Anastasia Reads for the San Francisco Examiner

I was approached by Will Reisman of the San Francisco Examiner about doing some predictions for the paper for 2010.  I explained that for me, Tarot isn’t about prediction. We talked about different ideas, and I ended up doing  a reading for his article about trends and potentials in 2010. He also had a reading with Randy of the Sword and the Rose, and it was interesting to see how many of the same themes turned up in two entirely different readings with two entirely different decks.

You can read the article on the San Francisco Examiner website. I’ve included the complete reading below, since it was a long reading, and had to be cut down for the article.

I read with Alexandra Genetti‘s Wheel of Change Tarot (of course!), and used only the majors, much like doing a birthday reading.

We pulled the following cards:

Empress – Year Card

Moving forward: Temperance

I read this as a positive indicator on the global scale; still not easy times ahead, but that the 2008 financial crisis has had lasting impact, and made us, individually and collectively, realize that things must change.  The systems need to be balanced, and more people are willing to speak up, to take action, and to resist attempts to restore an unfair and unequal status quo.

On the national level, the Fool and Strength say that we must be willing to take chances, to find new solutions to problems, to try things that haven’t been done before, even if no one knows whether the new ideas will work. The old ideas certainly aren’t working, and there’s no point in making the same mistakes. These cards remind us taht the definition of insanity is repeating the same actions while expecting different results.  We need to capitalize on our strengths, and be willing to take bold steps to improve our situation.  Politicians have to stop being afraid of being wrong; the real wrong is failing to take action.

On the San Francisco level, this looks to be another challenging year.  Unless Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors can stop squabbling and posing, and actually acknowledge and address San Francisco’s problems, our lovely city is in for another year of petty politicking, money woes, and little progress.  Our municipal authorities need to check their egos at the door and solve the problems.

The Moving Forward card was Temperance, referring to balance and moderation, and the tempering process. My feeling from the this card is that 2010 will present continuing challenges, but that what we learn, as individuals and as a society, will give us the tools to address them in a meaningful way and actually make progress towards improving the political and economic situation.