The weather so far this year is pretty much a repeat of last year….so far. More people feeding the ducks though, more than last year. Proprietary duck food please, though, not lots of bread. It can make them ill.
Well we are now into the New Year and all is well….well nearly all. We’ve had a variety of weather conditions but nothing too drastic.
A nice sunset to lull the ducks into a restful state before the fireworks at midnight. One of the consequences is that our population of 36 has suddenly increased to 44 so maybe some
saw me unloading sacks of food from the car and decided to change ponds. Also I am assuming that most of the ducks are pregnant judging by the amorous activities on the pond. There is a bit of argy-bargy with the drakes too, as I’m not sure every one has a mate.
We’re having the occasional frost which reduces the size of the pond but there is still enough space for them all to swim. This is important as we have a poor limpy drake
Brexit. I don’t know any more, or better than or anyone else, how it is all going to work out, but I’m bound to look in my cards, aren’t I?
And whether I get it right or wrong, I will learn something, by having the opportunity to look back, and see where and how I got it wrong in interpretation. There is no other school. That’s how readers develop.
I drew these cards on Friday 30 November, sat on them, and posted them on Twitter on Saturday 8, December during a frenzy of media and of course, public speculation ahead of Monday 10 December when Theresa May was due to put the proposed EU Deal to the vote in Parliament.
Cards Drawn 30 November
The most basic way of reading a yes or no from playing cards is to decide on your system and stick to it.
My system says red cards = yes, black suit cards = no, irrespective of the positive or negative meanings of the individual cards. Then I count. Then I may look at the individual cards for further ideas.
I laid out three rows of 5 cards. Using an odd number is helpful in yes/no counting spreads. Readers typically use 1, 3, 5 or 7 cards. This is simply a matter of personal preference.
Row 1: Will Parliament pass the Deal?
Row 2: Will there be another General Election called soon?
Row 3: Will there be a so-called ‘hard Brexit’?
Row 1: Will Parliament pass the Deal?
Still possible but highly unlikely. This picture had not shifted over the course of the week.
Row 2: Will there be another General Election called soon?
Still possible but highly Unlikely. That 7 of Spades in the final position is a real sinkhole of a card.
Row 3: Will there be a so-called ‘hard Brexit’? Far from certain. It’s almost ‘even Stevens.’ We have 2 red suit cards = yes, 2 black suit cards =No and the Joker which could go either way.
However. The Joker says, expect sudden changes, surprises and risk- taking behaviour – it is not necessarily irresponsible, while the 10 Diamonds as the final card raises the chances of a yes answer, because a red suit = yes as a kind of last word and a 10 is the number symbolic of completion.
A hard Brexit therefore, while looking far from certain, is at this date looking more likely than the other two scenarios.
I was interested to compare this with a reading shared here on True Tarot Tales in August re Deal or No Deal? The indications were that it would probably be No Deal, but the picture now in my cards is more fraught and complicated, which is perhaps entirely to be expected, given that we’re in the midst of the very fraught latter stage boilings of the process.
This is such a major and volatile situation, I drew another spread the following week, on Saturday 8 December, to see if, a week later, the cards were still telling the same story in respect of what Parliament was going to do on Monday 10 December in passing the proposed Deal or Not.
Is Parliament going to pass this Deal day after tomorrow, 10 December 2018?
I shared these cards and the interpretation on Twitter, tweeting it on 8 December at 4.32 PM
Future’s not a lump of concrete. Forecasting, by whatever means is @ sensing probabilities. This line of 5 cards confirms MPs will PROB not approve deal. QD =PM. AC =Pment The 2D MIGHT still just poss make a diff. Reps amendment re backstop? 2S and 4S =any exile of NI =a tomb.
The Queen of Diamonds is Theresa May.
The Ace Clubs is Parliament
The 2 Diamonds is a business partnership
The 2 of Spades is severance of a partnership. UK -EU-N Ireland border
The 4 Spades is sickness, entombment, retreat or even a rout.
Looking back, we see that the drawing of the final cards, the Four of Spades – ‘a tomb’- manifested in practise (UK spelling) as the cancellation or deferment. Or as it may yet emerge, shelving.
What does that venerable purveyor of prognostication, Old Moore’s Almanack have to say about it all?
Old Moore, published in Britain since 1697, famously uses Astrology as its go-to system of divination, and as many will be quick to point out, doesn’t always get it right, but historically predicted the Wall Street Crash and the start of WW2.
Old Moore has done an extensive report into Brexit as one would expect, but basically suggests that the UK is coming out as per Article 50, probably without EU deal, and says it sees no sign of a second referendum.
Economics post Brexit, it characterises as bumpy but not calamitous, some sectors grow/stabilise even early 2019 including Tourism, Education, the NHS and the service industries.
The national mood is very ‘Saturnian’, it says, whatever the power of the movement in favour of a second referendum, but that there is a strong current afoot in the national psyche of a Saturnian will to work, and an equally Saturnian drive for self- reliance (which is not necessarily to be confused or conflated with isolationism).
Time will tell of course, as with all forecasting, whether by polls, pundits, politicians or indeed, economists and top banking people. No need for sceptics of all findings of a supposedly non- rational provenance to point this out.
The workings of Divination are not supernatural, but based on the wonders of our natural human biology. Science knows full well that the gut speaks directly to the head, and often, if not always, it’s the gut that speaks first.
Perhaps Brexit could also be understood in the context of a grass-roots, if apparently delayed after-shock in response to the seismic shock of the financial crash of 2007.
Old Moore suggests Britain will keep calm and carry on…while suggesting possible major changes at No 10 later in 2019, maybe in June.
I had a weird dream about Theresa May last night. I’ve forgotten most of it, but she said she dreaded going to see the Queen.
Timing comes up a lot in Tarot readings. ‘When?’ asked a recent client, asking about the prospects of a trip…but this was not just a holiday trip being envisioned, but an activity-focused trip with a purpose. The client was also wondering about the possibilities of encountering a significant other on such a trip.
I drew the Six Wands…
Image Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti
‘I’m sensing late next July,’ I said, ‘maybe August. No surprises there then. Peak holiday season is during Leo.’
‘Yes, but I’m a teacher,’ the client said, ‘I can only go away during school holidays. I went to Italy last year and I’ve been thinking about whether to go again back to the same place next year, same time.’
‘To Siena?’ I said.
‘Wow,’ said the client, ‘not exactly, but it’s a little place not far off. Sort of in the middle of nowhere…
Timing comes up a lot in Tarot readings. ‘When?’ asked a recent client, asking about the prospects of a trip…but this was not just a holiday trip being envisioned, but an activity-focused trip with a purpose. The client was also wondering about the possibilities of encountering a significant other on such a trip.
I drew the Six Wands…
Image Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti
‘I’m sensing late next July,’ I said, ‘maybe August. No surprises there then. Summer holidays. Bit of a no-brainer isn’t it?’
Why did I say these dates? The Six of Wands connects to the zodiac sign of Leo.
‘Well, yes, but I’m a teacher,’ the client said, ‘you’ve picked that up correctly…that I can only go away during school holidays. I went to Italy last year and I’ve been thinking about whether to go again back to the same place next year, same time.’
‘Would this to Siena by any chance?’ I said.
‘Wow,’ said the client, ‘not exactly, but it’s a little place not far off. Sort of in the middle of nowhere. But that’s amazing. How do you know?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said, ‘I only feel it. Look at the card. It just made me think of Siena. That rider here in the amphitheatre? It made me think of the square where they hold the Palio. But it never made me think of that before.’
Commons Wikimedia
The traditional keywords associated with the Six of Wands: A Yes answer, Success, Victory, Achievement, Awards, Supporters, Fans, Crowd, Rally, Goodwill, Compliments, Cheers, Applause, Sharing Success, Fairness, Self-Confidence, Self-Esteem, Pride, Good News, Politician, PR, Campaigns, Sales
I’ve drawn this card many times before of course. Sometimes it’s been talking about a car. Sometimes it has told me about a motorbike. Once it flagged up a sports trip coming up for a disabled athlete selected to go to with his team to the Para- Olympics. The Six of Wands has more than once before helped me decide which team I think will win a football match though I tend not to ‘go there’ much in public. I do now and then, but who needs trolls – or people ringing me up for betting tips?
Besides which, prescience is not remotely the same thing as omniscience.
But it has never said ‘Siena’ or ‘Palio’ before. The picture on the card was therefore functioning as a psychic trigger.
And first I had to draw that card. I had to shuffle and draw it blindly and at random in answer to the stated question. That card and no other.
77 other cards had to stay in the pack.
And it is that peculiar, acute and totally unconscious synchronicity that is so typical of Tarot.
Would I have picked up on this in the same way via, say, an email reading? There’s no knowing, but quite possibly not. This was a nuance plucked organically from the ether, the invisible electric space between me and the client.
Once upon a time I would probably not have even said it, judging it too silly, not wishing to risk it. Now I am older, less interested in what anyone else makes of it. Caveat emptor. The client doesn’t need to tell the reader much, only ask questions, but they need to be straight with the reader, play fair, no funny business trying to misdirect the reader, wasting time and energy.
It is as it is. For me now, to just do this reading thing is all. Sometimes it comes easy, other times less so.
UPDATE: 3 weeks after this reading I received a message from the client, generously wishing me to see an email just received from a contact in Italy, inviting the client to travel out to Siena for an olive harvesting event….and with a group visit to see….the Palio!
Oh no. Oh yes, we’re talking about Brexit. This blog is about divination, not politics or social commentary, and many practitioners of divination, besides conducting personal readings, are bound to look through their lens at affairs of public life.
Everyone does forecasting or predicting. Humanity is hard-wired that way for survival. Everyone. If you feel you know which way this is all going, you are speculating which is to say, predicting. Knowing what is your prescience and what may instead be wishful thinking, may be harder to judge. The same for readers too, who must beware a) their own fallibility and b) their personal biases in interpretation. For the most honest answer possible, the reader needs to stay like stone while shuffling and drawing their cards.
What are the bookies saying? Hardly surprisingly, it’s a shifting picture. Some think the UK will remain in the EU after 2019. But then again, the bookies did not predict the Leave result in the Referendum. This from The Guardian, Patrick Collinson, 24 June 2016:
In a candid statement, Ladbrokes’ head of political betting, Matthew Shaddick, said: “The truth is that bookies do not offer markets on political events to help people forecast the results. We do it to turn a profit (or at least not lose too much) and in that respect, this vote worked out very well for us.
“Nobody at Ladbrokes’ HQ will be criticising the predictive powers of our odds, they’ll be looking at the money we made.”
More than £40m was gambled in the biggest political betting event in British history.
William Hill said one woman in central London placed her first ever bet by putting £100,000 on the UK voting to stay, while another woman, from Kingston, south-west London, gambled for the first time by staking £10,000 on leave.
Here are the playing cards I drew around this question 12 August 2018.
The cards are shuffled and drawn blind. The most basic rule of interpretation is:-
Red suit cards indicate a yes answer
Black suit cards indicate a no answer….particularly if these are spades.
Will UK leave the EU with an agreed deal?
It is looking highly likely that it will not. Let’s read it as a story-line, left to right.
3 Clubs. Lively discussions, confrontations, a 3- way deal.
Ace Spades. Endings. New beginnings. Lines drawn.
10 Spades. Nadir. Betrayal. Despondency. Despair. A large body of water.
6 Clubs. Back in the saddle. Teamwork. Negotiation. Achievement.
4 Diamonds. This last red card on the line could still turn it into a last minute deal. Financial stability. a strongbox. A cheque book. This is financial conservatism…either UK pays out for the sake of diplomacy in the event of a non-deal so as to minimise the rocking of the boat or else decides to hang on to more of its own money.
What is the likelihood of a No Deal?
At first glance this is looking highly likely; 1 black suit card (no) and 4 red suit cards (yes).
Let’s look at the story-line.
Page Swords, spies, secret communications, legal advice, bad news, dark thoughts, skulduggery, espionage (No! Really?)
6 Diamonds, Research, technology, diagnostics, shyness. The PM is very clever, some fear deceitful, but she is rather shy. This may have added to a few problems in the face of the various manifestations of the ‘page of swords’ – in-house opposition to her stated brief.
6 Hearts, courage, trust, armed forces, all things regarded as ‘typically masculine’
8 Diamonds, utmost caution, balancing books, taxation matters, influential person wearing glasses (several come to mind both sides of the table)
Ace Diamonds, Fresh start, important document, life force, fire, new lease of life.
BUT, for utmost impartiality, at risk of fudging the system, let’s just zoom the lens out, reading both lines as a single story, paragraph one and paragraph two.
Now we have a total of 5 black no cards and 5 red yes cards, and we end up with a row of reds.
Bluffs are being called on both sides. The UK perhaps is doing less calling of bluffs and a deal takes two. There was a reason a referendum came to be called in the first place, after David Cameron’s bluff was called.
Read this way a deal could still happen, and if it does it will be almost last minute, viewing the cards as a kind of graph line where the black cards are succeeded by a row of red cards…look at it as a rising graph line. There is something here that does not line up clearly. There may be a delay or a last minute offer by either side.
Whichever way it goes in the end, for all the rage and worry on both sides, UK and EU, Leave voters and Remain voters, and the undoubtedly dirty machinations and toxicity of this process, and however I look at my cards, as separate lines or as a sequence of continuation, the ‘end’ card, the Ace of Spades appeared early on, representing severance and separation while the Ace of Diamonds is the ultimate final card in this spread. Fresh start, important document, life force, fire, new lease of life
It will not be business as before, whichever way it goes. I think we’re out, no second referendum, but I’m not sure that even if it is a hard Brexit, leaving on WTO rules, that it will happen on the 29 March. There is a strong suggestion that this is not a finality.
I feel the cards were also foreshadowing the recent events of Salzburg. This is a card of betrayal and assassination. Character assassination, political assassination, M Macron may prove to have overplayed his hand.
For the UK the Ace of Diamonds of a No Deal outcome is being shown to me as a far higher, therefore more desirable card of prosperity than the Four of Diamonds of the Deal outcome scenario. Mr Carney’s fears will not prove justified, bar an inevitable period of disturbance and re-adjustment.
Any Ace trumps any other card any time. There is plenty wrong in the UK, and plenty that needs to be done better. But I am not seeing that if the UK does go the way of the open seas, via a ‘hard Brexit’, that it is then on a heading to…
Image: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Viktor Vasnetsov, 1887
There will be turbulence but a fairly early recovery. Until next time 🙂
On Monday evening I pulled my cards ready for this match, and have left them out on my worktop in the study. 20 minutes in at the time of writing. I am looking at them now.
England’s cards: 2 Clubs, 4 Clubs, 2 Diamonds, Queen of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds.
Tough one. Croatia look solid. All those sporting Clubs cards. England better be careful , or rather, better be bold, they have the better cards, but by heck, not by much, and must stay FAST. Clean, lean and very mean. Diamonds is electricity. Lightning strikes.
Why did I draw the Queen of Diamonds? Why a Queen, in the cards for England’s performance tonight? It’s not classically known as a sporting card.
I wondered about number correlations. Jacks are elevens, Kings are thirteens. Queens correlate to the number 12. All I could think looking at the cards, was that a player wearing shirt 12 might be especially significant for England during this match.
‘Who might that be?’ I asked Il Matrimonio, ‘who wears the number 12 shirt?’
He didn’t know.
‘OK, well, just watch out for a player with 12 on his shirt,’ I said.
But I hear a roar. England have scored, and Il Matrimonio has just shouted through that the striker was Kieran Trippier…and within the first few minutes….wearing the Number 12 shirt.
I have been looking in my cards about England in the World Cup. Of course I have, but everyone has an opinion, and listening to the growling and snarling coming out of the Man den in recent weeks, I sometimes feel it’s more than my life’s worth to share the findings even with my own spouse, Il Matrimonio (who will very likely see this) let alone risk it with a wider readership.
It’s the same with anything political, especially Brexit related. The conversation becomes too toxic, who needs it, but I do look, of course. It’s far too important a matter for me not to, and, it’s yes, it’s still going ahead, so far as I can see, looking at it again this morning.
Whether the reader gets it right or wrong, you might not like the answer. Don’t shoot the messenger. Tiberius used to have them thrown off the cliffs. He threw them off if they got it wrong. Sometimes he threw them off when they got it right but he didn’t like the answer. This soothsaying stuff has always had its perils.
I was watching The Hotel Inspector last night when Il Matrimonio came in, informing me that it was half time, England 1- Colombia 1, and did I have a feeling as to who was going to win?
No I didn’t. I was tired. I wasn’t feeling it. I would have to look.
He disappeared into the kitchen to put the kettle on, and I reached for my nearest cards, a deck of ordinary playing cards.
This was the process. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, while asking aloud, show me England. Will they win this match tonight against Colombia?
Repeat the question aloud x 3 or even x 6.
Pull ONE card. Just one.
Repeat process for Colombia.
Il Matrimonio came through with his mug of whatever.
‘Look here’, I said.
‘Do I have to? Why don’t you just tell me?’
‘I think it’s England. They’re just that bit faster.’
England draws the 7 of Diamonds.
Traditional meanings.Financial achievement, rewards and recognition, earned success, steady improvement, efforts rewarded. Lucky money, wins, pay raise, improved prospects. Nest egg, financial investment, stocks and bonds, e-trading. (Source, Kapherus. If you are a student or practitioner I highly recommend this invaluable cartomancy resource.)
Colombia draws the 5 of Clubs.
Traditionalmeanings. Action and change. Symbolizes the five fingers of the hand. Can represent working with one’s hands, or making something. It can also denote exercise, physical labour, and providing the extra effort needed to get the job done. Action, physical activity, need for physical exercise, competition, sporting event, job interview, good luck
SUMMARY
In terms of the traditional interpretations, you can see for yourself both cards are positive. This is a well matched performance but England has drawn the better card.
Why?
Because:
It is a red suit card, not a black suit card. This alone is not definitive, but also…
Diamonds are swift. So are Clubs but they are the second swiftest suit. Diamonds is the swiftest. England look likely to win on their speed of attack in the end.
England have drawn a number 7 card, Colombia draw a number 5 and 7 is higher so it trumps a 5.
The match, as we now know, went into extra time and penalties, emotionally exhausting even to watch. You gather that I had by now switched over from The Hotel Inspector. Sorry, Alex Pollizi.
England won on penalties, breaking a long running streak of unlucky penalty shoot-outs that had become a chimera of the national psyche, something of a national hex.
Don’t tell me tribal magic is dead in the twenty- first century. Do not. You only have to watch the crowd, faces painted, sporting wigs in their team colours, hurling their wishes and curses and mojo- power at the pitch. This is nothing if not sympathetic magic in action.
Definition of sympathetic magic
: magic based on the assumption that a person or thing can be supernaturally affected through its name or an object representing it. (Merriam-Webster)
Me too. I pointed runes at the screen during the penalty shoot-out. The runes for our lot were TIWAZ (victory won in fair fight) and WUNJO (joy) and the runes for the opposition were…well that would be telling.
Penalties Colombia -3, England -4.
‘Harry’s heroes.’
Image: BBC
Have I got them all correct? Nah. My record on this so far is 4/5 but then I am up against Marcus the psychic pig
In the previous blog, I used cartomancy divination to look at the question of whether the UK would leave the Customs Union in 2020, and the overall reply was yes, using my playing cards, based on this spread shown below. The yes arises from the appearance of the Ace of Spades in the central column, which contains the final answer of the reading.
BUT talk about hot potato. What will it look like in practice? Let us look at it through the lens of the Tarot today.
Which of these options look more likely?
streamlined customs arrangement – which involves minimal customs checks and the use of new technology to enable as frictionless trade as possible. This option would allow the movement of goods between the UK and the EU to be monitored and recorded, with traders paying duties on a monthly or quarterly basis, rather than paying duties on every shipment or service traded. This is the option currently favoured by ‘Brexiteers’.
A customs partnership with the EU – which involves the UK acting as a tax collector for the EU whenever goods enter the UK. If the goods are bound for the UK, and if the UK tariff is lower than the EU tariff, traders could claim any difference. This was the option reportedly favoured by Mrs May, although it remains unclear whether she still supports it following the Cabinet meeting this week. See Here For Source
Today I have used my Tarot cards. The deck is the Divine Legacy Tarot deck used here for educational purposes by kind permission of the artist, Ciro Marchetti.
Cards for Option 1
streamlined customs arrangement – which involves minimal customs checks and the use of new technology to enable as friction-less trade as possible. This option would allow the movement of goods between the UK and the EU to be monitored and recorded, with traders paying duties on a monthly or quarterly basis, rather than paying duties on every shipment or service traded.
The card top left, drawn upside down, is the 3 of Coins, suggesting that a streamlined customs arrangement will be harder to implement to start with. This is a money card of craftsmanship and attention to detail, but blocked or delayed, and technology is not of itself the panacea.
The burden and onus on smaller businesses and sole traders, like the craftsman shown in the card, will be especially troublesome to start with, but thereafter, in the longer term, 4-9 years, The Hermit (Major Arcana 9, meaning maturity and independence, going it alone) the Four of Wands (one’s house is in order) and Strength (Major Arcana 8, meaning Courage, health and Power) as the destination card, suggests this option is front- end problematic but becomes a position of increasing Strength over the following 4-9 years.
Cards for Option 2
A customs partnership with the EU – which involves the UK acting as a tax collector for the EU whenever goods enter the UK. If the goods are bound for the UK, and if the UK tariff is lower than the EU tariff, traders could claim any difference. This was the option reportedly favoured by Mrs May,
Let’s look at the cards again without having to scroll up:
The first card out is Justice, due process and a need for fair play. We hit the ground running with an idea that is better received by the other side of the table, and with existing infrastructure and legal harmonisation. We wish to play fair, if we are played fair with. Justice is the cards of Libra, the Law and harmony. Key dates September 23-October 23.
This appears to trump the starting position for Option 1 hands down, and there is strong support for it.
The Queen of Cups here represents a key female figure, probably Theresa May herself, although she was represented in the previous playing card reading as a Queen of Diamonds (money queen, fast thinking and this equates more readily with the Tarot’s suit of Coins or Pentacles.) However, we are all multifaceted and this is a card of pouring oil on troubled waters. This is a card of a leader wishing to harmonize differences but is this actually possible if she is not met half way? The Queen of Cups is a peacemaker, and here, looking as she seems to be, out towards us, but also towards Justice, she has an eye here is the pictorial suggestion, to the House of Lords.
The Knight of Coins is a card of slow, steady growth and is by no means therefore a negative card in terms of what it seems to suggest about the financial well-being of the UK going this route.
The destination/outcome card for a mooted Customs Partnership is The 9 of Wands Reversed.
Uh- oh.
The upright 9 is a card of courage and determination, same as the Strength card but there is a blinkered rigidity, a narrowness about it, inferior to the expansiveness of the Strength card.
One may read this as the resistance of a hard Brexit lobby, but there seems no avoiding the conclusion that if the UK chooses a Customs Partnership based on the model under discussion, there will still need to be – this will be crucial to the national interest – the will, the power and the remit to do a lot of saying no.
Traditional Meanings of the 9 of Wands Reversed:
Rut, Off- Loading/Taking on More, Delegation, Taking Matters in Hand, Overhauling, Radical Change, Learning To Say No, Compromising, Weeding, Cutting Out The Dead Wood, Dumping, Reflecting, Learning/Not Learning from Mistakes, Giving Up on a Dream or Ambition, Letting Go, Giving Up/Holding On, Delays, Set Backs, No Reward after Immense Effort, Insurmountable Problems, Being Saddled, Taken Advantage Of, Resigned To Your Fate, ‘Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’, Clearing Out.
The destination cards represent the likely future of the situation, or the advice upon which future developments will hinge, and The Strength card of option 1 trumps the 10 of Wands Reversed of option 2.
Option 2 may seem the easier route but in time it would become increasingly onerous.
But there may be yet another approach, or a twist on one of these options, that is not yet on the table.
What is not shown here either way in direct connection with the outcome either way? War, civil war or bankruptcy.
Summary. Option 1 – a streamlined customs agreement- drew as its outcome the Strength card- a card of physical and moral courage. Leo hunts because it must, but only to feed itself and support the pride, not with malice to waste, despoil or deny another.
Image Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti
True Tarot Tales 