Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century. Practitioners of cartomancy are generally known as cartomancers, card readers, or simply readers. Wikipedia
A couple of people on Twitter had asked me to look at this contest for the new PM. Asking me to:
‘Please look at BJ’.
‘What do you see re PM?’
‘Will it go to the members?’
‘Will it be a General election?’
‘What about Graham Brady?’
Events have moved so fast, and I have been away this week, so that I have been posting quick fire readings over on there, and now, with the outcome expected to be announced shortly, am collating and reviewing them here.
I had better declare that I personally, have mixed feelings about this current situation, but am neither strongly pro nor strongly anti the idea of Rishi Sunak as PM though this recent making and unmaking of ‘kings’ does seem to have been conducted as a pretty mean and dirty business. But. That’s politics.
#Cartomancy J Hunt doesn’t seem to be aiming at job of PM as seen through this lens. There’s a new ‘team of 3’, 3 Diamonds/3 Spades/3 Hearts drawn (Who’s the No 3?) JH shown here as King Diamonds (money ‘king’) looking at 6 Diamonds ‘Get this runaway horse back under control.’
I still haven’t figured out the message of the ‘team of 3’. but sure enough, Jeremy Hunt did not enter the contest to be PM.
UPDATE Jeremy Hunt has today, 25 Oct, been reappointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer. I find this interesting in light of other things suggested by the cards, discussed further down the page.
#Cartomancy#Tarot is not about prediction as such but takes left field soundings on a given situation. eg Penny Mordaunt for PM? Line of 5 Ace Diamonds (New PM) 8 Hearts (=Pisces native) 6 Spades/10 Spades/Jack Spades She is sharp but 3/5 Dominance of Spades reads as prob no.
At the time of writing Penny Mordaunt is still in the running but with only 26 nominations. She is hoping that it will go to a member’s vote, and seems confident that if the Conservative party members are given a say, they will choose her over the favourite, Rishi Sunak.
This may be true, while looking highly unlikely. But this is to disregard the fate of Liz Truss who was basically, hounded out of post for a pro-inward investment fiscal policy which the parliamentary party then seized on, contrary to their own traditional fiscal ethos, invoking envy politics as the stick to beat her with, and most effectively.
Liz Truss’s prospects for survival as PM were already widely in doubt back in September. I was shown, rightly or wrongly, that her policy would have started to come good December-March 2023. The Ten of Pentacles showed major inward investment coming into the UK from overseas after the first quarter 2023 or even before. This was some new investment (and I recommend following Jefferson for this kind of news)
But I also ‘saw’ that Liz Truss was being watched by a ‘King of Diamonds’ – this, I think, must have been Jeremy Hunt, who would later be replacing Kwasi Kwarteng, and Rishi, quietly watching and waiting, having become almost invisible after losing the previous contest.
Sometimes one card will be doing two jobs, or saying two different things at the same time.
I had previously forecast here in another recent blog that Liz Truss would win that first contest with Rishi Sunak. I had drawn the Eight of Cups for Rishi, a card which shows someone walking away, off to new pastures.
Clearly, although that forecast was correct in terms of the immediate outcome, that he lost to Liz Truss, he did not wander far at all, but only went to sit in the barn the other side of the pasture, looking out with binoculars, and talking on walkie-talkies to ‘his’ people, dressed as farm workers and passing ramblers.
Plan A didn’t work.
Time for Plan B.
The Rider Waite Smith Tarot
Rishi stayed out of sight, staying clean and out of trouble. But his team were on it.
On a purely personal level, I was not especially pro-Truss. Why not? Lack of stature. But she never had a chance. The choice of Liz Truss was the party members revenge for Rishi’s alleged part in the coup against the elected PM.
The cards reflected what we could all see, that Liz Truss was already in deep trouble by October 3
#Tarot snapshot. Liz Truss today (for those interested in Tarot. This does not represent AN OPINION) Six Swords Reversed. Meaning, progress, exploration, moving on, steering a new course, unknown waters. Drawn Reversed, not in charge, progress halted or delayed, Gilded Tarot
#Tarot Attitude of G Brady re Liz Truss? The Death card. He wants to get her out soonest. Dates c. 23 Oct-22 Nov. Why? King Coins RX. Fiscal. She’s not Rishi (who is also a Taurus subject) GB acting as ‘kingmaker’ but card reversed-ought not be. Beyond the remit/right/paygrade.
#Cartomancy reading of conditions. Gen election before Xmas? Presented as 3/5. New leadership before Xmas? 2 ACES=STRONG poss Oct/Nov. LT hoping to turn corner (+outlast 31 Dec deadline 2 apply rejoin EU) Ace H, 7 D, Queen Clubs=Capricorn dates 21 Dec+ Ace Diamonds (election?)
Whether Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s policy would have delivered well for the UK given sufficient time for even half a chance, we can throw rotten potatoes all we like. We can only hypothesize. The markets rule the roost and we shall never know.
Penny Mordaunt will suffer a similar fate should she somehow break through on a members vote, though this is looking highly unlikely, and the cards indicated some days ago, that the new PM would not be Penny Mordaunt.
We will know very shortly if she gets the MP nominations sufficient for a members vote or if the cards showed me correctly on 21 October. (this written here 24 Oct 13:48)
UPDATE
14:00 Penny Mordaunt has withdrawn
This, despite the fact that the astrology at this time is favourable to her- Jupiter, planet of opportunity is returning to her natal sign of Pisces. She may yet be offered another senior role in Rishi’s new government.
Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson
I drew this spread yesterday afternoon 23 October around 4 PM in response to questions directed to me on Twitter
These were cards drawn 4 h ago Top row, 5 cards=RS Bottom row, 5 cards= BJ. Extra 3 cards pulled for each for clarification. I asked, show any Ace for next PM. Drew Ace Hearts indicated RS. Joker on RS top row- this isn’t the end of the political road or of high office for BJ.
Cards for BJ stronger than 2 days ago but not ‘trumping’- overtaking cards for RS who draws Ace Hearts.
First I looked for Spades cards. Spades can be read as trouble or else as a ‘no’ answer, while discounting the fact that as a Gemini native, Boris Johnson may be personally represented as the air sign King of Spades, when the card is to be read as an entirely neutral personal significator.
Rishi is a Taurus subject, born 12 May 1980. He is a third decan Taurus therefore, famously suave and smooth of tongue. But co-ruled by Saturn, the most ambitious of the Taurus decans. His court card is The King of Clubs, but in his role as a ‘money man’ and former Chancellor of the Exchequer he is also a King of Diamonds.
Spades would help me eliminate one or the other. Neither of them drew Spades cards.
I looked next for Diamonds cards, positive and fast moving. Diamonds indicate a yes answer. Well, Rishi drew one, Boris drew three, including the Ace of Diamonds in his recent past- reflecting the fact that he was already previously PM. summer
It was a bit like looking for spikes on a graph. But these two graph lines were not sufficiently, acutely or tonally differentiated from one another apart from The Joker reversed. More about that in a minute.
Next I looked at the outcome cards.
Boris drew a card of new business, the Jack of Clubs. OK. Well, this is a good, solid action card, and the Jacks describe something new, young or small. Or else they may detect an offer. But the scale of this card was not indicative of anything so monumental as a re-selection to be Prime Minister. I’d have needed to see the Ace or the Ten.
Rishi drew the 3 of Diamonds. Well, that was hardly monumental either but…The THREE. Aha? I think back to that ‘team of three’ message I drew when looking at Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor.
So that’s it. Jeremy Hunt is a Scorpio in Scorpio season, just as we are heading to the eclipse in Scorpio 25 Oct. Steamy Mars energy. Scorpio is secretive, subtle. It can make an excellent spy or detective. He was acting as one of a team of three people working behind the scenes, steering towards this new outcome while at the same time serving as Chancellor for Liz Truss.
(And just confirmed, he is now reappointed as Chancellor for Rishi Sunak. Very smooth and to quote a key word from Rishi’s inaugural speech, how very ‘stable’.)
This is pure speculation of course. This is only cartomancy. But three out of five cards were threes, and that’s rather like the cards shouting, ‘look at this!’
There was something active in process back there. A three sided relationship between Liz Truss, Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak. How pragmatic of the clearly very clever Mr Hunt. Was this his way of stopping that ‘runaway horse’ of the Six of Diamonds?
A not -quite love triangle.
When the UK economy shows signs of recovery, which it will, and always would have done, likely after Christmas- late March 2023 (and nothing is easier than to spook the markets, as we’ve all just witnessed) it will be attributed in retrospect to the ousting of Liz Truss, and to Rishi’s selection as Prime Minister.
Which is not to say that Rishi Sunak won’t make a good Prime Minister. He has high energy and I think is hardworking and well meaning, essentially benevolent. I personally like that about him. But when I looked at that prospect for him …then the Spades cards turned up.
Rishi has lots of Spades cards on his future timeline as PM. Here’s the thing. Spades is clever. Very. But can be narrow. Specialist. Is Rishi more than a clever operator and technocrat? He needs to be broader than that, more of a generalist, or else know how deploy the top talent, which is not to kept on a choke chain. These are dangerous times, not for any fault in Rishi Sunak and just because a card reader has drawn Spades cards, does not mean he may not do very well.
The technocrat thing is a concern, however, as flagged up through the lens of the cards, and there is today a perception, and a fear in some sections of the electorate that ‘the suits,’ ‘the money men’ are now promoted beyond their remit, and will now be running the whole show in plain sight.
Britain’s destiny is a matter that goes way deeper than the cold winds of the global economy. We need visionary leadership. We need a wise, humane but utterly resolute Home Secretary in defending our territorial integrity, and a courageous, supple and visionary Foreign Secretary, for all our sakes.
UPDATE Suella Braverman has just been reappointed as Home Secretary. James Cleverlyhas been reappointed Foreign Secretary. This from Ukraine.
I had a call with my UK counterpart@JamesCleverly who has just been re-appointed to the new government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Governments may change, but the support of our UK friends will remain unwavering for as long as it is needed for Ukraine to win
Back to the cards for the contest.
There was one big clue that Boris was at a disadvantage/would not proceed to a members vote. This was the appearance of The Joker, drawn upside down on Rishi’s line of cards. Why? Because Boris was the antagonist and Rishi perceived him as a threat to his chances until almost the last minute.
Time and again since 2016, I have drawn Boris as The Joker. But for all the buffoon jokes and for all his mistakes, make no mistake. Whatever the appearance of the Joker, this is a serious card. THE card of destiny. The only other card in the deck that can match the spirit, the particular genius and power of The Joker is the Ace of Spades with the Ace of Clubs the closest runner-up.
The Joker, drawn reversed on Rishi’s line was THE clue that the new PM would not be Boris. But I needed one more sign to feel sure about what I thought. I decided to pull more cards.
The cards are drawn blind and totally at random. Or so it appears. But this activity works on self-programming. One must trust that the mind will immediately start working on the question deep down, way below our level of awareness, and will then direct the reader to correctly select the necessary cards, triggered by unconscious physical signals from the central nervous system so that we choose this card but not that card but with no rationale, no conscious explanation of knowing why we do so.
I told myself, ‘show me a new Ace card for whichever one will be the new Prime Minister.’
On the third extra card, I drew an Ace for Rishi Sunak, the Ace of Hearts but no new Ace for Boris Johnson, while his existing Ace of Diamonds was behind him. I concluded from this that Boris would withdraw. It seems that he decided probably wisely, that it would serve no purpose to win the member’s vote if he could not also command substantially more than half of his own MP’s.
Why withdrawal rather than a defeat? The cards of defeat were missing. There was no 2 Spades, 3 Spades, 9 Spades, 10 Spades-and no Ace of Spades.
Boris Johnson chose to keep his powder dry. Perhaps to run again some other day.
By yesterday afternoon Penny Mordaunt had already been left behind in this contest. Where does it say so in the cards?
See that first card on Rishi’s row, the top row, the beautiful Queen of Hearts? That is Penny Mordaunt, a Pisces queen. Follow her gaze. Where is she looking?
Into the past or into empty space.
UPDATE
And now, even as I was writing this up, here we have it, 2:00 PM and the formal announcement. Rishi Sunak is our new PM in the UK.
The sacred chalice is passed.
Over to you, Mr Sunak. Many congratulations and good luck steering this most venerable ship Britannia away from the storms which are battering her, charting a course into brave new waters.
The lonely estate of high office, so hard to perform, so easy for others to criticize.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Here we go again, a new contest for a new PM. I will be reporting the Tarot’s further findings as this moves forward. But what did the Tarot show last time, in June 2019? A quick look back…
And here we are again…embarking on the selection process of a new Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party
I will be looking further in the Tarot as this new contest unfolds. We will all know sooner or later of course, and in that respect, one might say there is no need and little point in doing any Tarot reading. But this is a Tarot blog, and I am writing this for those people who are interested in divination or psychic thinking and its workings. That’s what this blog is about, getting the Tarot’s Eye view on a real life situation and then seeing how that works out on the ground.
Rishi Sunak is the obvious front runner at the time of writing, and he could well get the post. I have drawn the Nine of Cups for him (the card means wishes…
It’s flaming all right, no matter what the weather is up to. But still…beautiful, beautiful summer.
Jemima duck has taken to landing on the balcony, loudly quacking for food any time fro 5:20 AM. Jessie-cat is fascinated but should the door be opened, she will back away.
June 2022 a vote of confidence was held amongst Conservative Party MPs on the prime minister, Boris Johnson’s, leadership of their party. Johnson won the vote with the support of 211 Conservative members of Parliament, 59% of the total. Out of 359 MPs, 148 voted against him. Wikipedia
I did a reading late morning when the cards indicated Boris Johnson would survive the evening Vote of No Confidence due to be held in the House of Commons, closing 8 PM. The card spread below was-for a change-a pretty straightforward interpretation.
#Tarot Boris Johnson cards left/Keir Starmer cards right. Page Cups= happy news (cards drawn 3:10 PM- cricket-England win) BJ has had a roasting, faces tough summer but is on the up. KS is King Coins RX Virgo rx, grinding too slowly. Devil rx frustration/beware Capricorn (Dec)
That tough summer though…The cards below were a snapshot of what was coming up for Boris Johnson. He was going to need his Weetabix, though he would have to settle for a boiled egg or something else. Bread and water. Or nothing at all, if only President Putin could have his way.
From The Legacy of The Divine Tarot
This row of cards looks like the last minute cancellation of the Rwanda flight. Reading the first two cards together: The King of Wands is master of foreign dealings, an arrow of the archer. The card has been drawn reversed. Result: frustration, chagrin, the Five of Swords. The Four and Eight of Coins or Pentacles, both drawn reversed, are reflecting the government position, that whatever one thinks of it, the UK government cannot financially afford to allow the illegal Channel crossings to continue as they are doing, without any corresponding right of deportation.
What will be the government’s response to this intervention by the European Court of Human Rights?
The UK and the ECHR
As the first country to sign the convention in March 1951, the UK has a long-standing relationship with the ECHR. After the end of World War II, the Congress of Europe was held in The Hague, which was attended by over 750 delegates from across the continent. During his speech to the Congress, Winston Churchill said, “In the centre of our movement stands the idea of a Charter of Human Rights, guarded by freedom and sustained by law.” – The India Express
Reply: The Ace of Swords: an Act of Law, a severance, a new law. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, this card suggests that this latest legal intervention seems to have only galvanized the government on the principle that the democratic process and the law of this land must prevail, and be seen to prevail, and that ‘up with this, we will not put.’
The airy, airborne airplane of the Ace of Swords may be enacted very swiftly, like the strike of a sword. In terms of astrology however, it may also mean winter, or an air sign time of year. The next of these windows is Libra season, late September-late October.
“Of the 13 bear markets since 1946, the return to breakeven levels has varied, taking as little as three months to as long as 69 months.” – Reuters
Perhaps I will do a special reading. But for now, just quickly pulling a few cards the soonest recovery looks like late October early November (Scorpio-5 of Cups.) The World card and the Moon suggest a time range of between 5-12-18 months.
The 8 of Pentacles/Coins is about economics, accountancy, book keeping. The card has been drawn reversed for this coming summer. The timing associated with this card takes us through until the end of August at the improbable earliest.
Boris Johnson will be fire fighting other issues to do with travel and transport disruption’ rail strikes, HS2, the airline industry, dinghies and the colossal aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy.
None of us need the Tarot to tell us any of this. This is simply a demonstration of the capacity of an oracle to mirror and reflect current events. It is the relevance of this mirroring that provides a reader with a validated baseline for further investigation.
What else is on Boris’s sizzling barbecue plate this summer as reflected in these four cards? Fuel, price and supply. Plus- war. Leo time looks extra tough. Further/longer heatwaves are on these cards.
Lion heart, Kate Bush, 1978
Oh, England, my lion heart I’m in your garden fading fast in your arms The soldiers soften, the war is over The air raid shelters are blooming clover Flapping umbrellas fill the lanes My London Bridge in rain again
Oh, England, my lionheart Peter Pan steals the kids in Kensington Park You read me Shakespeare on the rolling Thames That old river poet that never, ever ends Our thumping hearts hold the ravens in Keep the Tower from tumbling…
How do we love the rest of the world, if we do not love our own homeland?
Ukraine
Speaking of lion hearts, we think of those men loading loved ones on to trains, while they must stay behind and fight to the death for their own homes, while also being smeared as neo-fascists, adding insult to injury.
Today Sir Patrick Sanders, the new chief of staff of the British army has been reported in the media saying that we must steel ourselves for readiness that British forces will be fighting in Ukraine in a potential World War Three scenario.
Who is is Patrick Sanders? “He has commanded on operations in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan”.
#Tarot peering in the glass darkly. When will R offensive stop #Ukraine? Could still happen before end of this year (Justice, Libra, treaty, contract) Ace Cups (Peace, Scorpio time/diplomacy/Odessa) Ace Swords (Decisive action, War, Law.) Death=a great change by late Mar 2023.
Tweeted 6 June 2022
#Cartomancy Ukraine Only time will tell but what cards today- King Spades. Interesting. This is Zelenskyy (Aquarius) 10 Clubs maritime/naval/aid/ 2 Clubs Peace/trade talks December? King Clubs. Who’s this? Not Putin or Biden. Broker? Jack Spades. Ukraine emerges angry/sovereign.
Tweeted 4 June 2022
#Tarot#Ukraine Divination= art not science. The reader takes soundings. When will there be ceasefire/peace? Critical time frame Leo (late July/Aug)-Pisces (March 2023) 2 Cups +3 Coins Rx says=late Dec possible. Critical-trade/Odessa (3 Wands) Russia cannot be allowed to blockade.
Tarot of The Illuminati
That top central card, The Hanged Man denotes the zodiac sign of Pisces and its associated date range late Feb-late March. It is also a card that I have drawn time and time again for President Zelenskyy. This card represents a transcendental figure, and some great sacrifice is implicit.
We shall see what role British forces play in Ukraine in that critical time period of Leo, late July-late August.
In Summary
We are witnessing a new era of ‘strong men’ in global politics. Putin now threatens to starve the world, or else feed it on his terms, but this is a point of overreach. He will lose, but the cost is mounting. Ukraine will emerge still sovereign, but angry at pressure/leverage on a point of principle that will likely brought to bear on it by its allies.
I tend to be a glass half-full reader, and we need always to beware wishful thinking. Heaven help those people, this is a total war. While the West watches. keeping its powder dry as far as it dare, with one eye on China until Putin has sufficiently depleted Russian resources before they commit to more decisive (irrevocable) intervention. As ever only time will tell, But the signals have been fairly consistent. The aim of this blog is to demonstrate the workings of divination. The reader can only report on the cards which either appear or do not appear.
Back soon with a posting for Midsummer’s Day.
Tarot is a cultural artifact, a story book, an art form and a thriving publishing industry.
On New Years Eve I posed a very general Tarot reading for 2022 in which several mentions were made of tsunamis and other marine, maritime or water related newsworthy events….. SEE HERE
Plenty more to come.
Mention was also made re Prince Andrew and a lot of other things but events have overtaken the Tarot before I made time to look further at Prince Andrew. The Tarot showed me the Three of Swords Reversed, which means the aftermath of a divorce, or a severance. There is loss, there is grief, and the Queen, in mourning for Philip, has made doubtless personally upsetting decisions, severing the monarchy from the forthcoming civil case which Andrew, Duke of York, will be dealing with ostensibly as a private citizen.
This afternoon, I drew these cards asking, what will happen re Boris Johnson in the light of the ongoing media furore over ‘partygate.’
Clearly, any such gatherings were inappropriate and deeply inadvisable at the time, though there is much to be explained as to the context, as well as questions to be answered in respect of the source of the leak, the motivation and the timing of the leak so many months after the events in question.
Will Boris resign? I don’t know or claim to know anymore than anyone else does, but what are the clues in the cards?
Card 1 The Empress reversed:
This card suggests more than one interpretation
Unwelcome news on a Friday. Why? Because the Empress card correlates with the Norse goddess Freya, and therefore Fridays, and the card has been drawn reversed, suggesting unwelcome news. This makes sense as Boris Johnson’s office has been reported to have made an apology to the Queen (the Empress)on Friday 14 January, over events held at No 10 on the eve of the funeral of Prince Philip.
The Empress also correlates with the planet Venus, and we are currently in a Venus retrograde until 29 January. What does Venus represent? Love, money, luxury, social gatherings. What does Venus retrograde represent? Problems to do with all these things plus, old memories, old friends, old lovers coming back to haunt us…or bite us.
Boris Johnson, a person who likes to say yes to people, it seems was asked for permission for these events to be held, and unwisely said yes, thinking no doubt, that it would be good for the morale of the troops. He was thereby making himself a hostage to fortune, not considering how that might look, or how it later might be made to look by his critics or ill wishers…and now, here is the carefully timed involvement of a former colleague and friend, Dominic Cummings, stoking the flames.
Another story-line occurs, which mayor may not be relevant here, is difficulties Boris has had in private in saying no to Carrie (Empress: mother and child)
Angela Merkel is an ‘Empress’ recently departed from office. Leaving the UK somewhat more naked now in the face of rivals or enemies?
The PM lost his own mother last year. Perhaps he was on occasion more distrait than he should have been, and failed to pay the due and proper attention to such requests, as demanded by a very natural public expectation.
The Empress reversed speaks also of Mother Earth, Gaia, COP26, and suggests widespread public cynicism in respects of aspects of Green policy which seem impractical, non affordable or nonsensical to many voters, even those who are keen on doing their bit for the environment.
Also, just by the by, and not at all related to the conversation in hand, but this is typical of working with Tarot, today I am The Empress reversed. I had my first child on this date, 36 year ago today, and have had a few concerns lately in respect of her health and well-being.
Card 2:The Eight of Swords
This card is about blockages and entrapment, hostage situations, being unable to see the way out. There is frustration here and a sense of entrapment and helplessness. How best to out manoeuvre whoever is behind the leaks (and this has a planned manouevre, and has not been the action of some anxious, well meaning junior civil servant, anxious to salve his or her conscience) How to move forward without throwing certain people under the bus?
I have come to associate this card with plumbing….based lots of previous reading history for clients. Carrie may want to do something about the bathroom in the flat at Number 11 where PMs have lived since Tony Blair. Or the whole building may have plumbing issues…we know it has ‘leaks,’ but the Tarot doesn’t only talk in metaphors. It will gladly will talk about toilets, if necessary.
No 10 is a big place. But whatever the state of the plumbing, it is fitting that No 10 and the flat at No 11 should be kept in good order and condition. It is not the personal property of the PM. It is not Carrie Johnson’s home. It is where they must live, like it or not, and it is the nation’s property. They can’t take the wallpaper with them when they go.
Card 3: The Nine of Cups reversed
The Nine of Cups in general means wishes granted. More specifically it means socializing hospitality, as in the hospitality industry, and celebration. This is the card of wine, women and song. The card is upside down, possibly because these occasions are in the past and were convivial but not celebratory, ‘bring your own booze.’
Card 4: The Seven of Cups reversed
This dreamy, Neptunian card indicates that Boris has considered a number of options, but indicates no decision to resign as yet. The hostility of M Macron, whether to the PM personally, or to post Brexit UK, is one factor. It was already expected there would be new effects felt here swiftly attendant upon M Macron becoming President of the EU 2022 and with an election year looming. He became EU President 1 January.
This furore, from the POV of say, M Macron, could prove timely grist to the mill of nobbling UK options in terms of the NI Protocol. Invoking Article 16. This, Boris has thus far, to the frustration of others, including not only in his own party who see it as an increasingly urgent necessity, been desperately keen NOT to do.
In terms of timing, the Seven of Cups correlates with Scorpio late October-late November, so that if the PM resigns, it may be later in the year, when he judges it safer to do so. This day dreaming card suggests that at times he indeed may feel tempted to resign, and who wouldn’t understand that feeling. But that he feels it cannot be now, unless and until his hand is absolutely forced, and it is no longer his own decision.
Card 5: The Hermit
The Hermit walks quietly, marks out a path, shines a light on ahead. The Hermit is Virgo. The Hermit is the Sixth House of public health. The PM inherited a public health challenge not of the UK’s making…a poisoned chalice, with no clear road map, damned if does ABC, damned if he doesn’t, like all the other leaders of the western democracies.
On a personal level, this is a card of withdrawal, a need for quiet time. Go for a walk in the park.
In this sense yes, The Hermit clearly could indicate someone moving away to somewhere quiet. Or again, looking at the timing, it could indicate key developments around the PM later in the year, late summer, correlating with Virgo.
It doesn’t look like a classic picture of NOW or SOON. It looks more like older, sadder, wiser.
Card 6: The Knight of Wands reversed
This is a card of sudden arrivals and departures. It is a card of news, noise, overseas business and long distance travel, but here, drawn reversed, there are problems or delays. In respect of the PM’s current predicament it says this is a major setback but that nothing must be done in haste.
This is a card of attack, full of thunder and fury.
This card also means volcanic eruptions. The Tarot reflects, detects and projects. Here it is reflecting the underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga, and the following tsunami. There will almost certainly be further such events in 2020, and in themselves, they are not rare, but we are talking major events.
The Knight of Wands reversed, drawn blindly and at random is also reflecting back at me the first news of the day, the deportation of Novak Djokovic from Australia.
Runes
I have posted the pic again, to save us scrolling all the way back up.
I laid out 2 rows of 3 haemetite runes, looking for a sense of where the current situation is developing in respect of the calls for the resignation of the PM over ‘partygate.’ The runes are primal where the Tarot is a picture book.
Row 1 reading left to right
Ehwaz merkstave – Jera -Sowilo
A Horse bur drawn reversed…Boris ‘fell off his horse’. On at least one of the occasions, he was out or away. Ehwaz means a car or any vehicle.
Jera, harvest, he reaps a whirlwind. Possibly, goes late summer/autumn
Sowilo, healing, success,summer. He seems likely to carry on at least until the summer.
Row 2 reading left to right
Eiwaz- Ansuz-Gyfu
Eiwaz the Yew…suppleness, evergreen, resurrection, well what does that suggest?
Ansuz, answers, good advice, helpful new information comes to light, Odin,Wednesday. If Boris does decide to go, we should hear very soon, and readers can and do get it wrong, but it’s not really looking that way. Nor do I see him forced out by his party, for all the furious attacks of the Knight of Wands reversed.
Gyfu, a gift, an agreement, a contract between equals. Parliament and the People are equals. The contract must not only be honoured, but it must be seen to be honoured. If the rune had turned up merkstave, upside down, then that tome would suggest a contract cancelled.
The PM messed up. To what extent he is personally culpable, we don’t fully know. But the media are not the same thing as the vox pop, we’ve learned in recent years. And now, today, Nadine Dorries has announced plans to freeze the BBC licence fee with an expectation that it may be scrapped in 2027. I was not aware of this while reading my cards this afternoon, but no doubt she now too qualifies for some as the Empress reversed. Perhaps the BBC will also be also reckoning with that same harvest rune, Jera, though not on account of this current storm, though possibly now expedited.
All in all, it looks here as though Boris Johnson continues in post as PM.
BIAS I am a floating voter, blue and pink. I have in the past voted both Labour and Conservative based on issues at the time. A few spots of dark blue and red, dark green, a dot of lemon yellow and can I have some magenta please. No? Not on offer. I mention this because it has to be recognised that any reader. while trying to access the collective supra-personal via divination, has feet of clay. Fail and fallible with their own biases and blind spots if they are not careful. To indulge these, or indulge in wishful thinking when interpreting the cards is to fail in honesty, and this is to fail the oracular mind. The oracle is supra personal. It is not about us as individuals.
Meanwhile, Venus the goddess and planet of parties stays retrograde until the 29 January. She is not all sweetness and light. Oh no. If Boris does not resign before 29 January or say 3 Feb when Mercury stations direct, then he has probably weathered this storm. There are high profile astrologers say he will go. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Tomorrow, Monday 17 January is the first full moon of the year…the Wolf Moon of what the Anglo Saxons called Wulf-Monath. This one is taking place in the sky territory of Cancer, queen of hearth and home, creature comforts and sometimes moody blues.
A Hunter’s moon. Hark at the pack in full cry…..
From the Gilded Tarot, artwork by Ciro Marchetti
These are dangerous times. What is at stake? The nation state.
This reading is necessarily very general. Context is key for getting at specifics in reading Tarot, as with any form of investigative divination, and to do this in a reading situation, we ask follow up questions, cross reference and so forth.
This approach basically saying, ‘show me a snapshot of the world in 2022’ is nothing more than licking a finger to feel the wind direction. And some winds are regular like the trade winds, and others shift. But still, let’s see what we get.
The Gilded Tarot by Barbara Moore and illustrated by Ciro Marchetti, is one of my most hard-used decks, as you may notice. This was my workhorse; my go to deck in face to face readings 2005-2013.
At present I use the Legacy of the Divine Tarot, The Gilded Tarot Royale, The Thoth, the Marseille or playing cards.
Author’s own photograph. Cards from The Gilded Tarot, artwork by Ciro Marchett
Tarot for 2022
The spread denotes the wheel of the year 2022, starting at the top with January, Capricorn and the Nine of Pentacles; the card with the lady holding the falcon.
I look first at the overall picture, mood or feel. How many major arcana cards? How many cards have been drawn reversed?
Five cards out of 12 have been reversed. This is not necessarily any kind of ominous sign, but does suggest a bouncy stop-start kind of a ride through 2022 on a global level, if not on a personal level.
The 22 Major Arcana cards deal with the BIG STUFF. They mirror the Collective, or overarching themes or pivotal moments or sea changes. The 56 Minor Arcana cards in a Tarot deck are no less important, but are more like the fabric of everyday living.
The Major Arcana cards are Strength, Temperance and The Hanged Man drawn reversed.
Update: I did not predict war in Ukraine. However it is curious to note that in readings posted and shared since February President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has been turning up represented by the Hanged Man card drawn reversed.
Strength means just what it says on the tin. Temperance is timing and healing and the Hanged Man reversed means coming out of a state of limbo but also a huge story to do with what might be called grievance politics.
10 March Update: ‘A huge story to do with grievance politics’. Well I suppose that was one way of describing it.
On the plus side, these cards suggest a gradual sea change during 2022 in respect of the covid pandemic. Not that it has gone. It most definitely has not. But either future variants are milder, or we are handling it better or both.
My eye is drawn again and again to that Hanged Man card sitting in the time slot designated for Pisces. The Hanged Man is ruled astrologically by the planet Neptune. Put Neptune and Pisces together, that is a big ‘water’ signature, and giant Jupiter has recently moved into watery Pisces where it will spend much of 2022. What do I mean by ‘water signature’? We think in practical terms, meaning that this could be detecting weather events during 2022, rainfall or storms at sea or tsunamis, and maritime events, maritime geopolitics, territory, shipping, fishing.
10 March Update: Tsunamis, mudslides,storms, oh yes. We’ve had those all right. Tonga, Peru, Queensland…
Update: Tonga underwater volcanic eruption and tsunami Saturday 16/into Sunday 16 January
This could also refer to things that cross boundaries like migration, people trafficking, or like birds, or like infection, whether bird flu or covid.
10 March Update: Things that cross boundaries …like outright invasion.
The mood is deep, intense, visionary, inspired – or delusional.
10 March Update: Delusional? No comment!
Each card corresponds with a month of the year and a sign of the Zodiac, but more significant is its correspondence with a House of the Zodiac, each denoting a particular concept, life area or department, Home, Work, Money, and Travel etc.
We start at the top of the wheel of the year with the Nine of Pentacles, representing the month of Capricorn/January 2022, but this is also representing the Tenth Zodiac, House of career, status and public life.
We carry on reading the cards anticlockwise, counting through the zodiac signs and their corresponding Houses for clues about the year ahead on the global stage, and the personal opportunities and challenges we might be witnessing or dealing with.
None of the findings really needs a psychic. There is little here that most of us do not already sense or see for the year ahead in broad terms. This is a snapshot of how the Tarot works.
The Tarot detects, it reflects and then it projects, meaning it may be nudged or directed to formulate a forecast in respect of a particular stated issue. For every card that is drawn entirely at random, other cards remain in the deck, and their absence can be as telling as their presence.
This spread, if this was a personal reading, would be what happens at the first look, the first pass, before we start drilling down in search of specifics, in teasing out a particular question.
Card 1 Capricorn: 10th House:
Professional status/career, public life
Tarot card~ 9 Pentacles
The Nine of Pentacles is to do with money earned by skill and hard work (rather than say, via gift or inheritance) It is to do with beauty, luxury and enjoyment. The lady is enjoying her garden, holding her falcon on her wrist. The falcon denotes that she has mastered her impulses, attained maturity with self-discipline. She has learned how to wait, and she has been prepared to forego the pleasures and distractions- and spending of the here and now, in exchange for greater long term rewards.
Governments must play geo-politics. They must play the long game and the shorter game while we, the people on the ground look on, sometimes screaming in frustration. Update 10 March(And rage, fear, horror, grief)
World Finance, the so-called Green Revolution, crypto-currencies and strategies for long term investment will continue to dominate the news this year.
Things will grow in this year’s garden, so the year starts tough, but there is economic progress and growth as the year goes on.
But gardens have gates. Sometimes those gates are open, other times we keep them closed. Border issues are big news all year. The hard border in NI, Poland, and the migrant crisis in Chile, and more. What are the solutions? How are so many extra people to be affordably supported by the unwilling hosts, despite the best of humanitarian goodwill?
There is no one size that fits all solution. But there is an abiding rock bottom line, and that is in human nature, which says, we are generous up to a point, and that point is, when we judge we can afford it. Beyond that point, should it be crossed, there will inevitably be a push back and it won’t be pretty.
Will it come in 2022? Not quite. It doesn’t quite get to that point this year I don’t think, based on the cards that are absent in this spread. We have no Tower card in combination with say, The Emperor, for instance.
On a personal level this is a year for ‘getting real’ and re-examining our basic needs and how we meet them, chiefly, our relationship with work, money and our control over information shared in respect of these.
The lady in this card has achieved a level of comfort and security, but none of it was given to her. She has got where she has needed to be largely by her own efforts on her local patch of turf. She is determined, focused, independent, proud, and generous to others. She knows what it is like to struggle. She remembers times of loneliness too. And ‘she’ may be a nation, as well as a person.
I have come to associate this card with the UK since 2016. Readers in other countries may have cards they feel especially represents their own homeland, and maybe it will even be this same card. UK will broadly do OK, or better than OK in 2022 in terms of trade, is suggested by the 9 Pentacles, notwithstanding the most recent EU threats in respect of the NI Protocol, should the UK government invoke its right to trigger Article 16.
Card 2 Aquarius: 11th House
Humanity, ideas, dogmas, technology
Tarot card~ 8 Wands Reversed
This volatile, fast moving card echoes some of the comments attached to the previous card, and suggests continuing social unrest in many parts of the world 2022, and clearly not just in Aquarius time, during February.
There are delays. obstacles,breakdowns in cooperation where cooperation could be reasonably expected in the mutual interests of the parties concerned. One thinks for example of the current state of relations between France and the UK for example.
There may be issues in the news this year to do with lamb husbandry/imports/exports.
This card is about sudden arrivals, departures and developments, and suggests protests and demonstrations to do with restrictions on movement. The Eight of Wands is all about fast travel, including phone calls.
Aquarius/February was indeed fast paced.Vis a vis the specific reference to France, we think of M Macron’s efforts to engage with Mr Putin during February.
This card also suggests issues to do with power lines. It also asks what do we do when we lose electricity or gas or when our IT goes down without any warning at all?
How can we protect our home environments with low-tech emergency provision, back-ups for circumstances in which power or IT can go down (for example, alternative lighting or heating or analogue telephones during power cuts, when mobile phone masts can go down too) At the time of writing, homes in the UK are still without power nine days later in the aftermath of Storm Arwen, and with another Storm (Barra) shortly due to arrive.
It also suggests we review our own personal use of IT, and the amount of extra personal information we gratuitously share on social media. Who are we actually talking to? There is nothing new about this. But there are new developments afoot.
This might mean government moves to control the power of the IT tech giants this year. They now command more financial clout than governments, but were never elected, and they know far too much about us. But if we were to clip the wings of companies like Amazon,with their new credit card now coming into use, would we merely give more power to their even huger counterparts and global rivals, such as AliBaba?
Aquarius was known to the Babylonians as the curse of rain. This card therefore suggest sudden, severe rainstorms as a likely notable feature in 2022.
Pisces: 12th House:
Sacrifices, borders, boundaries
Tarot card~ Hanged Man Reversed
This deep, watery card, drawn for March, is a double dose of mysterious wateriness, doubling up Pisces the Fishes with the outer planet again, Neptune, planet of charisma, dreams, visions, inspiration, illusions, delusion, confusion, alternative realities and lack of boundaries.
Turning up in recent Tarot representations of Ukraine President Mr Zelenskyy: a saviour or a victim? Or both.
This card is about looking at things in a new way, trying a new approach to an old problem, honouring our responsibilities, looking at a thing straight on, not hiding our heads in the sand.
We are reviewing our priorities, thinking carefully about what we really need, as opposed to what we fancy right now. It is about what we owe to ourselves, but also to others. It is about restoring and keeping order in our personal lives, and establishing- and protecting our personal boundaries.
There are habits, ideas, places or people- we need to let go of, to surrender this year. The Hanged Man needs to surrender something that used to matter a lot to him, in order to make progress. Will he or won’t he? Will ‘he’get stuck in a state of passivity and make victim-hood his excuse and default for not getting things done?
Own Image Pisces
Again, there could be flooding, or major maritime events in the news, any time this year, but likely late February-late March 2022.
Update: Tonga underwater volcanic eruption and tsunami Saturday 16/into Sunday 16 January
Aries: 1st House:
Self/initiative/action/organizations/military
Tarot card~Temperance
Temperance is a positive card for 2022. It is a truly mighty if unglamorous virtue, and needs to come back in fashion. It is also the art of right timing. On a personal level, self-discipline, self-control, patience and timing are key factors in making the best of the challenges in 2022, and maximizing opportunities. This year, it is all about the longer game.
10 March Someone is just biding their time, working out what others will do, and what they CAN do should that someone make their next move. Russia? China? There will be others.
The appearance of this card is, at least in Tarot language, an encouraging sign for progress of recovery from the covid pandemic, not everywhere, and it’s not done yet, but it does look as though it is moving in the right direction.
This virus has an intelligence of its own. It is gradually learning how best not to kill us, thereby depriving itself of habitation.
Taurus: 2nd House:
Material & money matters, arts, agriculture
Tarot card~King Swords
Rising inflation is widely predicted elsewhere for 2022. The King of Swords can be a regulator or ombudsman. World finances may come under strain April 2022, around the time of the 30 April eclipse in Taurus, though the UK and other countries might buck this trend to an extent. The financial effects are expected to last at least six months or so following such an eclipse, and certainly, things look better for the UK by autumn 2022.
The King of Swords inspects, oversees, directs or cuts things.
My Tarot has subsequently represented Mr Putin as the King or Queen of Swords
On a personal level the King of Swords knows exactly where his money is, online and offline, and keeps a close eye on his financial security. Beware scammers. This card indicates new facial recognition technology, iris or fingerprint coming into wider use in 2022, or even into wider domestic use.
This advice is simply common sense and it applies every year, but the appearance of the intelligence gathering, law and order vigilante, the warrior-judge, the King of Swords, makes that advice doubly important in 2022.
I associate Boris Johnson with the King of Swords. Mr Johnson is an air sign subject, a Gemini , and well expresses the archetype; quicksilver clever and agile, eternally curious and mercurial, friendly, sociable, and yet essentially solitary and remote, and by the same token, liable to be seen by some as elusive on unreliable.
He is constantly at bay, pincered between the alliance of the Civil Service Establishment, the Labour party and an unremittingly hostile mainstream media, as well as fractious divided factions within his own party, and is possibly making some important decision in respect of his party leadership this year, possibly as early as April/May 2022 though not necessarily.
Update: Amid media furore and calls for the resignation of Boris Johnson based on alleged parties held on the premises in 10 Downing Street during times of national lock down, cards are not at this point indicating imminent resignation, as of a reading done Wednesday 13 January.
The Two of Hearts in my playing cards correlates with the first decan of Cancer, hinting at late June as a possible turning point for him as PM. If he stands down as PM in 2022, which I currently detect as a likelihood of 2/5 meaning that it is a chance of 3/5 likelihood that he will still be in position at the end of 2022. If he does stand down then it will likely be largely his own decision, and not least due to sheer fatigue. The pandemic has been a poisoned chalice before he barely had a chance to get into the stride of the job of PM.
10 March: So far still in post after ‘partygate/cakegate’, and just as well, I feel, given the present global emergency.
The King of Thailand…another ‘king of the east wind’ seems to consolidate his increasingly authoritarian position in 2022. A woman aged 65, a former civil servant was sentenced to 43 years in prison in January 2021 for posting online criticism treated as a crime of – lèse–majesté. Small businesses in Thailand have been badly hit by the covid downturn in tourism, and to safeguard his position there will need some help for this section of the economy, and possibly for agriculture too, is indicated by Taurus. But while there may be more protests against his authoritarian stance he only seems to consolidate power in 2022.
Gemini: 3rd House:
Communications, IT, trade, air travel, siblings
Tarot card~3 Wands
The Three of Wands drawn in the third House is an upbeat, positive card for trade, communications, scientific and medical innovation in 2022, for the export of vaccines to developing countries. and for launching new businesses and enterprises. It also speaks of overseas ambitions. The figure has plans to launch the ship. The world is his oyster, he thinks. Where is it going and what is it carrying and what does it hope to load into the hold?
This card in the house of siblings suggests reconciliations or meet-ups in 2022, the first perhaps, in a long time. Might this include William and Harry?
Cancer: 4th House
Home, family, mother, security
Tarot card~4 Cups
I think of this card as “bored boy, busy boy”. It has a kind of shuttlecock dynamic with extended periods of hiatus in-between. We may be feeling restless from time to time this year, mildly unsettled, and possibly a bit low on energy or bored, but at the same time, unsure what, if anything, to do about it. This is only natural. The last couple of years have been difficult. The trick here is not to do anything destructive on an impulse, not to upset an apple-cart in a moment of frustration, just for the sake of it.
On a personal level, I am OK with the appearance of this card as it also represents my own father, a Cancer subject, though the the 4 of Cups suggest ongoing issues with oedema, needing regular physiotherapy.
Leo:5th House
Heartland, creativity, passion, romance, royalty, children
Tarot card~ 3 Swords Reversed
Ugh. This is always a challenging card, but is one of those cards that is slightly better news for being drawn reversed or upside down. The Three of Swords upright is severance, separation, divorce, bereavement, shocks, cardiac issues, all kinds of loss. Drawn reversed it is about coming to terms with grief, loss, bereavement, arguments,
There has been great collective sorrow attached to the pandemic and other ongoing humanitarian crises in geopolitics. The time frame of this card is 3 years. The sorrow has been great, and likewise the losses, but now, at least in some quarters comes a measure of acceptance or easement. Drawn in the Fifth House, it suggests that tensions between certain countries may ease. On a personal level, we are coming to terms with a family loss or a rift. Serious quarrels may settle down with forbearance.
Loss, sadness or disappointment. No-one escapes these experiences. How we deal with them determines whether we learn something new, and grow bigger and stronger, or whether take things personally, and see ourselves as victims and dwell on our grievances, thereby adding to the damage.
The Hanged Man reversed is very big on victim-hood as a badge of honour in 2022, when a distinction to be made is between justice and revenge, as with the case of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. This business is a can of worms, not finished yet.
Leo is the zodiac House of royalty. This is likely significant in this same context. This is undoubtedly a very great worry to the Queen, though I have not looked as yet to see what seems to be the outcome here for Prince Andrew.
Update: The Three of Swords Reversed was here foreshadowing the recent announcement that Prince Andrew has renounced his HRH title and Military and other affiliations. The fact that this card was drawn reversed means that there was a great shock, but that this announcement was nothing sudden,suggesting that Prince Andrew and HM the Queen had already discussed and decided upon this plan of action and were prepared should the judgement go against Andrew, in respect of permission being granted for a further civil suit against him brought by Virginia Roberts (Giuffre) The Three of Swords reversed reflects the great sorrow of the Queen, who is mourning, and seems to be trying to take comfort in the fact that Prince Philip is not here to know about this development.
There could be national mourning in 2022 for a much loved national figurehead.
Virgo: 6th House
Health, hygiene, harvests, crafts, routines
Tarot card~ Page Cups
This is a small but welcome card of healing, happiness, invitations and offers –and births of all kinds- is a cheerful sign for late August-September in particular, but in fact, any time of the year in 2022. In terms of Virgo, its zodiac sixth house ruler to do with Health, Hygiene, Hospitality, socializing and daily routine, the appearance of this card suggests encouraging progress in respect of the on-going global pandemic management.
Libra: 7th House:
Justice, diplomacy, partnerships
Tarot card~6 Swords Reversed
Globally and politically, old alliances are changed, as with NATO, or dissolved, as with Barbados and UK in December 2021. Migration laws undergo major reviews in Europe, UK and US in response to unprecedented pressures of mass migration.
There seems likely an escalation of tensions to do with military or commercial shipping in disputed waters, as previously mentioned, in the Black Sea, the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, or the Straits of Hormuz.
The disputed legalities, ethics and practicalities of mandatory vaccinations will continue a red hot potato in the news from 1 February 2022 when vaccination becomes mandatory in Austria, the first compulsory vaccination requirement in Europe.
Scorpio: 8th House:
Creation/destruction/occult/money
Tarot card~Queen of Pentacles
The Queen of Pentacles is associated with the earth signs; Capricorn, Taurus and to a lesser extent, Virgo. There is a theme in 2022 of a cycle of Taurus-Scorpio eclipses, making this a year with a focus very much on the basics and fundamentals of everyday living, personal finance and other material matters.
Curiously, we have a total lunar eclipse in Taurus right in the middle of Scorpio season on Nov 8 2022. The Tarot has seemingly detected this, and is reflecting and projecting the by now, clearly noticeable effects of financial shakeups dating back to January 2020.
There is big news this year to do with money and mining. This could be literal mining, as in mining for minerals, or it could be big news to do with crypto-currencies and crypto-mining. It could mean a boom or bust- something really big.
We have recently one way and another, been warned or reminded of the necessity of every nation and every household retaining some degree of energy self-sufficiency should either the weather play havoc or political diplomacy break down, threatening vital infrastructure.
Social unrest can be expected for a number of reasons, depending on where these happen. No way are we going back to pre Covid or pre Brexit in respect of the general tone of public discourse in 2022.
Jupiter moves into Pisces dips into Aries, but the ruler of Capricorn, Saturn still holds strong in Aquarius; a cosmic old man with great fixity of opinion, and black and white thinking as to what is right and wrong, and he is right and everyone else is wrong. This is the face of a certain kind of group-think we did not see much before 2016. Up is down. Everything comes down to feeling, says this new group-think. We speak ‘our’ truths, they say, as if there is no other kind of truth.
The Queen of Pentacles symbolically defends the bottom line, representing the element of Earth nature of biological reality v idealogy. There has always been ‘otherness.’ That too, is in Nature.
Sagittarius: 9th House
Far travel, friendship, foreign shores/powers
Tarot card~6 Wands Reversed
The Six of Wands when drawn upright is an extrovert card, representing heat, speed, victory, competition, sports, riding high – a triumphal procession. I once drew this card for a young man who was physically, very severely disabled. I asked him about sporting activities. He told me he had been selected to represent the GB wheelchair rugby team in the London 2012 Paralympics.
Conversely, this card when drawn reversed represents bad luck in competitive sports, losing, failure, lack of achievement, recognition, endurance, confidence or support. The Six of Wands reversed signifies disadvantage, disgrace, disloyalty, treachery and broken promises.
This may be detecting recent/on-going controversy attached to the safety and well- being of the Chinese tennis player, Peng Shuai, and/or associated political tensions surrounding the Beijing Winter Olympics, 4-20 February 2022.
The advice here for foreign travel is that disruptions due to covid, but possibly other reasons, may still be anticipated during 2022, particularly early and late in the year. Travellers had better take precautions and book on a free cancellation basis, or take out insurance against last minute cancellations.
My oldest friend rang last night and told me that she had 2 vaccinations, and the booster and still somehow caught covid. She said she felt absolutely lousy for 10 days but said, to me last night, what might it have been like had she not had any vaccinations? The question is hypothetical of course. She still caught it, didn’t she, and how? She doesn’t know. It is nasty while seemingly getting milder. We knew a young man in his early thirties who died of ‘flu’ Jan 2020 after developing sepsis.
I have come to associate this card with vehicle maintenance issues, traffic issues, and have known it to refer to motorcycles or cycling mishaps.
Central Cards:
Tarot cards~ Strength and the Seven of Cups
These cards are reflecting core themes for the year ahead and how best to navigate it.
The Strength card means exactly what it says. This is a year of international power struggles, competition, and for making our health, comfort and security a top priority, and not wasting valuable resources on people, places or habits that cost more than they are worth. The card has been drawn right way up. Good news.
The pandemic seems to enter a new phase, or two new phases. Astrology suggests a possibility of two new variants, probably milder, and if so let us see whether these arise during Jupiter in Pisces (meaning an increase in a spread) which would mean between now and May 2022, or after October 2022, or both.
The dreamy, visionary Seven of Cups show us that we have many possible paths in life, and that life presents us with many choices. One is not necessarily better than another, just different. Good news, timing wise, attaches to the time of Fixed Water, in second decan Scorpio, 2 November- 11 November. This card again, is ruled by the god of the seas, Neptune.
A Test of Strength at Sea possibly in November 2022.
Taiwan has lost another of its allies, Nicaragua only the latest, transferring its allegiances to China but who is the number 1 producer of semi conductors needed for computer chips? Taiwan. My cards do not show any clear signs of any attempt at outright invasion of Taiwan by China in 2022, not of a military nature. China seems to judge this is not necessary. Trade is what counts.
This next Chinese New Year February 2022 is a Black Water Tiger Year. This is a highly assertive zodiac placement, and focused on wealth.
It seems only prudent that Europe invests big time in its own home grown computer chip industry, pronto.
On a personal level, should someone intrude on our personal space this year, we do not have to put up with it. We should trust our instincts, no apologies or self-justification needed, and act to safeguard our personal and online space, security and privacy.
Mute, block, avoid.
General Astrology 2022
Jupiter, planet of growth, opportunity and optimism is happy at home in mystical Pisces the Fishes for most of the year. Jupiter rules Pisces so it is at home in this sign, and the effect is only ramped up April 12 by Jupiter’s (rare conjunction) with dreamy, mysterious deep water Neptune.
This is a lot of water influence going on, in astrological terms. This can be understood literally, as in rain, or metaphorically, as in mood, emotionally intense, maybe in a good way, imaginative and creative- even inspired. But it could by the same token, be detecting potent suspicion, delusion or paranoia, such as we have seen in 2020 and 2021, with social disorder in consequence, protests, demonstrations, or episodes of collective psychosis, as with the storming of the Capitol in the US, January 2021.
Jupiter, the Planet of Luck, is entering into its favourite sign of all time, Pisces, on 28th December. “This is one of the defining and most anticipated astrological events of 2022,” says Madi Murphy, co-founder of The Cosmic RX and The Cosmic Revolution.
Jupiter will be in Pisces until 10th May, moves into Aries when we could see sabre rattling -if not more -on the world stage, and then comes back again into Pisces from October 28th, 2022 until December 20th, 2022.
Jupiter is the planet of joy, growth, opportunity, optimism, expansion. This year it escapes its celestial confrontation with Saturn, planet of restriction where it has spent much of the last two years. This, despite the new omicron variant, suggests overall progress in dealing with the covid-19 pandemic, and lightens the mood.
2022 will be intense but more buoyant than 2021. This is a good year to push hard on a long cherished aim. Jupiter in Pisces is considered lucky. Of course, to get lucky, if you want to make a dream come true, you actually have to do something. You will have to do rather a lot, and keep doing it, too. But if there is such a thing as divine luck to put the wind behind your sails, then Jupiter in Pisces is it.
Every planetary influence has its potential downside. Jupiter can be a giant bully. We could see a sharp escalation of maritime territorial disputes (Watery Pisces and Neptune are both about ‘blurring the boundaries’)
Pisces: Chartres Cathedral
This, for all the famous Piscean compassion and dreaminess seems to me to point to plenty more trouble this year, whether it turns out to be in the South China Seas, the Indian Ocean, the Straits of Hormuz, the Black Sea, or close to home in The English Channel/La Manche.
There are serious tensions ahead in 2022 attached to China’s ambitions in Taiwan, possibly midyear, and Russia’s relationship with Ukraine, specifically, borders, power supplies and Nordstream 2undersea gas pipelines.
2022 looks fast moving, intense. There are bound to be plenty of surprises, more than usual; political, social and economic, as well as extreme weather events; in particular rainfall, flooding, volcanic or seismic events. Poseidon or Neptune, the god of the seas, was not for nothing known in classical mythology as the “Earth Shaker,” the connection being that earthquakes or volcanic events will sometimes create tsunamis.
Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the solar system, meaning that a nation’s Pluto return only happens every two and a half centuries. Pluto is the planet of Death and Transformation. Heavy stuff.
Astrology tells us February 2022 marks the first ever Pluto return of the United States and it will be happening in Capricorn, the zodiac House of material status, prestige and power, with three exact degree-based returns: February 20th, July 11th, and December 28th.
For the first time ever, Pluto will return to the exact position in the zodiac that it was during the United States’ inception on Jul. 4, 1776.
What affects the USA spreads ripples very wide. This does not mean the US will cease to be a superpower – though it could. The Roman Empire fell at its second Pluto return. England rose higher at its second Pluto return, with Elizabeth 1 and a new Golden Age, and declined in world power after its third Pluto return.
Superpowers rise and fall like a law of Nature. In China, it has been observed that the great dynasties typically each ruled for about 250 years. But the Pluto return for the USA does suggest some kind of karma, a revisiting of roots, profound shifts and adjustments this coming year, both inwardly looking and in world relations.
Joe Biden is a Scorpio subject; a fixed deep water sign. Tarot has shown me the steady Queen of Pentacles in Scorpio, suggesting Mr Biden may well dig in firmer and stronger in 2022 than 2021. I do not see based on the Capricorn Queen of Pentacles he will be pursuing a policy of defunding the police. It will not prove a realistic option. But whether or not Mr Biden rides out this Pluto return as President, the US does seem to experience a major shakeup between now and 2024. Deeply Plutonic, the ongoing issues to do with gas pipelines in those territories never ceded by indigenous peoples. The world will be watching Deb Haaland, the new and first Native American US Secretary of the Interior
Debra Haaland
Mercury Retrogrades 2022
Not all astrologers agree on their significance but in 2022 there are four Mercury retrogrades, rather than the three which occurred in 2021. All of these will be happening in ‘intellectual’ air signs. These could mirror real life events, legal matters and continuing challenges to do with the covid situation (the connection here is airborne infection) and air travel. Be ready and prepared for surprises or possible disruptions to plans.
Datesof Mercury Retrogrades 2022
January 14 to February 3
May 10 to June 3
September 9 to October 2
December 29 to January 23 2023
Do I like the look of 2022? Mmm. Well, we won’t be hit by an extinction level asteroid, even though a few people might be somewhat tempted to wish we were. This coming new year is almost enough to make me feel seasick looking at it. Brooding one minute, boisterous the next. Deep, deep, deep.
“Canst thou draw forth leviathan with a hook?” (Book of Job)
It does look, however, more expansive and buoyant in spirit, compared with 2021, and especially compared with the almost existential horror of 2020. Wishing you a peaceful, prosperous and Happy New Year in 2022!
What is the Tarot’s general impression of the cosmic weather this month, spanning the zodiac signs of Sagittarius and Capricorn and therefore including Christmas?
The Four of Pentacles is ruled by Mercury, the planet of travel, research, trade and commerce. Mercury also rules IT and data analysis, and it rules Virgo, which in astrology is the sixth house of harvest, health, routines and hygiene.
Rune: Othala
Meanings: wealth, ancestry, ancestral homelands, family, old age, our old folk, different generations, memories, identity, belonging, and all the things that we most treasure.
Where do we feel at home?
This rune also picks up on migration and surrounding questions and issues.
General Impressions
December looks pretty eventful on the world stage, not to say stressful, with sudden flurries of news, mostly not welcome. We might want to switch off the media for a bit, and have a break from all the shrieking.
These cards look reasonably reassuring all the same, not too much shock and awe. Here’s hoping we’ve already seen the worst of December.
The Knight of Swords; sudden attack, storm, wind, can be read in reference to recent terrible weather events, and the damage and tragic casualties in Kentucky.
The Earth itself is always restless, and currently more unsettled than usual. Perhaps it is little wonder that we are too. The world is never quiet, never at peace. Nor is the Earth. It is always relative. Each year, the Moon pulls away, and so does the Sun in this present cycle.
But really, short of an actual world war, the whole world is embattled one way and another, no quiet news months since December 2019, when we first learned of a newly emerging health crisis in Wuhan.
We now approach the second anniversary of the pandemic with its new variants, and unrolling economic, political and social effects. There is no government, that is, no government that permits even peaceful dissent, that is not grappling with this monstrously slippery eel, while experiencing furious criticism and dissent from one quarter or another, no matter what response they make, deciding how to tackle the problem. The Hierophant as a symbol of governments anywhere is either taking a pasting right now, or, depending on the country, dealing them out.
These are times of instability. This instability is not only man-made but natural, due to extreme weather events, and seismic, volcanic events, such as the ongoing eruption on La Palma, and recent periodic increases in solar flare activity.
The La Palma eruption has now become the longest running on the island, and the cards suggest it will still be erupting into January 2022 though it seems to be calming now. Article HERE
What is the Tarot connection? Well, we are in the zodiac time frame of Sagittarius, 22 November- 21 December, and the court card of Sagittarius is the Knight of Wands, as seen here in the Gilded Tarot Royale.
From The Gilded Tarot Royale, Artist, Ciro Marchetti
Sagittarius is the element of Mutable Fire. Changeable fire. Changeable states. Blow me down, if this depiction of Sir Sagittarius does not actually show a volcano erupting magma.
Then in Java, Mount Semeru erupted 4 December, spilling out a deadly pyroclastic flow.
“The slurry of debris that swept down Semeru proved catastrophic to villagers living around the mountain’s base in the Lumajang Regency, particularly Curah Kobokan. According to The Jakarta Post, at least 39 people have died. Large numbers of homes were destroyed or damaged, and many animals are among the eruption’s victims.”
Of course, this is not to say that the month of the zodiac sign of Sagittarius= volcano eruption month.
But there it is, or there it was. A card specifically correlating with the dates 22 November-21 December and we are looking at it. The synchronicity, at least for 2021 is undeniable.
What else might these cards mean in practical terms?
Obviously, this can only be a very general reading, and is therefore limited in its specificity, but The Hierophant represents stability, security and continuity, doing things ‘by the book.’ And it also represents the converse as previously discussed. This December we are not doing things by the book, while at the same time there is plenty of ‘throwing the book ‘ at XYZ.
The Hierophant is turning up a lot in readings at the moment, which is hardly surprising. Sometimes it is drawn the right way up, but just as often it is being drawn upside down, reflecting a situation in which old wisdoms, old ways of seeing things and doing things are being challenged.
Why is this not surprising? Well, it shouldn’t be. The Tarot detects, reflects and projects.
First it acts as a mirror on what is already happening. This is crucial in a reading because it confirms the baseline for the reader.
The Hierophant attacked by the Knight of Swords marks a time of acute unrest, such as we have been witnessing for some time now, every time we turn on the television or engage on social media.
Astrology associates this with the fact that the outer planet Uranus, ‘planet of rebellion and innovation’, is stationed in Taurus, the steady Bull sign associated with The Hierophant.
Uranus is retrograde for parts of December, signifying a mood of intense inward reflection on what needs to stay and what needs to go or change, both collectively, and privately and individually.
Uranus made this move into Taurus in 2019 and will stay there until April 2026, so we are in for a bumpy ride. The question is how we can best handle things on an individual level, re-evaluating our priorities, keeping our cool, learning new skills at every opportunity and helping our children to do the same.
The Four of Pentacles is about HANGING ON IN THERE. And there are times, when continuity offers the best scenario all in all.
Some astrologers think Boris Johnson is about to meet his political nemesis. Possibly, but to me it does not look that way, not this month, parties or no parties, knowledge of parties, or no knowledge of parties. Why not? Because of the appearance of the Four of Pentacles. If he goes, having inherited the poisoned chalice of this pandemic at the very beginning almost, of his premiership, it will be of his own volition because of sheer exhaustion.
This is a very broad picture, very general, yes. But of the 78 cards in a Tarot deck, 75 stayed in the deck and these were the three drawn for this coming month, December 2021.
Let’s look again. Save scrolling up.
UK
Her Majesty the Queen is a Taurus subject, a pillar of our society. Above politics, she has seen many leaders some and go. She is very much a figure who has always believed in putting wider duty before personal convenience.
She does things by the book, like the Hierophant.
Elizabeth 11 represents a part of the national psyche, the young monarch of our parent’s childhoods, those born during the war or soon after it. Lately, this first year of her widowhood, we have witnessed signs of a decline in her health. At the age of 95, this is only natural and to be expected, but since we have drawn the Taurean Hierophant for December, and it has been drawn next to the challenging Knight of Swords, it remains to be seen whether the Queen will make her annual Christmas address in quite the same way as usual this year.
Europe
Covid cases have been rising again, with new lockdowns and protests in the Netherlands, Austria and other countries. The signs are that this most recent rise in cases as at the time of writing (14 November) may continue into December and flu may add to the pressure on health services, but with luck, the Four of Pentacles is a stable card, suggesting that the situation may, not improve perhaps, but be maintaining a standoff by/towards the end of December.
Covid
Some Medical observers are sanguine about the Omicron variant, suggesting we may soon be approaching the endemic phase, when a brand new virus, in this case, SARS‑CoV‑2 gradually becomes part of the new ‘normal’ in human epidemiology, and it becomes a question of living with it.
Today however, 13 December, sadly marks the first UK death of someone with the Omicron variant.
EU, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia
The current border situation is tense. It may well escalate, suggests the Knight of Swords, but again, the steady Four of Pentacles hints that if it does, the crisis abates again at least temporarily somewhat by or until mid January. Why? In terms of timing the stable Four of Pentacles represents the third decan of Capricorn, dates 11-19 January.
The Knight of Swords can mean new laws, sharp messages, sabre-rattling and military aircraft, just as the weather associated with the Knight of Swords is northern and easterly; cool, cloudy, windy, but it can bring sudden frosts, sudden rain or storms.
The Knight of Swords traditionally also refers to airborne objects, including missiles, but also viruses and bacteria sharp objects, including surgical instruments such as injection needles and pens. Here is an escalation of covid vaccinations across Europe.
Trade and Travel
The Four of Pentacles is ruled by Mercury the planet of travel, trade and commerce, also IT and data analysis. In addition Mercury rules Virgo, sixth house of health and hygiene.
This, together with the Knight of Swords, reminds us that common sense says, vaccinations or no vaccinations, we need to stay alert and continue taking common sense precautions against covid and flu this Christmas.
But meantime, certain international restrictions may be reintroduced again on an emergency basis, while a further lock-down has not been entirely ruled out by the UK Government. The Four of Pentacles, sometimes nicknamed the Miser card, describes a pragmatist, who is ready to take the dour responsibility for making unpopular decisions should it detect that need.
Some suggest that covid is ‘just’ ‘flu. We know it isn’t. SARS‑CoV‑2 is a new coronavirus, not a ‘flu virus. But even ‘just’ ‘flu is no joke at all if we get a bad dose.
Personal
The Hierophant represents whatever is your own status quo. You may be somewhat restless and unsettled. I know I am. The Knight of Swords drawn next door to the domestic Hierophant suggests a need for ‘fresh air’ and extra space this month.
Not all of us fancy a party this year. Many of us are not in the mood. for doing whatever is our usual thing this year, suggests this combination. Maybe we never were, but this applies with bells on this year.
The Four of Pentacleshas a lot in common with the rune of ancestry, households and inheritance, Othala.
Look back at the things you have bought over the years. What did you buy in the past that you still treasure? What have you been given by older family members that you treasure to remember them by? Othala talks about the things we treasure. These do not have to be things. They include cherished memories. But every day, we are creating new memories.
A recovering economy needs our spending. And it’s great to treat loved ones – . But for a lot of people the festive season can be a dreadful money worry. Last month there was much excited media speculation about shipping and supplies this year, and worries about ‘must have’ toys from overseas arriving in time for Christmas.
What’s with this ‘must have’ business? Conspicuous consumerism ruling the roost in the home? Is this healthy or a helpful preparation for children, to suggest this is how it really works?
The Four of Pentacles advises that friends and loved ones will be understanding if finances are tighter this year than previous Christmases. And given the way things have been in 2021 and 2020 before that, they may welcome that same understanding in return.
The Tarot is not trying to be a Scrooge or a kill-joy in presenting this card. Spending less, or spending carefully, based on quality, durability or longer term thinking doesn’t equate with not having any kind of a good time.
It’s just that no- one has infinite resources, debt is no joke, and this year looks like a departure from the way many of us have done things before.
24 December: The Hierophant also represents Christmas time, as a traditional religious season of celebration. But long before Christianity we celebrated Yule in northern Europe, meaning ‘wheel,’ to mark the turning of the wheel of the year, the solstice and the passing of the darkest day.
The third and final square between Saturn and Uranus in Taurus, these big planets, these heavy hitters, bring a feeling of push and pull between Uranus (splurging, doing your own thing, party time) and Saturn (saving, doing family duties, staying home and relaxing) this Christmas Eve 2021.
Ways of doing things that worked OK for you in the past, don’t sit so well with you right now.
Uranus is retrograde for nearly half of the year every year. This is nothing new or unusual, just a seasonal opportunity to go back to the drawing board and re consider occupations and habits.
In Tarot this is represented by the Lovers card meaning: news, calls, social events, new ideas, chat, gossip, communication, curiosity…it is also about short travel, trade, commerce, shopping . Think Mercury, ruler of Gemini. Another name for Mercury, Hermes.
Astrologers consider this a favourable Full Moon, in harmonious aspect with Jupiter, lucky for new partnerships and ventures, and for legal and business matters, though with possible tensions attached in terms of close relationships.
The Lovers can present us with a need to make difficult choices. Again, these could be totally unromantic; hard-nosed, to do with our work, security and finance.
Venus planet of love, beauty,luxury – and finance goes retrograde in Capricorn 19 December shortly after the Full Moon until 29 January.
This is glamour but serious with it. You could say Cinderella grows up, Prince or no prince. Venus retrograde in Capricorn is no- frills power dressing, literally or metaphorically. Fashion or Beauty here goes hand in glove with perceived status material power, like a Queen who wears her jewels f in token of her reach of power for the world to see.
This is a planetary euphemism for an examination of our personal standards of conduct and deportment, at home and at work. What is our public persona? How about a bit of gravitas, says Venus in Capricorn, style, poise, dignity and rectitude?
Beauty is in a serious mood. Beast better behave.
21 December – Solstice
We leave freewheeling Sagittarius ruled by big bouncy Jupiter and move into Capricorn, ruled by serious hardworking master of self-discipline and dominion, Saturn.
But Saturn brings the solstice, returning us to the light, for all his serious face.
This is the spirit of the agile, tough and hardy ibex or mountain goat, Capricorn.
The ibex nimbly scales the heights, stands atop the farthest crags. In Europe, the alpine ibex does battle in December for territory and mates.
The ibex, inspiration of Capricorn, reckons to do battle to get what it needs in life, delicately sniffs the cold, clean air, every inch a master of all he surveys.
The sunshine is free, and the rain and the snow, and the moon and the stars. Our good health too, if we are lucky. But we all must do battle some day one day in our lives, sooner or later, up against some kind of authority or other, or make peace with the fact we didn’t when maybe we really needed to,for our own or someone else’s sake.
Who says we wait until New Year to make a new plan?
Any day will do for a new resolution But from a natural, seasonal, symbolic and magickal perspective, 21 December works even better.
Season’s Greetings with all Best Wishes for a brighter 2022.
True Tarot Tales 