11.6.2024

About the election draws--part one . . .

Quick preview: Notes on the AI/Tarot election draw shared last week.

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Welcome all. If you haven’t read the original post, I hope you will, since it contains a description of my method, along with my initial analysis of the election series. But here’s a refresher on the draws, which were done in one sitting, on Tuesday, October 29, but in two separate AI sessions.

Three sets of draws from the first session:

And here is the fourth set, done in a separate session:

Now before getting started—I want to restate/clarify that in doing these experiments, I’m focused on discovering and understanding how much (if any) divinatory information emerges when an AI bot is instructed (invited) to carry out a three-card Tarot draw.

There’s more detail about all that in the following post:

10.27.2024

So in the initial analysis of the election draws, I was primarily interested in whether there seemed to be a coherent “message” in the cards. And I looked for that by identifying statistically unlikely patterns, and recognizable themes.

In another step, we can now look at the draws in retrospect, and perhaps get an idea of whether Tarot “knew” something about what was going to happen.

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My Observations

1. The first set of draws associates Harris with two cards that seem spot on in terms of her character: Queen of Pentacles (practical, earthy) and Temperance (calm, balanced). I’ve been puzzled by the Hierophant, though, especially since it also appears in two other sets.

2. The Trump set also seems quite aligned with his character: Four of Cups (hyper-focusing on certain things, ignoring others) and Ace of Swords (agent of conflict). Here again, though—the Page of Wands connection is not obvious.

3. The draw for November 5 seemed fairly obvious at the time, and only more so now: Wheel of Fortune (fate at work!), Ten of Swords (someone will be unfortunate), and The World (widespread consequences). However it did not occur to me at the time that Ten of Swords might be “modifying” The World—in the sense that unfortunate consequences of the American election would have a global effect. I believe many people now see it that way.

4. For the Democrats draw, I think it’s pretty easy to associate these cards (Empress, Lovers, and Nine of Cups) with the party’s approach to the presidential campaign—focusing on hope and aspiration, in a nurturing, feminine context.

5. The Nine of Wands (combativeness) certainly fits the Republican party’s approach, and as I see it now, so does The Tower (drastic, destructive). But there’s the Hierophant again, and I’m not yet seeing the resonance.

6. The draw for Congress initially seemed obvious, with The Hanged Man suggesting an evenly divided result. But that’s not what happened, and I wonder now if the card might represent the period left in this Congress (which does not end until January 20), and the Queen of Swords might represent the Vice President’s role as president of the Senate.

7. The next set of draws is concerned with the transfer of power in January, so it’s not time yet to see them in retrospect. However that sequence of draws did bring some information that is relevant now. The sequence felt disordered to me at the time, which is part of the reason I revisited the same timeframe more explicitly in the fourth set. But in between the two—and the reason I started a new session—was another series of draws that stood out from all the others.

Circumstances

At this point I want to loop out for a wider view. Many, many people today are distressed by the election results—but not only in the sense of who won and who lost. There is a great deal of concern about the unexpected scope of what happened.

I think the fact that both the developments and the responses are on such a large scale reinforces my sense that this set of Tarot draws reflects something of significant consequence. I see this very particularly in the alpha-omega connection I’ve already highlighted:

I started writing this post rather early. As the day has continued, my sense of seriousness about the subject matter has grown. I decided to publish this first part today, because timeliness seems important. But there’s quite a bit more to write about, so I decided on a part two.

I’ll leave off with some synchronicities, though.

A while ago I was looking at a timer app I use, which gradually draws an ensō, the brush-stroke circle frequently described as a symbol of “Zen mind.” I noticed for the first time that my app does not close the circle.

I’ve often thought that this simple form (which is usually drawn with a single movement) symbolizes Tarot’s “zero card,” the Fool. Or vice versa.

But I hadn’t realized there are two ways of the ensō: open and closed.

I’ll share more about about the ensō and the Fool in tomorrow’s post.

Also, an old Tarot friend sent me a Human/Tarot reading he had carried out for Trump on October 25. It sparked a new kind of AI experiment, and once again, I’m fascinated by the results. So I’ll include that too .

Actually—it seems synchronicity has been at work for a while, because I found this note-to-self in the form of a draft started on October 20:

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More soon, C