Given the news lately, I decided to take a look at the relationship between the U.S. and Russia right now. Last week, I introduced what I call the “Both Sides Now” spread. I am using that spread again this week, along with my Gilded Reverie LeNormand Fortune deck, Expanded Edition. Using my favorite way of shuffling the cards, the chaos method, where you mess the cards all around with both hands, then bring them together again and cut into three piles, the result was this:
The U. S. Cards are the ones on the left, the Russia Cards are the ones on the right. The first card on the U.S. side is the Owls card, meaning communication, talk, but of a worried, ominous nature. The two closest cards to this one are the Fish, which represents money, and the Mask, which represents any person, organization, company, or country who is disguising their true intentions. Hence, the U.S’ biggest worries when it comes to Russia concern Russian money (as in money-laundering, which a certain person in the U.S. government may be implicated in), and Russia’s true intentions toward the U.S. which appear to be two-faced, for the Mask card in this deck has two faces, actually three if you count the one facing out at you.
The Lilies card at the bottom of the first row represents the maturation of a matter, a culmination of sorts. Some speculate Robert Mueller III’s investigation is coming to at state of maturity, as it is getting ever-closer to the man in the White House–and he may well know more than we do about Russia’s role in putting him there. The Moon card represents fame, public reputation and honor, but it is under the Mask card in this spread. This seems to suggest that the image and reputation of the United States is masked as something else, or the image the U.S. thinks it is projecting is not how it is really seen by others. Someone could be trying to fool the U.S. about how it is seen by others. Perhaps it is a mask someone has persuaded the U.S. to wear.
The apex cards in the “Both Sides Now” spread represent the truest expression of feelings toward each other by the two sides, and their truest intention. On the U.S.’ side of the reading, the apex card is the Maze/Labyrinth card. In the Gilded Reverie deck it is depicted as a garden maze, with people wandering it’s pathways and one person having successfully reached the center. Garden mazes are designed to baffle, confuse, frustrate, and challenge the wanderer. In garden mazes where the hedges come over your head, you can’t see where you’ve been and you can’t see where you’re going. In some readings, I interpret this to mean an organization or company has been infilterated by agents who probably don’t mean it well. This can also be someone getting inside your head and planting ideas in the endless maze that is your mind.
It has been well-established that Russian intelligence agents (and their proxies; they apparently outsourced some of the work to freelancers in other countries) were active on social media, with the intent of influencing voters in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. It has also been made clear that these agents have been working, and continue to work today on dividing Americans along political lines, strengthening the divide between liberals and conservatives. News came out last week that Russian intelligence services successfully hacked the U.S. power grid in May 2017, apparently on a reconnaissance mission to determine how to take it down and leave the U.S. literally powerless, should the need arise. News came out a few months ago that Russian hackers successfully penetrated the voting software in 21 U.S. states, but they didn’t change anything–yet. That we know of. So this apex card, the Maze/Labyrinth makes perfect sense; Russian intelligence services have successfully penetrated U.S. infrastructure, physical, political, social, and mental.
But look at the apex card for Russia! The Bridge card, which represents connection. Russia sincerely desires connection with the U.S. But what is behind this desire? The first two support cards we come to are the Letter card and below it, the Dog card. The letter card represents documents of every variety and this includes e-mails, which Russian intelligence services have apparently been very good at stealing from U.S. citizens. In readings concerning Russia and the U.S., I have come to discern that the Dog card represents the U.S. They are symbolically holding these documents over the U.S.
The next card after the Dog is the Book. The Book card represents the as-yet-unrevealed future–it also represents secrets. Please note that the Book card is right up there by the Letter card. Ergo, Russia has secret information on the Dog and it’s fleas, which it has been deploying to satisfactory effect. The next card after the Book is the Tree. The Tree card represents any healthy, strong, vital, and growing person or enterprise, so the compromising-information industry in Russia is going great-guns. But look at the card after the Tree! The Dice. That card tells me the Russian government knows what they are having their intelligence services do to the U.S. is risky. They know this could go wrong. But given the presence of the Tree, and the Letters they’re holding over the Dog, they have every confidence in their continuing cyberwar against the U.S.
The Judge card in this spread is the Whip (also known as the Birch Broom). This card represents quarreling, conflict, physical abuse and also, oddly-enough, sex. But the Whip also represents punishment. So the judgement here is: Punishment Is Warranted. But on which side? Both Russia and the U.S. have people who feel they have a legitimate grievance against the other side; people who think it is the other guy on whose back the Whip should land.
The reading does not have a clear answer to this, for the final card, the resolution card, is the Rider. The resolution card indicates how the current conflict between the two sides will be resolved. The Rider simply means ‘a message or news is delivered.’ This could be an official communique between governments. This could be the fallout from Robert Mueller III publically issuing the results of his investigation. This could be a presidential address to the nation, which is also intended to reach the other country’s government and people. I suspect the Rider’s message will include an element of punishment for the other side’s perceived transgression, because the judge card is the Whip. In this case, I think it is going to be the U.S. telling Russia: we know what you’ve been doing to us. Stop it. And for your transgression we’re going to (fill in the blank).
I looked at the remaining cards in the pile, for they often yield more information about the matter. Here’s what they were:
As I considered these five cards, it seemed to me they relate to the United States. The Ship card primarily represents a trip. The Scythe represents something coming to a sudden, decisive and permanent end. Hence, a trip by someone is going to bring the matter to a sudden and decisive end. The only person whose sudden trip could do this is Donald Trump. Only yesterday, I saw a news report his friend, U.S. radio personality Howard Stern, publically advise him to flat-out leave office. Reportedly, he issued the advice publically, because he learned Donald Trump has been privately ‘asking friends what he should do’ and Stern was hurt Donald Trump didn’t ask him. Given these five cards, it appears Trump may take Stern’s advice.
In the aftermath of the fateful flight, the last three cards seem to suggest a woman of mature years will, in time, restore the government. I interpret these last three cards this way because of a prediction I saw on YouTube by a reader/psychic named Kirsten Langston. She said she perceived that if Vice-President Mike Pence or Speaker of the House Paul Ryan succeeded to the U.S. Presidency, neither would be in office very long, and that in the end, a woman would be brought into office to clean up the mess Donald Trump left behind. My sense when I heard this prediction is it has the feel of truth. But I still wanted further resolution of the matter, so I turned to the top four cards in the next pile down, and here’s what they were:
Given the presence of the Bear card, these four cards appear to address themselves to Russia, because I’ve had the Bear card turn up for Russia before. The Older Man card, in previous readings I’ve done which touch on Russia, represents Putin. The Coffin card appears next to him, and I’ve seen this card in his proximity in two previous readings. The Coffin represents illness, stagnation, putrefaction, or in extreme cases, death. The Clouds represent thoughts, doubts, or worries, with the left, dark side of the card representing dark and stormy thoughts and the right, light side of the card representing clear thinking and optimism. Hence, the outcome of this current period of difficulty between the U.S. and Russia is not going to hold a favorable end for Putin; he is in for illness or death, and people around him are going to be thinking dark and stormy thoughts about him. In the Gilded Reverie LeNormand deck, the Bear card is depicted as a polar bear swimming off to the right side of the card. So Russia will continue on, leaving Putin to his dark destiny in it’s wake.
Next week, I’ll do a first-quarter retrospective of my predictions so far. Where was I right, where was I wrong, what has happened, what hasn’t happened (yet), and where did I misinterpret the cards? It’ll be a fun dive into humility, so join me next week!