The Curse of Cassandra. William Lilly, Precarious Prediction, and when psychics stay schtum…

Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on Pexels.com

There is a saying, ‘if you can’t say nothing nice, don’t say nothing at all’.

This holds true in many situations and is often the wisest thing, as well as the kindest thing, as expressed by the Hippocratic principle of medicine, ‘first, do no harm.’

There is another saying we have probably all come across, ‘opinions are like a*holes. Everyone’s got one.’

However, we all do predictions all the same, whether we see it that way or not. We are constantly planning on the basis of predicting what we will be doing next.

Forewarned is forearmed (trotting out all the cliches here)

However unsolicited comment, when it’s not welcomes is next to useless for practical purposes. It will be disregarded or worse. Plus, regardless of whether subsequent events prove them right or wrong, history shows that unwelcome ‘messengers’ really do get ‘shot.’

The Curse of Cassandra

The Curse of Cassandra refers to the princess of Troy, the legendary seeress Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba. Although she was truly gifted in prophecy, she was so weird and her warnings were so depressing, she was not believed when she spoke the truth, and could not save her city, her people, or finally, her son or herself. And she knew it. No room for hope. Here we see Cassandra having a rotten time with that thug Ajax. Troy has fallen, and it’s only going to get worse.

Painting by Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1806

Cassandra was a priestess of Apollo, and he wooed her with the gift of prophecy. When she turned him down, he couldn’t withdraw the gift, so he made it a curse so that whatever she said, people just thought she was loopy and took no notice.

This in itself might be enough to send someone a bit crazy, don’t you think?

To shout into the wind. To see the approaching doom of everyone and everything you know, and to know that you will be unable to help your loved ones? Wouldn’t that be a kind of a living hell?

Then again, the truth may hurt, but beyond that, assuming it is indeed the truth, can it do any good?

That depends on someone’s readiness to consider the warning, or whatever other information you might have to share.

Was this input solicited?

Is it within their nature and their capability at any level, to have the resources to use it?

Unsolicited advice often falls on deaf ears (as does actively solicited advice) People work things out their own way, according to their own needs and understanding and resources available to them at that given time.

Making predictions in public may be regarded as so much hot air, solicited or unsolicited proselytizing, depending on the circumstances, though of course media pundits do it all the time.

Journalists have approached me on occasion, seeking a quote, an interview, a soundbite, eg; about Brexit. I have done many readings around Brexit and written them up here. But the journalist doesn’t want to trawl through those. They haven’t the time. They want a snappy sound bite.

Journalists are looking to tell a good story. This may mean, not that they lie, but they do not necessarily quote one verbatim either, while my blog archives are available to browse anytime.

‘A word to the wise,’ we may say, when offering advice. Even assuming the advice is good advice, it takes a wise person to listen, let alone act on that advice in timely fashion, especially when the advice really isn’t what they want to hear.

All around us, people are issuing their own predictions left, right and centre. The state of the country, the state of the world, management of the Covid situation, and so on. We are all broadcasters now, and publishers, such is the easy reach of social media, the global village pump on multi-billion steroids, which meanwhile is farming us.

The Masters of Magic Deck

Yesterday I decided to try out a deck I have not used before, to pull a single comment card – no context, nothing but a straw in the wind.

I was using, not a Tarot deck, but an oracle deck, ‘The Masters of Magic’ by Severino Baraldi & Laura Tuan, and is published by Lo Scarabeo. Link HERE

This 32 card deck offers a miniature potted history of key figures in western magic, including the so called natural philosophies which were in their time regarded as sciences: alchemy, astrology etc. Their theories and works are examined in the little book that comes with this deck, affording the reader the opportunity of drawing down directly on a distillation of their knowledge and experience.

I asked myself whom I needed to consult on this day of the solar eclipse, 10 June 2021, shuffled and drew Card Number 20, featuring the astrologer William Lilly.

You can see the keyword that has been ascribed to this card is ‘Independency.’

Something in me reacted with, ‘why does it not just say Independence?’ But doubtless, I was just nitpicking. I’ll blame it on my Virgo rising sign. But we talk about dependency, so why don’t we use this other word, independency more?

‘Hey,’ I said to Il Matrimonio, ‘what do you think of this word, independency?’ He said, ‘never heard of it. I heard of dependency.’

American English?

Back to William Lilly. With 21 June fast approaching, the proposed UK date for the final release of lock-down this card struck me as timely.

People were upset, shaking their fists, shouting ‘no-one is going to tell us what to do.’

Well, I didn’t like it either. But sorry. Yes they are or there could be no such thing as a society. Infrastructure demands co-operation and regulation. When there is a revolution, there is anarchy for a while but then a new society emerges. Just with a few new and different rules.

And we will see plenty of this during the next 20 years.

But our individual freedoms were already in hock when we were born, negotiated far, far back in exchange for the most basic safety and security, and later, for the many benefits of modern life depending on a hugely complex organization of infrastructure. Habitation. Protection. Roads. Lighting. Water. Food security.

If we really want to be completely free, we need to go analogue and go off-grid. But then we’d pretty soon be dealing with opportunistic human predators. New ‘zombie swarms’. They’d find us soon enough. Meanwhile the weather would tell us what to do, and so would hunger and thirst and any illnesses. The seasons would command us, and the availability of all vital food resources. We’d have very little freedom in real terms, simply in terms of everything we’d have to be doing simply to stay alive from one day to the next.

This dog is looking pretty relaxed, considering. Or maybe he is just undecided, wondering if he is running with the wrong pack, and should join forces with the wolves.

On the other hand, no, we are not like ants or bees. Short of annihilation, totalitarianism is the ultimate collective nightmare. We have witnessed it in action enough times to know what it means, in all its horror.

The human animal must have plenty of individual scope and freedom, personal agency. It is in our DNA, in our spirit, but it’s a balancing act and sometimes it has shifted this way and sometimes the other in response to the exigencies of the bigger picture at any given time.

“Why is man man? As long as we have had minds to think, stars to ponder upon, dreams to disturb us, curiosity to inspire us, hours free for meditation, words to place our thoughts in order, the question like a restless ghost has prowled the cellars of our consciousness.” – Robert Ardrey –Nature of Man Series

This card from the Masters of Magic deck, William Lilly, seemed most apposite, drawn 10 June 2021, the day of a partial solar eclipse in Gemini, ruled by Mercury, planet of science, commerce and travel.

Lilly’s Plague and Fire Predictions

William Lilly was a practicing predictive astrologer, who famously foresaw a dreadful pestilence which turned out to be The Great Plague 1665, and a fire which turned out to be The Great Fire of London 1666. He saw these in his charts and wrote them up in a book published in 1651.

Lilly was well known by this time, following his prognostications during the Civil War, when he had seen intimations of the death of a king, and success for the Parliamentary forces, though in later years, after they had won and the king had been executed, he became increasingly disenchanted with Parliament and with Cromwell and spent two weeks in prison for his remarks. You can read more about that here in this article by Barbara Dunn, via the Urania Trust.

The plague and fire predictions appeared as a series of “hieroglyphic images” in his book of 1651 Monarchy or No Monarchy in England, meaning they were published fourteen years before the events they predicted came true.

Lilly used a coded astrological language, expressing concern that his judgement might be “concealed from the vulgar,” meaning he only wished those who understood the astrology to be able to decode them. He wasn’t addressing his predictions to the general public.

What would have been the response if he had? How could anyone have used this information? He was publishing for scholarly purposes, paying it forward

French astrologer, Andre Barbault, who died in 2019, predicted the 2020 pandemic back in June 2011. No. He didn’t call it coronavirus. He did not specify details. What he did was to identify the planetary patterns, which previous events in history suggested, correlated with these kinds of events.

Barbault identified notable times in history when the concentration or bunching together of the five slower moving outer planets coincided with epidemics, wars and natural catastrophes, eg, floods, earthquakes. For example, in 1347 the planets Jupiter, Pluto and Uranus formed a triple conjunction in the astrological sign of Aries while Saturn and Neptune, the other slow planets, were nearby in the signs of Pisces and Aquarius.

Bio

Barbault noted that in January 2020, Saturn and Jupiter were in a tight conjunction aspect in Capricorn and Jupiter was relatively close by in the same astrological sign.

M Barbault was not a doom merchant. He pointed out that big things, good things could rise from the disruption of such events, and that the Renaissance had been the phoenix to rise out of the Black Death.

However…

“The slaughter engendered a terrible panic, which manifested in punitive self flogging and the massacres of Jews and lepers who were held responsible for the plague.”

When pandemics happen, as they have roughly every century, there is enough time in between them for people not to remember what it meant on the ground, attempting containment, and there has always been a conspiracy theory, different each timebut involving a powerful ‘they’ and sometimes a scapegoat- someone to ‘blame.’

Back to the theme of ‘psychics keeping schtum’ …. in one of Barbault’s books, Planetary Cycles Mundane Astrology, he explained why he often shut himself away “in a remote, faraway place where you can’t guess what’s going on in the world around you. I had to rid myself of illusions.”

But in this modern, secular world, although Barbault may be disbelieved or his predictions dismissed as vague or coincidental, but at least he was not in danger of a criminal conviction on account of his published astrology. Unlike Lilly.

In 1666, after the fire, Lilly was summoned to appear before a Commons committee to explain himself, on suspicion of arson. If he was not an arsonist, how did he ‘know’ about the fire so long beforehand, to have published these predictions back in 1651? His book had come to the government’s attention following the discovery of an anti-government plot which had used an almanac of Lilly’s to identify their most auspicious dates for action.

He explained as follows: Source: Rubedo Press an article published 26 March 2020.

“I was desirous, according to the best knowledge God had given me, to make enquiry by the art I studied [i.e., astrology], what might from that time happen unto the Parliament and nation in general. At last, having satisfied myself as well as I could, and perfected my judgment therein, I thought it most convenient to signify my intentions and conceptions thereof, in forms, shapes, types, hieroglyphics, etc. without any commentary, that so my judgment might be concealed from the vulgar, and made manifest only unto the wise. I herein imitating the examples of many wise philosophers who had done the like. Having found that the city of London should be sadly afflicted with a great plague, and not long after with an exorbitant fire, I framed these two hieroglyphics as represented in the book, which in effect have proved very true.”

These seem pretty explicit, published so many years ahead of the real time events, but that’s easy to say with hindsight and without reference to the book in its entirety to see what was readily accessible to the understanding of contemporary readers not versed in astrology. Faced with an opaque text, and lack of apparent context the significance of the pictures may not have been apparent.

The committee, with reservations, accepted the Great Fire as an act of God.

Lilly didn’t ‘know’ of course. Not as such. Astrologers don’t know as such, any more than Tarot readers or any other practitioners of divination know as such. But they think they recognize something, and that they understand what they are looking at, and this is what they can share.

Lilly showed further ‘Independency’ when his landlord wished him to leave his house, being frightened of the poor people who had started coming to see Lilly for various help and treatments that he offered…like many astrologers of the time he had some apothecary’s knowledge.

“Now I come unto the year 1665, wherein that horrible and devouring plague so extremely raged in the city of London. 27th of June 1665, I retired into the country to my wife and family, where since I have wholly continued, and so intend by permission of God. I had, before I came away, very many people of the poorer sort frequented my lodging, many whereof were so civil, as when they brought waters, viz. urines, from infected people, they would stand purposely at a distance. I ordered those infected, and not like to die, cordials, and caused them to sweat, whereby many recovered. My landlord of the house was afraid of those poor people, I nothing at all. He was desirous I should be gone. He had four children: I took them with me into the country and provided for them. Six weeks after I departed, he, his wife, and man-servant died of the plague.“

Historically, a pandemic usually lasts 3-4 years. We are in Year 2 and we have vaccines. But we also have air travel. My cards have indicated it is likely that we will still be dealing with this pandemic situation at least until March -June 2022, and that will not mean the end of it either before it peters out to a generally ‘manageable’ risk. But it will take some time to see its full effects via Long Covid and other damage.

The World card as shown here is from The Legacy of The Divine Tarot, illustrator Ciro Marchetti

I was previously over-optimistic April 2020, when the chances of a second lock-down looked about 50:50, and I was hopeful that we might escape it.

I tend to be a glass half full person though I am myself living with a chronic health challenge, a form of autoimmune arthritis that started in my twenties. Sometimes I have less energy available for predictive exercises.

At other times, as with anything, any tarot reader or other psychic practitioner may just feel, sufficient unto the day. Why make a noise unless someone is asking?

Someone asked me recently, did I bet on the footie when Chelsea played Man City in the UEFA Champions League Final in Porto?

I do not bet. I don’t follow football, only now and then, and I don’t gamble. I do look at it in the cards sometimes but his is just for exercise, and to test myself.

Il Matrimonio grassed me up once and told other Dover Athletic fans what I had said to him about the result. That Dover Athletic would win against Blackpool. A Dover newspaper got hold of this anecdote when the fans got home again, celebrating, and printed the story, and fortunately I got it right, so it was funny, and all was well that ended well. But who needs that kind of publicity.

Prognostication, psychic divination and forecasting requires us to look, then to go down a hole, then to come up again and think.

This is not the same thing as a totally unsolicited psychic experience which comes out of the blue. However such psychic moments can arise on the back of reading the cards. Divination can open the ‘door.’

In general, a psychic experience or insight comes AT us right out of the blue, and may seem entirely random and without purpose, at least, at the time.

Divination sends us to do a job in tooled-up, going purposefully into the blue. Or at least that’s the theory.

Until next time 🙂

Science, Ships and The Six of Swords, Part 2

Part One is in the archives, posted October 2020.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is pexels-photo-717501.jpeg — Photo by Robert Stokoe on Pexels.com

20 October 2020 Scientists for Britain tweeted

“Retained EU law could cost our shipbuilding industry billions even after transition and MPs have NO plans to fix it.”

I drew a card in response to this tweet, and funnily enough, but then again, this is entirely typical of the Tarot, I drew one of the maritime cards, The Six of Swords. The Tarot will mirror the question or the issue with the very first card. Another maritime card is The Three of Wands (exports.)

The vessel as depicted in the Tarot is a mighty tiny maritime vessel, I grant you. Here in the Rider-Waite deck it is a mere punt or gondola.

I am partial to this card. It is a solemn card, with a measure of regret or sorrow attached, but it tells a story of acceptance, resilience, endurance and vision.

The Six of Swords is traditionally a card of losses and mourning, but also recovery and convalescence from sickness or other setbacks. It is a card of learning, and in real life readings this has often meant distance learning, online, or with an element of travel to universities, conferences etc.

The Six of Swords is travel, exploration and discovery, charting a new course. It is independence, self reliance. See the figure at the helm. S/he has autonomy, steering east towards the rising sun (The suit of Swords correlates with the compass direction of east.)

In responding to the tweet from Scientists for Britain, it seemed to me The Six of Swords was doing two jobs. Of all the cards I could have drawn from the 78 cards in the Tarot deck, this is THE card at once capable of painting a future in respect of both the global and national pandemic problem, and telling a story of the British maritime simultaneously.

Pandemics historically last 3-4 years, we are in Year 2. But we have vaccines the governments did not have in 1918, when they were not completely certain whether they were dealing with a bacterium or virus.

The Six of Swords is not particular to Britain. Of course not. I don’t mean to suggest anything of the sort. But I am a reader in the UK. This is my home, and the card is drawn within the context of that headline tweet. If you are a reader in another country, of course this card could equally represent your own maritime traditions and industry.

This card, more than any other except for the Nine of Pentacles, has appeared again and again in my own readings to do with the future of Britain, drawn before and since Brexit, and the 2016 Referendum in which Britain voted to leave the EU.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 6-swords-gilded-1.png — The Gilded Tarot, Ciro Marchetti

But roll on six-seven months, as of today, 6 May 2021 the maritime issue of Fishing is nothing like resolved, post-Brexit.

Talks with Norway recently stalled as the North Sea cod are heading ever further northward in our increasingly warmer waters. UK likes cod (There is a slight north-south division of preference in the UK, cod for the south, haddock for the north )

The Norwegians like blue whiting, which they access in our waters but only in the early months of the year. If I understand this correctly, that window has passed for this year. Once more unto the breach then, but meantime it is not good news for many in the UK fishing industry.

Click HERE for more on that story.

Then France made threats to cut off Jersey’s electricity in a row over French fishing access to Jersey’s waters. A wonderful advertisement for diplomacy, and a shot across the bows, and a timely caution respecting the wisdom of interdependence in matters of essential security and infrastructure.

Jersey imports 95% of its electricity from France via French state utility EDF.

This happening as EDF is working on a mega contract at the UK’s Hinkley Point. And it all looks wonderful. Tickety- boo. But not a few private consumers in the UK might now be wondering if they would be prudent to make changes, or daft not to, reviewing their choice of domestic energy supplier.

Then a fleet of small French fishing boats arrived in Jersey waters last night, threatening to blockade the harbour at St Helier in a protest about the new fishing licence arrangements post-Brexit. And two British naval patrol vessels, HMS Tamar and HMS Severn were ordered to Jersey to monitor the situation.

This is a sight we will never get bored of! Loving the photos coming in from the coastline! Give us a wave (if you can spot us) 🦁🇬🇧⚓#Dazzle #photography #oldschool pic.twitter.com/UEwiornhT2
— HMS Tamar (@hms_tamar) May 5, 2021

Very perturbing.

I drew a card before going to bed, asking about the short term outcome, and was pleased to draw The Ten of Cups, a card of hearth and home. Pleased because, to my relief, this domestic card implied a peaceful outcome rather than escalation.

By the by- a coincidence of serendipity, this card of contentment correlates with the last decan of the zodiac sign of Pisces the Fishes.

The Ten of Cups from The Legacy of The Divine Tarot

The French boats left St Helier late this morning, heading home. There were talks in the meantime, but obviously, notwithstanding the Ten of Cups, they remain deeply discontented, as do all involved parties, and the issue is far from resolved as yet.

It would need more than one card to predict the ultimate outcome, the question is so multi-factorial. From whose perspective would I be asking? I would need to look at Norway and France as separate questions, and may do that at a later date, but though I am primarily writing to demonstrate the Tarot being used in ‘real life,’ people’s livelihoods are at stake, and feel it would not be right to do so at this point. It might look like good news, it might not.

Nor is this to paint the small French fishermen as the ‘bad guys,’ any more than I see Jersey as the bad guy, regulating access to its own waters in protecting the livelihoods of its own fishermen. Our own fishermen don’t tend to go in for protests ….’manif’…but when it comes right down to it, they are all in the same boat.

One has not only sympathy with the French fishermen as with the Jersey and other UK fishermen, but respect is due to them all; extremely brave, tough, hardworking souls.

But:

Helier high water?

“It may seem absurd that the Royal Navy is having to defend Jersey from marauding French fishermen. But what’s truly extraordinary is that the French government has supported them. And, with an election on the way, there’s every chance Emmanuel Macron has more nationalist posturing up his sleeve”.

The mayhem and misery of the cross Channel lorry blockades at Christmas, then the row about vaccines, now this. There is surely more to come before things find their new footing, as they will, says the Six of Swords.

This is a card of progress. It is only that progress is not easy. But when is it?

Good News

Those monstrous leviathans, the factory ships are another issue, and here is -hopefully- better news. The European Parliament and EU member states came to an agreement 13 February over new technical conservation measures for fishing, which includes an EU-wide ban on the controversial pulse trawling starting from mid-2021.

“Electric-pulse fishing was originally banned by the E.U. in 1998, but the Netherlands won an exemption in 2006 that allowed it to conduct experimentation and innovation to improve pulse beam trawl systems. As a result, Dutch pulse beam trawlers have been operating on a large scale since 2011. However, in August 2019, electric pulse fishing was permanently banned, with a transition period allowed until July 2021.

Under the terms of the new regulation, new licenses cannot be granted to any vessel during that transition, but the Butendiek BRA 2 was granted a derogation by German authorities for its new rig, and will continue to fish until the end of July 2021″. SOURCE

Other good news

August last year, 2020, the iconic Ship Yard in Appledore in North Devon reopened after it closed in 2019. It was bought by Harland and Wolff owner Infrastrata for £7 million with 350 jobs, and its special angle will be ‘Green’ shipping.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Her questions were:

Where was he now?

How was he now?

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

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

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

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

The Sun card is a card of birth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time 🙂

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

Doing a One-Card ‘Yes/No’ Psychic Card Reading for yourself using Playing Cards

First let’s take a minute to consider what is meant by this word, ‘psychic.’ It comes from the Greek word psychikos (‘of the mind’ or ‘mental’) and the Greek word ‘psyche’ means ‘soul’ or ‘breath.’

That’s pretty vague, but we’ll broadly understand what we’re talking about here. It is the (sometimes spooky) experience of feeling you know something, without knowing how you know it or why you feel it, and then getting the proof, and finding out you were right, though you still don’t know how.

Wiki Moon card.jpg — *The Moon from the Gilded Royale Tarot, Ciro Marchetti*

Everyone is psychic to a degree. It’s fascinating, but it’s natural. It might be uncanny, and often it is. It really, really is, but that doesn’t mean it’s supernatural. It is you. It is nothing to do with the occult. It is nothing directly to do with religion or witchcraft, though these activities are connected to or derive from that aspect of the human mind/psyche.

It’s about your innate animal intelligence, your instinct and intuition, and is simply a more acute manifestation of these natural functions of the human mind -your sensory capabilities. Intuition is acutely heightened instinct. It’s built in to your software, maybe even your hardware and is a key element in your survival tool-kit.

Jung was interested in the archetypes of Tarot.

So you took an instant dislike to someone but you don’t know why? Don’t simply dismiss that feeling; the reasons may become apparent later. Meanwhile, give it the benefit of the doubt but tread with care.

So you feel an overpowering reluctance to do something, but you don’t quite know why? Trust yourself. You have your reasons.

Feelings can be wrong, of course, in which case we can always reassess the situation or our reactions, and change our minds. But far more often they are right, and they work faster than conscious reasoning. Far, far faster, and it is this very speed that can save our life. That if something feels bad, it probably is.

Avoid.

But if we’re all psychic, why do people pay to go and consult someone else, or go to a professional psychic practitioner for readings?

They are looking for a service, and that depends on skill and a specific kind of experience. Professional psychics can not rely solely on their intuitive ability in order to deliver a service on demand. Psychic experiences happen when they happen, but the psychic reader needs to respond on demand, and to do this they have trained their abilities, developing specific skills, possibly involving many years of individual study, time and practice so that they can deliver insights that are relevant and that mean something to a total stranger, right here, right now.

But everyone had to start somewhere, and that doesn’t mean we can’t try it for ourselves.

Sometimes we might find ourselves undecided whether to go route A or route B. Using the playing cards might well give us a response that simply reflects what we already knew, or guessed, or suspected, but that is largely the point of doing such readings, and validation can itself be helpful in letting us know we read that situation correctly, whether or not it’s what we were hoping for.

Points to consider

Professional psychic readers are not permitted by law to take payment, reading for people aged under-18.

Or at least, it is not allowed in the UK without the authorization of a parent or guardian. There are good reasons for this, to do with maturity and vulnerability, and a word of caution applies here too, in reading for yourself if you are under 18.

There is a risk is you will not get it right and misunderstand the message. Beware wishful thinking or fearful thinking. Calm your mind. Try and place yourself in a neutral frame of mind.

You may for instance draw the Death card and get frightened, interpreting this as a prediction of imminent death. What is far more likely is that the Death card is reflecting back at you something that has been on your mind lately. Perhaps there has been a death in your circle or perhaps you have been thinking of leaving a job or ending a relationship or other connection, or leaving one area to move away. Professional readers do not always get it right either. Until, and unless you are getting correct answers more than 55% of the time, your results are statistically no better than lucky guesses. Getting it wrong doesn’t mean you don’t have psychic ability, but this ability builds with practise and confidence.

Stay humble or you will be riding for a fall. This is not about power. No-one knows it all, and no one likes a know all. No-one has a 100% accuracy rate.

Is is unwise to make decisions based solely on the turn of a card.

The cards are to be regarded as an opportunity to pause, reflect and maybe think again. Start with easy but specific questions that you can quickly and easily validate, e.g. ‘will it be sunny here outside my window at 10.00 tomorrow morning?’

You might not understand or like the answer.

This is the very real risk in consulting with oracles, even your own – or especially your own. It needs discipline. Words matter. Be clear in your mind what it is you are really asking. Avoid repeating the same questions over and over in hope of getting the answer you want. You may get that answer in the end, but this is not conducive to accuracy, and if it becomes a compulsion, and you find you are doing it A LOT, or if you are experiencing, or have lately experienced depression or anxiety, you will be well advised to leave such activities alone for the time being. It could make matters worse.

Now let’s look at how to get an advisory yes or no answer using just one playing card. That’s all it is, an advisory answer; no court of law could treat this as admissible evidence.

The One-Card Spread

Ordinary playing cards have been used in this way since at least the 1600’s and probably longer. A deck of playing cards is readily affordable and easy to obtain in many shops and online if you do not already have a deck.

The One- Card Spread is the simplest spread of all, but can do the job perfectly well, delivering an accurate yes or no answer.

First, for simplification and for the avoidance of confusion, remove the Joker. The Joker is a complex card. It correlates to the Fool in the Tarot and may mean a yes, no or maybe depending on a number of factors, so is not ideal for our purposes today.

You need somewhere quiet, no distractions. Some people like to use rituals, smudging, candles etc. I don’t use those myself in doing card readings, but this is purely a matter of personal preference.

Doing the reading

First you need to decide the code or system you will use for your one card spread. How are you going to interpret the answer?

Classical cartomancy uses this system:

Any red suit card, Hearts or Diamonds, will mean yes, irrespective of its meaning

Any black suit card, Clubs or Spades will mean no, irrespective of its meaning

There are no rules except that you decide your system and then stick with it.

Consistency and repetition is crucially important. This is what professional card readers do. They ‘self-programme’ by telling themselves that this card means X and this other card means Y until with repetition and practise – it actually does.

They do it till they make it so.

Consider the question. It needs to be clear and unambiguous, asking for an answer that will serve your highest good, harming none.

You remain in charge, using the cards for advice only. You could, for example, ask questions along the lines of, ‘Is it a good idea/plan/will it work out well at this time (meaning is it in my best interests) to go here, go there, speak to, do this, do that…?” etc.

Now shuffle the deck, keeping the cards blind, asking your question aloud or just silently to yourself.

Draw a card whenever you feel ready. There are no rights and wrongs here, but it is this act of stopping and choosing a card completely at random that is actually the psychic activity involved in the reading.

You have here a deck of 52 cards but you are drawing just one, and expecting it to be meaningful and relevant, more so than all the other cards that you didn’t draw, that have remained in the deck. The cards that are missing may be just as significant in answering your question, as the ones that appear.

What have we got here?

A red card or a black card?

No further action is required or even desirable at this point. Simply log the card. Make a note and allow time to discover if the answer is correct.

If you would like to go beyond the probable yes or no answer, and look at the reasons why you got that answer, you could look up the actual card meaning for additional feedback, to treat that as an extra comment or piece of advice, referring to this very basic key below.

Playing Card Suits

Hearts (Cups) = emotions, health, offers, invitations, friendship.
Diamonds (Pentacles) = money, health, house, career, communications.
Spades (Swords) = intellect, law, IT, planning, challenges.
Clubs (Wands/Staves) = action and creativity, travel, marketing, study, ideas, inspiration

Card Numbers

In general, the higher the number of your ‘yes’ or ‘no card, the stronger the answer, except for Aces, which are the lowest number, 1, but are the strongest cards. So the strongest yes answers would be the Ace of Diamonds or Hearts, or the 10 of Diamonds or hearts. The strongest no answers would be the Ace of Spades or Clubs, or the 10 of Spades or Clubs.

Ace – new beginnings; the pure energy of their suit.
Two – partnerships, attraction, balance.
Three – co-operation, connection, growth.
Four – security, stability, foundations, inaction.
Five – imbalance, challenges, change, adjustment.
Six – sweet victory, harmony, attainment and peace.
Seven – spiritual discernment, magic, wisdom, turning point, options.
Eight – movement (or lack of it), organization, prioritizing.
Nine – Growth, understanding, integration, realization.
Ten – Culmination, completion, transition, endings, beginnings.

The Court cards (portrait cards)

Knaves/Jacks represent news or new situations, or young people below the ages of around 25.

Knave of Hearts – romantic, emotional, sweet-natured.
Knave of Diamonds – curious, grounded, sensible.
Knave of Spades – witty, clever, focused.
Knave of Clubs – active, adventurous, risk-taker.

Queens are adults, actual people; usually female but not necessarily.

Queen of Hearts – kind, empathic, nurturing.
Queen of Diamonds – practical, down-to-earth, good in a crisis.
Queen of Spades – truth-seeker, honest, straight-speaking.
Queen of Clubs – ambitious, strong communicator, passionate.

Kings are adults, actual people; usually male but not necessarily.

King of Hearts – approachable but reserved, wise, calm.
King of Diamonds – wealthy, hard working, shrewd, lover of luxury.
King of Spades – analytical, calculating, dispassionate.
King of Clubs – leader, inspirational, temperamental, sees the big picture.

A Lunar Eclipse: The Crab, the Sultan and the Wolf

Tweeted Friday January 10

“Tonight is the first full moon of the new year, nicknamed the Wolf Moon. As winter bit down, hungry wolves came down to the villages in search of food.”

January and February is wolf mating season, and their howls haunted the nights more than usual, both in Europe and in North America. This nickname was shared by Europeans and Native Americans alike, though this full moon has other nicknames too, including the Snow Moon and Ice Moon.

Also Tweeted

“Tonight’s lunar eclipse full moon in Cancer rises at 15:50 GMT (UK) or 2:21 ET and sets at 07.53 GMT (UK) Last night’s almost-full moon was spectacular. Excited cat playing & pouncing on things. This ‘watery’ lunar event typically signifies big changes at home. A letting go.”

That evening I said to Il Matrimonio, “I wonder who we will be hearing about tomorrow, who has ‘let go and left home’?”

Very many people will have ‘let go and left home’ of course. 2 people go out of this world every second and 4 come in, or if we want to be statistically exact, 1.8 go out, and 4.20 come in.

“The unborn are banging on the gates of the dock. What’s the limit on the shipping lanes?”- KT Kearns

But who would we be hearing about?

Which crab would quit his rock-pool?

Who would the wolf moon carry away in tonight’s meteor shower? (The Quadrantids)

It was the Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said Al- Said, 79, a ruler for 50 years, ally of the UK and US and the longest ruling monarch in the Arab world.

Publicly at least, apart from three years of marriage which ended in divorce, after which his wife remarried, he lived to all intents and purposes as a hermit (crab) But his personal life has remained entirely private, protected by his shell of court and state.

Qaboos bin Said Al -Said

Excerpts from an Obituary in the Middle East Eye: (Link provided below)

“The sultan took the throne of an extremely underdeveloped country with a history of civil conflict and oversaw its transformation into a politically stable middle-income state during his half-century reign. Under a model of modernising absolute monarchy, he largely managed to steer Oman away from the extremes of consumerism of neighbouring Dubai and the religious conservatism of Saudi Arabia.

The concentration of political power and wealth in the sultan’s hands, combined with the absence of a clear route to succession, had led to fears that there could be a leadership crisis following his death.

The appointment of Haitham bin Tariq, Oman’s culture minister and the 65-year-old cousin of the late sultan, on Saturday appeared to put to rest lingering uncertainty over the country’s succession process.

Under Qaboos, political parties were banned and laws of lese-majesty created an all-pervasive system of surveillance and repression that ensured no organised opposition could emerge.

Still, there is no doubting the genuine affection in which the sultan was held by many Omanis and expatriates, seen as a visionary leader who had secured the welfare of Omanis and expatriates alike by leading the nation through its modernisation, and leaving a legacy that his successor will be hard put to equal.

Oman’s Sultan Qaboos is pictured at his palace in Muscat on 14 January (AFP) — Oman’s Sultan Qaboos is pictured at his palace in Muscat on 14 January 2019 (AFP)

The Sultan inherited a conservative, highly religious country riven by armed insurrection and tribal divisions, Valeri wrote, and over several decades, reduced the influence of the tribes, while incorporating their leaders in the political process.

Qaboos also championed the advance of women, gradually opening the way for many to enter education and the labour market in increasing numbers, despite Oman being a conservative society that traditionally segregated women in domestic roles.

Qaboos was also a big supporter of the arts with his government sponsoring the country’s first societies of artists and traditional music. As a lover of classical music, he played the organ and the lute, composed music and founded the Gulf’s first symphony orchestra in 1985, its players recruited from the towns and villages of Oman.

Qaboos was careful to maintain diplomatic ties even with those states, such as Iran and Iraq, which were in conflict with his western allies. As he explained to an Egyptian newspaper in 1985: “There is ultimately no alternative to peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Persians, nor to a minimum of agreement in the region.”

One of the world’s longest-serving heads of state, Qaboos began tentative moves toward a constitutional monarchy in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the introduction of an elected consultative assembly and municipal council elections. However at the time of his death he remained head of state and prime minister, and commander in chief of the armed forces.

Qaboos’s successor will face the growing question of how to quell rising expectations of a new generation of internet-savvy young people no longer satisfied with the repressive paternalism that prevailed under half a century of Qaboos.

Excerpts from the Middle East Eye: Read more HERE

Now. Here is a very interesting piece of information, linking the Full Moon In Cancer with the Sultan Qaboos, or at least, I find this interesting. If not downright spooky.

Your Moon sign is an expression of your temperament and style of doing things. The natal chart of the Sultan shows that he was born with his Sun in deep and secretive, watery Scorpio and his Moon in the sign of almost equally deep and secretive sign of Cancer the Crab.

That was one enigmatic man of deep waters. That was one tough shell.

Two tough shells.

Now consider this image of the Moon card from The Gilded Tarot Royale, from the illustrator Ciro Marchetti, and the full moon uniting wolf and crab.

Or should we say, reuniting.

Until next time 🙂

The Sun, The Stars and Sunflowers.

True Tarot Tales

Sunflowers…

The Sun card in Tarot foresees sunny weather at its most literal. It’s respite from care, the gift of the moment, childhood and sometimes the imminence of birth. It’s also travel, particularly to hot places. It is the return of the sun after the winter solstice. It is the zenith of the sun in the summer solstice. It is glory.

Reversed it’s the setting sun, delays and lesser joys, the passing away of childhood, nostalgia, beautiful, bittersweet twilight. It may mean getting something less than you hoped for, but what you get is still something to be happy for.

The Star card on the other hand, can and often has indicated a recovery from depression, sickness and despair, a guiding light, someone sees a way ahead, they couldn’t see before.

Klytie was a figure in Ancient Greek mythology who fell in love with the sun god, Apollo. Each day…

View original post 219 more words

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 🙂

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 🙂