Busting Trump: A “Conditional Yes-or-No” Example Reading
It appears increasingly likely that former President Donald Trump will be charged with a criminal offense by the Department of Justice as a result of the “January 6th Commission” recommendations. I decided to test my new “yes-or-no” spread by asking whether he will be convicted.
I used the Thoth deck for this reading, with “Adjustment” (Justice) as the “Question” card and the Ace of Swords as the “pointer.” I employed reversals since it is my normal practice to do so; however, they were only applied to the “clarifier” row (which I truncated at five cards) and not to the “pointer” card. The option to cap the reading at five cards was prescient since this forecast would otherwise have included over a dozen cards, making for a convoluted and unwieldy narrative. The “pointer” card landed in the “Yes, But” conditional-answer position, implying that there could be mitigating or extenuating consequences for the outcome. (Out of clinical curiosity, I glanced at the remaining nine cards in the stack and realized that the most relevant cards are those that appeared in the original “target” set shown below; the rest were almost entirely benign or neutral.)
As described in the spread guidance, I began the reading with the card beneath the “pointer” and ended it with the fifth card from the top. The sequence was 7 of Wands (Valour); Queen of Cups; 3 of Wands (Virtue) reversed; 7 of Swords (Futility) reversed; Star. The reversals could signify a protracted trial with lots of “discovery.”
The 7 of Wands is titled “Valour” (extraordinary courage in the face of daunting odds) in the Thoth deck. It suggests that Trump’s legal team will be severely challenged in attempting to head off a conviction, but they will at least rise to the occasion and “fight the good fight.” (In her book Tarot Decoded, Elizabeth Hazel describes the Sevens as representing a “test or trial; a step in a new direction,” and defending a former President in a felony proceeding would seem to be uncharted territory, at least in recent memory; although he probably should have, Richard Nixon never quite got there.)
The Queen of Cups can mean one of two things: either Trump will feel that he is “sitting pretty” in this situation and will “skate” on the charges, or he may in fact make like “Teflon Ron” Reagan and be untouchable. Considering the gravity of the charges, I think he would be mistaken on one hand and vulnerable on the other. This card is too serene to bode well when the knives come out.
The 3 of Wands reversed implies that Trump’s “virtue” will be vigorously impugned by the prosecution. Beyond the fact that his public image could be irreversibly tarred across all constituencies, the best that can be expected of this situation would be a stay or suspension of sentence.
The 7 of Swords reversed could be interpreted as frustration on both sides of the case, but the reversal indicates that the bulk of it will be in Trump’s camp. (To be honest, though, followed by the Star it could mean that there is an outside chance the prosecution will be stymied in its more ambitious objectives and will have to settle for a lesser verdict.) This is another Seven that ties in with the “test or trial” motif.
The Star at the end brings in the mitigation denoted by the “Yes, But” conditional qualifier. It looks like a conviction will be handed down but it will be of the formulaic “slap on the wrist” variety. Whether this will be enough to prevent Trump from running for political office again (a top priority of Democrats) remains to be seen, but the mild denouement appears to favor his stated intention to try. Interestingly, the series ends with two Aquarius cards (one of them associated with the “public” Moon), making me think the “common good” will be a pivotal determinant in the judge’s decision. (A more veiled motive would be whether he or she wants to raise the bar for all other high-ranking government officials by convicting an ex-President of criminal wrongdoing.)
Other than the imperturbable Queen of Cups, the Elemental Dignities in this reading — all Air and Fire — favor an uncomplicated judicial proceeding once the facts are sorted out, but they might also portend a “rush to judgment.” It’s possible that the one potent Water card could fog the picture and blunt the ardor of the “principal” card — 3 of Wands — more than already presumed from its reversal. But it could simply suggest a pro forma motion to dismiss (or an uncharacteristic request for clemency) that could foreshadow the moderation of the Star, modulating the court’s deliberations as a procedural “sticking point” and not as a consequential point of law.
In summary, while Donald Trump would be doing everyone a favor — liberal, moderate and conservative alike — by just “riding off into the sunset” (and not coincidentally giving his party’s 2024 chances a huge boost), this reading does not identify a strong enough basis — or, more pointedly, a sufficiently convincing legal premise — to guarantee that outcome, particularly if he is tried for a lesser offense. I wanted to see if the eventuality of his conviction could be the final “nail in the coffin” for his political career, but I didn’t get a resounding “Yes,” only an equivocal one. That Queen of Cups could suck it up, hitch her wagon to the Star, and keep on truckin’.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on December 29, 2022.
