I am working on the I Ching, Part II divination lesson, but in the meantime, here’s my annual reading on the United States and what we may expect for the country in 2020. I challenged myself and did a Grand Tableau reading for the U.S. as well, but I’ll discuss that reading in a separate blog entry. This morning, I elected to do the Eight Pagan Holidays lay-out on the U.S. in 2020, because the Eight Holidays lay-out has the wonderful feature of showing what is going on at various times of the year. For those who need a refresher, here’s how that looks:
This time I pulled three cards for each holiday, because three cards give you more information than two. So starting with Imbolc (early February) at the top of the circle and working our way clockwise, let’s begin. The deck I used was Ciro Marchetti’s Gilded Reverie LeNormand Deck, Expanded Edition.
The Key – The Well – The Lilies. Early February 2020
The Key card means a crucial discovery, something being unlocked and made available. The Well card is one of Ciro Marchetti’s own additions to the LeNormand Deck. The Well represents wishes, hopes, dreams and our inner resources. It also brings things up from the deep well of secrecy or the sub-consciousness mind—either good things or bad things. The bucket can bring up either pure, fresh water or muck and other nasty things. The Lilies card represents wise elders, or a situation that will take a long time to resolve itself. Something important is going to surface near the beginning of the year, quite possibly something unpleasant, which will take the U.S. a long time to recover from and assimilate into the national psyche.
The Bear – The Anchor – The Fox. Late March 2020.
The Bear can be something big or important, one’s finances, or a protective influence. In the LeNormand deck, the Bear is also my Russia card. The Anchor is something long-term, since an anchor plants itself and more or less stays put. The Fox has a two possible meanings. It represents work, your job or career, or it represents trickery. It can be both at the same time. So, Option One: the U.S.’s long-term financial situation is going to need work in early spring, because some creative financial accounting has been detected. Or Option Two: Russian intelligence services’ long-term efforts to cause mischief in U.S. society, and the extent of their trickery, will be revealed. Both options could be the reality. This could be further fall-out from what is exposed in early February.
The Dog – The Birds – The Moon. Early May 2020.
The Dog represents a friend, or one’s friend-network. In the LeNormand deck, it is also my card for the United States. There are two Birds cards in the Gilded Reverie Expanded Edition deck, and both appear in this reading. This one, with the Baltimore Orioles perched on their equally-colorful feeder, is my card for social media—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, etc. The Birds can also represent main-stream media. The Moon is the card of intuition, things psychic, fame, and a positive outcome to events. We may be taking a hard look at media of all sorts, and those who become famous media figures, and why. Questions about the role of all varieties of communications media in U.S. society may receive renewed attention at this time, but this examination will eventually have a positive outcome.
The Snake – The Owls – The Child. June 2020.
The Snake, represents a deceiver, a liar, a trap laid and waiting for you. The Owls, the second of the two Birds cards, represents Ominous News. In some Native American tribes, the owl was considered a harbinger of death. Both Birds cards can represent gossip, but the Owls are gossip of a more negative, troublesome kind. The Child card can represent a child, a person with a child-like outlook on life, or something in its early stages. The Child is also my Donald Trump card in the LeNormand deck.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Donald Trump’s appeal to prevent his accounting firm (Mazars) from sharing his tax returns with both an investigative body in New York State and with a U.S. Congressional committee. The SCOTUS hears oral arguments in March 2020 and will render their decision by the end of June 2020. These cards tell me yes, the SCOTUS will rule that Donald Trump’s accountants will have to surrender his tax returns. The Snake card suggests there will be some unpleasant surprises in those tax returns.
The Clover – The Ring – The Young Man. Early August 2020.
The Clover represents luck. The Ring is any agreement, contract, commitment, or treaty. There are two Man cards in the Gilded Reverie Expanded Edition, a Younger Man and an Older Man (both are numbered 28). This is the young man. The U.S. is going to sign an agreement or treaty with a young man, probably a foreign head of state, in late summer. This agreement/treaty is going be a very beneficial one for the U.S.
The Garden Park – The Star – The Tree. Late September 2020.
The Garden Park is any public place where people gather and mingle. It represents the public, things in the public domain, or things which are common knowledge. The Star is hope, inspiration, light at the end of the tunnel, don’t give up, success is in sight, help from above, a predestined path. The Tree represents any healthy, vital, growing thing, our bodies, our spirituality, plants, organizations, new businesses, the like. These cards send the beautiful message that by September, the U.S. is going to be in a very hopeful, optimistic and increasingly-healthy frame of mind. Political rallies should be safe to attend, as there aren’t any violent cards here.
The Older Woman – The Younger Woman – The Scythe. Early November 2020.
Ciro Marchetti has two Woman cards in his Expanded Edition Gilded Reverie deck and they both appear here, the Older Woman and the Young Woman—staring (glaring?) right at each other, and the scythe stands in wait behind one of them. The tension of these three cards is palpable. This is around the time of the next U.S. presidential election, so either Republicans or Democrats may have a woman on the ticket. The Scythe card is something abruptly cut-off, a decision swiftly-made.
The two Woman cards may instead mean women’s issues will play a role in the election-outcome, or it may represent two different generations, two different political viewpoints, or two different world-views. I would point out, the Scythe stands behind the Younger Woman, as if she were hiding it behind her back. If the Scythe card had landed between them, I would say the 2020 election result would be a toss-up, but no, it won’t be close. The U.S. voting public will speak clearly, decisively and with one voice: we prefer this candidate.
The Rider – The Compass – The Bouquet. Late December 2020.
The Rider card is a message delivered or received, or a new person comes into your life. The Compass card is one of Ciro Marchetti’s own additions to the LeNormand deck, and it represents the direction in which you are meant to go. This can be a card of seeking a direction, or changing direction. This can be someone or something that provides guidance and helps direct you to your goal. In the company of certain cards, it can represent a lack of direction, but that isn’t the case here, for the Rider is here with a message that forces a change of direction. The Bouquet card is a gift, happiness, contentment, joy, help is on the way, assistance from an unexpected source. These three cards end the year with the message that a new president is coming, there is going to be a change of the country’s direction, and this will be seen as happy, joyful, positive news to most of the U.S. population.
I like to lay down 1-to-3 additional cards in the middle of the spread in order to get a sense of what we generally need to keep in mind about this year, and what this year is going to be about. The three cards I pulled were:
The Split-Staircase – Time(The Clocks) – The Mountain
In the traditional LeNormand deck, the Split-Staircase card is the Crossroads card, and it represents a decision must be made, a crucial turn in your life-path, or an alternate path presents itself to you. For these reasons, it’s also the election card. The Time card is another one of Ciro Marchetti’s additions to the Gilded Reverie deck, and it augments all other cards. The Mountain card represents obstacles, challenges, delays, detours, possibly conflicts (Mountains can be abrasive).
The message I draw from these cards is this: keep in mind that the next person elected president of the United States later this year will have a very long-term effect (the Mountain next to the Time card slows things down considerably) on the country. They’ll face huge challenges, so choose carefully, voter.