Tarot – Page 18 – True Tarot Tales

Melancholy Emperors: Tarot and the curiosity of synchronicity

Tweeted 15 November

#Tarot drawn AM 15 Nov. No Question. Fishing in the ether. 2 Emperors. 1) DT focus on Covid too late (9 Pents Rx) Concede? Prob not. Run again in 4 years? He’s been considering. Unlikely. 2) BJ ‘housebound’ (4 Swords Rx) Brexit gets done (9 Coins) POSS stands down May/June 2021

The cards are from The Golden Tarot deck by Kat Black.

“Golden Tarot has been collaged completely from artwork of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.

From a time of violence, pestilence and oppression came poignant images of gentle beauty and human frailty.

They speak to me of a truth that is timeless, and hope that flowers even in the darkest conditions. I hope that they also speak to you“.- Kat Black, artist/author of Golden Tarot

Interpretation of a Line of Five cards

I had pulled this ‘Line of Five’ Tarot card spread. No stated context or question. I was fishing in the ether to see what cards would be delivered via pure synchronicity; i.e the phenomenon of apparently random and yet seemingly meaningful coincidence.

So what did we here?

CARD 1 The Emperor. Meanings: Power, Leadership, Government, Authority, Aries, Military, War.

The function of the first card out of the deck is to flag up the topic for discussion, or in the case of a reading with a client, to provide me with a benchmark, so that I can proceed with confidence, knowing the client’s question has been ‘heard.’

OK. The Tarot wishes to talk about The Emperor. Which one might that be? Or which ones, bearing in mind I’m a Brit.

My first thought, was….that’s Donald Trump. It is striking how very much this card looks like him, the profile, the hair, the demeanour, and the set of the head.

And then I thought, it is Boris too. The Tarot is telling me two stories wrapped up in one.

People have often remarked that Donald Trump and Boris Johnson look alike. Indeed they do not.

Their profiles are very different, for one thing. This Emperor’s facial profile is much more like Donald Trump than it is like Boris Johnson, who has a Roman nose.

Still, he is an Emperor too, closer to home.

What is Donald Trump going to do next? Can he challenge the Election decision through the Supreme Court- and win? Will he quit quietly when it is time to leave the White House?

CARD 2 The Nine of Pentacles Reversed. Meaning: a challenge to self-sufficiency, financial independence,self-worth, over-investment in work, control and control-freakery, hustling.

The Emperor is looking at this card and he is looking mighty melancholy in this deck.

For Donald Trump the 9 of Pentacles seems to be signifying COVID 19.

The 9 of Pentacles represents Virgo, the zodiac embodiment of public health and Hygiene. The Romans associated Virgo with the goddess, Hygeia.

It represents COVID 19 for Boris equally, and the challenge faced by the UK government, dealing with an intractable and mutable problem not of it own creation, but Mr Trump here seems to be saying, he feels definite he would have won a second term if it were not for this serpent, wrapping the globe.

But ifs are only ifs.

Ever since 2016, during the many times I have written about Brexit here on this blog, time and again, The Nine of Pentacles has manifested as Britannia herself. She has appeared the right way up on many occasions looking to the future, and many a time, this has caused me to feel confident for our prospects post Brexit, and I still am, once the storm passes. But she has been drawn upside down on this occasion, and little wonder, given the general mood, anxiety and turmoil, stoked at every turn by those with other agendas. This Emperor, whatever one’s view of his policies, has undeniably been embattled by major circumstances not of his own making, and for which there is no one cast iron definitive solution that can protect both public safety and the economy.

I wrote before that Sweden, much trumpeted as the way ahead for us in the UK, had not ‘cracked’ Covid. Now we see their luck has run out, and they are facing a rise.

But they were are are right to ask people to do their duty by others. Duty. It seems to have become a deeply unfashionable concept. Freedom. We want out freedom. Of course we do, but rights bring responsibilities and so we owe a duty of care to others, and that means a demonstration of care, to protect theor freedom to go out and about, as well as out own.

Card 3 The Four of Swords. Meanings: a knight, a bed, tomb, retreat, confinement, time out, illness.

Donald Trump is working, still in office, and focusing now on the earliest roll-out of a vaccination programme, as well as the challenge to the election result, but in a self-imposed ‘retreat’ inside the White House, and o far as we know, he is not collaborating with the incoming administration.

Within 3 hours of this reading, we learned Boris Johnson had tested positive for Covid as identified by Track and Trace, and, while free of symptoms, and personally, I wish him well and hope he will not fall ill again, has had to go into self-isolation, though some well meaning source has let us all know he has had the temerity to sneak downstairs to the office in No 10, where among the many other perks of the job, he gets to wrestle with a well dodgy broadband connection. There it is, the Four Swords, drawn just a few hours ahead of time, a classic instance of Tarot synchronicity.

Card 4 Seven of Cups: Meaning, dreams, visions, castles in the air, options, choices, critical time frame of third decan Scorpio (where we are right now, and for the next few days)

NOW is the moment for both Emperors to act, to get what they want. For Donald Trump he wants the cup with the laurel wreath in it. Victory.

We need no Tarot card to tell us this, but what about Boris Johnson?

I feel he would choose the goblet containing the House, representing Britain itself, and also a happy home for him, personally.

He has got to call ‘HOUSE’ with the EU and to help get our HOUSE put in order, This might mean a degree of NEW ORDER, but the HOUSE is the goblet that seeks to unify a house, and not have it divided against itself.

The forces of disunity are especially vocal today, hard at work today re Devolution.

Card 5 The Lovers card Reversed: Meaning, difficult and unequal choices, bad choices, hesitation, indecision, loneliness, lost friendships, star crossed lovers, Gemini, late May -late June

This card is a snapshot in time, I would say, rather than predictive. Curiously again, both Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are Gemini sun signs. The Lovers card is ruled by Gemini, and both undeniably under par, to use a golfing analogy.

Boris was very ill indeed. Donald Trump far less so, but both are physically weary, says this card.

‘Gemini’ is literally as well as figuratively ‘upside down.’

It has occurred to Donald Trump that he could run again in 4 years time (the four of Spades) And surely it has. That would be the obvious line of thought. But once gone, this card suggests he will have plenty of other things to do, and probably would not be interested at that future juncture.

It’s now or never for him, seems to be the refrain, and, based on the Lovers card reversed, it does not look as though the Supreme Court would go the way he hopes.

Back in September, though I was somewhat perplexed as to the outcome of the US Election as it was being shown to me in the cards, but the reasons later became apparent.

The Ace of Swords and the Wheel of Fortune drawn for Mr T in September, compared with the cards drawn for Mr B (Knight of Cups-a charmer, a bearer of good will-and 10 of Cups (home safe and sound) suggested Law and Luck for Mr T with a date attached to Jupiter, and this goes conjunct with Saturn in Aquarius on 21 December.

If that date passes reasonably peacefully, the dust should settle, and when Mr Trump makes a decision to go quietly, may he pour balm on the wounds of his supporters, and seek to reassure them, for everyone’s sake.

We can all envisage a scenario no-one wants to happen, but I haven’t been shown in my Tarot that it will come to that, though I can’t help but remain uneasy.

This card seems to suggest, and there has already been much speculation about this, that Boris has at least considered stepping down after Brexit is finalized, and the possible time-frame here is late spring/early summer 2021.

Will Britain formalize a free trade agreement with the EU?

The Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti

Time and again this card has turned up specifically in respect of UK future prospects post-Brexit.

The Six of Swords is a serious card; solemn, but not negative in effects. It denotes progress, but it’s a question of holding one’s nerve as one navigates hidden rocks, currents and jetsam.

Here in this card we also see a reference to the fishing issue. Irrespective of who owns these boats or the tricky issue of quotas, the super-trawlers are an ecological abomination, now damaging the Dogger Bank

Britannia is charting a new course, herself at the helm. She will do well this coming decade, once the global storms calm, and we somehow, by means of overseas investors and inward investment, seem to escape a second long haul of austerity.

Science, Space and Technology should bring many exciting innovations and developments, in which the UK shall be an active and indeed pro-active party, with an expansion in technical apprenticeships, and an overhaul or renaissance of technical colleges for post compulsory education.

Playing cards drawn right now: 3 Hearts, Jack Diamonds, Jack Hearts, Ace Diamonds, 2 Spades.

In cartomancy language, the answer translates as a ‘yes, but…’

It detects ‘A ‘deal.

4 red suit cards out of 5 say Yes.

Is it comprehensive?

No. There are exceptions and caveats, quite sharp, remaining areas of non agreement.

The 2 Spades is a sharp application of the brakes. It is severance. Divorce. Continuing areas of contention include legal difficulties re licencing and quotas fisheries, suggests the central card here, the Jack of Hearts (the element of water, sitting centre stage.)

The Referendum asked the British People to decide whether they as a collective wanted to STAY or LEAVE. The vote was to leave. This meant OUT as the letter sent out by the Government ahead of the referendum, and the ballot papers made perfectly clear at the time.

The 2 Spades says OUT. But the Ace of Diamonds is a money ace, and says of course there is much business that can be done, and will be done.

Britannia is charting a new course, herself at the helm. She should, and I feel will do well this coming decade, once the global storms settle. Science, Space and Technology will bring many exciting innovations and developments, in which the UK shall be an active and indeed pro-active party, with an expansion in technical apprenticeships, and an overhaul or renaissance of technical colleges for post compulsory education.

But the UK is going forwards, not backwards as many fear. The Six of Swords denotes a retrograde step if drawn reversed, but my Tarot has never yet shown it to me drawn reversed in this context since 2016. See archives.

The UK will not become inward and insular. How could it, given the whole of the history of the British Isles, and the forging of the many peoples who gradually, eventually and only with much struggle and much bloodshed, became known as the British, including those ….Romans, Danes, Saxons, Normans…who first came as invaders, oppressors – enemies.

Harold Godwinson

Betrayed by his brother

Begged wait by his mother

Half-told Story

Stitched in thread

A king still speaks

Of ships on shingle

Senlac

Heartland, hillside

Battle-ringed

Blood ruin red

-KEH

The Normans brought terror, dispossession, punitive famine, subjugation, loss of language, and a new legal and sexual inequality in their battle train.

But they brought things of glory; enduring beauty. The cathedrals alone, says this cathedral city girl, born in sight of Durham cathedral, where Duke William himself came to see the works in progress; those jewels in the crown of so many of our cities, were an achievement, and a testament to a genius; a vision, and a brilliance and beauty that to this day, almost beggars belief.

See ya later, Scorpio!

All of us together, are sailing out of pretty intense Scorpio in Venus territory now, into the more buoyant if bossy, freewheeling territory of Jupiter, and Sagittarius. Let’s hope this manifests on the ground between now and 21 December.

Take care, stay safe.

Till next time 🙂

November Moon-raking, cartomancy…(and no, I didn’t say muck-raking)

19: 15PM GMT

I understand Mr Biden has now called it, and declared an Election victory for the Democrats 7 November 2020.

Mr Biden 290 Votes: Mr Trump 214 votes

Mr Biden is now the US President Elect.

What is astrology and why do astrologers study the Moon?

‘Astrology’ comes from Greek and means ‘the study of the stars.’

Humans have been studying and recording the phases of the Moon for at least 25, 000 years. The Moon is the closest celestial body to Earth, an average of 238,855 miles (384,400 km) away depending on its orbit.

The Moon provides not only a guide to the seasons, and a measure of predictability as to when certain things will happen, such as the migration of animals for hunting, but exerts visible effects on the tides and a lot more besides, for example, the spawning of corals, animal mating seasons, crop growth, hormonal cycles and quite possibly human behaviour.

November Headlines

You might get to wish upon a star this November…a shooting star, and heaven knows a lot of people will be wishing very hard right now, one way and another.

Look out for Taurid meteor showers on the 11-12 November looking to the right of Orion just after midnight and again on the 17-18 November.

The Taurids, Joshua Tree, California, Channone Arif via Wikimedia Commons

Key Dates

Nov 08 Last Quarter Moon in Leo (waning)

Nov 15 New Moon in Scorpio and this will be a super new moon

Nov 22 First Quarter Moon in Pisces (waxing)

Nov 30 Full Moon in Gemini and this will be a penumbral lunar eclipse.

A penumbral lunar eclipsehappens when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and blocks some or all of the Sun’s light from reaching the Moon. In a penumbral lunar eclipse the Sun, Earth, and the Moon are imperfectly aligned. The Earth blocks some of the Sun’s light from directly reaching the Moon’s surface and covers all or part of the Moon with the outer part of its shadow, a penumbra. But the shadow is only faint, and a penumbral eclipse is often difficult to tell apart from a normal Full Moon.

What do the moon phases mean symbolically?

A waxing Moon as we approach Full Moon is the optimum time to grow, build, add to, make or get something. It is about bringing something new in, or bringing something to completion or fruition.

A Full Moon is the optimum time to take stock and evaluate, or to gather, collect, harvest or cash in on something.

A waning Moon after the Full Moon is the optimum time for ending something, clearing out what’s no longer wanted or needed, including unhelpful or unhealthy habits. It may mean releasing something, or even getting rid of something (someone.)

A New Moon is the optimum time to launch something, to make a new plan and to start from scratch.

15 November 2020: New Moon in Scorpio

The major arcana Tarot card associated with the water sign Scorpio is Death.

Traditional meanings: Death, endings, transformations, resurrections.

This coming New Moon does not indicate a slackening of the current post Election Day roller-coaster, even if the winner is announced.

I have looked at this more than once since June 2020, and though it seemed to be clear it would be Mr B…my cards just would not send me that clear signal of confirmation.

But it’s one or the other, right? Simple, yes?

Well, I get a lot of good psychic ‘hits’. That’s how I came to learn Tarot in the first place, but I am not a soothsayer. I do it in a spirit of experiment, sounding myself out.

Plenty of others do public predictions, and are very often right, as well as brave, because who needs the trolls, and they get stick whether they get it right (cheating) or wrong (ya, boo, jeer)

I expect to deliver reliable soundings and directions for strategy, but am not a sayer of sooth as such. Though if I was, and I was on the payroll of the Emperor Tiberius he would probably have me thrown off the cliffs on Capri. That’s what he used to do to his psychic advisors if dissatisfied, and if they survived the fall, his soldiers would finish them.

But then, it wasn’t so much a correct prediction that saved his famous astrologer, Thrasyllus, but a joke.

‘What’s YOUR future, do you think,Thrasyllus?’ said Tiberius quietly, as they took a walk out along the cliff-tops at Capri, and Thrasyllus read the signs and said, knees knocking, ‘Oh Caesar, I fear my life is in the most terrible danger RIGHT NOW!’

So it was, except Tiberius was amused and changed his mind.

Good decision on Tiberius’s part. Thrasyllus got it right far more often than he got it wrong, and that meant, far better than a toss of the coin and 50:50

Sometimes the future exists, sometimes it doesn’t.

That is not a gnostic pronouncement. Nor is it a cop-out. It is common sense. Death is certain but not the day or the mode. When it does ‘exist,’ such that is it available to forecasting, there is a change in the wind, we feel it, we smell it, or the windsock points, and then there is consensus.

When I know what I think, my cards line up consistently. When I do not know what I think, something is niggling at me. Maybe only time will tell me what it is.

The current pandemic and other events and winds of 202/2021 was forecast in 2011 by a French astrologer Andre Barbault, using his knowledge of history and his charts as his tools of navigation in practicing mundane astrology (real world events rather than personal horoscopes/astrology).

“It may well be that we are seriously threatened by a new pandemic in 2020-2021.”-Translated in The Astrological Journa, May-June Issue 2020

Not a peep about this US election though. Except in terms of social unrest. Does that make his contribution any the less relevant, extraordinary or striking?

Anything else is divination for analysis….reflecting events in real time or just a little ahead of the curve.

Astrology is like mapping. Tarot is more like this. One is trying to hover above an ant-heap, getting a drone’s eye view as it were, while also being an ant inside the ant-heap, and also looking at a handful of the heap itself under a microscope.

Everything points to Mr B, but the cards are still not being consistent, and there will be a profound reason for this, which perhaps only time can tell, unless, which is entirely possible, I am simply being stupid.

The resistance in my cards is not due to wishful thinking. I am a little ambivalent about Mr B, but have always felt he may represent the best chance for a vital re-calibration, if he has the nerve, strategy and stamina to also restore peace in those places that have lost control of law and order.

My cards showed surprises weeks ago, in a blog post here, and there have been several subsequent appearances of The Joker, logged on Twitter, drawn against Mr T’s election prospects.

The Joker is the planet Uranus, rebellion and revolt. His element is Air and at this time he is retrograde in Taurus, and stays retrograde until January 2021.

Mr T does not need this job. His election in 2016 represented a protest. This this after two terms of a Democrat president, the most affable, sophisticated, urbane President imaginable…and yet…

There seems a widening existential schism between Rural, Small Town and City America.

The Joker

Mr T came in and played The Joker card….and the Joker as we know, is often perfectly serious and not at all funny.

Uranus which rules the concept of the archetype of The Joker is not all bad news. Its nickname is The Great Awakener, and it betokens invention, innovation, electricity, and technology.

The Joker is a force of change whether for good, ill or both. He is Loki, crafty, and maker of mischief. An instigator, a subversive, the rebel of the planet Uranus. He can be downright scary as an agent of revolution or chaos.

The cat among the pigeons, and the old Chinese curse, ‘may you live in interesting times’.

Many will be mightily relieved to see the Joker depart. But for now, the door is still ajar.

But assuming Mr B is declared the winner…a logical assumption, and this has been the ‘safer’ bet all along….Mr T’s got plenty else to do….over there in the ‘money meadow’ unless he can be bothered with opposition politics.

I did look at Ms Harris too, some weeks ago – also here in the archives – and for many she represents the darling hope, but I was not shown that she has the wherewithal, not for the job that’s needed right now, which is no disparagement, but what I was shown were superb executive skills.

It has been messy, and it might not be over.

Only last night the Supreme Court ordered a halting of counting of late Pennsylvania ballots.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

November 6, 2020 Updated: November 7, 2020 EST

“U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito late Friday ordered Pennsylvania election officials to segregate ballots that arrived after Election Day.

Alito granted a request by the state’s Republican Party to separate mail-in ballots received between 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 and 5 p.m. on Nov. 6 from those that arrived by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, in accordance with state guidance.

He ordered (pdf) that those segregated ballots must be kept “in a secure, safe, and sealed container separate from other voted ballots.”

The justice, however, did not order the counties to stop counting but instead ordered that “all such ballots, if counted, be counted separately.”

Alito also directed any responses to the application by 2 p.m. on Nov. 7.

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania (RPP) filed a request (pdf) earlier on Friday asking the court for an order to log, segregate, and not take any actions over mail-in ballots received after Election Day.“

I understand it may have inferred or directed a process of dating and proving provenance for these segregated ballots, and indeed, even as I am typing this, Il Matrimonio has shouted through from the other room that Mr Has won Pennsylvania.

Mr Biden is a deep Scorpio subject, a King of Cups in Tarot symbolism, with friendly fiery mutable Sagittarius as his rising sign or outward persona.

Mr Trump is an airy, volatile Gemini subject, a King of Swords, with drama-king fiery fixed Leo as his rising sign.

How odd, then, what a small curiosity is this, that the New Moon this month is in Scorpio and The Full Moon is in Gemini.

A New Moon will Wax (Biden) and a Full Moon (Trump) will wane.

30 November 2020: Full Moon in Gemini

The major arcana Tarot card associated with the lively air sign Gemini is The Lovers.

Traditional meanings: Lovers, love, romance, making commitments, weighing up choices and decisions.

This November, the full Moon is about messages, sudden developments, new ideas, speed of communications, new contacts, highly likely to do with job hunting, and possibly having to make a few snap decisions.

Some of these decisions could be tough, but important decisions need to be made with the head, not the heart.

A Gemini Full Moon lunar eclipse such as this one on 30 November is traditionally considered an unfavourable choice of date for surgery, including dental surgery, on similar principles as gardening by the moon…translating here as ease of extraction and issues of blood loss, and risk of infection afterwards. Ideally, one would avoid the next three days, and if concerned, one might consider re-scheduling if practical.

In Summary

There may be further secrets and surprises and upsets this month, as already happening vis-a-vis the US Election counting

I see now why in a card reading done some weeks ago, Sounding The Last Trump) I drew The Ace of Swords for Mr T (Law/court) and why other things did not seem to stack up.

On a personal or family level, old history may haunt us, though this could be an opportunity to resolve them. Some things though are best left, no poking the ant’s nest.

The lunar eclipse 30 November is a reminder to take extra care with important communications, not to believe everything you are told (huh) and to be extra careful with paperwork. Double-check everything.

A bit of peace and quiet would do us all a power of good….and all the sniping and screaming on the media and social media… well, that’s the Tower of Babel.

Love them and leave them. Block, Mute, Avoid, Let Be, Switch Off.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (and that is the perennial problem with prediction, unless you can see avoiding action and the other person decided to use the warning)

It’s a wonderful world.

Till next time 🙂

The High Priestess: Hathor, and Hecate, goddess of ghosts…

In the language of the Tarot the High Priestess may simply mean ‘a woman’, just as The Magician may simply signify ‘a man’.

The High Priestess corresponds with Monday as a day of the week. The reader may of course also correlate the Moon card with a Monday, but should be aware of The High Priestess connection, not to miss out on a potential clue in a reading.

The Moon card additionally correlates with the zodiac sign of Pisces, and in terms of timing of events may be suggesting dates late February- late March.

The High Priestess may be a scholar, and/or something of a witch. She may be a reader, an artist in any medium, a writer and a teacher. She may be a herbalist or hedge-witch, a midwife or a doctor. She may be in any line of work at all, but whatever she does, yes, she studies – hence the scroll in her hand- yes, she learns from others, but above all she learns from herself, and she is ready to talk in silence, like her masculine counterpart, The Hermit, and to walk and work alone.

She is recognized by HOW she does things, rather than necessarily what she does. She may be single, but even if she is married and a devoted family woman, there is always the sense that she has her own domain, separate, not shutting others off, but hers to rule.

The light is cool, silvery, remote at times though not cold.

You can see in this card various mythological references: the pomegranate of Persephone, as she wanders alone between the World and and the Underworld, and the cow horns of Hathor, goddess of the sky, of beauty, fertility, music and joy.

You see the Owl of Hekate, daughter of Zeus and Asteria, the triple goddess of ghosts. She is identified with the Crone and the waning Moon. She is the keeper of the dead, of boundaries and of the crossroads, purveyor of poison, but kindly to the broken, kindly to Demeter when Persephone was abducted. Hekate herself is no mother, but also took pity on the tragic mother Hecuba, queen of Troy, after Hecuba’s death by suicide,jumping overboard the Greek ship that was taking her into slavery after the fall of Troy and the deaths of so many of her children. Hecuba had suffered more than anyone could bear. Hekate, seeing this, rescued her soul with the gift of forgetting and transformed her into a hound which she keeps safely at her side at all times.

The owl as a totem animal is strongly associated with the intellectual warrior goddess Athena but hers was a Little Owl. Hekate’s totem animal is a Barn Owl, aka screech owl.

This owl is also associated with Welsh mythology, the Mabinogion, and the legend of a magical woman who was turned into an owl; a story which featured in a famous novel by Alan Garner, The Owl Service.

The Owl Service-

“Garner was fascinated by the love triangle of Lleu Llaw Gyffes (the man cursed never to have a wife on this earth), Blodeuwedd (the woman who was magically made out of flowers for him) and Gronw Pebyr (her lover). In the Welsh tale, Blodeuwedd conspires with her lover Gronw to kill her husband Lleu, but Lleu escapes his murder, turns into an eagle and flies away, eventually to be restored to life by the magician Gwydion. Blodeuwedd’s punishment is to be turned into an owl, while Gronw is killed by Lleu with a spear that passes through him and pierces a stone”.

Source: Times Literary Supplement

The High Priestess wears a headdress refers to the sacred Bull cult of Apis, corresponding with the material sign of Taurus, which is also associated with Hathor, the cosmic cow which carried the weight of the whole world.

The element of Earth is no less ‘spiritual’ than Fire, Water or Air.

When The High Priestess is drawn reversed in a reading, a female (though not necessarily female) enquirer may be feeling unhappy and lonely. If it refers to a woman in the enquirer’s close environment, this card may be picking up on a female friend where there has been a distancing or a disagreement, or this other woman is not after all a true friend. Be careful who you trust is the warning of the High Priestess.

Anyone who sees you as a competitor can never become a true and trusted friend. What they want in life, you cannot give to them, even if you wanted to, any more than a cow could simply shed its horns. But whatever they may want for you or from you, is, ultimately, not motivated by goodwill.

The High Priestess is watchful, and under no illusions as to whether someone is friend, foe, neutral or indifferent. But she knows it takes all sorts. She doesn’t take it personally.

In this respect, the shrine or sanctuary of The High Priestess corresponds with an old Norse rune called Perthro or Perdhro, meaning secrets, cup, chalice, sanctuary or paddock.

People meet on the road, or on the bridge, or on the strand between the shore and the sea, but, like The Hermit, the High Priestess accepts solitude as the price of learning, the sanctum she serves….whatever that sanctum may mean in reality; a home, a job, a business or a creative endeavour, or a cause dear to her heart….

People are quick to commiserate with bad news. But the real test, the acid test of a friendship is, when a friend also truly, sincerely rejoices in your good news.

The Watcher by The Well of Wyrd

She works alone with words and stones,
Disposing glyphs on graven runes,
Wyrd runs water; she must deal,
In whisperings and Fates unsealed,
Winds of fortune shape and shatter,
Time, disposing of all matters,
Is Serpentine, the ouroboros,
Endless, rolling, still coils sinuous.

Till next time 🙂

Psychic Starlings…Elections, and not-so psychic starlings

Starlings

Coding twilight

Ink-Mark

Stamping

Calligraphic

Wing-beat

Mind as One

And Sacred Prose

In Sonic flight.

–Katie-Ellen

Tweeted 29 October

Katie-Ellen@TrueTarotTales I spooked Il Matrimonio today. I dreamed he went to Copenhagen to see ‘the Hanseatics’ and mentioned this to him late this morning (he hates dream talk, but tough) He told me he had just posted a new ship history online- The Hanseatic Inspiration. Like the birds, telepathy.

Il Matrimonio was up very early this morning, busy early bird, while I was in and out of the Land of Nod, zonked like many of us with weeks of disturbed sleep, plus the effects of a short course of meds prescribed to slow the rate of damage to my hands, due to the ongoing predations of a sero-negative rheumatoid problem.

They are helping somewhat. But this has been a relentless adversary the past 25 years.

Il Matrimonio meanwhile, had been at work in his study and tweeted a ship history online on Twitter at 7.19 AM this morning. I may have been dreaming it even as he was typing it. Who knows.

Tweeted

Don Hazeldine@donships1·8h Hanseatic Inspiration in #Kiel Hanseatic Inspiration 2019 16,100 Hapag-Lloyd by Vard Tulcea/Langsten Image copyright: Capo Franz

‘Hanseatic’.

He psychically buzzed it through the ether.

But after all, we have been living together for thirty years. Perhaps this telepathy should not be remotely surprising, given the proximity and longevity of the radio connection, and we are all more like the starlings than we think.

I don’t feel a sense of personal connection to Mr Trump, or Mr Biden either, so when I look at them, I am trying to hear-see what the starlings are saying en masse, but with me as one of them in the mass.

I could just switch on the telly but that is NOT the starlings. Even social media is not the starlings. All of it together, which means all that which is staying quiet, that is the starlings.

It should be in the bag for Mr B, so why is this such a roiling sea.

27 October I drew these cards shown below.

Counting out of 7, we count a red card as a yes and a black card as a no.

Top Row Mr T: King Diamonds 6 Diamonds 3 Clubs 9 Clubs Queen Hearts ACE CLUBS 9 Hearts. This is a strong showing.

Bottom Row Mr B: 10 Diamonds 3 Hearts 3 Diamonds 2 Spades Queen Diamonds 7 Clubs

The cards themselves. Well, 27 October, Mr T drew the stronger cards. But based on the counting system, black v red, yes/no, they were showing neck and neck.

However one cuts it, this is no landslide forecast. For either.

There could be a delay of some kind, or a challenge though Mr T has previously said he will accept the result, as is the norm in democracy, however imperfectly it seems to operate at times. The alternatives are too shocking to contemplate.

But he’d got the Ace of Spades in there when I looked back on 20 September. This is the most notorious…and powerful minor arcana card.

It describes or forecasts an Idea, an act of law, a victory,a coup, or a loss or a demise.

Mr T currently alleges postal ballots are being deliberately dumped while other sources suggest that apparently Mr B could still lose the election, IF Mr T manages to hang on to key swing states including Texas and Florida.

Especially if Mr B should he lose any one of the so called ‘rust-belt states.’

Handsome birds, starlings, but who loves them? Unloved by many because they are too many, noisy, messy, pugnacious, common, ubiquitous? Well, yes, and we are also too many. We better beware hubris, and watch our own step.

There is what we see in plain sight, like the spectacle of a murmuration, and there is what can only see ‘through a glass darkly,’ to quote the grumpy Apostle Paul.

My cards are not in line with the polls or my logic. But I must keep faith with the process or be forsworn in neutrality. One can only be wrong. It looks like Mr B to win in the polls, but it still could work out as Mr T.

This is the future still in the making then. The cards are doing a snapshot in time, reflecting real time, or doing mass telepathy, starling-style.

It has occurred to Mr T that he really might not depart. That the Law (the Supreme Court?) might enable that outcome. This, then, has not reached the tipping point of no return.

Samhain…Halloween…It started in the stars

Like everything, it started in the stars, and then we started telling stories, mapping the movements of the skies on the walls of the caves, planning our own movements, ensuring provision for our survival, tracking the tilting of the seasons as the Earth went round the sun, and the seas warmed and cooled.

The modern festival of Halloween began as a marker of the darkest of the four so-called cross-quarter days in the Northern Hemisphere. A cross-quarter day marks the half-way point between an equinox and a solstice and in the case of Halloween, obviously this is between the autumn equinox and winter solstice, reversing these if you are in the Southern Hemisphere.

Click Here to read more

Halloween began as a Bronze Age festival, Samhain (pronounced Sow-in) Though it may well be far older. The name meant ‘summer’s end’ and its signal was the sighting of The Pleiades seen overhead at midnight.

This midnight zenith of The Pleiades now occurs 21 November owing to the Earth’s tilt and the wobble on its axis, an effect called precession, and in addition, the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar and further added to the discrepancy in dates.

But this astronomical event did apparently once coincide with the days around 31 October as recorded during the 11th and 12th centuries.

Samhain was a period rather than a single day and marked the start of the winter for Celtic societies, ending one planting cycle and beginning another. Seeds for the next year were often planted at this time.

It began about a week after the modern Halloween or All Hallows Eve, and it was believed that all those who had departed this life the previous year were finally freed from all their earthly ties.

The Pleiades

The Pleiades or The Seven Sisters is a star cluster in the north-west region of the constellation of Taurus the Bull. Classicists debate the origin of the name which may derives from πλεῖν (plein -“to sail”) because of the cluster’s importance for the sailing season in the Mediterranean: “the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising” (Wiki)

Here is how to locate them:

The Pleiades feature as prominent stars of winter in the ancient agricultural calendar of the northern hemisphere, and the Greek poet Hesiod wrote:-

And if longing seizes you for sailing the stormy seas,
when the Pleiades flee mighty Orion
and plunge into the misty deep
and all the gusty winds are raging,
then do not keep your ship on the wine-dark sea
but, as I bid you, remember to work the land.— Works and Days 618–623

Celtic mythology

A bronze disk, 1600 BC, from Nebra, Germany, is one of the oldest known representations of the cosmos. You can see the seven dots of The Pleiades top right.

By Dbachmann, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1500795

For the Bronze Age Celts, and probably going back far earlier the Pleiades were associated with mourning and with funerals. At that time in history, on the cross-quarter day the cluster rose in the eastern sky as the sun’s light faded in the evening and this association has persisted even though The Pleiades no longer mark the festival.

Traces

All is lost, in death, they say.

Not all, nor straightaway.

Records of state and memory last a while.

For some, memorials, for others work in word or form,

Sustain their name.

For many, genes still stalk the pool,

Promises of progeny,

If not the immortality

Of Gargantua’s heartfelt plea.

And for all, there’s particle subsistence,

As material laws require.

But if that wasn’t all?

If walls have ears, have they memory too?

If the pendulum distinguishes one

hurled in anger, in a heap of stones,²

And if creatures all had souls, as Pythagoras claimed,

If all we did, or felt, or thought, lived on,

In cyberspace or noo-sphere

Oblivion would not hold true.

Or is the good all lost

And all the evil too?

PJW

Till next time 🙂 Meanwhile I’ll leave you with this from Enya: numinous and timeless; The Humming.

The Six of Swords, Ships of souls: Maritime Vision of The Post Brexit Voyage

Science, Ships and The Six of Swords

I follow Scientists for Britain on Twitter.

Back in April 2020 they tweeted:

“We are urging NHS Supply Chain to ignore the EU Public Procurement Directive during the current crisis ——— This EU rule applies in the UK until Dec 2020 ——— It is designed to create an EU-supervised supplies market but is an unnecessary bureaucratic obstacle ——— Please retweet.“

This tweet, as with anything else said, whispered or timidly squeaked in or about public life at present, drew some sharply critical comments asserting UK incompetence as the true root of the problem, plus a jot of jingoism.

Later 20 October, Scientists for Britain tweeted

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

They better had.

Back to the Tarot. I drew a card in immediate response to this tweet and funnily enough, drew The Six of Swords though it is a mighty tiny maritime vessel, I grant you. It does two jobs here though. Of all the 78 cards in the Tarot deck, this is THE card capable of painting a future in respect of both the coronavirus problem and British maritime simultaneously.

It’s got a frog though, a lovely little frog…quite a big one actually. One wonders what it might possibly signify in this context (says this channel-going Francophile, though not all that struck with M Macron. )

‘M Macron is a sheeeet,’ said a beautiful young lady to me in 2017, working zero hours in a shoe shop in a tourist hot-spot…Rocamadour. ‘It is very bad here for young people. But the others, they were double sheeets.’

She was referring here to the two other chief contenders for the job.

Though M. Macron is entirely right to object as he is doing, and to take action to prevent more teachers being beheaded on the streets of Paris by murderous religious lunatics who don’t approve of the laws of the land or the state educational curriculum. Rip le pauvre M Samuel Paty.

France did not become a secular Republic overnight or for no reason. France has seen it all.

I remember objecting to certain things the C of E promoted in primary schools when my children attended those schools…not because we attended church ourselves, but because those were the only local state schools.

But a word or a note sufficed to voice my displeasure or concerns, and these were met with civility. A somewhat frosty civility, perhaps, but civility nonetheless, no reason to go home and get the chopper out.

Likewise, the school took no offence at child 1 when she said Jesus was Odd. He was Odd, the Son of God (don’t ask why, I don’t know how she arrived at that conclusion) Likewise they were only amused when Child 2 asserted that Jesus was a tortoise, and why? Because the Head, Mr R had told them so in Assembly.

He told them ‘Jesus taught us how to live in ‘harmileeeee’….which clearly demonstrated that he was a tortoise. ‘But they were mean to him,’ she said mournfully, ‘and put him on a log’.

I recounted this to the Head, Mr R, who laughed till he had a coughing fit and staggered off to the office to share it, then came back and said, ‘oh well, it’s good to know at least someone was listening.’

Nope, not a chopper in sight. Let’s see if the Archbishop of Canterbury comes after me for this…but I trust he won’t, or any of his congregation either. I really do. Though maybe once upon a time in these islands, such levity might have got me in a huge lot of trouble…four hundred years ago…

Good luck, all power to you, there, M. Macron, and all reasonable, civilized people in La Belle France and the whole world over.

LIBERTÉ.

I have made a bit of a detour here, but not entirely. We were talking about Ships and Science.

Looking just now I see the iconic Yard in Appledore in North Devon reopened in August after it closed in 2019. It has been bought by Harland and Wolff owner Infrastrata for £7 million with 350 jobs, and its special angle will be ‘Green’ shipping. Read more Here

Elements and Timing

The Six of Swords correlates with the element of Fixed Air- Intellect -and the Second Decan of Aquarius, dates 30 January- 8 February.

If during a personal reading someone asks me when? this should prove to be the window.

Maritime Britain has a lot of lost ground (water) to make up. It is by no stretch any longer one of the big boys, but slowly, surely we are and WILL be building more again, and hopefully this will mean more new fantastic STEM apprenticeship schemes for young people, while according to this article about Merseyside the lesson and the plan seems to be diversification.

Exploration and Recovery

This card of one the one had, exploration, and on the other hand, convalescence and recovery suggests small but clear small signs here and there, in terms of the SARS Covid nightmare penumbra, and concomitant economic recovery, dips and troughs, small signs intermittent at first, more visible after we pass, first Feb then early April, then the mid-year point.

Science should do well this coming decade. Science, Research and Development.

Maritime will slowly build back with the emphasis on innovation. The innovative specification of the new Sir David Attenborough shows just what amazing things are now being done.

Read here re the discovery of what could just possibly be the oldest boat-building yard in the world…a platform 8,000 years old off the Isle of Wight.

The Six of Swords correlates with the element of Fixed Air- Intellect -and the Second Decan of Aquarius, dates 30 January- 8 February

In general terms it is a solemn but positive card of moving away, moving on, charting a new course, entering uncharted waters.

It has a gravitas, solemnly she takes the helm alone, fixing her gaze ahead. She is the spirit of Britannia, born of many spirits and legends native to not only Britain, but of the Akkadians, Sumerians,Babylonians, Greeks; the Star goddess Astraea, and Dike, the Roman goddess of Justice.

This card may indicate funerals and obsequies in my experience. There may be grief attached. It is a card of loss and readjustment but still, with a gradual recovery of composure and with great Hopes for the Future.

2020 is a year of many losses and the end of the storm is not yet quite in sight. It’s certain to intensify in the next few weeks.

The Six of Swords however, while you can see for yourself this ain’t exactly a fun card, is a card of recovery in every sense of the word. If a loved one is sick, this is a welcome card, but its meaning goes further and wider.

The Major Arcana card for Aquarius is The Star, signifying equilibrium, independence and above all…a new vision. Following that star which shines out biggest and brightest in the firmament, needing no permission to be there and to shine, along with all the other stars, but this is the one we will follow.

The Six of Swords, both Air and Water, is associated with Mercury, governing all communications and trade (Think Hermes)

It is also the minor card par excellence of distance learning

And, visionary Science and R & D. This means UK Space Tech too.

Till next time.

I’ll leave you with this track from incomparable musician, poet and story-teller Mark Knopfler from the Album Get Lucky, video with thanks to Alec Beaton.

‘Bravely she rises to meet with the land’….

An elegy, but the past is never dead and gone for good, and now we are facing forward.

Kickass Candles in the Wind

Yesterday I drew just one card for Mr Trump and one card for Mr Biden, asking re their position come the day of the Inauguration, January 2020.

I have felt consistently drawn to feel the Democrats do not have this in the bag, whatever the polls say, while astrologers vary, but more Vedic astrologers seem to favour Mr T’s chances in November, while it is more variable, it seems to me, there is less consensus among Western astrologers.

It should be a clear line of sight. Why isn’t it, yet? Is my intellect at odds with my intuition? I have felt unsettled of late, and have been having a flare up of RA symptoms. Perhaps I am not on form.

The future both exists and does not exist. This is self-evident when one considers that Death is certain. It exists, guaranteed outcome, but not the how or when. So it can be with psychic prediction. Sometimes the ducks are pretty much lined up, and then it shines out and a forecast may be made, as if from the gut. Other times, it is morphing. Still nascent.

Perhaps it will come down to what is going down in the next two weeks. If there should be unrest on the streets of Portland etc at this critical point, this will be far more likely to increase Trump votes than decrease them, I feel, based on a previous appearance of The Ace of Swords as detailed on this blog in recent weeks, and this was a card which seemed to strengthen the position of Mr T rather than Mr B.

(Victory, Law and Order)

But yesterday I asked what was going to be the picture come Inauguration Day and I drew The Five of Cups for Mr T (disappointment) and for Mr B, I got the same card I drew before, the 10 of Cups.

See her drowning her sorrows in the 5 Cups. Though in fact, it would probably actually feel like something of a personal liberation for Mr T. to return to business.

Maybe Mr T will not prevail with the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court? Will hit some snag there. Or he will face a Dem opposition so numerically strong, his leeway will be further limited if he wins a second term

The puzzle is, the Ten of Cups is such a cozy card. Leadership? Not there. Not enough energy to heal and unite the nation, if less to divide, but inaction can also divide. It is a card of arrival at a cherished destination -yes- . Contentment. Home Sweet Home. It is a card of family life. It is not a card associated with public life.

In terms of particular dates, this card correlates with Pisces, and since it has turned up more than once in Mr Biden’s cards, it may be sensing some significant personal or family event for him in March 2021, and possibly there may be political effects.

Unless it is the Dems sticking together with the means to block the Amy Coney Barrett appointment? No. Says the 5 of Cups. Mr T won’t like that.

UPDATE Yesterday 22 October 2020: Source: Epoch Times

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Oct. 22 to advance Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate floor despite a boycott of the vote by Democrats on the panel.

The Republican-controlled committee voted 12–0 to recommend Barrett; no Democrats were present.

“That was their choice. It will be my choice to vote the nominee out of committee,” the committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Oct. 22. “We are not going to allow them to take over the committee. They made a choice not to participate.”

We’ll be watching that space.

Perhaps, if it turns out to be Mr B as the polls still indicate, however wrong they were in 2016, then the message of this 10 Cups shall be asking to be read as ‘Home and Dry’.

Or, another way of reading the cards might be to say, if Mr T gets a second term, there will be tears…(reach for that gin, Mama) and if Mr B gets in, things may gradually calm down. The Mr T effect, whatever its merits, do not include such imagery associations as peace and quiet, (‘sleepy Joe’) as relaxation and home sweet home (Alabama?)

I can only assume I have not decided what I feel is going to happen, except there are more surprises in store, before and after the election. Once I decide, my cards start to line up one way and stay that way.

This is how I know if I know.

In questions of public life, which are nothing to do with my daily work with the Tarot, one is dealing with mass variables where you must treat it as a murmuration of starlings.

Sometimes I feel I do know. I do with clients. I did with Brexit, and with the UK election of December 2019 fairly well ahead of time. But sometimes I don’t until almost the last minute. And then no gold star for moi. Or only this one….

The Tarot take away here is, it isn’t in the bag or all the cards would point one way, and wouldn’t shift over the course of a few readings, bar a wobble here and there.

Mr T is not going to have it all his own way, that much looks definite here. And he’s got used to that. But he is lucky in general. The Wheel of Fortune came up in the last reading about this, and says he is lucky, whether or not he deserves to be, in whomever’s estimation. Luck and justice…do not always coincide.

I’ll look again before we get to 3 November. But the 2016 vote for Mr T happened for a reason, and if it was a protest vote, it’s no use, it doesn’t help, insulting the voters. Or saying their reasons were less valid than those who voted differently.

Elephant in the room. My bias? Is it getting in the way of my line of sight? Readers must be aware of their own blind spots. Well, I won’t be rejoicing or crying either way, I don’t think, come 4 November, though I may be perturbed. I am not massively emotionally invested but I have been alarmed and grieved at events in the US and also their effects in the UK. I’m a Brit, and I find Mr B more easily relatable, but I see where the Rep voters are coming from, and they had their reasons after 2 terms of a Dem President. Mr B is anti-Brexit and as a Brit I am anxious it will go as well as possible, and the Reps seem more helpfully disposed towards the UK at this juncture on the UK’s own journey than are the Dems, though I’m not buying the chicken, sorry, whether it’s the Reps or the Dems.

I’m buying local.

The breakdown of civility in public discourse as we have been seeing in the US has been a shocker, just as it has been here in the UK since 2016. Manners matter. They matter a lot. Manners Maketh Man. Once manners go, terrible things happen.

RIP Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Captain David Dorn.

I have a daughter Breonna’s age.

Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on Pexels.com

The election is happening in Scorpio season; Death, Transformation and Resurrection. This is Mr B’s own major card. I understand Mr B is a shadow dwelling, long game Scorpio subject with fiery Sagittarius rising… and Mr T is a communications, volatile Gemini with even more fiery Leo rising.

The Major cards are Death (Scorpio) versus The Lovers (Gemini)

The minor cards of fixed negative sign Scorpio are the 5, 6 and 7 of Cups…interesting. That card of disappointment is a Scorpio card.

Both candidates have their secrets.

The minor cards of mutable Gemini are 8, 9 and 10 Swords.

I will look again, but this was the snapshot draw today.

You can track the polls here, and they are updated every hour or more.

Back soon 🙂

Scorpio, slayer of Orion, the Stellar Scorpion

The season of the Scorpion is here once again.

Common Associations

Zodiac symbol

Dates: October 23 –November 22 (Western astrology)

Ruling planets: Co-ruled byMars and after its discovery in 1930, Pluto

Symbol: Scorpion, Eagle, (nearby constellation, Aquila, the Eagle) Also, the Phoenix

Zodiac element: Water

Zodiac quality: Fixed

Keyword: I desire. I transform

Colour: Dark red

Birthstone: Yellow Topaz, Opal, Aquamarine, Tourmaline.

Tree: Walnut. Hawthorn. Blackthorn

Tarot Card: Death, Transformation and Resurrection. Without Death there can be no Life. Without Death there can be no Individual. We chose the destiny of the Individual.

Astronomy

Scorpius , Latin for Scorpion, the constellation from which the zodiac sign of Scorpio gets its name, is a massive and spectacular j- shaped constellation in the southern hemisphere near the centre of the Milky Way. In the Northern hemisphere it can be seen in July and August, most visible in July at 9.00 PM. In the Southern hemisphere it is visible from March to October, looking like a faint band in the Milky Way overhead.

Its is one of the 48 constellations identified by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century but its story is far, far older.

Scorpius is the southernmost of all the constellations in the zodiac, and lies between Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east. Its claws later became part of the newer constellation the Romans named Libra.

Its brightest star, one of the brightest of all in the night sky, is the ‘heart’ of the scorpion, Antares, meaning ‘rival of Ares’ (the Greek name for the Roman god of war, Mars) Like Mars it is bright reddish in colour, and Scorpio’s ruling planet was Mars until Pluto was discovered in 1930. Now it is considered co-ruled by both Mars (The Warrior) and Pluto (The Transformer)

Scorpius contains many bright stars, and some exo-planets. One is extremely old, and more than one is considered potentially habitable. The planet PSR B1620-26 b is sometimes nicknamed “Methuselah” being estimated at 12.7 billion years old. (The universe is about 13.7 billion years old.) Methuselah is vast, with a mass about twice that of Jupiter and it orbits around not one, but two stars.

Gliese 667Cc is a “super-Earth” about four times as massive as Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star, Gliese 667C; part of a three-star system only 22 light-years away from Earth. It’s considered potentially habitable and the same system contains two other potentially habitable planets: Gliese 667Ce and Gliese 667Cf – both are about 2.7 times the mass of Earth.

“Habitability” is defined as a rocky world that is close enough to its parent star for liquid water to exist on the surface, though other factors may later rule it out, such as the variability of its star, or the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.

Mythology and History

Nature, Religion and astrology were intertwined in the ancient world, and the scorpion has been here far longer than we have – hundreds of millions of years, more than 450 million, as compared with our six million or so.

Sometime around four thousand years ago the Babylonians looked up, discerned the brightly leaning J- shape in the summer stars and called this constellation MUL.GIR.TAB – the ‘Scorpion’, literally read as ‘the (creature with) a burning sting’.

The movements and relative positions of Scorpius were mapped by Babylonian magicians and astrologers, who left written records of the omens they observed.

“When a halo surrounds the Moon and Scorpio stands in it, it will cause men to marry princesses, (or) lions will die, and the traffic of the land will be hindered.”

A comet appearing in Scorpius was read as a warning of a plague, but when the Sun rose in Scorpius, alchemists saw their one chance for the transmutation of lead into gold.

In Greek mythology the scorpion refers to a story about Orion. According to one of these myths Orion boasted to his friend the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto that he would hunt and kill every animal on Earth.

Demeter, the goddess of Earth decided this was completely unacceptable behaviour.

Artemis was a great hunter herself, but still, Artemis did not kill for the sake of killing, and offered protection to all creaturesand stood for the principle of conservation. Demeter sent a scorpion to deal with Orion. He fought back, and according to some accounts he killed the scorpion, but whether or not Orion killed the scorpion, the scorpion killed Orion, and they are not seen together in the sky at the same time. Orion flees before the Scorpion.

Zeus was impressed by the scorpion’s battle spirit, and raised it to heaven, and at the request of Artemis; he did the same for Orion, who stands for our earliest selves, The Human as The Hunter.

It was the human as hunter that founded human society, not the human as forager or farmer. Hunting has high stakes – Life and death when the prey is powerful and dangerous, as with the auroch and the mammoth. It demands teamwork, absolute co-operation in a way that foraging does not.

Orion stands for the dawn of Mankind.

“We were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted to battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses.”- Robert Ardrey, African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man (1961)

Other Legends

In Indonesia Scorpio is the Banyakangrem – “the brooded swan,” or the Kalapa Doyong, meaning “the leaning coconut tree.” The tree is quite easy to see in that pattern of stars. In Hawaii, it is “The Fishhook” of the demi-god Maui.

In Chinese mythology, the constellation is part of the Azure Dragon.

And yet, there is consensus across not only continents but hemispheres. Thousands of years before the Greeks and Romans established their societies, the Australian Aboriginal people also saw the stars of Scorpius as a cosmic scorpion, as did the Aztecs of Central Mexico.

The Lowland Mayans had scorpion constellations. These may have matched up with the Scorpion of the zodiac, but there no clear proof. It is thought that the Mayans viewed the celestial scorpion as an eclipse-causing agent.

The arrival of Scorpio’s sign in the northern hemisphere coincides with the advent of mystery, the fast fading autumn light, and the ghosts, myths and superstitions of Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, hence its association with the Tarot’s Death Card.

Facts about scorpions

They are a truly ancient creature. The earliest evidence dates from the Silurian period 450 million years ago, when the first scorpion ancestors left the seas for the land. Fossils from the Carboniferous 300 million years ago indicate little change since then. Early scorpions may have had compound eyes.
They are arachnids: arachnida scorpiones, with a body in two sections, 2 pincers or pedi-palps, 8 legs like a spider, and an exo-skeleton made of chitin. But they are more closely related to Harvestmen than spiders.
They dance before mating, a stately promenade, and give birth to live young and carry them on their backs until the babies have their first moult when they disperse. The mothers may eat the young if resources really are desperately scarce.
They have a long life span compared with other arachnids, 2-3 years in the wild but can live up to 25 years in captivity. They eat insects, spiders, other scorpions and lizards. They also eat small mammals, such as mice. But they can go a year without food if they have to.
They glow in the dark unless they have newly moulted and scorpion fossils still fluoresce, after hundreds of millions of years embedded in rock.
They are famously venomous but of the nearly 2,000 known species of scorpions, only 25 are dangerous to an adult human. In the U.S., the Arizona bark scorpion, Centruroides sculpturatus, produces venom strong enough to kill a small child, but anti-venom means deaths are nowadays rare.

The Scorpio Archetype

All the zodiac signs are ‘psychic’ in their own ways, but like the other water signs, Cancer and Pisces, Scorpio is considered especially clairvoyant, or at least, keenly intuitive. But where Cancer is ruled by the Moon, and Pisces by Neptune, Scorpio is ruled by fiery Mars. It scalds. It is is water behaving as steam.

Co-ruled by Pluto, Scorpio rules Birth, Sex and Death. No wonder the subjects can be intense, but also possessed of great personal charisma.

They are watchful but keep their feelings hidden. Born investigators, spies or secret agents, they are shrewd judges of human nature, born detectives and good at covering their tracks, while less conscientious Scorpio subjects may consciously make use of this to their personal advantage.

But combined with their intense determination and loyalty where they decide to accord it, Scorpios can make great leaders, scientist, and devoted doctors and family people. They are quick learners, agile, often changing careers, going down new paths.

Scorpio is vengeful…and patient. But they never forget a kindness either.

And unpopular Pluto, Hades, lord of the Underworld has a compassion all his own. It is not Death that is the enemy of Life, but useless suffering, and the ‘Seasons Don’t Fear The Reaper’.

Scorpio is also the fire-bird of resurrection, as new life rises from the ashes –The Phoenix.

Till next time…and for keen astronomers, I’ll leave you with this video via YouTube channel, Learn The Sky. You can support them by giving it a Like or Subscribing.