To hear this post read aloud, click here: https://voca.ro/15EQwSYYVRdI
[This post is actually from a reading yesterday–I wrote the post but didn’t have time to edit and add the Vocaroo yesterday.]
Don’t I ever read about anything besides the debt ceiling? Yes, but it seems like not lately! I am worried. My read today does look more optimistic, though.
First, I pulled an oracle card from Colette Baron-Reid’s Enchanted Map oracle deck: The Compass. I’d argue this card tells us what we already know: The route to solving this is the one we know. We know how to follow the compass. We know how to get back on track. Nothing is unknown here. The situation is: Will we do what we know solves the problem, or not?
Of course, this card also can mean that uncharted territory lies ahead. And that’s what my gut feeling has been. It’s probably no surprise to anyone who read my last post that I think Republicans are completely willing to see the government go into default on its debts.
Next, I turned to the Steampunk Tarot (no special reason, I just haven’t read with it in awhile). Once again, just as the last time that I read on this (that time, reading from Mitch McConnell’s point of view, but this time, more generally for everyone’s point of view), the situation is The Lovers. This is what is called for. The two sides of the aisle come together, hold hands, make it work. This is classic politics and it’s what needs to happen to pay the bills of the United States. We know this.
Note, however, that what to know shows the King of Wands not in his chair. Not only has he not gotten in bed with the other side of the aisle (and I don’t see the King of Wands as Biden per se but as all of our politicians at this point), but he hasn’t even sat down in the chair. Um, the clock is ticking! Even the angel on the Lovers card has their hands up in the air, like, “if they won’t come together, what am I supposed to do about it?”
Advice: Ten of Pentacles. The woman on the card is actually holding a tarot card, but it almost seems like she’s holding a bill of currency, ready to pay for the family’s needs. That’s what needs to happen!
Outcome: Four of Swords. Groan. But not terrible. This seems like an agreed upon rest to me. A compromise. An agreement to do nothing–but in this case, it’s necessary to do something to do nothing. So this seems potentially positive, at least for a little while.
And yet. The clock is ticking. This card has an hourglass on it. And when the sleeper on the card awakes, will he awake with a sword in his hand? I hope not.
Make love, not war.
Update: I checked the news just before clicking publish, and found that Biden has postponed a meeting about this until next week. Maybe the politicians of wands will finally sit down in their chairs and negotiate–just not this week.
Quiet Mystic 
The lovers have a negative side too – hate, conflict, separation, jealousy, unfaithfulness, disagreements, out of harmony, and so on. And yes, the King of Wands is not in his chair because he doesn’t have time for sitting, he has to take action 🙂 and with the 10 of pentacles – I see it as an obsession to keep the status quo to maintain the golden era of the collective west, which is has a lot to do with being in debt. And combined with the 4 swords – I was thinking of procrastination – and this is exactly what they did (postponing it). Thinking with my logical side, I don’t see a way out of this, but maybe I have too much emotional involvement and personal opinions on the topic, which is probably affecting my positive outlook on the situation. It’s a financial spiral that cannot stop inflation. But maybe they will find a way out, I just can’t see a peaceful way out. The meditative, calm, and contemplating state of 4 of Swords is only temporary. For some reason I never “liked” the 4 of swords, it always had a dimension of illusion, in a sense why should we wait and calm down when we should act and do something, but again it is my personal restlessness that is reflected. One thing is sure, I absolutely can relate to you being worried about the situation.
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I don’t know how I missed seeing your thoughtful reply here–but, belatedly, thank you!
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The lovers have a negative side too – hate, conflict, separation, jealousy, unfaithfulness, disagreements, out of harmony, and so on. And yes, the King of Wands is not in his chair because he doesn’t have time for sitting, he has to take action 🙂 and with the 10 of pentacles – I see it as an obsession to keep the status quo to maintain the golden era of the collective west, which is has a lot to do with being in debt. And combined with the 4 swords – I was thinking of procrastination – and this is exactly what they did (postponing it). Thinking with my logical side, I don’t see a way out of this, but maybe I have too much emotional involvement and personal opinions on the topic, which is probably affecting my positive outlook on the situation. It’s a financial spiral that cannot stop inflation. But maybe they will find a way out, I just can’t see a peaceful way out. The meditative, calm, and contemplating state of 4 of Swords is only temporary. For some reason I never “liked” the 4 of swords, it always had a dimension of illusion, in a sense why should we wait and calm down when we should act and do something, but again it is my personal restlessness that is reflected. One thing is sure, I absolutely can relate to you being worried about the situation.
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The real-time update about Biden postponing a meeting until next week adds a timely and intriguing dimension to the reading, creating anticipation about the unfolding negotiations. Your closing remark, “Make love, not war,” cleverly encapsulates the desire for cooperation and resolution in these challenging times.
Question: How do you see the symbolism of the tarot cards aligning with or challenging the political developments in real-time, and how might the tarot offer insights into the negotiation process moving forward?
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I’m sorry to be so slow in replying! I’m back in school, working on a master’s in divinity, and so I haven’t been online as much or posting here very often. I do think the tarot can offer insights into all sorts of political processes. For us on the ground, so to speak, it’s perhaps more useful in figuring out how the results of policy decisions affect us personally–or maybe not, maybe we are able to be more objective when something doesn’t affect us as personally. I think the keys here, for working with tarot on large scale political topics, is: 1) finding a way to be objective in a time when none of us really are, and 2) bearing in mind that what we are doing with the tarot, perhaps, is opening up our own creativity and applying our creativity to thinking about world events. Some people don’t use tarot at all. Some people listen to the birds (like Enrique Enriquez). Personally, it’s kind of funny that I’m doing intuitive work at all, because I have a very rational, logical mind, and I tend to have a mental block against trusting my intuition. For me, the cards help to open that intuitive creative side and are a way of working on unblocking it, and of encouraging myself to trust my intuitions about the world. Because with stuff that I can verify, it’s remarkable and maybe a little unnerving to look at the cards and say, how did they do this? It encourages me to say, even as a rational person, maybe my rational presuppositions are not as rational as I, in my arrogance, assume them to be. Maybe the world doesn’t work exactly as I believe it does. Maybe I need to add space, and ask myself, what is the true universe of all possibilities? And that’s perhaps one of the reasons why meditation is so helpful, because it brings us into a place of calm and spaciousness so we’re able to consider a larger universe or even multiverse of possibilities without totally freaking out. I’m not sure if this answers your question (and I didn’t go back and reread my post so I’m not even sure if this makes sense in context), but, thank you for asking!
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