Question: what is the dynamic between President Putin and President Xi as shown in the cards, and what will be the consequences of this recent meeting in Moscow for the outcome of the war in Ukraine and beyond?
#Tarot#Ukraine STANDS. President Xi twitchy, non enthusiastic, doesn’t want China bogged down by Putin. But wants to give P just enough to defy western hegemony yet without alienating western business. Tricky tightrope for Xi. Turkey & Japan tense. Aries season will be LOUD.
2/ But if Xi is careful, canny, Water Rabbit year, carefully does it, he is quids in. He will have Putin/Russia over an (oil and gas) barrel, literally, and even though that particular pipeline is years off completion- Xi is securing others. Hierophant. Taurus Money king. #Tarot
TOP ROW: PUTIN 7 Pentacles- THE LOVERS- 7 Wands
MIDDLE ROW: XI 2 Swords -TOWER – 2 Pentacles
BOTTOM ROW King Wands-Ace Wands-Princess Wands-King Pentacles-4 Swords- comments, short term developments
It is striking to notice the symmetry of the sevens cards either side of the central card The Lovers, especially as it is mirrored by symmetry of the twos cards either side of The Tower on Xi’s row of cards.
7 Pentacles classically signifies great efforts with little to show for it.
The Lovers signifies Putin’s hopes of a partnership with Xi on equal terms. Russia, after all has the gas and oil that China needs. Additionally it may signify discussions that focus on ideas or decisions to be put into action during Gemini season-late May-late June 2023. Gemini can mean intel, surveillance,drones or weapons deployed for air attack.
7 Wands classically indicates defiance, determination, a sense of moral righteousness and can be detecting critical events to occur during the third decan of Leo season. This decan is ruled by active or downright aggressive Mars, and correlates with dates 12-22 August
The 7’s in tarot are laborious. They are slow. Heavy going. The fact that Putin’s row of cards both starts and ends with a 7 card suggests that he will get the minimum support from President Xi, for all the helpful noises Xi may be making as shown by The Lovers card. Empty words. Help may be forthcoming, and it may include military technology or hardware but if so, it doesn’t seem to do much if anything to accelerate Russia’s military progress or advantage in Ukraine.
The clear suggestion here is that the meeting between Putin and Xi will have little direct effect on Russia’s ability to escalate the war against Ukraine. That slow 7 does not speed up. We start with a 7 and we end with a 7. It speeds up a little. The earth suit card, the 7 Pentacles (Taurus) is slow. The 7 Wands (Leo) is fiery, somewhat faster. But this is no real uptick in tempo. Whatever Putin might be hoping for, he seems unlikely to get it from Xi based on this lack of change in pace or scope across the tarot storyboard, for all the friendly words between them, at least in public.
The inference. Xi does not NEED Russia to win in order for China to get what it wants from Russia. Cheapest oil and gas. Whether China helps Russia or not. Whether Russia wins or loses- however victory or defeat is to be defined in this situation- China will have a strong bargaining hand in trade with Russia, and Xi knows it.
Xi can afford to stand by-that 2 Swords and the 2 Pentacles. He is no hurry to see a Russian victory. He reckons that this disastrous war may actually buy China both leverage and a breathing space of time to build back its own economy post- covid, as represented by The Tower card (correlating with Mars=War and the Pandemic )
Does Putin see this? Surely he does. But he sees that he simply does not have the luxury of choice in this partnership, or certainly not at this juncture, to strain this ‘partnership without limits’ by bringing pressure to bear upon Xi.
Others close to Putin will obviously know it, too, and they don’t like it at all.
That final Four of Swords is a card of stalemate and retreat. A knight is in his tomb.
This the card of hospitals, while the 10 Swords (ruin, sometimes sickness) has made countless appearances in readings since February 2022, saying this will not end well for President Putin, personally.
The 10 Swords correlates with the third decan of Gemini. We may find that the dates June 11-June 21 may prove pivotal for Putin, though it might well be late in 2024 before this card manifests in terms of concrete developments in respect of Putin position in power.
The ‘Final’ outcome of this war of Russian territorial conquest : no one can say, and the future is mutable. But the cards have been consistent since February 2022 that Russia fails to take Kyiv. Ukraine survives as a sovereign territory. The territorial integrity of the entire Baltic region is at stake, even if this is a prospect way beyond Russia’s present capability, and is a direct threat only in principle. Finally, Ukraine is receiving the fighter jets it has been asking for- Migs supplied by Poland and Slovakia. Can Ukraine take back Crimea? The cards indicate that this might be possible if it was a question of Ukraine’s will to do it. But they won’t get the support. Ukraine is not only smaller but very angry that promises have been broken and betrayed.
“Three decades ago, the newly independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third-largest nuclear power in the world.
Thousands of nuclear arms had been left on Ukrainian soil by Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But in the years that followed, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearize.
In exchange, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s security in a 1994 agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum.not only by Russia which then broke 2 peace treaties, but by the West, which promised Ukraine protection in exchange for their agreement to surrender of their own nuclear weapons capability.”
The tarot has not shown either an ultimate Russian or a Ukrainian victory. There are only losers here. Except that the signs all point to the survival of Ukraine as an entity in its own right. Russia fails to take Kyiv and for Putin, that means failure- that Ten of Swords.
This is only one reader’s interpretation, and of course, it needs no saying, tarot card readers are not omniscient. But tarot is what I know. And what I see, or do not see, is what I can share.
Thank you for reading. Back soon. In the meantime I’ll leave you with a video demo of the deck that we’ve been looking at today; the Tarot Illuminati.
Disclaimer. This is a Tarot reading only, for readers generally interested in the modern use and applications of Tarot and cartomancy divination.
War is raging, people are dying. The political seas are boiling, the news is non stop, but we will all be glad if it gets no worse in light of Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons.
This deeply unprepossessing personage below, Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, 46, son of a Muslim cleric, Head of the Chechen Republic, who is apparently nicknamed Putin’s lap dog or Putin’s attack dog, has reportedly been urging Putin to up the ante, deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. He has just been promoted to the rank of general and looks like a choleric killer-gnome with high blood pressure. Better learn to calm himself down if he wants to make old bones.
Ramzan Kadyrov
Kadyrov fought against Russia in the first Chechen war, when he was pro Chechen independence. It is only natural and laudable to defend one’s own homeland, but he swapped sides in the second Chechen war. His province is economically weak, it has been reported. He relies on the Kremlin for money, and has a reputation for ‘human rights abuses.’
Kadyrov has said he will send his three sons to fight in Ukraine – aged 14, 15 and 16.
Putin’s PR man, Dmitry Peskov has apparently lamented that Kadyrov gets ‘too emotional at difficult moments’.
If this isn’t an exceedingly difficult moment for President Putin…
Let’s hope that Kadyrov’s promotion is actually Putin’s way of managing him, kicking him upstairs,keeping him sweet while at the same time, putting the frighteners on everyone.
Biden has said that Putin is not joking. Ukraine knows he isn’t, and we have all seen that Putin’s regime is capable of pretty much anything. It’s not that he’s bluffing. But I am not seeing that he will do it.
Dmitry Peskov
President Xi meantime has plainly intimated that the deployment of nuclear weapons is a red line that Russia had better not cross, while Saudi Arabia has joined up with Russia to agree a managed reduction of oil stocks from November, which will drive up prices, and which the Biden administration views as an act of betrayal by OPEC and the Saudis, driving up the price of Brent crude oil just before peak season demand. US views this as an act of solidarity with Russia. OPEC says they have done this to stabilize the market.
Will Putin deploy nuclear weapons? On the face of it it may seem entirely plausible that he will do so, given the current desperate circumstances, but he has many different audiences, each with their own stakes in play.
What does the Tarot show in respect of this nuclear threat this coming month?
#Tarot#Ukraine#Putin October direct nuclear attack not shown, test not unlikely. 5 Swords=defeats. King Cups=water/Poseidon/threat +message to Biden. Week 3 fiery+4 unstable. 9 Pentacles/Temperance/3 Coins-China would be alienated. No clear gain +P hopes winter splits opposition
Tarot readers don’t claim to know ‘the future’. They use their cards, that is all, to try and sense the coming weather, and articulate their findings.
October is deeply worrying, The fourth week is potentially most worrying as seen in the cards. November too, highly likely. But I am not being shown an impending nuclear Armageddon outcome. Let’s consider the cards in more depth.
Issue: The Five of Swords and The Seven of Cups
The Five of Swords is Defeat, rage, mortification, humiliation and chagrin. This is a reflection of the recent defeats experienced by Russian forces, but is also holding up a mirror to the defeat he wants to inflict. He wants it finished by Christmas. This may not be possible. The Five of Swords is Aquarius, late January to late February. Putin could make use of a pause at this juncture. Ukraine has no reason to seek one, but it does have every reason to push harder and not lose momentum
The Seven of Cups talks about ‘castles in the air.’ Daydreams and potentially, delusions. This is about Putin’s dream, his vision. This card generally talks about those things which inspire us, but which are not realized. In terms of timing, this is a card of Scorpio and late Scorpio time, late November, suggesting that Putin is envisioning a next stage strategy working towards that date frame. This is a card of deep water, which in the context of the Poseidon submarine being deployed in the Kara Sea, is not a reassuring card. This card therefore, benchmarks the threat. (Not forgetting the nuclear train being deployed to the border with Ukraine.)
Week One: The King of Cups
This card represents a number of possibilities:-
A man acts as a broker or peacekeeper. The suit of Cups is calming in general
The card represents Neptune- dominant planet in 2022 and the alter ego of Neptune is Poseidon- well, here we are, in week one, talking about the Poseidon missile threat.
The deployment of the submarine-and the train- is a direct threat and intended as a rebuke to the ‘King of Cups’, which is the court card representing Scorpio native President Biden in response to recent further US armaments to Ukraine and the new Lend Lease.
The Russian Poseidon submarine is in the Kara Sea, in the Arctic, a prime fishing ground with vast reserves of untapped petroleum and gas. The US government sanctioned Exxon from drilling there in 2014. One wonders whether this is Putin’s way of reminded the US government that he has the means to prevent them from accessing those energy fields.
If I am understanding this correctly, for Putin to use that Poseidon submarine to carry out a nuclear attack on Ukraine it would need to enter the Baltic undetected.
Image via Wikipedia
However, this Neptune card conveys a strong sense of key coastal or maritime developments.
Aug. 24, 2022
On the 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, the United States is reinforcing its long-term commitment to the nation with $2.98 billion to train and equip the Ukrainian armed forces for their struggle against the Russian invasion.
President Joe Biden announced the aid at the White House. He said the people of the world have been awed and inspired by Ukrainian resistance and pledged the United States will stand with the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend their sovereignty.
The aid “will allow Ukraine to acquire air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars to ensure it can continue to defend itself over the long term,” the president said. – SOURCE
Week Two: The Empress Reversed.
I am struggling with this one, to gauge its meaning apropos of the question. The Empress is Demeter, so, land and agriculture. The Empress is mothers and motherhood eg; Mother Russia. Maybe to Putin she is a vision of Catherine The Great, and attached to this, the city of Odessa which she founded. If so, perhaps this card is detecting that Putin may seek to scatter Ukrainian forces with further attacks on Odessa this month.
I think this card pertains to the problem Russia now has during this time, of identifying and declaring the boundaries of the land they have claimed via the four ‘sham’ referendums, now that Ukrainian counteroffensives are reclaiming ever more territory in those four Oblasts, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Wherever Russia now declares those lines to be drawn, are the lines that Russia must be seen to defend. They have not as yet made that announcement. Let us wait and see if Putin’s military chief minister, Shoigu falls down the stairs this month in weeks three or four.
There has been a sense since February, as seen in the cards, that Putin will end up with much less than he wants, but more than he should rightfully get, and finally comes a cropper. It will not be an easy exit for him, says the Ten of Swords. Perhaps it will be Donetsk that he gets to re-acquire, which may just possibly have a genuine majority in favour of returning to Russia. But now he risks losing what he has already seized by invasion, however ‘peaceful’.
Ukraine is now a hive of fury and is set on taking back the Crimea.
Curiously, the moon in the second week in October is a waning moon in Taurus, the zodiac sign of agriculture – Virgo is the other. Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, all things sociable, beautiful, harmonious and luxurious. This means money.
A waning Venus-Taurus moon…this for Putin could therefore signify waning money, the erosion of the boundaries of the four annexed Oblasts, and in addition there may be some private worry or grief to do with a significant woman in his life.
This is a man whose upbringing and mother, The Empress Reversed, is a mystery. The mother, rather a touching figure in this photograph, the child withdrawn and anxious.
Week Three and Four: The King of Wands Reversedand The Fool Reversed
A man who is a’king of wands’ may leave the scene. A man of action. Is this a reference to Sergei Shoigu, who has been the Russian Minister of Defense for some years? Astrologically this card represents Leo, but the planets are Mars and Jupiter. One can see the potential for heat here, suggesting missiles used or exchanged with Ukraine. But the card is reversed, and it remains possible that the situation may be somewhat defused by this time. There is a strong feel of ‘fire and water’, this could mean explosions rather than missiles but these are traditional, so to speak, below the grade of nuclear.
The Fool is the most dangerous card here in this spread, in this context. The Fool is the wild card in the Tarot, never to be discounted. ‘Accidents’ can happen. Fools jump in. Surprises are likely, putting it mildly.
But the more Putin looks before he leaps, the less likely it looks here that he will act to unleash nuclear weapons, however much he is tempted. Why will he not? The reader looks for the cards that follow, to get clarification on The Fool. People talk about the Death card. This most numinous card represents the concept of zero and can mean death. For whom, apart from all those who will certainly lose their lives this month, on both sides, not to mention the blameless Ukrainian civilians?
That Three of Pentacles tones down the Fool, and suggests Putin decides to stay his hand on the nuclear option at least until the winter. The Three of Pentacles correlates with 1) a team of close advisors 2) second decan Capricorn, late Dec-late January.
If it was a regional nuclear wipe out, I’d be looking at the World card reversed.
Putin does want this war ended as soon as possible, and he may not care how. He has lowered his sights. He would settle for Crimea and those four annexed Oblasts -for now. He wants it done but such is the damage done to Ukraine, a ceasefire may not be a realistic prospect.
But given the risks to him of using nuclear weapons, the Three of Pentacles suggests Putin hopes a delay will work in his favour, not least because it gives him more time to produce/manufacture the resources he needs to support the now expanded military logistical demands. Another factor in his favour, from now on the cold weather will put pressure until spring 2023 on European support and UK support of Ukraine’s defense. It will now cost even more, thanks to the decision by OPEC.
Other cards
The Nine of Pentacles says Putin must be able to see a clear material gain as his justification and reward for deploying nuclear weapons. Such an action must be able to be presented as justifiable, at least, to those allies who are already maintaining a critically delicate diplomatic position. The Nine of Swords reversed shows the grief and anger of mothers in Ukraine, and now in Russia too, the mothers of the newly mobilized civilian population. Fathers too, of course, but we are working with the card language.
President Putin dare not push Russian public opinion ‘too far.’ The danger here is that these Russian mothers, however ambivalent they were before, would support the use of nuclear weapons, and likely they would, if it meant their own loved ones were sent home again safe and sound, and were not needed to fight after all. This would likely be Putin’s justification at home then.
But he needs China onside. Would this excuse wash with President Xi? Highly doubtful.
Temperance is a mighty card of restraint. This plus Putin’s OPEC ‘coup’ offer a modicum of hope that Putin will not order the use of these weapons during October. He can just wear Ukraine down and wait for the West to get fed up.
The intensity of the risk continues into late November or even Christmas, based on the connection of the Temperance card with the zodiac sign of Sagittarius, the Archer.
Ukraine’s war so far has been largely defensive. Its offensives have been counteroffensives and its civilians have been shelled in their beds by Russian long range missiles. But if we think of Temperance as the archer, then Ukraine’s increased HIMAR capability and longer range missiles, would be a significant ramping up of their own deterrent, since after all Ukraine was persuaded to forego its own nuclear capability in return for the promise of protection.
Three decades ago, the newly independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third-largest nuclear power in the world.
Thousands of nuclear arms had been left on Ukrainian soil by Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But in the years that followed, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearize.
In exchange, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s security in a 1994 agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum.
Ukraine has been asking for long range missiles, able to cover four times the distance of the HIMARS to help them level up with Russia, and has said they are wiling to have the use of these overseen by the US. Biden at this time of writing, is still reluctant to provide these to Ukraine for fear of escalating the war by crossing Putin’s declared red lines.
The Ukrainian defenders must then, either cede that seized territory, or fight to take it back. up against a superior Russian artillery capability, with one hand tied behind their back, so to speak.
But by the same token, the Temperance card suggests, should Putin proceed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons against the Ukrainians, then he is aware- and so is President Xi- the US is liable to change its mind about supplying those long range missiles.
Cartomancy Spread
Tweeted 6 October 2022
#Cartomancy nuclear threat Oct 2022 5, 8,10 Hearts Water theme dominant, maritime. 10 = ocean/Poseidon. But no ace to show nuclear ‘tsunami’. 5 Hearts=Scorpio/23-25 Oct+ (eclipse?) brings a change to situation 5 Clubs. If there is an escalation however, cards suggest contained.
In Summary
Back in December 2021, in an article published in January 2022 I wrote among other things here and at AskAstrology.com that I didn’t like the Neptunian feel of things for the coming year.
Neptune is associated with all manner of desirable things; imagination, compassion- but I didn’t like its boundlessness in 2022, the lack of boundaries or the breaching of boundaries. Without boundaries, there is chaos. Where there is chaos there is distortion, madness and cruelty.
The cards for this coming month have that Neptunian feeling again, especially in the second half of the month, combined with that deep water fire of Scorpio. Both Putin and Biden have Scorpio written large in their profiles.
This, by the way, is not to suggest anything negative about this zodiac sign, or indeed any zodiac sign or its natives. Every zodiac sign has its positive and negative aspects, just the same as in every season of nature. Scorpio is also associated with great vision, drive, natural physical charisma and a gift of healing.
I am seeing correlations between the cards and the astrology in respect of this particular situation, that is all. Every zodiac sign has its positive and negative aspects.
But the ‘graph line’ of the cards does not look what I might expect to see if we were looking at a nuclear attack. I have seen a terrorist attack once before in the cards, before it actually happened. That was terrible. But this would be something far worse.
I had drawn the Chariot reversed, the Devil and The Tower in a casual ad hoc reading done around half past three UK time, a few hours before the truck attack in Nice, 14 July 2016. I did not know exactly what was coming, but I knew I did not like it, that it involved a vehicle and a collision, but with an added element in the mix, a suggestion of intent and of malice.
The key cards were:
The Chariot drawn reversed=a defeat, the zodiac sign of Cancer (14 July is Cancer) A transport accident/disaster /armour (truck, car,train- here it could be a submarine)
The Devil =desire, rage, lust for power, chaos,extremism, terrorism
The Tower, pride, fall, sudden shock, impact+explosion
That presentation has been absent in both of these card spreads today. Of course the reader must point out that this IS only a card reading, done as a demonstration exercise, for general interest, and is to be regarded as such.
None of these findings are to downplay the danger which is very real and present, not only as reported in the news but as reflected in the cards.
However, it seems to the reader, based on these cards drawn yesterday, 6 October, and on further cards which were drawn this morning 7 October, that there is no clear sign of a full on nuclear attack.
It is not evident in the cards, that Putin will deploy tactical or other nuclear weapons. It depends upon how he calculates the risks of doing so. This thing he has agree with OPEC possibly makes it less likely, more than more likely, strengthening his hand as he hopes to grind down Europe, the UK, the US and Baltic countries supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty.
It seems clear that Putin would not hesitate to use anything at his disposal if he could get what he wanted by those means. He may carry out ‘tests’ or demonstrations. That Eight of Diamonds can mean ‘performances.’ But it is a cautious card, the Eight of Diamonds, and here it’s being counterbalanced by the Eight of Hearts which is in essence, a card of balance and restitution. Possibly there will be a positive diplomatic development this month.
What seems likely to limit Putin’s scope for using nuclear weapons, apart from the delicacy of his relationship with President Xi is the problem of the ‘optics.’ How it will look to the world. That card, the Eight of Diamonds also refers to eyesight or specifically spectacles. Perhaps Putin now sometimes wears spectacles- away from the public eye.
Putin has no way of knowing what will be the full extent of the fallout of using such weapons-both literally and physically, from his own point of view-politically and militarily upon Russia, and upon himself personally.
There is a whiff of poison in these dominantly watery cards. Spite. Putin may well be considering biological or chemical weapons, or thinking how and where to do more damage to Ukraine’s water supply infrastructure.
When the Romans went stamping about invading other folk, they used to drop silver coins down the wells to disinfect them. Silver has antibacterial properties. The Maltese and the Knights of St John poisoned the wells in the south of the island, resisting the Turkish invasion during the Great Siege of Malta 18 May 1565 – 11 Sept 1565 (and for the full story I heartily recommend this astonishing book.)
Putin wants to flatten Ukraine once and for all. But the gruesome gnome, Kadyrov, and doubtless there are others of his ilk, are at this juncture, monkeys on Putin’s back. They have agendas which are nothing to do with Ukraine as such, making them as dangerous to Putin as they are to everyone else, including Russia.
Maybe he’ll poison the Kara Sea or drown an island, you know, just to show everyone and especially Biden who’s in charge.
No-one is not saying that the West is free of blame or that it has clean hands. We can all speculate, but had there been a different response to the annexation of Crimea in 2014, who knows, we might not be looking down the barrel of this nuclear threat right now.
This conflict is a polarizing beacon showing that the world order is drawing up and hardening into two global zones- broadly a face off between the model of democracy v the model of autocracy.
I don’t imagine President Putin is having a happy birthday. I don’t see him smiling, cutting the cake, all around him a vale of tears.
The Ten of Swords awaits. Ruin. That card was drawn right back at the start, the day of the invasion of 24 February. How can he avert that now, for himself? Next spring may tell us and he is pinning his hopes on the worst that the winter can do.
No-one knows the answer to this question. I certainly don’t. But what does the Tarot have to say about it? I have looked at the same question in another very recent post, where I used ordinary playing cards. We seemed to be seeing a Russian regrouping with big bumps in the road Oct and Nov and again before Christmas, a new offensive in January, and something big happening in March, and then again by Gemini time, late May-late June.
Last night I asked again, this time working with Tarot, asking, “in what month or year will there be a truce, ceasefire or permanent cessation of military action in Ukraine?”
I drew a single card. This was The Hanged Man- yet another outing for a card which has been jumping out of the deck since the invasion 24 February.
The Hanged Man stands for a waiting game, a state of limbo, an inability to make a decision. Or it can signify a sacrifice for a higher purpose, surrender, letting go, breaking a pattern, metamorphosis, suspension in time, meditation, changing one’s perspective, transcendence.
The Knight of Cups also corresponds with Pisces and The Hanged Man. He is the warrior who is a bringer of peace. He is the bearer of the Grail, of the loving cup or the healing chalice, who may be seen as Siegfried, or as one of the Knights of the Round Table, Lancelot, Galahad or Percival.
He rides along the shoreline, the knight of the liminal spaces.
From The Golden Tarot
Traditionally, the image is associated with a punishment once meted out to traitors in Italy, who were hung upside down by one ankle. Another interpretation is that this ties in with the story of the Norse god Odin. He hung upside down on Yggdrasil, the giant ash tree in exchange for the knowledge of the runes and they came to him in a vision on the ninth day without food or drink. One imagines he also had a mighty headache by that point. But the Tarot has its artistic roots in the courts of northern Italy during the Renaissance.
From the Tarot Illuminati, artist Erik C Dunne
Turn this card the other way up. Does he remind you of someone? Who does he look like? OK. He is not a dead ringer for Zelensky but let’s be reasonable- the Tarot is doing its best.
Tarot is not astrology and I am not an astrologer. However, there is a lot of astrology embedded in the Tarot, and clients have often asked the reader to have a stab at timings, with interesting feedback in respect of results.
In astrology The Hanged Man signifies Pisces, and the dates of Pisces in 2022 were 19 February to 20 March. This card was an apposite reflection of a recent event that had already happened since the invasion happened 24 February
This is what Tarot does- it detects, reflects and projects. Just treat this as a curiosity. I had not predicted the invasion of Ukraine, except that in a general 12 card reading done in December 2021 the Tarot had alerted me to a issue or problem attached to energy supplies from Russia, specifically NordStream 2.
I had also commented in an article published on Ask Astrology in January, that I had misgivings about 2022 on account of a general theme to do with the blurring or crossing of boundaries and borders. This again was connected with the Hanged Man. Its traditional ruler in astrology is Jupiter but its modern ruler is Neptune. Either way, 2022 was promising to be a year of deep waters and seismic events, metaphorically as well as physically. Jupiter goes large. Neptune goes deep.
“John Flamsteed FRS (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719)[a] was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus, and a star atlas called Atlas Coelestis, both published posthumously“-Wiki
According to Western/ Tropical astrology, Jupiter is currently retrograde in Pisces and goes direct again 28-29 October-20 December 2022
According to Eastern/Vedic astrology Jupiter will remain in Pisces until 23 April 2023.
Based purely on the appearance of The Hanged Man, we have a range of possibilities here, suggesting that the war in Ukraine will end when:
-Mr Zelensky agrees to make a sacrifice, Hanged Man style, and decides to relinquish the Donbas to Russia. Mr Putin would claim this as a win, and use it as his way out of an increasingly untenable situation, though he or a successor of his same ilk could be back again in time, for another bite of land.
There is no reason why Zelensky should agree to such a thing, since Russia has broken international law and then gone on to commit war crimes. But if the population of the Donbas genuinely were more than 50% pro Russian separatists, might Zelensky decide that Ukraine would do better without them in the long run, given the state of affairs since 2014. Mr Putin after all, *only* wants to protect the 25 million Russians now living outside Russia’s borders in Ukraine and all across the Baltic.
Without Ukraine’s agreement to recognize referendum results held under the current conditions of duress, Putin will be forever fighting to hold on to the Donbas, and that’s no substantive win.
But it’s not a win for anyone else either, and won’t be unless the West can dig itself out of the hole it has got itself into, and continue to say no to cheap Russian gas this winter. If not, this whole thing simmers indefinitely or escalates next spring.
-or the war may end when Jupiter goes direct in Pisces, Tropical astrology style, 29 October-20 December. This seems highly improbable. Putin will want to squeeze the situation as hard as he can over the winter, praying the energy crisis will really bite down on the current levels of western support for Ukraine and leave her naked unto her foe.
-or the war may end during Pisces season, 20 February- 20 March. Saturn enters Pisces March 7, 2023 until May 24, 2025. Saturn is big on the status quo, on law and order, and it is big on boundaries and borders. The aftermath of this war will bring a long period of turbulence in its wake.
-or the war may end c late April 2023, according to the status of Jupiter in Pisces in Vedic astrology.
There’s a feeling of events moving in stages, pointing towards something more conclusive or definitive March/April 2023. Tarot seems to be seeing a ceasefire slightly earlier than was indicated in my earlier cartomancy reading, though not hugely so.
But supposing the fighting stops right now, the political backwash runs high until 2025/2026. There will also be the small matter of reconstruction.
Something to watch for that is happening sooner, is an eclipse in Scorpio 8 November. Eclipses do not signify immediate changes, but historically they announce profound changes. Mr Putin is a Libra sun sign subject with Scorpio rising, and conjunct his sun is the fixed star Algorab, the wing of The constellation of the Crow, merciless and rapacious.
It doesn’t feel as though it bodes at all well for him personally. But Putin is choosing to wage a total war, so that any victory here, whether for Russia or Ukraine is a pyrrhic one.
The west is clearly not blameless either in all this, but it likely doesn’t bode too well for Scorpio subject Mr Biden either, in the US mid term elections 8 November.
What a year, this Chinese year of the Black Water Tiger
-Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.
Let’s take a look through the lens of my lovely of deck of playing cards, printed pre World War 2 or quite a bit earlier, gifted me by my papa, Peter, who got them from his papa, Alexander, a Scot with family ties to Sutherland.
Cards or no cards it seems self-evident the war will end in stages.
-When Russia ceases military aggression. This is Putin’s decision to make.
-When Ukraine desists its counteroffensive. This is the Ukrainian government’s decision to make.
-When an end to the war is mutually declared.
-Russia is now definitely on the back foot but is far from done in terms of its horrific continuing damage potential
The cards below were drawn last night and posted on Twitter earlier today.
When will military aggression end? Not for some months yet. Note 5/10 slow Spades cards. Putin down but not yet out, shown as Libra/Queen Spades, looking to pull a Joker out of the pack but Xi (King Diamonds) is distancing, so is Modi. October/Scorpio-Aquarius key -5 Spades. #Ukraine
The reader pays attention to the balance of suits in the spreads. The suits have their own speed and timings associated with them, as well as astrological correspondences potentially linking them with zodiac signs, decans and just possibly, specific date ranges.
Diamonds indicate hours-days. Diamonds are the speediest but also most unstable and volatile suit. The King of Diamonds, when read in terms of timing is a ‘King of Earth’-astrologically this means Taurus, late April-late May. The Six of Diamonds when read in terms of timing is Leo-August.
Clubs indicate days-weeks. We have no club cards.
Hearts indicate weeks-months. We have here the Eight and Ten of Hearts, both of which relate in terms of astrological timing with Pisces-late February-late March.
Spades indicate months-years. We have here The Queen of Spades, representing Libra season, late October. This central card is also representing Putin himself, as a Libra subject (with Scorpio rising).
Putin is shown here looking back in time at Pisces (8 Cups) The King of Diamonds that he is looking at may be representing President Xi (money man.) Putin had signed a No limits agreement with Xi only 20 days before the invasion. Did Xi know in advance of Putin’s plan to invade Ukraine? Did Putin feel that Xi had given him a ‘nod’ however subtle, based on the idea that this would be accomplished as easily as was the annexation of Crimea in 2014, when the West barely said ‘boo’?
Why might China nod, or at least not try and dissuade him upfront,had he given Xi that opportunity ? The Donbas has lithium fields.
“Geologists call it the Ukrainian shield. That land in the middle which starts from the northern border with Belarus up to the shores of the Azov Sea, in the south of Donbass. According to the studies of the Ukrainian geological service, in the ancient rocks of this shield are hidden lithium deposits with great potential. Findings that have been identified mainly around the area of Mariupol, the port city of Donbass torn apart by Russian bombing.
“This may not be the main reason for the invasion, but undoubtedly Ukraine’s mineral wealth is one of the reasons why this country is so important to Russia,” said Rod Schoonover, former director of the Environment and Natural Resources Section of the U.S. National Intelligence Council.” SOURCE
The Eight of Spades says Putin must withdraw and regroup. This card also means ill health and hospitals. This may mean ill health for Putin himself. Likely, he will also target further hospitals in Ukraine in retaliation for recent defeats, responding to a military defeat with an attack on civilian infrastructure as he has previously done.
The Nine of Spades speaks of sleepless nights. And murdered babies in bombed maternity hospitals- and the rest. This card is traditionally associated with insomnia,grief, worry, and miscarriages or other deaths of children.
But Putin himself is certainly feeling the pressure.The Ten of Spades, aligned with The Joker is speaking of the shock of his recent setbacks in Kharkiv and Kherson.
The Eight, Nine and Ten of Spades, when taken all together, speak of continuing Russian aggression but also setbacks for Putin during Gemini season, 2023.
These are the cards of Gemini in astrology, the Eight is Decal 1, the Nine is Decan 2 and the Ten is Decan 3
The final card is the 5 of Spades, sitting in the spread as a kind of a hinge. The meaning of this card is chagrin, mortification, cruelty and vengeance. This is Putin’s own undoing, though Stalin and Mao got away with a lot more in their time. But the astrological correlation here is Aquarius season, starting in approximately 5 months from this time of writing.
Five out of these ten cards are Spades, suggesting we are looking at several more months at least. The worst scenario card here would be the Ten of Spades, suggesting ten years. But it doesn’t look that way although the legacy will certainly produce enduring consequences.
World War 2 had a staggered ending, ending in Europe 8 May 1945, but ending later in the Far East in Japan, September 1945.
Something of this kind seems likely. The Spades are considerably mitigated by the other cards- although the aftermath of this devastating war will undoubtedly persist for decades to come. Another 5-8 months seems not unlikely, based on these cards. While not ruling out other possibilities.
What seems likely is that unless there is a ceasefire before Christmas- and what incentive does Putin have to consider this- he will be regrouping over the winter to escalate hostilities again in the early spring, hoping that Biden will do the minimum, and that the impending energy supply challenges of this coming winter will wear down and divide Europe, and drastically weaken the support for Ukraine.
He will be praying like hell that we are all as soft, selfish and short-sighted as he thinks we are. So while something interesting does seem to be happening well before Christmas, and as if the events of the last two weeks have not changed the picture already, such that he has now lost critical momentum, Putin seems bound to want to roll that dice of winter, playing that ace card of the NordStream 2.
Meanwhile Zelensky’s card is The Hanged Man reversed. I have drawn it time and again since late February. Gracious me if it doesn’t even actually look like him.
The Tarot Illuminati
This is the Tarot’s way of showing that Zelensky will never surrender. Nor will he be captured. Nor martyred in death, but only in life. Nor will he want to come to the negotiating table. Astrologically, this card is Pisces.
Putin is now a war criminal, casting proud Russia in the role of a rogue state, and both Xi and Modi are increasingly unhappy about it.
Russia has stamina. Russia was never a coward. The West now can’t allow Russia to wipe out Ukraine, or it will be the rest of us next, and that could mean another world war. Ukraine is suffering horribly, but Putin has hung an albatross around his own neck. He is dealing now with the Nightmare life- in- death- and now those cards are dealt.
“Is that a Death? and are there two? Is Death that Woman’s mate?
Her lips were red, her looks were free, Her locks were yellow as gold: Her skin was as white as leprosy, The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she, Who thicks man’s blood with cold.”
– The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Artist Mervyn Peake
Astrologers note that Jupiter will go direct again in deep water Pisces 24 November 2022. This will be at the end of Scorpio time, and seems the earliest time when an unexpected element (The Joker) may come into play, brokering a cessation.
Key dates/timings to watch purely according to these cards are:
Scorpio 2022 -late Oct-late November
Aquarius 2023-late January-late February
Pisces 2023-late February-late March
Gemini 2023-late May-late June
Some astrologers suggest Putin is not just down, but out by the end of March 2023. I could see this, based on The Hanged Man and the Ten of Cups of the last decan of Pisces 11-20 March.
Putin can’t be seen to lose. But now, he can only win by the dereliction of the US UK and European members of NATO. And unless he then has the resources to hold Ukraine under total subjugation indefinitely, the win would be worthless.
It’s looking like war at varying levels of intensity, for at least another 5 months, unless Jupiter in Pisces magics something up when it goes direct again in late November.
If Putin wins, it’s a Nightmare Life- in -Death for the Baltic, and basically all of Europe including the UK.
But win or lose, and he is probably going to lose, either way for Putin himself, it’s now a poisoned chalice, a Nightmare Life-In-Death.
Photo by u0410u043bu0435u0441u044c u0423u0441u0446u0456u043du0430u045e on Pexels.com
A great national figure, much respected and beloved, not only in her own homeland, but across the world, is carried aloft in the gloom and rain, companioned at every stage by her daughter, carefully borne stage by stage and step by step to the place of her final rest.
While elsewhere …
We can all see what’s on the news. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has taken a pasting in recent days. Some astrologers are saying the writing is on the wall for him. I don’t disagree but it seems to me, he’s not down and out, he’s not done yet.
A Tarot reader doesn’t know anything others don’t know. It’s not omniscience, nor a ‘spiritual’ thing, whatever that actually means. It’s divination…learning a symbolic language for talking with our ancient mind. I look in the mirror of the Tarot to find out what I feel or think about something at an unconscious or subconscious level, that is all, in a way we were never taught in school.
Tweeted earlier this afternoon 13 September
The Question: what is Putin going to do next? Using The Illuminati Tarot deck.
#Tarot#Putin watch. Purely speculative. The Moon, Danger, uncertainty, 5 Swords defeat mortification. Taking no prisoners (never was.) 3 Cups NB Reversed, kicking cats, shoring up support behind scenes, China skittish. What next? 2 Pentacles. Regroup, double down on land bridge.
He will double down because although Ukrainian victory seems a long way off and far from certain, it is now crossing his mind that they might actually take back the Crimea.
Meantime the Five of Swords is full of spite.
This from The Daily Beast
“Brutal realizations have been raining upon the Kremlin’s top propagandists—and when it rains, it pours. The same pundits who used to threaten NATO countries with nuclear strikes are begrudgingly acknowledging that Russia’s Armed Forces have suffered a series of humiliating setbacks in Ukraine.
Appearing on Russia’s NTV show The Meeting Place on Monday, policy analyst Viktor Olevich surmised: “Unfortunately, the situation is difficult. Can we say that the Russian forces moved closer to meeting the goals and carrying out the tasks set by the president at the beginning of the special operation—or did they get further away? Obviously, we’re now further away.”
Article from American-Canadian journalist and author Diane Francis, dated 15 August 2022:
“Yellow ribbons painted on poles or walls suddenly appear in Kherson, the only regional capital city that Russia has captured in this war. The symbol, memorializing missing loved ones, has taken on a new meaning and represents defiance against Russia’s upcoming phoney referendum votes in Kherson and other occupied regions to approve annexation by Russia. Kherson’s vote is scheduled for 9/11 — the anniversary of America’s worst terrorist attack — and only half of its 280,000 residents remain there after it was occupied in March. Russians offer $165 to vote in favor of annexation and may end up forcing most of them to do so. People are being jailed or shot there for protesting, speaking Ukrainian, or refusing to use the Russian Ruble and yet resistance builds. Now Russian soldiers stay off its streets following assassinations and last week its Russian-backed Mayor was poisoned by his chef. Now in the run-up to the vote, a military battle has begun to recapture the region and a great deal rests on its outcome. Read more HERE
Diane Francis also has fascinating things to tell us about the largely silent ‘war’ in the Arctic, the ‘battle’ for control of the Arctic Circle.
Ukrainian forces destroyed a whole convoy of Russian logistics crossing the Antonivskyi bridge when the bridge was hit. Reportedly the trucks were carrying ammunition.
When Russia first invaded Ukraine in February, I drew cards asking about Putin’s objectives.
I had not predicted the invasion. I don’t know any Tarot readers who did. It was predicted in astrology, by Vedic astrologers in India, who were mostly emphatically pro-Russian and were, at least back, In February, extremely confident of his successful conquest of Ukraine. They do not seem to have posted again since. Perhaps they see no need. They have spoken.
Fortunately for me, I do not work for the likes of the Emperor Tiberius, or he’d have had me hurled over the cliff. I had expressed misgivings however, in a general world reading posted January 2022, and published at Ask.Astrology.com that we were in for a dangerous year, deep, dark waters, Pisces in Neptune, full fathom five.
My focus at that point, in so far as I specified arenas, was the Strait of the Taiwan. This is a Chinese Year of the Black Water Tiger. Neptunian and Mercurial, mega mercantile and expansionist, although China’s room for manoeuvre has possibly been complicated by Putin’s invasion, and we’re all watching that space. And we need to do something radical about upping our own, independent chip production in Europe and the UK, and we need to do it yesterday.
Jupiter is re- entering Pisces in late October-where it was when the war in Ukraine started in February. October seems to bring the end of a cycle, and the start of a new cycle in this war in Europe. A card that I have drawn many times for Zelensky is The Hanged Man, a Piscean figure rendered almost transcendental by his responses, in this fateful trial on which so much hinges.
Fire/water. 2022 -Chinese Year of the Black Water Tiger Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. Jorge Luis Borges pic.twitter.com/tYVM3QBizs
When Russia invaded Ukraine 24 February 2022, I looked in the Tarot for its take on what Putin wanted, and the eventual outcome.
Two cards in particular came up, and have come up again many times since: the Two of Pentacles and The Ten of Swords.
The Two of Swords
This juggling earth suit card card is saying, what does Putin want? He wants earth-territory. He wants gold and grain. He wants that land bridge to Transnistria and Moldova, next stop, the Baltic all the way through to Kaliningrad. But he is operating on ‘shifting sands.’ Putin must juggle his military actions and what he really wishes to do, or needs to do militarily, against the economic disadvantage. That mega deal with China, and the projected Siberian pipeline to deliver energy to new markets in China is no help to him now, and won’t be for years to come, while ships are taking over from giant pipelines. New ships, three times as long as a football field, are delivering natural liquid gas in volumes equivalent to three days delivery via the biggest pipelines.
The Ten of Swords
This is another card that has come up repeatedly when I look at President Putin, and has done so since the invasion began 24 February. This card means ruin. Hitting rock bottom. It can mean serious health issues too. This card says to me that Putin will do a huge amount of damage, but he does not achieve his objectives and by this, I am envisioning that he wants Odessa, all of Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova and then more.
The suit of Swords in terms of timing is tricky. It can mean that something happens very swiftly, like the strike of a sword. But Putin did not succeed with his February lightning strike, and now it seems entirely possible that this conflict could carry on as a war of attrition over the next ten years.
But that Ten of Swords can’t be fudged in terms of its basic meaning, ruin, failure, and it can mean sickness or death. This card says to the reader that Putin, for all his brutality and patience is not going to achieve that goal of the land bridge, while astrology suggests the inexorable turning of a tide against him from March 2023 while in terms of zodiac correlations, the Ten of Swords correlates with the last decan of Gemini, meaning roughly 11-20 June.
It’s no use counting on such things, if one is counting on them. But experience says it’s worth noting, at least. The reader notes it, that is all, and time will tell.
Can/Will Ukraine retake Kherson?
Lord Dannett, former chief of the UK Armed Forces has said we need to be realistic; that we must help Ukraine, Putin’s actions and weaponization of oil and gas supplies, are a direct and calculated threat to all Europe, but that Russia will not lose this war.
Defining the winning and losing for both sides- what that will look like- there is the rub. A victory for Ukraine would mean in clear terms that Russia is pushed all the way back out of Ukrainian territory and reclaims the Donbas in entirety. I can’t see in my cards that Ukraine will win back Luhansk.
But Kherson, it looks as though Ukraine can take it back and quite possibly will, but not yet awhile. I drew this spread asking for the Tarot’s impressions of the progress and outcome.
The top central card is a benchmark card.
The left hand column represents the Russian forces.
The right hand column represent the Ukrainian forces.
The Queen of Swords here represents the question being reflected back at the me as the Tarot is seeing it:
-Putin himself, as a Libra sun sign subject, born 7 October 1952 or possibly on the same date but in 1950
-Libra season 22 September -23 October
-Justice, rule of law, truce, agreement
Just as a matter of incidental curiosity, countries that are ruled by Libra include: France, Tibet, Argentina, Austria, Burma, Canada, China, Japan, Siberia, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Iraq, Israel, Lesotho, Nigeria, Palau, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Tuvalu and Uganda.
Cities that are ruled by Libra include: Lisbon, Frankfurt, Paris, Copenhagen, Johannesburg, Nottingham, and Antwerp.
Russia’s cards
The King of Wands, Six of Pentacles, Eight of Swords and Nine of Swords.
Russia succeeded in capturing and occupying Kherson shortly after the invasion, hence we have drawn that upbeat King of Wands card (I go abroad and I am victorious.’
The Six of Coins means community, translating here as the Russians saying ‘this is our place, ours again now’. The Ukrainians have blown up the bridge, more than once, but has not made any significant progress as yet in retaking Kherson. But it has forced the Russians back across the river Dnieper (Dnipro) to the east bank. The Eight of Swords (stuck, trapped, no way forward) is reflecting a situation in which the Russian occupation is starting to experience difficulties, now that Ukraine is better equipped to mount a counteroffensive.
The Eight of Swords shows a lady tied up outside a city. This describes a situation where someone has got stuck. It does suggest a siege type situation. Meanwhile the Ukrainian citizens of Kherson are under siege from a hostile occupation inside their own city.
That last card at the bottom of the column, the Nine of Swords means ‘stress, sleepless nights.’ Again, and the timing may prove a red herring, the Eight and Nine of Swords, like the Ten, refer in terms of the calendar, to something pivotal in late May-late June, Gemini season, 2023.
Ukraine’s cards
Strength, Three of Swords, Four of Wands, Ace of Cups
The Strength card is reflecting the fact that Putin had a great shock when he discovered the Ukrainian resistance was so much stronger than he had anticipated. We are just leaving the season of Leo, and though Ukraine has lost Kherson, and the Ukrainian front line is still apparently 60 km away, some parts of the region of Kherson have recently been recaptured, thanks in part to new arms supplies.
The Three of Swords signifies very great anguish. Here is loss, mourning, deprivation, severance and separation. Russia has severed part of Ukraine from itself, and has not cared in the process to limit the damage, but has used calculated acts of gratuitous violence and cruelty against a civilian population, while proclaiming that they are all one family, one people of one motherland.
How many Russian motherland Ukrainians died during the horror of The Holodomor, Stalin’s entirely deliberately manufactured famine of the winter of 1933/39? Conservative estimates put it at 3.9 million, other estimates suggest 7 million or more.
President Putin may prefer to disassociate himself from Stalin, and see this invasion in Imperial terms, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. But there speaks the history of the 20th century: Lenin, Stalin, and now, still in that mould, Putin, who yesterday closed the Nordstream 1 Pipeline for three days for ‘unscheduled’ maintenance. There will be few who will not see in this, a warning act of retaliation against Europe for the armaments now being supplied to Ukraine, and in response to recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets in Crimea. Severance of energy, here is another manifestation of the Three of Swords.
The Four of Wands is a different card altogether as we work our way down Ukraine’s pictorial timeline. This is the outcome card for Ukraine in response to the question. Unlike the Vedic astrologers, whose confidence I admire, issuing statements about the future as if they were a given, I am not supremely confident of anything, ever. But I do not argue with the cards that I have drawn, in trying to tap into, fetch up and articulate verbally my inner feelings on the matter. The Four of Wands detects a real prospect that Ukraine will ultimately succeed in recapturing Kherson. Why? The Four of Wands represents success, completion, a building made perfect, a home made beautiful, a gathering and a celebration. This is cardinal Aries energy, the bounding Ram, which is represented by The Emperor card. But here it is Ukraine that is ‘The Emperor.’
Key timings suggested in these cards are Libra time, October 2022, Aries time, April 2023, and Gemini time, late May 2023, Putin possibly in situ till around October 2023.
These are deeply disturbing times. NATO has started moving forces into Latvia.
The entire Baltic region is now a buzzing hive on high alert. Ukraine was hardly caught napping. Anything but. But if Europe was, after the annexation of Crimea, now it’s not, though whether it (in particular Scholz) can and will stand firm this winter remains to be seen.
Armchair experts. Everyone can make their own assessments and this Tarot reader is certainly no expert. But whether right or wrong the reader chooses the cards blindly and entirely at random. The final card on the Ukraine timeline is the Ace of Cups. This card holds out the offer of the Chalice, the Holy Grail, the Healing Cup. It is a card of a rebirth, but a good one. Peace. Restoration. ‘My cup floweth over.’
Till next time 🙂
The video below is a demonstration of artwork from the deck being used today, The Illuminati Tarot.
True Tarot Tales 