AUTHOR’S NOTE: It’s time once again for my biennial reading on United States politics with Brian William’s PoMo (PostModern) tarot. The focus of this analysis is the upcoming Congressional midterm election
The PoMo tarot is my all-time favorite deck for sociopolitical readings because the tone is cynical enough to avoid being fooled by appearances, and the often-sarcastic presentation is perfectly aligned with my own skeptical attitude. As “the Count” (Ferdy Mayne) in Roman Polanski’s 1967 Fearless Vampire Killers might have said in his thick Transylvanian accent, “We just com-moon-icate.” (You should watch it, it’s great in its cult-ish dark-comedy genius).
As always, the PoMo tarot produced a fascinating scenario. First, a note of explanation: for some insufficiently convincing reason, Williams chose to designate the suit of Guns as Air and that of TVs as Fire. In my own view, gunpowder partakes of the explosive and propulsive nature of Mars and the Sun, so in any rational system Guns would be Fire and equate to Wands, while the “airwaves” that were once assumed to carry the visual and audio signals of television relate to both chatty Mercury, the quintessential Air planet, and Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, sign of science and social interaction, so in my estimation TVs can only be Air and a stand-in for Swords. I’ve used these correspondences to good effect since I began working with the deck.
Preamble: Since the Republicans are the “sitting” party in Congress at this time, I gave them the top row as I do with the “home team” in a sporting-event prediction. The purposely-chosen “Opportunity” card that is intended to show what is at stake in the matter is, as is my custom, the Chariot, representing Waite’s “triumph in physical terms.” Because the Chariot also appeared in the “Chance to Win” column via the “numerical essence” calculation, I substituted the Thoth card for the PoMo version at the beginning of the spread.
I dealt the cards according to a slightly different order than in my normal practice, first shuffling the whole deck to introduce random reversals and splitting it in half (one sub-pack for each party), then re-shuffling the halves separately and laying the cards sequentially from left-to right for the first four positions in each row. This created more continuity than allowed by my typical staggered top-to-bottom placement.
Strengths: These positions suggest how each party might be expected to dominate in the election. The Republicans received the 6 of TVs/Swords (“Science” in the Thoth deck). The implication is that the clarity and logic of their message will be their greatest asset. But things get really interesting with the reversed Moon for the Democrats. In astrology (and also in Lenormand), the Moon is the barometer of public relations and recognition, while it is also the harbinger of rapid change in astrology. Putting these ideas together with the reversed orientation seems to indicate that Democratic leadership is being cagey (if not downright elusive) about the growing incursion of the radical leftist agenda into the party’s liberal demographic. But for a nationwide constituency that is hungry for some kind of dramatic change, this hands-off stance may turn out to be an advantage and not a liability. If it all “goes South” on them, they can always say “Don’t blame me, it wasn’t my idea.” Verdict: Simplicity is a virtue, and the Democrats may be over-complicating the situation with too much fancy footwork (not to mention in-fighting). The Republicans look more like winners mainly due to their slightly-frayed solidarity and equanimity, although they will have to push their “brand” much more vigorously to avoid a disaster in November. Time is running short and the Democrats are gaining momentum.
Weaknesses: This shows the other side of the picture. Although I shy away from ad hominem criticism in political commentary, the Fool for the Republicans can only mean one thing: the abysmal approval rating of their standard-bearer, Donald Trump, will be a significant millstone around their collective necks. For the Democrats, the tidings of the Hermit (prophetically titled “Out of It”) are loud-and-clear: the party still hasn’t successfully aligned with the general electorate on a number of important issues, and the ideological “drag” of the Social Democrats may nudge them further away from center and isolate them in consequential ways. Verdict: There is no obvious loser here, but also no breakaway winner. The Republicans might be discredited as “buffoons” and the Democrats as “serial losers.” It comes down to the lesser of two evils, and I’m not sure the rank-and-file voters are “dialed in” enough to the more abstract nuances to make the best choice. The two trump cards indicate high stakes and low expectations.
“Edge:” As the election looms, this position is intended to reveal which participant is gaining an edge in the contest. The 4 of Guns/Wands reversed for the Republicans can be read as discretely “edging” away from the conflicts in Iran and the Ukraine as a form of damage control for the Fool’s indiscretions. This card is titled “Completion” in the Thoth deck and its reversal hints at leaving unfinished business behind by walking away, not an enviable position to be in. TV Man (King of Swords) for the Democrats suggests that Democratic spin-doctors have been busily trying to give the party’s image a compelling make-over as decisive policy-makers. Verdict: It looks to me like the Democrats have a better handle on success by outstripping the Republicans’ rather empty posturing as long as they can pull off the “chameleon” act.
Allies’ Support: This position tackles which party has the most reliable support system. For the Republicans, the 5 of Guns/Wands conveys the notion that the party is strongly “backstopped” in its Constitutional imperative by the gun-totin’ “red-state” citizens of Middle America, the National Rifle Association and the conservative industrial and financial base. With the 9 of Guns/Wands, the Democrats may be in trouble should the militant progressive insurgents gain control of the party machine and begin “shooting from the hip.” Verdict: Reinforcing the status quo may substantially outweigh the impulse for its destruction, handing the Republicans a boon.
Chance to Win: The cards in these positions are derived from the “numerical essence” calculation as a summary conclusion or roll-up of the previous four cards in their row. They provide a “big-picture” overview of the possible outcome. Elsewhere in this blog there is a thorough description of their derivation.
The Republicans received “Wheels,” the PoMo version of the Chariot, and the image of a tank dangles the tempting option of proclaiming a “steamroller” victory for the party despite the fact that most political analysts see just the opposite and favor the Democrats in a landslide. But a more sober assessment notes that this card dovetails perfectly with the Chariot as the “winning hand” in the endeavor, so I wouldn’t count them out just yet.
For the Democrats’ part, all of the contributing cards cancel out except the King of Swords, and its sequential number in the suit, 14, yields Temperance (the PoMo’s “Neither Here Nor There” alternative) as the numerical essence. This implies that, in the end, none of their machinations will come to fruition because they will still be striving for that conclusive “image make-over” at the expense of failing to mount a coherent and stable platform. (The card’s subtitle “But Right on the Money” may have to wait for the “I-told-you-so” postmortem and it would then be a case of “too little, too late.”) It is telling that one of the premier Liberal pundits (I think it was James Carville), cautioned that the overriding hatred of Trump does not constitute a winning political platform, and – unless the Social-Democrat progressives manage to carry the day – the election results may prove his observation to be prescient.
Decision: This card is a numerical conflation of the two “Chance to Win” cards, and 7+14=21. The idea is to see which chain of five previous cards it is most closely aligned with, thereby predicting a winner. Unfortunately, with the World corresponding to the element of Earth, there is little to choose from in the way of a clear champion since it is well-favored by and grossly at odds with only a few of the preceding cards. The Republicans enjoy one highly-significant, friendly elemental match-up between Wheels (Water) and the World (Earth); two neutral-and-supportive Fire pairings; and two hostile Air combinations that show up in the early going but don’t persist.
The Democrats draw two fortunate comparisons (The Moon/Water and the Hermit/Earth) and two neutral-and-supportive Fire matches but the uncooperative King of Swords (Air) brings the love-fest to an icy halt in the middle of things. Verdict: The best that can be said for the World is that there will be a conclusion to the affair (was there ever a doubt?), bringing blessed relief from the incessant, shrill harangue of the politicos, but the image of a globe suspended momentarily in the air gives the impression that it will be a toss-up and too close to call given the testimony of the cards.
Conclusion: If I were to be held at gun-point and forced to choose a winner, I would have to pick the Republicans due to the near-perfect elemental correlation between the World and the two expressions of the Chariot (as long as that pesky Fool can be put in his place before he does any more damage). But my opinion is definitely skewed by the fervent hope that the progressive juggernaut doesn’t prevail and proceed to gut the Constitution; I left that pipe-dream behind when I outgrew my socialist/hippie inclinations back in the 1970s.
