Two Notes about Putin and Ukraine

From a Tarot perspective . . .

These were published a month apart, so I’ve combined them in a new post.

February 24, 2022

We have just five days (including this one) left in 2/2022.

Yes, I’m superstitious—in the sense of believing there are non-obvious, non-linear forces at work in the structures of “reality.” And I’ve fixed on the number 22 as one touchpoint in a world filled to the brim with signs and signals.

That’s a general statement. But something in particular has perked up my attention, and prompted me to plan a short series of daily notes. Here’s the something:

Two days ago, several television commentators noted the fact that President Biden began his remarks on the “Ukraine situation” at precisely 2:22 PM (Eastern time) on 2/22/2022. And last night, in his remarks to the the Russian people, Vladimir Putin made a point of saying he had made the decision to invade Ukraine on February 22.

I’d been looking forward to 2/22, as EP readers might have noticed—planning for a special day of Tarot focus. But on that Tuesday afternoon, I was overwhelmed with apprehension. Overwhelmed . . . .

I’m not going to say more about such experiences here. I’ll just highlight the intense convergence of global energies that has made the end of February, 2022, a crucial, perhaps pivotal moment in modern history.

One more thing: I can’t pretend to have a better idea of Putin’s thinking than our intelligence analysts. But I can say what happens if you assume that he is strongly affected by symbolic associations. You follow the date—February 22—to see what might have happened in the past that would be relevant.

And here’s what you find:

• On February 22, 1944, after a massive and prolonged battle, Russia’s Red Army finally captured the Nazi-occupied city of Krivoi Rog, a key location in central Ukraine. A celebratory 24-gun salute was fired in Moscow, and Krivoi Rog became a major mining and industrial center in the USSR.

• On February 22, 1946, George F. Kennan (a high-ranking American diplomat posted to Russia) sent by coded telegram a 5,000-word analysis of the Soviet threat. Known today as the “long telegram,” Kennan’s analysis introduced the term “containment”—and the policy he proposed contributed to the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union.

• On February 22, 2014, the Ukrainian parliament voted by a large majority to remove Putin-aligned Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency. Yanukovych relocated to Russia, and has become known in America for his ties to Trump supporter Paul Manafort.

Those facts seem worth noting.

So I decided to send out a Daily Note today, calling attention to the theme of 22 that has manifested in our current events. Perhaps it’s just a statistical fluke—but perhaps it’s a “meaningful co-incidence.

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March 20, 2022

And that brings us back to the reality of 2022 . . . .

So far, this year has been dominated by a few themes, symbolized in our darkest Tarot trumps:

• The Tower, for disaster

• The Devil, for greed

• Death, for . . . well, death

It would be nice to think that someday this terrible ordeal will end in “renewal” (or some other euphemistic notion) for the people of Ukraine. But in reality, many of them will just be dead.

Vladimir Putin seems type-cast as The Devil. But I think we also have to throw in a little Hierophant (for his mystical obsession with Ukraine), and some Emperor (for his evident identification with Peter the Great and other rulers of Imperial Russia).

There’s one other association—which I didn’t think of at first. In Russian, the name “Putin” is usually said to mean “road” or “path.” But according to this discussion on Language Log, the word “putin” is not used to talk about roads or paths, only as a surname. And as a name, it’s generally taken to mean “someone on the path” or “going along the way.”

Which of course puts one in mind of The Fool: a card that seems to reflect almost perfectly the heedless hubris of Putin’s most recent war. Clearly, he did not think through the consequences before stepping off this particular cliff.

So no problem putting together a Tarot portrait of Putin. But what about Volodymyr Zelenskyy? His surname is related to the color green in some way—I couldn’t find out more than that. And it’s obviously interesting that he and Putin have slightly different versions of the same given name. Both versions come from Old Slavic, and mean (more or less) “great or famous ruler.”

My choice for Zelenskyy’s Tarot avatar would be The Magician. Not just for his background as an entertainer, but also for an interpretation of The Magician that’s often overlooked: someone who can change. Though Magician is routinely identified with the shapeshifting Trickster archetype, there’s a tendency to think of Trickster mainly as one who plays tricks. Or someone who creates complexity, even chaos.

However . . . consider the classic story, in which Trickster is seen walking one direction, then flipping his hat, so it’s a different color when he walks back. You can look at that as a trick—a “con”—and it’s true that in the folktale, Trickster means to cause mischief. But you can also think about someone telling two different stories about themselves, through two different projections.

I like to believe that people have many dimensions, and can adapt to changing circumstances by drawing on different parts of their own nature. But we rarely see that happen in real time, or under such consequential circumstances—so Zelenskyy’s perceived transformation has been all the more affecting.

One other trump is needed, I think, to lay out the story of what’s happening right now: The Hanged Man. Individually and collectively, consciously and unconsciously, we find ourselves in a state of suspension. Poised on the brink, perhaps. Or stuck in outworn systems, outdated assumptions.

With no good options.