For the last couple of years I’ve been part of a group of amazing women. We get together somewhat regularly to brainstorm about life, our businesses, family, health, and to share laughs over a potluck lunch. This past Saturday was our most recent meeting and our first since the election. Among the many things we discussed were our concerns for the future.
Around this table were women dealing with unemployed spouses, adult children who have had their jobs go overseas, healthcare issues for ourselves and our children, the ever increasing tax burden here in New York, and all the concerns those issues bring up.
Every candidate who ran for president had a voter or a voter’s relative at this table. Some of us actively participated in the Women’s March. Some of us gave it our support in other ways and some of us didn’t.
I love these ladies. We have a wonderful, enriching time whenever we get together. We don’t all agree with each other about everything and that is never an obstacle to friendship and support.
As always the tarot cards come out when we get together. We read for each other, discuss the readings and come up with strategies for going forward and using that information. This time we decided to add a reading for the United States. We focused on the big concepts that vex most of us: the economy, our international situation, and our social situation.
We pulled three cards from The Urban Tarot. If you are friends with me on Facebook you know this is currently my deck of the month. The question was a mashup of “What can we expect from the economy?” and “What can we do to be okay in the coming economy?”
Here’s a closer look.
We were all in agreement that the Knight of Cups, called The Seducer in this deck, represented that promises made during the recent political campaigns. The candidates for president, and the local offices that were up, each promised prosperity and jobs and lower taxes and healthcare and free puppies and chocolate… basically we know they say what they feel they need to say to get elected. If you have ever had the opportunity to speak to a politician who wants your vote it is very much like speaking to a guy who is trying to get in your pants. Perfect card.
The second card is the 9 of Wands, named Fortitude in this deck. We discussed this one for a while. The figure is a postal worker and the building is the main post office building in Manhattan. The figure in the card is working hard in the cold and dark alone. He is separate from the huge bureaucracy he works for even though he wears a uniform representing them. He’s working hard. He’s standing his ground and doing his job for his own reasons. To us this represented hard work. We may feel overwhelmed and in the shadow of much larger forces beyond our control but we need to keep working and keep the focus on our reasons for that work.
The last card is The Empress. She is a happy mother feeding her baby in a sunny room. We were all relieved to see this card. The Empress is abundance and creativity. It may be that creativity will be needed to find our way forward or the solutions that present themselves from the people pulling the strings of our economy will be more creative than we have come to expect. All around this reading is hopeful.
Yes, we all bought into some sleazy lines and now have that morning after feeling but with some focused hard work and creativity we will be okay.
We then turned our attention to the international scene.
We pulled The Moon and Strength. These are both Major Arcana cards. The Major Arcana usually show up when events are of karmic importance, or related to our destiny, or lessons our soul is here to learn. These cards are for the U.S. and her foreign policy and international relations. To us they said there is a lot we haven’t seen clearly/don’t see clearly. The Moon is about illusions and how things aren’t really as they seem to be. Think of how the world looks at night when you walk around outside and the only light is from the moon. You don’t see most of what is going on around you and what you do see looks very different from how it really is in bright daylight. We expect that things will be revealed and illusions made obvious. This card also speaks of the anxiety many people are feeling regarding our place in the world and the world’s relations with us.
Strength is us getting a grip on all that anxiety and calling things as we see them. It is us standing tall and not being reactive or impulsive but operating from a place of courage and self-confidence. As a nation it is the U.S. not taking any shit. As a people it is remembering that this country is ‘We the People’ and reminding the politicians who work for us that we are paying attention, and we want the truth.
For the social situation we pulled The Emperor, 5 of Pentacles, and 6 of Wands.
The Emperor is a force to be reckoned with. He is a powerful figure who can be energetically overwhelming to those who interact with him. He knows what he wants and he’s not afraid to go get it. As soon as this card showed up we all said “Trump” and laughed because it really is a perfect card for him right now. It is important to note that this is also a Major Arcana card and to us that said he was inevitable in many ways. He is here in this place and time to bring about change as he sees it.
To see the 5 of Pentacles show up next makes a lot of sense too. It is worry and poverty and the feeling of rejection. Those feelings are what motivated many to vote for Mr. Trump in the first place and are the feelings that other people fear will be the future now that he has won.
The 6 of Wands however says that all will be well. There is victory and celebration to come. We suspect that when more time passes and the fears don’t manifest people will calm down and realize that sky is not falling and the end is not nigh.
To wrap it all up and get an outlook on what Mr. Trump’s tenure will be like we pulled one last card.
This card is usually called Judgment, in this deck it’s call The Aeon. The figure is walking along the American Immigrant Wall of Honor on Ellis Island. She is touching a name engraved there and the reflection of her ancestor is visible on the wall. The word aeon refers to an age, a period of time. Robin Scott, who created this deck used this image to show the connections through time and how life is really judged by how we live it and what we leave behind. This card speaks of the cyclical nature of life and of the things we do in that life.
That the image is from the Ellis Island museum felt very hopeful to us all regarding the hysteria around the reports of Mr. Trump’s comments about immigrants during the campaign. He will be judged on his actions not his words. The scene is quite peaceful and loving and taking place on a sunny day. That felt hopeful too.
Mr. Trump is just one of many presidents. We hope, for our own sakes, and for the United States as a whole, that he is a good president and that we will find ourselves better off in four years than we are right now.