Note the Biblical ‘pale horse’ and the white rose. The rose signifies beauty and immortality.
All that has ever once been, is recorded somewhere, somehow, forever.
Astronomy
Scorpius is a massive, spectacular j- shaped constellation located in the skies over the southern hemisphere near the centre of the Milky Way. In the Northern hemisphere it can be seen in July and August, and is most visible in July at 9.00 PM. In the Southern…
Disclaimer. This is a Tarot reading only, for readers generally interested in the modern use and applications of Tarot and cartomancy divination.
War is raging, people are dying. The political seas are boiling, the news is non stop, but we will all be glad if it gets no worse in light of Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons.
This deeply unprepossessing personage below, Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, 46, son of a Muslim cleric, Head of the Chechen Republic, who is apparently nicknamed Putin’s lap dog or Putin’s attack dog, has reportedly been urging Putin to up the ante, deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. He has just been promoted to the rank of general and looks like a choleric killer-gnome with high blood pressure. Better learn to calm himself down if he wants to make old bones.
Ramzan Kadyrov
Kadyrov fought against Russia in the first Chechen war, when he was pro Chechen independence. It is only natural and laudable to defend one’s own homeland, but he swapped sides in the second Chechen war. His province is economically weak, it has been reported. He relies on the Kremlin for money, and has a reputation for ‘human rights abuses.’
Kadyrov has said he will send his three sons to fight in Ukraine – aged 14, 15 and 16.
Putin’s PR man, Dmitry Peskov has apparently lamented that Kadyrov gets ‘too emotional at difficult moments’.
If this isn’t an exceedingly difficult moment for President Putin…
Let’s hope that Kadyrov’s promotion is actually Putin’s way of managing him, kicking him upstairs,keeping him sweet while at the same time, putting the frighteners on everyone.
Biden has said that Putin is not joking. Ukraine knows he isn’t, and we have all seen that Putin’s regime is capable of pretty much anything. It’s not that he’s bluffing. But I am not seeing that he will do it.
Dmitry Peskov
President Xi meantime has plainly intimated that the deployment of nuclear weapons is a red line that Russia had better not cross, while Saudi Arabia has joined up with Russia to agree a managed reduction of oil stocks from November, which will drive up prices, and which the Biden administration views as an act of betrayal by OPEC and the Saudis, driving up the price of Brent crude oil just before peak season demand. US views this as an act of solidarity with Russia. OPEC says they have done this to stabilize the market.
Will Putin deploy nuclear weapons? On the face of it it may seem entirely plausible that he will do so, given the current desperate circumstances, but he has many different audiences, each with their own stakes in play.
What does the Tarot show in respect of this nuclear threat this coming month?
#Tarot#Ukraine#Putin October direct nuclear attack not shown, test not unlikely. 5 Swords=defeats. King Cups=water/Poseidon/threat +message to Biden. Week 3 fiery+4 unstable. 9 Pentacles/Temperance/3 Coins-China would be alienated. No clear gain +P hopes winter splits opposition
Tarot readers don’t claim to know ‘the future’. They use their cards, that is all, to try and sense the coming weather, and articulate their findings.
October is deeply worrying, The fourth week is potentially most worrying as seen in the cards. November too, highly likely. But I am not being shown an impending nuclear Armageddon outcome. Let’s consider the cards in more depth.
Issue: The Five of Swords and The Seven of Cups
The Five of Swords is Defeat, rage, mortification, humiliation and chagrin. This is a reflection of the recent defeats experienced by Russian forces, but is also holding up a mirror to the defeat he wants to inflict. He wants it finished by Christmas. This may not be possible. The Five of Swords is Aquarius, late January to late February. Putin could make use of a pause at this juncture. Ukraine has no reason to seek one, but it does have every reason to push harder and not lose momentum
The Seven of Cups talks about ‘castles in the air.’ Daydreams and potentially, delusions. This is about Putin’s dream, his vision. This card generally talks about those things which inspire us, but which are not realized. In terms of timing, this is a card of Scorpio and late Scorpio time, late November, suggesting that Putin is envisioning a next stage strategy working towards that date frame. This is a card of deep water, which in the context of the Poseidon submarine being deployed in the Kara Sea, is not a reassuring card. This card therefore, benchmarks the threat. (Not forgetting the nuclear train being deployed to the border with Ukraine.)
Week One: The King of Cups
This card represents a number of possibilities:-
A man acts as a broker or peacekeeper. The suit of Cups is calming in general
The card represents Neptune- dominant planet in 2022 and the alter ego of Neptune is Poseidon- well, here we are, in week one, talking about the Poseidon missile threat.
The deployment of the submarine-and the train- is a direct threat and intended as a rebuke to the ‘King of Cups’, which is the court card representing Scorpio native President Biden in response to recent further US armaments to Ukraine and the new Lend Lease.
The Russian Poseidon submarine is in the Kara Sea, in the Arctic, a prime fishing ground with vast reserves of untapped petroleum and gas. The US government sanctioned Exxon from drilling there in 2014. One wonders whether this is Putin’s way of reminded the US government that he has the means to prevent them from accessing those energy fields.
If I am understanding this correctly, for Putin to use that Poseidon submarine to carry out a nuclear attack on Ukraine it would need to enter the Baltic undetected.
Image via Wikipedia
However, this Neptune card conveys a strong sense of key coastal or maritime developments.
Aug. 24, 2022
On the 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, the United States is reinforcing its long-term commitment to the nation with $2.98 billion to train and equip the Ukrainian armed forces for their struggle against the Russian invasion.
President Joe Biden announced the aid at the White House. He said the people of the world have been awed and inspired by Ukrainian resistance and pledged the United States will stand with the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend their sovereignty.
The aid “will allow Ukraine to acquire air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars to ensure it can continue to defend itself over the long term,” the president said. – SOURCE
Week Two: The Empress Reversed.
I am struggling with this one, to gauge its meaning apropos of the question. The Empress is Demeter, so, land and agriculture. The Empress is mothers and motherhood eg; Mother Russia. Maybe to Putin she is a vision of Catherine The Great, and attached to this, the city of Odessa which she founded. If so, perhaps this card is detecting that Putin may seek to scatter Ukrainian forces with further attacks on Odessa this month.
I think this card pertains to the problem Russia now has during this time, of identifying and declaring the boundaries of the land they have claimed via the four ‘sham’ referendums, now that Ukrainian counteroffensives are reclaiming ever more territory in those four Oblasts, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Wherever Russia now declares those lines to be drawn, are the lines that Russia must be seen to defend. They have not as yet made that announcement. Let us wait and see if Putin’s military chief minister, Shoigu falls down the stairs this month in weeks three or four.
There has been a sense since February, as seen in the cards, that Putin will end up with much less than he wants, but more than he should rightfully get, and finally comes a cropper. It will not be an easy exit for him, says the Ten of Swords. Perhaps it will be Donetsk that he gets to re-acquire, which may just possibly have a genuine majority in favour of returning to Russia. But now he risks losing what he has already seized by invasion, however ‘peaceful’.
Ukraine is now a hive of fury and is set on taking back the Crimea.
Curiously, the moon in the second week in October is a waning moon in Taurus, the zodiac sign of agriculture – Virgo is the other. Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, all things sociable, beautiful, harmonious and luxurious. This means money.
A waning Venus-Taurus moon…this for Putin could therefore signify waning money, the erosion of the boundaries of the four annexed Oblasts, and in addition there may be some private worry or grief to do with a significant woman in his life.
This is a man whose upbringing and mother, The Empress Reversed, is a mystery. The mother, rather a touching figure in this photograph, the child withdrawn and anxious.
Week Three and Four: The King of Wands Reversedand The Fool Reversed
A man who is a’king of wands’ may leave the scene. A man of action. Is this a reference to Sergei Shoigu, who has been the Russian Minister of Defense for some years? Astrologically this card represents Leo, but the planets are Mars and Jupiter. One can see the potential for heat here, suggesting missiles used or exchanged with Ukraine. But the card is reversed, and it remains possible that the situation may be somewhat defused by this time. There is a strong feel of ‘fire and water’, this could mean explosions rather than missiles but these are traditional, so to speak, below the grade of nuclear.
The Fool is the most dangerous card here in this spread, in this context. The Fool is the wild card in the Tarot, never to be discounted. ‘Accidents’ can happen. Fools jump in. Surprises are likely, putting it mildly.
But the more Putin looks before he leaps, the less likely it looks here that he will act to unleash nuclear weapons, however much he is tempted. Why will he not? The reader looks for the cards that follow, to get clarification on The Fool. People talk about the Death card. This most numinous card represents the concept of zero and can mean death. For whom, apart from all those who will certainly lose their lives this month, on both sides, not to mention the blameless Ukrainian civilians?
That Three of Pentacles tones down the Fool, and suggests Putin decides to stay his hand on the nuclear option at least until the winter. The Three of Pentacles correlates with 1) a team of close advisors 2) second decan Capricorn, late Dec-late January.
If it was a regional nuclear wipe out, I’d be looking at the World card reversed.
Putin does want this war ended as soon as possible, and he may not care how. He has lowered his sights. He would settle for Crimea and those four annexed Oblasts -for now. He wants it done but such is the damage done to Ukraine, a ceasefire may not be a realistic prospect.
But given the risks to him of using nuclear weapons, the Three of Pentacles suggests Putin hopes a delay will work in his favour, not least because it gives him more time to produce/manufacture the resources he needs to support the now expanded military logistical demands. Another factor in his favour, from now on the cold weather will put pressure until spring 2023 on European support and UK support of Ukraine’s defense. It will now cost even more, thanks to the decision by OPEC.
Other cards
The Nine of Pentacles says Putin must be able to see a clear material gain as his justification and reward for deploying nuclear weapons. Such an action must be able to be presented as justifiable, at least, to those allies who are already maintaining a critically delicate diplomatic position. The Nine of Swords reversed shows the grief and anger of mothers in Ukraine, and now in Russia too, the mothers of the newly mobilized civilian population. Fathers too, of course, but we are working with the card language.
President Putin dare not push Russian public opinion ‘too far.’ The danger here is that these Russian mothers, however ambivalent they were before, would support the use of nuclear weapons, and likely they would, if it meant their own loved ones were sent home again safe and sound, and were not needed to fight after all. This would likely be Putin’s justification at home then.
But he needs China onside. Would this excuse wash with President Xi? Highly doubtful.
Temperance is a mighty card of restraint. This plus Putin’s OPEC ‘coup’ offer a modicum of hope that Putin will not order the use of these weapons during October. He can just wear Ukraine down and wait for the West to get fed up.
The intensity of the risk continues into late November or even Christmas, based on the connection of the Temperance card with the zodiac sign of Sagittarius, the Archer.
Ukraine’s war so far has been largely defensive. Its offensives have been counteroffensives and its civilians have been shelled in their beds by Russian long range missiles. But if we think of Temperance as the archer, then Ukraine’s increased HIMAR capability and longer range missiles, would be a significant ramping up of their own deterrent, since after all Ukraine was persuaded to forego its own nuclear capability in return for the promise of protection.
Three decades ago, the newly independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third-largest nuclear power in the world.
Thousands of nuclear arms had been left on Ukrainian soil by Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But in the years that followed, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearize.
In exchange, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s security in a 1994 agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum.
Ukraine has been asking for long range missiles, able to cover four times the distance of the HIMARS to help them level up with Russia, and has said they are wiling to have the use of these overseen by the US. Biden at this time of writing, is still reluctant to provide these to Ukraine for fear of escalating the war by crossing Putin’s declared red lines.
The Ukrainian defenders must then, either cede that seized territory, or fight to take it back. up against a superior Russian artillery capability, with one hand tied behind their back, so to speak.
But by the same token, the Temperance card suggests, should Putin proceed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons against the Ukrainians, then he is aware- and so is President Xi- the US is liable to change its mind about supplying those long range missiles.
Cartomancy Spread
Tweeted 6 October 2022
#Cartomancy nuclear threat Oct 2022 5, 8,10 Hearts Water theme dominant, maritime. 10 = ocean/Poseidon. But no ace to show nuclear ‘tsunami’. 5 Hearts=Scorpio/23-25 Oct+ (eclipse?) brings a change to situation 5 Clubs. If there is an escalation however, cards suggest contained.
In Summary
Back in December 2021, in an article published in January 2022 I wrote among other things here and at AskAstrology.com that I didn’t like the Neptunian feel of things for the coming year.
Neptune is associated with all manner of desirable things; imagination, compassion- but I didn’t like its boundlessness in 2022, the lack of boundaries or the breaching of boundaries. Without boundaries, there is chaos. Where there is chaos there is distortion, madness and cruelty.
The cards for this coming month have that Neptunian feeling again, especially in the second half of the month, combined with that deep water fire of Scorpio. Both Putin and Biden have Scorpio written large in their profiles.
This, by the way, is not to suggest anything negative about this zodiac sign, or indeed any zodiac sign or its natives. Every zodiac sign has its positive and negative aspects, just the same as in every season of nature. Scorpio is also associated with great vision, drive, natural physical charisma and a gift of healing.
I am seeing correlations between the cards and the astrology in respect of this particular situation, that is all. Every zodiac sign has its positive and negative aspects.
But the ‘graph line’ of the cards does not look what I might expect to see if we were looking at a nuclear attack. I have seen a terrorist attack once before in the cards, before it actually happened. That was terrible. But this would be something far worse.
I had drawn the Chariot reversed, the Devil and The Tower in a casual ad hoc reading done around half past three UK time, a few hours before the truck attack in Nice, 14 July 2016. I did not know exactly what was coming, but I knew I did not like it, that it involved a vehicle and a collision, but with an added element in the mix, a suggestion of intent and of malice.
The key cards were:
The Chariot drawn reversed=a defeat, the zodiac sign of Cancer (14 July is Cancer) A transport accident/disaster /armour (truck, car,train- here it could be a submarine)
The Devil =desire, rage, lust for power, chaos,extremism, terrorism
The Tower, pride, fall, sudden shock, impact+explosion
That presentation has been absent in both of these card spreads today. Of course the reader must point out that this IS only a card reading, done as a demonstration exercise, for general interest, and is to be regarded as such.
None of these findings are to downplay the danger which is very real and present, not only as reported in the news but as reflected in the cards.
However, it seems to the reader, based on these cards drawn yesterday, 6 October, and on further cards which were drawn this morning 7 October, that there is no clear sign of a full on nuclear attack.
It is not evident in the cards, that Putin will deploy tactical or other nuclear weapons. It depends upon how he calculates the risks of doing so. This thing he has agree with OPEC possibly makes it less likely, more than more likely, strengthening his hand as he hopes to grind down Europe, the UK, the US and Baltic countries supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty.
It seems clear that Putin would not hesitate to use anything at his disposal if he could get what he wanted by those means. He may carry out ‘tests’ or demonstrations. That Eight of Diamonds can mean ‘performances.’ But it is a cautious card, the Eight of Diamonds, and here it’s being counterbalanced by the Eight of Hearts which is in essence, a card of balance and restitution. Possibly there will be a positive diplomatic development this month.
What seems likely to limit Putin’s scope for using nuclear weapons, apart from the delicacy of his relationship with President Xi is the problem of the ‘optics.’ How it will look to the world. That card, the Eight of Diamonds also refers to eyesight or specifically spectacles. Perhaps Putin now sometimes wears spectacles- away from the public eye.
Putin has no way of knowing what will be the full extent of the fallout of using such weapons-both literally and physically, from his own point of view-politically and militarily upon Russia, and upon himself personally.
There is a whiff of poison in these dominantly watery cards. Spite. Putin may well be considering biological or chemical weapons, or thinking how and where to do more damage to Ukraine’s water supply infrastructure.
When the Romans went stamping about invading other folk, they used to drop silver coins down the wells to disinfect them. Silver has antibacterial properties. The Maltese and the Knights of St John poisoned the wells in the south of the island, resisting the Turkish invasion during the Great Siege of Malta 18 May 1565 – 11 Sept 1565 (and for the full story I heartily recommend this astonishing book.)
Putin wants to flatten Ukraine once and for all. But the gruesome gnome, Kadyrov, and doubtless there are others of his ilk, are at this juncture, monkeys on Putin’s back. They have agendas which are nothing to do with Ukraine as such, making them as dangerous to Putin as they are to everyone else, including Russia.
Maybe he’ll poison the Kara Sea or drown an island, you know, just to show everyone and especially Biden who’s in charge.
No-one is not saying that the West is free of blame or that it has clean hands. We can all speculate, but had there been a different response to the annexation of Crimea in 2014, who knows, we might not be looking down the barrel of this nuclear threat right now.
This conflict is a polarizing beacon showing that the world order is drawing up and hardening into two global zones- broadly a face off between the model of democracy v the model of autocracy.
I don’t imagine President Putin is having a happy birthday. I don’t see him smiling, cutting the cake, all around him a vale of tears.
The Ten of Swords awaits. Ruin. That card was drawn right back at the start, the day of the invasion of 24 February. How can he avert that now, for himself? Next spring may tell us and he is pinning his hopes on the worst that the winter can do.
No-one knows the answer to this question. I certainly don’t. But what does the Tarot have to say about it? I have looked at the same question in another very recent post, where I used ordinary playing cards. We seemed to be seeing a Russian regrouping with big bumps in the road Oct and Nov and again before Christmas, a new offensive in January, and something big happening in March, and then again by Gemini time, late May-late June.
Last night I asked again, this time working with Tarot, asking, “in what month or year will there be a truce, ceasefire or permanent cessation of military action in Ukraine?”
I drew a single card. This was The Hanged Man- yet another outing for a card which has been jumping out of the deck since the invasion 24 February.
The Hanged Man stands for a waiting game, a state of limbo, an inability to make a decision. Or it can signify a sacrifice for a higher purpose, surrender, letting go, breaking a pattern, metamorphosis, suspension in time, meditation, changing one’s perspective, transcendence.
The Knight of Cups also corresponds with Pisces and The Hanged Man. He is the warrior who is a bringer of peace. He is the bearer of the Grail, of the loving cup or the healing chalice, who may be seen as Siegfried, or as one of the Knights of the Round Table, Lancelot, Galahad or Percival.
He rides along the shoreline, the knight of the liminal spaces.
From The Golden Tarot
Traditionally, the image is associated with a punishment once meted out to traitors in Italy, who were hung upside down by one ankle. Another interpretation is that this ties in with the story of the Norse god Odin. He hung upside down on Yggdrasil, the giant ash tree in exchange for the knowledge of the runes and they came to him in a vision on the ninth day without food or drink. One imagines he also had a mighty headache by that point. But the Tarot has its artistic roots in the courts of northern Italy during the Renaissance.
From the Tarot Illuminati, artist Erik C Dunne
Turn this card the other way up. Does he remind you of someone? Who does he look like? OK. He is not a dead ringer for Zelensky but let’s be reasonable- the Tarot is doing its best.
Tarot is not astrology and I am not an astrologer. However, there is a lot of astrology embedded in the Tarot, and clients have often asked the reader to have a stab at timings, with interesting feedback in respect of results.
In astrology The Hanged Man signifies Pisces, and the dates of Pisces in 2022 were 19 February to 20 March. This card was an apposite reflection of a recent event that had already happened since the invasion happened 24 February
This is what Tarot does- it detects, reflects and projects. Just treat this as a curiosity. I had not predicted the invasion of Ukraine, except that in a general 12 card reading done in December 2021 the Tarot had alerted me to a issue or problem attached to energy supplies from Russia, specifically NordStream 2.
I had also commented in an article published on Ask Astrology in January, that I had misgivings about 2022 on account of a general theme to do with the blurring or crossing of boundaries and borders. This again was connected with the Hanged Man. Its traditional ruler in astrology is Jupiter but its modern ruler is Neptune. Either way, 2022 was promising to be a year of deep waters and seismic events, metaphorically as well as physically. Jupiter goes large. Neptune goes deep.
“John Flamsteed FRS (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719)[a] was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus, and a star atlas called Atlas Coelestis, both published posthumously“-Wiki
According to Western/ Tropical astrology, Jupiter is currently retrograde in Pisces and goes direct again 28-29 October-20 December 2022
According to Eastern/Vedic astrology Jupiter will remain in Pisces until 23 April 2023.
Based purely on the appearance of The Hanged Man, we have a range of possibilities here, suggesting that the war in Ukraine will end when:
-Mr Zelensky agrees to make a sacrifice, Hanged Man style, and decides to relinquish the Donbas to Russia. Mr Putin would claim this as a win, and use it as his way out of an increasingly untenable situation, though he or a successor of his same ilk could be back again in time, for another bite of land.
There is no reason why Zelensky should agree to such a thing, since Russia has broken international law and then gone on to commit war crimes. But if the population of the Donbas genuinely were more than 50% pro Russian separatists, might Zelensky decide that Ukraine would do better without them in the long run, given the state of affairs since 2014. Mr Putin after all, *only* wants to protect the 25 million Russians now living outside Russia’s borders in Ukraine and all across the Baltic.
Without Ukraine’s agreement to recognize referendum results held under the current conditions of duress, Putin will be forever fighting to hold on to the Donbas, and that’s no substantive win.
But it’s not a win for anyone else either, and won’t be unless the West can dig itself out of the hole it has got itself into, and continue to say no to cheap Russian gas this winter. If not, this whole thing simmers indefinitely or escalates next spring.
-or the war may end when Jupiter goes direct in Pisces, Tropical astrology style, 29 October-20 December. This seems highly improbable. Putin will want to squeeze the situation as hard as he can over the winter, praying the energy crisis will really bite down on the current levels of western support for Ukraine and leave her naked unto her foe.
-or the war may end during Pisces season, 20 February- 20 March. Saturn enters Pisces March 7, 2023 until May 24, 2025. Saturn is big on the status quo, on law and order, and it is big on boundaries and borders. The aftermath of this war will bring a long period of turbulence in its wake.
-or the war may end c late April 2023, according to the status of Jupiter in Pisces in Vedic astrology.
There’s a feeling of events moving in stages, pointing towards something more conclusive or definitive March/April 2023. Tarot seems to be seeing a ceasefire slightly earlier than was indicated in my earlier cartomancy reading, though not hugely so.
But supposing the fighting stops right now, the political backwash runs high until 2025/2026. There will also be the small matter of reconstruction.
Something to watch for that is happening sooner, is an eclipse in Scorpio 8 November. Eclipses do not signify immediate changes, but historically they announce profound changes. Mr Putin is a Libra sun sign subject with Scorpio rising, and conjunct his sun is the fixed star Algorab, the wing of The constellation of the Crow, merciless and rapacious.
It doesn’t feel as though it bodes at all well for him personally. But Putin is choosing to wage a total war, so that any victory here, whether for Russia or Ukraine is a pyrrhic one.
The west is clearly not blameless either in all this, but it likely doesn’t bode too well for Scorpio subject Mr Biden either, in the US mid term elections 8 November.
What a year, this Chinese year of the Black Water Tiger
-Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.
Thursday 22 September marks the mythical British mid-harvest festival of Mabon, heralding the arrival of the autumn equinox which in 2022 is on 23 September.
During an equinox, the Suncrosses what we call the “celestial equator”—an imaginary extension of Earth’s equator line into space. The equinox occurs precisely when the Sun’s center passes through this line.
In the Northern Hemisphere, when the Sun crosses the equator going from north to south, this marks the autumnal equinox and when it crosses from south to north, this marks the vernal equinox. This is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere.
Now we leave the zodiac sign of Virgo, the Queen of the Harvest, and enter the astrological territory of Libra The Scales, representing the ever changing balance of day and night, represented in Tarot by The Justice card.
From The Legacy of The Divine Tarot
Libra is the only Zodiac constellation represented by an inanimate object, and not by an animal or a mythological character. The stars that represent the scales of justice are borrowed from the constellation of Scorpio next door, the claws of the Scorpion.
Those born under Libra are famously cool in temperament, intellectual, and can be somewhat emotionally detached but also volatile. According to the Roman writer Marcus Manilius, Roman judges were born under the sign of Libra. The moon was said to have been in Libra when Rome was founded, and therefore the Roman empire itself (at least, according to Manilius) began on a just and balanced foundation. Or at least, a legalized, rational, process based system.
The first harvest festival of the year was Lammas (‘Loaf Mass Tide) celebrated on the first of August. This later second harvest, Mabon, ends on 29 September.
Mabon ap Modron, -Mabon the son of Modron, was a figure from Welsh mythology who by the tenth century AD, and the first written record of him in an old Welsh poem, had became associated with the story of King Arthur. In these stories, he was one of Arthur’s war band, but the roots are much older.
The origin of the name, Mabon is related to the Romano- British god Maponos, whose name means “Great Son”; his mother Modron, in turn, is likely related to the Gaulish goddess Dea Matrona. (modern word Matron) (Via Wiki)
The Empress from The Legacy of The Divine Tarot
Dea Matrona was the Divine Mother Goddess. The River Marne in France was named in her honour and Gaulish religious images included mass produced inexpensive terracotta statues for domestic use in household shrines. These little statues showed mother goddesses nursing babies or holding fruits, other foods, or small dogs in their laps.
Mabon may be a semi-fictionalized festival. The name is not known to have been associated with this late harvest before the 1970’s, and may be at least in part, a Neo-Pagan confection.
But there is only humility and gratitude, in seeing stories in the seasons, honouring the great earth mother, whether we think of her as Modron, Virgo, Astrea, Demeter, Gaia or Persephone, or simply as the earth itself.
All stories grow out of some real soil.
The stories are all true.
Dea Matrona
The fall or autumn equinox is especially associated with apple picking. Bring on the scrumping, the crumble and the cider.
The best cider vinegar still contains the living ‘mother.’ This vinegar is made through a two-step process. First, yeast is added to apple juice to break down the sugars and turn them into alcohol. Then, bacteria is added, converting the alcohol into acetic acid. This bacteria is what is known as the mother, This is the catalyst that gives rise to the vinegar. Many apple cider vinegars have the mother removed because it gives the vinegar a cloudy appearance and some people think it’s gone bad. Not so. The mother is the best bit, the most nutritious element.
“The ceremonies you have seen today are ancient, and some of their origins are veiled in the mists of the past. But their spirit and their meaning shine through the ages never, perhaps, more brightly than now.”-Queen Elizabeth, Cape Town, 1947
I drew a card at random, just to see what I would get and I drew the Wheel of Fortune.
From The Legacy Tarot
Change will and must come, even as we resist it, fear it or mourn it. This card is associated with both the ancient Greek father of the gods of Mount Olympus, and with the giant planet Jupiter, which basically says, let go, let it be and go large.
Rolling with the punches.
Love shows itself more in adversity than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place is darkest. I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink.’
-Leonardo Da Vinci
Wikipedia: This portrait attributed to Francesco Melzi, c. 1515–1518, is the only certain contemporary depiction of Leonardo
The Wheel of Fortune is associated with the classical figure of Lady Luck. It is also associated with our British proto-Germanic roots, the Norse thunder god Thor, his great war hammer Mjölnir and the Thorn rune, THURISAZ.
Public Domain. Detail, Thor fights The Midgard Serpent by Emil Dopler, 1905
The thorn rune stands for the sound ‘th’ in the rune alphabet. This is a runic glyph and letter of both attack and defense. It is the war hammer of Thor, but it is also a hedge of thorns for keeping out the enemy. The invocation of Thurisaz is also directed in magical workings for success in matters of the law, and for focus and concentration when studying for examinations.
The Hawthorn and the Blackthorn have many superstitions attached to them in British folklore. The Hawthorn is occasionally benevolent, the Blackthorn more frequently ominous.
Lady Luck was known to the ancient Greeks as Tyche. She was the daughter of Aphrodite and Hermes or she may have been one of the Oceanids, a daughter of Oceanus. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says that that the first dice were invented by a prince called Palamedes and were offered as a tribute to Tyche in seeking her favour.
Public Domain. Tyche with her baby son Plutus, god of Wealth, 2nd century Ad, Museum of Istanbul
One look at this statue reminds us of, well, whom? The world has always been globalist. For good and ill, by means of travel, trade and war.
We live with the daily conundrum of The Wheel of Fortune, Fortuna’s Wheel. We are subject to events over which we have no control. But we can position ourselves. We can plan and prepare. We can choose how to respond.
We are seeing it in ceremonial action at this time. The Queen’s funeral has been planned for over many years. The Queen herself was consulted about the design of the hearse, agreeing to the lighting, so that the coffin could still be seen transported back to London in the hours of darkness.
The death of the Queen was planned for, anticipated – and yet, for all that, and as with even the most peaceful deaths at a good old age, it may be still experienced as a shock, both emotional and environmental.
Symbols are the currency of the collective psyche. The zeitgeist changes but the roots go deeper. There will be a new face on our coins and banknotes, and on our stamps. These are tiny changes, and yet, like a rearrangement of our oldest family furniture, they will take getting used to.
I’m spending a lot of time down memory lane this week, not only because of the death of the Queen, but I’ve been sorting through a box of old family photographs.
Photo by u0410u043bu0435u0441u044c u0423u0441u0446u0456u043du0430u045e on Pexels.com
A great national figure, much respected and beloved, not only in her own homeland, but across the world, is carried aloft in the gloom and rain, companioned at every stage by her daughter, carefully borne stage by stage and step by step to the place of her final rest.
While elsewhere …
We can all see what’s on the news. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has taken a pasting in recent days. Some astrologers are saying the writing is on the wall for him. I don’t disagree but it seems to me, he’s not down and out, he’s not done yet.
A Tarot reader doesn’t know anything others don’t know. It’s not omniscience, nor a ‘spiritual’ thing, whatever that actually means. It’s divination…learning a symbolic language for talking with our ancient mind. I look in the mirror of the Tarot to find out what I feel or think about something at an unconscious or subconscious level, that is all, in a way we were never taught in school.
Tweeted earlier this afternoon 13 September
The Question: what is Putin going to do next? Using The Illuminati Tarot deck.
#Tarot#Putin watch. Purely speculative. The Moon, Danger, uncertainty, 5 Swords defeat mortification. Taking no prisoners (never was.) 3 Cups NB Reversed, kicking cats, shoring up support behind scenes, China skittish. What next? 2 Pentacles. Regroup, double down on land bridge.
He will double down because although Ukrainian victory seems a long way off and far from certain, it is now crossing his mind that they might actually take back the Crimea.
Meantime the Five of Swords is full of spite.
This from The Daily Beast
“Brutal realizations have been raining upon the Kremlin’s top propagandists—and when it rains, it pours. The same pundits who used to threaten NATO countries with nuclear strikes are begrudgingly acknowledging that Russia’s Armed Forces have suffered a series of humiliating setbacks in Ukraine.
Appearing on Russia’s NTV show The Meeting Place on Monday, policy analyst Viktor Olevich surmised: “Unfortunately, the situation is difficult. Can we say that the Russian forces moved closer to meeting the goals and carrying out the tasks set by the president at the beginning of the special operation—or did they get further away? Obviously, we’re now further away.”
True Tarot Tales 