This is about learning how to read the cards in respect of public affairs, reading cold, developing skill of interpretation via benefit of hindsight.

The lessons of hindsight facilitate wider, deeper future foresight. Reading practitioners develop intuitive muscle by tackling questions. All kinds of questions. Exposition builds the reader’s vocabulary, and with it, the capacity for more in-depth precision of card interpretation, and context is king.

Until next time 🙂

Tarot says ‘Baaaaa..d or good investment?’

Updated 12 May 2020:

I handle a lot of business questions in my professional readings. My clients are looking for an extra steer, that is all, but the stakes can be high, and of course, it is the client who will bear the responsibility of their own decision making.

A psychic reading cannot be considered a substitute for a professional financial, legal or medical question.

All the same, if I am asked, I will give it a go and share my findings, and the client may or may not welcome the answer. That is one of the risks in consulting with oracles

I may be asked anything at all. For example: If I go ahead and build these two houses, how well will I do out of it when it comes to selling them, and how fast will I sell them? etc etc

I don’t know the answer to their question. How could I?

Or perhaps I do, but I do not know that I know it.

Prescience is not omniscience or psychic readers would go mad. We don’t go round knowing everything. We have to stop and look.

Did I know this hideous coronavirus thing was coming? Did I heck. The only thing was, I had a peculiar experience back in January, I saw an apparition. It was unpleasant and I wondered if something nasty was coming.

I remember saying so to myself. What’s coming? I was uneasy. But that’s not the same as knowing. I didn’t know, though some astrologers did apparently, notably an astrologer called Andre Barbault who wrote in 2011 that he detected a risk of a pandemic in 2020/2021, based on a planetary cluster or stellarium noted before in association with previous historic events.

There is a lot of astrology in Tarot but it is not astrology.

Back to my cards. I cannot prepare in advance for doing a reading. I can only prepare to respond and be ready to make a leap in the dark, inviting a question then looking into my cards to help me decide what I think about the answer.

Reading cards works a bit differently to doing astrological readings. No drawing up of astrological charts. Unless the client wishes to brief me, I do not have any advance information whatsoever. I could be asked absolutely anything and need to deliver a more or less instant answer, shooting straight from the hip so to speak while providing at least some kind of readily verifiable information in that feedback, or how can the client benchmark what I am saying?

What can really help me out here is synchronicity, but what is synchronicity?

Definition as supplied by Merriem-Webster: the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality —used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung

A recent instance was during a reading

Of course I am not reading face to face at present, during the current lock-down, and in any case I mostly read by Skype these days. I suppose I ought to look into Zoom as well but Skype has worked perfectly well so far.

I was doing a Skype reading. The client had a business question and I drew the Seven of Pentacles from

The Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti

Classically this card refers to reaping a reward for hard work or patience and suggests that there will be a good return on a long term investment, but no quick returns.

I view this card more positively than some readers. One of the traditional meanings for translation is futility. Waiting for a kettle to boil but it’s fused and you don’t even know it yet.

Certainly, if I draw the Seven of Pentacles out reversed, I’m likely to decide I’m looking at a future poor performance or loss on your current or proposed investment.

If the Tower card were to turn up alongside it, forgeddit! The Tower means a crash. But if we got the Ten of Pentacles, well, that’s looking like a safe bet, just slow to mature or materialize.

If you were a prospective buyer, I might well be sensing you need not to buy in this or that product range. This does not represent a good acquisition. It may either not sell well, if you need to re-sell it, or it might take forever to shift.

The client in this instance was asking about the shifting of retail stock. Money was the presenting issue, and as often happens, a particular detail suddenly leaped out at me.

‘Do you have sheep living behind your house?’ I asked.

‘Yes’, he said, looking somewhat mystified ‘a field at the back.’

This is a typical instance of what Jung meant by synchronicity. But does it mean I enquire about sheep every time this card appears in a reading?

No. It absolutely doesn’t. I had never asked that before, in drawing this card. It just so happened that on this occasion, the sheep jumped out at me and so I asked.

Would this same card appear in a reading done for a sheep farmer?

Well, it ought to.

Returning to the more usual meaning of this card. If I was thinking of buying stocks or shares and this came up, would I go for it?

Probably, so long as it came out upright, but not necessarily, depending on the surrounding cards.

That’s how it goes.

Until next time 🙂