True Tarot Tales

Night Skies and Starry Stepping-stones : The Moon this Month: December 2020

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, though our satellite and not a planet, is the closest celestial body to Earth, an average of 238,855 miles (384,400 km) away depending on its orbit.

The Moon provides us with a map and a guide to the seasons, with a measure of predictability as to when certain things will happen, such as the tides or the migration of animals for hunting and much more besides, for example, the spawning of corals, animal mating seasons, crop growth, hormonal cycles and quite possibly human behaviour (lunatic, moody, moonstruck, love-struck mooncalf and so on).

Cave paintings show that early humans collected and correlated Moon observations, and this created a database of information for their very survival in timing the organizing of hunts, and much later, now living in built settlements, planting and harvesting crops.

The mass of anecdotal evidence gathered over many millennia, describing the effects of the Moon on human health and behaviour is simply too great to be dismissed.

December Headlines

The Winter Solstice

The key astronomical event this month is the winter solstice 21 December. And in astrological terms too, this is especially significant in 2020, with the Sun moving into conjunction with Mercury in the first degree of Capricorn and then Jupiter, making an exact conjunction Saturn in the first degree of Aquarius.

This marks a symbolic shift, called by some astrologers a new Age of Aquarius, described as an age of high technology, balanced by greater collectivism and less individualism in a world with a human population currently double the size that it was in 1970.

Earth’s resources are finite. This ‘shift’ may mean ‘working smart,’ with less available resources per person, in effect, and the effects could be seen for the next few centuries as humanity adapts tries to reconcile itself with best practice with rising use of digital and other technology on the one hand, and urban design, food production and our connection to the natural world on the other.

None of this is new. It is a conversation that has been taking place for some time. But this coming conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius, happening on the solstice of all days, marks this as a symbolic doorway.

The Victorian era was not like the Regency era. We are entering a new post-post modern era of social change, but only history will enable us to see it more clearly…such that we will name it. The Industrial revolution sent us away from home to work. This era may well bring far more of us us home again to work enabled by new, rising digital alt-tech, a necessary check, as the tech giants grow ever more powerful, monstrous, even to the operational detriment of legitimate, democratically elected governments.

Saturn warns, don’t get carried away with this digital revolution. Be aware of the downsides as well as the benefits. These are very serious downsides, as prejudicial to liberty as the upsides potentially enabling, and I for one, am thankful for the opportunities it has brought me to work from home during illness.

I remember, teaching evening class in college in 1992, telling adult students in that this ‘thing’ was coming, called ‘The Information Superhighway’.

And with what shocking speed it became part of our daily lives. But hour after hour online is not what our bodies were made for, and over-sharing online compromises the privacy and security of your physical space, finances and personal safety. Our feet, and those of our children, for their future well-being, must stay firmly grounded, earthed and rooted in the real, living, sensate, world.

The Geminids

This month, watch for the Geminid Meteor showers, starting around 4 December, peaking 13-14 December when it will be New Moon and the skies will be darkest, providing optimum brightness in 2020, cloud cover permitting. The Geminids are matched only by the Perseids in August, the brightest meteor showers of the year. The Geminids come from a rocky comet near the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation of Gemini the Twins, and are also visible but less dramatic in the Southern Hemisphere. The meteors are very white and bright with 50 or more meteors per hour. The best show is in the small hours after midnight, around 2 a.m. local time (the time on your clock no matter where you are on Earth)

The Ursids

There is another, less spectacular, but symbolically significant meteor shower, the Ursids, during the night of 22/23 December, as if the Giant Sky Bears wake briefly from their winter hibernation to welcome the returning sun after solstice.

The Ursids come from the Big and Little Dipper in the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

Find the Big Dipper high up in the north-northeast at around 1 a.m. That’s the best time to start watching. This year, 2020, the first quarter moon sets in the evening, with dark skies at late night and the morning hours for maximum visibility, the Ursids falling at a rate of about ten meteors an hour.

Humanity around the globe looked up and saw Sky-Bears more than 13,000 years ago.

Lunar Headlines

December is the month when winter begins for most of the Northern Hemisphere, and the Full Moon is called the Cold Moon. The Old English/Anglo-Saxon name is the Moon Before Yule

Key Dates

Dec 14 New Moon in Sagittarius (and a solar eclipse)

Dec 21 Winter solstice and waning half moon in Pisces and Aries

Dec 22 Look out for shooting stars- The Geminids Meteor shower

Dec 30 Full Moon in Cancer

The Full Moon is when the moon is on the opposite of the Earth from the Sun on the same celestial longitude and we can see the entire illuminated face of the moon.
The New Moon is the first/last lunar phase when the moon is between the Earth and the Sun, and the moon is largely invisible, hidden in the sun’s glare.

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 in something new, 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, make a plan, start from scratch.

15 November 2020: New Moon in Sagittarius

Rider Waite Tarot, copyright Arthur Waite

The major arcana Tarot card associated with this New Moon is Temperance.

Traditional meanings: Upright Vision, Inspiration, fun, friendships, Timing, Travel, Healing, Patience, Moderation. Reversed: Hastiness, temper, excess

This could be an auspicious time for a job interview, audition or other important meeting or contract, especially if it is attached to Teaching, Publishing, the Arts, Entertainments or Travel industries.

This New Moon and its total solar eclipse suggests a dynamic mood with a lively, fun and friendly feeling, but watch out – things could suddenly turn quarrelsome and we could be slightly more accident-prone than usual.

Temper temper? Time to cool it. Just give it a rest, will ya?

30 December 2020: Full Moon in Cancer

The major arcana Tarot card associated with this full moon in the cardinal water sign of Cancer is The Chariot.

Traditional meanings: Upright: ambition, direction, focus, self-control, teamwork, progress, determination. It can refer literally, to a journey, a new car or other vehicle. Reversed, impatience, self-indulgence, ploughing a trail of damage, car trouble.

The first full moon of 2020 was on 10 January, and was also in Cancer. This last full moon of the year makes a circle to wrap up the lunar year on a calmer note.

What new page has been turned in 2020? What is our own new normal going to look like? What lifestyle changes have we made in 2020, possibly as a consequence of the Covid- 19 emergency, that we did not choose to start with but that may actually be working OK for us?

The Tarot’s Comment

Here we have the gentle, harmonizing, summertime card of the Two of Cups.

Traditional Meanings: romance, friendships, offer, invitations, partnership, trade, positive exchanges

Here we have the words HEALING and MERCANTILE symbolically conjoined. Or MEDICINE and TRADE, and how entirely apposite is this, with Vaccines the topic of the day, and with a fast looming deadline for a Free Trade Agreement between the UK and the EU.

I have blogged about this before, back in 2018 and it looked like a Hard Brexit-But-with some Add-on- or Sub-deal-Not-Hard-Enough for many who voted to leave on the basis that Out meant Out, and that the mutual needs of trade would take care of the rest. I may look again, though, ahead of time.

Curiously, in addition, this Two of Cups coincides symbolically with this December’s Full Moon in the zodiac sign of Cancer the Crab.

The constellation of Cancer was known as ‘The Gate of Men.’ Platonic legend said the souls of Mankind descended through the stars of Cancer to be born on Earth.

Babies conceived in December during or after the winter solstice will be born during Virgo, at harvest-time, late August to early September.

Lock-down may result in more Virgo born babies in 2021. Virgo is already the most common birth sign in the northern hemisphere for this reason, that arrivals in harvest time, especially in late September, meant a mother in optimum nutritional health for bearing and nursing a baby. The most common birthday of all, according to various sources, is 25 September.

The least common birthdays are in December and January.

This positive card is about partnership and romance, but in more general terms, talks about give and take, and could be a sign for recovery in the retail sector from summer 2021, and a boom in Fair Trade consumer choices as suggested by the staff of Mercury with the Lion’s head on top.

This card is a good omen for a global return to greater normality by late June 2021 if not sooner, and March-April seems likely to see a turning in this tide.

There is such a lot of noise on social media, much of it angry and abusive.

The worry and frustration are only natural, but none of all this shouting changes the difficult reality governments all over the world are trying to deal with, in their own different ways, some distinctly less libertarian in their approach than our own.

The Two of Cups says now more than ever, this is not about ‘me me me’ and my rights. It’s about ‘us us us’, and our reciprocal responsibilities and duty of care.

They boarded people up alive inside their houses in London, is how desperate it got in 1665/6.

I looked in my cards last night, looking at the Pfizer vaccine, inquiring as to its safety only, and the picture was largely reassuring. There were no spades cards saying DANGER, though future problems were detected in terms of the logistics of supply, storage and delivery, as we have already seen in public discussion.

Cartomancy and The Line of Five

The Queen of Hearts (Cancer)- Ace of Diamonds (Ace of Science.) -8 Cups (Stability-vaccinate staff to help protect care homes)- 2 Clubs (Contract, logistics, delivery is the challenge) -9 Diamonds (obstacles, delays)

These are the individual card meanings, but my question was about the safety of this vaccine. For this I note the suits and colours.

We had four red suit cards and one black suit card, and no Spades cards. Taken as a whole this indicates a strong likelihood that this will prove a safe vaccine. Had I drawn any one of 3, 9 or 10 Spades, or heaven forbid, all three, I would be thinking, oo-err, I no likee this.

That Queen of Hearts indicates that we may be coming out of this tunnel late June-late July 2021.

It yet remains to bring the lens of cartomancy to bear on the same question for the vaccines from Moderna and the vaccine in Astrazeneca. But I will, when it would feel like a less idle, hypothetical or inflammatory question.

The results from the Oxford Astrazeneca trials which were recently halted are currently expected in late January. Read HERE.

Meanwhile, the Two of Cups says, we do what we can. We look to our dear ones, wherever they may be, and we say to one another- and to ourselves, ‘chin up and…here’s to the journey!’

“Not for ever by still waters/ Would we always ask to be…”

Well, we might ask, but that’s not what we’re getting, any more than those earth-bound bears of winter get an easy ride of this thing called Life, waking or even sleeping in hibernation, mere calories from death.

Photo by u0410u043du043du0430 u041eu0440u043bu043eu0432u0430 on Pexels.com

Season’s Greetings!

Season of Sagittarius, celestial archer of the sinking sun

Why is this time of year associated with Sagittarius the Archer? Two thousand years ago and more, the ancients looked up at this time of year and studied a constellation overhead that they decided represented the image of a man with a bow and arrow.

But the zodiac signs were cast in stone by Ptolemy in the 2 century AD and these dates remain unchanged, based on his arithmetic model of the zodiac. The astrology has parted company with the astronomy which inspired it, due to the wobble of the earth,and the effect known as the precession of the equinoxes.

The constellation of Sagittarius is now visible in the northern hemisphere in summer until September, and is visible in the winter in the southern hemisphere.

To find out where and how to see the constellation VIEW HERE.

But the zodiac dates endure, and the story and the meaning endure.

This was the time of year when the men of the family group went a hunting, to to catch, to kill, to cure and to store meat for the coming winter.

Common associations

Symbol:

Date of Birth: Nov 22 to Dec 21

Ruling planet: Jupiter

Element: Fire

Key phrase: I seek

Body: Thighs

Birth Stone: Topaz, Citrine, Turquoise

Colour: Light Blue

Tarot card: Temperance: Timing, Moderation, Education, Solstice, Healing of Chiron

More about the Astronomy

Sagittarius, the zodiac sign inspired by the constellation of Sagittarius, from the Latin meaning Archer, was recorded in the 2nd century by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy.

The constellation of Sagittarius is near the centre of our galaxy, the spiral Milky Way, mainly visible in the southern hemisphere June-November. In the Northern hemisphere the constellation is low on the horizon from August to October.

Sagittarius has a nickname, ‘The Teapot’ on account of its vaguely teapot-shaped star pattern, or asterism.

To find The Teapot

The best time to look is in August or September, somewhere really dark. Locate the hazy band of The Milky Way stretching right across the sky. Looking in the northern hemisphere, the Milk Way seems to bulge as it descends to the southern horizon. This ‘bulge’ is roughly about the middle of the Milky Way and is contained within the boundaries of the constellation Sagittarius.

Photo by u200bu0468u0477u047bu048f u046au0454u0459u0469u04e1u04c4u047bu0487u0477 on Pexels.com

Sagittarius contains a massive star-forming region, the Omega Nebula, home to the bright blue hyper-giant Pistol Star, one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way. The Pistol Star was discovered with the Hubble Space telescope in 1930, and is largely hidden in the dust of its own nebula.

It is 100 times as massive as our Sun, and 10,000,000 times as bright.

Mythology

Sagittarius is the ninth sign in the Zodiac, not to be confused with the constellation itself, and represents those born between Nov. 22 and the advent of winter solstice, Dec. 21.

Sagittarius is nowadays generally associated with the ancient Greek story of Chiron. But the story is far, far older, and goes back to a Babylonian god, Pabilsag, and even further back than that.

Pabilsag and the Solstice

Pabilsag was the ancient Babylonian name for what we now call Sagittarius, handed down to the Greeks through the Sumerians and Kassites.

The Sumerian word ‘Pabil’ means ‘ancestor or relative’. Combined with the final element sag, meaning ‘chief, head, tip or foremost,’ his name can be translated as the ‘Chief Ancestor’ or ‘Forefather’.

Just as we were hunters at the dawn of human civilization.

Here, 3 millennia BC, we we have a winged centaur type figure, and yes, he is an archer too, and his arrow points at the heart of Scorpio, the red star Antares, but he also has a scorpion’s tail as the wheel of the Zodiac turns, and as Sagittarius gallops in, we leave Scorpio behind.

The distinction of Sagittarius, though, is that he is a solitary hunter. He does not work as one of a team to being down the really big prey. He is an individualist, working alone, just as many a hunter or trapper still hunts alone in winter.

Sagittarius – Psychopomp

The constellation of Sagittarius-Pabilsag is within the Milky Way, rising from the southern regions close to the horizon into the higher reaches of the skies.

This section of the Milky Way represents a symbolic bridge or a rainbow for the souls of the dead on their way to the afterlife, as the arrival of Capricorn draws near, marking the advent of the winter solstice. so that Sagittarius, or Pabilsag, is a psychopomp; a guardian and a guide to the dying year, and also to the souls of the dying as the sun sinks ever lower.

Chiron the wounded Centaur

Most modern versions of the story refer back to much later, classical variants of the old Babylonian myths, and say that Sagittarius represents the gentle, cultured centaur, Chiron, who was accidentally shot by Herakles with a poison arrow.

The centaurs in general were a rough lot, hard drinking, hard fighting, not remotely glamorous. It has been suggested that the legend of the centaurs rose from perfectly mortal, mounted ancient Greek cowboys.

But whatever the centaurs were, Chiron ‘the wisest and justest of the centaurs’ was something very different, representing a hope for the centaurs, and for Humanity itself, as collectively it strives to rise above the ever present tyranny of the Id and its own worst nature.

Here he is, trying to teach Achilles to control his temper, learning to play the lyre. Chiron had many other pupils, as well, including Asclepius, Ajax, Achilles, Theseus, Jason, Peleus, Perseus, and Phoenix. And Herakles, who brought about his death, when he was sent there to be schooled with Chiron.

Herakles had previously lost his temper with Linus, his music tutor back home. Linus, criticised his playing, and Herakles responded by smashing his lyre over the teachers head, killing him. Though in some accounts it was a stool.

Now Chiron, wounded by the poison arrow, was left in terrible pain. He was wise in the ways of medicine, none wiser, but he could not heal himself, and none could help him. Nor could he die, being Immortal.

Still, he carried on until he could bear it no more, and he asked Zeus to release him from Immortality so that he could die and be free of pain.

Zeus placed him in the heavens and the story goes, placed him there as Sagittarius.

However, Chiron already has another constellation, Centaurus, and in addition, there is another classical version of the story of Sagittarius, referring instead to Krotos, a satyr who lived on Mount Helicon with the Muses.

Krotos the Cultivated Satyr

Krotos was the son of Pan and Eupheme, and his mother had nursed the Muses. He was a renowned archer, hunter, horse rider – hence a possible source of confusion with the centaur, and besides all this, a devotee of his childhood companions, The Muses and their arts.

*By Aratus – Leiden University Library Catalogue, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7660666*

Krotos means ‘One who Claps his hands.’ He was credited by the Greeks with not only having invented archery, but introducing the convention of applause at artistic performances.

In this version of the story it was the Muses who, when Krotos died, asked Zeus to place him among the stars, which he did, transforming him into the constellation Sagittarius, says this variant of the zodiac story.

So Sagittarius is either the cultured wounded healer, Chiron, already represented in the constellation Centaurus, or he is the cultured satyr, Krotos; goaty, horse-riding archer, culture vulture and hunter extraordinaire.

There is a secondary link here, Krotos the Satyr linking Sagittarius with Capricorn, the next sign coming up, sun sinking to the winter solstice.

Chiron or Krotos?

Take your pick.

Or you can go Babylonian with Pabilsag.

The Muses

Sagittarius is keenly intuitive, and usually has a marked talent, a gift, in the field of the Arts. Winston Churchill for example, was a Sagittarius subject and probably psychic. He was certainly subject to visions and feelings of premonition, and he also painted.

Delphi said there were three Muses. But c 600 BC Hesiod wrote in his Theogony that there were Nine Muses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory personified) and this is the version that has generally stuck.

The Muses were not necessarily benign. They were touchy, sensitive to human hubris, and liable to exact vengeance of anyone they decided was getting too far above themselves.

Kalliope ‘She of the Lovely Voice’ was the muse of epic poetry. Also of Diplomacy.
Klio ‘She Who Proclaims’ was the muse of history.
Erato ‘The Lovely One’ was the muse of love poetry.
Euterpe ‘She Who Pleases’ was the muse of music.
Melpomene ‘She Who Sings’ was the muse of tragedy.
Polyhymnia ‘She of the Many Hymns’ was the muse of sacred poetry.
Terpsichore ‘She Who Delights to Dance’ was the muse of dance.
Thalia ‘The Cheerful One’ was the muse of comedy
Urania ‘The Heavenly One’ was the goddess of astronomy, astrology, and later, Christian poetry.

Sagittarius: The Astrological Personality

Of course there is no such thing as THE Sagittarius personality. Everyone is unique. We are speaking here of an archetype.

Sagittarius is ruled overall by the planet Jupiter, and rules the Ninth House of philosophy, law, travel, higher study, and the second life partner when we have one. The seventh house rules the choice of a first life partner. In any second choice we are looking to learn more, and to expand our inner horizons from meeting with a mind that is very different to our own. A third choice of life partner is said to be ruled by the eleventh house of group identity.

Sagittarius zodiac sign subjects need constant adventures to stay interested. Freedom is of the utmost importance to them. Movement. Travel. Space and room for manoeuver. Likewise they allow space and freedom to their partners.

The archetype of Sagittarius is brave, lively, warm, optimistic, curious, adventurous, rational, but also insightful, even visionary.

These are generally astute, clever and capable people. But they need career flexibility, and they may refuse to fail to apply themselves if bored. Like Gemini, they are prone to restlessness. They may fail to stick at a job or a succession of jobs, and may struggle financially long term in consequence.

Hence their challenge, but also their guiding light is the idea of Temperance,personified in the Tarot and symbolising patience, prudence, and the art of good timing.

They can do ‘domestic’. It’s not that. But you wouldn’t really call it how they roll.

And they do tend to roll, place to place, job to job, and a rolling stone gathers no moss. The problem being, other things it doesn’t gather either, like a steady home life, or steady income, or savings or other means of security in old age, if Sagittarius does not balance the need for freedom , space and independence with prudence and good timing.

Sagittarius tends to have lots of friends. More than almost anyone else, so much so, family and friends can feel neglected at times, forgotten, when Sagittarius goes off yet again, devil may care, to share experiences with new best friends.

Sagittarius must have inspiration, and the freedom to follow it, and to roam. But this humanitarian, kindly, if restless rolling stone sooner or later almost always comes rolling home again, expecting to find their loved ones exactly where they left them. And usually, they are. Though others do not enjoy being taken for granted, and this may need care.

Sagittarius will be the star of this show. But what they really need for domestic happiness, is a quietly confident, self-reliant partner who has plenty of interests themselves; and much life experience.

Who will be their rock but who will not roll.

Who will be above all, their best friend.

Till next time 🙂

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 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.