2023: In the Glass darkly, a Tarot’s eye view

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Introduction

Tarot readers don’t claim to ‘know’ what the future holds. They use their cards to access and articulate their feelings and intuition, and to take soundings in any given context with a weather eye on the ‘so what?’ That is all.

That said, what are the prevailing tides and currents “in the affairs of Men” in 2023 as suggested by the Tarot and in astrology?

Forecasts need a context. Let’s take a quick look back on some of the predictions made by my Tarot at the beginning of 2022, published here and at Ask Astrology.com

Review of 2022- and an ‘otherworldly’ manifestation

The study of great events in history has revealed something fascinating- that astrology is really on to something that is concretely observable on the ground, and always has been, even before science and astronomy caught up.

Large planetary cycles correlate and reflect changing patterns in human behaviour when studies as a collective whole. Empires have risen and fallen, revolutions, wars, mass movements of people, epidemics, technological and medical breakthroughs. You name it. They have been tracked and mapped in time against the ancient meanings of the major planetary movements.

Predictions need a background- a context for interpretation. We have been living through especially turbulent times since the spring of 2020, when the planetary giants Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus formed a tight, unfriendly square, and the covid 19 pandemic took hold on much of the world.

I had a peculiar and unpleasant vision or encounter one night in the first week of January 2020. I had woken and was reaching for a glass of water when a movement drew my eye, and saw a thing that with the benefit of hindsight, and for lack of a better word I could only describe as a djinn, standing in the doorway of the room where I was sleeping.

It was tall, humanoid, but the arms were too thin and long. It came closer. The head angled towards me, as if thoughtfully, but the face was hidden. It was horribly unpleasant. I sharply ordered it gone and it disappeared.

I took this vision as a warning that I needed to prepare myself for bad news to come in the next few days, and sure enough, there was some extremely concerning family news.

And then the covid thing hit, and a previously healthy young man, a friend of one of my daughters died of it, after ‘flu’ became septic shock, and he was placed into an induced coma, and several days later died.

The ‘djinn’ was a visual manifestation of some as yet unaccounted for deep state of unease, I feel.

2022

2022 has been a tsunami of a year, dominated by war, civil unrest, mass migration by land and sea, catastrophic flooding, and all things to do with the breaching of boundaries and borders. This has included the travel and spread of new variants of the coronavirus, travelling by land, sea and air, breaching our auto-immune defences.

We predicted major upheavals to do with the blurring and breaching of boundaries and borders. These were predicted in the Tarot by the appearance of the Hanged Man. This card is ruled by the zodiac sign of Pisces, with a powerful Jupiter, Neptune and Mars influence. What will we let go of, to go where we need to go?

Rider Smith Waite Tarot

Jupiter= ambition

Neptune =water, dreams, lack of borders

Mars = aggression, fire, war

Ukraine

My cards predicted major issues to do with the blurring of borders and boundaries, with a Neptunian ‘watery’ theme. The Russian invasion of Ukraine 24 February happened in Pisces season. The maritime city of Mariupol was devastated. Then Russia blockaded maritime grain shipments for a short period, threatening food supplies to many parts of the world including Africa and the Middle East.

Queen Elizabeth the Second

From The Gilded Tarot

The Three of Swords card showed the passing of a much loved national figurehead to come in Leo season or after (Leo is late July-late August. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 passed away 8 September in Virgo Season.)

I did not name the person. That would not be right or ethical, but it was the Queen of Pentacles who was seen in the reading. This card rules the Earth signs, Capricorn, Virgo and Taurus. Her Majesty, RIP, was a Taurus subject, while Leo represents the concept of a ruler or royalty.

But the Queen was not only a national figurehead. She was a global figurehead; the Head of The Commonwealth.

“The Commonwealth is made up of 54 member states from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific. The member states are home to a total of over 2.4 billion people.”

The Queen represented a link with Britain’s past, domestically and globally after the end of Empire, a link to the generations who lived through the Second World War.

That emotionally powerful symbolic link is broken now. Here again, was the message of the World card, signifying the completion of a cycle, the end of an era. I was surprised at my own grief.

Floods

We predicted a higher than usual risk of major flooding in 2022. Heavy rains caused a disastrous landslide in Peru in March 2022. Pakistan experienced unprecedented monsoon flooding June-August affecting millions of people. Australia has also experienced unusually severe flooding in 2022, from February to late April and then again from October onwards and is experiencing more flooding at the time of writing.

China and Taiwan

We predicted an escalation of tensions in the Strait of Taiwan in the second half of the year. This later manifested in the wake of Nancy Pelosi’s official US visit to Taiwan, 2 August 2022. This was seen as a formal recognition of Taiwan’s independent sovereign status, subsequent to China’s signing of the China- Solomon Islands Security Pact signed in April 2022.

This agreement has been viewed as a significant potential threat to the US and allies including Australia, paving the way for the presence of Chinese military installations in the Solomon Islands.

So what about 2023?

2023 –Broad Overview

Change is the only thing that is constant, but there are quieter periods of change, and then there are dramatic or traumatic periods of change. It is clear that we are not going back to ‘normal’ any time soon, taking January 2019 as a benchmark of the previous ‘normal’.

We talk about history in terms of ages and eras- The Greeks, the Romans, The Ming Dynasty, the Renaissance and so on. We are on the threshold of an era for which we do not yet have the name.

The big story in the astrology of 2023 is Pluto in Aquarius. We are leaving an age of Capricorn and entering a new Age of Aquarius.  It starts in spring 2023 when Pluto leaves Capricorn and goes into Aquarius. It will only stay there for three months, and then we go back into Pluto in Capricorn for a while. But it will go back into Aquarius in 2024, and this time it will stay there until 2044.

This 20 year planetary transit means big changes to the organization of society, to the global economy, to the mining industries (this means not only fossil fuels, but lithium and cobalt) to crypto-currency, to science and digital, space and medical technology.

A new age of sci-fi is here, as in previous transits of Aquarius in Pluto when there was the Industrial Revolution- and also the French Revolution, and also the American War of Independence.

Pluto in Aquarius can unseat plutocrats, rulers whose power is based primarily in personal wealth/plutocracy. This will include Putin and his prime ally Lukashenko, the dictatorial president of Belarus.)

Pluto was last in Aquarius in 1778-1798. This was a period of revolutions. It brought sweeping changes-sometimes with a great deal of violence. It brought the Industrial Revolution in Britain. It brought the French Revolution. It brought American Independence. It brought the start of the movement for women’s rights.The next twenty years will be bringing social changes on this kind of scale.

Natural Events 2023

The risk of severe flooding in 2023 is looking lower this year when compared with the risk of flooding we detected at the beginning of 2022. I’m not seeing flooding so clearly in the cards. The astrology, however, is not reassuring when Saturn arrives in Pisces 7 March 2023 and stays there until May 2025. Saturn describes structure. Pisces is the ancient sign of fresh water flooding in particular. Especially spring melt downriver of mountainous regions.

We may notice more solar flares, with possible effects on the earth’s magnetic shield and satellite technologies.

Uranus in Taurus which began 15 May 2018 and continues until 17 April 2026 continues bringing an upheaval of what was ‘normal’ in global health and the economy. Uranus in Taurus rules the throat- the point of entry for the disease. This problem is not going away although the incidence seems to to ease on a global scale March- August 2023.

No, the covid pandemic is not over yet. In our local hospital at the time of writing, three people are in the ICU- not with covid, but with Flu A.

All manner of rather peculiar viruses are about, at a time when more questions being raised than can yet be answered, about the action and effects of certain covid vaccinations, as discussed in a book ‘Viral,’ by Alina Chan and Matt Ridley. There is no definitive proof of a Wuhan lab leak, but they demonstrate why it cannot be discounted either, as the origin of the pandemic, with US involvement too, and with grave implications for future risk management in public health.

I am not ‘anti-vax’ as such. The zoonotic explanation struck me as entirely plausible, though I had questions. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the story here goes back some way in time, to the illness, treatment, and some deaths of miners who became ill after entering caves in South east China, inhabited by a certain species of horseshoe bat.

The risk of a there being a nuclear accident or attack instigated by Vladimir Putin cannot be discounted, but is not looking likely to happen as viewed through the lens of the Tarot, and the risk diminishes further after the end of March. There will no asteroid striking Earth.

Readers look for the cards and the card combinations which do not appear, as well as those that do. For example, there was no Star combined with the Devil or The Tower and Judgment or The World. It would take a combination of cards like this to suggest an apocalypse level event.

Technology

Aquarius is the sign of technology. Pluto in Aquarius will mean exciting new developments in mining technologies, digital technologies, crypto-currencies or space tech. Some of this we will see in 2023. There may be an event or an accident involving a satellite or something similar. But we will not be hit by any asteroid.

Pluto is the planet of death and regeneration. This includes genetics. Pluto in Aquarius says that there will be exciting discoveries in medical science. We have recently seen the first cloning of red blood cells in a lab setting. There will be more like this in 2023.

Manufacturing will enter a new phase in those countries which closed down their manufacturing in favour of globalism, choosing instead to rely on cheap imports of goods manufactured elsewhere.

The war in Ukraine and China’s attitude towards Taiwan (which happens to be the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips) has shown those developed nations that this was a serious mistake. They must rebuild their own manufacturing capabilities back again as fast as possible, and in 2023 they will be using new, robotic technology to do it.

Globalism has failed to ensure the maintenance of an international rules based order.

Mass migration

Rider Smith-Waite Tarot

We will see more urgent issues in 2023 to do with mass migration, particularly in the spring. This is not only in Europe, though it is partly in consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is also the aftermath of extreme weather events, such as the floods in Pakistan in 2022. There will also likely be issues to do with shortages in food production, at east in the first quarter of 2023.

Attached to these events, exacerbated by them, there will be ever greater numbers of people on the move in early 2023, (esp during Aquarius) as shown by the people in the boats in The Six of Swords card, with critical legal and political developments in respect of uncontrolled channel migration in the UK, possibly taking effect by mid-late spring when Saturn (law and order) goes into Pisces (the sea).

The growing scale of migration is an emergency, not only for genuine refugees, but for those destination countries, and the strain on their infrastructure and their own populations, trying to accommodate the needs of unprecedented numbers of new arrivals.

Mars, planet of action goes into watery Cancer, zodiac sign of the family home and homeland security, Mar 25, 2023 – May 20, 2023. We could see key events to do with traffic at sea in the English Channel, or to do with events at sea in the Black Sea, the Strait of Hormuz or the Strait of Taiwan. This action, if taken, is Mars action that is defensive in motivation.

The fall of the Roman Empire saw mass migration on this scale.

The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman kingdoms. The term refers to the important role played by the migration, invasion, and settlement of various tribes, notably the FranksGothsAlemanniAlansHunsearly SlavsPannonian AvarsMagyars, and Bulgars within or into the former Western Empire and Eastern Europe. The period is traditionally taken to have begun in AD 375 (possibly as early as 300) and ended in 568.[2] Various factors contributed to this phenomenon of migration and invasion, and their role and significance are still widely discussed -(Wiki)

Historians differ as to the dates for the beginning and ending of the Migration Period. The beginning of the period is widely regarded as the invasion of Europe by the Huns from Asia in about 375 and the ending with the conquest of Italy by the Lombards in 568

Mass migration always creates turbulence, at least initially. Social unrest or outright violence.

China and Taiwan

The reader is seeing heated words and gestures, with possible further Chinese naval incursions or illegal entry of Taiwanese air space. What is not being shown is an attempt to launch an actual land invasion in 2023.

The reader drew the Eight of Diamonds for China. Eight represents stability, Diamonds is money and government. President Xi is looking cautious this year, and seems anxious to maintain economic stability. He seems likely to avoid taking risks on anything that will seriously destabilize the prosperity of China. Putin’s actions in Ukraine, by shrinking western economies are indirectly threatening China’s economic interests at a time when it is seeking to recover from the effects of the covid pandemic, just as China experiences a whole new wave, relaxing its zero covid policy in the wake of public unrest.

Mars in Gemini is retrograde until 12 January, when its effects may ease, and its effects include airborne warfare -including missiles and also including aerosol/germ warfare. After this date Mars turns direct, though it stays in volatile Gemini until 15 March.

The US

2023 could mean a political change in the United States which is currently experiencing its first Pluto return; a time when many empires and dynasties have risen or fallen. President Biden has come through the mid-term US Elections, not strongly, but secure enough for now. The reader is not ‘pro-Biden’ but is not detecting a return for Donald Trump 2024, and is not detecting Kamala Harris as a future US President.

The UK

The Conservative government is having a tough time in January and February but Labour has also alienated its own electorate and has hard lessons to learn. The UK will carry on supporting Ukraine in 2023. The coronation of King Charles 111 is planned for May but there could be changes to this date. King Charles continues to have worries to do with “a child who is living overseas,” shown by The Sun card drawn reversed and the Three of Wands.

The UK could have a good year in terms of inward foreign investment in the second quarter (Jupiter in Taurus.) There could be ambitious long term plans for improvements to our waterways after growing concerns about pollution (Pluto in Aquarius, Saturn in Pisces, Mars in Cancer.)

The national mood improves later in the year during a more buoyant optimistic Jupiter-Pluto alignment around August-September, possibly due to more popular government initiatives.

Russia and Ukraine

The Star card of Aquarius has made multiple appearances. Late Feb onward looks critical for the war in Ukraine, bringing big changes for President Putin, whose natal ascendant is in Capricorn, while President Zelensky is an Aquarius subject. This is likely to represent a key juncture, and possibly a hopeful opportunity for the ending of hostilities with Ukraine in a strong negotiating position. It may be there will be disappointment for Zelensky, -Pluto (wealth, power, death) -the price of peace, as Putin seeks to redraw the border at the Dnipro river. For all the superb courage of Ukraine, there are no clear winners here that the Tarot has been able to detect. Much depends on the vision of the US but my cards are showing that if Europe does not lose its nerve, it is not out of the question that Ukraine will take back Mariupol- and the Crimea.

Putin does not win. Ukraine survives as a sovereign entity. He has chosen to respond to Ukraine’s resistance and military counter challenge by waging a total war against unarmed civilians and civilian infrastructure, and now Eastern Europe is a hive in uproar. We need no cards to see this is a war with a very long tail of consequences in geo-politics, with major implications for the future direction of NATO.

A number of Vedic astrologers have said it looks possible that Putin will remain in power in Russia until 2030.  On the other hand, UK/Australian Astrologer Jessica Adams predicted on her website 13 March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that Pluto’s temporary departure from Capricorn 24 March 2023 will mark the beginning of the end for Vladimir Putin as the man in power in Russia.

The Tarot concurs more closely with Jessica than with those Vedic astrologers. The cards rightly or wrongly do not show that Putin stays in power until 2030. March –May does look like a critical time in the course of this war, as represented by repeated appearances of The Hanged Man (Pisces.) The cards for Putin himself, on a personallevel, do not look encouraging in the second half of 2023 and into 2024.

The Ace of Swords and the Death card were drawn, suggesting his possible departure from power by or before autumn of 2024. (The Death card often does not mean physical death- although it certainly can mean exactly that. But it can correlate with Scorpio dates, late Oct-late Nov in respect of timings.)

Russia seems destined to undergo another upheaval from Feb 2026, triggered by a Neptune-Saturn conjunction, based on previous such conjunctions tracked in the history of Russia, eg; the assassination of Alexander 11, and the death of Stalin. But there are previews of this coming upheaval in 2023

The writer does not see any clear sign that there will be a lasting ceasefire sooner than the end of March. By summer (Queen of Cups-Cancer- Strength -Leo season) is looking more hopeful. But things may start to calm during this period by a series of steps and stages.

Russia has already failed to annex Ukraine in entirety. Will Russia be able to hang on to all four of those illegally annexed territories in Ukraine? It seems probable that Ukraine will very slowly reclaim much if not all of this territory, with the possible exception of Donetsk. Russia will now remain a permanent threat to Ukraine, and therefore the stability in the rest of Eastern Europe.

Europe

The political solidarity of Europe could be tested this year, particularly around April and August, but there could be new ideas and proposals for reorganization within the European Union in May/June. Germany seems to be doing better after February 2023, going into economic recovery. But as previously mentioned, this war in Ukraine has major implications for the future mission statement and changing remit of NATO.

The US

2023 could mean a political change in the United States which is currently experiencing its first Pluto return. This is a time when empires and dynasties have risen or fallen. President Biden has come through the mid-term US Elections slightly better than predicted, not strongly, but securely enough for now. Rightly or wrongly, the reader is not detecting a second term for Donald Trump after 2024, and is not detecting Kamala Harris as a future US President. Ron DeSantis, currently governor of Florida, is said to be a man to watch in 2023 as a possible future contender for another Republic presidency in 2024.

The Chinese Year of the Black/Water Rabbit (兔年 tùnián)

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In 2023 we enter the Year of the Rabbit. This is a year of the black rabbit- black represents the element of water in Chinese astrology. The Year of the Rabbit, as with all the animal signs in the Chinese zodiac, comes round once every twelve years.

2023 Chinese New Year Day is on Sunday, 22 January 2023, although I have read that technically speaking the first day of the 2023 Chinese Astrology Year is 4 February 2023. This date is different from the Chinese New Year Day for reasons based on the lunar calendar.

If a baby was born before 4 February then the baby’s Chinese Zodiac sign is the Tiger, not the Rabbit. 

You are a Rabbit if you were born in the following years: 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, and 2011

Be aware, the dates vary depending on the date of the February new moon. If your birthday is in February you need to check the dates in February for that particular year.

The Year of the Black (Water) Rabbit ends 9 February 2024 when we will enter a new Dragon year. 

The rabbit is traditionally regarded as one of the happiest Chinese zodiac signs. People born in a Rabbit year are known for kindness, reliability, loyalty and also elegance and a certain air of mystery. People born in a year of the Rabbit are quick-witted, sociable, careful and inventive – occasionally ingenious. But cautious.

The Rabbit is a prey animal. A buck/jack rabbit may indeed be aggressive, but in general the rabbit is not confrontational. This may prove good news in 2023 in geo-politics. This year is expected to be a little quieter overall than 2022, the year of the Water Tiger which represents outward, expansive – and maritime Yang energy.

The Rabbit is creative. Spring is rime Rabbit power season. March, the Chinese Month of the Rabbit is therefore looking like the key month for launching new jobs, plans, projects and enterprises.

Xi has recently been ramping up aggression in Taiwanese air space, but he is aware he needs to be very careful, and he will likely have Covid to contend with, and all the attendant economic implications at least until the end of the first quarter of 2023.

The Mars in Cancer transit (war at sea?) may be tense from late March-late May-

In the Black Sea too.

President Erdogan, a Pisces native, turning up in my cards as the King of Cups, will most assuredly not want to see Russia succeed in taking the Ukrainian port of Odessa. This would be a challenge to Turkey’s maritime hegemony in the Black Sea. But President Erdogan does not want to fall out with Moscow, for reasons of trade, and has a tricky balancing act, with a general election to fight in June 2023.

Foe the rest of us in general, the rabbit is at its prime in the spring, saying March-April 2023 is the optimal time for new opportunities. This is the time to make a push and to persist. “The early bird catches the worm”.

The diplomatic Rabbit again, brings hope of a ceasefire in Ukraine in 2023, and an easing of tensions in other areas, despite some much gloomier forecasts from security analysts. While the gloom is realistic, and while Putin is ruthless and very determined, the wider stakes are too high for him to be allowed to annexe Ukraine, but the more attacks Ukraine can absorb or repel, the more of everything Putin too, must spend. As ever, only time will tell.

Meanwhile astrologers in India are predicting a boom year of economic growth for India.

The last Rabbit year, 2011, signified positive news for the economy, curbing inflation. But the last Water Rabbit year was in 1963. What events or themes of 1963 may be coming round again then, this year, echoed, recycled or followed up with a related new chapter? What karma?

In 1963

  • French president Charles de Gaulle prevents Great Britain’s entry into the Common Market.
  • Nuclear test ban treaty is signed by the U.S., Great Britain, and USSR.
  • Buddhist-led military group overthrows the government of South Vietnam.
  • Kenya becomes an independent republic.
  • Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Lucky colours in a Rabbit year

These colours are lucky for everyone but especially lucky for rabbit natives: green, blue, black, beige, white, and silver, gold.

In Summary

Buckle up for another eventful, sometimes bumpy ride in 2023, particularly until the end of March. World economics are definitely bumpy. But constructive Jupiter in Taurus from 16 May onward could mean a boost to the global economy, a more ‘bullish’ Stock Exchange, and smoothie Venus in diplomatic Libra from November is reason for hope, suggesting that a conflict quietens by the end of the year, starting after we pass mid-summer.

This arrival of Venus in Putin’s own sun sign in November 2023 may prove with hindsight to be significant for Putin as a Libra native. This war seems to quieten in stages after the first quarter of 2023, but it does not seem to end on any one single clear event. The Ace of Swords and Death card have come into sight though, for Vladimir Putin himself. These cards cannot be clearer in their meaning. They mean The End. It seems possible, there will be a ceasefire or a brokered peace late in 2023, and Putin may leave power, if not then, then in the following year in 2024.

Both Taurus and Libra are ruled by Venus, the celestial antidote to the sporadically retrograde, aggressive Mars energy that has been ruling the roost since early 2022.

How do we best navigate this year at a personal level?

From The Legacy of The Divine Tarot

The Two of Coins 

You have got a lot on your plate, rushing to and fro. But you are coping, just about.  Drop any spare baggage if you must, and travel light, but take your time. Don’t force the issue. Do not “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Delay making big decisions until you feel more sure of the ground.

The Ace of Coins is a powerful and positive card of new beginnings to do with money, work and career. It can also be a new home. It can be a garden. This is about keeping at it, working steadily to build, to grow and to accumulate your resources. Its colour is green; a bright beautiful springtime green, like fresh new leaves on a tree.

The Ten of Cups is the card of a happy home and happy relations between family members.  But there will be times early in the New Year when we might be feeling more irritable than usual.

The Ten of Cups is ruled by the zodiac sign of Pisces, and by the planets Jupiter and Mars. Gently does it round family members this year, especially with siblings. 2023 is likely to be personally demanding at an individual level, especially in the first half of the year. But we are helped along the way by generous Jupiter in Taurus and diplomatic Venus in Libra.

Jupiter in Taurus is also great news for agriculture after May 2023 when food supply issues should ease, as well as in the fields of finance, training, business, higher education and publishing, while Venus in Libra is good news for legal situations and for partnerships both personal and professional; creative and artistic pursuits, especially in the second half of the year.

Determined efforts will likely pay off, starting or culminating 16 May 2023- 25 May 2024.

Wishing you the very best for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year, 2023.

When will there be an end to the war in Ukraine? The Crow caws. The Hanged Man speaks

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No-one knows the answer to this question. I certainly don’t. But what does the Tarot have to say about it? I have looked at the same question in another very recent post, where I used ordinary playing cards. We seemed to be seeing a Russian regrouping with big bumps in the road Oct and Nov and again before Christmas, a new offensive in January, and something big happening in March, and then again by Gemini time, late May-late June.

Last night I asked again, this time working with Tarot, asking, “in what month or year will there be a truce, ceasefire or permanent cessation of military action in Ukraine?”

I drew a single card. This was The Hanged Man- yet another outing for a card which has been jumping out of the deck since the invasion 24 February.

The Hanged Man stands for a waiting game, a state of limbo, an inability to make a decision. Or it can signify a sacrifice for a higher purpose, surrender, letting go, breaking a pattern, metamorphosis, suspension in time, meditation, changing one’s perspective, transcendence.

The Knight of Cups also corresponds with Pisces and The Hanged Man. He is the warrior who is a bringer of peace. He is the bearer of the Grail, of the loving cup or the healing chalice, who may be seen as Siegfried, or as one of the Knights of the Round Table, Lancelot, Galahad or Percival.

He rides along the shoreline, the knight of the liminal spaces.

From The Golden Tarot

Traditionally, the image is associated with a punishment once meted out to traitors in Italy, who were hung upside down by one ankle. Another interpretation is that this ties in with the story of the Norse god Odin. He hung upside down on Yggdrasil, the giant ash tree in exchange for the knowledge of the runes and they came to him in a vision on the ninth day without food or drink. One imagines he also had a mighty headache by that point. But the Tarot has its artistic roots in the courts of northern Italy during the Renaissance.

From the Tarot Illuminati, artist Erik C Dunne

Turn this card the other way up. Does he remind you of someone? Who does he look like? OK. He is not a dead ringer for Zelensky but let’s be reasonable- the Tarot is doing its best.

Tarot is not astrology and I am not an astrologer. However, there is a lot of astrology embedded in the Tarot, and clients have often asked the reader to have a stab at timings, with interesting feedback in respect of results.

In astrology The Hanged Man signifies Pisces, and the dates of Pisces in 2022 were 19 February to 20 March. This card was an apposite reflection of a recent event that had already happened since the invasion happened 24 February

This is what Tarot does- it detects, reflects and projects. Just treat this as a curiosity. I had not predicted the invasion of Ukraine, except that in a general 12 card reading done in December 2021 the Tarot had alerted me to a issue or problem attached to energy supplies from Russia, specifically NordStream 2.

I had also commented in an article published on Ask Astrology in January, that I had misgivings about 2022 on account of a general theme to do with the blurring or crossing of boundaries and borders. This again was connected with the Hanged Man. Its traditional ruler in astrology is Jupiter but its modern ruler is Neptune. Either way, 2022 was promising to be a year of deep waters and seismic events, metaphorically as well as physically. Jupiter goes large. Neptune goes deep.

Pisces, Atlas Coelestis John Flamsteed

John Flamsteed FRS (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719)[a] was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus, and a star atlas called Atlas Coelestis, both published posthumously“-Wiki

According to Western/ Tropical astrology, Jupiter is currently retrograde in Pisces and goes direct again 28-29 October-20 December 2022

According to Eastern/Vedic astrology Jupiter will remain in Pisces until 23 April 2023.

In Summary

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Based purely on the appearance of The Hanged Man, we have a range of possibilities here, suggesting that the war in Ukraine will end when:

-Mr Zelensky agrees to make a sacrifice, Hanged Man style, and decides to relinquish the Donbas to Russia. Mr Putin would claim this as a win, and use it as his way out of an increasingly untenable situation, though he or a successor of his same ilk could be back again in time, for another bite of land.

There is no reason why Zelensky should agree to such a thing, since Russia has broken international law and then gone on to commit war crimes. But if the population of the Donbas genuinely were more than 50% pro Russian separatists, might Zelensky decide that Ukraine would do better without them in the long run, given the state of affairs since 2014. Mr Putin after all, *only* wants to protect the 25 million Russians now living outside Russia’s borders in Ukraine and all across the Baltic.

Without Ukraine’s agreement to recognize referendum results held under the current conditions of duress, Putin will be forever fighting to hold on to the Donbas, and that’s no substantive win.

But it’s not a win for anyone else either, and won’t be unless the West can dig itself out of the hole it has got itself into, and continue to say no to cheap Russian gas this winter. If not, this whole thing simmers indefinitely or escalates next spring.

-or the war may end when Jupiter goes direct in Pisces, Tropical astrology style, 29 October-20 December. This seems highly improbable. Putin will want to squeeze the situation as hard as he can over the winter, praying the energy crisis will really bite down on the current levels of western support for Ukraine and leave her naked unto her foe.

-or the war may end during Pisces season, 20 February- 20 March. Saturn enters Pisces March 7, 2023 until May 24, 2025. Saturn is big on the status quo, on law and order, and it is big on boundaries and borders. The aftermath of this war will bring a long period of turbulence in its wake.

-or the war may end c late April 2023, according to the status of Jupiter in Pisces in Vedic astrology.

Photo by Sebastian Voortman on Pexels.com

There’s a feeling of events moving in stages, pointing towards something more conclusive or definitive March/April 2023. Tarot seems to be seeing a ceasefire slightly earlier than was indicated in my earlier cartomancy reading, though not hugely so.

But supposing the fighting stops right now, the political backwash runs high until 2025/2026. There will also be the small matter of reconstruction.

Something to watch for that is happening sooner, is an eclipse in Scorpio 8 November. Eclipses do not signify immediate changes, but historically they announce profound changes. Mr Putin is a Libra sun sign subject with Scorpio rising, and conjunct his sun is the fixed star Algorab, the wing of The constellation of the Crow, merciless and rapacious.

It doesn’t feel as though it bodes at all well for him personally. But Putin is choosing to wage a total war, so that any victory here, whether for Russia or Ukraine is a pyrrhic one.

The west is clearly not blameless either in all this, but it likely doesn’t bode too well for Scorpio subject Mr Biden either, in the US mid term elections 8 November.

What a year, this Chinese year of the Black Water Tiger

Till next time 🙂

Further reading https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Ukraine-Nuclear-Weapons

Birds and bees and all that flies. It’s time again for Gemini!

Photo by Marian Florinel Condruz on Pexels.com

Gemini the sign of the Heavenly Twins is a mutable air sign, and the third sign of the western or Tropical zodiac, representing late spring/early summer in the northern hemisphere.  

The word ‘zodiac’ comes from the Greek meaning ‘circle of animals.’

The only zodiac sign that is non-representative of a living creature is Libra, representing the Scales of Justice. But even the scales of Libra are borrowed from the stars of neighbouring Scorpio, the heavenly scorpion.

Gemini Associations

Dates: May 21- June 20

Astrological symbol:

Ruling planet: Mercury

Element: Air

Quality: Mutable

Affirmation: ‘I think, I inquire.’

Birth Stone:  For Gemini born in May, Emerald. For Gemini born in June, Pearl (although it is not a stone, and it is a product of the sea it is classically ruled by Mercury)

Lucky stone, The Tiger’s Eye. Why? Grounding of ‘flighty’ Gemini energy, brings focus

Colour: Yellow

Tree: all kinds of nut trees

Flower: Lily of the Valley, Lavender

Astronomy of Gemini

The Gemini constellation was listed as one of the 48 ancient constellations by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century, though Ptolemy referred to it in terms, not of the constellation as a whole, but of its two brightest stars, Castor ‘ The Star of Apollo,’ and Pollux ‘The Star of Heracles’.

Gemini is the northernmost constellation in the zodiac, in size the 30th largest. To see Gemini with the naked eye, we need to look north east of the constellation Orion between the Taurus and Cancer constellations.

Best viewing is during February. By April and May, the constellation is visible in the west soon after sunset.

Castor and Pollux, the brightest stars in the Gemini constellation, represent the heads of the twins from Greek mythology. Fainter stars are the outlines their bodies. Pollux, the westerly twin, is a red giant star, 33 light-years from Earth while Castor is about 51 light-years away.

(One light-year is the distance that light travels in a year – approx 6 trillion miles/9.6 trillion KM.)

Pollux is the brighter of the two stars, orbited by a massive planet orbiting it, Beta Genorium B, 1.6 times bigger than Jupiter.

Castor is actually not a single star, but a star system made of up six stars not visible to the naked eye.

Ancient History

Photo by Victoria Borodinova on Pexels.com

Gemini represents the key principle of duality or polarity, similarities and opposites, life and death, light and dark, night and day, hot and cold.

We see this principle in active operation in spring, in the climax of splitting or cloning. Pollen flies free. Eggs hatch. Butterflies and dragonflies hatch out of their chrysalis. The mythology of twins goes back at least as far as the so-called Age of Gemini, during the Palaeolithic, 6, 500 BCE, arising from our understanding of the duality fundamental to the nature of reality.

There are countless stories of the twins in world myth, representing dualities and polarities; night and day, light and dark, heat and cold, male and female, war and peace, good and bad, life and death. The creation myths of ancient cultures across the world reflect this eternal battle of seeming opposites.  Many surviving objects feature twin gods and goddesses. But there is a shadow side. In some cultures twins have been feared

In Egyptian astrology the stars of Gemini were twin goats, or else they were the two gods, Horus the Elder and Horus the Younger,  while classical Greek mythology identified them as the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux, The Gemini.

Gemini is the first sign of the western tropical zodiac year that has a human representation rather than an animal one, following Aries the Ram and Taurus the Bull.

Castor and Pollux

Gemini is the name by which the constellation is known today throughout the western world. Gemini is Latin for “twins,” and Gemini is The Hellenistic names of the Heavenly Twins, Castor and Pollux.

Castor comes from the Greek Καστωρ (Kastor) and means “to excel, to shine.”  In Greek myth Castor was a son of Zeus and the twin brother of Pollux.

Pollux comes from the Roman form of Greek Πολυδευκης (Polydeukes) and means “very sweet”.

The circumstances of their birth were unusual, to say the least. Queen Leda of Sparta was seduced by Zeus who had disguised himself as a swan. ‘Seduced’ is putting it rather too politely. She was bathing in the river. He glided about pretending to peck at things and then pounced on her while she was looking the other way, minding her own business. Later that evening, notwithstanding this shock, or perhaps, who knows, because of it, Leda also slept with her husband King Tyndareus and went on to produce four children; Castor, Pollux and their sisters Helen (later Helen of Troy) and Clytemnestra (later married to Agamemnon as queen of Mycenae.)

Pollux and Helen were fathered by Zeus, and were immortal, while Castor and Clytemnestra, fathered by Tyndareus,were mortal. 

Source: Public Domain, the young Castor and Pollux (Meissen)

The brothers, known as the Dioscuri, meaning Sons of Zeus, were handsome, curious and always up to something.  The mortal Castor was a renowned horseman and a master at fencing, while the immortal Pollux was known for his great strength and skill at boxing.

But then Castor was killed, possibly in a quarrel over dividing the spoils after a cattle raid. Pollux was distraught.  He didn’t want immortality, not if it meant being without his brother, he said, and he begged his father, Zeus to make him mortal, and then kill him so he could be with his brother. Zeus couldn’t bring himself to do that, scratching his head, wondering how to fix this, and decided to place them both in the stars, to be immortal together forever as the constellation of the Gemini.

The Greeks, in particular the Spartans, though the twins had a temple in Athens, worshipped the twins as horsemen, and also as patron saints of shipwrecked sailors. Sacrifices were offered to the Dioscuri before a voyage, with a request for favourable winds.

The Romans later developed a cult around Castor and Pollux, dating back to 484 B.C. They built a temple to the twins in the Roman Forum in 414 BC in thanks for their help in defeating their old enemy The Latins, in the battle of Regillus.

Castor and Pollux were the patron gods of the Roman cavalry, the mounted knights or equites, and appear in this role on many early Roman coins.

The Zodiac Archetype

Mercury by Hendrick Goltzius, 1611, Public Domain

The planetary ruler of Gemini is Mercury, the planet nearest the Sun, representing the winged god Mercury or Hermes; patron deity of all forms of communication, media, trade, global commerce and travel, medicine, research and analytics.

But Mercury has a lesser known role as a psychopomp; one who can go between the realms of the living and the dead, a go-between and safe escort to the dead. It was Hermes who escorted the souls of the newly dead to the banks of the Acheron or The Styx, where they waited for Charon to come in this boat and ferry them across to the Underworld.

It was Hermes who escorted Persephone out of the dominion of Hades to be reunited with her mother Demeter, not knowing that despite his instructions that she was not to eat anything, or the deal was off, Hades had tricked Persephone into eating six seeds of her favourite pomegranate fruit. Seeds don’t count, Hades told her, and she believed him, but now she was bound to his side for six months of the year.

All the zodiac signs represent archetypes; something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing.

A zodiac sign paints a poetic portrait of a person born at a particular time of year, in a particular season. A baby born in summer arrives into a different physical environment from a winter baby; differences of temperature, hours of daylight, maternal diet during pregnancy and so on, with potentially different effects on the baby’s physical makeup and constitution.

As a mutable sign, Gemini rules a borderline between seasons, in this case late spring into early summer. The other mutable signs are Virgo and Pisces, and all three mutable signs are considered the most changeable and agile of the signs, inquiring, analytical, logical and restless.

Mid- May is the start of grass pollen season which then builds to a peak in mid July:-

May is quite the rollercoaster when it comes to tracking pollen. Dock and lime pollen start triggering hay fever in May as they begin their season, while both pine and oil seed rape peak and end within the month. Oak and plane end their peak – but grass pollen begins hitting its high notes.

Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on Pexels.com

The Gemini temperament is friendly yet watchful, generous but changeable -mercurial as personified by Hermes with his winged sandals and his staff, caduceus- emblem of messages and trade. The well-known delivery company of the same name clearly chose its name for this same reason.

In medical astrology, Gemini rules the arms and hands. The typical Gemini native is of above average personal appearance, personable, attractive, usually slim and of average height or taller and with neat, tidy facial features. The Gemini is socially gifted, cheerful, humorous, witty, capable and quick to learn.

Limbourg, Anatomy of The Zodiac, Wiki via ©Photo. R.M.N. / R.-G. OjŽda

At the same time, Gemini can also be surprisingly dogmatic, attaching themselves to causes, even inclining towards fundamentalism, whether it is to do religion or some other entirely secular creed or manifesto, or to do with lifestyle, for example, exercise or diet choices.

Gemini can be, not insincere, at least, not in that moment, but quick to lose interest, fluttering like butterflies, looking for the next new thing, looking for some better, brighter flower. This can apply to the way they interact with other people, here today and gone tomorrow, even though once mature, and once committed, they make dutiful and devoted partners and parents.

Gemini in the Tarot

The Tarot cards associated with Gemini are The Lovers, The Knight of Swords and the 8, 9 and 10 Swords.

Rider-Waite Tarot via Wiki

Card Meanings: love, friendships, partnerships, agreements, contracts, difficult choices, decisions

Every suit in the Tarot has its own court with a king and queen, a knight and a page. The principle Court card associated with Gemini is the Knight of Swords.

Rider-Waite Tarot via Wiki

Card Meanings: speed, action, forward movement, sudden developments, attack, assertiveness, intelligence, sudden news, cunning, calculation, good timing, a pre-emptive strike, a confident, forceful young person, windy weather, east wind, motorbike

The Decans of Gemini

The word ‘Decan’ comes from the Latin meaning ‘ten.’  Each zodiac sign lasts about 30 days and is further divided into three blocks of roughly 10 days each.  These are the decans or decanates, or as they are sometimes called, the ‘thirty-six faces of astrology,’ bringing added depth to the psychological profile associated with your zodiac sign/sun sign.

The minor arcana cards associated with Gemini are the Eight, Nine and Ten of Swords and they correlate with the dates of the decans.

If you don’t feel like you are a ‘typical’ Gemini, well, we are all unique, but perhaps you are also a second or third decan Gemini native, rather than a ‘most typical’ first decan Gemini.  Gemini is still Gemini, whatever the decan and this holds true for all the zodiac signs. But an early born Gemini is born under a slightly different planetary influence than a later born Gemini. It’s all still Gemini, the same heavenly recipe, but with varying amounts of common ingredients.

First Decan Gemini

(0-10 degrees of the sign)

21-31 May

Legacy of The Divine Tarot

Card Meanings: Entrapment, uncertainty, a sense of helplessness, waiting for rescue, there is a way out if only you will open your eyes, look around and take a step forward. I have personally also come to associate this card with plumbing, drainage issues.

This decan gets a double dose of the planetary influence of inquisitive, rational, Mercury.  This is an alert, perceptive, intellectual and forceful personality. The acumen is sharp.  The negative side of this coin is a Gemini native who is just as inquisitive but careless, flighty, forgetful, restless and unreliable.

First decan Gemini is a multi-talented juggler, light on their feet, graceful and agile. But at the same time they tend to develop a strong point of view on a wide range of subjects, and they have a clearly defined belief system. For all their apparent flightiness they are also tough and resilient- even stubborn, a quality more usually associated with Taurus, its next door neighbour and predecessor in the zodiac.

Gemini make devoted partners, contrary to whatever people might assume. They will hang on in there when the going gets tough, though they are prone to boredom, can quickly tire of routine quickly; and have considerable charisma or sex appeal. But they know when they have a good thing so long as there is plenty of social interaction and short distance travel to keep their restlessness under control.

Second Decan Gemini

(10-20 degrees of the sign)

June 1-10

The Golden Tarot

Card Meanings: The Nightmare card. Worry, ‘the black dog’ anxiety, stress, grief, insomnia, things that keep us awake at night.

The personal planet of this decan is Venus, planet of love, beauty- and money. This Gemini has charm, and a generous and giving spirit. The sub-ruler is Libra, ruled by Venus, the natural ruler of the seventh house of marriage, partnerships, close associates, associations, and legal matters. This Gemini is more of a “me-too” person, rather than an “I-am” person when compared with a first decan Gemini.

This Gemini native needs to be especially careful in the selection of companions/associates. The choice of a mate is, of course, of the utmost importance. This Gemini especially needs to avoid making big decisions about a choice of partner when they are too young to fully understand what they are doing.

These are easy going and pleasant people. Gemini strives on change while Libra works to establish equilibrium. Their Venus/Libra influence is their salvation, because it makes them artful in their judgments and full of affection for those they do judge.

Gemini 2nd decan is drawn to quiet, reserved people. Not only do opposites attract, but the secrecy fascinates Gemini-Libra, ans they also match up well with reliable, practical types who can get the job done with little fuss or excitement. A person that will ground, refine and implement the Gemini-Libra.

People respond well to the Second Decan Gemini warm and effusive nature. They also have a sense of adventure, same as the other Gemini decans, and they enjoy travel for the sake of new experiences.  Sharing is part of the Gemini-Libra life; they are generous with their time and friendship and also with possessions.

Gemini-Libra is great company, with a great deal of magnetism. They are kindly, sharp and witty. Just cut your cloth to suit and don’t be too surprised or upset if they disappear as suddenly as they appear or go quiet on you without warning. It’s not personal. It’s just the way they are.

Third Decan Gemini  

(20-30 degrees of the sign)

June 11-20

Tarot Illuminati

Card meanings: Destruction, despair, betrayal, ruin, dark night of the soul, darkness before dawn, the only way is up, illness, comatose, a fall, spinal injury, head injury.

Incidental perhaps, but this card has come up repeatedly in respect of events and outcomes affecting the personal destiny Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine, 24 February. We shall see what occurs during these forthcoming decan dates, June 11-June 2020.

The personal planets of the third decan Gemini are Saturn and Uranus, painting a portrait full of contradictions. Sometimes this person is ultra-careful, dutiful, responsible, serious, at other times carefree or even careless. Uranus combined with the planet Mercury suggests an unusually active or even brilliant mind possibly even verging on genius. This person may be a thinker who is ahead of their times. Or maybe they are just zany.

Aquarius – natural ruler of the eleventh house of friends, hopes, and wishes-makes this Gemini a social type, a friend-oriented individual interested in social causes. This Gemini is an optimist, always interested in trying out what is new, and never happier than when they are on the move.

Life is rarely dull with a cheerful Decan 3 Gemini around, but they are the most independent- natured Gemini decan. They need plenty of space and freedom, with a partner who makes few demands on their time and attention. They are very hard working when they put their mind to it. But keeping promises, fulfilling obligations and routines are not their strongest suit. It is a mistake for this Gemini native to marry early or settle too soon. Adventure, exploration and experimentation with ideas, people and places- this is what they are about. This is what makes them tick.

Famous Gemini people

Carl Linnaeus, Peter the Great, Adam Smith, Richard Wagner, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Maynard Keynes, John F Kennedy, Frank Lloyd Wright, Boris Johnson. Johnny Depp, Queen Victoria, Charles 11,  George 111,George V, Donald Trump, Muammar Gaddafi, Angelina Jolie, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Happy birthday, Gemini 2023

What is the advice for Gemini in 2023?

Astro-dice Casting

We have drawn Sun in Gemini in the Second House.

Here is the mystery of synchronicty at work in real time. I throw 3 dice, asking, what is the keynote message for Gemini in 2023, and, blow me down, we have drawn the Sun in Gemini, reflecting an exact mirror image of the question as stated, and then the Second House, ruled by Taurus, represents the answer.

Also, curiouser and curiouser, here is more real time astrology. This astro-dice casting is picking up on the current Mercury (ruler of Gemini) transit in second house Taurus. These die have already been cast. What we have been dealing with since April and May may start to bear fruit (or deliver further baggage) from June onwards in 2023.

The focus this year is on material and financial security, and also perhaps wining and dining and other earthy luxuries. The money sign of Taurus, ruled by Venus, planet of beauty AND money, as the best things in life may be free, but the basics cost money, and beautiful things cost more money. Taurus also refers to agriculture and food- all good things.

The second House is also to do with our values and priorities, and these can change over time.

This is a year for cautious rather than exuberant optimism. New opportunities and adventures are coming this year, and new relationships, though these may be slow to start with.

Taurus gets things done, sharpened by the wit of Mercury. But you may find yourself making slower progress than you are used to. Gently does it.

There is a sense of needing to make peace with the past, letting go of griefs or grudges to do with past disappointments in relationships and business.

Health wise, though butter for instance is a real food, where margarine is not, and Taurus is all about real, rather than processed foods, rich heavy foods may not suit the slightly slower Gemini digestion, or the Gemini mood this year.

Back soon with more to come on Gemini 🙂

 

In the Time of Taurus, Tarot talking Ukraine…

Photo by u0410u043bu0435u043au0441u0435u0439 u0412u0430u0441u0438u043bu044cu0435u0432 on Pexels.com

Readings 29 April and 10 May 2022

Left hand column represents Ukraine

Top to bottom

Aspect/Issue-present-future

Right hand column represents Russia

Top to bottom,

Aspect/Issue-present-future

Authors own Image using the Illuminati Tarot

We all see the issue although we may have different interpretations, depending on where we are living in the world, and our own historical and cultural perspective and personal outlook.

The reader is not free of bias. However, the reader exercises absolutely zero conscious control in selecting the cards, which are drawn blindly and at random. No- one knows what the ultimate outcome will be. Everyone is ‘looking in the glass darkly’, and although the reader may be influenced by personal prejudice when it comes to interpretation of the cards drawn at random, the rules of Tarot divination allow the reader only so much freedom of latitude.

Anyone can look at these cards and form their own intuitive impressions, based on the imagery alone, helped by their own experiences of reading faces and situations in their own lives.

Possible Outcomes (as we all know)

-Russia will completely overrun Ukraine, install a puppet government in Kyiv and then possibly invade other territories, Moldova, Estonia.

-Ukraine will repel the Russian invasion and recapture the Donbas and Mariupol, if not Crimea, though this seems unlikely.

-There will be ongoing guerilla warfare in Eastern Ukraine drawn out over years if not decades. This war started in 2014.

-Ukraine will remain an independent nation state but Russia will succeed in taking the Donbas/Mariupol and Ukraine will become further partitioned.

The Runes

You will notice two stones drawn against each column of cards. These are old Norse runes.

Ukraine has drawn SOWILO and ISA. These runes signify happiness (sunflowers) and success. However, this happiness has been frozen by ISA, the rune of Ice, cold and stagnation. Reading these runes in another way, the Sowilo rune looks like the Z on the Russian tanks, while Isa suggests Russian tanks are stopped. These runes suggest eventual victory at great cost, Russia stopped in its tracks.

Russia has drawn DAGAZ and HAGALL, meaning Daylight and HAIL/Storm. These runes are saying that Russia dreams of a new Imperial dawn (and every dog will have its day) but HAGALL brings a great blow.

The Cards

Card One: The disruptive (quite an understatement) Five Wands REVERSED. Meaning: Conflict/competition/unsettled market forces. This suggests active fighting continues at least into early summer. In terms of timing the Five of Wands represents the first decan of Leo which spans 21 July-22 August. The first decan is the last week of July, 23-1 August. Perhaps we will see a ceasefire about this time.

This is a massive simplification, but these cards suggest the last scenario as the most likely outcome.

The Justice card is drawn opposite The Hanged Man- a sacrifice made for a return to Law and Order.

Ukraine is fighting for ‘Justice’- the rule of Law. By this we mean its own autonomous law, and the principle of international law and order. Russia is fighting for the surrender of Ukraine. The Hanged Man means surrender of sacrifice. Russia wants the removal of Zelenskyy, who has personally been represented by The Hanged Man in previous readings (see archives) Russia has made a series of attempts on Zelenskyy’s life starting 23 February. Ukraine has made plans in case of his death, and this is unpleasant but only prudent.

It would be wrong to make predictions of death, but in previous readings, the cards have indicated that while the risk is very real, Zelenskyy survives the conclusion of hostilities. The central Ten of Swords however suggests a fresh blow to Ukraine or to Zelenskyy personally, possibly another attempt or added risk in June, correlating with third decan Gemini,around 11-20 June.

At the same time, perhaps directly connected to that Ten of Swords or its aftermath, we have the Four of Swords for Russia -or for Putin personally. This is a classic card of rest and retreat. The Four of Swords is nicknamed the sick bed card or hospital card. This reader does believe that President Putin has a serious health issue. By the same token, this card of retreat could mean a peak in the conflict, and in consequence, a pause, truce or ceasefire.

But what’s the process in play here? This reading is merely a snapshot in time. The reader is asking themselves, “what am I feeling about this situation right now?” Using the cards to reflect their own feelings back at them, the better to articulate them.

Ukraine Future cards

Seven of Pentacles, slow progress, patience, persistence, disappointment but there is a harvest. This card equates with third decan Taurus ie now, if we are to read the card in this way. Why might this be? M Macron has apparently said it would take ‘decades’ to admit Ukraine into the EU, although the EU will seek other ways to help Ukraine. Macron proposes to create a new Pan European body- which countries like Ukraine could join. Read more about that here

The Fool card: Destiny. There is no card more numinous, more powerful than this one in the Tarot deck. It is the card of the Portal, Ground Zero. Again, like The Hanged Man, it is Odin who sacrificed an eye in exchange for knowledge. Ukraine has already worn so many identities in the past, but will be reborn with a new constitution. How is that, when they are fighting with such determination to preserve their current identity? Does it mean that Russia is going to conquer Ukraine?

Knight of Swords The reader looks to the next card for the possible answer. The Knight of Swords represents anything but a defeat. This knight is swift, agile, ruthless. The god is Mercury, the zodiac entity is Gemini. The Knight of Swords is intellect, law, cool air, a rushing wind, an east wind. The Knight of Swords attacks. This is an aspect of Zelenskyy himself, and his deployment of the modern media has been masterly, Mercury in action. Zelenskyy is a modern leader. Tech savvy,media savvy, and a match for Putin intellectually. Maybe more than. He represents the future. Putin is non tech savvy, essentially a leader from the nineteenth century.

This card suggests a fierce fight back. Ukraine seems likely to move from fighting in defense mode to counter offensive, and may already be doing so, with an effort being made at this time to retake Snake Island and deny Russia that strategic position on the Black Sea.

Ukraine is mobilizing social media, Art and Beauty.

Knight of Swords says Ukraine will build a new air force. Never again will it allow itself to lie defenseless and naked to the skies.

Russia Future cards

The Hierophant is Taurus (now) The Hierophant is the Church. Putin has the endorsement of the Russian Orthodox Church to go take the two separatist republics, as represented by the two keys shown on the card. and also, kill sexual deviants and decadent people while doing so, because there is nothing deviant about the rape of unarmed civilian women. And children. The Hierophant is orthodoxy and tradition. Putin is an Imperialist, not a Communist. The Hierophant does suggest to the reader, that, like it or not, Russia may ultimately succeed in annexing the Donbas because of those two keys, and because The Hierophant speaks of tradition and conservation. Reclaiming the past.

The Two of Swords is the central card drawn. Here it has been drawn reversed. Again, added to that Hierophant, this suggests a severance of two entities. Partition. It also means the end of a period of indecision or the end of a long stalemate or deadlock. Someone may be experiencing headaches or eyestrain; either Putin himself or someone very close. I have known this card to mean exactly this too many times before for me to discount that interpretation.

The Two of Swords may additionally refer to Putin’s undoubted chagrin in respect of the applications of Sweden and Finland to now join NATO in response to the perceived threat to their own borders as a consequence of Putin’s unbridled aggression in Ukraine.

King of Swords. Libra (October) and Aquarius (late January-late February) 2023 could be definitive for Putin personally. Other card readings have suggested that he leaves or has left power no later than February-April 2024, but other cards, including The Joker, suggest it could well happen sooner.

Zelenskyy is astrologically a King of Swords, born 25 January, 1978 if the information is correct, and is quite possibly going to prove to be Putin’s nemesis, although at this terrible cost, with that cost still mounting. What can one do with an opponent who simply does not care how much damage he inflicts? There is a spitefulness in Putin. Astrologically he is a Queen of Swords. This card has come up on repeated occasions, usually drawn upside down or and when draw reversed, this otherwise savvy, wise and subtle Queen becomes bitter and vindictive.

In metaphorical terms, Zelenskyy, being drawn as a King of Swords drawn upright, is capable of steely ruthlessness in a desperate situation, and will cut off your head if he judges the emergency warrants it, but it isn’t personal.

Putin, being drawn as a Queen of Swords drawn reversed, will cut off your head after you have already surrendered, and it’s personal.

Henry v111 has been used as the model for this card in this deck, and I’d say he was both a King and Queen of Swords reversed in terms of his behaviour, although astrologically he was a sun Cancer subject, born 28 June and his rising sign was Virgo; exceedingly sensitive emotionally, and at the same time- that Virgo Mercury influence- highly analytical and detail focused.

But the appearance of this powerful court card does suggest Putin gets something for his efforts. He has to, or he is toast.

7 May I drew playing cards asking when Putin leaves power laying out the cards in rows, each card representing a month.

I asked my cards, ‘show me the Ace of Spades or Ten Spades to show me when Putin goes from power’.

The Ten of Swords turned up in the time slot representing March 2024 and this card was flanked by two Aces which struck me as significant. Aces mean new starts. The Ten of Swords was flanked by the Ace of Diamonds,representing February 2024, and the Ace of Clubs representing April 2024.

These Aces suggest a new leadership. Either one of them can mean a new government.

However, The Four of Swords drawn for late 2022 and the Joker drawn for January 2023 suggest big changes could happen far sooner, on the Russian side.

In particular The Joker, denoting change that is as sudden or surprising as it is momentous.

The Joker is no laughing matter. He never was. He is The Fool on The Hill, neither good nor evil but still, a portal. The Joker says…a great destiny is in play here that will help shape the future world order for a long time to come. To those who say ‘what is this to do with us in the UK?’ (That is, if we leave the nukes out of the question, and no, the UK is not going to get nuked, much as Putin may be itching to teach us a ‘lesson.’)

To those people, The Joker says, what is freedom? What is justice? The rule of Law? Self-respect? Self determination? What do we mean by these words? How much do they matter to us based on our understanding of what they mean when applied in action? In every day living? What is their value? What is their cost? What would we pay, what would we sacrifice to guarantee them for ourselves or our own people? Not to live under the boot.

April 2024 for Putin’s departure may seem a long way off, but it could chime with that Two of Swords reversed on the Russia timeline, which brackets a time frame running from October 2022 Libra- or up to another two years in duration from today 10 May 2022.

One can see that scenario is perfectly credible and realistic, but I somehow don’t feel this will continue so long as 2024, not at this intensity, partly based on that appearance of The Joker.

Putin preparing for a long war, say US officials

Vladimir Putin appears to be preparing for a long war in Ukraine, top US intelligence officials said.

“The Russians aren’t winning and the Ukrainians aren’t winning and we’re at a bit of a stalemate here,” Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, the head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, said before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Russia, which calls the invasion “a special military operation,” poured more troops into Ukraine for a huge offensive last month in the eastern part of the country but its gains have been slow.

US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, also appearing before the Armed Services Committee, said: “We assess President Putin is preparing for a prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas.”

She added that Mr Putin was counting on the Western resolve to weaken over time and as the conflict continued, there was concern about how it would develop in the coming months.

Source: The Independent

The reader has got things right before, Brexit, tsunami of January 2022, the election of Boris Johnson first as party leader and then as PM. But readers also get things wrong. Of course they do. This is divination, not black magic. This reader was pretty wobbly on the re-election of Donald Trump, not seeing that the Ace of Swords, which she mistook for a likely election victory was in fact, the armed incursion on Capitol Hill in the aftermath (and- declaration of bias- she is not a Trump fan, but nor is she a Biden fan)It’s all in the archives.

As ever only Time will tell. But meantime, I will keep looking.

We ‘look in the glass darkly’ to ‘see the world in a grain of sand’ or a drop of water – or a mote in the Mind’s eye.

Photo by Jani Tisler on Pexels.com

President Putin, former President Poroshenko and The Joker

Moscow Pexels.com

What if?

The joke is not remotely funny, but could this be the wild card, The Joker in real life action? In the living person of former Ukraine President Poroshenko.

Has Ukraine set a trap for itself of its own devising? That the Ukraine judiciary chose in January, with Russia growling ever louder, to summon to court former President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko who had fled to exile in Russia but flew in from Warsaw for this court case January 2022?

Read here for that story: Aljazeera 19 January 2022

“On 25 February 2022, amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poroshenko appeared on TV with a Kalashnikov rifle together with the civil defense forces on the streets of Kyiv. He also stated that he believed that “Putin will never conquer Ukraine, no matter how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has… We Ukrainians are a free people, with a great European future. This is definitely so”- Wikipedia

Yes. But. But.

Tweeted 07 March

Katie-Ellen

@TrueTarotTales·

Ukraine ordered in its own Trojan horse? Extraordinary timing of this court case. Mr Poroshenko has flown in from Warsaw (not exile in Russia?) Now in situ, out on bail, Mr Putin’s replacement of choice for Mr Z if/when Russia captures Kyiv?

It wouldn’t be Mr Poroshenko,who would be Mr Putin’s choice, would it, but more likely former pro Russian President and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych currently in exile in Russia

But the cards are detecting a logic.

If you were Mr Putin, and you didn’t want to wreck Ukraine but to claim it, harness it and harvest it, or simply neutralize it, so you needed a new government ready and waiting in case or when you captured Kyiv, how might it solve a problem: the presence on Ukrainian soil at this critical juncture of a former Ukraine President who, while displaying ultra Ukrainian nationalism has also been also accused of funding pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass via alleged illegal sales of coal: is this is someone who for gain, is not averse to politically facing two ways at once? While Yanukovych in exile is a far more straightforward proposition. He was actively against a closer ties with the EU.

Could Yanukovych, in the event of a conclusive Russian victory, offer Putin

  1. A way to govern the Donbass installing a Ukrainian puppet, harder for the world to argue about, knowing it is now in your pocket with more to follow later, quietly
  2. A way to claim a political as well as a military victory at home, hopefully heading off any coup, plots, internal adversaries before they arrive at the pass, while snookering the foreign opposition who know fine well what you have done here but may well only be grateful, though now of course, more wary, suspicious and …more respectful?

If if it is Yanukovych, will Poroshenko need to disappear right off the scene, assuming what is not by any means looking certain at this stage, that Russia ultimately captures the Kyiv government.

The Joker is a card of destiny. Of a rebirth. It is a portal, the number Zero. It is the Tarot’s equivalent of The Fool. It is Odin, god of war. The god who hung nine days upside down on the world tree, and gave an eye to learn the runes, and the knowledge of all things.

And where does that leave Mr Z if Kyiv is captured? We drew this card before.

He concedes or he is gone.

But with a pro-Russian president back in Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists active near and within Moldova, perhaps, if he can take Kyiv soon enough before he HAS to get Odessa, and has an experienced Ukrainian politician already in situ; an able and willing Russian proxy president …perhaps Putin could call the troops home, avoiding the need to take Odessa, no need to wreak destruction on this iconic port city. It is now politically re-secured for Russia.

Moldova has applied to join NATO But as we are seeing, a lot can happen in a day right now. Joining Nato could take years. And the West is making an elementary error of psychology, in stating so categorically what it will NOT do. Whatever the West’s actual intentions, to state up front what they will not do, to remove certain cards from the table so as not to frighten everyone, is a gift to Putin, but not enough of a reassurance sufficient for him to stand down.

The Fool

Zero draws the Number of the Fool

But only fools will fail to fear

The oddly smiling one who walks alone

Exiled, outland, dawn and dusk

Fleeting, glimpsed by tree and mere

Where ripples lap without a breeze

Or single casting of a stone

Zero, Odin’s one remaining eye

The other traded for all knowing

Nine days he hung considering

On Yggdrasil, the great ash tree

But Life is flux and unfulfilled

 And hungry, Odin walks abroad with Men

Entranced by their technology

Their blindly restless struggles to get free

Refusing that their final liberty

Is in their choice of sacrifice

Their ultimate expression

In their direst of necessity

Insatiably, dispassionate, he watches, waits

And sometimes smiles, but has no tears

For what might dim or blind his sight

Of conjurings and reckonings with Fate

The newborn come and dead depart

His scouts of Thought and Memory

Twin ravens, Hugin, Munin, fly

Through Odin’s questing, flaming Eye

The singing echo-chamber of The Gate.

Katie-Ellen Hazeldine  

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“Nevermore”, quoth the raven.

As ever, only time will tell. I am just wondering about that Joker.

PS: 20:35 PM There is a feeling that something new is afoot. If Pres P were to present Mr Z with terms, and if he has grave enough concerns re Kyiv, who knows, perhaps he may, then he could withdraw and still claim victory, if Mr Z agrees that Ukraine shall let go the 2 seperatist states in the Donbass and Crimea. Since Mr P has been telling the Russian people all along that these were his objectives.

Katie-Ellen

@TrueTarotTales·

#cartomancy I don’t know; is something shifting- 6 Clubs, Ace Hearts rev, 6 Spades, grief, loss, progress, healing, King Diamonds, Mr Putin? 3 Clubs, a meeting. New talks – a breakthrough? 3 -6 days (3 /6 Clubs) longest 6 months but no, will be sooner if at all.

Till next time 🙂

Tarot for 2022 ~ General Impressions + updates

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

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 – lèsemajesté. 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 2 undersea 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.

US and the Pluto Return

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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.

Dates of 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)

“Full fathom five thy father lies”….(The Tempest)

Photo by Sebastian Voortman on Pexels.com

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!

You can also find here my General Rune Reading for January and beyond, 2022

Further reading

USA and the Pluto Return, Ray Grasse, The Mountain Astrologer:  https://www.astro.com/astrology/tma_article210208_e.htm

England, the USA and the Pluto Return . Jim Eshelman

The Year of The Water Tiger: https://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/default.htm

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