PCO: Seven of Clubs & the power of word-bending

So... today I was watching Law and Order: SVU, one of my favourite TV shows. As usual, while watching TV, I kept shuffling my Playing Card Oracles deck. It's a force of habit. I started doing this to "break" the deck and making the handling easier. And now I just can't stop.

As soon as the episode began, and the victim appeared, I decided to do a "reading" about the criminal. What were the killer's intention, how was he working. I do that with tarot cards too. I found it's a great way to explore the meanings of the cards beyond some boundaries – especially that ones that determine the so-called "bad cards" and "good cards".

I used the Playing Card Oracles present spread: pulled four cards, placed them vertically (one under the other) and assigned to each position one part of the body: head, throat, torso, foot.

The cards I got were:

Head (♦/Fire): 12♦

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Throat (♣/Air): 7♣

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Torso (♥/Water): 11♦

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Feet (♠/Earth): 5♠

First I was a bit nonplussed. None of the cards were really terrible, and we were talking about a serious stalker. The 5 of Spades in the Foot position told me this person wanted to take something from another - probably from perceiving that the victim was taking something from him or her.

I was surprised that Livia, Queen of Diamonds, showed up in the first position. A nurturing woman, who cares for others and support them...the in Head position? First I thought "hum, the stalker must be a woman". But the show didn't give any evidences – all their suspects were males.

But the card that really left me wondering was the 7 of Clubs, the Sword of Enchantment, in the Throat position.  This position is about ideas, communication, agreements (or disagreements)... yeah, I had two huge question marks planted in my eyes,

I knew this Sword wasn't good there, even though the card is usually a good one. You know, one of these cards that mean "phew!" in most readings. Except that, here, it didn't mean phew!...it was more like "what the hell!?". I kept staring at the spread, trying to figure out the criminal's motive. The Sevens are card of great power – that's why they are represented by swords, in the first place. So who is holding the handle?

Livia.

And who is the sword pointing to?

Dango, Jack of Diamond, an immature guy who wants attention but... guess what, is under the thumb of a hierarchically superior woman. But this isn't any sword – it's the Sword of Enchantment, the one that tells us that the mind has the power to turn certain things into reality. The card of magic, enchantment.

But it did not scream "magic" to me. Nor it seemed to be telling me about a synchronicity, or a coincidence... if anything, it told me something was unseen. The way the power of this sword was being used was not obvious. Hidden influence.

The episode went on. They found a guy, it wasn't him – he was a pervert, but not a stalker. Then they found another guy, this one obsessed with the victim... but too silly to seem capable of pulling off this whole master plan of evil. He was, anyway, the prime suspect, and I found myself wondering what the hell was Livia doing there after all. This guy was certainly more a Dango than anything else.

 

Then, all of a sudden, it hit me. The Sword. In the Throat position. It wasn't about magic here at all... but more about the power of some people's words. How they manage to twist and bend reality with the stories they tell, the things they say. Some use it for good - telling stories, creating worlds so convincing it's hard to believe they don't exist. Others use it badly – to manipulate, hurt, lie etc.

There it was – the bad side of the 7♣ was the choice of using the sword's magic in a negative way. Being it in the Throat position, it was about communication.

Livia, you naughty girl! Twisting Dango's obsessions – manipulating the poor guy, you know he ain't gonna accuse you. You take care of him, and he probably likes it. Using his dependency against him... tsk tsk. That's not nice.

I immediately knew that the "stalker", as obsessed he was, wasn't the one responsible for hurting the victim. Someone was behind him. Someone stronger than him, who supported him and put up with his crap for some reason. And they found her in the show – the guy's self-proclaimed girlfriend, who was mad because the victim had so many men around her already! Why did she have to go around seducing other guys and robbing them from the girls who had no one? (Hum... is that a 5 of Spades I see here?)

The girl was, of course, completely nuts. The victim hadn't seduced the guy – he suffered from erotomania, and believe that the victim loved him. But it didn't make any difference in the end. If she couldn't fully have him, then no one else would. Not satisfied with attempting against the victim's life, Livia killed our poor Dango in the bath tub.

Tells something about the all-consuming power of the fire, doesn't it?