AUTHOR’S NOTE: In a recent post I explored the subject of “using” and “being used” in a socially-manipulative way. Here I’m making good on two “oh-by-the-way” suggestions I made in that essay. One was to create a spread to examine the social priorities of a target individual (or entity) and the other was to bin all of the cards according to where they lie on the sociopathic spectrum from openly domineering to clandestinely scheming. (I’m calling it the “perversity quotient” scale.)

Tarot practitioners often design or adapt spreads to analyze the intentions of another person toward the querent. Most often these readings are entirely emotional in nature befitting the sitter’s romantic goals. In this case I’m looking at more devious consequences that might result from an individual’s (or other entity’s) private agenda regarding how they approach social interaction with the aim of acquiring overt advantage or covert influence.

First select a “Significator” card to represent the person or entity of interest. Keep it in the deck, shuffle the cards, and deal them out equally into the five-card “inverted arc” in any random order you choose, continuing until the Significator appears in one of the five positions. (The “Prime Mover” comes later.)

Leave the Significator in place and gather up the rest of the cards for the final shuffle.

Shuffle the deck and deal five cards into the “arc” in any order you prefer, laying one on the Significator as the modus operandi card. Reversal may be used in this step to show any factor that might be “finessed” when applied to the affected agenda or associated action position.

Regardless of their “perversity quotient” (see the table below), a favorable card in any of the “Agenda” positions suggests that the target of the reading might try to “put a good face” on their manipulative intentions, while an unfavorable card could show that they don’t care and will just “stick it to” the victim.

If the “Overt” agenda is emphasized, the person or organization will attempt to dominate the situation, while the “Covert” agenda could mean that they will try to “sneak in the back door.” The “Centrist” agenda signifies that they are undecided, and it will be up to the “Prime Mover” card to nudge them one way or the other (or maybe just leave them “standing pat”).

Using the numerical values of the five cards in the “arc,” calculate an “essence” card by summing those values and reducing them via addition of the digits as many times as necessary to arrive at a number that falls between 1 and 21. Locate the trump card identified by this value and place it in the “Prime Mover” position. (Refer to my previous posts on the “quintessence” calculation for different variations on this technique that will allow zero as the root and also enable a reversed value as shown in the example readings.) If that card already came up in the random pull, take it from a a second deck.

The purpose of the “Prime Mover” card is to act as a lever or trigger to “move the needle” to the left or right. The orientation (Overt or Covert) that the card in this position most strongly supports according to a variety of “dignities” (element, suit, polarity, number, rank or inherent nature) will become a secondary focus of the narrative after the primary importance of the Significator’s location is established.

This outcome will be most useful when the Significator appears in the “Centrist” position because it can take the situation “out of neutral.” If, however, it is more closely aligned with the “Centrist” card than either of the other two, the matter could remain unresolved unless one of the “essence card/action card” pairings is potent enough to overcome the inertia and drag its associated polarity along with it. This would be the most dangerous outlook because it could mean acting aimlessly without having a powerful incentive to do so.

Notes:

If the Prime Mover is more closely allied with one of the “action” positions than the other, it could mean that the individual will put more effort into prioritizing either a direct (overt) or indirect (covert) assault on the primary objective, along with the considerations described above.

If the Significator lands in one of the “Action” positions instead of an “Agenda” position, the agenda on that side of the array (and the card situated there) will be energized for the purpose of the reading.

Example Readings:

The following readings will attempt to evaluate the projected performance of the two “extremist” factions in American politics (the “MAGA Conservatives” and the “Progressive Liberals”) to see which has the overt or covert advantage in the upcoming mid-term elections, and by what means they might prevail. I used the Emperor as the Significator in both readings for obvious reasons.

General Comments: The Emperor appeared randomly in the “Covert Action” position in both of these pulls, suggesting that both parties will be leveraging their “dirty tricks.” In addition, all but one of the cards drawn for each reading were reversed, adding emphasis to the clandestine nature of the proceedings. This does not look like a “straight-up” election despite efforts to ensure its integrity.

“MAGA” Outlook

The Emperor in the “Covert Action” position is looking toward the Priestess as the “Covert Agenda” card, confirming the hand-off. The Priestess is mysterious by nature, and the reversed Hermit as the “Prime Mover” card is similarly “holding something back.” (It is also the numerological counterpart of the Moon card above it, implying that “the more things change, the more they remain the same.”) These cards are favorably aligned by element, polarity and rank, suggesting that the Republican Party operatives “know a secret” of some kind that has great pragmatic utility.

The reversed 7 of Swords (“Futility”) accompanying the Emperor implies an underhanded ploy that “cuts the legs out from under” the adversary just as long as the swordsmen don’t slit their own throats in the process. (It is one of the “manipulative” cards from the table, and the reversal makes it doubly so; it is also a callous “stick-it-to-’em” card with no remorse.) There is not much to cheer about in the “Overt” direction to make it worth pursuing. The Priestess and the Hermit are an “all-or-nothing” gamble.

“Progressive” Outlook

The Emperor is gazing on the Lovers as the “Covert Agenda” card, implying that the Democratic operatives see a “fork in the road” regarding public sentiment that they think will work in their favor. However, the reversed Hierophant is both elementally antagonistic and of opposite polarity to the Lovers, indicating that moderate sentiments within both the electorate and their own party may become a drag on the realization of their utopian socialist vision; the faithful may lose confidence in the agenda, which could be due to the platform’s hostility toward religion. Repugnance is intimated by the reversed 7 of Cups (“Debauch”) above the Hierophant.

The reversed 5 of Disks (“Worry”) sitting atop the Emperor seems to be emblematic of that uneasy feeling. (It is also a “manipulative” card exacerbated by reversal, and a pitiless card as well.) There appears to be no hope in the other direction (“partisan arm-twisting”) since all of the cards are both dismal and reversed.

Summary:

Although “there can be only one” winner, neither of these readings shows a decisive edge in the election. There is a considerable amount of “jockeying for position” going on in the manipulative slant and an almost compete disregard for the public interest. However, if I were to guess I would say that the Republicans are better positioned to “work the angles” (and the reversed Hermit is throwing a few secretive “backroom deals” at them to add to the intrigue). Of course, this flies in the face of what all the political pundits are saying (even though they were all wrong in 2016). I will do a formal “winner-take-all” reading at the beginning of November.

Addendum:

The table below bins all 78 cards according to their propensity to be overtly “domineering,” covertly “manipulative” or prudently “neutral” in any social setting. The descriptive phrase for each group comes from my earlier essay on “using other people or being used by them.” The customary positive or negative nature of the cards did not figure into my choices, only the degree to which each one would be direct, roundabout or noncommittal in its sociopathic tendencies.

In this regard, “domineering” stretches to include “emphatically forthright” (the entire suit of Wands) and “manipulative” to encompass “submissive with an aim to curry favor” (the more perverse Cups, Swords and Pentacles). The largest population suggests “avoidance,” which may be a problem in and of itself. In general, Fire and Air are assertive while Water and Earth are more indirect in their operation. (This is a work-in-progress and may change with ongoing experience.)