Tarot and 2012: Scary Connection
2012 keeps on surprising me. I thought I’d seen and heard every angle there could be by now, and this one took me totally by surprise. I’m not new to Tarot – twenty years ago I was giving readings and wearing a Crowley deck Death (above) t-shirt. And I’m not new to the numerological angles of 2012 – especially the 11:11 meme. But until a few days ago I had never heard of this:
Major Arcana
21/12/2012 (or for Americans 12/21/2012)
21: The World
12: The Hanged Man
20: Judgement
12: The Hanged Man
Now you could argue that some other Major Arcana cards would also sound prophetic if their numbers matched up: The Sun (19), The Devil (15), Death (13), Wheel of Fortune (10)… or even The Tower (16) if you have a good understanding of the cards – but the majority of Major Arcana cards don’t have any relationship to a 2012 doomsday. Certainly not cards like The Lovers, Temperance or Strength. The odds of 3 cards of a subset of 8 occurring by chance from a set of 21 is (21/8) x (20/8) x (19/8) = roughly 1 in 15. It’s not a million-to-one, but still eerie that those cards show up.
I’m not going to get into the standard meanings of the cards, because it is like horoscopes, very easy to make them fit what you want. Even the esteemed Dr. Paul LaViolette made this mistake in his excellent Genesis of the Cosmos – he wrote a long chapter about how the Major Arcana relates to the creation of the universe, without realizing that tarot definitions are deliberately designed to sound correct regardless of what is being asked. Like the French study where 150 people were given the horoscope of a serial killer, and 90% believed it was their horoscope…
Still, this caught my eye:
That’s from the most famous Tarot deck by A.E. Waite. The green object is usually described as a wreath, but in a 2012 context, and something I have taken an interest in since the late 90s, it’s an Ouroborus. The ancient Americans and ancient Greeks (among others) had this symbol. And no symbol better describes global destruction and rebirth.
So we have two questions:
1) Could the Tarot be a genuine prediction for 2012?
2) What might A.E. Waite have known?
Well, Waite was certainly well connected in terms of ancient mysteries, and if anyone had access to ancient knowledge it would be him. And Tarot, it is as old as 1227 (Wikipedia) but perhaps it existed in ancient Egypt (see Genesis of the Cosmos, page 144). It certainly feels like ancient knowledge.
I don’t recommend that anyone assigns value to Tarot interpretations, but if you want some food for thought, watch this:
I just really have to wonder about psychics,Tarot and prophetic
claims as from people who really are gifted (I know I have the
ability to easily see through scams and especially corrupt
officials in law enforcement and local judiciary.
I think most “psychics” are into it for the money and importance
that they gain from being powerful motivational forces in many
so many peoples’lives.However as a true skeptic,I was somewhat
alarmed by what Robert Bast said about 2012,over a decade ago,
That he had an eery feeling about this date. I do subscribe to
storing food and water,water being the predominant concern so
much so that I purchased two,food grade 55 gallon rain barrels
with the appropriatehardware to collect rain water and a Big
Berkey, gravity fed water filter unit,just in case.
Thanks Rob for posting this information. These Tarot images were created by Pamela Coleman Smith for Mr. Waite. Strangeley, very few know of or have heard about this unique and interesting personality in the history of prophecy. Pamela was best known for creating artwork directly from listening to music and was the only artist ever honored by Alfred Steiglitz’s famous photo gallery for non-photographic images. Pamela was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn and was well aware of the ideas of Madame Helena Blavatsky. However, nothing remains of her work except her very powerful Tarot images, which she created for Mr. Waite in 1909. Even the originals of these Tarot cards are lost. When she diedm no memorial was conducted, no obituary written and her burial location is unknown. Over 40 million decks of her Tarot cards have been purchased by individuals since they were created.
As a psychic consultant myself, I am well aware that there are some individuals in this profession of dubious intent. So clients should always be wary. This includes many other “professions” as well However, I have personally witnessed some astounding revelations from these amazing prophetic devices. Strangely there are other cards in the high Arcana that also have unique predictive images. The Chariot in particular and the four cards four 0 1 20 12, which turn out to be even more disturbing. I added 0 to this group because zero is always the terminus of a countdown. 0 for the fool, 1 for the magician (or God) 21 for the World and 13 for death. Not that is the combination that is truly interesting. No?