Rahm Emanuel ~Tarot ~ An Experiment

First, a tarot reading, for details of an experiment, please scroll down.

I'd never heard the name Rahm Emanuel before it came under media spotlight a few weeks ago when President-elect Obama chose Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. To be honest, I didn't even know what a Chief of Staff's job entailed, but I researched a little and found out.

After Robert Phoenix suggested I consult the tarot about how Emanuel's influence might affect Barack Obama in the future, I resisted the temptation to read around and form an opinion. Only after I'd drawn the cards and written an interpretation did I find an article to include here for those as ignorant as myself on the matter. I wanted to keep my mind clear of prejudice - and hope it worked. The article I chose to link is from "TIME" magazine.

I asked the tarot: "How will Rahm Emanuel influence Obama in the future?" I shuffled the full deck, cut the cards then drew these three in the following order:

9 Swords
Strength
7 Rods/Wands

9 of Swords is a nasty card to draw in a personal reading, it connects to an agony of mind, worry, opression, loss. In this context however it describes a situation involving Mr Emanuel and P/e Obama. A period of self-torture, worry, introspection, dread of potential bad outcome. Some interpreters have called it the "oh shit!" card, or "a total mindfuck": paralyzing fear of failure. The suit of Swords connects to astrological Air, the mental element.



Strength, a card from the Major Arcana - it almost speaks for itself! First and foremost it's a positive card. Connects to Leo in astrology. The picture on many decks shows a female struggling with a lion, but not aggressively, she has courage, inner power, she controls him with compassion and understanding. In this context, it's interesting to recall that Obama's Sun is in Leo - but I don't see Obama as the lion, I see him as the feminine influence on a more robustly aggressive Emanuel, controlling his need for overt power. It just doesn't work the other way around.



7 of Rods/Wands - Rods connect to the element of Fire in astrology. Here the 7 denotes challenge and struggle, but the challenge is being confronted. It's essential that the challenger keeps his nerve, remains steadfast in confronting opposition and supporting his cause.

The three cards together then, in the context of the question posed:

Obama/Emanuel will have had some inner worry about the potential for a highly unfortunate outcome, either to specific events (e.g. the Blagojevich scandal) or the coming adminstrative challenges awaiting them in the White House - and who wouldn't worry about those? But they both have strength of mind and strength of purpose, their types of strength complement one another - together they have a complete strength: Obama with the compassionate compromising feminine-type strength, Emanuel with a more overtly aggressive type. Symbolically, this could be likened to "good cop/bad cop". Struggles and challenges are just beginning. Mental torment will soon be relaced by actual challenge, but together they can produce the fortitude and valour contained in the 2nd and 3rd cards.

I see nothing terrible here, nothing for P/e Obama and his Chief of Staff which they cannot confront and overcome. Influence will be travelling two ways.

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At astrologer Robert Phoenix's blog "Astrology For the Now Age", Robert has an experiment coming up which might be of interest to passing readers here. It's to take place on 31 December at 6am Pacific time (that's 7am Mountain time, 8am Central, and 9am Eastern; in Britain and western Europe it'd be 2pm). He suggests that for 30 mins those taking part should meditate, and later report back. He says:

"As we have previously noted, the very transformation of time as we know it is now taking place in Pluto in Capricorn and synchronicities are one way of gauging the malleability of time and space.

I’d like to push the envelope just a little with this realization.

I would like to connect with as many people as possible on the morning of the 31st, in meditation. The time would be 6 am PDT for thirty minutes. The intention would be to notice thoughts, feelings and names during that half hour and write down whatever comes to you during that half hour. If there are names, jot them down. If you have images, write them down as well. This is not an exercise in sending light and love, it’s an experiment in noticing, awareness and non-local communication. The idea would be to come back to this site later in the day and add your comments to a dedicated post that I will write. Then, we’ll simply compare notes and see what we come up with. My gut says that we will have some very unique connections.

12/31/08, 6 AM, PDT is “The Gathering In The Void” where we will meditate, observe and notate our experience together and report back, here on this site (linked above). I looked at the Mayan calendar for that day and it is indeed auspicious, FIVE CABAN, “Commanding synchronicity.” "