AUTHOR’S NOTE: In light of the increasingly dire situation in the Middle East, I decided to ask my favorite sociopolitical deck, Brian Williams’ PoMo (PostModern) Tarot, whether Iran is likely to attempt a nuclear incursion into Israel. I took my inspiration primarily from the images rather than from conventional definitions.

The Ace of Money (Pentacles) immediately invokes the Harry Truman quote “The buck stops here.” It conveys standing fast and not giving an inch. Someone has their “back up against the wall.” But it could also mean that someone is about to “show the money.”

Bottle Boy (Page of Cups) looks like someone vulnerable is going to be sad.

Taken one way, the 8 of Bottles could intensify that impression by suggesting that a whole bunch of “someones” are going to be unhappy. From another angle, they could be celebrating (that’s a lot of wine bottles), but then, of course, there is the inevitable “hangover.”

Night (the Moon) reminds me of Nightfall, the old science-fiction story by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, in which darkness comes to a planet with six suns that has never known anything but round-the-clock sunlight. Madness ensues. Another more obvious reference would be the title of the Eugene O’Neill play Long Day’s Journey into Night. You can draw your own conclusions, but I think night may be coming.

The “Hallmark” version of the popping champagne cork in the Ace of Bottles would be “celebration.” But it has me thinking “The genie is finally out of the bottle.” That flying cork is ominous and there is no stuffing it back in.

As I interpret it, this is a somber reading that doesn’t bode well for more than just the immediate antagonists. Four of the five cards are elemental Water, indicating that emotions are overruling reason. With two Aces book-ending the spread, it goes without saying that fundamental ideologies are at the heart of the conflict, with wealth on one side and religion on the other.

Conversely, the Moon could mean that the current regime in Tehran is about to be eclipsed (one pundit has envisioned a popular uprising that might be symbolized by the 8 of Bottles, in which case Bottle Boy could be showing the oppressed population of Iran). This demise would be a cause to celebrate from an international perspective (as long as its dying gasp doesn’t emit a “nuclear hiccup”).