Some of you may know that I’ve been studying to be a chaplain. Lately, as a student, as a learning exercise, I’m often looking at everything, even politics, with chaplain’s eyes.
So when I think about a politician who I find particularly problematic, I am not just thinking about policy. I’m also thinking: What is the human experience that this person is having right now? As a person?
Some people can’t even think about that question. Some people can’t think about politicians, especially politicians they don’t like, as humans having a human experience. But as a chaplain, it is my job to offer care to the human spirit. And thus, it’s appropriate for me to cultivate some curiosity about what people are experiencing, as humans.
While tarot can be an interactive tool, it can also be a creative tool that can help us understand other people’s perspectives and experiences. It can ask us imaginatively to step into another person’s shoes. It isn’t going to tell us the whole story. It might not even tell us any of the story. The cards may be wildly accurate, but even then, if we don’t show up with discernment, with humility, with curiosity, with imagination, and if we don’t show up ready to be surprised, we may miss the message. This is why meditation before looking at cards can be so helpful, because it can nudge us to show up authentically as ourselves, rather than showing up literally cosplaying as the chip that normally sits on our shoulder.
Because you all know that you are not the chip on your shoulder. Even though you surely do have (at least) one!
This all is simply to say that I pulled cards for Trump, on June 17, in an attempt to imaginatively understand his human experience. Some of you are thinking, “Why would you want to?” So again, this is a student exercise. But also, why wouldn’t I ask the cards to go where I haven’t gone before? Otherwise, why do I have cards at all, when I could just have a hat that says I’m right about everything already, and I could just consult that hat whenever I have a question?
Anyway, you can see where I was starting from at baseline. I’m not exactly neutral.
I drew four cards (situation, what to know, advice, outcome) from the Numinous Tarot and then turned the deck over to see what card was at the bottom. For those who don’t know, in this deck the suit of swords has become bells, while wands have become candles, pentacles/coins have become tomes, and cups have become vials.
It does help me to understand Trump’s human experience to see that his situation came up as the 8 of Bells. He’s stuck (and was already stuck even in June when I pulled these). He doesn’t know other ways to be and it feels like people are constantly ringing loud bells in his ears. I’m not saying he has tinnitus, though I guess he could. I’m saying that maybe he never has any peace and quiet. He feels surrounded.
I don’t have to like him to imagine why he might feel this way. It probably is true that people won’t leave him alone, that he is constantly interrupted, that he is asked to track multiple sounds/voices/situations simultaneously all day long. The card looks like that’s not easy for him. I’m not saying he’s good at it. (Does the card look like he’s handling it well?) I’m not asking you to feel sorry for him. I’m just asking you to consider that maybe this is conceivable. It’s potentially different, additional data. (Okay, not data. A creative lens.)
I won’t overthink each of these cards, but briefly:
Standing next to him is a knight, who frankly looks like someone running for office. This knight could stand for any or all of the candidates he has been asked to support. A guy who shows up with armor on. (In that crowd, you need the armor.) Singleminded.
I don’t even need to look at the suit to think the knight is symbolic of a politician, but in this case the suit is candles, and yes, politicians do light a fire and then they burn themselves out. (The knight of coins went into business; he takes vacations. The knight of cups is probably running on alcohol or caffeine or both. The knight of swords/bells, well, I like the cut of his jib, but that dry sense of humor doesn’t mean he’s okay.)
As advice we have the 3 of Candles, at the beach. At the literal level, the person surrounded by bells could do well with a walk alone on the beach. (Or at his home named after the ocean side.) That’s also the literal way out for the 8 of swords card (recall that the 8 of bells represents the 8 of swords). Just walk out. You’re not stuck; no one will make you stay. Nixon resigned. But first he probably stepped out to think. Both actions are good advice.
The outcome card is the King of Vials. Look, they still call you president even when you’re at Mar a Lago. Even when you weren’t in office. Yes, it sucks to be president, but they all look younger right after leaving office. Because that’s how you make the phone stop ringing. (Eventually.)
You can see how hard this exercise is because what I’ve written doesn’t sound very compassionate. Maybe I could do better. But I genuinely can feel the vibrations of those bells ringing and I would, personally, hate that. I don’t want anyone, even an enemy, stuck in that place.
Do I think the card under the deck, the 10 of Candles, represents the midterms? I mean. Maybe. But I pulled these cards in June and I think of that card position as the underlying context. We know he’s tried before to essentially burn it all down. We know this presidency was meant to be “his retribution.” We know he tore down half the White House and a good sized chunk of the government itself. That’s what I think the 10 of Candles is. He didn’t realize it would all be burning on his back, just like Lady MacBeth didn’t realize she’d be washing her hands constantly for the rest of her life.
Again, I’m not trying to make you pity him. But can you at least recognize that it’s not a great place for a human to be stuck? I wouldn’t like it. I don’t think you readers of this blog post would like to be in that position either. He doesn’t like it. He’s not having fun. He may even find it painful. That’s all I’m saying.
And to come back to the larger lesson here:
Most people aren’t going to baldly state what their human experience is like. Politicians certainly aren’t going to publish it. So if we want and need that data, and we don’t have it in quantifiable form, we will have to use creative and imaginative tools to help us understand it qualitatively.
This isn’t a game. Politics is deadly serious. But it does contain play. We can look at each other playfully, through creative lenses. We can use imagination as a political as well as a psychological tool. We can analyze the human positionality of those we share this world with. And we can go off script.
Thank you for reading.
