Tonight was the Full Harvest Moon, the full moon closest to the autumn equinox which in 2021 is 22 September, occurring at 20:21 (British Summer time. )
Unlike other full moons, the Harvest Moon rises at nearly the same time, around sunset, for several evenings in a row, lighting the fields for the workers bringing in the harvest.
In the US, the First Nations called it The Big Moon, and so it can be, lighting the harvesting till late in the evening, or they called it The Sturgeon Moon.
The sturgeon, a really ancient, prehistoric fish found in fossil beds from the Cretaceous, and that can be 3.5 m in length, has been hunted nearly to danger of extinction on account of caviar.
Look at this old variety of maize grown by the Lakota…a glass gem corn cob. It is not eaten like this, but ground into a purplish meal.
How beautiful is that?
Glass gem maize cob
This year’s Harvest Moon is happening in third decan Pisces. The corresponding Tarot card is the rather lovely Ten of Cups. Home sweet home. Or perhaps home and dry…it kept appearing for Joe Biden during the US Election, Trump v Biden,though an oddly domestic card perhaps, in that particular context. (Mr Biden is a deep water, Scorpio subject, Mr Trump airy Gemini.)
Note the symbols hanging in the hearth-place, Mars in Pisces.
The Legacy of The Divine Tarot
What could be more peaceful? Well, yes, but Pisces can also be tricky; dream states, illusions, delusions. Neptune. This full moon might be full on emotionally intense, and this may be agreeable, OR anything but, or actually a teensy bit bonkers. One may be extra accident prone. Passions may boil over, a touch of paranoia perhaps, angry words said. One may need to watch one’s step and beware rogues and trickery.
This Moon is teetering into Mars ruled Aries later on tonight, and Aries is currently in opposition to Mars, This is heated, volatile…volcanic even. Think Cumbre Vieja.
Il Matrimonio had an odd encounter this morning, out in town. Potentially a mugger (?) sizing him up, first asking him the time as they crossed, going in opposite directions, walking on but then turning back again and following him. He, we will never know, but he felt the man’s presence behind him and stopped sharply to let the man know he was alert to him. The man meandered into a nearby bus stop he had previously just passed and hopped on a bus. Possibly there was an innocent explanation, or else the man was after Il Matrimonio’s smartphone, a snatch and run prospect.
Be alert. The country, so the old saying goes, needs lerts.
Poor old sturgeons. There they are, been here all this time, fossils dating back in the late Cretaceous era, more than 65 million years ago, being brought to the brink on account of a human hankering for blobs on toast…or is it blinis?
Mercury goes retrograde 27 September until it goes direct again 18 October for the last time in 2021. So what does this mean?
A Mercury retrograde is a regular event, no big deal, happening three or four times a year, and lasting about three weeks but with effects felt for up to two weeks ahead of the retrograde and up to two weeks after it.
Astronomically. a retrograde simply means that the planet in question seems to be moving on a backward trajectory, as seen from earth, due to differing speeds of orbit. It is merely an optical illusion. Mercury briefly overtaking Earth in its orbit round the sun
We have more Mercury retrogrades than any other. Mercury is the smallest planet, closest to the Sun with the shortest, fastest orbit round the sun, only 87.97 days. Let’s call it 88 days
Astrologically, any retrograde signifies a shift in the “tide in the affairs of men”- a new prevailing wind. The nature of it, how it manifests in real life depends on the planet in question.
Fast moving Mercury is the symbolic ruler of intellectual activities, trade and communications. So what’s the fuss? When it goes retrograde, and for a few days before and after this retrograde, during the so-called shadow, what can we expect?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Public Domain via Wiki
Maybe nothing at all. Not every retrograde is the same. It could simply mean business as usual. But likewise, we could find ourselves noticing an unmistakable cluster of gremlins-things going wrong noticeably more than usual:-
-We have delays
-We mislay things
-We have personal misunderstandings, crossed wires
It may turn out to be a total non-story, or just the odd bit of nuisance rather than any drama. But if you catch yourself saying things like, ‘I don’t believe this!’, and ‘oh no, not again’, or howling in utter exasperation, ‘what the f*** is this happening NOW?’ -then you know what and who to blame.
Mercury, facilitating mischief until around 18 October or even early November.
Astrologer’s advice for optimal working in this abstract(?) celestial weather.
They will tell you that a Mercury retrograde is optimal for reflection, reviewing, research and extra meticulous planning, but not for initiating or making major purchases and acquisitions, particularly if these are electronic items. Double-check important paperwork. No. Triple-check it. Do read the small print.
But as mentioned before, not every Mercury retrograde is the same. This one is in Libra, affecting relationships, alliances and partnerships in particular, and what’s more, energetic Mars invaded peaceable Libra 14 September.
Mars, planet of fire, action and potentially war. Mars gets things done. This can be just what’s needed, or it can be combustible.
This will be why I have drawn the fiery Page of Wands. Fireworks. Trade salvos for now. Growlings and mutterings in respect of a new deal between Australia, UK and the US, and the loss to France of a major submarine contract. China does not like it of course, having banned Australian coal imports in retaliation for the Australian call for an independent investigation into the origins of the Covid pandemic in Wuhan. But China’s coal alternatives are coming with their own costs.
Things are only hotting up in the Indian Ocean, and also the Straits of Hormuz.
From The Gilded Tarot, Ciro Marchetti
We say peaceable Libra. Well, that depends. This is the sign of marriage and domestic partnerships, as well as wider global partnerships of all kinds. Libra is outwardly suave, savvy, debonair even, and charming. It may seem peaceful, ruled by Venus, Mars’ opposite number.
But it is contractual in dealings. It may be the zodiac sign of diplomacy, but in the real world, especially geo-politics, this diplomacy or compromise is generally liable to mean “either you scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours”, or the “iron fist in a velvet glove”. Either way. soft, it isn’t.
Also to note, the autumn equinox 22 September as we enter the zodiac sign territory Libra, sign of the scales, day and night in balance. Uranus in Taurus (upheaval of tradition) goes head to head with Saturn in Aquarius (Fundamentalism, group-think collectives)
Extinction Rebellion could be viewed as an example of a collective ruled by Saturn in Aquarius. The Taliban too. Ugh. But hang on on a minute. Am I seriously making a comparison here? What could they possibly have in common?
What is in common is their motivation and their characterizing Saturn in Aquarius spirit. It is about the exercise of control by an non elected group, justified in the name of some holy grail- however that is to be defined.
It is a fundamentalist way of doing things. Secular or religious. In the end, it makes little difference. Fundamentalism says the ends always justify the means. It is this way, their way, the only right way – the way of the righteous. They are the self-declared sole arbiters of truth.
Saturn in Aquarius is always right. It is righteous. It is their way or the highway. Except that right now in the UK, with Insulate Britain blocking motorways, it is a question of them having their way but NO highway either for ‘the others’.
Extinction Rebellion, Public Domain
Meanwhile steadfast Taurus won’t be bullied, doesn’t budge, but Uranus sets it off at a charge, or turns it topsy-turvy. Saturn when in cool, remote, cerebral Aquarius won’t flow, won’t adjust, but sets like ice while preaching whatever is its own form of gospel. What does this bode for public order round this time? We’ll soon see.
Warning: Unpopular opinion: I have sympathy with certain of the aims of Extinction Rebellion, as with its objections to the risks of fracking on the marshy Fylde in Lancashire for instance. But there is an elephant in the room Extinction Rebellion won’t acknowledge, the poison chalice, the kiss of death to honesty; what we can do about global overpopulation and the inevitable resulting environmental pressure on landscapes and resources this inevitably creates.
Will they go ‘there’? Utter one peep? No way! Anymore than they would dare to block roads in China.
Our best efforts to reduce our footprint will be too little to mitigate the mess we can’t help making, so long as we are so many. But what is to be done? China tried but the experiment had to be abandoned. It was simply too dreadful; tragic, socially and economically damaging.
We may just possibly mine the Moon some day, or Mars, but we shall find no other home. We need Gaia. Who does not need us at all. Unless, yes, to get rid of us as she has done many times before with countless other species. How many species went extinct before we were even here? The likes of a thousand Extinction Rebellion won’t prevent it, if it’s going to happen, and to paraphrase Dr Malcolm in Jurassic Park, sooner or later, ‘Life finds a way’.
Meanwhile, what can we do but tread lightly where we can.
The Full Moon this month is the Harvest Moon in Pisces on 21 September. Deep of feeling. Fathomless. Beware of accidents and scammers. Muggers. Keep your wits about you. Il Matrimonio had a dodgy encounter only this morning 21 Sept) but pre-empted and saw it off, if that’s where the guy was heading.
Harvest Moon by Samuel Palmer, 1833
The Age of Pisces
The Age of Pisces is the age of the rise of Monotheism, two thousand years ago, and we are still in the Age of Pisces. We are not in the Age of Aquarius yet, and what it represents – technology and collectivism (ugh)
But when we are, give it another 2 millennia and we shall return to a new Age of Capricorn, and that would be a very different beast again.
Read here for more about the so-called ‘Ages’ of Aquarius and Pisces.
No, we are just having a little taster. But a Pisces Moon, now, there is a moon to dream on. Or pray upon.
This month’s New Moon in Pisces, 20 September is actually considered a happy, lucky Moon in astrology, occurring an hour after Mercury is trine the big beast, optimistic, expansive Jupiter. Around this time, if one was inclined to take notice of such things, would perhaps be September’s most promising window for going for a new job or signing a contract, and doing anything really, thumbing our noses at any small beer Mercury retrograde stuff.
Mercury, or Hermes as he was to the Greeks, is very big beer, actually. Tiny planet. Big beer supernatural entity. Not only is he the messenger of the gods, arbiter of trade and travel, he is a psycho pomp, who escorts the souls of the newly dead to the banks of the river Acheron, or Styx if you prefer, to wait for the crossing with Charon the Ferryman to the Resting Isles- the Isle of the Dead.
Here he is, winged helmet, caduceus, looking distinctly mischievous, and Puckish, rather elf-like- perhaps even a touch of Loki, Norse lord of misrule.
Quicksilver.
Painting by Hendrick Goltzius, 1558-1617, Public Domain
Libra is about the rule of reason, fairness, keeping a cool head, not losing our balance. Libra suggests, if Mercury retrograde does rub us up the wrong way, or Mars gets uppity and rattles the cage, we take a deep breath, count to ten, walk away, zoom out the lens, keep our powder dry. It isn’t personal, even when it feels personal.
You can always get them later, if you really must. The devil is in the detail.
Most of us know our sun sign or sign of the Zodiac, but what does the constellation look like in the night sky, and what’s the story behind it? The season is the reason.
It’s time to meet Virgo again, and get to know her better.
Virgo Season 2023
We are entering the zodiac territory of Virgo 23 August and we’ll stay there until 23 September.
Virgo is a mutable Earth sign, representing the changing of the seasons as we approach the end of summer and the beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere (or the end of winter and into early spring in the southern hemisphere.)
It is harvest time- ‘the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ (From An Ode to Autumn by English poet John Keats) Virgo represents the classical Hellenistic goddesses of wheat and agriculture. The brightest star in the constellation of Virgo, far brighter than our own sun, is Spica, aka ‘the ear of wheat’.
Virgo the Maiden, named after the constellation as shown in the illustration below, is the sixth sign of the zodiac, and rules the sixth house and the concepts of daily routines; work, service, order, analysis and analytics, food, harvests, health, digestion, hygiene- and crafts
Virgo is traditionally ruled by Mercury, planet of communications, inquiry, science, commerce, trade and travel. This symbolic planetary influence brings to the Virgo-born subject, an enlarged curiosity and a combination of analytical ability, but also a certain contemplative, humanitarian or even mystical quality.
Traditional Associations
Zodiac symbol of Virgo
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; generally inclined to conform and go with the flow for the greater good.)
Ruling planet: Mercury (Travel and all forms of communication)
House: Sixth, ruling health, habits and routines
Colours: green, white and yellow
Body: The digestive system
Birthstone: Carnelian
Flowers: small bright flowers such as the buttercup
Tarot: Major Arcana card: The Hermit (introspection, perception, analysis, care for nature)
Minor Arcana cards: The 8,9 and 10 of Pentacles or Coins.
The Hermit from The Golden Tarot, Kat Black
Astronomy
Via Wiki: Credit Till Credner
The zodiac sign of Virgo gets its name from the constellation of Virgo; the second-largest constellation in the sky after Hydra, and the largest constellation in the zodiac.
It’s mind-boggling to consider that our own Sun is just one star of the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is part of a collection of galaxies known as the Local Group. This contains three large spiral galaxies: the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum Galaxy, as well as a few dozen dwarf galaxies.
The Local Group is just one member of the Virgo Cluster. This is 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.
The Virgo constellation is visible from all around the world. In the northern hemisphere, it’s most visible in the evening sky from mid-March – the start of the planting season- to late June. In the southern hemisphere, look for it in the autumn and winter.
Own image. Free to share. Credit Katie-Ellen Hazeldine, True Tarot Tales.com
This may seem a bit of a stretch, trying to picture a person here, but add in a few more of her stars and imagine her lounging semi-recumbent, dangling a sheaf of wheat from one hand. This is the star Spica, a blue-white giant. Its name comes from the Latin, meaning an ‘ear of grain’- a sheaf of wheat.
The star Vindemiatrix, ‘the Grape-Gatherer,’ seen at daylight, was once upon a time a sign that now it was time to pick the grapes.
But if the constellation of Virgo is most visible late March- late June, why are the birthdates for the sign of the zodiac August 22-September 23rd?
The constellations of the zodiac are not to be confused with the signs which were named after them. Once upon a time, the dates of the signs reflected the constellations directly overhead, but they have since separated.
This drift away from real time matching of constellations and zodiac signs is due to the effect of the Earth’s wobble over a long period of time; every 26 000 years, creating an effect known as the precession of the equinoxes.
This does not change the symbolic link between the constellation and the sign named after it. Western or Tropical astrology is based on an arithmetic, not an astronomical model, as formalized in the second century AD by the Greek astronomer, mathematician and astrologer, Ptolemy.
History & Mythology
Virgo from Urania’s Mirror, Public Domain
Shala was an ancient Sumerian (Iraq) 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 follows. But this cannot be guaranteed from one year to the next.
From early times, more than ten thousand years ago, Shala was associated with the constellation of Virgo and vestiges of symbolism associated with her continue, such as the naming of Spica, the ‘ear of grain’, even as the deity’s name changed from age to age, and culture to culture.
The Shala Mons is a mountain on Venus named after the goddess Shala.
In 10th century BC the Babylonians called part of this constellation, “The Furrow,” again, referring back to Shala.
While this is only one myth of the origin of Virgo, she is seen as a bringer of crops throughout all myths. In Egyptian mythology also, the arrival of Virgo in the night sky meant harvest time. Ceres (we think of the word ‘cereal’) or Demeter, the Greco-Roman goddess of the harvest, was the mother of Persephone.
It was the same with the Greeks and Romans “Spicifera est Virgo Cereris” — “The Virgin with her sheaf belongs to Ceres,” The Astronomica“, Manilius, 1st century AD.
When lonely Hades abducted Persephone to live with him in the underworld, her distraught mother, Demeter, went searching, and was enraged to discover that Zeus had known all along where Persephone was, but had turned a blind eye to Hades’ abduction.
Demeter demanded that Zeus help her bring Persephone home, and when he didn’t, she went on strike and the harvests failed. The people and the livestock starved. Humanity might have perished altogether had not Zeus finally intervened and insisted that Hades send Persephone home, and sent Hermes to collect her.
Hermes descended to the Underworld where he discovered Persephone, no longer a wretched, weeping homesick girl. She had become a woman, a wife. She was the radiant queen of the gloomy Underworld, the apple of Hades’s eye, and he had built for her the most beautiful gardens he could contrive, with underground pools, and gems and stalactites.
Persephone now loved Hades. But she missed her mother, Demeter, and she desperately missed the light, and if she hadn’t developed the most almighty vitamin D deficiency, she was either eating plenty of fish or the nutritionists don’t know their stuff.
So Hermes passed on the order from Zeus, “send the girl home, pronto”, and Hades agreed that Persephone could go home. But he had conditions. Persephone must not eat anything until she arrived home again to her mother.
Hades had no intention of giving up Persephone, Zeus or no Zeus, and he gave her a handful of pomegranate seeds, knowing how much she loved them. A few seeds didn’t count as food, he said. And Persephone believed him and ate some on her way home. Or who knows. Perhaps she knew perfectly well what he was up to.
Painting by Frederick Leighton, Public Domain
Persephone went home to her mother. But a deal is a deal, and because she ate the pomegranate seeds, she returns to Hades and her life in the Underworld for four months of the year, and then Demeter mourns her child’s absence, the winter returns and the land lies cold and fallow.
All zodiac signs are archetypes, meaning something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing,
The signs of the zodiac paint a ‘typical’ portrait of a person born at a particular time of year, in a particular season. A baby born in the summer arrives into a different physical environment from a winter born baby. Different conditions; temperatures, available hours of daylight, seasonal foods available to the mother and so on, with potential physical and constitutional effects.
The archetype of Virgo is the Craftsman, paying careful attention to every detail, taking pride in doing the job, whatever it is, to the highest standard possible. There’s no substitute for skill and hard work, according to Virgo.
The major arcana card in the Tarot representing Virgo is The Hermit, as previously mentioned, denoting a deep-rooted sense of connection to Nature. Here is wisdom, maturity and the value of solitude and self-sufficiency. The Hermit represents work and the principle of service – the desire to help Humanity.
Virgo is ruled by agile Mercury, the fastest moving planet of communication. Virgo’s brain is in overdrive most of the time, but they stay anchored and grounded in common sense by their associated element, Earth.
Virgo is practical but artistically gifted. They are hard-workers who love to better themselves. They think deeply, they love to analyse, and their perceptiveness means that they can always find or create order within chaos. They are honest friends although, being discerning, and analytical, they might have a tendency to analyse you, and point out your strengths and also your mistakes and weaknesses. This can undoubtedly be annoying, though it’s well meant. They may also give great advice because of those same analytical abilities.
The Virgo appearance is generally neat and well groomed.”Slob” is not in their vocabulary. The quest of self-improvement includes personal presentation. They can be incredibly concerned about the impression they give, and even worry about it, but at the same time, they are very ready to help others, maybe sometimes even too generous. Others may try to take advantage of Virgo in a way they would not with, say, Aries, Leo or Scorpio..
But of course there is no such thing in reality as THE Virgo personality. We are all unique individuals. Your zodiac sign (sun sign) is a major clue, the keynote, the baseline, but doesn’t claim to represent the full picture in real life – or even in astrology.
But the Decans tell us just a little more.
What are the Decans?
The decans were a feature of Egyptian astronomy, later adopted by the Greeks and incorporated into astrology.
The visible area of sky as seen from earth is what we call the wheel of the Zodiac, and represents an imaginary circle of 360 degrees. This circle divided by arithmetic into twelve ‘slices’- the zodiac signs we know today.
Each of the zodiac signs represents a 30 degree slice of this imaginary ‘pie in the sky,’ as seen from Earth. Each zodiac sign can be further sub-divided into three blocks of ten degrees, equivalent to about ten days in length. This is not exact, and may vary by a day or two because not every month is the same length. These three sub-divisions of all the zodiac signs are what we call ‘decans,’ from the Greek word for ten.
The decans are nicknamed the ‘thirty six faces of astrology,’ and though they are not regarded as powerful influences in a horoscope chart, they do provide added insights and texture. The first ten days of your zodiac sign are the first decan. The second ten days or so are the second decan, and the last ten days are the third decan.
There is more than one decan system, depending on whether we are using traditional or Modern astrology, which uses the outer planets, not discovered at the time of the original model of Western astrology as recorded by Ptolemy in the second century AD.
Astrologers dispute which approach works ‘best.’ But astrology is not an exact science. It is an Art with an element of science. They both ‘work,’ and it is worth bearing in mind, the great seventeenth century astrologer William Lilley used traditional astrology –correctly- to predict the Great Plague and Fire of London in a book published in 1651, years ahead of the actual events in 1665-1666, when the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto had not yet been formally discovered (Uranus was recorded in 1690, Neptune in 1846 and Pluto in 1930).
Astrologer William Lilley from the Masters of Magic Oracle deck
For the avoidance of confusion, we are using the traditional system.
The Tarot cards shown below are from the Rider- Waite deck, which many Tarot practitioners now refer to as the Waite-Smith, in recognition of the artist, Pamela Colman Smith.
First Decan Virgo
Dates: 23 August-1 September
Planetary ruler: Sun
Tarot card: The Eight of Pentacles: ‘Lord of Prudence,’ art, craft, industry, skill, concentration, application, studiousness, apprenticeship, crafts, heritage, buildings
Look at him. This person is absorbed in his work, and he seems to be enjoying himself. This work has meaning and purpose for him. This is typical of this decan. There is a mixture of quiet warmth and a cool mind with a talent for acute observation and incisive analysis; however this is expressed artistically, commercially or scientifically or in administrative tasks. Virgo is a master of the spreadsheet.
They see more than they say, but they have a talent for communication via the spoken and written word; making many of these subjects potentially great teachers. They are hard-working, industrious. ‘We reap what we sow,’ goes the old saying. This is not necessarily always true or fair. Misfortune strikes plenty of people who have done nothing to ‘deserve’ it. And plenty of wrong-doers escape justice.
However, it is broadly true to say, we can’t reap what was never sown. Wild berries had to be first sown by the wind, or by birds. First decan Virgo understands this better than almost any other sign, except Capricorn and Taurus.
They are serious people but they are cheerful company, faithful friends and partners, devoted in their quiet way.
Second Decan Virgo
Dates: 2-11 September
Planetary ruler: Venus
Tarot card- Nine Pentacles: ‘Lord of Material Gain’ beauty, luxury, hard work that pays off, horticulture, agriculture, viticulture, gardens, vineyards
This decan is traditionally associated with Venus, planet of love, beauty –and money. A perfectionist; conscientious, devoted, and above all focused, they can turn anything they do into an art form in its own right.
Notice the hooded falcon on her wrist. She has ‘tamed’ wildness – or chaos. She has cultivated a home, a garden, a business, and made it thrive, healthy and beautiful. She is financially self- reliant and self-sufficient, but this does not mean it came quick or easy. To achieve this she has learned to control the wild falcon representing her impulses, wants and desires. She has learned self-discipline and self-control, the power of deferred gratification.
A squirrel will have no nuts in the winter if it scoffs them all at once, or if it can’t remember where it hid them, because it wasn’t paying attention. This, the second decan of Virgo is often the most capable, conscientious provider for themselves and for others, and they enjoy spoiling their loved ones. But though they have learned how to do without (and at times, life, they have probably had no choice) still, they do crave and value beautiful things.
Third Decan Virgo
Dates: 12-22 September
Planetary ruler: Mercury
Tarot card- Ten of Pentacles:keywords: ‘Lord of Wealth,’ commerce, messages, deliveries, Hermes, home, homeland, ancestry, genetics, inter-generational relationships, inheritance, gifts, legacy, bequests, town planning, art, museums, banks.
Third Decan Virgo is both a creative and a practical thinker. These are proud people, not vain, but dignified – big difference. They need to be their own masters and it’s not about the money, or at least, not for its own sake. These people are careful, prudent, but they are not misers. They have a winning way with people and may work in the public eye; such is their talent for communication; personal, professional, artistic, written and spoken.
Notice the old man surrounded by family, adults, children, and dogs too. Virgo cares for animals. What he or she has built, was created in order to share, to pass on, seeing themselves as part of a bigger picture, a link in a chain of legacy. This could mean money. It could mean ideas. It could mean a place that means everything to them, their own home or their homeland, with a sense of belonging, of being in the right place – to feel this way is a treasure beyond price.
These are family minded people, realists with an optimistic temperament and a ‘can do’ approach. They enjoy family outings, a walk in the woods, or a trip to the seaside. They will organize it. Virgo are makers and menders, and usually good with animals too. Eco-warrior is not their style. But they do care about the environment. Virgo is about food for the mind and the spirit, as well as the body.
Virgo has both feet on the ground. And yet, it is something of an artist, something of a scientist. Like the Hermit himself, something of a sage.
Grounded, rooted in the earth, but looking inwards and upwards, moving to its own dance, steering by your quiet inner star.
I do not issue predictions of death. Never. Nor will any responsible psychic reader. We might well be wrong, but if we are not, who and what do we serve by sharing such a prediction?
This is not to say I will not discuss death with a client. I have seen it coming, looking in the cards. I have seen it when I did not wish to. I have seen it up to three years ahead of time. Once it was my father.
And I was not looking to see any such thing. But Death is part of Life.
Sometimes people want – need– to talk about it. Maybe they are preparing for a death they know is coming soon, to them or a loved one. Maybe they are dealing with probate. Maybe they want me to look at a dead loved one, act as a conduit using Tarot as a form of medium-ship. I have been asked, for example, if the dead loved one is OK, where are they now, and is there anything they would like to say?
The Tarot can do this, will talk this talk, walk this walk with them, if the reader is up for it. Some are, some are not.
The Death card, associated with autumn and the zodiac sign of Scorpio, is perhaps the most notorious card in the Tarot deck, but will usually not be detecting an actual physical death.
Usually it just means endings in a more everyday sense of the word. It signifies the natural conclusion to a situation, saying that we have come to the end of the road in respect of this or that. A situation has run its natural course. As such, this may actually be a welcome card. Some things, we are ready to see the back of.
From The Touchstone Tarot
Besides which, there are other cards that can also mean an actual, physical death: the Nine and Ten of Swords. The Fool card reversed (Number Zero, we go through the gate) The Sun card reversed (The sun has set, our day is done) may also, although rarely, refer to a literal, physical human death, or even a cremation.
When we are discussing someone who has died, there are no spirits present at the reading, not so far as I understand it. I am coming at that dead person via my sensing of the living person I am sitting with. Still, it has been quite astonishing to me, as well as the other person, what the cards have conveyed about the departed person that have been meaningful to the client, and that I could not possibly know. Turns of phrase, how it was for them, what they were like; those sorts of things.
Such is the Tarot. At its most acute, it is an enabler of downright telepathy. Or maybe something even more; an intimation of what we call the Divine, the Oneness of Everything.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy.” – Hamlet- Shakespeare
Horatio (standing, dressed in red) with Hamlet in the “gravedigger scene” by Eugène Delacroix[
Yes, there are. There really are. I do not care who does not believe that. One feels it, encounters it directly, perceives it, apprehends it, or one does not.
Like Yoda, with these things there is no ‘try’. There is only do -or no do.
I like to test myself, and sometimes I lay out a spread for the coming day, to see what it ‘looks’ like, and then I look back and take stock that same evening or next day, to see what I can learn with the benefit of hindsight.
I did this two weeks ago, laying out a cross shaped spread of 5 cards like this:
In the position representing The Unexpected, I drew the Death card.
I studied the surrounding cards. These were health related cards, and included the Four of Swords. But the cards did not indicate any family members; an absence of tell-tale court cards or family cards, such as the Two, Six or Ten of Cups.
I said to Il Matrimonio, ‘today or tomorrow, I may hear news of a death, unexpected, but it’s not in our immediate circle, though I don’t think it’s something on the news either.’
People die every minute of course. That is a constant, but the Tarot will show me things that mean something to me personally. The Tarot is dealing at one and the same time with Universality and Particularity. Hacceity, and the unique or special ‘this-ness’ of a thing.
The next day, visiting one of my online places, a health clinic I used to visit, I read the very sad news that a lady I slightly knew, the former manager with whom I had had a few dealings, always very helpful, had died the previous day at 5 PM. after a week in hospital.
She was admitted with Covid. It was the reason for admission and she died of it. Leaving behind an utterly distraught daughter of 18, who had been excited to go off to University this autumn, and is now dealing with the funeral arrangements, and is left all alone in the world, so far as one can tell.
Enough of the conspiracy theories. This lady is not the only one I have personally known of to die before their time of this horrible new virus.
Yes, flu can kill you.
This is not flu. It is a truly freaky epithelial disease and may attack the cells anywhere in the body, not only the respiratory system. It is now wrecking the health of young people it does not kill. Hopefully not long term, but there are situations for which the ‘normal, healthy immune system’ is not prepared.
As I know to my personal cost. Something like this happened to me some time during my twenties. There was some ‘insult’ to the immune system, never conclusively identified, and it went on to cause me years of severe pain, and put me in a wheelchair from which I may never escape except in Death.
I was perfectly good health up until this mystery viral?Bacterial? event. I had always thought I had a perfectly normal immune system before this happened, in so far as I thought of it at all. I had no reason to imagine otherwise.
Astrologers suggest we will be stuck with this problem of virus management at least until 2023, on a crisis management basis. Best case scenario suggested by the cards is an improved collective footing by March-June 2022, in the UK at any rate.
Death is the darkest angel.
In evolutionary terms, Death was the price of our freedom. We could have stayed immortal, living as clones in the primordial seas, but we chose otherwise. We chose specialization of species. We, then at some further level ‘chose’ specialization of the individual as an unique entity.
We didn’t want to be gloop.
‘We’ did not want to be ‘immortal’ at the price of immortality experienced as identikit clonal single celled soup.
But space on Earth is not infinite. So we ‘chose’ individuality but the price was Death, The Hourglass, and the foreknowledge that our sands are fast running out.
It is suffering with no hope of reprieve, not Death, that is the enemy. Even though we might be nowhere near ready yet, to welcome our definitive meeting with this mightiest of rescuing angels, swooping by to collect us and carry us home to the Source where we came from, before memory.
The Euros 2020 were supposed to happen last year but were cancelled because of Covid, and are being referred to both as the Euros 2020 or the Euros 2021. As with the Tokyo Olympics, one imagines, a veritable snow capped mountain of merchandise would otherwise go to a terrible and even tragic waste.
I have done quite a few football readings over the years. Not that I follow any particular team, or know much about football. But I take an interest now and then, largely because Il Matrimonio takes a much closer interest, and sometimes asks me what do I reckon, and of course the Euros 202/21 is a red hot potato of recent weeks.
I do significantly better than 50:50 overall with this kind of thing, but definitely nowhere near 100%. I don’t get the scores but in terms of overall team outcomes, I’d say it’s around the 75% mark.
There do not seem to be too many readers or astrologers looking at football. Possibly because they simply don’t follow it. Why would you do readings on it, if you’re not personally interested or invested?
I do it to push myself, for the sake of it, to test it out. This is a very different activity from doing a reading for an individual client where I ‘lock on’ to that person as it were, one to one, and then drill down on questions, discussions or requests for forecasting.
This kind of reading is a one to one communication, allowing for the whole package of social cues, clues and connection, even without empathy and telepathy. And telepathy is a two way thing.
A client who on the one hand wants an answer while at the same time they try to shut you out, to test you, can make it harder to read them, though it won’t stop telepathy, the refusal to validate renders the telepathy useless. Pointless. Most clients however, don’t waste their own valuable time playing games, and bring their own engagement and wherewithal to the reading table, and what emerges then in a spirit of non- verbal communication, as well as perfectly straightforward verbal dialogue, is greater than the sum of the parts.
No-one has asked me to look at this game. Not even Il Matrimonio. He says he can’t stand the noise or tension that is building up. There is no communion, no hand reaching out, palm uppermost, no question, and no answering pull on the rope.
Here are the cards for England’s last 2 games, and the final game tonight.
3 July: England versus Ukraine
I have used playing cards (cartomancy)with just one or two added tarot cards. One of the simplest layouts for a predictive reading in cartomancy is ‘The Line of Five.’
Tweet posted online 3 July 8.26 PM
Playing cards, Eng drew 8 Diamonds before kickoff, Ukraine 4 Diamonds. Both lucky cards. The 8 is hardworking, the 4 suggests ‘chemistry’. In card reading a 8 generally trumps a 4- but things can change fast with Diamonds. England better not slacken pace/attack. Hierophant=Rome.
It may also have been a foreshadowing that ‘Italy awaits you, England.’
Via Conde Nast– “Supporters of the Azzuri, as the Italian team is known, are a committed bunch with a flair for the dramatic (think firecrackers and actual flares). They also boast the most historic fan zone—the Circus Maximus in Rome. In 2006, an estimated 200,000 watched Italy win the World Cup in ancient environs, then marched through the city to a symphony of car and vespa horns, dancing fully clothed in the Eternal City’s fountains”.
The Rider-Waite Tarot AE Waite
I drew these cards just a few minutes before kick-off, but the game had been underway for 26 minutes by the time I posted them online.
I had actually drawn a Line of Five cards for each team, but on this occasion I had not photographed them, only summarizing the final card for each team, treating these as the indicators of the likely outcome.
Both teams drew good cards in the outcome position, from the same dynamic suit of Diamonds, and this is where numerology comes in handy. England drew the 8 of Diamonds and this numerically trumped Ukraine’s 4 Diamonds.Had Ukraine drawn the 10 Diamonds, it would have suggested a win for Ukraine, though still depending somewhat on the previous cards.
And since the game was being held in Rome, the appearance of the Hierophant card, also known as ‘The Pope’, read to me as lucky for the England team, since that was where my bias lay, if I had one, and probably I did.
I wouldn’t exactly be upset if England were to lose…I think fans who boo the national anthems of other teams are a total disgrace…mean spirited, disrespectful and chicken. Anyone can act brave, beating their chests, bellowing and booing in a crowd…or a mob.
But, of course I’d be happy to see our team bring home the trophy. But win or lose, for all the skill, discipline, strategy, stamina and personal courage, there is no discounting altogether of the element of luck.
7 July: England v Denmark and The Line of Five
Katie-Ellen H.@TrueTarotTales·Cartomancy Line of Five re tonight’s game. Each team, 5 cards. England drew +ve Ace Diamonds in position 5 =outcome position. Denmark drew -ve 2 Spades. Yet uneasy based on other cards. Eng also drew 9 Spades- ugh. Eng supporters pray Ace Diamonds and psychic chickens are right.
Top Row England: the reader looks at the overall tone of colours and suits. Three black suit cards of which 1 is a clubs suit card and 2 are spades. 2 red suit cards. If we had 4 or 5 red suit cards here, it would look like a dead cert for England to win. If we had 4-5 black suit cards, irrespective of the individual card meanings, likewise, it would look like a dead cert for England to lose.
Three black suit cards and 2 red suit cards is not reassuring, except that the picture is altered by the final card being such a strong red suit card: The Ace of Diamonds is an ace of the material world, top dog, plus, this card can be lightning fast. It is the suit of earth, and electricity.
The time line read left to right, present to future, suggested a rocky start, but finishing on a high, and the winning goal was a moment of drama.
Bottom Row Denmark’s line has 4 black suit cards and only 1 red suit card. Not promising for them, but this looks like a strong team. The first card,the 5 of Clubs says so, and so does the central card, the 6 of Clubs. But not only did they draw only 1 red suit card, the final card is the 2 of Spades. In every day reading terms this card may signify a split, as in a divorce for example. Here, it was foreshadowing that Denmark, which scored the first goal and did it early, much to the terror of many England supporters, ultimately conceded 2 goals.
Outcome Katie-Ellen H.@TrueTarotTales· Ace Diamonds it is. After a LOT of stress comingout of Him Indoors, howls from the other room. Those spades cards =stress, frustration, extra time.
Dignity, grace and noblesse oblige from the Danish Ambassador.
Going high when others had gone low, shame on those who were so unsporting and un-chivalrous as to boo the Denmark national anthem.
Lars Thuesen@DKAmbUK· Congratulations England. Looking forward to the final. All the best to your great team.
11 July: Euro 2020/21: The Final- England v Italy
First of all, pray tell, what do the psychic chickens say? (this poultry prediction was posted on YouTube 8 July)
The Line of Five: 11 July Euro 202/21 Final: England V Italy
Tweeted 11 July c 3.00 PM @TrueTarotTales Final: left-right: ENG 10 Spades (ugh) 6 Hearts, Jack D, Jack H, 9 D + Ace Hearts ITALY 7 Spades, 8 Hearts, 2 Spades (ouch) Jack S, 3 Hearts+Jack Clubs This pic suggests ENG win but Italy start stronger and (J Spades- assassin) could snatch late victory (Fool= surprises)
Top Row England start with a setback, a bump (or a boo) The 6 Hearts shows a home crowd, home turf, detecting the fact that the venue today is Wembley, and the team has the so-called psychological ‘home team advantage’. The Jacks, which are young people, or new or sudden developments look traditionally ‘English’ despite the demographic makeup of the team. Compare them though with the pages on the bottom row, which funnily enough, look really Italian.
Will England win? The reader looks at the overall look of the Line of 5. How many red suit cards (more red = a yes) How many black suit cards more black =a no) We have four red suit cards, 1 black suit card and an extra card which is also a red suit card. This balance suggests a yes answer, and a win for England, and then I pulled an extra card and got the Ace of Hearts.
‘Oh England, my lion heart,’ sang Kate Bush. ‘Hold the ravens in, keep the Tower from tumbling’. We are heading towards Leo, but not yet awhile, We have only just come out of a Cancer New Moon, just coming out of a shell shadow. Cancer stands for Home turf.
This is not great, it’s going to be tough. Had this match taken place only two days ago, I suspect this England team would be fighting even harder, not only against the Italy team, but against the drag of that extra unseen tide.
From The Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti
But now we are pulling away from that powerful lunar vacuum, though only just –
The Ace of Hearts means a birth, a ‘home’ a proposal or just good news in general, remembering we drew a red suit Ace of Diamonds for the extra card when we were looking at the Eng v Denmark game.
Bottom Row Italy are the favourites, and if they aren’t, they should be, based on a long run of superbly consistent form. England have not shown anything like such consistency or fluency.
Italy starts with the 7 Spades, a card of diplomacy, craft and cunning. Is this a new strategy of formation, or an early ref intervention?
The Eight of Cups denotes a solid team, players working in natural sympathy with one another. The Two of Spades suggests they come a cropper, perhaps a goal by England round mid match, but then recover somewhat, demonstrating high skill and intelligence (The Page of Swords) The Three of Hearts is the outcome card, weaker than the 9 Diamonds but not discounting the possibility of a very late goal in extra time….that extra card, the Page of Clubs.
But where England’s Line of 5 had 4 red suit cards and 1 black suit card then the extra card was another red, and a strong one, Italy’s Line of 5 here has 2 red suit cards and 3 red suit cards and the extra one is another black, and a solid one.
Is it strong enough, right at the end there, to turn it around for them, assuming they need to turn it around at the last minute?
The extra Tarot card here, The Fool, warns of surprises and this worries me for England, and warns me to be ready to award myself this bad gold badge of failure. But it won’t worry me. One can not learn to do this stuff by book study alone. One has to just hold one’s nose sometimes, and jump in.
‘Do or do not do. There is no try.’ Said Yoda in Star Wars.
Well, OK, but there is no trying except in doing.
But, having invoked the psychic chickens (and I hear a psychic banana has also spoken for England based on its seed pattern upon being cut) We should allow the psychic eagle to speak. Romeo, majestic psychic eagle, what hast thou to declare?
He couldn’t be more laid back. ‘What do I care, he says? Oh, go on, have this then’.
See delighted comments below his prognostication, from hopeful Italian supporters.
If Italy wins, I got beat by the eagle, and I feel no disgrace in that, whereas if England wins, I did as well as the psychic chickens, a psychic banana and Uri Geller.
Nil Desperandum.
Take it easy folks. It’s only a game, after all. Isn’t it? (?)
Until next time 🙂
UPDATE: Italy did it. And many congratulations to them – and the psychic eagle. That mighty Fool card was indeed the clincher at the very last minute.
The Fool card is a game changer wherever it appears and also, at a physical human level represents youth and inexperience, in this case of two of England’s players who took the penalties, all credit to them for trying but how was this a case of ‘best foot forward?’
The hideous 10 Spades on the England timeline (disappointment, ruin, betrayal) did not make sense at first after the very strong start with England’s very early first goal. But on reflection, it is obvious that the Tarot was detecting ahead of time, the disgraceful scenes ahead of the match when fans without tickets forced their way into the game, either not knowing, not caring or both, acting as though the horror of Hillsborough had never happened or Heysel. Read the accounts, identify the common denominator, join the dots.
Here was how they did it, getting in through the disabled access.
Most of us know our zodiac or sun sign, but what does it look like in the night sky, and what’s the story behind it?
Common associations
The pincers: Zodiac symbol of Cancer
Ruling heavenly body: Moon
Key phrase: I feel
Body: The chest, breast
Birth Stone: Stones and metals fall under the rule of planets, not signs, but through its association with the Moon, Cancer has symbolic affinity with pearls, silver and crystals.
Colour: White, silver
Tree: all trees rich in sap
Flower: Acanthus
Tarot card: The Chariot (see how it is a shell?) Drive, control, progress, self discipline, teamwork, and the harmonizing of different elements. Literally, a car or other vehicle.
The Chariot, Rider-Waite Tarot
Astronomy
Cancer, Latin for crab, is in a dark region of the sky, and is the faintest constellation in the Zodiac, with only two stars above the fourth magnitude of brightness: Acubens (The Claw) and Al Tarf (The Foot)
Cancer is visible in the Northern Hemisphere in early spring, in March at 9 PM and in the Southern Hemisphere is seen during autumn.
Wiki
It’s almost impossible to see Cancer with the naked eye or even binoculars, looking between Leo, the lion, and Gemini, The Twins. And really, it doesn’t look much like a crab, more like a faint, upside-down Y that has been compared with a crayfish or lobster. It was actually called the Crayfish in classical astrology, and in Egyptian astrology they called it The Scarab.
Whatever its name, it’s always been pictured as a creature with an exoskeleton; an arthropod, and it is said that Cancer appears to rise in the zodiac as if with a crab-wise movement, not sideways, but ascending backwards.
The Sun’s entry into Cancer announces the summer solstice. ‘Solstice,’ from the Latin “sol stice” means the Sun seems to be ‘standing still’ as it approaches this point.
However, although Cancer may be faint it’s got one heck of a star cluster glowing at its centre. Praesepe or ‘The Manger’ was identified in 1771 by French astronomer Charles Messier.
Its modern name is M44 or The Beehive Cluster. Through the telescope it looks like a swarm of bees, but to the naked eye it looks like a small, fuzzy patch of light -or a tiny cloud floating through the stars.
As the sign of the Sun’s greatest elevation, Cancer was considered nearest to the highest point of heaven – and in Neo-Platonism was called ‘the Gate of Men’ through which souls descended to Earth to be born. The opposite constellation, Capricorn was the ‘Gate of the Gods’, where souls of the departed rose back to heaven. Image, summer solstice sunrise at Stonehenge.
I knew a soul who descended through the Gate of Men and ascended again through the Gate of The Gods the same day, on the longest day, day of the solstice, 1993. He stayed in this world one hour and twenty five minutes, and then he gave one tiny sigh and left. A baby soul, he will always will be our child as long as light lasts.
Cancer also contains a planetary system; 55 Cancri, containing five known planets, with possibly more awaiting discovery. 55 Cancri is about 40 light-years away, just about visible to the unaided eye, although you need help to find it. The innermost of its planets is a “super Earth,” a few times heavier than Earth – but none of these planets has the right surface conditions for liquid water, and life there is thought not likely.
Mythology
In classical mythology Cancer is associated with the Twelve Labours of Hercules/Herakles after he went mad, mistook his wife and children for monsters and killed them. He undertook the Labours in penance.
The second of his great challenges was to kill the Hydra, a terrible water serpent but his enemy, Hera, who had always hated Herakles as the illegitimate son (yet another one) of her husband Zeus, sent a crab to harass him while he was fighting. The crab faithfully did its very best, nipping Hercules again and again, but he stepped on it and crushed it beneath his heel, or in other versions of the story, killed it with his club.
Look at that crab, getting right stuck in. Go on, crab! Give him a nip. That’ll larn him. Heracles was always a loose cannon. He wounded Chiron most horribly, killed his music teacher in a tantrum and killed his own wife and children in a fit of madness for which Hera got the blame.
Hera rewarded the Crab’s loyalty by placing it in the heavens, but she placed it in a dark portion of the heavens with only faint stars, because crabs need dark, quiet places to feel safe and at home.
This quiet celestial location however, happens to be the highest point in the zodiac, nearest to heaven, and so the unassuming The Crab is the star of the show; the humble herald of the glory of the summer solstice.
The sign of Cancer, ruled by The Moon, is a cardinal sign announcing the arrival of summer in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice, and winter in the southern hemisphere and the winter solstice.
Cancer is the sign at the zenith of the zodiac, the highest sign in the ecliptic.
Down here back on Earth Cancer is the sign of the shoreline, and the ocean tides. Cancer is uniquely both the moon and the sun.
Astrologically Cancer is the cardinal water sign and the fourth sign of the Zodiac, representing those born between June 20 and July 22.
Cancer likewise rules the Fourth House of the Zodiac, representing the concepts of home and homeland, family, duty, protection, parents and grandparents.
There is of course no such thing in reality as THE Cancer personality. Your zodiac or sun sign is the touchstone in your natal chart but it’s nothing like the whole story. You are a unique personality.
The archetype stands, however, and the Cancer personality is complex, elusive and riddled with contradictions.
Cancer stands for both mother and father. It is the zodiac sign of the nurturing parent. Cancer famously adores babies and small animals, all wild things and does very well with them. The empty nest can be anathema to the Cancer parent. And yet Cancer is tough, make no mistake, not forgetting the crab spends the whole of its life in armour.
Cancer is often musical or artistic, but also has a strong scholarly bent, and many Cancer subjects are drawn into the fields of teaching, counselling, psychology and behaviour sciences.
By Rose Maynard Barton
Cancer is the sign of hearth and home, and expanding this; the wider tribal or national identity, and our ancestral legacy, historical, cultural and genetic.
It is the sign of memory, nostalgia, sometimes regrets, and a longing to return to happy childhood haunts. A garden, a meadow, a walk we used to go. A bucket and spade at the seaside if we were lucky. Maybe a dabble in a rock-pool.
The Decans of Cancer
Each zodiac sign is 30 days long and is divided into three Decans of approximately 10 days each, with slight variations possible year on year.
Decan 121 June-1 July
Cancer-Cancer, ruler The Moon
Tarot card: Two of Cups
From The Legacy of The Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti
This is the decan of love or friendship between equals, and the Two of Cups is an especially fortunate and benevolent card. Cancer Decan 1 will fight hard for its loved ones, and will also stick up for the underdog.
They may be a bit of a do-gooder or something of an activist, wanting to pass across that cup as shown in the Tarot.
Cancer decan 1 is also, not only enigmatic and something of a dreamer or even a mystic, but a natural born astronomer, and watcher of the moonlight skies, as are all the decans of Cancer.
Decan 2 2 -11 July
Cancer-Scorpio, ruler Mars (traditional ruler) or Pluto (modern ruler)
Tarot card: Three of Cups
From The Legacy of The Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti
They like to be left in peace but not to be left alone. The subjects of this decan get stronger as they get older which may seem obvious but which is not universally true of all people, but they are resilient and of the three decans of Cancer, this is the decan with the reputation for bouncing back most readily. They are generally sensible about money, good with finances, reliable and trustworthy, helpful to their relations, but they expect the same in return, and do not easily forgive or forget a slight. They have a reputation for holding grudges. Feast and famine, exotic blooms, hot house flowers.
Cancer-Pisces, ruler Jupiter (traditional ruler) or Neptune (modern ruler)
Tarot Card: Four of Cups
From The Legacy Tarot, Ciro Marchetti
The figure in the Four of Cups has a rich inner life, and may be something of a visionary, but may from time to time feel restless and dissatisfied, bored by mundane realities yet unsure what to do about it, while haunted by the sense there is somewhere else they should be, something else they should be doing. As with Pisces, physical energy levels can be quite variable, and this too is reflected in the card.
Cancer 3 decan is traditionally understood as the moodiest of the crabs. Dedicated and devoted to their loved ones, they may all the same be unapproachable at times. They need to feel family around them, they really do, but they also need plenty of outlets.
Read HERE about the health and constitutional makeup of Cancer.
Cancer is – well, somewhat crabby at times. But deeply humane, kindly, reliable and trustworthy, and they sparkle in company, attracting admiration- when they choose. Reclusive at times, they are often very private people, and not always easy to get to know- and yet they never lose a certain sense of fun.
“Even the upper end of the river believes in the ocean.”-said William Stafford.
But even if it doesn’t, that’s where it’s going anyway. Slowing, broadening and deepening as it goes. Like us, if we get the chance, if we are given the time. And the closer we get to the ocean, the less we strive, the more we carry, the more we reflect and the less we hurry.
Like The Hermit, who walks alone in the wild places, following a far-off light, or answering the ancient drum beat. The Hermit is feeling the weight of his years and experience but casts his own light all the same. He/she withdraws more from society, but the wild creatures draw near and cautiously welcome The Hermit home. He – us- humankind of the modern world left their path many years ago, branching away from the path of the wild.
The Hermit is airy Mercury in earthy Virgo; watchful, enquiring, creative but analytical, self-disciplined, seemingly aloof yet approachable,with a quiet warmth.
William Stafford died aged 79 at his home in Virgo Season, Lake Oswego, Oregon on 28 August, 1993. The morning of his death, he had written a poem containing the lines, “‘You don’t have to / prove anything,’ my mother said. ‘Just be ready / for what God sends.’
Ask Me
Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. Ask me whether what I have done is my life. Others have come in their slow way into my thought, and some have tried to help or to hurt: ask me what difference their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say. You and I can turn and look at the silent river and wait.
We know the current is there, hidden; and there are comings and goings from miles away that hold the stillness exactly before us. What the river says, that is what I say.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”― Plutarch
There is what Life does to us. There is how we respond. But first there was always who we were to begin with, and the ways we are still becoming it.
Tabula rasa is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Epistemological proponents of tabula rasa disagree with the doctrine of innatism, which holds that the mind is born already in possession of certain knowledge. Wikipedia
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.
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.
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.
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.
True Tarot Tales 
