The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are not coming; They are already here.

7 July 2020

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are not coming; They are already here.

The story has been with us since the writings of the book of Revelations and so people have linked the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse with the second coming of Jesus. It is an acceptable illusion that has blinded people to the very evidence in front of them, awaiting the arrival of four physical horses with the archetypes astride of pestilence, war, famine and death. The illusion is so well done that very few people, who are not experiencing any of the above in the present day, realise that they are waiting in vain. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are not coming; they are already here.

The present archetypes are not what you might envisage as frightening personas in true Hollywood style. Pestilence does not look like a walking ebola advert, War is not a fiery armoured soldier, famine is not an emaciated starving perversion and death is not the grim reaper complete with scythe and a black hooded cloak.

I wonder how many consider the global sweep of COVID-19 as a pestilence? It certainly fits the bill for some people, especially the old and the infirm. Coronavirus is the most Darwinian of viruses to inflict the human race all at the same time. It must be blessings from heaven to all those who faced the ruinous prospect of shortages in pension funds, care homes, underused houses, housing shortages, health insurers, private healthcare, the ever increasing demand on society for an increased elderly population and not enough people of working age to keep the taxes coming in.

Look at how the disease simply took over everyone’s life. We had to stay at home to stop the virus spreading. In the short term it has prevented the virus from rising exponentially to infect us all but it is not completely conquered. That may take time and possibly a vaccine. Before then there will be questions about how it started and maybe who is responsible for wrecking our health and hastening the demise of our already sick economy; yes the economy had its own virus but we’ll get to that later.

The astrological events of the last year, namely the cycles of the conjunctions between Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, have all related to a complete shift of global proportions. Whether you believe in astrology or not, you cannot deny that so far the events have lived up to the astrological symbolism and there is not reason to believe they will not continue to do so. Pluto’s involvement with both societal planets has been dragging up the old outmoded muck from the past and bringing tremendous amounts of corruption to light. So many things that the structure of our society has been founded on no longer works. The demand for change is irresistible. The need for new paradigms is inevitable. The power to make those changes are presently in the hands of the four horsemen.

The coronavirus is only one manifestation of the pestilence plaguing the planet. When you look at the meaning of pestilence you can easily equate it to the malpractice of fake news,  ubiquitous shopping malls, hundreds of rubbish TV channels, advertising bombardments, packaging waste, non-biodegradable plastic, pollution, planned obsolescence, throwaway disposables, slave labour, poverty wages etc. In the same way that we become the recipient of a disease we did not want, we are also the recipients of all these other things that we also do not want. The constant invasion breeds intolerance, fear and in some cases fosters bigotry and discrimination.

Pestilence has been around for some time, as you can see, but its most obvious persona has only one goal, to replicate itself in the host and grow, just like COVID-19. It does not care if it kills the host. Its only goal is profit for its shareholders; corporations.

Those of you who know me will already have seen my demand that corporation and state should be as separate as church and state. If one looks at the reasoning behind the latter, it is clear why the former must follow the same reasoning.

Corporations have become very powerful in political spheres, donating money to politicians in return for favourable outcomes to them, powerful lobby groups capable of not only turning policies to help themselves but even writing the laws on how to do it.

Any politician taking donations from a corporation already does not work for the people who voted for them. The race for market share means corporations will spend millions to political campaigns and have muddied the waters so much you can no longer see were the line is between those who are supposed to make the law fair and those who want to make the law theirs. It is another virus that this time filters into the halls of political power to replicate the policies that corporations desire to increase profit for their shareholders. 

But corporations don’t just corrupt politicians. They corrupt the environment, stripping the land, raping natural beauty spots, diverting rivers away from villages, exploit cheaper labour in other countries, pillage, poison and pollute natural resources irrespective of the damage it causes. In addition it manipulates share prices and bends every tax loophole to avoid contributing to the very societies it steals from. They are headed up by an army of lawyers working full time to ward off every lawsuit and complaint going their way.

Corporations want more for themselves and to get bigger. Their goal to maximise profit is to be in every corner of the world, just like the disease of artery clogging junk food and sugary drinks sold in every ubiquitously advertised fast food chain.

Pestilence is the corporation. It wants to take you over and when you have nothing left to give it will leave you for dead.

Jupiter expands while Pluto brings to light corruption. The first of three conjunctions of the new cycle in Capricorn was on 5 April 2020, then Jupiter will go backwards and hit Pluto again on 30 June and then the third and final conjunction will be on 12 November 2020; only 9 days before the Jupiter Saturn conjunction.

It is interesting that COVID-19 has had a detrimental impact on business. Corporations are shedding jobs like a dog moults hair. Millions of people will lose their jobs because the ‘stay at home’ narrative works against their interest. People not earning money and in fear of losing their livelihoods and maybe not being able to afford to pay rent or mortgage stand to lose much. Corporations have no moral compass. They will tighten their purse strings and wait for the next fat profit opportunity to come along. Meanwhile a global depression looms that will make the 1930s depression look like a minor recession.

George Orwell is often misquoted in his iconic book ‘1984’ that war should not be won but should be continuous. The bit about being continuous, however, is something he did mention. I imagine a box of Lego bricks built into objects until the box is empty. What to do next? Break them all down and build something else. This way the game is continuous.

Profit has to be continuous. We live in a debt economy where scarcity increases value. Sometimes that scarcity can be created artificially, like bringing up oil at so many millions of barrels a day in order to maximise profit. But value can also be increased if you introduce the factor of uncertainty. There is nothing like a good war to generate instability and make things like oil more expensive. It is also good to spend extraordinary amounts of money on weapons to lay waste and entire region. It is further a good thing to then rebuild what has been knocked down. Think of it as a real life box of Lego; build it up and knock it down... repeat.

War costs money, lots of money. Governments spend billions on military might and create an arsenal that also costs billions to maintain and upgrade. Even when a country is not at war they will get ready for one.

Is it not strange that the banks will lend money to both sides? If the banks did not lend money for war then war would be either short lived or fought with sticks and spears. Hundred of years ago the governments would need to find gold to pay for soldiers to fight a war. Now it is available on credit; kill now pay later. Either way the bank continues to make a handsome profit. It was Mayer Amschel Rothschild who is reported to have said, ‘Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation and I care not who makes the laws’ Perhaps the central banks have amended this quote slightly to,’ permit me to lend the money and I care not who makes the war’. It is not so great a stretch to suspect that the heads of central banks may not foment war per se but will no doubt actively remove any obstacles to loan that enables one.

Some countries experience today the results of war, for example Syria and the Yemen. The United States has been at war with someone for almost 100 years. It is not in the bank’s remit to advise policy on war but there is also, just like a corporation, no moral compass to make the world a better place. Another popular misquote is that ‘money is the root of all evil’. The love of money is the correct quote and it serves the argument well that those who wish to profit from conflict have no concern over how it is spent.

War is the Central Banks.

Money doesn’t grow on trees. Well at least this is what we are told until someone magically finds the money tree and creates billions out of thin air. Since 2008 there have been rafts of quantitative easing, designed in the first instance to encourage banks to lend to business.

They didn’t do that.

Instead they bought their own shares and increased the value for their share holders. It was cheap money with a low interest rate. Corporations did the same and every large company gorged on cheap money.

Fast forward to 2020 and we are still seeing quantitative easing, only this time to inject some liquidity into the system. But now those people at the bottom of the food chain are struggling to make ends meet. The middle class has been squeezed out leaving only the very rich and the working class. In 2020 the stock market has never been higher and yet the gap between rich and poor has also never been greater. The neoliberal policies of Reagan and Thatcher (they were at least the figureheads) has proven to be a failure. Keynes has not worked, Hayek has not worked. A new economic model that sustains both the manufacturer and the consumer is needed.

But the stock market does not manufacture. It barely holds stock anymore. It is a house of futures markets, casino bets on currency values, debt derivatives, credit default swaps and occasionally commodities. The stock market set up bleeds the people dry, creating a world of profit completely separate from the every day matters of ordinary people. It serves the banks, corporations and hedge fund managers all looking for that glorious profit that will make them richer. 

And when the stock market crashes and takes out the odd bank or pension fund, ordinary people end up losing their jobs or their life savings, pensions and those prudent investments everyone is advised to make for a modest and comfortable retirement.

Rich people and finance houses fight each other to suck up as much of the market share they can get their hands on, insatiable and unstoppable, sucking the life out of the ordinary day to day economy and the people who live in it.

The Stock Market is Famine.

The final horseman is the result of being a slave to the corporations, the banks and the stock market.

Ordinary every day people have neither the money in sufficient quantity or the inclination to be involved in any of the above and yet they, we, become the recipients of the fallout.

People are the victims of corporate irresponsibility, immorality and complacency.

Likewise banks only lend to you when it suits them. Mark Twain summed up the bank’s attitude to the individual perfectly saying. ‘A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain’. And if you are unlucky, that same bank will lend money to a country who drops a bomb on your house.

In 2008 when the stock market crashed and the banks were in danger of disintegrating, it was down to the ordinary person to suffer austerity and for the governments to put the tax payers in more debt to bail the banks out. I have yet to see the banks offer to pay back the tax payer.

I think most people would be happy to see the break up of every corporation into smaller entities, every bank into the normal high street bank looking after the interests of the local economy and the stock market return to investment into actual stocks. Nothing would be ‘too big to fail’ and no entity could hold governments to ransom.

But governments, with their short term politics and ideals developed through the filter of profit driven entities mean that the people who should be working for you are actually working for the corporations, the banks and the stock market. Between them all they end up causing the death of millions.

It was interesting to note in the UK when during the COVD-19 first days, the emphasis on the health of the nation was superseded by the emphasis on the economy. Businesses were screaming at the government to let them open up again. Their profit was more important than people’s lives.

It is tempting to point the finger at governments and say that the government is the last horseman. Death, however, comes in many guises and while Pestilence, War and Famine cause death by the millions, it is the government’s inaction to stop it that gives Death a free passage.

The Saturn Pluto conjunction of 12 January 2020 marked the beginning of a new 33-year cycle that will bring in a new and lasting structure to the world. It seems that this new structure begins with a complete unravelling of the old economic system and coupled with the effects (but not exclusively) of COVID-19, the planned global economic reset has started with a bang. What was, until the virus, an extend and pretend artificial liquidity boost to allow those in the know to grab as much asset as possible before the crash, is about to disintegrate into chaotic climax of the Hayek principle. The business world is changing. Jobs are changing. Consumerism is changing. Automation is coming in and people are going out; the problem with that being that automatons do not consume. 

Once the depression loses its grip, there will be new and innovative ideas, hopefully to bring in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly economy. For this to become a positive outcome for the ordinary person, the governments must establish policies that are right for the people and not for the horsemen.

The last of the three conjunctions is the Jupiter Saturn conjunction of 21 December 2020. These two planets are the societal planets that symbolise business. It is only natural to see failing businesses within the last quarter of the return cycle. When you consider how the economy has taken a pounding, business puts up its prices to try and recover lost profit during the lock down, consumers have no money because they did not earn during the same lockdown and all this right on top of Christmas, it is not a huge leap to consider that retail is going to be one of the hardest his sectors, followed by manufacturers who supply them.

The 21st December is also the winter solstice so the Sun goes to 0º Capricorn, triggering the previous conjunctions of Saturn to Pluto and Jupiter to Pluto. The seeds of a new beginning may begin to germinate in the face of the destruction created because we did not realise that the four horsemen of the apocalypse have been with us all along.

Anyone who says they don’t want to get involved with politics are just as affected by all of this as those who have paid attention. You don’t have to affiliate with a political party or argue with each other with trite tribal rhetoric on social media. You just have to understand that everything that affects you comes from a political decision and while you are not troubling your local politician, you leave the door open for large corporations to tell your elected representative what to think.

Death does not have to be a one way trip into oblivion. Death is a transformation from the old outmoded and corrupt models to something new and exciting. Ordinary people, in a quantity of numbers, can affect the kind of change and transformation that Death represents.

When coronavirus struck, most of the people were told to stay at home and do nothing. But there were many key workers who could not do that. There were also many volunteers who could not stay at home and many innovators who made stuff for the emergency services like protective equipment. It was not surprising how many people rose above the crisis and did something to help. In the face of a crisis we transformed and became a closer and more caring community. Death changes everything.

So perhaps it is fitting that the last part of this article goes to George Floyd; a black man who was killed unnecessarily by police who placed him in a choke hold for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until he died.

Not just a community, but the entire world rose up in protest. This was truly a global response to an ongoing and unresolved issue about racist attitudes towards people of colour in predominantly white countries. This kind of discrimination is not exclusive to white  people and examples can be found in India, Africa, China...the list is not exhaustive. But we have to start somewhere to unravel what has been created over hundreds of years of attitudes passed on from generation to generation. If the law says we should all be treated equally then the law has to reflect some form of redress when that does not happen. But laws are only created and upheld if we, the people, subscribe to them and some things cannot be enforced. We have to change. We have to transform.

Death is a change we cannot reverse. But why should we want to reverse it if the end of the world, another misquote perhaps, is just the end of the world as we once knew it. In order for us to transform our lives to live in a better and safer world, we have to allow those things to die that prevent our transformation. We must be the change we want to see. Alone we cannot change the world but we can change our world. But when the world comes together, as it did for George Floyd, you realise that you are not alone and collectively we can make a difference.

Universal Basic Income: What Is The Formula?

Even in politics, the viability of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) is being taken seriously. It provides everyone of working age a basic income. It should be a basic income to cover basic needs. That way anyone who does not want to work can at least have enough money to buy food.

People should receive UBI even when they work, paid for by the employer as a part of wages. This way not only is the employer not out of pocket but the government is paying money to people who would otherwise be claiming welfare for being out of work; except there is now no longer a need to process certain benefits or employ staff to bully people into jobs they do not want to do. There are no punitive sanctions, no square pegs in round holes, no time wasting job interviews for people forced to make applications and no stress. UBI is not more expensive, it is actually cheaper, if the level of UBI is pegged against current welfare benefits.

The whole of UBI is paid via the tax service. There can be no fraud. Even self employed can expect UBI to come out of their income, and if we head towards a cashless society, there can be no cash in hand, or off the cards.

It all sounds great but is it realistic? Can there really be a UBI that meets the basic needs of people?

In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the need for everyone who could not work to be compensated in some way, the UBI would have been a perfect safety net to ensure everyone was at least able to buy food.

But in the 21st Century, we should perhaps evaluate what constitutes a basic income. Food and water is obviously top of the tree in terms of need. Next is shelter and warmth. In many affluent countries, shelter is supported through a welfare system, especially where people rent places to live. Under the old system of unemployment, people had to demonstrate that they were looking for work to be entitled. If this entitlement was established there would be an automatic entitlement to housing benefit. In the UK, this did not stop local authorities from changing the amount of housing benefit they were willing to pay and started to ‘cap’ how much they would give to those who rent. Once again the stress to demand people look for work that they are unsuited to, could be invoked to cover housing; the benefit to UBI thereby diminished.

Warmth, a need that is met currently through heating utility companies, is paid for according to how much is used. If a person in receipt of UBI is not employed, they will have to find room in their basic income to pay for it.

Receiving money for food, housing and utilities is not a theoretical concept. People in receipt of benefit for being unemployed, receive a nominal amount of money each week to pay for everything except a certain percentage of rent (paid by a government housing department). Invariably it is not enough and does not account for people who smoke or drink alcohol, neither of which are basic needs but the reality of today is that smokers will prioritise smoking at the top of the tree of needs and drinkers will prioritise drink.

So being brutal and ignoring these unnecessary lifestyle choices, it brings us to what actually constitutes ‘basic needs’.

I worked for the Department of Work and Pensions for many years. I got to understand (and apply) systems, procedures and the way that government benefit works. I got to understand the conditions of entitlement and who would be entitled to receive what benefit. Although many years have now passed and the welfare system has undergone changes, the basic principles remain.

There was a letter that every benefit recipient received, telling them how much money they would be entitled to. The declaration included a statement that informed them that the amount awarded was the ‘lowest amount’ a person could afford to live on. What it did not say is how the government arrived at that figure and how it was calculated year on year? Despite several attempts to acquire the ‘formula’ I received no response from the Department of Work and Pensions; not even an acknowledgement. Therefore I concluded that there was no formula and some government in the past had simply made it up. The welfare benefit weekly amount was, in fact, not enough to live on.

So while the UBI is a great idea, there is no point in simply swapping what amounts to a personal benefit for UBI, because personal benefits no longer cover the basic needs, even more so as the cost of living increase over decades have far outstripped the increases in personal benefit.

‘Basic needs’ is one of those wide sweeping terms that mean different things to different people. No two people are likely to agree on what constitutes a basic need; any smoker or drinker will prove that point. However, the world of the 21st century contains some basic functional necessities that did not even exist in the 1980s. The formula for personal benefit was calculated well before then. Reform is long overdue but how that reform takes shape must come back to answering the question I asked many times. What is the formula that decides the lowest amount of money a person can live on?

Food
Right at the top of the tree, this is by no means easy to calculate. People on low incomes do not eat healthy food, not necessarily because it is too expensive but because there are cheaper alternatives that allows them to afford other ‘basic needs’. This is not a case of having caviar taste with fish finger income, it is more a fish finger taste with tea and toast income.

Of course there are people in the world who, with no income, would love tea and toast. But the government, if they value the safety and security of the people, would surely want those people to be healthy. With levels of human displacement and war, the argument for UBI has to begin where the concept is at least viable.

The other side of the argument is for people not to rely on handouts but to get a job, then they can eat healthily. This is not the case. Those in low paid jobs will come away from benefit but will still need a top up to pay for rent. The so-called minimum wage also does not cover the basics.

It has been established during the COVID-19 pandemic that some of our essential key workers are cleaners, refuse collectors, retail shelf fillers and delivery drivers, many of whom are paid low wages. We do not need overpaid lawyers, sports people, actors, stock brokers, bankers, chief executives and so on to make sure we have access to good healthy food.

Warmth
Utility companies are for-profit companies. They get paid their profit up front before repairing a single pipe or wire. They also determine what the charge to the customer will be before lifting a finger to earn it. You can switch companies as much as you like but the the deference between the lowest and highest charging companies is pennies. Worse still, if you find it difficult to pay, they slap an insurance onto your tariff that makes your energy even more expensive.

People on low incomes struggle to keep on top of their heating bills. Most on low incomes end up with a ‘key meter’ to buy energy in advance. Once the money is spent the energy stops, be it half way through cooking dinner or in the middle of a sub zero temperature winter. This is a brutal system.

Utilities is another item that must be paid for with a personal benefit. If you add the additional rent that must also be paid for by the benefit, there is not much left for anything else.

Communication
Everything nowadays is going on line, from applying for benefits, shopping, news, job hunting and price comparisons to entertainment, social media and education. So if you need to apply for benefits you have to go on line. If you need to apply for a job you have to go on line. The world is geared to internet based working, without which some needs to access it will cost elsewhere via internet cafes. Whether you use a computer (if you could even afford one) or a smart phone (contract required) you need to have an on line presence to function in the world today. Governments have talked about making sure that entire countries are networked with internet. If it is that important to them it must surely be a basic need. Mobile phone contracts cost alarmingly, even the most basic of contracts will cost around 5% of the personal benefit. Internet at home is considerably more and beyond the reach of most low income households.

One also has to consider how basic need includes health be it physical, emotional or psychological. Humans need to interact and socialise. Without connectivity, people will start to become dysfunctional and well being is disregarded as a choice rather than a basic need.

In conclusion, the UBI sounds great in principle but it counts for nothing unless governments look honestly at the lowest end of the food table. In the same way that the lowest amount someone is supposed to live on is an uncalculated and arbitrary figure, likewise is the so-called minimum wage, which is designed to force employers to pay a certain amount. The minimum wage does in no way constitute a living wage. In the UK there is a working tax credit for low paid workers. This is nothing more than a subsidy to the employer, paid for by the tax payer and therefore an unnecessary welfare cost. But it also means that the minimum wage cannot be a living wage, otherwise the working tax credit would cease to exist.

The UBI needs to be costed properly according to basic need, otherwise it is not a basic income at all but just the same unexplained figure with no ability to calculate necessary increases into the future.

The Crowley Tarot Spread

The Crowley Tarot Spread.

I have been asked, on occasion, to explain how to perform what I know as the Crowley spread; a tarot spread reputed to be designed by Alistair Crowley but I have no evidence to support that. However, as I have known it thus for so long, it has been easy to ignore the provenance and simply try to understand how to work the spread. It feels like a Crowley spread because it is devilishly complicated.

There are many tarot spreads that are laid out in a particular pattern with a specific focus. The 10-card Celtic cross is the most common starter spread. It is a great beginner’s spread but as with all disciplines there comes a point where you seek a more fluid way to interpret meaning from each card, especially as you begin to understand how tarot cards interact with each other.

It took me several years to become comfortable with the Crowley spread but the more I used it, the more I discovered the boundaries of designated  positions could often be a restriction to more revealing interpretations. What was more exciting was the way that the spread generated a past-to-present-to-future-influence not only by the way in which the cards were revealed but also indicated where past influences affected the present and future influences manifested from past experience. For me this is the tarot spread of all spreads for free flowing interpretations.

So let’s start to unpack the spread and describe to you how it is done.

The deck is shuffled - by whom is up to you, however, it would be beneficial for the querent to perform the task number 2. I am aware that some readers do not like the querent touching their cards, however, it should be pointed out that these mass-manufactured cards have been handled by scores of people during the production process. So there is nothing wrong with asking a querent to cut the cards; and you can always recharge them after the reading.
The deck is placed face down on the table. The querent cuts the deck into two piles (it does not have to be even) and then the two piles are cut again to leave four piles on the table.
The next thing to do is decide which card will represent the querent. This is an important designation because it will define how much of the reading is apparent to the querent’s past, present and future. Every card read before the querent is reached can be considered as the known past, present and future intention. What comes after the querent card is past influences, present consequences and future options. It may be worth noting at this point that this is not the only division of past, present and future indications but this division is perhaps the way the querent sees it.

The sign of the zodiac will decide if the querent belongs to one of the four elements. For me the designations are Fire = swords, Air = rods, Water = cups and Earth = pentacles. You may choose for yourself what you believe the designation should be, as I am well aware of the argument between the elements attributed to swords and rods.

Next look at the age of the querent and choose an appropriate card to identify as the querent.
Child to 20 = Page
20 -40 = Knight
40 - 70 = King for male, Queen for female
70+ = Emperor for male and Empress for female.

Once you have decided which card will represent the querent, you must then sift through each of the four piles, without changing the order of the cards and remembering to keep the piles separate from each other, to discover which pile the querent is in. Whatever pile the querent resides in will be the cards you use for the reading (which is why you have to keep the piles separate). All other cards are discarded and play no more part in the reading.

If you were to divide the pack of 78 Tarot cards into 4 roughly equal piles, you would end up with an average pile of 19 to 20 cards. However, I have performed a reading with as little as a pile of 9 cards and as many as a pile of 35 cards. The interesting thing about this is that the fewer the cards, the more potent the meanings and the urgency of it (We would be talking a lunar cycle at most). If there are only two rows of 7 (14 cards or less in total), the situation is immediate to the point that head and heart are in concert, which means both air and water command the first row and the second row becomes the physical line. More than 28 cards becomes trivial and suggests the querent’s mind is focused on numerous things and therefore nothing is particularly important compared to other matters.

For the sake of this exercise, I am going to suggest we have arrived at a random layout of 22 cards. The cards are laid out, face down, in rows of seven cards. The top row represents the mind. The second row represents the emotions (because head and heart do not always agree). The third row represents physical happenings and the last remaining card starts the beginning of the fourth row, which represents obstacles. A fifth row tends to be further obstacles and thus indicates that the querent is in someway the author of their own difficulties or trapped in circumstances over which they have very little control.

It is important to note that the spread represents only the corporeal body and whatever spiritual influences or spark of divine intervention is most likely to be found within the suit that you decide represents fire. The esoteric principle is that to cause something to happen we must think something before we can decide how we feel about it in order to generate the motivation to act in the physical world. The other way up is how we react to something: first there is the physical event, which we respond to emotionally first and then rationalise it before deciding if we want to cause something to happen; and so the cycle of cause and effect is established in the layout of the spread.

As mentioned earlier, the cards are face down. You cannot cheat by seeing them all at once (and they will mean less this way in any case). You must turn over each card one at a time and interpret what you see in the light of only the overturned cards. It is important not to be tempted to sneak peak at the cards around it as it will not help you in the end. The story has to unfold in the order it is designed to happen.

Another thing to know before you start your reading is that the spread is divided into 7 columns but three distinct areas of influence: The first 3 columns deal with issues that are either past or issues that have happened in the past but have a significant bearing on the future.

The middle column deals with where the querent finds themselves ‘today’; the present.

The 3 remaining columns on the right deal with issues that may be consequences of past actions already manifested and potential future options in the light of those manifested actions.

In the case of the 22 card spread, the 22nd card sits at the bottom of the first column and will therefore be read in the light of the original consideration, i.e. that being the first card to be turned over is the top left card in the first column (and also the card immediately preceding the obstacle card)

A further aspect you can detect comes from looking at not only the immediate surrounding cards to the one you read but also the vertical and diagonal lines they belong to. I hope this aspect will become clearer as you lay out the spread.

So staring with the first card, top left. Turn it over and consider this is what the querent is thinking of (first card in the line of thought). This should give you a starting thrust for the remainder of the reading.

The second card will be the top right but it is achieved by counting 7 cards including the card you just turned over. On each count of 7, apart from the card you just read, you only count the face-down cards. As there are no face-up cards to reach the second card this does not matter yet. The second card is how the querent sees the future based on knowing nothing more than what they know at this point.

Count another 7 cards (including the face-up second card) and you will get to the card in the 6th column in the emotional line. This is how the querent feels about the interpretation of the first two cards.

Count another 7 and you will get to the card on the physical line in the 5th column. This is the first indication of what has become manifest in the light of the preceding cards.

The next count of 7 will start to jump cards that are face-up. Count the face-up card you just read in the physical line 5th column (that’s 1). count the last card on the physical row (that’s 2). Count the obstacle card in the 4th row (that’s 3). Go back to the top and SKIP the first card in the top row because it is already face-up. count the next card in the top line 2nd column (that’s 4). Count the cards in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th column (that’s 5, 6 and 7) and turn it over. You should now be looking at the card in the top line of the 5th column. This card is just to the right of the centre column that represents the here and now. Therefore it is logical to assume that in the light of the cards interpreted so far, this is what the querent thinks they ought to do, given what they understand their circumstances are.

If you count the next two cards correctly, skipping those that are already turned over, the next two cards should be those in the 5th column but in the emotional line first and then the 6th column of the physical line. So what does the querent feel about the situation and what do they want to do about it?

If you have successfully counted the cards in batches of 7 to this point, you will be able to successfully count the remaining cards, remembering to count the face-up card you just read and count 7 and by not counting any face-up cards on the way.

If, at any time in the reading, you turn up the querent’s card, you can then identify where they are in their situation. A querent at the very first card implies quite simply that the reading is all about them and their aspirations. The querent at the top right implies that the querent is looking to the future that is yet to come. The querent in the middle column places them at the present, and if on the emotional line they are at the centre of their circumstance. If placed at the end of the emotional line then they have emotional concerns for the future as it is unknowable. If at the end of the physical line then the consequences are unknowable. (there is no 8th column).

To further complicate the reading, any card turned over before the querent means that the card relates to the past (even if it is in columns 5, 6 and 7); Future influences are often carried over from past events. Say a person has had a bad relationship and reflects those feelings towards their next relationship? The effect could be most discomfiting and shape future relationships.

Likewise, any card turned over after the querent is discovered becomes issues that affect the future. So if the cards turned over after the querent appears in columns 1, 2 or 3, then past events may yet play a role in shaping the future.

Cards drawn before or after the querent in the middle column may reveal where the querent has arrive on this journey today. Finally the obstacle cards may indicate something that has already happened and needs to be resolved or something that could happen and therefore may be avoided.

As you turn over more and more cards, don’t forget that each new card can interact only with those that have turned face-up. It is important to consider these as they appear because once you have turned over all the cards, the interactions are there but the water is muddied by the permutations.

At the end of the reading you may wish to look at the number of major cards and minor card suits that make up your spread. This is particularly useful for those who study numerology because it will reveal what the querent needs to cause to happen (major cards), what inspiration they may need to draw on (Fire), the direction to focus the mind (Air), the most positive emotion to employ (Water) and the best action to take (Earth).

And that is the Crowley spread. People are complicated beings and their lives intermingled with past present and future influences. This spread attempts to reflect that and I have found no other spread that comes near it for it’s flexibility, nuance and complete inclusivity in the manner that tarot was designed to express.

Numerology: The Year 2020

It is the end of the second decade at the beginning of a new millennium. The calendar has been dominated by the number 1 for almost 2000 years, meaning that the world’s population has been preoccupied with establishing the attainment of the self. We have been an inward looking people, reaching out only to conquer and acquire. In the grand scheme of things it has only been recently that we have begun to consider what kind of relationship we should have with our neighbours.

In 1957 (a 22 year) the beginning of what is now known as the European Union took it’s first baby steps. Now at the end of 2020 it looks like the UK is set to leave (commonly known as Brexit). Pundits suggest that other countries in the EU may yet follow, especially if there is an economic issue and more nationalist governments gain in popularity.

Strangely enough, the year 1957 is linked to the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’, used extensively by Donald Trump as he became the 45th President of the United States to the amazement of many (When asked the question, ‘When was America great?’ the most popular date given was 1957).

Another common link between the UK and the US, albeit for different reasons, is the division between political left and right vision of the future. For now the right has the advantage because the ‘I attain’ of number 1 has not yet learned how the ‘share successfully’ of number 2.

Understanding the value of sharing is going to take some time but for now there will be some bickering and arguments as we start to define clearly how one person’s notion of sharing differs from another. There are many organisations that will come under the spotlight. The United Nations, N.A.T.O, World Trade Organisation, OPEC, Amnesty International (and other such organisations), Red Cross / Crescent, Religious organisations, charities, prisons, corporations, banks and stock markets.

The reason this is such a big list is because the era we arrive at now includes the beginnings of some big astrological cycles: Saturn starts a new 33-year cycle with Pluto at the same time that Jupiter and Saturn start their own 20-year business cycle in addition to Jupiter’s new cycle with Pluto. All three of these events occur in 2020 and one cannot ignore the compatibilities of one esoteric discipline to another.

Fundamentally we need to learn to ‘play nicely’. In a world where 1% of the people hold 90% of the wealth, it is a clear indication that something is not working well for many. As the number 2 pertains to relationships, so it is that we must learn that any mutual relationship has to be equitable. But learning this will take possibly decades before we start to see something even remotely resembling positive progress. For now we have to lay out our stall to see not only what we have but what we have to offer.

The year 2020 is made up of two lots of 20. This should give you a clue as to how the beginning of this negotiation is going to begin. Let’s use Brexit as an example. The UK will say to the EU, ‘We want every benefit we had while in the EU but none of the ties’. Europe will say, We want you to have none of the benefits but all of the ties’. Both will be willing to share their version of what the future relationship should look like but will reject the vision of the other. The UK Prime Minister wants us to leave ‘with a trade deal’ at the end of 2020 with no further extensions. The EU want an extension beyond 2020. This is a typical example of what 20 - 20 looks like. The zero is the important giveaway here. It can be nothing or everything but tied together with a number 2 it indicates that I can see my vision of what a relationship should look like but not your vision. And you should agree with my vision as I will not entertain yours.

I predicted years ago that the UK would leave the EU without a deal. With the year 2020 taken into consideration, I maintain my prediction.

In astrological terms the number 2 is linked to the second house of values and hence Taurus and it’s ruling planet Venus. One should therefore look closely at issues to do with land and where are it’s standing armies? Europe has already indicated that it wishes to form a European army and the US has indicated that it wishes to withdraw it’s bases from many places in the world. Uranus is currently traveling through Taurus, so it may not be so surprising that questions of the value of standing armies is considered against new technology and aerial capability.

Number 2 is the number of diplomacy, so it is also duplicity. This is a world where one does not lie but is economical with the truth. It is also the path to understanding that your truth or my truth is not necessarily the truth. To demonstrate this we need to establish what a relationship actually is.

https://www.amazon.c

o.uk/s?k=Numerology%3A+Making+it+Work+for+you%2C+Shane+Ward&ref=nb_sb_noss

The individual has to be able to share something with something else in order for there to be a relationship. It does not have to be a relationship with another person; it could be a job or some form of contract or even an unwritten agreement. Anything that ties the ‘self’ to something which is ‘not self’ can form a relationship.

These relationships can either work well or fall apart. Sometimes it is easy to understand, like if I don’t pay a monthly payment according to a contract, there will be consequences for me to suffer as the person who broke the agreement. The relationship will most likely change or even terminate as a consequence.

Individual relationships are more complex. The most successful relationships are ones where both parties value the partnership highly enough to ensure that the other person is happy within it. But if only one person benefits from the relationship, it will lead to unhappiness of the one who experiences a detriment and the relationship once again either changes for the worse or ends.

Relationships between countries is much more difficult. It is often said that there is a special relationship between the UK and the US. They share more in common than just the English language but where they disagree at times, the value of that relationship determines to what lengths both will go in order to maintain the closeness that allows benefits beyond just a common tongue.

Juxtapose this to the relationship between the US and Iran. The vision of a good working relationship between the two could not be more different because the vision and values of each country as to what would make a relationship work is markedly different.

In recent times there has been a push towards globalism; an ideal which could possibly lead to a world government and an end to war among nations. The European Union was in part an experiment of this coming together but it started to become a bit of an exclusive club that simply created a new divide. Most of this was economic and the globalist agenda was effectively hijacked by profiteers: corporations and banks whose goal is ever to enrich themselves and their shareholders rather than profit the world.

Consequently we face a global destruction by corporate greed: the deforestation of rainforests, the explosion of plastic ruining ecosystems, contamination of the sea through nuclear accident and the reluctance to enhance renewable energy sources because of a loss in profit. It behoves the world to reject the insanity of sacrificing the planet on the alter of share holder profit. Of course others may not agree, especially if it benefits them less.

The heavenly body most closely associated with number 2 is the Moon, whose light is merely a reflection of the light of the Sun. The Moon has no light to speak of and the light is therefore an illusion. But we perceive that the Moon has light, which many a song has utilised and it is perception that also defines how we respond as individuals to relationships with others. And in this case we sometimes get it wrong, especially if the only evidence we have to go by is what we alone perceive as the truth of it.

The number 2 is also the first female number (1 is male). Not surprisingly the world leadership has been male dominated for the whole of the time the number 1 has sat at the front of the calendar year. Now the 2 takes it’s place (and for 1000 years) there will be an ever increasing establishment of female influences that one hopes will temper the impulse of men to act with guns instead of trying with tongues first. Women are much better at  playing nicely.

The most important part of any relationship is to discover if our understanding of this perception is mutual. If it is not then we delude ourselves. What we want out of a relationship is not necessarily what is on offer; negotiators will tell you this. It is therefore imperative to listen carefully to what is being offered without adding the bias of what we perceive that we want to hear.

The Brexit referendum was conducted in 2016, a year that adds up to 9. What a stupid year to consider a new beginning. 2015 would have made more sense (8 the number of direction) or 2017 (the beginning of a new cycle). So going through years of rancour and pulling in different directions was bound to happen.

2020 adds up to 4, the number of system and organisation. This ties in with the Saturn Pluto cycle that also talks about lasting organisational structures upon which we build the foundations of societal advancement. People may know what they want but not necessarily how to achieve them in a way that is agreeable to those whom which we wish to share.

Number 4 is a foundation stone, designed to be the rock upon which all else is built. Solid relationships matter and one cannot sit on the fence unless the desired effect is to create discord and chaos. There has never been a better time to converse, which means talking and listening, with a view to finding a way forward that is not only sharing to the benefit of all but also to playing nicely. What will happen to begin with will be arguments and disagreement. It is both inevitable and necessary in order to clear the air and understand the feelings each have for the other. But dialogue, however fractious to begin with, is a positive step towards better relations.

Fifteen Years Left To Live

Fifteen years left to live.

No one really knows how long they have to live on this planet. There is always the danger of life coming to an abrupt end by catastrophe, an accident or foul play. We simply do not know but the notion of living each day as if it were your last is quite unsustainable. People make plans and have goals for tomorrow, next week, next year that means today cannot be the sole focus of life.

And yet people can forget to live in the moment, acknowledging that if the past is gone and tomorrow has yet to come, the only time we have to do anything is today. But for many, the content of ‘today’ is usurped by anything and everything other than what we want to do with our lives.

Life is filled with mundane responsibilities like taking the kids to school, maintaining a home, going to work and paying bills, etc. And if you were to live today as if it were your last, would you want to spend it doing any of the above?

What if we knew that tomorrow would be the end of the world? What kind of things would people do with that time? Obviously making plans for next week is suddenly pointless and any goals for next year an absurdity. So we make plans for the future based on the tentative notion that we have time to fulfil them.

Which brings me to the title of my article. A week after my 59th birthday, I started looking seriously at plans to retire from work; that is to say I plan to stop working for other people so that I have the time to do the things I want to do with my life. The reason for making these plans arose from the evidence of the males in my family tree having the inconvenient habit of dying at the age of 74. My father died at 74, as did my grandfather and great grandfather. As I am the next in line it would be foolish not to recognise the pattern, no matter how much I have the intention of living well beyond that age. My mother died at 66, due to ill health, so while this might be a stand-alone event, it is a factor I must consider even if the ancestors on my father’s side offered more incentive to think longer term.

So barring any major catastrophe, accident or foul play, there is a possibility that - given the evidence of mortality on my father’s side - that I may have only 15 years to live.

At the time of writing this article, I have taken a week’s leave from the job that pays the bills. I started full time work at age 17, denied the opportunity for university as my parents could not afford for me to spend more time in education. Having spent 42 years working for other people, just to pay bills and have a roof over my head, has left only moments of time to do the things I would rather be doing. But this is not to say that I don’t appreciate that working to get money, within the system we are all forced to follow, has earned the opportunity to build a secure foundation for myself and my family.

My parents were unashamedly working class but still my father bought his house with a mortgage that took two and a half times his salary alone (1955). My mortgage was made up of three times the salary of my wife and myself (1988). The same house prices today (2019) would take a mortgage value of ten times a couple’s combined salary. This suggests that young couples today would have to commit to more than 30 - 35 years of mortgage payments to do what my wife and I managed in 25 years.

So we spend half a lifetime paying for the security of a home with home comforts if we are lucky. The rental market is a more brutal option because you never stop paying rent until the day you die; and it never gets cheaper.

I know I am in a fortunate position and I am grateful for that, although I also know I worked for every privilege I now possess and made certain sacrifices along the way to ensure security for myself, my wife and the possibility of retiring with some comfort but also to enjoy retiring while we were both young enough to do so.

The State retirement pension entitlement in the UK rose from age 65 to 67, meaning if I followed my mother’s lifespan, I would die a year before eligibility. Advances in medicine meant that the baby boomer generation of the 1960s expanded the population at the point of an increase in the mortality rate. People are living longer instead of dying at an affordable age. The Government only really wants people as ‘working units’. Pensioners are a drain on the economy, so we either had to work longer or die earlier.

For me personally, it means if I had not considered investment into a pension, I could not even consider retiring for another 8 years; half of my life span that I have left if I am destined to live only to 74. I suppose I could work another 8 years and enjoy the benefit of additional money but when I get to the end of my life, what would I have to show for it? Would I be happy knowing that the only reason I lived at all was to work for other people and pass my inheritance to the next generation (only for them to do the same perhaps or to squander it without purpose)?

I have no idea who was the first person to stick this notion in my head but someone instilled in me the sensibility to leave somewhere looking better than when I first went in. Clearly this directive was designed for when one spent time in someone else’s property, promoting the respect for people’s possessions and sharing in the value of hard work and care that they represented. But living a life should also be more than maintenance and the value of acquisitions and security. Should we not also leave this life leaving the world in a better state than it was when we were born?

Making the world a better place takes time, time no one has because they are too busy working to earn a living and all the other stuff mentioned above. A number of very rich people have made the world a better place for themselves, which is not the same as making the world a better place for everyone else. When I was a much younger and idealistic person, I had the fanciful notion that somehow I could change the world. With age and experience I now realise that this was a bit more than ambitious and settled for changing my immediate world.

Changing anything takes time and energy. Both become precious commodities as one gets older. Young people may not look at health in the same way as they look at money but as one gets older, good health starts to outweigh money. It doesn’t matter how much money you have if you are too old or too unwell to benefit from it.

Taking all this into account, I decided that I wanted to retire at 60, or close to it. The pension I paid into sounded great when I started it but it is astounding how the devaluation of currency and inflation has effectively halved the value before I even get to draw on it. But in many ways I am still more fortunate than the generation that comes after me. The UK government has introduced a compulsory ‘workplace pension’. It is a real basic pension scheme that will not pay out masses of money if one is lucky enough to be able to retire. What people are not aware of, and as I spent many years working for the Department for Work and Pensions I have some insight into what is being set up, the UK government are in the process of phasing out the State pension entirely. So where I may yet benefit from a personal pension and also a State pension, those who come after me will have only one source of income, with little chance of earning enough to do more than that.

I conclude that I have a choice between the potential of further earnings or a pontoon-style ‘stick’ with a fixed income that has to sustain the expenditure demands for 8 years until I qualify for my State pension. However, it is also a choice between working for someone else for another 8 years or doing something that I want to do while I still have health, energy and enthusiasm to do it. The fact that I am even considering retiring means that I have instinctively chosen my goal, selecting to accept a loss in income over a gain in a more productive use of my time.

So what would I do with my time, bought at the expense of further fiscal reward? What possible attraction could life have to offer me that is better than working for money to pay bills and keep a roof over my head? Would it surprise you to know that when I left school at 16, my main ambition was not to spend 40 hours a week doing what other people wanted me to do and in return earn enough money to reach the next pay day? I did a few different jobs in my time. My first job was manufacturing spectacle lenses. I then worked in bingo (yes I did spend some time as a bingo caller), I did some stock control in a warehouse, spent a short stint as a petrol station cashier and a betting office manager, interviewed people in an employment agency, worked in a job centre and end my career as an advocate supporting people detained under the Mental Health Act (the most rewarding job of them all).

All of the jobs that paid money do not define me in the slightest. I was never going to be known (neither would I want to be) for my vocations. My avocations are far more interesting and yet they have had to take a back seat for most of my life. I want to spend my time on something that I find meaningful

When I first sang on stage at the age of 5 (see my autobiography ‘Walking The Path’ (part 1)), it was my first taste of music and sharing my joy of it with the outside world. Then, when the voice of an angel turned into the voice of an angle grinder, my musical talent turned to composition. I learned to play violin and piano. Making music became a passion but when you don’t get the breaks in life, it doesn’t matter how good you are. Over the years I have composed many songs from pop to classical. I have five musicals and a symphony among other things. I still have four more symphonies in my head that need my time. I would also like to spend more time playing the piano; for no other reason than it gives me joy and teaches me discipline.

Of the 5 non fiction books I have published, there are two that demonstrate my interest in the esoteric. When I saw my careers officer at age 14, his first question to me was, ‘So what do you want to work at when you leave school?’ to which I shrugged my shoulders and declared I did not have a clue. Most vocational questionnaires pointed me in the direction of becoming a psychologist but as mentioned, the opportunity of university was sacrificed on the altar of expense. Never the less, this inherent trait in me expressed itself by way of learning about esoteric principles, which the more I delved into it the more it became obvious that psychology had been discovered long before the appellation existed. While I felt confident enough to write on and be published on two of the methods, I have continued to learn others. I count myself fortunate to have been introduced to mundane astrology, as it has helped me reach a position in the real world where my choices were better informed about global trends and has informed me of the best pathway to even consider retiring from paid employment.

There are, at the very least, two novels I would wish to write and have published. Both books are started but time to work on them properly is just not there. The article I am writing now would not be written but for the fact that I took some time off work to take stock of where I am now and plan a direction for the future.

And if the above were not enough to keep me occupied, I have also discovered the delights of gardening. My first house had an average sized garden that one could swing a cat in but not grow an orchard. I have a much bigger garden now and the physical work involved promotes my continued good health; in contrast to sedentary pursuits. Aside from the health benefits, I also get to grow my own fruit and vegetables in addition to some floral displays. The uninitiated would be amazed at how much esoteric doctrine can be explained within the processes of gardening, so it was inevitable that not only would my garden give me some much needed exercise but would also give me pause to stop and think about the nature of all living things and be able to appreciate the way we absorb ourselves into systems that sustain us, for better or worse.

The avocational self expression has until now been snatched and stolen in between large chunks of compulsory depletion of my valuable time. Because of it, time has become my most precious resource, usurping money only because I have worked myself to a position where I have the luxury of making that choice. Had the world’s capitalist system been more equitous, then maybe my time could have been shared more evenly between the work I had to do versus the work I wanted to do. But this was not the case for me and I long ago accepted the pragmatic perspective that life is not fair. So I did what I could while I was younger and planned to spend more quality time to devout to my personal pursuits at the earliest opportunity.

Reaching the age of 75 is not my greatest ambition but I do hope I get the opportunity to break the pattern of my male forebears. The retirement age for them was 65, so they had 9 years before they died. So, if I hedge my bets, I get at least 15 years if my fate is to follow their precedent. And if I live longer, I will be blessed for knowing that I have made the world richer with a legacy that lasts a lot longer than the next wage packet.