Tuesday: French Riots In Two Readings: A Conflict Over End Of Financial Deal & Respect: Plus Disgruntlement With Macron In Particular
Tuesday May 2nd 2023
For today’s reading, I’ve been looking (as you do) at the conflict and May Day rioting in France over Macron’s pension reforms.
I’ve actually done TWO readings for this today, using different decks, which will hopefully give some indication of some of the differences in tone between these two different oracles. (And look out for a new post later about comparisons between ALL the oracle decks).
The decks I’ve used here are the Blue Bird Lenormand and, appropriately for France, the Sibylle Des Salons, and what follows is not one, but two 9-card readings. In the case of the Lenormand, I chose the Birchrod (Whip) as the central card, and Quarrel for the Sibyl des Salons, to reflect the conflict and now physical battles involved.
Lenormand (Blue Bird Deck)
The cards I pulled for this issue were as follows:
The Cards
Birchrod/Whip: Conflict, arguments
Bouquet: Blessing, gift, benefit
Moon: High regard, adulation, feeling, creativity
Coffin: Death, endings
Fish: Money, business
Ring: Agreement, marriage, deal
Woman: An important female figure in the reading
Birds: Communications (usually), talk, speech. German decks sometimes show this card as a ‘small problem’ card. You can also use it for Twitter (blue birds, hey?)
Bear: Financial assets, power, strength, force
The Reading
The conflict or battle at the heart of this situation (Birchrod) is financial in nature (Fish), involving perceptions of high regard and respect (Moon), agreements or deals (Ring) and communication (Birds)—or lack thereof.
The key to the conflict is that debate—what it communicates about how people are perceived and regarded, and respect, and that is what is likely being spoken of the most at this time (Moon-Whip-Birds). Above this to give us more detail of what it is all about is a financial benefit or blessing (Bouquet-Fish) and a particular Woman. This is presumably French prime minister and Macron’s right-hand woman Élisabeth Borne, who has condemned the latest bout of rioting. Beneath, we see an ending, that the deal is final (Coffin-Ring) and it’s likely to be strongly enforced and imposed (Bear). You can also, of course, read those bottom three cards as an ending (Coffin) to a ‘financial assets’ (aka pension) agreement (Ring-Bear).
The cards tell us that the background to the rioting is that a benefit that has shown regard and respect has come to an end (Bouquet-Moon-Coffin), as have any positive feelings for the politicians involved. It’s currently a battle about financial agreements (Fish-Birchrod-Ring) and leads the woman concerned to speak of strength, force and imposition (Woman-Birds-Bear) - which tallies with her tweets in support of the security services and police trying to put the rioting down.
Diagonally, the cards suggest there may be benefits of the conflict over pensions and the violence and power displays involved (Bouquet-Whip-Bear). But the Woman will probably battle to the end (Woman-Birchrod-Coffin).
Sibylle des Salons
And here’s the 9-card layout for the Sibylle des Salons, this time, with the Quarrel card in the centre.
The cards in the reading are:
Quarrel, Journey, Some Money, Trap, Contrariety/Displeasure, Dark-Haired Young Man (Insight), Surprise, Fright and the reversed Important Revelation.
And you can check any detailed meanings you’re unsure of via this deck’s Card Meanings A-Z Index.
The Reading
Here, the cards around the Quarrel place the core of the conflict as disgruntlement over a little money or regular small payment that a sharp, analytical young man (with dark hair!) has brought to an end (Some Money, Contrariety, Dark Haired Young Man/Insight, Fright/Death). So presumably the “Dark Haired Young Man” is President Macron.
At the centre, you can see that the disgruntlement and complaints involved have brought further conflict with him and are largely about him as well, with many people dissatisfied (Contrariety/Displeasure, Quarrel, Dark-Haired Young Man). And the dispute and rioting is certainly being seen as one of the worst challenges of Macron’s presidency so far.
Above it, the three cards suggest financial movement, their ‘journey’ and progress being curtailed or ‘locked in’ along with the money involved. That people will find themselves trapped or locked in (until the higher pension age) in order to get their money (Journey, Some Money, Trap), or that the President’s drive forward has trapped everyone into getting less money and there’s nothing that can be done about it.
Underpinning the dispute with Macron, the cards suggest that although the changes and that he actually did it and put the current pension situation to an end may have come as a major shock (Surprise-Fright/Death), that there’s a sense that there’s nothing new to learn here, that any big dramatic talk that ensues now isn’t actually of great importance or anything new or meaningful, and is just being used as a distraction (Important Revelation R).
Vertically, the cards suggest that the main cause of disgruntlement was the surprise factor; that he did push forward and actually do it (Journey-Contrariety-Surprise), and that, once again, the conflict is over money coming to an end and/or major changes involving regular money (Some Money, Quarrel, Fright/Death). Ahead, there’s a sense of entrapment or being cornered, or that Macron himself will be locked into making pointless announcements that don’t go anywhere or tell people anything new at all (Trap-Dark-Haired Young Man-Important Revelation R).
Summary Of The Two Readings
A conflict that is financial in nature, involving regard and perceptions, deals and communication. The “respect” aspect is one most likely to be being spoken of at this time. A financial benefit and a particular woman in the picture, likely the French PM Élisabeth Borne. But the deal is final and is likely to be strongly enforced and imposed. It also involves an end to an agreement around financial assets (aka pensions). A positive regard has come to an end, both in how the rioters see it and how they see the politicians. In a major conflict that’s now spilled out into the streets over financial agreements, the PM spoke positively of law enforcement in terms of the rioters.
In the second reading, the battle is centred again over disgruntlement over small amounts of regular money that a sharp, dark haired young man (President Macron) has brought to an end. The complaints and dissatisfaction have brought further conflicts of many people regarding him. The feeling is that he’s going ahead regardless, trapping the workforce on their work journey for longer in order to get their money, and there’s nothing they can do about it. And although the fact he actually went down this policy road and did it has come as a major shock, there’s also a sense that there is nothing more to learn from him here, that nothing he says now will come as any great revelation and is more likely to be a deliberate distraction. Cynicism abounds with his opponents feeling they’ve been trapped, and Macron is locked into that also.