I think a good diviner occasionally takes a look back at his or her predictions and takes stock of them. Where were their predictions accurate, and where did they miss? Divination is always going to be an inexact art. The future changes with every decision we and others make. The diviner may unconsciously bring his or her own biases to bear on the reading. Nonetheless, some future events, I believe, are destined to happen, no matter what decisions people make. For that reason, I still believe it is a valuable tool for seeing how the future is likely to go. Some topics I’ve done readings about on this blog are going to take more than three months to fully manifest themselves. Regardless of that, I am going to hold a ruler to myself and see how my predictions measure up.
The first reading I posted was an overview of the U.S. for the year 2018. I used the Eight Pagan Holidays layout, so the only two holidays of the pagan year we’ve passed so far are Imbolc (around February 2nd) and Ostara/the Vernal Equinox (around March 21st). For Imbolc, the two cards were the Bear and the Dog. I interpreted that to mean Russia’s aggression toward the U.S. via cyberwar would bear it’s first nasty fruit. On January 28th, earlier the same week of Imbolc, President Trump failed to start enforcing sanctions against Russia voted on by a majority of both houses of Congress. That same week, we found out the top management of three Russian intelligence agencies had been to the U.S. the previous week to meet with the top management from a few U.S. intelligence agencies. For these two reasons, I’m going to call this prediction a hit.
The two cards I turned up for Ostara/the Vernal Equinox were the Birds (12a) and the Choice/Crossroads card. The Birds card, among other things, refers to social media. The Choice/Crossroads card means an important decision or change of course. The week of the Vernal Equinox, we found out (courtesy of Channel 4 in the UK) that Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based PR firm that helps political candidates win their elections, resorts to some dirty tactics to help their clients win. They also illegally took the personal data of at least 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge or permission, in order to micro-target certain voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. (A report yesterday, as of this writing, is that as many as 87 million Facebook users, mostly U.S. citizens may have had their data taken by Cambridge Analytica, a charge Cambridge Analytica denies). This revelation has certainly forced many social media users to take a good hard look at their social media use, and many have already closed their Facebook accounts. So I’m going to call this a hit as well.
My next blog entry was about Vladimir Putin’s future. I don’t like predicting death, but I saw death in the cards for Putin, and that people in his environment were planning it, as risky as that may be. Given that he is still alive as of this writing, I must label this prediction a miss–so far.
My next blog entry after that was about Russia’s future, and that the next leader of Russia would be a younger man who genuinely loves Russia, will be more concerned with domestic issues and establishing security for Russia, and will re-orient the country toward changing Russia’s reputation in the world. Well given that Putin is still alive and very much in charge in Russia, I must label this prediction, remains to be seen.
My next blog entry after that was about the Republican Party of the U.S.’ present and future. I think I got their present right–that their cleverness has brought them good fortune, that the risks they’ve taken in recent history have paid off. So that is a hit, of sorts, but the future cards in this spread–that the U.S.’ reputation and the Republican Party’s successes would receive closer scrutiny–is sort of a hit, sort of not. It really does depend on what news media sources you’re consulting–right-wing news media sources or left-wing media news sources, since things have become that divided in the U.S. over the past few decades. The further-out prediction of long-term, possibly permanent pain for the Republican Party, based on the presence of the Anchor and the Cross cards next to each other, I’m going to label a probable future hit, since many political observers are predicting–and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell even conceded this week–that the Republican Party in the U.S. is going to take a pasting at the polls this coming November.
The next blog entry post I did was for a reading on the Democratic Party of the U.S.’ future. Again, I think I got the present right–that they’re concerned about an older man’s documents (President Trump’s Twitter account, doubtless), that they’re worriedaboutconnections (the Bridge and the Owls) to foreign movements (the Mountain and the Storks). As for the future prediction–that time would bring closer scrutiny about deceitful behavior and how it caused them suffering(the Time, Magnifying Glass, Fox, & Cross cards) that is a miss–so far. The even farther prediction–an engagement with honor, as government suffers an abrupt severing of some kind(the Ring, Moon, Tower, & Scythe cards) that I must label, remains to be seen.
The next reading I reported on was the Al Franken scandal. I predicted he would be exonerated. I must label this reading a miss–so far. My own sense is that what happened to Al Franken is his misfortune is just one small part of this whole, larger Trump/Russia matter, and that this issue is going to take months to resolve itself. Even if Al Franken is exonerated, that is going to be a sidebar story, I am certain, to a much larger and earthshaking story of how involved in our domestic politics Russian intelligence services were, and how beholden Donald Trump is to Russia. Al Franken was asking inconvenient questions about matters some people wanted to be kept in the dark. He needed to be gotten out of a position where he could do them harm.
My next column was about Robert Mueller’s investigation. Much of this reading I must cast into the remains to be seen box, but one element I think I got somewhat correct was the question of ‘what is he working on now?’ and as I recall, I forecast that he was looking at KellyAnne Conway. Just days after this column, KellyAnne Conway came under fire for a personal endorsement she made while being interviewed on camera with a news network anchor, which was a rules violation. It wasn’t a part of Mueller’s investigation, but I consider this a partial hit. The last card in this reading was the Ship card. I’m holding to my original prediction and I’ll reiterate it here; Mueller isn’t going to get everybody. Somebody is going to flee the country before any legal action can be taken against them. And my guess is, it’ll be Donald Trump himself.
My next reading was about Fox News. The present cards were interesting; that they are suffering from an attrition of their talent from the network (the Cross and the Mice cards) and that they are concerned with the government and governmental involvement with other countries (the Tower and the Mountain cards). But the rest of my predictions–about an ominous secret, a letter sent them by a woman who is disguising her true motives, that this letter would send one of their number abroad–these I must label a miss–for now. The further future cards and my prediction that Russia has a foothold of sorts in Fox News’ operation, and that they are rewarded or punished for how well they perform to Russian satisfaction, that I will label remains to be seen.
As for the AFSCME versus Janus Supreme Court of the United States case, that is another remains to be seen, for the Supreme Court of the United States tends to release the bulk of their decisions in June, before they adjourn for the summer.
The U.S. versus Russia right now reading which I did last week was really meant to be more of an overview reading, rather than a what-is-going-to-happen-in-the-future kind of reading. And I wholly endorse such readings. Sometimes, the value of divination lies in its ability to show you the NOW. As for my predictions that one of the two countries will be punished and that the punishment will come in the form of a message, that a sudden flight by someone will bring the current matter to an abrupt end, and that an older woman, would, in time, restore the government, those predictions must be labeled, remains to be seen.
If I were still in school and these readings constituted my class work for the grading period, I would have to give myself an ‘incomplete’. Join me here again next week, as I attempt to redeem myself by doing a reading on another matter or person of current interest.