Tarot – Page 11 – True Tarot Tales

Doing a One-Card ‘Yes/No’ Psychic Card Reading for yourself using Playing Cards

First let’s take a minute to consider what is meant by this word, ‘psychic.’ It comes from the Greek word psychikos (‘of the mind’ or ‘mental’) and the Greek word ‘psyche’ means ‘soul’ or ‘breath.’

That’s pretty vague, but we’ll broadly understand what we’re talking about here. It is the (sometimes spooky) experience of feeling you know something, without knowing how you know it or why you feel it, and then getting the proof, and finding out you were right, though you still don’t know how.

Wiki Moon card.jpg — *The Moon from the Gilded Royale Tarot, Ciro Marchetti*

Everyone is psychic to a degree. It’s fascinating, but it’s natural. It might be uncanny, and often it is. It really, really is, but that doesn’t mean it’s supernatural. It is you. It is nothing to do with the occult. It is nothing directly to do with religion or witchcraft, though these activities are connected to or derive from that aspect of the human mind/psyche.

It’s about your innate animal intelligence, your instinct and intuition, and is simply a more acute manifestation of these natural functions of the human mind -your sensory capabilities. Intuition is acutely heightened instinct. It’s built in to your software, maybe even your hardware and is a key element in your survival tool-kit.

Jung was interested in the archetypes of Tarot.

So you took an instant dislike to someone but you don’t know why? Don’t simply dismiss that feeling; the reasons may become apparent later. Meanwhile, give it the benefit of the doubt but tread with care.

So you feel an overpowering reluctance to do something, but you don’t quite know why? Trust yourself. You have your reasons.

Feelings can be wrong, of course, in which case we can always reassess the situation or our reactions, and change our minds. But far more often they are right, and they work faster than conscious reasoning. Far, far faster, and it is this very speed that can save our life. That if something feels bad, it probably is.

Avoid.

But if we’re all psychic, why do people pay to go and consult someone else, or go to a professional psychic practitioner for readings?

They are looking for a service, and that depends on skill and a specific kind of experience. Professional psychics can not rely solely on their intuitive ability in order to deliver a service on demand. Psychic experiences happen when they happen, but the psychic reader needs to respond on demand, and to do this they have trained their abilities, developing specific skills, possibly involving many years of individual study, time and practice so that they can deliver insights that are relevant and that mean something to a total stranger, right here, right now.

But everyone had to start somewhere, and that doesn’t mean we can’t try it for ourselves.

Sometimes we might find ourselves undecided whether to go route A or route B. Using the playing cards might well give us a response that simply reflects what we already knew, or guessed, or suspected, but that is largely the point of doing such readings, and validation can itself be helpful in letting us know we read that situation correctly, whether or not it’s what we were hoping for.

Points to consider

Professional psychic readers are not permitted by law to take payment, reading for people aged under-18.

Or at least, it is not allowed in the UK without the authorization of a parent or guardian. There are good reasons for this, to do with maturity and vulnerability, and a word of caution applies here too, in reading for yourself if you are under 18.

There is a risk is you will not get it right and misunderstand the message. Beware wishful thinking or fearful thinking. Calm your mind. Try and place yourself in a neutral frame of mind.

You may for instance draw the Death card and get frightened, interpreting this as a prediction of imminent death. What is far more likely is that the Death card is reflecting back at you something that has been on your mind lately. Perhaps there has been a death in your circle or perhaps you have been thinking of leaving a job or ending a relationship or other connection, or leaving one area to move away. Professional readers do not always get it right either. Until, and unless you are getting correct answers more than 55% of the time, your results are statistically no better than lucky guesses. Getting it wrong doesn’t mean you don’t have psychic ability, but this ability builds with practise and confidence.

Stay humble or you will be riding for a fall. This is not about power. No-one knows it all, and no one likes a know all. No-one has a 100% accuracy rate.

Is is unwise to make decisions based solely on the turn of a card.

The cards are to be regarded as an opportunity to pause, reflect and maybe think again. Start with easy but specific questions that you can quickly and easily validate, e.g. ‘will it be sunny here outside my window at 10.00 tomorrow morning?’

You might not understand or like the answer.

This is the very real risk in consulting with oracles, even your own – or especially your own. It needs discipline. Words matter. Be clear in your mind what it is you are really asking. Avoid repeating the same questions over and over in hope of getting the answer you want. You may get that answer in the end, but this is not conducive to accuracy, and if it becomes a compulsion, and you find you are doing it A LOT, or if you are experiencing, or have lately experienced depression or anxiety, you will be well advised to leave such activities alone for the time being. It could make matters worse.

Now let’s look at how to get an advisory yes or no answer using just one playing card. That’s all it is, an advisory answer; no court of law could treat this as admissible evidence.

The One-Card Spread

Ordinary playing cards have been used in this way since at least the 1600’s and probably longer. A deck of playing cards is readily affordable and easy to obtain in many shops and online if you do not already have a deck.

The One- Card Spread is the simplest spread of all, but can do the job perfectly well, delivering an accurate yes or no answer.

First, for simplification and for the avoidance of confusion, remove the Joker. The Joker is a complex card. It correlates to the Fool in the Tarot and may mean a yes, no or maybe depending on a number of factors, so is not ideal for our purposes today.

You need somewhere quiet, no distractions. Some people like to use rituals, smudging, candles etc. I don’t use those myself in doing card readings, but this is purely a matter of personal preference.

Doing the reading

First you need to decide the code or system you will use for your one card spread. How are you going to interpret the answer?

Classical cartomancy uses this system:

Any red suit card, Hearts or Diamonds, will mean yes, irrespective of its meaning

Any black suit card, Clubs or Spades will mean no, irrespective of its meaning

There are no rules except that you decide your system and then stick with it.

Consistency and repetition is crucially important. This is what professional card readers do. They ‘self-programme’ by telling themselves that this card means X and this other card means Y until with repetition and practise – it actually does.

They do it till they make it so.

Consider the question. It needs to be clear and unambiguous, asking for an answer that will serve your highest good, harming none.

You remain in charge, using the cards for advice only. You could, for example, ask questions along the lines of, ‘Is it a good idea/plan/will it work out well at this time (meaning is it in my best interests) to go here, go there, speak to, do this, do that…?” etc.

Now shuffle the deck, keeping the cards blind, asking your question aloud or just silently to yourself.

Draw a card whenever you feel ready. There are no rights and wrongs here, but it is this act of stopping and choosing a card completely at random that is actually the psychic activity involved in the reading.

You have here a deck of 52 cards but you are drawing just one, and expecting it to be meaningful and relevant, more so than all the other cards that you didn’t draw, that have remained in the deck. The cards that are missing may be just as significant in answering your question, as the ones that appear.

What have we got here?

A red card or a black card?

No further action is required or even desirable at this point. Simply log the card. Make a note and allow time to discover if the answer is correct.

If you would like to go beyond the probable yes or no answer, and look at the reasons why you got that answer, you could look up the actual card meaning for additional feedback, to treat that as an extra comment or piece of advice, referring to this very basic key below.

Playing Card Suits

Hearts (Cups) = emotions, health, offers, invitations, friendship.
Diamonds (Pentacles) = money, health, house, career, communications.
Spades (Swords) = intellect, law, IT, planning, challenges.
Clubs (Wands/Staves) = action and creativity, travel, marketing, study, ideas, inspiration

Card Numbers

In general, the higher the number of your ‘yes’ or ‘no card, the stronger the answer, except for Aces, which are the lowest number, 1, but are the strongest cards. So the strongest yes answers would be the Ace of Diamonds or Hearts, or the 10 of Diamonds or hearts. The strongest no answers would be the Ace of Spades or Clubs, or the 10 of Spades or Clubs.

Ace – new beginnings; the pure energy of their suit.
Two – partnerships, attraction, balance.
Three – co-operation, connection, growth.
Four – security, stability, foundations, inaction.
Five – imbalance, challenges, change, adjustment.
Six – sweet victory, harmony, attainment and peace.
Seven – spiritual discernment, magic, wisdom, turning point, options.
Eight – movement (or lack of it), organization, prioritizing.
Nine – Growth, understanding, integration, realization.
Ten – Culmination, completion, transition, endings, beginnings.

The Court cards (portrait cards)

Knaves/Jacks represent news or new situations, or young people below the ages of around 25.

Knave of Hearts – romantic, emotional, sweet-natured.
Knave of Diamonds – curious, grounded, sensible.
Knave of Spades – witty, clever, focused.
Knave of Clubs – active, adventurous, risk-taker.

Queens are adults, actual people; usually female but not necessarily.

Queen of Hearts – kind, empathic, nurturing.
Queen of Diamonds – practical, down-to-earth, good in a crisis.
Queen of Spades – truth-seeker, honest, straight-speaking.
Queen of Clubs – ambitious, strong communicator, passionate.

Kings are adults, actual people; usually male but not necessarily.

King of Hearts – approachable but reserved, wise, calm.
King of Diamonds – wealthy, hard working, shrewd, lover of luxury.
King of Spades – analytical, calculating, dispassionate.
King of Clubs – leader, inspirational, temperamental, sees the big picture.

The Seasons in the Stars- Hey Toro! The Star-Bull Taurus

Common Associations

Dates: April 21-May 21 The cusp is April 19/20
Element: Fixed earth (mid spring)
Ruling planet: Venus
Body: neck, throat, tonsils
Birthstone: Emerald
Metal: copper
Flower: the Daisy; innocence, sanctity
Tree: the Apple Tree; youth, beauty, happiness, immortality. Avalon, resting place of King Arthur went was the ‘isle of apples’
Colours: pastel blue, green, pink
Famous for: strength, stamina, stubbornness, practicality, thoroughness, duty, honesty, sensuality, money sense, a pleasant speaking voice, artistic/singing ability, green fingers, good cooking, independence
Professions: Politics, Banking, (also think Bull markets) Agriculture, Construction, Arts, Musician, Entertainment, Beauty, Fashion, Restaurants
Tarot card: The Hierophant- Tradition, Received wisdom, Books

Astronomy

Taurus (Latin for Bull) is a large and prominent constellation between Aries to the west and Gemini to the east. It ranks 17^th in size of the 48 Greek constellations recorded by Ptolemy in his introduction to the Mathematics of the Heavens, the Almagest, written AD 150.

The stars of Taurus depict the face, horns and forepart of the bull’s body. His face is made up of a triangular cluster of stars called The Hyades. There are no legs. The bull is imagined half submerged. He is the mythical Bull from the Sea. A second cluster of stars, The Pleiades, known as The Seven Sisters, swarm like bees above his back.

The best time to observe Taurus in the night sky is during the months of December and January. By March and April, you might see it in the west in the twilight.

To find Taurus first the three stars of Orion’s belt. That’s usually easy on a clear winter’s night. Now look up to the right, looking north- east, See that bright orange-red star? That’s Aldebaran, ‘The Follower,’ a red giant, the biggest, brightest star in the constellation, the red eye of the Bull, glaring in the direction of Orion.

Should the Bull escape his heavenly pen, said an ancient Arabic legend, he would stampede the universe to pieces, and it would be the end of things for all time. Let’s hope nothing upsets him.

Wiki Commons: the horns, face and the giant red star, Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull, glaring menacingly in the direction of Orion the Hunter

Taurus has been recognized as a sky bull since at least the Early Bronze Age. Historians think the figure of a bull was first discerned in the stars by the Sumerians around 3000 BC and was recorded in cuneiform by the Babylonians.

Ancient History

In modern astrology Aries is the first sign of the western zodiac, ushering in the spring (vernal) equinox along with the first lambs.

However, 4000 years ago it was Taurus, not Aries that coincided with the vernal equinox, and for Babylonian astronomers Taurus was the first sign of the Zodiac, ‘the Bull in front,’- leading from the front.

The Bull was also the first sign for the early Hebrews, who called it Aleph, as in A, the first letter of the alphabet.

Taurus coincided with the start of the calving season.

The bull, like its ancestors, the wild aurochs, is a potent symbol of strength and fertility, but where Leo the lion, represents wild strength, Taurus the bull is domesticated, controlled strength, as harnessed in oxen or a bull with a ring through his nose. One of the several archetypes associated with Taurus is ‘The Farmer,’ and many a bull has worn a ring through its nose for the sake of the farmer’s safety. The dairy bulls, breeds such as the Charolais for instance, are especially to be handled with care where the famous black bulls used in bullfighting are by comparison, more easygoing.

The bull has exerted a magical influence on human imagination even before the dawn of agriculture. Aurochs, the fiercer, wild ancestors of the modern bull, were painted in the Lascaux caves in France, in paintings thought to date from 15000 BC.

The most famous section of the Lascaux caves in the Dordogne in France is the Hall of the Bulls, featuring four black bulls, or aurochs. One of the bulls is 5.2 metres (17 ft) long, the largest animal discovered so far in cave art.

It is thought that the aurochs migrated at this time of year; a dangerous but potentially highly rewarding hunting opportunity. Not only did the aurochs provide the luxury of meat, but the horns and hide had many uses.

Hunting gave way to farming of animals, guaranteeing supplies with less risk attached. The first ever cattle, goats, sheep, and pig- farming began in the so-called ‘Fertile Crescent;’ a region covering eastern Turkey, Iraq, and south-western Iran about 12000 years ago.

These farming practices spread westwards, and in time had a genetic effect on the human population, with the sudden appearance of a gene mutation that enabled humans to digest raw cow’s milk. It’s not known when this first occurred, but it probably happened first in Northern Europe and today 35 % of the global human population can digest the milk sugar, lactose. Click on this link to find out more on this subject.

The Cult of the Bull and related Worship

The bull was considered a divine animal throughout antiquity and was a symbol of the moon, fertility, rebirth, and royal power, while today, the Lithuanian word ‘taurus’ means ‘noble.’

There is evidence of bull cults throughout the Mediterranean starting in Anatolia, dating from at least 70000 BC. From the worship of the Apis bull in Egypt, to bull-leaping in Knossos and the sacrificial portrayal in Roman Mithraism, the bull has been an integral part of many diverse and important religious traditions.

Greek legend associated Taurus with the legend of Zeus and Europa, in which the god Zeus, up to his sneaky tricks yet again, disguised himself as a beautiful, gentle white bull, coaxed the princess Europa into climbing on his back, then abducted her, swam away with her to Crete, and made her one of his mistresses. The many gifts Zeus gave Europa included a pet dog that later became the constellation Canis Major. Their children supposedly included Minos, King of Crete, the builder of the Labyrinth and the famous palace at Knossos where the bull games were held.

Bull worship, or rather, the concept of the bull as divine concept gradually migrated ever westwards and northwards. The Celtic druids held Tauric festivals at least 2000 years ago, and there is archaeological evidence of bull worship near Newcastle and York in the UK.

The Buddha was born when the Full Moon was in Taurus (Vesak) and his birthday is celebrated at the Vesak Festival which occurs on the first Full Moon in Taurus.

Beware of the bull

Like the Bull himself, the classic Taurus subject, male or female, is generally peaceable, pleasant, even placid. But Taurus will not be disrespected, pushed or driven. Other people can get a shock when Taurus suddenly sees red …and they don’t give a lot of warning. The mistake of the other person was in underestimating them, taking their good nature for granted once too often.

Bulls cannot physically see red. It is the movement of the toreador’s cape that provokes them, and not the colour. But when the human bull ‘sees’ red, they either dig in hard, or may charge head on.

Taurus in a full-on rage is a ‘bull in a china shop’ – the Earth sign that will withstand or demolish the opposition of other more famous ‘fighting’ signs, Aries, Leo, and even lethal Scorpio, its opposite number in the zodiac.

Taurus doesn’t like to fight but doesn’t lose in a fair fight. The bull ring is not a fair fight; that’s the tragedy of Taurus. But if a Taurus is being unreasonable, misbehaving, or being a ‘bully’ quietly stand your ground. It should pass. Taurus is not at all vindictive as a rule.

But why upset the Bull? Look at him, quietly grazing. Taurus is not a saint, and can be difficult or grumpy sometimes, but he’s really not looking for trouble. Do as you would be done by, and everything should be buttercups and daisies in your everyday dealings with the Taurus subject, man or woman.

Mirror, Mirror in my cards….

Last night we heard that the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson went into hospital for ‘further testing.’

What does this signify?

Social media is a shocker. The sheer venom and schadenfreude of those sitting in judgement, ill-wishing another. There has been so much sad news already. We don’t need more, although more is surely coming.

For those declaring the PM caught it from flouting his own advice, speculation is rife, and it is possible Boris Johnson caught the coronavirus following a meeting with Michel Barnier, who subsequently tested positive and went into self isolation, and I would also wish M Barnier well.

I drew the following playing cards last night about 9.30, asking for the oracular ‘take’ on this unsettling development, and was struck at the way the cards mirrored the facts as reported, though also with an undertow not reported, but which could be inferred by any one of us in contemplating this situation.

Let me briefly explain again for any new visitors on this site: I ask myself a question, the cards are shuffled blind and drawn entirely at random, and I lay them out left to right in a schematic representation which can be read in a number of ways; eg, Past-present-possible future, or I may interpret my line of cards as representing: problem- crisis-resolution.

The first card supplies my baseline, and if it is obviously relevant to the matter in hand, this lets me know if I am on the right track.

I generally use 5 cards but here you will notice I have pulled extra cards, for no particular reason, except as prompted by my intuition, in seeking further clarity.

Cartomancy spread for Boris Johnson 05/04.2020

The Top Row, reading left to right…the outcome is indicated by a combination of the central card and also the final card in the row:

The Ten of Diamonds = Number 10 Downing Street

The Three of Swords = pain of separation, Carrie Symonds and Boris Johnson, perhaps also a reference to the PM’s recent divorce.

The Queen of Spades= Carrie Symonds. Experiencing considerable stress, as one might imagine, and we know she has also been ill. This also refers to other family, BJ’s mother, and to his former wife, Marina who has had some very serious health difficulties. BJ is mindful of all three.

The Ace of Spades Reversed: Crux of the matter. Spades is the suit of Air. An Ace is a breath. It suggests Boris became breathless, and it was this that necessitated the removal to hospital. Further testing may therefore suggests testing for a subsequent bacterial infection…possible secondary pneumonia and a possible need for antibiotics. I heard mention today of oxygen therapy for Boris, and if this is correct, it would seem to support that interpretation. The Ace of Spades is notorious as the card of endings. But reversed, it additionally suggests this is ‘not the end.’

The King of Spades is Boris himself; a Gemini subject, a king of the suit of Air. Mercurial, so intellectually agile, his speech cannot always keep up, and his capabilities may be mistrusted, misjudged or underestimated. He is buoyant, some might say, and indeed they do, unduly so, and his resilience in based in a native physical energy and a temperamentally innate optimism.

Two of Clubs: well it is serious, but it is not the Ten of Spades. That is an utter stinker of a card…it might only mean a migraine (only!) but it can be worse than the Death card – which when it denotes real, actual human mortality (and often it does not) refers to a natural, timely passing, in my experience

I am a sceptical psychic practitioner, and that is not mutually exclusive except in binary thinking. I am extremely conscious that young, strong people are succumbing to this horrible viral pneumonia, and if we hear the PM is on a ventilator, well, it’s bleak news indeed,but others have come back from that. This reading is mirroring what we already know, which serves to illustrate the synchronicity that happens in a reading….the common experience of an apparently random but oddly meaningful coincidence.

The Bottom Row

The Joker: This card is representing both the ‘wild card’ of the coronavirus, and also the Prime Minister himself. The Joker or the Fool as it is known in Tarot is not to be mistaken for a fool in the sense of stupidity. The Joker is the most powerful and most numinous card in the playing deck, just as the Fool is in a tarot deck. There is no predicting the Joker. It is the ultimate Fate card; the hand of destiny.

The Ace of Hearts Reversed: Loss of wellness, sadness and worry, concern for a child (or in this case existing children and a new baby on the way)

The Ace of Diamonds: This is a positive card when read in it’s own right, indicative of medical diagnostic expertise. Read in conjunction with the Seven of Diamonds, I read it as ‘fever/contagion’.

The King of Diamonds means a doctor, and probably refers to one or more medical advisers currently in attendance.

The King of Clubs refers to another doctor, and also a senior government figure being kept closely briefed (Clubs = the business of government)

The Three of Clubs There is a key team at work here; an inner team of 3 government figures keeping close counsel.

Let’s turn to my Tarot cards….better pictures. So read us a story, morning glory.

From The Legacy of The Divine Tarot, artist Ciro Marchetti

Card 1: The Ace of Pentacles Reversed = head of government absent, someone left home, the physical body is topsy-turvy, one cannot eat, business is not as usual. Money is lost. Sadly true for too many.

Card 2: The Fool. Aha, Here we have another face of The (totally serious) Joker. Boris Johnson, and look, he has his little dog Dylan right there with him. He has been a bit ‘out of it’ with this fever.

Card 3: The Six of Swords; a solemn undertaking, a journey into the unknown. Styxian, but I strongly relate to this card, and based on past experience of this card, more often than not it signifies the road to recovery. Time frame 6 days-6 weeks.

This morning I read an ominous prognostication via an esteemed colleague on Twitter, Kyra Oser; a psychic tarot reader in the US :

Fasting Fridays for Future@KyraOser·3h Today’s #Tarot: Tower, Devil R, 4 of Pentacles R This week brings the fall of more than one leader. The demise will come in threes. Mass unemployment of millions more will expose the greed of extreme wealth. The systems of past times will be overturned in an economic revolution.

Kyra does not name names, and she is quite right. Those cards are utter stinkers. I tend to be a sunny side up reader. I could be entirely wrong about that too, but if I have bad news to share with one of my clients, that is different. They have sought out the reading, I am trying to identify the answer to their question, and I am also working to identify their options in any given situation.

As with medicine, the aim in card reading is to do no harm. This looks as though it could be very tough.

All the very best to the PM, and to you too at this deeply unsettling time.

Update: 20: 30 and the PM has gone into special care.

The Norse runes in question: Elhaz/Elk, (protection) Uruz/Auroch (strength), Eihwaz/Yew (regeneration)

Until next time 🙂

February, and a One-Card ‘Crystal Ball’ style reading

I am at pains to stress I don’t work as a fortune-teller. I work as an adviser, working to a brief, and I offer forecasting within a specific context, because otherwise, who am I reading for exactly? And I aim to deal in relevant specifics wherever possible.

Context is key for meaning, relevance and precision.

However, I also like to challenge myself. General ‘scrying’ of ‘the’ future, Nostradamus style, is part of a very ancient tradition, and I sometimes work with a well known astrologer, Jessica Adams, writing as a guest contributor for a monthly feature, Tarot Tuesday at JessicaaAdams.com.

The challenge is to pick just one card, and share my intuitive impressions triggered by this card for the coming month. But without benefit of any other context than this loose time frame. One or two other Tarot card readers also write up their one card readings for the month to come, and Jessica then correlates these Tarot findings with current astrology.

My chosen card for this February 2020 was the Six of Swords.

Book meanings: relocation, progress, exploration, charting a new course, mourning, travel by water, self determination, east

From the Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Image by Ciro Marchetti.

Lick your finger, hold it up…what is the prevailing wind?

Winds are changeable of course, from day to day, even hour to hour, but still, it has been interesting for me as a reader, to correlate my previous one card ‘crystal ball’ readings with events of the ensuing month.

An earlier one card reading said ‘wild fire,’ (you can see previous readings via the link provided below) and it is still playing out, tragically; particularly the Australian wild fires, of which the first were actually in September, and now it is known that several of these were started deliberately.

These single card readings are actually drawn 2-3 weeks ahead of publication, so that I am drawing a card mid January for the first Tuesday in February, and mid February looking ahead to the first Tuesday in March and so on.

Logically, none of it ought to make any sense at all, unless by sheer coincidence. Except that isn’t how it works, when it works.

It works on animal sensing.

Click below to read February’s Tarot Tuesday feature, courtesy of Jessica Adams.

Tarot Tuesdays with psychic astrologer Jessica Adams

Until next time 🙂

1 -2 February, Imbolc, Candlemas and Brigid’s Day

Today is Candlemas, the Christian festival of presenting Jesus at the temple, but long before that, this time of year marked a more ancient celebration in Gaelic Britain: the rites of spring and the fire festival of Imbolc.

Let’s get with the programme, Imbolc style, and parade down the street, go pray for the health of the fields! It’s all about the soil. Our cradle on Earth.

Candlemas is a continuation of that more ancient festival Imbolc, which spans 1-2 February and begins 1 February with St Brigid’s Day.

The original Brigid was a pre-Christian goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the mythical first people or faerie people of Ireland. She was a daughter of the chief of the gods, The Dagda, and was known as a goddess of healers, poets, smiths, childbirth and inspiration. Her name means “exalted one”.

*Riders of the Sidhe, John Duncan, 1911*

Her story was later merged with the Christian saint of the same name in the middle ages, St Brigid of Kildare.

This fire festival, whether viewed as pagan or Christian, began as a neolithic festival also celebrated in Scotland and the Isle of Man, roughly marking the 1/2 way point between the winter solstice and spring equinox.

There are various suggestion about the etymology of ‘Imbolc. ‘ It is commonly thought to come from a word meaning “in the belly.” reflecting the role of the goddess Brigid as a protector of women in childbirth, as well as the safe birthing of precious livestock.

Any time now, is the time of the very first lambs. The start of the lambing season varies by up to two weeks in any given year.

Brigid was said to visit one’s home at Imbolc. Asking her blessings, people would make a bed for Brigid and leave her food and drink, and items of clothing would be left outside for her to bless. Brigid was petitioned to protect homes and livestock. This was a time for feasting and visits to sacred wells, and a time for ritual divination.

St Brigid’s cross is the classic icon of her saint’s day today, though this too, predates Christianity. It is made from rushes and was placed in doorways to protect the home from harm.

A new Christian story was created for it, that the earthly manifestation of Brigid, St Brigid of Kildare, had woven it for a dying man, using rushes from the floor, baptizing him at the point of death.

By Culnacreann – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3500722

Spring fire, fierce quickening of new green shoots, the fierceness of the ram.

Imbolc was when the Cailleach. —the divine crone of Gaelic tradition—gathered her firewood for the rest of the winter. Legend said if she wished the winter to last a good while longer, she would make sure the weather on Imbolc was bright and sunny, so she could go out and about, and gather firewood.

This superstition says it’s good news, then, if we have bad weather at Imbolc. Winter is almost done with for another year.

Let them sleep soon, the storm hags.

The Storm Hags. Public Domain-Henry Fuseli(?)

Until next time 🙂

Brexit Day: Currents and Currency

Card drawn today as my Card of the Day: (tweets limited to 280 characters.)

Katie-Ellen@ktlncartomancer·57m Tarot COTD: The Magician. 1st card out of the deck, shuffled & drawn blind. Skill, alchemy. Self-assurance, self-determination. Yet. 4 elements-‘corners’ of the globe & see globe of the spheres?Tricky year ahead but UK Manuf, tech & space ind will do big new things. IMG Marchetti

The Magician: The Tarot of the Divine Legacy: Ciro Marchetti

The Magician makes things happen. Britain is making things happen. Britain is still making things. See the factories hidden inside this image? See the tower blocks of the City and the service sectors? See the books new and old? See the astrolabe, the wheels, the cogs, the electricity, and the conjuring, welding and harmonizing of a master conductor/physicist?

There are a number of posts here on this blog, card readings on Brexit dating back to the referendum of 2016. We were in Bilbao the day the result was announced, and next day drove across to Sitges, and were asked about it a few times by total strangers, all in a thoughtful, friendly way.

Some were Catalan.

Let’s just look back to December.

Posted on Twitter 9 Dec 2019:-
Katie-Ellen@ktlncartomancer· Will it be a hung parliament? Let’s look through the lens of playing card cartomancy. No opinions. Just cards. Shuffle blind, draw 5 cards, red/black, central card key. 10 Diamonds, Queen D, Ace Clubs (reps GE & a NO answer) 4 Spades (ugh) Ace Diamonds (future = new start).

And let’s look back again at an earlier reading, posted 1 October 2019 in which I used pendulum divination, asking this question…..

“Will there be a General Election BEFORE the UK leaves?

The pendulum 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.” – (posted 1 October 2019)

The dates though? The dates. How did I do there?

I was timid. I posted in October that I drew a 2:5 chance of there being the Halloween Brexit promised for 31 October. I still detected it as possible therefore, while far from guaranteed, and of course, now we know it didn’t happen. 1 October the chance suddenly reduced from 3/5 to 2/5.

1 October 2019 “The figure on this card from the Legacy of the Divine Tarot deck, illustrated by Ciro Marchetti, is reaching out his arms, spanning the Scorpion of Halloween and somewhere between Aquarius and the Fish of Pisces, late February-late March. But is it 2020 or a continuum into 2021?”

We entered Aquarius 20 January, so that the formal declaration of Brexit tonight is set to occur at the very beginning of the time window indicated by my reading.

And yet, as we know, this event at 11.00 PM tonight UK time, midnight Brussels time, marks the start of a year long transition period.

Time and again since 2016 I have looked to see if it would be a No Deal Brexit. I have not at any time seen a No Deal Brexit. We might still get one, but the Withdrawal Agreement means it has been averted at least until the end of 2020.

So how will that proceed this year? In other readings, I have noted many appearances of Leo the Lion for some reason I don’t understand, indicating a key development in July-August 2020. I’ll have to watch that space.

Again and again since the 2016 referendum I have asked, what is the ‘destiny’ for Britain, and drawn the same card over and over, the Nine of Coins, suggesting a slow gathering momentum, a juggernaut, and a coming decade of hard work and economic achievement.

This card specifically suggests notable prospects including but not limited to: financial services, manufacturing, horticulture/agriculture, farmer’s markets and a surge in demand for local produce luxury goods, the heritage industry and hoteliers.

I would be happier to see a fish leaping in that pond, though at least there is a pond, and that is clearly vital business pending, fishing rights and fisheries, significant by a silence in the noise around the current withdrawal bill passed by this Parliament. This bill, may presumably, may be superseded by events.

Update: Click here to read: BBC: Fishing will be a red line issue

Meanwhile, the new 50 pence coin has apparently so enraged many Remain voters who are not reconciled to the direction the UK has voted to take, they are threatening to deface it. It is unlawful to deface a coin of the realm, but nail polish remover will remove permanent ink, and so will toothpaste and baking soda.

To those so utterly irreconciled at this tide of national events, that they are publicly threatening to deface these new coins with a swastika, on the grounds that this coin marks the new face of Britain, shame on them. And this, the week of the 75th Holocaust Memorial.

Britain, for all its many failings, and despite the likes of Moseley, and shockingly, the machinations of Edward v111, has never had a fascist government, unlike all those countries in mainland Europe we shall forebear to name. Britain was fortunate too, in its allies, and was lucky that it was more than once assisted, and even reprieved by its island status, a 450 000 year old accident of geography.

…“The breaching of this land bridge between Dover and Calais was undeniably one of the most important events in British history, helping to shape our island nation’s identity even today,” said Professor Sanjeev Gupta, a co-author from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial. “When the ice age ended and sea levels rose, flooding the valley floor for good, Britain lost its physical connection to the mainland. Without this dramatic breaching Britain would still be a part of Europe. This is Brexit 1.0 – the Brexit nobody voted for.”-Source: The Independent.

This has of course not saved these islands from wave after wave of historical uninvited migration and hostile invasion. The British people were forged in wave after wave of intermarriages following invasion and migration; the Romans, the Norse, the Jutes, the Saxons. The list goes on and on.

The shock of 1066 must have been so seismic as to be almost unimaginable. Duke William abolished slavery, but freemen landholders became serfs and tenants almost overnight.

Harold Godwinson

Betrayed by his brother

Begged wait by his mother

Echoes shrined in thread

A fallen king still speaks

Of ships on shingle

Senlac sundered

Homeland hillside

Battle ringed in red.

The English language was never the same again. Norman French was the new language of state and power, and continued so for another 300 hundred years. Click to Continue

Who are the British anyway? Who ARE the Brythones? And who are the English? These islands been invaded so many times, often with horrific violence, by incoming peoples plundering minerals, seeking fertile farming land, sweeping in from the European mainland, and with such an ensuing commingling of tribes, it is not so easy to say, let alone characterise the ‘indigenous’ population, if they are not direct descendants of the Anglians themselves, except to say the native Britons are largely Indo-European, and as such shall remain.

We are not moving away anywhere, except that our island home is drifting westwards as our eastern cliffs continue to crumble and our westerly margins build. The sea is further and further out, along the coasts of Lancashire and Cumbria, I have seen that visible difference during my own lifetime.

Today is about isolationism. It never was and it never will be, as if that were even possible, anyway. It is not anti-global, and yet is is a rejection of a certain kind of globalism, the corporate kind.

The future being resisted here is a chimera of the virtual world, where a chip implanted in your body will mean you swipe left or right, opening a door, getting in to work. That technology is already here,with our greater ease of convenience as the supposed trade-off.

After all, we are already using this technology in medical procedures, such as pacemakers, and in pets, chipping them in case of loss or theft, is the reasoning, meant to reassure:

“The syringe slides in between the thumb and index finger. Then, with a click, a microchip is injected in the employee’s hand. Another “cyborg” is created.

What could pass for a dystopian vision of the workplace is almost routine at the Swedish startup hub Epicenter. The company offers to implant its workers and startup members with microchips the size of grains of rice that function as swipe cards: to open doors, operate printers, or buy smoothies with a wave of the hand.

The injections have become so popular that workers at Epicenter hold parties for those willing to get implanted.” Source – The Independent, 2017

And could we,would we sell our children’s futurity for such a mess of pottage as that?

A ‘metropolitan’ city dweller might counter this in terms of the alternative vision; recoiling in their turn from some vision of a kind of folk horror revival.

It comes down to outlook, but the kingdom has spoken in reclamation of community; the fact and meaning of landscape, the minerals that build our unborn bones and teeth, and our feeling of connection to these are the fixtures and fittings wherever we go. Only the furniture, we choose.

If home is where the heart is:

On y reste.

On y va.

On y retourne.

It looks to me we are in for a momentous and hard-working decade of change, and doubtless this will be unsettling for some, and there will be losers as well as winners, just as there are now, and have been this past 45 years, but the more we thrive, the better we can carry the poor and the sick, the young and old and weak, and the UK is going to do OK.

The Nine of Coins says- better than OK.

Till next time 🙂

WW3

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 what AlJazeera 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

Why don’t you close the door of this spy house ?! (Day note) EXCERPT

“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 what AlJazeera 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.

Till next time.

The Why of Winter

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.