I am at pains to stress I don’t work as a fortune-teller. I work as an adviser, working to a brief, and I offer forecasting within a specific context, because otherwise, who am I reading for exactly? And I aim to deal in relevant specifics wherever possible.
Context is key for meaning, relevance and precision.
However, I also like to challenge myself. General ‘scrying’ of ‘the’ future, Nostradamus style, is part of a very ancient tradition, and I sometimes work with a well known astrologer, Jessica Adams, writing as a guest contributor for a monthly feature, Tarot Tuesday at JessicaaAdams.com.
The challenge is to pick just one card, and share my intuitive impressions triggered by this card for the coming month. But without benefit of any other context than this loose time frame. One or two other Tarot card readers also write up their one card readings for the month to come, and Jessica then correlates these Tarot findings with current astrology.
Artist Albert Anker 1880
My chosen card for this February 2020 was the Six of Swords.
Book meanings: relocation, progress, exploration, charting a new course, mourning, travel by water, self determination, east
From the Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Image by Ciro Marchetti.
Lick your finger, hold it up…what is the prevailing wind?
Winds are changeable of course, from day to day, even hour to hour, but still, it has been interesting for me as a reader, to correlate my previous one card ‘crystal ball’ readings with events of the ensuing month.
An earlier one card reading said ‘wild fire,’ (you can see previous readings via the link provided below) and it is still playing out, tragically; particularly the Australian wild fires, of which the first were actually in September, and now it is known that several of these were started deliberately.
These single card readings are actually drawn 2-3 weeks ahead of publication, so that I am drawing a card mid January for the first Tuesday in February, and mid February looking ahead to the first Tuesday in March and so on.
Logically, none of it ought to make any sense at all, unless by sheer coincidence. Except that isn’t how it works, when it works.
It works on animal sensing.
Click below to read February’s Tarot Tuesday feature, courtesy of Jessica Adams.
Dang. I meant to post this in November and forgot. I’ll blame it on Brexit. Why not.
Is there a missing thirteenth sign in the astrological zodiac? NASA, astronomers and mainstream media suggest there is, trotting out this story every few years, to the frustration of Tropical western astrology scholars and practitioners. Sidereal (eastern) astrologers may agree with NASA, but Tropical (western) astrologers absolutely do not.
So what’s all this about?
It hinges on the confusing of zodiac signs with the constellations after which they were named, treated them as mutually interchangeable which they are not.
There are 12 signs in astrology. Modern astronomy records 88 constellations covering the southern and northern hemispheres of Earth’s sky.
Thirteen of these constellations cross or touch the ecliptic – the trajectory of the Sun’s apparent path across the sky as seen from Earth.
Public Domain: the Plane of the ecliptic
These include the 12 constellations that inspired the names of the 12 zodiac signs plus a thirteenth constellation– Ophiuchus (Oaf-ih-YOU-kus)
Astronomers and NASA have presented this thirteenth constellation, Ophiuchus, as the thirteenth sign of the zodiac, while also pointing out that the zodiac itself…the section of sky directly overhead as viewed from Earth- has changed from when the ancient Babylonian astrologers first viewed it, so that, claims NASA, the generally accepted dates for the zodiac signs as supplied in horoscopes are now a month out of alignment.
This
change in the skies has been the result of an effect called precession. The
gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun causes the Earth to ‘wobble’ and as the
Earth orbits around the sun; a different constellation appears behind it each
month.
So while
the zodiac signs have remained in a
fixed position, and their dates have remained the same, varying only by a day
or two here and there, the constellations have drifted.
Based on this, astronomers have suggested the new astrological zodiac should more correctly look like this, with these new dates:
•Capricorn:
20 Jan – 16 Feb
•Aquarius: 16 Feb – 11 March
•Pisces: 11 March – 18 April
•Aries: 18 April – 13 May
•Taurus: 13 May – 21 June
•Gemini: 21 June – 20 July
•Cancer: 20 July – 10 Aug
•Leo: 10 Aug – 16 Sept
•Virgo: 16 Sept – 30 Oct
•Libra: 30 Oct – 23 Nov
•Scorpio: 23 – 29 Nov
•Ophiuchus: 29 Nov – 17 Dec
•Sagittarius: 17 Dec – 20 Jan
So you thought you were a Taurus sun sign, says NASA. No, actually, you are an Aries subject. So you thought you were an Aries sun sign? No, you are Pisces. So you thought you were a Sagittarius? No, you are Ophiuchus, and so on.
Whoa. But let’s not get too excited. As astronomers are quick to point out, astronomy is not astrology. And that works both ways.
First let’s take a brief look at the astronomy.
The Astronomy and the Constellation of Ophiuchus
Wiki
Ophiuchus ([Oaf-ih-YOU-kus) is one of the largest constellations but in general the least well known, straddling the celestial equator northwest of the centre of the Milky Way, near the constellations Aquila, Serpens, and Hercules, and opposite Orion, the southern section lying between Scorpius to the west and Sagittarius to the east. Below Ophiuchus, down to the right, look out for a bright reddish star, Antares in Scorpio, for help in confirming that you have found it.
Right now -July- is the best time to see it in the northern hemisphere, mid-winter in the southern hemisphere. Hence this story is in the news again right now.
Its name comes from the Greek Ὀφιοῦχος Ophioukhos; “serpent-bearer,” and it is commonly represented as a man grasping a snake. In medieval Islamic astronomy the constellation was known as ‘Al-Ḥawwa,’ “the snake-charmer.” It used to be called Serpentius, when the constellation counted more stars, including the constellation of Serpens, representing the snake itself. Marking the head of Ophiuchus, Alpha Ophiuchi has an older, Arabic name: Rasalhague, the “Head of the Snake Charmer”.
Ophiuchus contains notable features and objects, including Kepler’s Supernova, or Kepler’s Star, named for German astronomer Johannes Kepler.
It was by far the brightest star in the sky for over 3 weeks during 1604 and actually Kepler wasn’t the first to note the supernova, due to cloudy conditions, but he made observations over the course of an entire year and wrote about the “new star in the foot of Ophiuchus”.
Kepler’s Supernova
continued visible for 18 months, and its remnants are still studied today, still
the most recent supernova to be observed with the naked eye.
Mythology
To the
ancient Greeks, the constellation represented the god Apollo struggling
with a huge snake that guarded the Oracle of Delphi.
Later myths identified Ophiuchus with Laocoon, the tragic Trojan priest of Poseidon, who warned his fellow Trojans about the Greek’s wooden horse, and together with his sons, was killed by a pair of sea-serpents sent by Poseidon to shut him up, because clearly, Poseidon was on the side of the Greeks, or else under orders from Zeus, or else Laocoon had already annoyed him in some other way, and you know, nothing less than death by giant sea-snake would do.
Public Domain
Pluto (Hades) complained to Jupiter (Zeus) that Asclepius was interfering with death, an act of hubris which upset the natural order, and meant the end of the circle of life, with no room for new life.
Immortality would be a terrible evil. Life itself would die, stagnated, and Jupiter (Zeus) duly put a stop to it by killing Asclepius, hurling a lightning thunderbolt straight at his head, giving him an instant perm.
Apollo was, rather understandably, we may agree, furiously upset, “you zapped my son you b*stard!” Jupiter tried to comfort him by placing Asclepius in the heavens to honour his good works, and the rod of Asclepius remains the symbol of western medicine to this day.
The rod of Asclepius is not be confused with the Cadeuceus, a symbol of medicine, but also of trade. The cadeuceus is assciated with Mercury, and has not one but two snakes twined round the staff, and it has wings.
Public Domain
So, is Ophiuchus the thirteenth zodiac sign? Or does your zodiac sign stay the same?
Image: Public Domain: The Snake-Wrangler in Urania’s Mirror, 1825. Above the tail of the serpent is a now ‘obsolete’ constellation, Taurus Poniatovii
If you are born between 29th November and 17th December, NASA, other astronomers and Sidereal astrologers may argue that your zodiac sun sign is technically Ophiuchus.
Key personality traits:
Humanitarian* Poetic* Hungry for knowledge* Intuitive* Psychic*Intense *Likes bright colours *High achievers *Prone to harbouring enemies without realizing *Lucky (so long as the enemies don’t succeed, obviously)
These are, not surprisingly, a mix of classic Scorpio and Sagittarius attributes in this profile.
But- there is a But here. And it is a blooming big BUT.
What astronomy is failing to recognize is the logic of the system which is the very basis of western (Tropical) astrology, and which makes a key distinction between the positions at any given time of the constellations themselves, and the zodiac signs named after them.
The signs of the zodiac as we know them today are based on Ptolemy’s twelve-fold division of the ecliptic, designed so that each sign spans 30° of celestial longitude, or roughly the distance the Sun travels in a month. 12 was a cleaner, tidier number to work with than was 13.
Ptolemy aligned these divisions with the seasons so that the March
equinox always falls on the boundary between Pisces and Aries, whereas Sidereal (Vedic)
astrology is based on the constellations themselves, as was western astrology
way back at the time of the Babylonians, whose data Ptolemy worked with.
Tropical western astrology, with its 12 associated zodiac signs is a static,
modelled system based NOT on the constellations themselves, but on the wheel of
the seasons which also accord the signs of the zodiac their personalities, but the idea of the ‘missing’
thirteenth sign is nothing new.
“It was developed by Hipparchus in 130 BC,” says astrologer, Susan Miller, “but you don’t get your characteristics from the constellations. You get them from the planets, from the sun and moon. We measure everything by the degree to which the earth is rotated around the sun. So if you’re born at the beginning of the zodiac, which corresponds to the spring equinox and typically falls on March 20, you’re at the 0º point—or the point at which the sun is crossing directly over the earth’s Equator. If we didn’t have names like Virgo or Gemini we’d have to walk around saying, `Hi, I’m a 136º,’ and I’d say, `Oh, really? Well I’m a 352º and so on.”
In Summary
NASA’s supposed debunking may be logical in strictly astronomical terms. But that’s astronomy. It has nothing to do with western Tropical astrology as practiced today, and would only matter if the timing of the signs relied upon being tied to the actual positions of the constellations.
But they do not, and your zodiac sign, also known as your sun sign still stands, both as it is and where it is, based on the principle and according to the system on which it was first described.
Saturn rules Capricorn, the zodiac sign which became associated with the dates of Christmas. Bright lights, good cheer, a nosh- up, a knees-up; the Romans celebrated Saturn as the god of agriculture, and also because, according to their theology, Saturn was the god who ruled the world during the long lost Golden Age, and they wanted it back, please.
The Saturnalia was celebrated 17 December, with festivities usually culminating round 23 December.
Public Domain
Outside of this context, Saturn is not usually so jovial in aspect. It is the planet of great virtues, but stern and serious. Life is a serious business, and requires effort, is the message of Saturn.
Caesar must be rendered to. The bottom line safeguarded. Nothing came from nowhere, nothing is for nothing. Even the birds don’t sing for fun. The birds especially do not sing for fun. They sing to win and stake a territory, and keep it. They sing to win a mate, they sing to ward off threats to their nests, but is their song less beautiful for that?
Saturn is all about the bottom line. Food is the bottom line, and the solstice meant the return of the sun for the new year’s crops. It wouldn’t do to take Saturn for granted.
The face of Janus, past and future, could be seen as another face of Saturn himself. Janus, the primordial god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, is the god of endings. An ancient legend said the souls of the dead returned to their origin, rising through the gates of the constellation of Capricornus, where the souls of newborn descended to arrive on Earth through the gates of Cancer, zodiac sign of the summer solstice in a never-ending wheel of souls.
Public Domain
For all of us there comes a point where every year, a familiar face or name will leave the orbit of our lives, and we revisit the memories. Maybe it is a person, or maybe it is a place. Perhaps it is something we used to do, or used to wish for. The ghosts have their own pictures, particular songs, sounds and smells.
They are many, bittersweet, the ever-more crowding ghosts of Christmas past.
My mother turned 81 just before Christmas; wise, shrewd, beautiful, a mother of five; a gifted teacher, naturalist, poet, and for many years, a champion protector of women’s statutory right to give birth in their own home if they wished, not to become mandatory patients in a more or less public setting, rendered subordinates in their own care during what is a personal and family event.
An independent thinker possessed of moral and physical courage, self-discipline and fortitude; and with a keen sense of the absurd -without which there is no sense of humour, she could be described as a classical Capricorn Queen of Pentacles, born 23 December.
Both her parents were naturalists, and she in turn took her children to the wild places, beach combing and. hill- climbing. We climbed in the Lakes, in Glen Coe, on Mull. As teenagers, we were not always in the mood, but she would not leave us at home.
Nor could we always keep up with her, a smallish woman, 5′ 5…same height as me, and with the stamina of…well, a mountain a goat, trotting on ahead with her backpack, my stepfather, Pa, six foot five, toiling moodily at the rear with the biggest backpack.
Capricorn marks the winter solstice, so it marks the beginning of winter, but it also marks the returning sun.
Capricorn is the cardinal sign of Earth in the western zodiac, and also in the storybook of the Tarot, and its associated cards are The Devil (Pan) the Ace of Pentacles (Earth) and the Queen of Pentacles.
Most of us know our zodiac or sun
sign, but what does it look like in the night sky, and what’s the story behind
it? This month it’s the turn of Sagittarius.
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
Public
Domain: Rider-Waite
The Astronomy
As with all of the Zodiac constellations, Sagittarius was recorded in the 2nd century by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. The name is from the Latin for archer.
Sagittarius is a relatively large constellation which is mainly
visible in the southern hemisphere. In the Northern hemisphere the
constellation can be viewed low on the horizon from August to October. In the
Southern hemisphere Sagittarius can be viewed from June to November. Star maps
generally depict Sagittarius as a vaguely teapot-shaped star pattern or asterism.
Sagittarius is near the centre of our spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. There is a massive star-forming region known as the Omega Nebula situated within its boundaries and Sagittarius is also home to the Pistol Star, one of the brightest stars, the fifth brightest discovered in the Milky Way. First discovered by the Hubble Space telescope in 1930, the Pistol Star is largely hidden in the dust of its own Pistol nebula, but is 100 times as massive as our Sun, and 10,000,000 times as bright.
Sagittarius
is the ninth sign in the Zodiac and represents those born between Nov. 22 and
Dec. 21.
Greek
myth saw Sagittarius the Archer shooting Scorpio the Scorpion, which had been
sent to kill Orion the Hunter.
Sagittarius has long been mixed and confused with another centaur story, Chiron of the Centaurus constellation. Most interpretations conclude that Sagittarius refers to the the centaur, Chiron, who was accidentally shot by Hercules with a poison arrow.
This story
does indeed refer to a constellation myth, but it’s the myth behind Centaurus,
a non-zodiac constellation, and not Sagittarius.
The myth
behind Sagittarius probably refers instead to Krotos, a satyr who lived on Mount Helicon with the Muses. Krotos
or Crotus was the son
of Pan and Eupheme, and his mother
had nursed the Muses.
Krotos was renowned for
being both an excellent hunter, horse rider and a devoted adherent of the Muses
and their arts. He is credited with having invented archery and being the first
to use illumination for hunting animals. He is also said to have introduced
applause, and used to clap his hands at the singing of the Muses, for whom this
was a sign of acclaim preferable to any verbal ones. It was the Muses who asked
Zeus to place him among the stars, which he did, transforming Krotos into the
constellation Sagittarius.
Satyrs have human heads and torsos with two goat legs (and sometimes horns). Centaurs have four but the accounts and depictions of Krotos vary. But all the same, he was often depicted with four legs, as the excellent horseman he was.
The
Astrology
Sagittarius
is the ninth sign in the Zodiac and represents those born between Nov. 22 and
Dec. 21. The archer is seen as a bridge between elements and worlds. The life
lesson is seen as Temperance, as pictured in the Tarot card associated with
this sign. The message is all to do with the quiet but enormous power of
moderation, the art of expert timing, and also self-control, avoiding extremes
and addictive behaviours.
The
Astrological Personality
There is no such thing in reality as THE Sagittarius personality
and the same goes for all the zodiac sun signs. Your sun sign is an archetype,
a keynote but of course it is not and never could be the whole story.
The archetype of Sagittarius is brave, lively, warm, optimistic, rational and insightful. Sagittarius zodiac sign subjects need constant adventures and opportunities to grow to remain interested. Freedom is of the utmost importance to them, space and plenty of room for manoeuvre. Likewise they tend also to give lots of freedom to their partners.
They are generally very capable people but they need career flexibility, and they may refuse or fail to apply themselves if bored. Like Gemini, they are prone to restlessness. They may then fail to stick at a job or a succession of jobs, and may struggle financially in consequence.
They tend to have lots of friends, and family and friends can
feel neglected at times when Sagittarius goes go off and travels and shares
experiences with strangers, but Sagittarians will always come home.
Update on a reading initially posted on this site May 2019, comments based on cards drawn last night, 10 PM, 30 September 2019. I will post the images later today. for readers interested in the cartomancy.
It is looking unlikely that Jeremy Corbyn will be PM after the next General Election, whenever that date will be. Still possible, certainly, but not likely.
It is looking unlikely that Jo Swinson will be be PM after the next General Election, whenever that date will be.
Of the two, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have the better chance.
Brexit, and the referendum vote to leave the EU bloc may seem almost dead in the water, but it isn’t. Despite repeated and further planned attempts to strangle it slowly and surely to death. A pro-Remain Parliament is dead set against it, and no longer making any bones about this, citing fears of a so- called No Deal (WTO) exit while, as evidenced by Jo Swinson’s letter to Mr Juncker trying to ensure there will be no deal by 31 October. The pro-EU element has a majority in Parliament, regardless of the mandate on which many Remain MP’s were originally elected, and seems to hold all the cards as of 14 September.
But Deal or No Deal, I don’t know more than anyone else, and certainly do not claim to. I am a card reader, not a politician, but looking at this through the lens of cartomancy, the twists and turns are far from done, and Brexit may still happen by that Oct 31 deadline. It is looking more likely it will not, and could slip then till Jan/Feb 2020, but it will still happen. This is the big picture. Brexit has now become a juggernaut loaded with constitutional dynamite, and chaos is the alternative to delivering on the referendum result of 2016. Too much has happened, and political reform is now required it seems, whatever the outcome, and whenever that definitive outcome is finally announced to an angry, weary nation in which no-one is happy and Mrs May’s three years as PM, with her ostensible attempts at compromise seem only to have muddied the waters, compounding the difficulties.
Let’s look back at the cards drawn in August and May.
Tweeted 20 August
#Cartomancy Will UK leave EU by/before 31 Oct 2019? Chance is higher than 3+/5. Read L-R. 8 Spades, stuck state. Joker Rx, ie, new PM. (Gemini) Crux card= 9 Hearts. Red suit indicates yes. King D and 9 D. Money talks last minute. Ace Clubs. A deal. New start. GE?
So then, what does it look like? Will there be a No Deal Brexit, ie, an exit on WTO terms? Will it be a rehashed Withdrawal Agreement?
The so-called No Deal departure is the anathema of many Remain voters and the preferred option of many, though by no means all Leave voters, whether these are Labour voters or Tory voters. Meanwhile the Brexit Party has demonstrated its muscle, not only in the EU Elections, but in the UK sufficient that, although the Leave vote was split in Radnorshire, the very splitting of that vote also demonstrated the power of the Brexit party, even though this worked against both the Tory Party and the Brexit Party, such that the Lib Dem candidate was selected.
Be that as it may, what cards do we get?
Does this look like a No Deal Brexit?
Not really. If it is a NO Deal departure, then there is a special European deal on the side. This is not looking like a straight WTO exit. Or if it is, there is also some kind of a special trade deal with the EU. No, this is a beast of some other form. Is it Leave and is it good news for the UK economy ?
Ultimately, yes. It looks that way. Yes for both, 5 Clubs and Queen of Diamonds.
This reading starts as a classic Line of Five spread, where the cards are read left-right like a storyboard. For a yes or no answer, my system is the classic colour system that says more reds than blacks = a yes answer. More blacks than red = a no answer.
How and why does this work in practice? It’s simply a convention of self-programming. I could do it the other way around, blacks are yes and reds are no, and that would work just as well. But this is how I have programmed myself to read them, and with much repetition, like learning to play an instrument, this is how it actually starts to work and deliver accurate results. Perhaps the brain builds new synapses.
The results will not be accurate every time, any more than with any other form of forecasting. Of course not, and prescience is not omniscience, or anything like it, but this is the basic mechanics of how card reading is done.
So, back to Brexit and what it will look like, what did we get?
1 red suit card
1 Joker
3 black suit cards
The short answer is, cartomancy suggests there will very likely be at least some kind of trade deal with the EU, so that it will not be a complete WTO exit.
Does that mean that it’s going to be a rehash of the Withdrawal Agreement then, presumably minus the Irish Backstop? BRINO? Brexit in Name only?
No, it doesn’t look like that either.
This is looking like a trade- only deal, so far as I can see, possibly because the Backstop issue is resolved adequately for Parliament(just) and Mrs Merkel feels she has obtained for EU members some adequate measure of economic surety.
Let’s look at the individual cards for further comment.
That one red suit card, the 8 of Hearts, is representing the status quo, and the power of the Remain lobby in Parliament.
The Joker– cue the catcalls here from those out of accord with the new PM, (says a former Labour voter)- but this is a destiny card, and does not simply describe an actual Joker or clown or buffoon. But if it did, then take another look at the Joker. See the smile. Watch the eyes. They are serious. So is the skill. As an opponent, he is not to be underestimated.
The Joker is a card of surprises. It is the most powerful card in the deck, symbolically. Turning points in a nation’s destiny. My deck contains two Jokers and both have made an appearance in this 9 card spread.
Astrologically speaking, and rather curiously, this is also the card of the new PM, Boris Johnson, as a Gemini subject three times over. The Joker is Gemini. It suggests that, whatever he does in the end, he is completely in earnest when he says he wants us out. And he is not afraid of the EU, unlike Mrs May, and where she had Ollie Robbins, he has Dominic Cummins, one to be knighted, the other held up to public opprobrium. Mr Johnson is intellectually and politically agile, mercurial even, and not averse to sleight of hand. This is meant neither as criticism or a compliment. The stakes are so high, the situation demands nothing less than utmost cunning, or as others would call it, utmost strategic thinking.
There is a saying, that if you love someone they can do no wrong, but if you don’t like someone they can do no right, and this clearly holds true, and has been setting the tone of public discourse since 2016, to little benefit. Where all civility has gone, violence will surely follow.
So, the next card. The central card in that top row. And we have the 2 Spades. Split. Severance. Divorce. This is a Brexit divorce, so if there is an element of ‘fudge’ or compromise, it may not be as significant, or be the trickery into indefinite entrapment that Leavers fear.
This is reinforced by the next card, the 3 Swords. This is in itself a deeply negative card with grief and mourning attached. Our family of nations is unhappy, angry and uneasy. But here, it is also a 3 way plan and again, it signifies a parting of the ways enacted in law. I feel it represents Mr Johnson, Mrs Merkel and M Macron today, and that Mrs Merkel and M Macron will not be in accord re the best way to proceed. The news media suggests this is probably the case even as we speak.
The outcome card, the 5 Clubs…so what does that mean? Clubs is the suit of government and business. 5 is the number of change…and also conflict. This change is uncomfortable.
But as you see, red suit cards translate as yes in cartomancy, black suit cards translate as no, so my cards, rightly or wrongly, have produced that same card as I drew in May, suggesting some kind of trade deal with the EU either before we leave, or immediately upon exiting.
The central card is key, so I use it as my start point for drawing a new line of enquiry reading top to bottom now, asking, well, if it’s not a straight WTO Exit, what will it look like?
The 7 Swords is negotiation and intense effort. It is the card of the ‘workaholic.’
There seems to be a story line here of Mrs Merkel saying in so many words, we can’t risk the No Deal scenario, this would be crazy. (Joker Reversed) The risk has to be detected as real enough and actually, it is. It looks as though Mrs Merkel will say this if she decides Mr Johnson is not bluffing. And I don’t feel he is. But if he could offer a way out that would be more acceptable to the Remain MP’s, he may take a pragmatic view on that, or cynical as some might say. To get the thing over the line and try to heal divisions, which right now are more of a yawning abyss.
That 5 Clubs card is also a reminder that the UK is the 5th largest economy in the world. Mrs Merkel is naturally, acutely aware of this, and she does not let personal pride or vanity get in the way of her judgement.
This last comment is based on the cards. Mrs Merkel is being shown to me as the eminently pragmatic and shrewd Queen of Diamonds, and the 9 Diamonds says…money talks.
Incidentally, Diamonds is the suit of electricity, and may sometimes suggest a health problem of nervous origin. Nervous as in , signals misfiring in the body, such as with Parkinson’s.
OK, let’s try out a pendulum divination, ie; asking my central nervous system to use a movement to indicate its non-verbal response to a verbalised question.
On what basis does this hocus-pocus work?
Well, it ain’t hocus-pocus. It works on the basis that the mind does not reside entire within the brain, and we know things at a deeper level than language, so the challenge is to distract the conscious mind, notice body cues from the CNS, and turn those into language. This language is of necessity, restricted to yes, no or maybe, in varying degrees of emphasis or intensity, depending on the size of the swing, and the speed of rotation of the swing.
Will the UK leave the EU on No Deal/WTO terms?
The pendulum moves to YES, wobbles a while then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.
Will the UK leave the EU based on some adjusted version of Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement?
Again, the pendulum moves to YES, wobbles there awhile, then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.
OK. So that Ace of Clubs card. I also drew it in May. Classic meanings. A new business agreement. Trade Deal. A new Government. A General Election.
Will there be a General Election BEFORE the UK leaves?
It is swinging to NO. But I don’t know. I keep thinking of that Ace of Clubs card. I don’t see one occurring in September or October and that timing would be exceedingly tight. But, swinging the pendulum again, there’s something here, suggesting however unlikely, there may be one either concluded or announced before Christmas.
When will Brexit be declared as having occurred?
The pendulum is swinging between Scorpio-early Sagittarius
Corresponding dates 22 October-21 December
But the arc stops well short of the later end of this date range. But I can’t shake off the feeling there is a twist to come, or a surprise. The Joker hints at surprises. Something may happen earlier than expected. And that Ace of Clubs can mean a General Election hoving into view, and if that’s correct, it suggests that Boris Johnson has already made a decision in respect of the next GE.
Update: I believe this coming twist was at least in part, the announcement made on 28 August, 8 days following the reading, declaring the proroguing of Parliament in which case that 5 of Clubs card, in addition to its more general meaning, specifically denotes the time frame; 5 weeks. That is, four weeks of the annual conference season plus another week.
In summary, What can I deduce from this cartomancy portrait?
There is a gap here, begging some question not directly articulated. It is very often the case in Divination, that one has to read between the lines and look for what is NOT present in the cards. As a reader for a client, I draw my cards, share my impressions and then I ask the client for their question. Context is crucial for interpretation, and I am but an instrument.
Public discussions have centred on whether Parliament will permit Brexit to proceed, or cancel it, defying the referendum result, which in many cases, would mean MP’s defying the majorities in their own constituencies. And assuming it proceeds, discussions have centred on whether this will be a Deal/No Deal Brexit.
But in terms of cartomancy, what is being sensed here I think, is that there is a third possibility. Another route out.
Excerpt from a much longer article in The Spectator by QC Marcus Howe, Chairman of Lawyers for Britain:
“…to achieve meaningful changes to the WA would require the EU to be willing to accept a massive loss of face. This seems unlikely to say the least. So the only viable route to leaving the EU with a deal is to leave May’s WA unratified in its box and bypass Article 50 altogether. This can be achieved via a free trade agreement (FTA) similar to Canada’s but with enhanced mutual recognition of services, as well as security and criminal justice cooperation.
Since it would take time to negotiate and conclude such a deal, we would need short-term bridging arrangements to keep trade flowing freely in both directions while the details of the long-term FTA were being hammered out. The UK and the EU would continue to recognise goods and services as conforming with their standards, unless and until relevant laws are changed. Most of these bridging arrangements could be implemented (at least in the short term) through the UK and the EU using unilateral powers under the umbrella of a political agreement, as opposed to needing a formal legal agreement.” – 25 July 2019
Lawyers for Britain
Things are mighty peculiar. They are at the same time intransigent, and yet moving on apace.
Back soon with more cartomancy 🙂
Until next time!
Original Post, May 2019
Brexit, hey? Where next? Your guess is as good as mine but let’s take another look at it through the lens of my playing cards, drawn three nights ago, May 4.
Will there be a second referendum, as called for by Labour, The Lib Dems, and a number of high profile campaign groups?
Or will we leave without a second referendum and if so, what does it look like from here?
#Cartomancy reads the rows of cards left to right & also sometimes top to bottom, noting the ratio of red: black cards before looking at the individual meanings of the cards containing extra comments.
ROW 1 Will there be a 2nd referendum?
Probably not. There is a ‘new’ king about to come into play. This is not Mr Corbyn. This is a king of Diamonds, an electric communicator with acute money sense and I always draw Mr Corbyn as a King of Hearts. So, is this is a candidate to replace Mrs May as PM, or it is Mr Farage and any effect of the new Brexit Party, or is both these things, and the same card is standing for two significant (new) figures coming into play (again).
I suspect so. A second referendum would kill Brexit, which would be the aim, and this would be achieved by the ballot design, which would be designed to split the Leave vote as per an idea currently under discussion, but that 8 Spades is a pretty conclusive ‘no’ card.
ROW 2 Will we leave following a successful fourth attempt by TM to push through the deal already rejected on three previous occasions? After all, time and energy are not inexhaustible. Note the Queen of Spades which is clearly here representing Theresa May; a woman consulting the ‘legalese’.
Well, based on these cards, and however crazy it might seem, a deal is still looking possible, and is looking more likely at this point in time than NO Deal; and perhaps this is hardly surprising, since the No Deal negotiating option removed from Mrs May’s tool box.
But WHAT deal? The four of Spades is a tomb, a rout, a retreat. This prospective fourth deal or new deal is not Mrs May’s.
Those Nines surrounding the Queen of Spades represent both the failure of completion on 29 March, and Mrs May’s intense desire to get this deal passed. The 9 Hearts is the ‘heartfelt wishes’ card.
The cards indicate that Mrs May sincerely wants to find a way to (or to be seen to at least) to bring the UK out of the EU (not Europe) but the terms of course, are the issue, as we all know, except for those for whom it is not a question of the terms, but more the determination to see Article 50 Revoked altogether, and the whole thing put back in its box, and the lid slammed shut never to be re-opened. The threat of this seems very real right now, or the hope of this, depending on how you feel about it. But it doesn’t look to me as though it will happen.
ROW 3: A second Referendum?
This threat or hope notwithstanding, the cards indicated there will not be a second referendum, although this may not be necessary for the revoking of Article 50. And I don’t see that, so it look as though we will leave, but when? Is there an underlying sense of what it will look like?
If Theresa May should present the exact same deal to Parliament (shown as the 10 Diamonds) a fourth time, this will jam up the works, suggests the appearance of the 4 Spades. It won’t pass, plus, she may then quit as PM, and a new PM will come in (King Diamonds?) This could happen this summer, suggests the second column as I read it top to bottom like so:
6 Clubs ( within 6 weeks from the date of this reading, or, this is a summer card.
In Summary
What is absent from this spread is the single clean strike of the Ace of Spades, that would say a less equivocal OUT on WTO terms.
Other readers and astrologers are confident in expressing their forecasts of a clean WTO Brexit, even now.
I am probably struggling more than they to see past the noise, but I draw another cards and get the Ace of Clubs. This is BRAND NEW BUSINESS with a broad geographical horizon, but lacks that more black and white binary quality of the Ace of Swords
The Ace of Clubs has another quality to it, transcending matters of business….it’s equivalent to the Tarot’s Ace of Wands. Ignition. Birth, Almost like a rebirth.
So what does this mean in plain English? Well, this cloud is still morphing, but it’s looking like a WTO exit BUT with a ‘special European add-on.’
Or it is a whole New Deal.
For the sake of transparency, I should say that while I would perfectly calmly have accepted a remain vote in 2016, I feel the original mandate should be honoured as a point of principle, according to the self same terms in which it was clearly presented by the government in the run up to the referendum.
Execution of detail follows direction which follows principle.
However, as always, the risk in consulting with any kind of oracle is that the reader will not see what they personally may hope to see, and they may equally see precisely what they do not want to see.
I want to see that I will get outta this wheelchair and walk again one day. So, do I see that in my cards?
No.
I could be wrong, and I never say never, but meanwhile I am living with the fact that I do not see in my cards what I wish to see for myself.
You take my point. The reader asks a question. S/he may have personal ‘skin in the game ‘or not, but either way s/he shuffles and picks the cards blindly, and s/he may misinterpret, and be especially at risk of doing so if reading from a position of bias or prejudice, but s/he cannot fudge the reds and blacks except by doing so deliberately, and what the heck would be the point of that, when time will tell us all what’s what in due course?
Il Matrimonio, bless his ecologically right-on size 11 breathable bamboo socks, says he no longer cares one way or another. He just wants it all to stop, and he doesn’t mind how. And he’d quite like me to shut up with even trying to forecast about it.
What will happen will happen, he says.
Sure.
I have to give this forecasting thing a go, though, because divination is my line of work, and whether I get it right, or I get it wrong, so that I have to go back and figure out how and why I got it wrong with the benefit of hindsight – still, I will learn something, even if I have to fall flat on my face. So what? Life is short and…
I have done a number of readings around Brexit. I’m not being shown a clear No Deal exit, and yet, I see no sign of Remaining either. It is not going to be business as before, however this works out. The UK will not revert to the previous status quo.
We will all find out, *ahem* soon enough, won’t we?
And let us trust, it will be before each and every one of us is rendered utterly and completely….
Image: Public Domain Review: William Cheselden, 1733, courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
Update on a reading initially posted May 2019. Read on…
Tweeted 20 August
#Cartomancy Will UK leave EU by/before 31 Oct 2019? Chance is higher than 3/5. Read L-R. 8 Spades, stuck state. Joker Rx, ie, new PM. (Gemini) Crux card= 9 Hearts. Red suit indicates yes. King D and 9 D. Money talks last minute. Ace Clubs. A deal. New start. GE?
So then, what does it look like? Will there be a No Deal Brexit, ie, an exit on WTO terms?
This is, by this time, the preferred option of many, though by no means all Leave voters, whether these are Labour voters or Tory voters. Meanwhile the Brexit Party has demonstrated its muscle, not only in the EU Elections, but in the UK sufficient that, although the Leave vote was split in Radnorshire, the very splitting of that vote also demonstrated the power of the Brexit party, even though this worked against both the Tory Party and the Brexit Party, such that the Lib Dem candidate was selected.
Be that as it may, what cards do we get?
Does this look like a No Deal Brexit?
Not really. This is not looking like a straight WTO exit. Or if it is, there is also some kind of a special trade deal with the EU.
I read the cards left-right. This is a storyboard. For a yes or no, my system is the classic colour system that says more reds than blacks = a yes answer. More blacks than red = a no answer.
How and why is this the case? It’s a convention. I could do it the other way around and that would work just as well. But this is how I have programmed myself to read them, and with much repetition, like learning to play an instrument, this is how it actually starts to work. Perhaps one builds new synapses or something.
So what have we got?
1 red suit card
1 Joker
3 black suit cards
The short answer is, cartomancy suggests there will very likely be at least some kind of trade deal with the EU, so that it will not be a complete WTO exit.
Does that mean that it’s going to be the Withdrawal Agreement then, presumably minus the Irish Backstop? BRINO? Brexit in Name only?
No, it doesn’t look like that either.
This looks like a trade- only deal, so far as I can see, possibly because the Backstop issue is resolved adequately for Parliament(just) and Mrs Merkel feels she has obtained for EU members some adequate measure of economic surety.
Let’s look at the individual cards.
That one red suit card, the 8 of Hearts, is representing the status quo, and the power of the Remain lobby in Parliament.
The Joker– cue the catcalls here from those out of accord with the new PM, (says a former Labour voter)- but this is a destiny card, and does not simply describe an actual Joker or clown or buffoon. But if it did, then take another look at the Joker. See the smile. Watch the eyes. They are serious. So is the skill. As an opponent, he is not to be underestimated.
The Joker is a card of surprises. It is astrologically, the card of Boris Johnson, a Gemini subject three times over. It suggests he is completely in earnest when he says he wants us out. And he is not afraid of the EU, unlike Mrs May, but he is intellectually and politically agile, and not averse to sleight of hand. He needs to be cunning. Some might all it strategic.
Then we have the 2 Spades. Split. Severance. Divorce. This is a Brexit divorce, so if there is an element of ‘fudge’ or compromise, it may not be as significant, or be the trickery into indefinite entrapment that Leavers fear.
This is reinforced by the next card, the 3 Swords. This is in itself a deeply negative card with grief and mourning attached. Our family of nations is unhappy, angry and uneasy. But here, it is also a 3 way plan and again, it signifies a parting of the ways enacted in law. I feel it represents Mr Johnson, Mrs Merkel and M Macron today, and that Mrs Merkel and M Macron will not be in accord re the best way to proceed. The news media suggests this is probably the case even as we speak.
The outcome card, the 5 Clubs…so what does that mean? Clubs is the suit of government and business. 5 is the number of change…and also conflict. This change is uncomfortable.
But as you see, red suit cards translate as yes in cartomancy, black suit cards translate as no, so my cards, rightly or wrongly, have produced that same card as I drew in May, suggesting some kind of trade deal with the EU either before we leave, or immediately upon exiting.
The central card is key, so I use it as my start point for drawing a new line of enquiry reading top to bottom now, asking, well, if it’s not a straight WTO Exit, what will it look like?
The 7 Swords is negotiation and intense effort. It is the card of the ‘workaholic.’
There seems to be a story line here of Mrs Merkel saying in so many words, we can’t risk the No Deal scenario, this would be crazy. (Joker Reversed) The risk has to be detected as real enough and actually, it is. It looks as though Mrs Merkel will say this if she decides Mr Johnson is not bluffing. And I don’t feel he is. But if he could offer something to reassure the Remain MP’s, he may take a pragmatic view on that, or cynical as some might say. To get the thing over the line.
That 5 Clubs card is also a reminder that the UK is the 5th largest economy in the world. Mrs Merkel is naturally, acutely aware of this, and she does not let personal pride or vanity get in the way of her judgement.
This last comment is based on the cards. Mrs Merkel is being shown to me as the eminently pragmatic and shrewd Queen of Diamonds, and the 9 Diamonds says…money talks.
Incidentally, Diamonds is the suit of electricity, and may sometimes suggest a health problem of nervous origin. Nervous as in , signals misfiring in the body, such as with Parkinson’s.
OK, let’s try out a pendulum divination, ie; asking my central nervous system to use a movement to indicate its non-verbal response to a verbalised question. On what basis does this hocus-pocus work?
It ain’t hocus-pocus. It works on the basis that the mind does not reside entire within the brain, and we know things at a deeper level than language, so the challenge is to distract the conscious mind, notice body cues from the CNS, and turn those into language. This language is of necessity, restricted to yes, no or maybe, in varying degrees of emphasis or intensity, depending on the size of the swing, and the speed of rotation of the swing.
Will the UK leave the EU on No Deal/WTO terms?
The pendulum moves to YES, wobbles a while then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.
Will the UK leave the EU on what some call BRINO terms (Brexit in Name Only?)
Again, the pendulum moves to YES, wobbles there awhile, then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.
OK. So that Ace of Clubs card. A new business agreement. A new Government. A General Election. Will there be a General Election before the UK leaves?
It is swinging to NO almost immediately
When will Brexit be declared as having occurred?
The pendulum is swinging between Scorpio-early Sagittarius
Corresponding dates 22 October-21 December
But the arc stops well short of the later end of this date range.
We’re all watching this space.
Back soon with more cartomancy 🙂
Until next time!
Original Post, May 2019
Brexit, hey? Where next? Your guess is as good as mine but let’s take another look at it through the lens of my playing cards, drawn three nights ago, May 4.
Will there be a second referendum, as called for by Labour, The Lib Dems, and a number of high profile campaign groups?
Or will we leave without a second referendum and if so, what does it look like from here?
#Cartomancy reads the rows of cards left to right & also sometimes top to bottom, noting the ratio of red: black cards before looking at the individual meanings of the cards containing extra comments.
ROW 1 Will there be a 2nd referendum?
Probably not. There is a ‘new’ king about to come into play. This is not Mr Corbyn. This is a king of Diamonds, an electric communicator with acute money sense and I always draw Mr Corbyn as a King of Hearts. So, is this is a candidate to replace Mrs May as PM, or it is Mr Farage and any effect of the new Brexit Party, or is both these things, and the same card is standing for two significant (new) figures coming into play (again).
I suspect so. A second referendum would kill Brexit, which would be the aim, and this would be achieved by the ballot design, which would be designed to split the Leave vote as per an idea currently under discussion, but that 8 Spades is a pretty conclusive ‘no’ card.
ROW 2 Will we leave following a successful fourth attempt by TM to push through the deal already rejected on three previous occasions? After all, time and energy are not inexhaustible. Note the Queen of Spades which is clearly here representing Theresa May; a woman consulting the ‘legalese’.
Well, based on these cards, and however crazy it might seem, a deal is still looking possible, and is looking more likely at this point in time than NO Deal; and perhaps this is hardly surprising, since the No Deal negotiating option removed from Mrs May’s tool box.
But WHAT deal? The four of Spades is a tomb, a rout, a retreat. This prospective fourth deal or new deal is not Mrs May’s.
Those Nines surrounding the Queen of Spades represent both the failure of completion on 29 March, and Mrs May’s intense desire to get this deal passed. The 9 Hearts is the ‘heartfelt wishes’ card.
The cards indicate that Mrs May sincerely wants to find a way to (or to be seen to at least) to bring the UK out of the EU (not Europe) but the terms of course, are the issue, as we all know, except for those for whom it is not a question of the terms, but more the determination to see Article 50 Revoked altogether, and the whole thing put back in its box, and the lid slammed shut never to be re-opened. The threat of this seems very real right now, or the hope of this, depending on how you feel about it. But it doesn’t look to me as though it will happen.
ROW 3: A second Referendum?
This threat or hope notwithstanding, the cards indicated there will not be a second referendum, although this may not be necessary for the revoking of Article 50. And I don’t see that, so it look as though we will leave, but when? Is there an underlying sense of what it will look like?
If Theresa May should present the exact same deal to Parliament (shown as the 10 Diamonds) a fourth time, this will jam up the works, suggests the appearance of the 4 Spades. It won’t pass, plus, she may then quit as PM, and a new PM will come in (King Diamonds?) This could happen this summer, suggests the second column as I read it top to bottom like so:
6 Clubs ( within 6 weeks from the date of this reading, or, this is a summer card.
In Summary
What is absent from this spread is the single clean strike of the Ace of Spades, that would say a less equivocal OUT on WTO terms.
Other readers and astrologers are confident in expressing their forecasts of a clean WTO Brexit, even now.
I am probably struggling more than they to see past the noise, but I draw another cards and get the Ace of Clubs. This is BRAND NEW BUSINESS with a broad geographical horizon, but lacks that more black and white binary quality of the Ace of Swords
The Ace of Clubs has another quality to it, transcending matters of business….it’s equivalent to the Tarot’s Ace of Wands. Ignition. Birth, Almost like a rebirth.
So what does this mean in plain English? Well, this cloud is still morphing, but it’s looking like a WTO exit BUT with a ‘special European add-on.’
Or it is a whole New Deal.
For the sake of transparency, I should say that while I would perfectly calmly have accepted a remain vote in 2016, I feel the original mandate should be honoured as a point of principle, according to the self same terms in which it was clearly presented by the government in the run up to the referendum.
Execution of detail follows direction which follows principle.
However, as always, the risk in consulting with any kind of oracle is that the reader will not see what they personally may hope to see, and they may equally see precisely what they do not want to see.
I want to see that I will get outta this wheelchair and walk again one day. So, do I see that in my cards?
No.
I could be wrong, and I never say never, but meanwhile I am living with the fact that I do not see in my cards what I wish to see for myself.
You take my point. The reader asks a question. S/he may have personal ‘skin in the game ‘or not, but either way s/he shuffles and picks the cards blindly, and s/he may misinterpret, and be especially at risk of doing so if reading from a position of bias or prejudice, but s/he cannot fudge the reds and blacks except by doing so deliberately, and what the heck would be the point of that, when time will tell us all what’s what in due course?
Il Matrimonio, bless his ecologically right-on size 11 breathable bamboo socks, says he no longer cares one way or another. He just wants it all to stop, and he doesn’t mind how. And he’d quite like me to shut up with even trying to forecast about it.
What will happen will happen, he says.
Sure.
I have to give this forecasting thing a go, though, because divination is my line of work, and whether I get it right, or I get it wrong, so that I have to go back and figure out how and why I got it wrong with the benefit of hindsight – still, I will learn something, even if I have to fall flat on my face. So what? Life is short and…
I have done a number of readings around Brexit. I’m not being shown a clear No Deal exit, and yet, I see no sign of Remaining either. It is not going to be business as before, however this works out. The UK will not revert to the previous status quo.
We will all find out, *ahem* soon enough, won’t we?
And let us trust, it will be before each and every one of us is rendered utterly and completely….
Image: Public Domain Review: William Cheselden, 1733, courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
I ought to be writing up my latest look at Brexit but I’m too tired and lazy today. We’re still out so far as I can see, despite the persistent groundswell for a second referendum, but how ‘hard’ a Brexit? The cards detect and reflect events in progress, and there is so much happening, I need to look again at this and the timings. I have posted a number of readings on this subject here if you visit the archives.
Craig Hamilton Parker and Jessica Adams still predict a Hard Brexit, posting and broadcasting in recent days. Jessica Adams is an astrologer, and she suggests a series of stages running all the way through to December 2019. I feel no reason to disagree. The Devil card turned up in this context (Capricorn) but I will look again at the timings.
But for now, let’s do a small demonstration of an ordinary deck of playing cards, having fun with telepathy. Here the cards are acting simply as a mirror; reflecting events in progress as they occur.
Il Matrimonio fetched out his Hornby Dublo and laid out a simple track in the sitting room. Placed a couple of stations. Fetched out his three engines; Titch, Diane and The Duchess of Atholl and one by one gave them a whizz round the track.
It was his father’s, bought in Singapore in 1952. Il Matrimonio got into trouble if he ran two of the engines at the same time, but never asked his Dad why this was a problem and never found out why.
His father was a Royal engineer, a road and bridge builder, and was 19 when he sailed to N Africa in 1940 for the desert war against Rommel.
So presumably he had his reasons for not wanting the two engines running at once. I said to Il Matrimonio, run two then, and see what happens.
So he did and they stopped. Insufficient power. So now he knows.That wasn’t so difficult, was it?
The engines whizzed round and round. Here goes ‘Titch’, watched by a giant monster cat. Jessicat. (The little purple thing is her bird toy, stuffed with cat nip.)
Look at that fatty-puss pantherette. What a Daddy’s girl.
Jess and ‘Titch’
I asked the cards, what’s Jess thinking? What’s she making of it? Tell me the story as you see it.
I shuffled
And drew the following four cards:
King of Spades. Wow. This is Il Matrimonio, a Libra subject. His astrological card is indeed The King Of Spades, equivalent to the Tarot’s King of Swords.
Translation: I am with my Daddy.
Jack of Diamonds: Translation. ‘This is exciting. Small things, new things, quick things’. The cat’s assessment of Titch and the rest of the train set. No arguing with that. The set is not new but she has never seen it before.
This card also refers specifically to the engines as objects. (mini-fire) ‘Titch’ et al.
The Queen of Diamonds. Wow again. Translation. ‘Her.’ This was me, a Taurus ‘queen’, equivalent to the Queen of Pentacles in Tarot, in the cat’s peripheral vision as I watched from the sitting room doorway.
The 8 of Clubs is equivalent to the Tarot’s 8 of Wands and translates as ‘quick, quick, hurry, hurry.’ It is a card of emails, phone calls, hustle and bustle.
Well done my little card-stock friends. That was the cat’s whiskers.
True Tarot Tales 