midweek gambit

I got this graveyard woman, you know, she keeps my kids,
But my soulful mama, you know, she keeps me hid...

--B. Dylan, "From a Buick 6"

Seven spades appeared in another reading recently, in someone else's cards. It's a warning that challenges lie ahead, in the area of health, or work, or both. Since the left-hand card indicates trends which are likely to be receding into the past, I'll say it's referencing my recent respiratory problems, now much improved.

Dominating the center of this abbreviated spread is the enormous presence of the Lady Pope. How like her!

Thirteen says of this card that she "is about keeping things hidden behind the curtain." I see this as key to the female Pope, just as she herself stays concealed, enclosed by all the phases of the moon. Thirteen also says she urges us "to silently reflect on (our) feelings."

OK, I'll try.

Last and certainly not least comes the potent image of the Magician, or conjuror -- the guy who can make something out of nothing and pull rabbits out of hats, if necessary. The important thing to keep in mind about him is, he may be a real magic man, or he might be a con artist, like a lot of the guys who have booths at a fair. He may even have attributes of both.

He's doing okay. He's working for a living, hence a trickster, like Don Draper.

How can you tell whether he's sincere? Well, since the Magician in my deck is also a self-portrait, you can believe me when I tell you that I would never steer you wrong. You have my absolute assurances on that.

Because this tarot deck has 74 rather than 78 cards, the probability that any single card drawn will be a trump or the Fool card is 22/74, or about 30 percent. The probability that two  cards in a three-card reading will be trumps, as is the case above, is thus 22/74 x 22/74 or .297 x .297 -- it will occur eight percent of the time. 

The likelihood of drawing three trumps to a three-card spread is faint, but it happens an average of approximately 26 times in every thousand.

Click on the image for a larger view. Photo and images on cards ©2012 by Dave B, a.k.a. Catboxer.