ANDROGYNES & AUTOMATISM: The Soul Wanderings of the Surrealist Ithell Colquhoun

An article I wrote back in 2013 and sent to Fortean Times who, alas, did not print it! However, I think it worth parking here to reference a remarkable artist and occultist.

Painter, poet, magician and antiquarian, Margaret Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) spent her life exploring the avenues of her soul, mapping this otherworld and capturing in her art experiences of the strange forces she encountered there.

Her quest was to remedy that perennial perception of modern humanity a sense of separation from Nature.

This view of Nature was no chocolate box romantic notion rather it was a strange place; perhaps best personified by the Greek god Pan. The task of this early psychonaut was to re-dream the world; to discover a new myth for our time.

Her personal artistic quest took her on an extensive Mediterranean journey early in life but later as she settled in her beloved Cornwall her interior life seemed to find this most independently-minded southern county inexhaustible in its inspiration.  There was a profound link which existed between her inner world and the outer physical landscape which allowed the latter to be explored through the medium of her art, through psychology and through magical practices from the Golden Dawn to Aleister Crowley, from Druidism to the eldritch magic of Kenneth Grant's New Isis Lodge.

SCYLLA (1938)

EASTERN PROMISE

Ithell Colquhoun was born 9th October 1906 in colonial Assam; her father being employed in the civil service at Manipur. Ithell was born in the town of Shillong; where Guru Swami Vivekananda, who brought yoga and Advaita Vedanta to the West, gave his last public lecture and where his statue still marks the event.

Born with the Sun in Libra and the Moon in Gemini Ithell Colquhoun may have considered herself well suited to seek equilibrium between two worlds:

“Sometimes I copy nature, sometimes imagination: they are equally useful" [1]

According to her birth chart she had Sagittarius in the mid-heaven, perhaps an indication of her lifetime fascination with higher mysteries, Secret Chiefs and hidden wisdom?

She returned to England as a child being schooled at Cheltenham Ladies College and in 1927 qualified for a place at Slade School of Art in London. Here her artistic abilities were quickly recognised winning first prize for one of her better known paintings - Judith Showing the Head of Holofernes.

JUDITH HOLDING THE HEAD OF HOLOFERNES (1927)

The biblical tale tells how a beautiful Hebrew widow overcame the invading army of Nebuchadnezzar by seducing its general, Holofernes then beheading him when he fell into a drunken sleep. This was a popular theme for pre-20th century artists, most notably Caravaggio, who depicted the moment of decapitation. In Colquhoun's rendition she shows Judith brandishing the Assyrian general's head; in a triumphant scene of feminine sexuality over masculine pride and domination. This theme had a spiritual as well as a political significance for the artist.

After her graduation from Slade she travelled the Mediterranean. Her biographer, Richard Shillitoe, remarks:

“Her destinations included Greece, Tenerife and Corsica. She has written that she studied abroad, but there is no evidence that she followed any formal course of study.” [2]

The continent, however, would prove to be influential on her when in 1931 on her first trip to Paris she was exposed to the work of the surrealists.

THE ARTIST AT WORK

METHODS IN DIVINE MADNESS

Surrealism’s interest in the unconscious, as a source of artistic inspiration, dove-tailed neatly into Colquhoun's abiding fascination with the spiritual realm. Throughout her life she would demonstrate a passionate desire in developing methods to communicate with this world of spirit through the unconscious.

Her methods relied on the practice of automatism in her art and writings, magical techniques and visionary walks called drifting, first developed by the Surrealists and used decades later by the psychogeographers of the Situationist movement. But whereas these later proponents ‘drifted’ to re-imagine urban landscapes Colquhoun sought  to contact the genius loci in more rural surroundings.

André Breton, the founder of the Surrealist movement defined his creation as:

“Pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations.” [3]

The goal for Surrealism was to resolve the contradictions between the conscious and the unconscious, between the rational and the irrational, between Man and Nature – the latter having feminine connotations.

THE ANDROGYNE (1940)

The androgyne is a symbol of this unification of opposites. It is a figure that is central to alchemy; a subject close to Colquhoun's heart. The androgyne, which unites both male and female in one body, was used by the psychologist C.G. Jung as a symbol to signify the possibility of unity within opposition. Colquhoun explored such images in her work. It seemed to her that this split into male and female was a split in the psyche and in dire need of healing. Laying much of the blame at the door of male domination and its one-sided rationalism she sought to redress this balance by exploring castration themes in her art and writing. However this should be seen as remedial only, her ultimate aim was to seek for gender balance.

Although Colquhoun would, in later life, undergo Jungian analysis and involve herself in research into dreams and the unconscious, her interest in representing this inner world went back a long way as her perennial interest in magic and alchemy show.

Like Austin Spare, Colquhoun used techniques of automatism extensively in her work. Although Spare had been using such methods at least a decade before Breton popularised them; it was from France that Colquhoun 'discovered' the technique for herself towards the end of the Thirties.

PHOTOGRAPH showing Ithell Colquhoun (wearing headscarf) on the left with Anne Matta (wife of Chilean artist Roberto) and Gordon Onslow Ford during their stay in Chemilleu.

During the summer of 1939 the artist Gordon Onslow Ford hired a chateau in Chemilleu inviting other artists to come and work alongside him; guests included the Chilean artist Roberto Matta and André Breton whose group Ford had joined the previous year.

 Ithell Colquhoun visited during this time joining in with their pastimes of painting and poetry recitals. Matta had been working, since 1938, on a series of “inscapes” by which he sought to evoke the human psyche through visual form.

Colquhoun had been inspired and upon her return to England began experimenting with chance and spontaneity in her own art. Over time she developed the methods she had witnessed as well as creating some of her own: a smudge on a canvas, cracks in a wall transferred to paper by rubbing, “found” objects on long walks, smoke stains and oil on water with paper laid on top to transfer the pattern - all of these were used as adumbrations with the artist then supplying details according to what this ‘prima materia’ might suggest. These objects became the medium for a dialogue with that unseen world through the intermediary world of imagination.

TRITON (1971)

This occult world, which did not follow the categories of waking experience, suggested a place of timeless objects only visible inwardly for which the art provided the medium to the experience. Colquhoun borrowed Matta's phrase 'psychological morphology' to refer to these extended objects expressing the idea in a poem Les Grandes Transparentes:

“They are both here and there, they penetrate all ways
They go both north and south, they are past and to come
They are the profound tilt, the absolute angle
To things that we know.” [4]


OCCULT COLQUHOUN

Surrealist art and its methods of unconscious expression were not Colquhoun’s only attempts to reach out across the divide between the worlds seen and unseen. Neither was she content with rationalistic explanations for what it was that lay within:

“She made extensive use of automatic techniques in her paintings and drawings to make her will subservient to transpersonal forces.” [5]

 From an early age Ithell Colquhoun’s interest in the occult had been piqued by perhaps the one occultist of modern times who attracted praise and condemnation in equal measure:

“I was a schoolgirl sitting on a lavatory-seat and leaning forward so as to see into the depths of an osier basket lined with newspapers. The closely-printed pages carried an article written by a young woman visiting an Abbey in Sicily and described the strange goings-on there. The director of the place was someone whom she called 'The Mystic' but did not otherwise identify; and his Abbey was far from being an ordinary monastic establishment…
When I came out of the bathroom my mother took my place there, and she too must have looked into the laundry-basket for she emerged later in a fury… What was the use of a good education if I wasted my talents on preoccupation with the lowest of the low? … [M]y opinion of her intelligence sank to a new low.” [6]

CUCUMBER (1939): The restoration of the Sacred Feminine was explored through images showing the usurpation of masculine domination and castration.

This was Betty May’s account in the Daily Express of the goings-on at the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily under the auspices of its mystic-in-residence Aleister Crowley.

Her occult interests were as wide ranging as they were long:

“Although the Qabalah formed the basis of Colquhoun’s world view, it did not define its limits. An interest in Eastern spirituality, especially Tantra, was, as time passed, combined with earth magic, Celtic lore, Druidism and Wicca.” [7]

Ithell Colquhoun was promiscuous in her appetite for applying to join occult orders - not always successfully. The list includes: The Golden Dawn, Ordo Templi Orientis, Kenneth Grant’s New Isis Lodge, Dion Fortune’s Society of Inner Light, Order of the Keltic Cross, Order of the Pyramid and Sphinx, the druidical order of the Ancient Celtic Church, Order of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masonry for Men and Women and towards the end of her life she ordained as a priestess in the Fellowship of Isis.

One possible reason for her serial membership of occult orders may have been her deep and abiding faith in the Secret Chiefs. These shadowy personages were thought to be highly evolved beings responsible for the spiritual development of humankind. Although a belief in a spiritual hierarchy with active benevolent tendencies towards humanity dates back many centuries it was probably Helena Blavatsky, the co-founder of Theosophy, who brought it to wider public attention in recent history. She, herself, claimed to be in regular contact with the Mahatmas (her name for these beings) and claimed them as a source for her own teachings. Colquhoun, herself, was a long standing member of the Theosophical Society.

The power of claiming intercourse with higher beings was not lost on others who founded orders to spread their own brand of occult teachings. S.L MacGregor Mathers, Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune and Kenneth Grant all claimed knowledge and conversation with spiritual powers of high pedigree.
However, the tendency for schism and factions within orders and groups meant that ensuring purity of the message was not easy!

In her book ‘The Sword of Wisdom’ – the biography of Golden Dawn magus S.L. MacGregor Mathers, Colquhoun painstakingly lays out the family tree of British occult orders from the 19th and 20th centuries. She reproduced membership lists tracing the lineage from the Golden Dawn and its influence on other magical orders. Are Ithell Colquhoun’s own multiple memberships an attempt to distil the solar gold reflecting in occult pools no matter how fractured they had become?

One thing does seem certain, she was quite sure that the architect of the Golden Dawn, MacGregor Mathers had a genuine link to this secret and clandestine order of ascended beings.

MacGregor Mathers, was a mixture of Boy’s Own physical prowess and the bookish scholastics of Dr Dee. This potent figure had a profound effect upon Colquhoun. When in 1967 she inherited a portrait of Mathers that she had first seen in the thirties her reaction was of a heartfelt yearning for a long lost love. She described it as the “face of an angel”, kissing the portrait’s lips and weeping. This portrait now hangs in the Atlantis bookshop; in Bloomsbury, London.

Although she joined many orders and seemed to be hunting for a genuine spiritual authority she was not blind to the shortcomings of such orders, their founders or members. Perhaps her wide experience of them made her a particularly good authority on the nature of the beast:

“The basic formula for such establishments is a simple one: get hold of a large house and garden, also a biddable and industrious wife and/or selection of concubines with similar qualities; then collect disciples of both sexes willing not only to pay for their keep but to work for it. (You recommend work in house and garden for its therapeutic value, but it also saves you the expense of employing staff.) The formula was used successfully for a number of years early this century by 'Monsieur Gurdjeff' (sic) at Fontainebleau; by Crowley (more briefly) at his Abbey of Thelema, Cefalu, in the early Nineteen-Twenties and by P.D Ouspensky in the Thirties, when he occupied at least two different properties in the Home Counties. To expand the cynical remark that 'behind every Western teacher is a boarding house or a brothel', I would put Meredith (Starr) and Ouspensky into the first category; but if the reports of inmates are exact, there were at least elements of the second chez MM. Gurdjeff (sic) and Crowley.” [8]

THE LANDSCAPE OF SOUL
The Jungian analyst James Hillman once described soul not in terms of a possession within us rather as something that we move through every day of our lives.

This view is evocatively described by Colquhoun in her book The Living Stones; an animistic hymn to her beloved Cornwall where she spent much of her later life and the county which has inspired so many mystics and artists.

DANCE OF THE NINE MAIDENS (1940): The Cornish landscape in particular spoke to Colquhoun evoking its folklore as a living experience.

This experiencing of a landscape in its animistic or mythic aspect required a certain refined state of consciousness which she described as being similar to the post-euphoria of the hashish smoker.

“Kaif (from the Arabic) is sometimes used as a term for a certain stage of intoxication produced by hashish - after the hilarity and heightening of sensation have subsided, there supervenes a timeless musing, a direct experiencing of the moment; a wordless, thoughtless vacuum in which one can dwell on the flickering of a fire, the slant of a tree's shadow, the shape of a cloud. Addicts like Poe and Baudelaire have described it; but in order to know it there is little need to call on pharmacy's aid, since it is also one of the stages of artistic creation.” [9]

This state of close connection to and inspiration by the landscape, in this case Cornwall, resulted in a verbal artwork combining elements of geology, flora and fauna, folklore, myths and memory. These “found” objects she would arrange into passages of haunting beauty which would point beyond themselves to strange mysteries.

TARO - ACE OF DISKS

The 1957 publication of ‘The Living Stones’ coincided with her membership of Kenneth Grant’s New Isis Lodge with its Lovecraftian themes – of Elder Races seeking ingress from ‘alien’ dimensions and gateways to the ‘outside’ locked within ancient artefacts or places –  some of which seemed to seep into Colquhoun’s writing.

Her exploration of Cornish saints leads her to visit the Church dedicated to St Uny at Lelant where she experiences forces, dark and foreboding.

“The interior of the church, cold, bare and well-kept, yet harbours a feeling that is neither clean nor holy. A miasma from the graveyard seeps through its walls; I hurried out, almost physically nauseated. Here is St. Uny suffocated by alien powers of several kinds.” [10]

Her feeling was that this tip of the county was the special focus for such occult forces which were a-human and probably cosmic in origin.

“An Associate… worked out some astrological charts…These indicated an immense funnel through which strange forces were pouring down into Cornwall's horn. Astrology seems to be right.” [11]


CONCLUSION & LEGACY

IN LATER YEARS

Although Ithell Colquhoun’s work may not well-known to the general public; she is becoming more widely regarded amongst esoteric artists and the pagan community. She is still remembered amongst the artistic community of her adopted county of Cornwall.

Perhaps one of the most obvious legacies of Ithell Colquhoun’s life and work is that she is a rare example of a female occultist and artist. Dr Amy Hale, anthropologist and one-time editor for the Journal of the Academic Study of Magic explains:

"Female occultists are so frequently overlooked and overshadowed by men and in Colquhoun's work we are fortunate enough to see the lifelong record of an exceptional female mage. She was so incredibly ahead of her time, was an outspoken champion of the equality and power of women, and was not afraid to challenge societal norms.” [12]

Dr Christina Oakley-Harrington who runs Treadwell’s Esoteric Bookshop in Bloomsbury London adds:

“I first came across Ithell Colquhoun's art in a library in Belfast… I was arrested by her poetry and drawings - her pagan sensibility was evident, her communion to the Cornish landscape and its spirit. Yet in her work is no sentimentality, it has darkness - starkness even... She is a great woman occultist – a rare enough breed; she was proud, independent, committed to her art, and yet sensuous and emotional. She disrupts the stereotype of the magician -- and indeed the stereotype of the artist -- and I love that.” [12]

For contemporary artist Peter Dyde who also works within an esoteric tradition and shares a similar interest in the process of making art using forms of spiritual communion:

“Ithell Colquhoun had the ability to paint with an energetic stillness. Her paintings have a subtle power inciting the viewer to look within for a higher resolving point.” [12]

The union of opposites is perhaps one theme that is now more urgent than ever. Joseph Campbell wrote that it is the artist’s task to resonate with and express the themes of the age. As her biographer, Richard Shillitoe, says:

“Colquhoun is testimony to the indivisibility of life, art and magic. This is her legacy. Equally at home in contemporary neo-Paganism as in pre-Enlightenment mystical Christianity, her overriding aim was to seek the unity that underlies the world’s apparent diversity.” [12]

With an exhibition that includes some of her works taking place in London in May; perhaps now is the time for her to step out from the shadows. Her message being that the mysteries of the soul have a role to play alongside reason in solving the problems of our world. In fact to discard them is only to emasculate ourselves from a deeper sense of life and communion with Nature.

I:MAGE An inaugural exhibition of esoteric artists; 19-25th May 2013 at The Store Street Gallery, 32 Store St. London WC1E 7BS.


NOTES

[1] Shillitoe Richard, Ithell  Colquhoun: Magician Born of Nature. Lulu
2010, p1.
[2] Ibid p2.
[3] From First Surrealist Manifesto by André Breton extracts available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealist_Manifesto
[4] Shillitoe Richard, Ithel  Colquhoun: Magician Born of Nature. Lulu
2010, p55.
[5] Personal correspondence
[6] Colquhoun, Ithell, The Sword of Wisdom. London, Neville Spearman 1975, p15.
[7] Shillitoe Richard, Ithell  Colquhoun: Magician Born of Nature. Lulu
2010, p38.
[8] Colquhoun, Ithell, The Sword of Wisdom. London, Neville Spearman 1975, p25.
[9] Colquhoun, Ithell, The Living Stones. London, Peter Owen, 1957, p27.
[10] Colquhoun, Ithell, The Living Stones. London, Peter Owen, 1957, p60.
[11] Colquhoun, Ithell, The Living Stones. London, Peter Owen, 1957, p133.
[12] From the author’s personal correspondence

IS BREXIT A MYTHIC ARCHETYPE?

St. Galgano of Siena

The following comes from a recent planetary angel scrying session. Just to say, up front, that attributing a mythic legend to Brexit gives no special authority to either it or anyone involved. It is not a statement that attributes 'divine will' to anything, neither does it make anyone in the story into a mythic figure. The point of being 'in' a myth or living out of an archetype is that myths/archetypes are patterns of belief and perception that we follow at an unconscious level. So with that caveat in place...

In the day and hour of ☉the conjuration of Michael, Uriel & Schemeliel was performed and a vision granted. 

To begin, I saw the sun and a white horse in the sun or before the sun. I thought of Helios and his chariot that pulls the sun in its course. This was followed by me being in a large and beautiful garden, which may have been situated in a desert. At any rate I was not in this country. There was a man, young, in his 30s. He had dark brown hair and eyes and a light skin tone. He was dressed in a tunic with trousers, all rather like unbleached cotton. I think he was a gardener. He told me his name was ‘Samuel’. I had to ask several times as the vision was not so clear and I couldn’t hear him clearly. When asked if he had a message he pointed. 

I saw a hill, with a small orchard on top and what looked at first like a well. When I got to the top of this hill I saw a sword stuck into a stone or the ground, or possibly in the well… not sure. Anyway, this sword grew very large and Samuel said this was the sword of Michael (though writing this, I had an impression that it was the sword of David). The sword shone with a light of its own and the final vision was of the hill with the sword towering over it and the sun shining from behind the cross where the grip and the crossguard joins the blade.

There seemed to me to be an alignment here with the Arthurian legend of the sword in the stone. This was the feat that proved Arthur as King of England. 

The name ‘Samuel’ reminded me of his biblical counterpart and his role as prophet was as the anointer of kings. He anointed (as Yahweh’s representative on earth), Saul as first King of Israel. When Saul was deposed Samuel anointed David. I am thinking that the message here is that there is an alignment of King David with King Arthur. They do share some similar story traits. Both David and Arthur came from humble beginnings, they performed feats, David slew Goliath and Arthur drew out the sword from the stone, they also, and this may be the ‘Michael’ connection, led armies to overthrow invaders and oppressors - Philistines and Anglo-Saxons, as did Michael in the battle that threw down Satan and his rebellious angels out of Heaven. 

A curious coincidence, In my researches across the internet looking at items from this vision, I've just come across the story of St Galgano, a 12th century saint from Siena who had two visions of the Archangel Michael. In one, Michael told him to give up his possessions. Galgano said that would be like thrusting a sword into stone. To prove his point he thrust his sword against a rock and it penetrated it “like butter”, presumably to his great annoyance! So there is a sword in a stone in his chapel in Montesiepi (Mount. Hedge). In another version the sword was in lieu of a cross, thus confirming the overlapping Christ = Michael (Archangel Michael is seen as the pre-incarnate Christ) = Sun = sword = cross on a hill (Golgotha - place of the skull).

So, what is the meaning of this message?

Kingship and the divine anointing of a king is an important link between the stories of Kings David and Arthur. Samuel is the ‘anointer’ of a king, just as the sword in the stone is the proof of the true King of England. This looks to be about establishing or re-establishing a kingdom. The king being the vehicle of the 'Will of God' who is the instrument by which this feat is accomplished.  Is this an archetype for the country at the moment? I suppose that Brexit is seen by some as just that. The winning slogan for the Leave campaign was, after all, 'Take back control."  and considering I drew a Tarot card just before this working and got the King of Batons (Sforza-Visconti), that would fit [1]. Maybe this is the myth we are living in at the moment. This might be the message! Maybe this is the myth that the PM is also aspiring towards. Thing is the PM does not come from a humble background like David/Arthur, so he does not exactly fit the bill. Whether playing the buffoon counts as 'humble' to a myth I'm not sure. 

The Arthurian myth is a powerful and deep story that reverberates in these shores. I'd never really thought about it much but I suppose the notion of renewing 'England' is a powerful myth especially if it means the break up of the United Kingdom. It reinforces a sense of 'divinity' with regards to the English. Ironic really, that Arthur was a Celt who fought against the Anglo-Saxons but has now been co-opted by the old foe for its own agenda. Does the privileged PM and his Knights see themselves as the appointed ones? In the past great victories were seen as signs of divine approval. 

The Sword in the Stone at Montesiepe 

[1] Just prior to this working I asked a question about whether or not Boris was leading us towards a hard or soft Brexit? I drew the King of Batons. It seems like this question spilled over into this scrying session.

WILL BORIS JOHNSON STAND BY HIS MANIFESTO PLEDGES ON THE NHS?

The Emperor card is certainly a person who has 'taken back control', and is his own man. In a way, BoJo has been in thrall to wings of the party that he had to lie with to get what he wanted. The big question has been, what will he do if he gets into the position that this card represents?

I sense that he is very aware of where his power comes from. He made a point to say in his first speech outside the steps of 10 Downing St. that he is aware he has borrowed votes. This card is of a figure who has power but also is aware that he must work to maintain it. That is a two-fold task, to confound rivals and to secure his power-base. I think he knows that the NHS is very important and is often downgraded by other Tories, he knows not to make that mistake.

I see nothing here to suggest that there is some kind of immanent abandonment of this promise. We do not have a guarantee, after all his task is about maintaining power not necessarily keeping a pledge. Pledges are kept because they maintain him in power. What matters in this card is rulership. This is the motivation so as long as the public hold his feet to the fire, and he knows this, then he will act to consolidate that support by being seen to uphold his election promises.

WILL THE TORIES WIN A MAJORITY IN THE 2019 GENERAL ELECTION?

Using the RWS cards designed by Pamela Colman-Smith and using a two-card spread for this one.

1st card - The Tarot's take on the situation.
2nd card - The Tarot's counsel (its take on the outcome).

Keeping it nice and simple as it is quite a simple question. Perhaps not surprising given the importance of a General Election generally and this election specifically we have two cards from the Major arcana. The cards of the Major arcana indicate 'powerful outside forces' acting upon this question and its outcome.

The first card is number 15 The Devil. Turning over this card it was one of those moments when I thought "But of course!" However, it can also be taken as an example that perhaps the feelings of the reader affects the cards drawn. What Jung called synchronicity, a coincidence of inner meaning with outer physical circumstances. It certainly reflects a feeling I have about where we are right now politically and I know that I'm not alone. However, if I were a Tory voter (for thought experimental purposes only mind you... ), then what would I have turned over? Of course, such questions are not statistically relevant as subjective experiences are a once-only event never to be repeated (can't step into the same river twice sort of thing).

So, traditionally, this card indicates dark passions, impulsive or addictive behaviour, trickster behaviour, enslavement - particularly by ones own passions, oppression and subterfuge. I guess you can take your pick really!

What is also of interest, at least to me, is that the RWS pack has baked into it astrological symbolism and this card represents the 'Old Goat-Head' Capricorn which is ruled by Saturn the planet of restriction. Capricorn is conservative by nature, tied to tradition because of his association with time and season. Saturn was originally an agricultural deity who was old and lame, representing the end of the cycle as his sign covers the end of the year. His festival was the Saturnalia, celebrated around the Winter Solstice, the darkest time of the year and thus he is old and can appear as much as the Grim Reaper as in his alter ego Old Father Time.

So my interpretation of this is two-fold. On the surface we have a party that appeals to impulse rather than reason, that has a hidden agenda, that does not bode will for the 'gens' who in this picture are Adam and Eve tied by chains, but in a way it is an enslavement that could be averted, those chains are quite loose and could be slipped out of with little effort. The problem is that they do not realise it and have given up in the face of a sense of doom a fateful resignation.

The second interpretation is to see what is happening as a sign of the times and thus this is symptomatic of deeper forces connected to cycles of time at work in the present moment.

The second card is The Emperor. He sits on a throne ornamented with rams heads showing the alignment of this card with the zodiacal sign of Aries. The Emperor is one who rules alone. In his benign persona he is a just ruler, who takes council before making decisions in his malefic persona he is a dictator and subject to paranoia as many tyrants are. The sign of Aries covers Spring time, which is ruled by Mars who governs the will. His is the planet of conflict, territorial and combative. This sign signals a new beginning which can be either for good or evil. This is dependent on what motivates him.

In answer to our question, we have a victory for the Tory party, I think this is pretty clear. It aligns with the polls at the moment, although they are predictably closing the gap between Conservative and Labour, which is a usual effect in the days leading up to the GE.

So there you have it... my prediction for Boris to be PM on Friday morning with enough numbers on his team to push his agenda through. Depending on your allegiances this may be music to your ears or the bell, ask not for whom it tolls for it tolls for thee... !

Keeping on this astrological theme, Austin Coppick informs that we have Saturn in Capricorn conjunct with Pluto (gate to the underworld), with Jupiter (Emperor of the gods), also just having entered the same sign. I guess we can expect quite a few sharp intakes of breath in the coming month.

I'M THINKING OF GETTING A NEW TAROT DECK, WHAT FACTORS SHOULD I CONSIDER?

For this question I am using playing cards and a 5 card French Cross spread:

A 3 card line to give a picture of the question: 7 of Hearts, 2 of Hearts and 7 of Spades

A card above, the cards' advice on what to do: 6 of Clubs
A card below the card's advice what not to do. The Joker

The line through the middle sees the central card of the cross to be '2 of Hearts' which I think makes the primary factor in your consideration in making your decision; the relationship or feeling that you have with the cards. They must please you aesthetically because that will encourage your imagination and intuition when you read them. A pack that you have no real resonance with will be hard work. However, having said that the two cards flanking the 2 of Hearts are both '7's. This number is connected with 'difficulties' and the suits are one Heart and one Spade. We have a twin pair of opposites (red/black). I think this points to the next factor to take into consideration that is the cards should have a tension for you between reading with your heart and reading with your head. The suit of spades comes close to the metal of the swords - a sharp cutting quality that the confines of the cards internal logic can provide. Sometimes we might not get much intuitive resonance from a card in a particular reading and then it is possible to fall back on traditional meanings to provide something for you to work with in your overall interpretation. On the other hand do not get 'stuck' with the 'little white book' meanings either. If your intuition is shouting something specific to you then pay attention to that too. This is the tension that is necessary when choosing your pack. Yes, the symbolism is important but the colour of the sky may also be necessary to spark your imagination too.

The card above is the 6 of Clubs. Generally I think of '6' cards as 'road opener' cards. They are about options and choices and the suit of clubs has to do with how you will work with your new cards. I think this points to you maybe seeing if you can test drive one or two packs that you have never used before, maybe even trying one or two that you would not immediately choose to use to see how you read with them? A relationship that is strong may not start off immediately so. Very few love affairs start with 'love at first sight'.

The card below is The Joker. What to avoid... following on from the last card, probably acting on impulse. Take your time and think it through. Who hasn't clicked 'buy now' on a Tarot pack after a couple of glasses of wine? I have several 'nice' Tarot packs that sit on my shelf that rarely, if ever, see the light of day. I keep telling myself 'One day...' but if you are looking to get a pack to work with now then don't hurry the decision.

Good luck with your choice and I hope you have many years of enjoyment and fruitfulness with your new cards whatever they may be!

Will the UK leave the EU by 31st January 2019?

So we have two club cards either side of the Joker.

The suit of clubs seems to appear quite often in association with power and politics which makes sense as this suit has to do with strength, labour, work and status.

7 is the number of difficulties, so here we go again!  The Jack to the right is looking away. Jacks I think in this reading is the messenger card.

Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you

The Joker is indeed stuck in the middle, I think this is BoJo. We still have no real resolution at this point either. So the uncertainty continues. As we look at the  cards at this point in the timeline, we see two cards with figures looking ahead expectantly, with difficulties backing them up.

My prediction is that Brexit is not resolved by this date.

How will the story play for Boris Johnson when Parliament opens in September?

Starting with the KoD as significator for BJ, next to him we have 10 of Spades. He has a full on war on his hands here. Below him is the Jack of Spades a usurper but as Jack not a king he is a proxy for a larger group who are behind the scenes, hence the blank card next to the Jack.

Reading the top line we have two diamonds (same suit or party as the King), going from 9 to 3 a reduction in support by 2/3rds from the battle. However he re-coups with a 7 of Hearts. This I think is the hearts and minds war with the party, although they are very nervous they will not abandon the party in the end. So I would think that he will mange to keep his troops together in the end.

The middle line shows the spades followed by the 2 of Diamonds. I think the interpretation for this is that BoJo will face a rival challenge. Maybe the proposed caretaker, although I may be from his own party as from the Opposition.

So the way I think it will play out is as follows: Jack (Jeremy Corbyn?) will probably play his no-confidence card, he has support; but BoJo has more support to begin (9 Diamonds), As a rival appears (2 Diamonds) his support is cut (3 of Diamonds). Probability is that he will play to the hearts and minds of the party and overcome his rival.