reading for the new year

With the snow falling thick and fast on Christmas Day and beginning to accumulate, it's a good time to take a sounding on what's in store in the year ahead.

I used a new and, as far as I know, original layout this time, designating the bottom line of three cards as predicting developments in the gross or physical sphere of life, the pair just above forecasting the more abstracted, internal, and mental life, and the ultimate card at the top showing next year's focus of the spirit, geist, soul, or simply "the self."

The frequently symmetrical and seemingly patterned state of the cards I randomly draw (as in this case) looks deliberately arranged. At the bottom, a pair of aces bracket the four diamonds, and the center is a perfectly balanced pair of face cards.

The ace of clubs is all about new directions in reading, study, and learning. Hardly a month goes by that I don't draw a club card pointing to the importance in my life of this ongoing habit. Just as the ace of clubs means a desire for knowledge, or a new plan, scheme, or way of communicating, its partner, the ace of hearts, means a new love affair, or the desire for one, and the timing of this image is appropriate.

Between them is the four diamonds, representing financial stability and that most elusive of modern conditions, a balanced budget. That's a nice prospect, since it's one of my goals for next year.

Then comes the poetic, articulate, and knowledge-loving queen of clubs, consorting here with the materially-oriented, intelligent and calculating, and somewhat humorless money manager, the jack of diamonds -- a hard card to play I've heard.

At the top is love triumphant, and a romance brought to fruition,   which at my age seems silly to contemplate, but who knows what might happen? Life is full of surprises.

So while I may be obsessed with studying art and art history next  year, and will have my mind on my money and my money on my mind, this reading predicts that as always, love has dominion over all human affairs.

You can click on the picture for a bigger view, but it won't necessarily be a better one. My digital camera is misbehaving this morning as it oten does, so I used my cell phone to snap this one. If I get a better photo in the next couple of days, I'll replace this one.

Images on cards ©2001, 2012, by Dave B. a.k.a. catboxer.