Is this the start of WW3? This is the question on social media right now, talking about the possible consequences of the recent US drone strike on an Iranian convoy leaving Baghdad airport (to go where and do what?)
(Readers not familiar with Twitter, the character limit per tweet bulletin is 280 characters.)
IMPORTANT I looked in the cards first, and did the reading up afterwards.
Tweet posted 3 January 2020
” Imminent WW3 not detected. Iran’s rage, 8 Swords, but hamstrung. The incident? Drew Death RX & 4 Swords RX. The weaponry deployed? Drew The Tower. Iran challenged (tanker attacks=Ace Swords Rx & The Chariot RX= control of Hormuz) Outcome ‘Justice‘. More tit for tat. Bad. Not WW3.”
The cards are a mirror first and a crystal ball second. They reflect what is known and current. This provides the reader with their benchmark. Then in the haze, ‘through the glass darkly,’ the reader looks to see signs for which way the wind is going to blow in future time.
The reader does not know more than anyone else. They must look, and then decide what they are looking at, and try to do so without fear or favour.
This can be difficult. People almost invariably want THIS answer, not THAT one. They may ask, then pick holes in what you say, how you say it, and they usually know far more than you do about their question. It is their question you are discussing, after all, and often they will be a total stranger. And if you see one outcome and they see another, future developments may prove them absolutely correct, but the reader can only say what they see, and be glad to be wrong should it mean events turn out better than foreseen.
That is the point and potential value in doing the exercise.
Click here to read whatAlJazeera has to say about the current situation.
But for this reader, looking through the lens of cartomancy, this line of 5 cards is not a vision of the start of World War 3.
Had I drawn The Devil or The Tower or the World card Reversed, Ace or Ten of Swords in the outcome position, I might be interpreting differently.
Public Domain: Horsemen of the Apocalypse
General Qasem Soleimani was killed, and also Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, whose presence in the convoy was a deciding factor for the US government, that this convoy represented a direct and imminent threat to the US embassy in Baghdad.
al-Muhandis apparently helped form Kata’ib Hezbollah, a powerful paramilitary group involved in the protests at the US embassy in Baghdad, and he was apparently a key suspect in previous hostilities. December 1983, two months after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, a truck bomb demolished half of one building of the US Embassy in Kuwait killing five people. It might have been a lot worse but the driver did not hit the more heavily populated buildings and only a quarter of the explosives ignited.
The Pentagon has issued a statement saying it took pre-emptive action to defend its Embassy and staff:
Such an attack has long been called for, openly, by Ayatollah Al-Khameini and leading Iranian newspaper KAYHAN, as discussed here in an article, October 2008. http://kayhan.ir/fa/news/171647
“Historical evidence has shown that US embassies in all countries, even in friendly and allied countries, are the focus of conspiracy. The US Embassy in Iran is a clear and exemplary example of this bitter reality. When the revolutionary youth of our country conquered the US embassy, ​​they obtained documents that indicated that the most likely name for the US embassy was the “spy house”. The documents revealed the betrayal of some Iranian political figures and exposed numerous US crimes in Iran and other countries in the region. Now you have to ask the young and faithful Iraqi revolutionaries who have sacrificed and sacrificed dozens of great and exemplary epics in recent years. Why not end the presence of the US Embassy in Baghdad, the same espionage and conspiracy center against the oppressed Iraqi people ?!”
An author, and former investigator at Scotland Yard has commented on Twitter, and apparently received so much abuse for it, I won’t name him, that the US Embassy in Baghdad is so heavily protected that any assault on it would in any case, constitute an act of war, and that the evidence for such an attack was in hisview pretty solid. He commented that Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also on President Obama’s wanted list, and that war between the US and Iran now seems inevitable, while pointing out that there has been a cold war between them since 1997.
We can all see how it might escalate, no need for any psychic practitioner to try and tell anyone that, and as for any intuitive readers in Iran, or any astrologers who dare to practise as such, even in private, I pity them and worry for their necks.
Click on the link to read whatAlJazeera has to say.
But going forward, looking through the lens of cartomancy, this line of 5 cards does not paint the start of World War 3.
Had I drawn The Devil or The Tower or the World card Reversed, Ace or Ten of Swords in the outcome position, I might be interpreting differently.
My mother turned 81 just before Christmas; wise, shrewd, beautiful, a mother of five; a gifted teacher, naturalist, poet, and for many years, a champion protector of women’s statutory right to give birth in their own home if they wished, not to become mandatory patients in a more or less public setting, rendered subordinates in their own care during what is a personal and family event.
An independent thinker possessed of moral and physical courage, self-discipline and fortitude; and with a keen sense of the absurd -without which there is no sense of humour, she could be described as a classical Capricorn Queen of Pentacles, born 23 December.
Both her parents were naturalists, and she in turn took her children to the wild places, beach combing and. hill- climbing. We climbed in the Lakes, in Glen Coe, on Mull. As teenagers, we were not always in the mood, but she would not leave us at home.
Nor could we always keep up with her, a smallish woman, 5′ 5…same height as me, and with the stamina of…well, a mountain a goat, trotting on ahead with her backpack, my stepfather, Pa, six foot five, toiling moodily at the rear with the biggest backpack.
Capricorn marks the winter solstice, so it marks the beginning of winter, but it also marks the returning sun.
Capricorn is the cardinal sign of Earth in the western zodiac, and also in the storybook of the Tarot, and its associated cards are The Devil (Pan) the Ace of Pentacles (Earth) and the Queen of Pentacles.
Most of us know our zodiac or sun
sign, but what does it look like in the night sky, and what’s the story behind
it? This month it’s the turn of Sagittarius.
Common associations
Symbol:
Date of
Birth: Nov 22 to Dec 21
Ruling planet: Jupiter
Element:Fire
Key phrase: I seek
Body: Thighs
Birth Stone: Topaz, Citrine, Turquoise
Colour: Light Blue
Tarot card: Temperance
Public
Domain: Rider-Waite
The Astronomy
As with all of the Zodiac constellations, Sagittarius was recorded in the 2nd century by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. The name is from the Latin for archer.
Sagittarius is a relatively large constellation which is mainly
visible in the southern hemisphere. In the Northern hemisphere the
constellation can be viewed low on the horizon from August to October. In the
Southern hemisphere Sagittarius can be viewed from June to November. Star maps
generally depict Sagittarius as a vaguely teapot-shaped star pattern or asterism.
Sagittarius is near the centre of our spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. There is a massive star-forming region known as the Omega Nebula situated within its boundaries and Sagittarius is also home to the Pistol Star, one of the brightest stars, the fifth brightest discovered in the Milky Way. First discovered by the Hubble Space telescope in 1930, the Pistol Star is largely hidden in the dust of its own Pistol nebula, but is 100 times as massive as our Sun, and 10,000,000 times as bright.
Sagittarius
is the ninth sign in the Zodiac and represents those born between Nov. 22 and
Dec. 21.
Greek
myth saw Sagittarius the Archer shooting Scorpio the Scorpion, which had been
sent to kill Orion the Hunter.
Sagittarius has long been mixed and confused with another centaur story, Chiron of the Centaurus constellation. Most interpretations conclude that Sagittarius refers to the the centaur, Chiron, who was accidentally shot by Hercules with a poison arrow. Â
This story
does indeed refer to a constellation myth, but it’s the myth behind Centaurus,
a non-zodiac constellation, and not Sagittarius.
The myth
behind Sagittarius probably refers instead to Krotos, a satyr who lived on Mount Helicon with the Muses. Krotos
or Crotus was the son
of Pan and Eupheme, and his mother
had nursed the Muses.
Krotos was renowned for
being both an excellent hunter, horse rider and a devoted adherent of the Muses
and their arts. He is credited with having invented archery and being the first
to use illumination for hunting animals. He is also said to have introduced
applause, and used to clap his hands at the singing of the Muses, for whom this
was a sign of acclaim preferable to any verbal ones. It was the Muses who asked
Zeus to place him among the stars, which he did, transforming Krotos into the
constellation Sagittarius.
Satyrs have human heads and torsos with two goat legs (and sometimes horns). Centaurs have four but the accounts and depictions of Krotos vary. But all the same, he was often depicted with four legs, as the excellent horseman he was.
The
Astrology
Sagittarius
is the ninth sign in the Zodiac and represents those born between Nov. 22 and
Dec. 21. The archer is seen as a bridge between elements and worlds. The life
lesson is seen as Temperance, as pictured in the Tarot card associated with
this sign. The message is all to do with the quiet but enormous power of
moderation, the art of expert timing, and also self-control, avoiding extremes
and addictive behaviours.
The
Astrological Personality
There is no such thing in reality as THE Sagittarius personality
and the same goes for all the zodiac sun signs. Your sun sign is an archetype,
a keynote but of course it is not and never could be the whole story.
The archetype of Sagittarius is brave, lively, warm, optimistic, rational and insightful. Sagittarius zodiac sign subjects need constant adventures and opportunities to grow to remain interested. Freedom is of the utmost importance to them, space and plenty of room for manoeuvre. Likewise they tend also to give lots of freedom to their partners.
They are generally very capable people but they need career flexibility, and they may refuse or fail to apply themselves if bored. Like Gemini, they are prone to restlessness. They may then fail to stick at a job or a succession of jobs, and may struggle financially in consequence.
They tend to have lots of friends, and family and friends can
feel neglected at times when Sagittarius goes go off and travels and shares
experiences with strangers, but Sagittarians will always come home.
Update on a reading initially posted on this site May 2019.
I am a card reader not a politician but I am bound to look, and I have done a number of previous blogs about Brexit. Will the UK leave the EU? Yes. Will it happen 31 October? The chances are still showing as 3/5 as of today (6 October) Still possible therefore. I didn’t get 5 ‘no’ cards, but that’s not a strong signal, so near to the date.
Cards drawn today
3 Spades (no) The Red Joker (yes) 2 Spades (no) King Hearts (yes) 3 Diamonds (yes)
The central card is key. The 2 Spades reads as a no, but does it? The meanings are to be discounted in this spread but this card does indicate a severance of a partnership, often abrupt and sometimes acrimonious, so that’s a tricky one.
There are 3 jokers in my deck, one black, one blue, one red. The appearance of the red joker is the most positive one, and in this context, indicates the PM must plan for failure, but genuinely still thinks it can be done, despite the hamstringing of the Benn Bill.
It is hard to ‘see’ through the noise, and I’m still not being shown any unambiguous outcome, clear No Deal exit, and yet, I still see the UK Leaving, date uncertain, if not imminently, then Jan/Feb -July/August 2020 or within the next 2 years latest. Sometimes it is quite easy to see the answer. I get a 4/5 or even a 5/5 and read it as a straightforward yes or no. This, though, even after 3 years, is a future still in the making.
Brexit will happen. I see no sign of Article 50 revoked. The UK will not revert to the previous status quo. That position is now a phantasm in any case. The whole thing has now become a constitutional juggernaut with far reaching ramifications, while the EU itself is changing, and is publicly nailing far wider-reaching colours to its mast than are to do with trade and commerce as per the vote to join the EC in 1975. The Leavers voters will never forgive and forget such a monumental betrayal at the ballot box.
Sometimes the future exists, as in, we all know we will die someday. This can be predicted with 100 % certainty. Most things can’t, and cartomancy, like betting, is based on a sensing of some algorithm of pattern and form, in weighing the odds.
Who will be the next PM following the next GE, whenever that is? Late November or January seem likely.
ROW 1: left to right It is looking unlikely that Jeremy Corbyn will be PM after the next General Election, whenever that date will be. Still possible, certainly, but not likely. A weak 2 out of 5. Two minus rather than 2 plus, with challenging Spades cards looking towards the future. He is looking at The Joker. This represents two entities simultaneously. Boris Johnson, as a Blue Joker, because The Joker corresponds with Gemini, and Jeremy Corbyn is also a Gemini subject, but correlates with the red Joker in my deck. The Joker has surprises up his or her sleeve—here shown kept under the Joker’s skirts. It is possibly picking upon the current media furore about the inappropriate touch of someone’s thigh 20 years ago, The Joker is also anything young, new, or innovative, and so the Blue Joker is also a symbol of the ‘worried young voter.’
Row 2: left to right It is looking unlikely that Jo Swinson will be be PM after the next General Election, whenever that date will be. Again, it’s a 2 out of 5 and again with Spades cards, but more negative Spades cards looking to the future.
Row 3: left to right Of the two, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have the better chance. What about a new coalition government, Lab-Lib Dem? Again, it is a 2 out of 5.
This isn’t saying ‘never.’ The Conservatives won’t be in Government forever, obviously, but compared with previous readings done in August and May, it still looks more likely that Brexit will be realized before there is a change of government, than that there will be a change of Government without Brexit being done.
Brexit, and the referendum vote to leave the EU bloc may seem almost dead in the water at the moment, following all manner of trouble and the extremely controversial Supreme Court ruling , but it isn’t, and will survive further planned attempts to use the Law to strangle it slowly and surely to death. (The suits of Diamonds and Spades. Lady Hale shows up in my cards as a Queen of Diamonds, or in plain language, a ‘queen’ of Law but also money. Diamonds is money, where a Queen of Spades is purely a queen of Law or ideas, abstractions and concepts, number, logic, medicine and surgery. Jo Swinson is an Aquarius subject – a Queen of Spades.)
Parliament is dead set against it happening at all, in fact, and no longer making any bones about this, citing fears of a so- called No Deal (WTO) exit while not wanting there to be one, as evidenced by Jo Swinson’s letter to Mr Juncker. And it has since been disclosed in the public domain that her husband, Duncan Hames has a strong financial stake in the UK remaining.
The pro-EU element has a majority in Parliament, regardless of the mandate on which many Remain MP’s were originally elected. The Opposition plus the ‘rebel’ Tory MP’s appear to hold all the cards as of 14 September.
I am a card reader, not a politician, and have no idea of the ins and outs, but looking at this through the lens of cartomancy, the twists and turns are far from done, and Brexit may still happen by that Oct 31 deadline, but it is looking just as likely it will not, and if not, it could slip then till just before Christmas (King of Pentacles = Capricorn ) or late Jan/Feb 2020. (The Star card, Aquarius, late Jan-late Feb) If it misses that window, we seem to be looking at July/August 2020. (The Strength card Leo) The idea is intolerable. But if it takes so long, then it can be taken as proof positive of the nature of this beast, and that it was very nearly left too late.
But the Joker does not rule out surprises.
Brexit has become a juggernaut loaded with constitutional dynamite, and chaos is the alternative to delivering on the referendum result of 2016.
This chaos, suggests The Devil card, will be immediate, or long term, probably both. There will be short term disturbance upon Brexit happening, and short and long term disturbance upon it not happening this time. Political reform is now required it seems, whatever the outcome for an angry, frightened and now divided nation in which no-one is happy and Mrs May’s three years as PM, with her ostensible attempts at conciliation between Leave and Remain, finding a compromise, have instead muddied and made outright vicious the waters, compounding the difficulties. A great rift has been quietly yet inexorably opening up for many years, it seems, in the psyche of Britain, and now we all see it, and cannot un-see it.
Let’s look back at the cards drawn in August and May. Any inconsistencies, well, you may pick up on them, in which case, the explanation is that the cards are behaving as a mirror, not a crystal ball. Whatever has stayed the same, there is the potential manifestation of the ‘crystal ball.’
Tweeted 20 August
#Cartomancy Will UK leave EU by/before 31 Oct 2019? Chance is higher than 3+/5. Read L-R. 8 Spades, stuck state. Joker Rx, ie, new PM. (Gemini) Crux card= 9 Hearts. Red suit indicates yes. King D and 9 D. Money talks last minute. Ace Clubs. A deal. New start. GE?
So then, what does it look like? Will there be a No Deal Brexit, ie, an exit on WTO terms? Will it be a rehashed Withdrawal Agreement?
The so-called No Deal departure is the anathema of many Remain voters and the preferred option of many, though by no means all Leave voters, whether these are Labour voters or Tory voters. Meanwhile the Brexit Party has demonstrated its muscle, not only in the EU Elections, but in the UK sufficient that, although the Leave vote was split in Radnorshire, the very splitting of that vote also demonstrated the power of the Brexit party, even though this worked against both the Tory Party and the Brexit Party, such that the Lib Dem candidate was selected.
Be that as it may, what cards do we get?
Does this look like a No Deal Brexit?
Not really. If it is a NO Deal departure, then there is a special European deal on the side. This is not looking like a straight WTO exit. Or if it is, there is also some kind of a special trade deal with the EU. No, this is a beast of some other form. Is it Leave and is it good news for the UK economy ?
Ultimately, yes. It looks that way. Yes for both, 5 Clubs and Queen of Diamonds.
This reading starts as a classic Line of Five spread, where the cards are read left-right like a storyboard. For a yes or no answer, my system is the classic colour system that says more reds than blacks = a yes answer. More blacks than red = a no answer.
How and why does this work in practice? It’s simply a convention of self-programming. I could do it the other way around, blacks are yes and reds are no, and that would work just as well. But this is how I have programmed myself to read them, and with much repetition, like learning to play an instrument, this is how it actually starts to work and deliver accurate results. Perhaps the brain builds new synapses.
The results will not be accurate every time, any more than with any other form of forecasting. Of course not, and prescience is not omniscience, or anything like it, but this is the basic mechanics of how card reading is done.
So, back to Brexit and what it will look like, what did we get?
1 red suit card
1 Joker
3 black suit cards
The short answer is, cartomancy suggests there will very likely be at least some kind of trade deal with the EU, so that it will not be a complete WTO exit.
Does that mean that it’s going to be a rehash of the Withdrawal Agreement then, presumably minus the Irish Backstop? BRINO? Brexit in Name only?
No, it doesn’t look like that either.
This is looking like a trade- only deal, so far as I can see, possibly because the Backstop issue is resolved adequately for Parliament(just) and Mrs Merkel feels she has obtained for EU members some adequate measure of economic surety.
Let’s look at the individual cards for further comment.
That one red suit card, the 8 of Hearts, is representing the status quo, and the power of the Remain lobby in Parliament.
The Joker– cue the catcalls here from those out of accord with the new PM, (says a former Labour voter)- but this is a destiny card, and does not simply describe an actual Joker or clown or buffoon. But if it did, then take another look at the Joker. See the smile. Watch the eyes. They are serious. So is the skill. As an opponent, he is not to be underestimated.
The Joker is a card of surprises. It is the most powerful card in the deck, symbolically. Turning points in a nation’s destiny. My deck contains two Jokers and both have made an appearance in this 9 card spread.
Astrologically speaking, and rather curiously, this is also the card of the new PM, Boris Johnson, as a Gemini subject three times over. The Joker is Gemini. It suggests that, whatever he does in the end, he is completely in earnest when he says he wants us out. And he is not afraid of the EU, unlike Mrs May, and where she had Ollie Robbins, he has Dominic Cummins, one to be knighted, the other held up to public opprobrium. Mr Johnson is intellectually and politically agile, mercurial even, and not averse to sleight of hand. This is meant neither as criticism or a compliment. The stakes are so high, the situation demands nothing less than utmost cunning, or as others would call it, utmost strategic thinking.
There is a saying, that if you love someone they can do no wrong, but if you don’t like someone they can do no right, and this clearly holds true, and has been setting the tone of public discourse since 2016, to little benefit. Where all civility has gone, violence will surely follow.
So, the next card. The central card in that top row. And we have the 2 Spades. Split. Severance. Divorce. This is a Brexit divorce, so if there is an element of ‘fudge’ or compromise, it may not be as significant, or be the trickery into indefinite entrapment that Leavers fear.
This is reinforced by the next card, the 3 Swords. This is in itself a deeply negative card with grief and mourning attached. Our family of nations is unhappy, angry and uneasy. But here, it is also a 3 way plan and again, it signifies a parting of the ways enacted in law. I feel it represents Mr Johnson, Mrs Merkel and M Macron today, and that Mrs Merkel and M Macron will not be in accord re the best way to proceed. The news media suggests this is probably the case even as we speak.
The outcome card, the 5 Clubs…so what does that mean? Clubs is the suit of government and business. 5 is the number of change…and also conflict. This change is uncomfortable.
But as you see, red suit cards translate as yes in cartomancy, black suit cards translate as no, so my cards, rightly or wrongly, have produced that same card as I drew in May, suggesting some kind of trade deal with the EU either before we leave, or immediately upon exiting.
The central card is key, so I use it as my start point for drawing a new line of enquiry reading top to bottom now, asking, well, if it’s not a straight WTO Exit, what will it look like?
The 7 Swords is negotiation and intense effort. It is the card of the ‘workaholic.’
There seems to be a story line here of Mrs Merkel saying in so many words, we can’t risk the No Deal scenario, this would be crazy. (Joker Reversed) The risk has to be detected as real enough and actually, it is. It looks as though Mrs Merkel will say this if she decides Mr Johnson is not bluffing. And I don’t feel he is. But if he could offer a way out that would be more acceptable to the Remain MP’s, he may take a pragmatic view on that, or cynical as some might say. To get the thing over the line and try to heal divisions, which right now are more of a yawning abyss.
That 5 Clubs card is also a reminder that the UK is the 5th largest economy in the world. Mrs Merkel is naturally, acutely aware of this, and she does not let personal pride or vanity get in the way of her judgement.
This last comment is based on the cards. Mrs Merkel is being shown to me as the eminently pragmatic and shrewd Queen of Diamonds, and the 9 Diamonds says…money talks.
Incidentally, Diamonds is the suit of electricity, and may sometimes suggest a health problem of nervous origin. Nervous as in , signals misfiring in the body, such as with Parkinson’s.
OK, let’s try out a pendulum divination, ie; asking my central nervous system to use a movement to indicate its non-verbal response to a verbalised question.
On what basis does this hocus-pocus work?
Well, it ain’t hocus-pocus. It works on the basis that the mind does not reside entire within the brain, and we know things at a deeper level than language, so the challenge is to distract the conscious mind, notice body cues from the CNS, and turn those into language. This language is of necessity, restricted to yes, no or maybe, in varying degrees of emphasis or intensity, depending on the size of the swing, and the speed of rotation of the swing.
Will the UK leave the EU on No Deal/WTO terms?
The pendulum moves to YES, wobbles a while then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.
Will the UK leave the EU based on some adjusted version of Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement?
Again, the pendulum moves to YES, wobbles there awhile, then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.
OK. So that Ace of Clubs card. I also drew it in May. Classic meanings. A new business agreement. Trade Deal. A new Government. A General Election.
Will there be a General Election BEFORE the UK leaves?
It is swinging to NO. But I don’t know. I keep thinking of that Ace of Clubs card. I don’t see one occurring in September or October and that timing would be exceedingly tight. But, swinging the pendulum again, there’s something here, suggesting however unlikely, there may be one either concluded or announced before Christmas.
When will Brexit be declared as having occurred?
The pendulum is swinging between Scorpio-early Sagittarius
Corresponding dates 22 October-21 December
But the arc stops well short of the later end of this date range. But I can’t shake off the feeling there is a twist to come, or a surprise. The Joker hints at surprises. Something may happen earlier than expected. And that Ace of Clubs can mean a General Election hoving into view, and if that’s correct, it suggests that Boris Johnson has already made a decision in respect of the next GE.
Update: I believe this coming twist was at least in part, the announcement made on 28 August, 8 days following the reading, declaring the proroguing of Parliament in which case that 5 of Clubs card, in addition to its more general meaning, specifically denotes the time frame; 5 weeks. That is, four weeks of the annual conference season plus another week.
In summary, What can I deduce from this cartomancy portrait?
There is a gap here, begging some question not directly articulated. It is very often the case in Divination, that one has to read between the lines and look for what is NOT present in the cards. As a reader for a client, I draw my cards, share my impressions and then I ask the client for their question. Context is crucial for interpretation, and I am but an instrument.
Public discussions have centred on whether Parliament will permit Brexit to proceed, or cancel it, defying the referendum result, which in many cases, would mean MP’s defying the majorities in their own constituencies. And assuming it proceeds, discussions have centred on whether this will be a Deal/No Deal Brexit.
But in terms of cartomancy, what is being sensed here I think, is that there is a third possibility. Another route out.
Excerpt from a much longer article in The Spectator by QC Marcus Howe, Chairman of Lawyers for Britain:
“…to achieve meaningful changes to the WA would require the EU to be willing to accept a massive loss of face. This seems unlikely to say the least. So the only viable route to leaving the EU with a deal is to leave May’s WA unratified in its box and bypass Article 50 altogether. This can be achieved via a free trade agreement (FTA) similar to Canada’s but with enhanced mutual recognition of services, as well as security and criminal justice cooperation.
Since it would take time to negotiate and conclude such a deal, we would need short-term bridging arrangements to keep trade flowing freely in both directions while the details of the long-term FTA were being hammered out. The UK and the EU would continue to recognise goods and services as conforming with their standards, unless and until relevant laws are changed. Most of these bridging arrangements could be implemented (at least in the short term) through the UK and the EU using unilateral powers under the umbrella of a political agreement, as opposed to needing a formal legal agreement.” – 25 July 2019
Lawyers for Britain
Things are mighty peculiar. They are at the same time intransigent, and yet moving on apace.
Back soon with more cartomancy 🙂
Until next time!
Original Post, May 2019
Brexit, hey? Where next? Your guess is as good as mine but let’s take another look at it through the lens of my playing cards, drawn three nights ago, May 4.
Will there be a second referendum, as called for by Labour, The Lib Dems, and a number of high profile campaign groups?
Or will we leave without a second referendum and if so, what does it look like from here?
#Cartomancy reads the rows of cards left to right & also sometimes top to bottom, noting the ratio of red: black cards before looking at the individual meanings of the cards containing extra comments.
ROW 1 Will there be a 2nd referendum?
Probably not. There is a ‘new’ king about to come into play. This is not Mr Corbyn. This is a king of Diamonds, an electric communicator with acute money sense and I always draw Mr Corbyn as a King of Hearts. So, is this is a candidate to replace Mrs May as PM, or it is Mr Farage and any effect of the new Brexit Party, or is both these things, and the same card is standing for two significant (new) figures coming into play (again).
I suspect so. A second referendum would kill Brexit, which would be the aim, and this would be achieved by the ballot design, which would be designed to split the Leave vote as per an idea currently under discussion, but that 8 Spades is a pretty conclusive ‘no’ card.
ROW 2 Will we leave following a successful fourth attempt by TM to push through the deal already rejected on three previous occasions? After all, time and energy are not inexhaustible. Note the Queen of Spades which is clearly here representing Theresa May; a woman consulting the ‘legalese’.
Well, based on these cards, and however crazy it might seem, a deal is still looking possible, and is looking more likely at this point in time than NO Deal; and perhaps this is hardly surprising, since the No Deal negotiating option removed from Mrs May’s tool box.
But WHAT deal? The four of Spades is a tomb, a rout, a retreat. This prospective fourth deal or new deal is not Mrs May’s.
Those Nines surrounding the Queen of Spades represent both the failure of completion on 29 March, and Mrs May’s intense desire to get this deal passed. The 9 Hearts is the ‘heartfelt wishes’ card.
The cards indicate that Mrs May sincerely wants to find a way to (or to be seen to at least) to bring the UK out of the EU (not Europe) but the terms of course, are the issue, as we all know, except for those for whom it is not a question of the terms, but more the determination to see Article 50 Revoked altogether, and the whole thing put back in its box, and the lid slammed shut never to be re-opened. The threat of this seems very real right now, or the hope of this, depending on how you feel about it. But it doesn’t look to me as though it will happen.
ROW 3: A second Referendum?
This threat or hope notwithstanding, the cards indicated there will not be a second referendum, although this may not be necessary for the revoking of Article 50. And I don’t see that, so it look as though we will leave, but when? Is there an underlying sense of what it will look like?
If Theresa May should present the exact same deal to Parliament (shown as the 10 Diamonds) a fourth time, this will jam up the works, suggests the appearance of the 4 Spades. It won’t pass, plus, she may then quit as PM, and a new PM will come in (King Diamonds?) This could happen this summer, suggests the second column as I read it top to bottom like so:
6 Clubs ( within 6 weeks from the date of this reading, or, this is a summer card.
In Summary
What is absent from this spread is the single clean strike of the Ace of Spades, that would say a less equivocal OUT on WTO terms.
Other readers and astrologers are confident in expressing their forecasts of a clean WTO Brexit, even now.
I am probably struggling more than they to see past the noise, but I draw another cards and get the Ace of Clubs. This is BRAND NEW BUSINESS with a broad geographical horizon, but lacks that more black and white binary quality of the Ace of Swords
The Ace of Clubs has another quality to it, transcending matters of business….it’s equivalent to the Tarot’s Ace of Wands. Ignition. Birth, Almost like a rebirth.
So what does this mean in plain English? Well, this cloud is still morphing, but it’s looking like a WTO exit BUT with a ‘special European add-on.’
Or it is a whole New Deal.
For the sake of transparency, I should say that while I would perfectly calmly have accepted a remain vote in 2016, I feel the original mandate should be honoured as a point of principle, according to the self same terms in which it was clearly presented by the government in the run up to the referendum.
Execution of detail follows direction which follows principle.
However, as always, the risk in consulting with any kind of oracle is that the reader will not see what they personally may hope to see, and they may equally see precisely what they do not want to see.
I want to see that I will get outta this wheelchair and walk again one day. So, do I see that in my cards?
No.
I could be wrong, and I never say never, but meanwhile I am living with the fact that I do not see in my cards what I wish to see for myself.
You take my point. The reader asks a question. S/he may have personal ‘skin in the game ‘or not, but either way s/he shuffles and picks the cards blindly, and s/he may misinterpret, and be especially at risk of doing so if reading from a position of bias or prejudice, but s/he cannot fudge the reds and blacks except by doing so deliberately, and what the heck would be the point of that, when time will tell us all what’s what in due course?
Il Matrimonio, bless his ecologically right-on size 11 breathable bamboo socks, says he no longer cares one way or another. He just wants it all to stop, and he doesn’t mind how. And he’d quite like me to shut up with even trying to forecast about it.
What will happen will happen, he says.
Sure.
I have to give this forecasting thing a go. Divination is my interest and my study, as well as my arena of work. Whether I get it right or wrong, – still, I will learn something, even if I have to fall flat on my face in front of you. So what? Life is short and…
I know nothing. This is not my core professional activity, which focuses on an individual. I do it to learn more, and explore the limits, and as always time will tell. This is for readers interested in the workings of cartomancy, and as for Brexit, we will all find out, *ahem* soon enough, won’t we?
And let us trust, it will be SOON before each and every one of us is rendered utterly and completely….
Image: Public Domain Review: William Cheselden, 1733, courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
Update on a reading initially posted on this site May 2019, comments based on cards drawn last night, 10 PM, 30 September 2019. I will post the images later today. for readers interested in the cartomancy.
It is looking unlikely that Jeremy Corbyn will be PM after the next General Election, whenever that date will be. Still possible, certainly, but not likely.
It is looking unlikely that Jo Swinson will be be PM after the next General Election, whenever that date will be.
Of the two, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have the better chance.
Brexit, and the referendum vote to leave the EU bloc may seem almost dead in the water, but it isn’t. Despite repeated and further planned attempts to strangle it slowly and surely to death. A pro-Remain Parliament is dead set against it, and no longer making any bones about this, citing fears of a so- called No Deal (WTO) exit while, as evidenced by Jo Swinson’s letter to Mr Juncker trying to ensure there will be no deal by 31 October. The pro-EU element has a majority in Parliament, regardless of the mandate on which many Remain MP’s were originally elected, and seems to hold all the cards as of 14 September.
But Deal or No Deal, I don’t know more than anyone else, and certainly do not claim to. I am a card reader, not a politician, but looking at this through the lens of cartomancy, the twists and turns are far from done, and Brexit may still happen by that Oct 31 deadline. It is looking more likely it will not, and could slip then till Jan/Feb 2020, but it will still happen. This is the big picture. Brexit has now become a juggernaut loaded with constitutional dynamite, and chaos is the alternative to delivering on the referendum result of 2016. Too much has happened, and political reform is now required it seems, whatever the outcome, and whenever that definitive outcome is finally announced to an angry, weary nation in which no-one is happy and Mrs May’s three years as PM, with her ostensible attempts at compromise seem only to have muddied the waters, compounding the difficulties.
Let’s look back at the cards drawn in August and May.
Tweeted 20 August
#Cartomancy Will UK leave EU by/before 31 Oct 2019? Chance is higher than 3+/5. Read L-R. 8 Spades, stuck state. Joker Rx, ie, new PM. (Gemini) Crux card= 9 Hearts. Red suit indicates yes. King D and 9 D. Money talks last minute. Ace Clubs. A deal. New start. GE?
So then, what does it look like? Will there be a No Deal Brexit, ie, an exit on WTO terms? Will it be a rehashed Withdrawal Agreement?
The so-called No Deal departure is the anathema of many Remain voters and the preferred option of many, though by no means all Leave voters, whether these are Labour voters or Tory voters. Meanwhile the Brexit Party has demonstrated its muscle, not only in the EU Elections, but in the UK sufficient that, although the Leave vote was split in Radnorshire, the very splitting of that vote also demonstrated the power of the Brexit party, even though this worked against both the Tory Party and the Brexit Party, such that the Lib Dem candidate was selected.
Be that as it may, what cards do we get?
Does this look like a No Deal Brexit?
Not really. If it is a NO Deal departure, then there is a special European deal on the side. This is not looking like a straight WTO exit. Or if it is, there is also some kind of a special trade deal with the EU. No, this is a beast of some other form. Is it Leave and is it good news for the UK economy ?
Ultimately, yes. It looks that way. Yes for both, 5 Clubs and Queen of Diamonds.
This reading starts as a classic Line of Five spread, where the cards are read left-right like a storyboard. For a yes or no answer, my system is the classic colour system that says more reds than blacks = a yes answer. More blacks than red = a no answer.
How and why does this work in practice? It’s simply a convention of self-programming. I could do it the other way around, blacks are yes and reds are no, and that would work just as well. But this is how I have programmed myself to read them, and with much repetition, like learning to play an instrument, this is how it actually starts to work and deliver accurate results. Perhaps the brain builds new synapses.
The results will not be accurate every time, any more than with any other form of forecasting. Of course not, and prescience is not omniscience, or anything like it, but this is the basic mechanics of how card reading is done.
So, back to Brexit and what it will look like, what did we get?
1 red suit card
1 Joker
3 black suit cards
The short answer is, cartomancy suggests there will very likely be at least some kind of trade deal with the EU, so that it will not be a complete WTO exit.
Does that mean that it’s going to be a rehash of the Withdrawal Agreement then, presumably minus the Irish Backstop? BRINO? Brexit in Name only?
No, it doesn’t look like that either.
This is looking like a trade- only deal, so far as I can see, possibly because the Backstop issue is resolved adequately for Parliament(just) and Mrs Merkel feels she has obtained for EU members some adequate measure of economic surety.
Let’s look at the individual cards for further comment.
That one red suit card, the 8 of Hearts, is representing the status quo, and the power of the Remain lobby in Parliament.
The Joker– cue the catcalls here from those out of accord with the new PM, (says a former Labour voter)- but this is a destiny card, and does not simply describe an actual Joker or clown or buffoon. But if it did, then take another look at the Joker. See the smile. Watch the eyes. They are serious. So is the skill. As an opponent, he is not to be underestimated.
The Joker is a card of surprises. It is the most powerful card in the deck, symbolically. Turning points in a nation’s destiny. My deck contains two Jokers and both have made an appearance in this 9 card spread.
Astrologically speaking, and rather curiously, this is also the card of the new PM, Boris Johnson, as a Gemini subject three times over. The Joker is Gemini. It suggests that, whatever he does in the end, he is completely in earnest when he says he wants us out. And he is not afraid of the EU, unlike Mrs May, and where she had Ollie Robbins, he has Dominic Cummins, one to be knighted, the other held up to public opprobrium. Mr Johnson is intellectually and politically agile, mercurial even, and not averse to sleight of hand. This is meant neither as criticism or a compliment. The stakes are so high, the situation demands nothing less than utmost cunning, or as others would call it, utmost strategic thinking.
There is a saying, that if you love someone they can do no wrong, but if you don’t like someone they can do no right, and this clearly holds true, and has been setting the tone of public discourse since 2016, to little benefit. Where all civility has gone, violence will surely follow.
So, the next card. The central card in that top row. And we have the 2 Spades. Split. Severance. Divorce. This is a Brexit divorce, so if there is an element of ‘fudge’ or compromise, it may not be as significant, or be the trickery into indefinite entrapment that Leavers fear.
This is reinforced by the next card, the 3 Swords. This is in itself a deeply negative card with grief and mourning attached. Our family of nations is unhappy, angry and uneasy. But here, it is also a 3 way plan and again, it signifies a parting of the ways enacted in law. I feel it represents Mr Johnson, Mrs Merkel and M Macron today, and that Mrs Merkel and M Macron will not be in accord re the best way to proceed. The news media suggests this is probably the case even as we speak.
The outcome card, the 5 Clubs…so what does that mean? Clubs is the suit of government and business. 5 is the number of change…and also conflict. This change is uncomfortable.
But as you see, red suit cards translate as yes in cartomancy, black suit cards translate as no, so my cards, rightly or wrongly, have produced that same card as I drew in May, suggesting some kind of trade deal with the EU either before we leave, or immediately upon exiting.
The central card is key, so I use it as my start point for drawing a new line of enquiry reading top to bottom now, asking, well, if it’s not a straight WTO Exit, what will it look like?
The 7 Swords is negotiation and intense effort. It is the card of the ‘workaholic.’
There seems to be a story line here of Mrs Merkel saying in so many words, we can’t risk the No Deal scenario, this would be crazy. (Joker Reversed) The risk has to be detected as real enough and actually, it is. It looks as though Mrs Merkel will say this if she decides Mr Johnson is not bluffing. And I don’t feel he is. But if he could offer a way out that would be more acceptable to the Remain MP’s, he may take a pragmatic view on that, or cynical as some might say. To get the thing over the line and try to heal divisions, which right now are more of a yawning abyss.
That 5 Clubs card is also a reminder that the UK is the 5th largest economy in the world. Mrs Merkel is naturally, acutely aware of this, and she does not let personal pride or vanity get in the way of her judgement.
This last comment is based on the cards. Mrs Merkel is being shown to me as the eminently pragmatic and shrewd Queen of Diamonds, and the 9 Diamonds says…money talks.
Incidentally, Diamonds is the suit of electricity, and may sometimes suggest a health problem of nervous origin. Nervous as in , signals misfiring in the body, such as with Parkinson’s.
OK, let’s try out a pendulum divination, ie; asking my central nervous system to use a movement to indicate its non-verbal response to a verbalised question.
On what basis does this hocus-pocus work?
Well, it ain’t hocus-pocus. It works on the basis that the mind does not reside entire within the brain, and we know things at a deeper level than language, so the challenge is to distract the conscious mind, notice body cues from the CNS, and turn those into language. This language is of necessity, restricted to yes, no or maybe, in varying degrees of emphasis or intensity, depending on the size of the swing, and the speed of rotation of the swing.
Will the UK leave the EU on No Deal/WTO terms?
The pendulum moves to YES, wobbles a while then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.
Will the UK leave the EU based on some adjusted version of Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement?
Again, the pendulum moves to YES, wobbles there awhile, then moves towards NO and starts swinging rapidly back and forth.
OK. So that Ace of Clubs card. I also drew it in May. Classic meanings. A new business agreement. Trade Deal. A new Government. A General Election.
Will there be a General Election BEFORE the UK leaves?
It is swinging to NO. But I don’t know. I keep thinking of that Ace of Clubs card. I don’t see one occurring in September or October and that timing would be exceedingly tight. But, swinging the pendulum again, there’s something here, suggesting however unlikely, there may be one either concluded or announced before Christmas.
When will Brexit be declared as having occurred?
The pendulum is swinging between Scorpio-early Sagittarius
Corresponding dates 22 October-21 December
But the arc stops well short of the later end of this date range. But I can’t shake off the feeling there is a twist to come, or a surprise. The Joker hints at surprises. Something may happen earlier than expected. And that Ace of Clubs can mean a General Election hoving into view, and if that’s correct, it suggests that Boris Johnson has already made a decision in respect of the next GE.
Update: I believe this coming twist was at least in part, the announcement made on 28 August, 8 days following the reading, declaring the proroguing of Parliament in which case that 5 of Clubs card, in addition to its more general meaning, specifically denotes the time frame; 5 weeks. That is, four weeks of the annual conference season plus another week.
In summary, What can I deduce from this cartomancy portrait?
There is a gap here, begging some question not directly articulated. It is very often the case in Divination, that one has to read between the lines and look for what is NOT present in the cards. As a reader for a client, I draw my cards, share my impressions and then I ask the client for their question. Context is crucial for interpretation, and I am but an instrument.
Public discussions have centred on whether Parliament will permit Brexit to proceed, or cancel it, defying the referendum result, which in many cases, would mean MP’s defying the majorities in their own constituencies. And assuming it proceeds, discussions have centred on whether this will be a Deal/No Deal Brexit.
But in terms of cartomancy, what is being sensed here I think, is that there is a third possibility. Another route out.
Excerpt from a much longer article in The Spectator by QC Marcus Howe, Chairman of Lawyers for Britain:
“…to achieve meaningful changes to the WA would require the EU to be willing to accept a massive loss of face. This seems unlikely to say the least. So the only viable route to leaving the EU with a deal is to leave May’s WA unratified in its box and bypass Article 50 altogether. This can be achieved via a free trade agreement (FTA) similar to Canada’s but with enhanced mutual recognition of services, as well as security and criminal justice cooperation.
Since it would take time to negotiate and conclude such a deal, we would need short-term bridging arrangements to keep trade flowing freely in both directions while the details of the long-term FTA were being hammered out. The UK and the EU would continue to recognise goods and services as conforming with their standards, unless and until relevant laws are changed. Most of these bridging arrangements could be implemented (at least in the short term) through the UK and the EU using unilateral powers under the umbrella of a political agreement, as opposed to needing a formal legal agreement.” – 25 July 2019
Lawyers for Britain
Things are mighty peculiar. They are at the same time intransigent, and yet moving on apace.
Back soon with more cartomancy 🙂
Until next time!
Original Post, May 2019
Brexit, hey? Where next? Your guess is as good as mine but let’s take another look at it through the lens of my playing cards, drawn three nights ago, May 4.
Will there be a second referendum, as called for by Labour, The Lib Dems, and a number of high profile campaign groups?
Or will we leave without a second referendum and if so, what does it look like from here?
#Cartomancy reads the rows of cards left to right & also sometimes top to bottom, noting the ratio of red: black cards before looking at the individual meanings of the cards containing extra comments.
ROW 1 Will there be a 2nd referendum?
Probably not. There is a ‘new’ king about to come into play. This is not Mr Corbyn. This is a king of Diamonds, an electric communicator with acute money sense and I always draw Mr Corbyn as a King of Hearts. So, is this is a candidate to replace Mrs May as PM, or it is Mr Farage and any effect of the new Brexit Party, or is both these things, and the same card is standing for two significant (new) figures coming into play (again).
I suspect so. A second referendum would kill Brexit, which would be the aim, and this would be achieved by the ballot design, which would be designed to split the Leave vote as per an idea currently under discussion, but that 8 Spades is a pretty conclusive ‘no’ card.
ROW 2 Will we leave following a successful fourth attempt by TM to push through the deal already rejected on three previous occasions? After all, time and energy are not inexhaustible. Note the Queen of Spades which is clearly here representing Theresa May; a woman consulting the ‘legalese’.
Well, based on these cards, and however crazy it might seem, a deal is still looking possible, and is looking more likely at this point in time than NO Deal; and perhaps this is hardly surprising, since the No Deal negotiating option removed from Mrs May’s tool box.
But WHAT deal? The four of Spades is a tomb, a rout, a retreat. This prospective fourth deal or new deal is not Mrs May’s.
Those Nines surrounding the Queen of Spades represent both the failure of completion on 29 March, and Mrs May’s intense desire to get this deal passed. The 9 Hearts is the ‘heartfelt wishes’ card.
The cards indicate that Mrs May sincerely wants to find a way to (or to be seen to at least) to bring the UK out of the EU (not Europe) but the terms of course, are the issue, as we all know, except for those for whom it is not a question of the terms, but more the determination to see Article 50 Revoked altogether, and the whole thing put back in its box, and the lid slammed shut never to be re-opened. The threat of this seems very real right now, or the hope of this, depending on how you feel about it. But it doesn’t look to me as though it will happen.
ROW 3: A second Referendum?
This threat or hope notwithstanding, the cards indicated there will not be a second referendum, although this may not be necessary for the revoking of Article 50. And I don’t see that, so it look as though we will leave, but when? Is there an underlying sense of what it will look like?
If Theresa May should present the exact same deal to Parliament (shown as the 10 Diamonds) a fourth time, this will jam up the works, suggests the appearance of the 4 Spades. It won’t pass, plus, she may then quit as PM, and a new PM will come in (King Diamonds?) This could happen this summer, suggests the second column as I read it top to bottom like so:
6 Clubs ( within 6 weeks from the date of this reading, or, this is a summer card.
In Summary
What is absent from this spread is the single clean strike of the Ace of Spades, that would say a less equivocal OUT on WTO terms.
Other readers and astrologers are confident in expressing their forecasts of a clean WTO Brexit, even now.
I am probably struggling more than they to see past the noise, but I draw another cards and get the Ace of Clubs. This is BRAND NEW BUSINESS with a broad geographical horizon, but lacks that more black and white binary quality of the Ace of Swords
The Ace of Clubs has another quality to it, transcending matters of business….it’s equivalent to the Tarot’s Ace of Wands. Ignition. Birth, Almost like a rebirth.
So what does this mean in plain English? Well, this cloud is still morphing, but it’s looking like a WTO exit BUT with a ‘special European add-on.’
Or it is a whole New Deal.
For the sake of transparency, I should say that while I would perfectly calmly have accepted a remain vote in 2016, I feel the original mandate should be honoured as a point of principle, according to the self same terms in which it was clearly presented by the government in the run up to the referendum.
Execution of detail follows direction which follows principle.
However, as always, the risk in consulting with any kind of oracle is that the reader will not see what they personally may hope to see, and they may equally see precisely what they do not want to see.
I want to see that I will get outta this wheelchair and walk again one day. So, do I see that in my cards?
No.
I could be wrong, and I never say never, but meanwhile I am living with the fact that I do not see in my cards what I wish to see for myself.
You take my point. The reader asks a question. S/he may have personal ‘skin in the game ‘or not, but either way s/he shuffles and picks the cards blindly, and s/he may misinterpret, and be especially at risk of doing so if reading from a position of bias or prejudice, but s/he cannot fudge the reds and blacks except by doing so deliberately, and what the heck would be the point of that, when time will tell us all what’s what in due course?
Il Matrimonio, bless his ecologically right-on size 11 breathable bamboo socks, says he no longer cares one way or another. He just wants it all to stop, and he doesn’t mind how. And he’d quite like me to shut up with even trying to forecast about it.
What will happen will happen, he says.
Sure.
I have to give this forecasting thing a go, though, because divination is my line of work, and whether I get it right, or I get it wrong, so that I have to go back and figure out how and why I got it wrong with the benefit of hindsight – still, I will learn something, even if I have to fall flat on my face. So what? Life is short and…
I have done a number of readings around Brexit. I’m not being shown a clear No Deal exit, and yet, I see no sign of Remaining either. It is not going to be business as before, however this works out. The UK will not revert to the previous status quo.
We will all find out, *ahem* soon enough, won’t we?
And let us trust, it will be before each and every one of us is rendered utterly and completely….
Image: Public Domain Review: William Cheselden, 1733, courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
I ought to be writing up my latest look at Brexit but I’m too tired and lazy today. We’re still out so far as I can see, despite the persistent groundswell for a second referendum, but how ‘hard’ a Brexit? The cards detect and reflect events in progress, and there is so much happening, I need to look again at this and the timings. I have posted a number of readings on this subject here if you visit the archives.
Craig Hamilton Parker and Jessica Adams still predict a Hard Brexit, posting and broadcasting in recent days. Jessica Adams is an astrologer, and she suggests a series of stages running all the way through to December 2019. I feel no reason to disagree. The Devil card turned up in this context (Capricorn) but I will look again at the timings.
But for now, let’s do a small demonstration of an ordinary deck of playing cards, having fun with telepathy. Here the cards are acting simply as a mirror; reflecting events in progress as they occur.
Il Matrimonio fetched out his Hornby Dublo and laid out a simple track in the sitting room. Placed a couple of stations. Fetched out his three engines; Titch, Diane and The Duchess of Atholl and one by one gave them a whizz round the track.
It was his father’s, bought in Singapore in 1952. Il Matrimonio got into trouble if he ran two of the engines at the same time, but never asked his Dad why this was a problem and never found out why.
His father was a Royal engineer, a road and bridge builder, and was 19 when he sailed to N Africa in 1940 for the desert war against Rommel.
So presumably he had his reasons for not wanting the two engines running at once. I said to Il Matrimonio, run two then, and see what happens.
So he did and they stopped. Insufficient power. So now he knows.That wasn’t so difficult, was it?
The engines whizzed round and round. Here goes ‘Titch’, watched by a giant monster cat. Jessicat. (The little purple thing is her bird toy, stuffed with cat nip.)
Look at that fatty-puss pantherette. What a Daddy’s girl.
Jess and ‘Titch’
I asked the cards, what’s Jess thinking? What’s she making of it? Tell me the story as you see it.
I shuffled
And drew the following four cards:
King of Spades. Wow. This is Il Matrimonio, a Libra subject. His astrological card is indeed The King Of Spades, equivalent to the Tarot’s King of Swords.
Translation: I am with my Daddy.
Jack of Diamonds: Translation. ‘This is exciting. Small things, new things, quick things’. The cat’s assessment of Titch and the rest of the train set. No arguing with that. The set is not new but she has never seen it before.
This card also refers specifically to the engines as objects. (mini-fire) ‘Titch’ et al.
The Queen of Diamonds. Wow again. Translation. ‘Her.’ This was me, a Taurus ‘queen’, equivalent to the Queen of Pentacles in Tarot, in the cat’s peripheral vision as I watched from the sitting room doorway.
The 8 of Clubs is equivalent to the Tarot’s 8 of Wands and translates as ‘quick, quick, hurry, hurry.’ It is a card of emails, phone calls, hustle and bustle.
Well done my little card-stock friends. That was the cat’s whiskers.
Traditional meanings of this card: completion, good news, a celebration, a professional success, project completion, a new qualification obtained, property improvements, property move or sale, a party, a wedding.
And this made sense to the client at a professional level. But – and I have never felt prompted to ask this before using this same deck, reading this card in this way, I asked, does your property have an underground stream running beneath it?
Yes! The client, mightily impressed at my lucky guess, had apparently called in a professional dowser in recent months, suspecting this was the case, and had a very clear idea of how deep underground the water was, and of the path of its course beneath the property. The dowser in question does a lot of work for local farmers, the client told me, not walking out with rods, but getting darn accurate results with a pendulum suspended over the relevant map.
OK 🙂 Now, this connection is so easy to see, looking at that image from the Divine Legacy Tarot. So obvious if you just forget the card’s official book meanings for a minute, and concentrate purely on the image instead of viewing it symbolically or metaphorically.
The card could also be seen as a reference to dowsing, by the same token, and also as a representation of a cave or a magma chamber, I suppose, and instability or subsidence. (Yikes.)Â But, had I been using one of my other decks, would I have picked up on this information?
Perhaps not. Compare the card above with the Four of Wands from other fully illustrated decks.
Left to right: the Four of Wands from:
The Golden Tarot, by Kat Black
The Rider-Waite
The Thoth Tarot, Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris
Does one see that same aspect of feature? Is there underground water jumping out at you? Nah.
So there is the Tarot, and the reader’s familiarity with the traditional meanings of the cards. Then there is the deck that you are working with, with its variations, limitations and sometimes, as here, additional clues.
What is the reader to do, so as not to become limited by the iconography of any one deck?
You build associations by working with a variety of decks. The only thing that matters here is that your chosen decks resonate with you artistically (and therefore instinctively, and therefore emotionally, and therefore intellectually)
Much as I admire the artwork of many of its cards, though not this one especially, the Four of Wands, I cannot bring myself to work with the Thoth Deck. Can’t be doing with Crowley. Cannot.
But that’s all right. It, like Crowley, has a passionately devoted following and does not exactly need me either.
Late on Monday evening Il Matrimonio reminded me that the vote for the EU Repeal Bill was due to take place that night, and I reached for my playing cards. Â It was already 10.00 PM, just hours to go as I drew the cards illustrated below, asking, would the Bill be passed? I left the cards out on the table, made my initial assessment which was that it was a yes answer, then went to bed and tried to forget about it till morning.
These were the cards left out overnight. The top line contained the yes answer, but on what basis did I arrive at that interpretation?
To get at a yes/no answer, you lay out a row of cards using an odd number, 3, 5 or 7.
It’s a question of preference. On such a weighty and hugely multi-factorial question, 3 might seem too few, and by now I’ve trained myself to read in fives. That’s what this stuff is about. You learn your chosen system of divination, whether that’s playing cards, Tarot, runes or whatever. You study it. You learn and you practise, practise, practise until you internalise the code, the programme, or whatever you like to call it, until, if you persist, it feels like second nature.
You activate your internal oracular programme on request. The most psychic psychic in the world – whoever that is, and it isn’t me, doesn’t go round being psychic all the time. Do they heck. They wouldn’t be able to function. Prescience isn’t omniscience, with tools, you learn to manage, instruct and direct that innate human capability. So, how do you direct it?
If it’s cards you’re reading, you do it simply by stating your question aloud as you shuffle. Not for the purpose of enlisting any rogue, random spirits in the room (or, wait… no, are they…are they… aaaggghhh…imps of Satan come to steal your soul?)
No. It is just so that you will hear yourself say it. Then stop shuffling when you feel ready. That’s it. You just stop shuffling when you feel ready, then you take off the top five cards and lay them out from left to right, creating a story-board moving forward in time.
The red card suits are Hearts and Diamonds, simplistically read as supportive or positive.
The black card suits are Clubs and Spades, simplistically read as challenging or negative.
5 red suit cards represents a definite yes
4 red suit cards represents a probable yes
3 red cards represent a likely yes
2 red cards represent a likely no
1 red card represents a probable no
0 red cards says forget it. The answer is no.
So what did we have here? Â 3 red cards and 2 black cards, suggesting that it was more likely than not, that yes, the Repeal Bill would pass. But we had those 2 black suit cards. What else could be gleaned?
The first card out, the 10 of Clubs, is a card of business and far-flung travel and clearly represents the bottom line. Additionally, the 10 Clubs also represents the idea of a body of water. It might be a sink or a bathtub, or it might be a sea or a channel. For the first card out to say ‘The Channel! La Manche!’ provides quite a benchmark.
The second card out, the 8 of Hearts, speaks of a gathering, a convocation. It looks surprisingly cheerful here, there would appear to be more goodwill than so much other evidence suggests. It is strongly suggestive of togetherness (huh? eh? really?) It is suggestive of total sincerity at least, on both sides, whichever side of the argument you personally happen to support.
The third and central card, the pivot or hinge card here, is the 3 of Clubs: a card of confrontation but also collaboration. Three way deals. My goodness, there have been some mighty interesting conversations behind the scenes both sides of the House.
The fourth card here represents a male figure, highly significant in this debate. It might be David Davis, Jeremy Corbyn, or both. Any one card may have multiple meanings. My initial impression was that while David Davis was, despite everything, within his personal comfort zone, while Jeremy Corbyn was faced with a perplexity; needing not to alienate Labour voters who voted to leave, whilst needing to reconcile opposing elements within his party.
The final outcome card, the 4 of Hearts, is traditionally a card of a settled home, indicative of a solid, foursquare outcome. Because this card falls in the final position, this swung the cards more strongly towards a yes answer, denoting a solid but hardly sweeping result, and we now know there was a majority of 36 votes, with 126 challenges and amendments already tabled.
And if you got this far, you might be wondering about those other cards. What were they about?
When a question is so heavily loaded, supra-personal and complex, I cross- reference, coming at the question from different directions, looking for repetition, pattern and breaks in pattern.
The second row is talking about Theresa May herself. I had asked, would she achieve the result she was looking for? Again, we had 3 red suit cards and 2 black translating as, yes, more likely than not. The 2 black suit cards here however, were spades, which are to do with intellect, focus, strategy, loss – and stress, suggesting that while Theresa May will hold her nerve going forward, she is acutely aware of past mistakes and errors of calculation (the jack of spades is bad news, tricky in the extreme.)
The 9 of Spades together with the Queen of Diamonds, speaks of stress and strain, loss, attack and grief, Â concerning a reserved, pragmatic woman of quick instincts and warmth. It also seems, interestingly, to have foreshadowed the challenge of the 9 Conservative MP’s now tabling amendments
There is no doubt the Prime Minister has felt the sad and terrible events of 2017 no less profoundly on the personal, human level than the rest of the general population, and if anything, more intensely because some of her responses were criticised, and, wherever the culpability lay, because these things happened on her watch.
The third row of cards was looking at those opposed to the passing of the Repeal Bill. Would they be happy with the outcome? Â We see here 4 black suit cards and only 1 is red. The King of Spades here is Jeremy Corbyn again, or Keir Starmer, but those who were disappointed can be assured that some concessions will be negotiated or obtained, especially and broadly pertaining to business affairs, as suggested by the outcome card on this line; the lively, mercantile Jack of Diamonds.
In laying out the final row, I had no specific question but was looking for a general sense of how things seem set to progress. The indications here are that the UK will leave the EU more or less according to the scheduled deadline. If there had been a spades card at the end of this row, it would have suggested delays, perhaps even significant delays, and if it had been the Ace of Spades, may even have detected an aborted exit process.  The only spade card here however, is at the commencement of this row and it is the 6 of Spades; a positive if solemn card, denoting a departure; charting a new course. It represents progress, though of course, not without effort, cost or struggle.
Below: The Six of Swords (Spades) from The Gilded Tarot by kind permission of Ciro Marchetti
The outcome card, the 2 of Hearts, suggests a 2 year time-frame, possibly accelerated by whatever is being flagged up here by the 9 of Diamonds sitting just in front of it. It looks as though, because of the electricity of the diamonds suit, that certain significant dealings in respect of transport or travel, and possibly also power stations, may be settled somewhat more advantageously to the UK than many fear. Let’s all hope so.
This is not about politics, promoting any political viewpoint. This is about learning how to read the cards in respect of public affairs, reading cold, Â developing skill of interpretation via benefit of hindsight.
The lessons of hindsight facilitate wider, deeper future foresight. Reading practitioners develop intuitive muscle by tackling questions. All kinds of questions. Exposition builds the reader’s vocabulary, and with it, the capacity for more in-depth precision of card interpretation, and context is king.
True Tarot Tales 