Cards for the day, 10/3/2020: Apply humor and perspective.

“Perspective! Perspective is thinking that parallel lines meet!” – Jane Smiley

If my thoughts could influence the cards I pull, I would have thought these were influenced by Katie-Ellen’s The Sounding of the Last Trump, over at True Tarot Tales, because in reading about the U.S. on September 20 in the U.K., Katie-Ellen also pulled both a card with a bald eagle on it and the Joker. I just read her post two days ago, though, am still thinking about it, and here today I also pulled a card with a bald eagle, and the Joker. But, I drew randomly, as I always do. Hmm.

I didn’t post a card for the day yesterday, the day we all learned that Donald and Melania Trump had tested positive for the virus that causes covid-19. Scorpio sun and a political science major, I can get a little worked up about these things. And we then began to see prominent Republicans dropping like flies. Well, dropping, that’s my Scorpio drama queen view–or is it? Not all of them are very sick as I write.

But I will say that all of them are lacking perspective. Trump’s choice to make a public health situation political–in a partisan sense–when it isn’t a partisan issue–showed a ridiculous lack of perspective.

In the Tinker’s Damn Tarot, the Alchemy card is the equivalent of the Temperance card. This is the card on which an eagle appears, with fluid being poured on it from each of two pitchers (two parties?). One pitcher is seemingly a fiery flaming fluid, while the other is a cooling blue that looks like water. If these are two political parties, they aren’t equal, not on the subject of coronavirus. I have my doubts that even the angel of Temperance (who I honestly aspire to be like a lot of the time) would find a way to mix these two healthfully. Wearing a mask or not wearing one–these are NOT equal choices. Choosing social distance or not–these are NOT equal choices.

And actions have consequences.

Let’s look at the second card I drew here–the Six of Air. Here we see an owl–the owl of wisdom (which one could easily argue consists of perspective)–pointing its wing at the other card. Standing in front of a full moon (like our full moon in Aries the night the Trumps tested positive) with a cool lake in the background.

I tend to see the Six of Air (the Six of Swords in many decks) associated with moving, as in physically moving. In this case, I feel like wisdom, the wisdom of perspective, is telling us to move away from this dumpster fire that is the current state of American politics.

I can’t think of perspective without thinking of Jane Smiley’s fantastic words on the subject: “Perspective! Perspective is thinking that parallel lines meet!” I don’t remember the context for the quote but it’s from one of her novels. And of course, how you interpret this quote rather depends on the context. For me, this quote at the moment represents me throwing my hands up in the air. Because right now, keeping it together, keeping things in perspective, is more important than ever, but at the same time, it feels rather wrong. Because keeping things in perspective used to mean reasoning with the other side, being civil, playing by the same rules. Operating in ways that are parallel in some sense. But in this case, the other side isn’t playing by the same rules any more.

These lines aren’t parallel, or equal. And so much that is wrong with our society comes from us assuming that all the lines are parallel, that everyone’s on the same track going the same direction. No, they aren’t. Some people are on tracks that don’t get maintained. Some people’s tracks have been impeded or they never had tracks in the first place. Or someone has sabotaged their train. Everybody doesn’t get an equal start in life nor do they proceed with equal advantages.

And ironically, the Republican view that they are entitled to everything they get and that they will never be affected by the situations of others is what is leading to their downfall in terms of these positive tests for the novel coronavirus. Because they thought they could treat everyone else like they didn’t matter. But this isn’t a situation where you can treat different people differently and get away with it. We all have to follow the same rules or everyone will catch this. Your privilege won’t protect you from getting sick. And I guess that’s a little startling and hard to believe for some people. But it’s true.

Do I wish them well? I wish them education, sincerely, and I wish Trump’s supporters an education, as well. I hope that his experience with coronavirus is educational for him and for them. I hope it leads Republicans to the epiphany that they are human, like everyone else, and I hope it leads them to advocate for health care for all and for a universal basic income that would prevent people from being forced to go out and work when they don’t feel well for any reason. And I think that counts as graciously wishing them well.

And if that’s mixing politics and tarot, well, then let’s hope it’s mixed as the Angel of Temperance would mix it–just the right amount of each. Even though the Scorpio in me during this Mars in Aries transit is saying, “just whack ’em upside the head and tell ’em to do the right thing! Stop trying to be wise and have perspective and just whack ’em!” Not whacking anyone, God of War. Please sit down and drink some water.

Besides, they already whacked themselves pretty well.

This is not a political virus, America, and if you think it is, you are putting yourself in grave danger.