Timing Events Using Tarot and Astrology

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Learn how to apply timing to your tarot readings using the traditional method that uses the tarot suits and numerology to the more complex astrological associations refined by the Golden Dawn. Follow seven colour coded tables and a colourful card wheel image that presents the information clearly including discussion around them that explain points you may be unfamiliar with.

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*Now available as an updated & expanded ebook with 14 tables, new sections & fun ways to use timing in tarot readings and your life. Find out more here or at the end of the post*

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In Timing Events Using Tarot and Astrology, I’m going to show you how to approach timing associated with tarot cards, from the traditional method to the more advanced Golden Dawn* offering which focuses on astrology.

Traditional Tarot Timing* talks about the seasons and numerology while the other titles explain the Golden Dawn and astrology method of tarot timing. This includes the zodiac, the planets and the ten-day periods the Golden Dawn* applied to the Minor Arcana called the decans, or decantes. Finally, for simplicity, and ease of access, I have combined all the information into one table allowing you to look up any of the cards in your tarot spread for an idea of timing those events.

Certainly, in predictive tarot readings, either face to face or over the phone on a psychic line, the question is asked: “when will xxx happen?” The association between tarot and astrology gives us the largest amount of information regarding timing events. As twelve of the 22 major arcana cards are associated with zodiac signs, their relatively fixed date positions help us with exacting time periods. It becomes a little trickier when we are left with the seven planets of ancient astrology and the primordial elements to help us time events in tarot readings, but as you will see, there is a way to derive timing from the Planetary Trumps.

Begin your journey into tarot timing with Traditional Timing and progress to the next table down the list, and so on, until you reach the final table, named after this post: Timing Events Using Tarot and Astrology. At the end of each section is a ‘back to menu’ link to bring you back here so you can access the table sections quickly and easily.

• Table 1: Traditional Tarot Timing
• Table 2: Tarot Suits, Zodiac Signs and Elements
• Table 3: Cardinal, Fixed & Mutable Signs of the Zodiac & the Tarot Suits
• Table 4: The Minor Arcana and the Zodiacal Year
• Table 5: Planetary and Elemental Timing
• Table 6: Working With the Tarot Court Cards and Timing
• Table 7: Timing Events Using Tarot and Astrology
• Visualising Tarot Timing Using a Tarot Card Wheel
• Table 8: *A Note on the Name Changes Across the Golden Dawn Based Decks
• Bibliography

*The Golden Dawn was/is a secret magickal mystery school also known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. During the turn of the 20th century, they synthesised available information already established by previous scholars and practitioners of magic, divination and related subjects. They belong to what is called the Western Mystery Tradition which focuses largely on Jewish mysticism/Kabbala, Egyptian magic and religion as well as astrology, Pythagorean numerology and alchemy amongst other disciplines. This Wikipedia entry for western esotericism is a good place to start your investigations into these subjects if you are interested in looking further.

Table 1

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Traditional Tarot Timing

Traditional tarot timing relies on a less sophisticated method than the Golden Dawn’s astrology model. It can touch on the zodiac signs for timing associated with the relevant major arcana cards. However, it mostly uses the aces, suits and numerology for timing events, with an addition of thematic timing – using the nature and characteristics of each card in a prominent or outcome position.

General Traditional Tarot Timing Correspondences

These are the traditional tarot timing correspondences I used when I began reading tarot. I moved to the Golden Dawn astrology and decan system but still refer to this system from time to time. It is a good place to begin and easy to remember.

The Tarot Suits, the Aces and the Seasons

Traditionally, the tarot suits represent the seasons and depending on which system you follow, you may see differences in their associations. I follow the method of the Ace bringing in the suit and these are the correspondences I have shown in the table above.

You can of course make any association you like, if it feels right to you. You can look to the fixed signs of the zodiac to determine which season is represented by which suit, or ace. For example, in the Golden Dawn system, the Ace of Pentacles covers Aries, Taurus and Gemini. Taurus is the fixed sign in that grouping and so you could say that Pentacles represent spring instead of Wands. The suit of Wands is associated to Aries, the cardinal part of the group. I go into a little more detail about the Qualities (cardinal, fixed and mutual signs) for timing further into this post.

Speed and Time

In the table above you can see how the suits are associated with speed and time and these can give us a reliable indicator of progression with an event or occurrence.

Speed and Tarot Timing

As well as the timing indicated in the table above, how quickly or slowly things are moving can be determined by the presence of a group of cards, or indeed, an element. For example, a majority of Wands cards, or fire cards, may indicate things happening quickly and soon. A majority of Pentacles or earth cards may indicate things happening more slowly and further down the road.

The suit of Cups is notable because of its fluid nature. Water can be held in three states – liquid, gas and solid (ice). Its speed and timing may be different for every reading, and really ought to be interpreted using your intuition and the surrounding tarot cards in the spread to see which state is dominating the reading and indicating timing associated with the outcome or predicted event.

Numerology

Using the numbers of the minor arcana, or pip cards, can be an indicator of when an approaching event may be likely to happen. By using a simple mathematical formula, we can arrive at a projection.

number + suit = timing

For example, if the outcome card is the 2 of Wands, we could deduce the following:

2 + days = 2 days

This may suggest the event may happen in two days, or that it will last for two days.

I have found this approach to be less reliable than the Golden Dawn approach and much prefer the decan method. You can of course mix these systems.

In the Golden Dawn decan system, the 2 of Wands represents March 21 – 30 (give or a take a day either side on both dates). So we may say that the event will occur within those dates. We could also say it is short lived – 2 days in length. To some, this latter part may be a stretch and I agree that it can be tenuous because it suggests that everything happening in spring is short lived, and everything in winter takes an age. Use your intuition for this part and completely disregard any additional information you may feel is inappropriate.

Traditional Tarot Timing and the Major Arcana

Using the nature and characteristics of individual major arcana cards can help determine, or intuit, timing or speed associated with a predicted event.

It is easy to see how the Fool may bring something in quickly, or unexpectedly, or how the World may move slowly. The High Priestess and the Hanged Man don’t seem to move at all, while the Lovers can have an initial rush of energy and then settle into a more regular pace, or cease completely, as love affairs develop or die.

By going through your tarot deck you can easily get a feel for timing or speed based on the nature of the card and is a useful exercise in getting to know your cards more personally.

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Table 2

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Tarot Suits, Zodiac Signs and Elements

We begin our exploration of the astrology timing system with the Tarot Suits, Zodiac signs and Elements as these are the foundation of the system, refined by the secret magical society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. As a system for timing, whether it is a magical operation, astrological projection or tarot reading prediction, the system is unsurpassed and more importantly, reliable.

The table below clearly shows the relationship between the tarot suits, zodiac signs and their corresponding tarot trump, or major arcana cards. The links are clear between the cards, their elements and associations between the zodiac signs and the major arcana trump cards.

For example, in the Wands suit, the element of fire links the cards and zodiac signs. Further from that, the zodiac signs, Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are associated with the tarot trump cards, the Emperor, Strength and Temperance.

This follows for the remaining suits in the table and is easy to see with the colour coding displayed.

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Table 3

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Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable Signs of the Zodiac and the Tarot Suits

This table is useful in introducing the concept of astrological Qualities. Namely, cardinal, fixed and mutable signs and their tarot card associations. It builds on the previous table, Tarot Suits, Zodiac Signs and Elements, and aims to show how the Golden Dawn system of astrology and timing develops in complexity. By breaking down the large table, into smaller ones, it allows the reader to see that development in easier to understand chunks.

Using the Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable Signs and Correspondences to Determine General Timing

While astrology and timing is covered extensively throughout this post, it is possible to use it as a guideline and not get specific with dates. We can turn to the concept of cardinal, fixed and mutable signs for this. Think of them this way:

• Cardinal – brings in the energy or event, so happens relatively quickly, within one week or one month.
• Fixed – stabilises the energy or event and may suggest a mid-range in timing, or within one month, or between one to three months.
• Mutable – closes the energy or event and may suggest a long range in timing, three months and longer.

Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable Minor Arcana Pip Cards

We can see that as well as the zodiac signs, the minor arcana pip cards also relate to the cardinal, fixed and mutable signs and may be helpful in determining time, or speed.

• Cardinal – 2, 3, & 4
• Fixed – 5, 6 & 7
• Mutable – 8, 9 & 10

So the 8 of Swords may indicate an event occurring later than one suggested by the 3 of Cups, and so on.

For specific timing related to the Qualities and their associated tarot cards, see the next table, The Minor Arcana and the Zodiacal Year.

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Table 4

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The Minor Arcana and the Zodiac Year

In the previous table, I introduced the cardinal, fixed and mutable signs and their associations to the major arcana trumps and corresponding minor arcana pip cards. In this table, I show the deeper associations to the pip cards, namely their degrees of the zodiac wheel, the time frame associated with those degrees and the planets that sit within them.

As the zodiac sign, element and major arcana trump cards are all associated with each other, they now share the same position in the table.

Each zodiac sign is approximately thirty days long. They are further broken down in degrees and one sign contains thirty degrees. Each sign is then broken down into three further sections, each of which are ten degrees in size. This therefore represents three ten-day periods call decans, or decanates. A single minor arcana pip card is associated with an individual decan period and this does not change. For example, the 2 of Wands is 0° – 10° of Aries. Its associated time period is approximately March 21 – 30. The planet that sits in this decan is Mars and we would say that Mars is in Aries.

To see the timing periods for the zodiacal trumps, simply look at the opening date from the first decan to the closing date from the third decan. For example, timing for the Emperor is March 21 – April 20*.

With this system, all of the small cards can be referenced within this table and their timing looked up easily. This is true also for the major arcana trump cards associated to the zodiac signs. A further table will explore the major arcana trump cards associated to the planets, with another one showing the how the court cards fit into the system.

*The dates shown within the decan periods can have flexibility with difference in the dates by a day or two on either or both sides. The dates shown between Lon Milo DuQuette, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot; Anthony Louis, Tarot Beyond the Basics, and Paul Hughes Barlow’s Camden Tarot website are all slightly different to each other and so discretion, intuition and the presence of other confirming cards will help drill down the date of a predicted event.

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Table 5

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Planetary and Elemental Timing

In the previous table, The Minor Arcana and the Zodiacal Year, I showed how the zodiac signs, degrees, decans, timing and planets in the signs sat together. Again, married together by their elemental associations. In this table I want to explore the planets that are associated with the major arcana trump cards and how to derive timing an event from them when in tarot, they have no seemingly obvious timing associated to them at all.

First though, let us explore the planets without specific timing attached to them.

Thematic Planetary Timing

Over time, the planets of ancient astrology have developed from the pantheon of ancient Greek and Roman gods into orbs of influence and character. We can use these characteristics and godly associations to determine timing, or the speed at which a predicted event may come to pass. For example, Jupiter is associated with luck and the Fates, and also the Wheel of Fortune in tarot. You can see the clear link with timing being held in the hands of the gods.

The table below uses the nature and characteristics of the planets to determine their thematic timing for each tarot card they are associated with.

It may also be said that when a planetary trump card lands in the outcome position, that the exact timing is not available to you, at this time. We may say the gods of those planets have deemed it unnecessary, unimportant or too much of a distraction for you to know the finer details of timing the predicted event. Sometimes too much information is not a good thing. Events cannot unfold naturally if we are making decisions to bring them about before they are set to occur on their own.

Using Astrology Rulerships of the Planetary Trumps to Determine Timing

It is possible to obtain a time period associated with the planetary trumps if we go a little deeper into astrology and explore how the planets rule the zodiac signs. This is a kind of reversal from what we already know about the zodiacal trumps – they have been assigned a zodiac sign, but they don’t rule it. There is a relationship there, between qualities, nature and characteristics. The common denominator in this form of timing is the planet itself. The timing is derived from the zodiac sign they rule. A simple formula to show this would be the following:

Tarot trump → Planet → Zodiac sign → Timing

We can see the Fool in tarot is associated or attributed to the planet Uranus. Using thematic timing, we might say an event may happen spontaneously. Using planetary timing we can see that Uranus rules Aquarius, which in tarot is associated with the Star and so timing of January 21 – February 20 may be suggested. I would call this secondary timing, with thematic, zodiac and decanate timing taking precedence. As secondary timing, we need to be more cautious if we are predicting an event, unless a conscious effort is made to include this kind of timing into our tarot toolkit and embed it within.

Timing and the Primordial Element Trumps

If you have followed my tutorial on Tarot Card Counting, you will be familiar with the concept of the primordial elements associated with the tarot. In the Qabalah, there are three:

• Primordial Air, or the Spirit of Air – The Fool
• Primordial Water, or the Spirit of Water – The Hanged Man
• Primordial Fire, or the Spirit of Fire, or Spirit – Judgement

These three elemental trumps can be said to be outside of tarot timing, but timing can still be derived from them through their planetary associations, as we can see in the table below.The question remains, do we include these separate and special tarot cards from timing, or not? I think we can include them as even in Book T, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s offering on tarot, the major arcana trump cards are included in their divination section where the Hanged Man, with the title of Spirit of the Mighty Waters, is described as:

12. Enforced sacrifice, punishment, loss, fatal and not voluntary, suffering.

This definition has evolved over time but its inclusion in Brief Meaning of the Twenty-Two Keys in Book T is enough to show us its clear position as a card of divination as well as other lofty spiritual questions and operations.

Special mention should also be made of the World card, or the Universe in the Golden Dawn system. Called, The Great One of the Night of Time, it is attributed to Saturn and Earth simultaneously. Therefore, it is also a planetary and elemental trump, though it does not hold the same position in the Qabalah as the Fool, Hanged Man and Judgement. It is, in a way, a combination of the other elements, a manifestation of them, as I have understood it.

Considering the long orbit of Saturn through the solar system and its association to moving slowly in astrology and tarot, it can be said that the World, or Universe card is moving so slowly that time is not relevant. This is a close correlation to an elemental trump having no time association and so whether to use timing for this card can be a purely personal choice, based on surrounding cards and intuition.

*It is interesting how the Judgement card differs from the other elemental trumps in that its planetary association does not rule a zodiac sign of the same element. Fiery Judgement becomes watery Death. Both cards indicate a transformation and transfiguration. Continuing the interest, Scorpio is also co-ruled by Mars which is attributed to the Blasted Tower – another card of change. These three cards together would surely indicate a spiritual epiphany or baptism by fire.

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Table 6

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Working with the Tarot Court Cards and Timing

In Lon Milo DuQuette’s book, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, Chapter 18 is called, The Crazy Mixed Up World of the Court Cards. He goes on to give a thorough and yet witty account of how they differ from each other, and how they create change in the tarot itself. I recommend DuQuette’s book to every tarot lover, whether they use the Thoth Tarot or not.

The Pages and Aces Rule Celestial Space

While the Rider Waite-Smith tarot follows the Golden Dawn model, Arthur Waite was determined not to reveal all of the Order’s secrets in his tarot deck. And so concepts like the Pages ruling quadrants of space and not time may seem alien to those who read with that deck. A further concept is that the Aces work in the same way as the Pages (called Princesses in Golden Dawn and Thoth decks). In the Golden Dawn system, the Pages are the thrones of the Aces and ‘rule’ a quadrant of space above the North Pole. Each one with its own sector.

Consider the Ace the seed or root of its element and the Page the vehicle in which it manifests.

Timing can be derived from the Pages and Aces though, through their associations to the zodiac signs they rule over. Like planetary timing, this can be seen as secondary timing and may be best as an outline rather than specific time. The time period covered is three months, or ninety days and so may be too wide or simply not applicable. Employing the Traditional Timing method will also be wide in that it can represent a season.

Knights, Queens and Kings Rule Time. And Mix Up the Ordering Too

In Progression of the Minor Arcana Through the Zodiacal Year, it is easy to see the relationships of the elemental cards. All is in a nice and neat line, everything contained within solid blocks. When we add court cards, we can see how they break the solid blocks of neatness. Instead of running from 0° – 30° like the major arcana trumps and minor arcana pips, the court cards of the knights, queens and kings run from 20° – 20°. This is the mix up and it creates movement and more interest in the zodiac trumps and minor arcana cards. Think of it like seasoning on your dinner, it creates an added dimension to your food.

If we look at the table, we can see how the King of Swords is bringing some of the air element to the Hierophant and the 7 of Pentacles. In the system of elemental dignities, air and earth are inimical to each other and so the interaction of two opposing elements does make things look more interesting and mixed up. If you study the table further, you will be able to see many other mixed up interactions between the elements and the cards that bring them to the neighbours.

While the court cards are said to rule over the minor arcana small cards, they are by association through those cards, also related to the major arcana trumps that the small cards are attributed to. This makes for interesting reading when you consider your birth cards.

As a side note, the zodiac is seen as a belt around the Earth, and so is a continuous loop. You may have noticed how the Queen of Wands is aligned to two decans at the top of the table and one at the bottom, this is to show the continuation of the zodiac belt. She does rule over the three cardinal decans of Aries, the 2, 3 and 4 of Wands.

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Table 7

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Timing Events Using Tarot and Astrology

All the previous tables in this post are the parts that make the sum of this table, Timing Events Using Tarot and Astrology. It shows the relationships between the cards and their astrological counterparts, associations and groupings. Every tarot card in the deck is represented in this table.

Once you have worked your way through the other tables and understand how the system builds in complexity, you can simply reference this table for timing associated with your card of interest.

For Traditional Timing and Thematic Timing (associated with the Planetary Trumps of the Major Arcana), please see the appropriate tables. For clarity, I have kept this table focused on astrology and the dates they represent.

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Card Wheel Graphic

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Visualising Tarot Timing Using a Tarot Card Wheel

Tables are a great way to display text information in a grid layout. This allows your eye to follow along and down lines and makes finding the information you are looking for much easier. It’s a very Hierophant way to do things…

Nothing quite beats seeing the cards in their groups though and so below is an image you can use alongside the tables. When I laid the cards out on the floor, the wheel was massive. I left it there for a few days because although it was a fun exercise, it was also a little time consuming so I thought it a good idea to produce a graphic for you so you don’t have to cordon off part of the room while you explore! Though of course, you should do it at least once because it really helped seeing how the cards related to each other visually.

Exploring the Tarot Card Wheel

There are many other tarot card wheels, or zodiac wheels with tarot cards on the internet. A quick Google search will return many for you to see. I created this wheel to complement the tables I created so mine may differ in how much information is contained within it. For example, I deliberately left off written information, names of cards, placements, planetary and zodiacal glyphs. This was to keep the graphic clean but as a complement to the text tables, you can easily reference the names and symbols there.

The order of circles from the centre are as follows:

1. Planetary trumps
2. Zodiac trumps
3. Small card decanates
4. Court cards
5. Pages & Aces

A quick look at the segment showing the Wheel of Fortune – Temperance – 8, 9, and 10 of Wands shows they share a time frame. You can discover this time frame by looking at the appropriate tables.

The Wheel of Fortune is in the Planetary table and show us that the Wheel is attributed to the planet Jupiter, which rules Sagittarius and covers the time period November 21 to December 20. The Zodiac table shows us a further breakdown of the decans (10 degree segments) – the 8, 9 and 10 of Wands.

The Court Card table shows us that 10-30 degrees of the King of Wands and 0-10 degrees of the Queen of Pentacles also share this time frame.

The Court Card table shows you the placements of these court cards, as does the card wheel above. It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the shift in degrees that occurs with the court cards so when you do look at the card wheel, their positions will make more sense to you.

The movement of the wheel begins with the 2 of Wands and the Emperor and runs counter-clockwise. While this may seem counter-intuitive as time progression as seen on clocks goes in the opposite direction, the zodiac wheel runs in alignment with the earth’s orbital direction and rotation – both anticlockwise.

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Table 8

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*A Note on the Name Changes Across the Golden Dawn Based Decks

While this post focuses mostly on the Golden Dawn timing model, it uses the Rider Waite-Smith deck at its heart. There is no problem with this as the Rider came out of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn via Arthur Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith, two of its members. Waite changed a number of the card titles for his deck and you can see these differences if you used a Golden Dawn based deck.

Aleister Crowley, co-creator of the stunning Thoth Tarot also changed some card titles as he believed the cards themselves had changed.

The following table shows the different names and their counterparts to help you in further study of this system and tarot in general.

It is the court cards of tarot that have the most relevance with name changes and tarot timing. This is because of the position of the Pages/Princess as the thrones of their Aces ruling celestial space, not time. Please refer to the Court Card table for more details.

Bibliography

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Bibliography for Timing Events Using Tarot and Astrology

While all the information in these tables is freely available on the internet, it was one book in particular that inspired the layout of this post. That book is the excellent, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo DuQuette. This book breaks the mystery of the Thoth Tarot wide open. DuQuette is an excellent writer and engages wit frequently while approaching some very heavy topics and theories surrounding this deck and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s model of the Qabbalah, astrology, colour codes and subjects there’s no room to discuss here.

Also instrumental in writing this post is Star School by Theresa Reed, aka, The Tarot Lady. Her straightforward, no nonsense style made some of the astrological aspects of this post easier to write. Star School is accessible and comprehensive. Whatever you need to know about the planets, signs or anything else astrology, Theresa has you covered.

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Bibliography Links

(Some contain affiliate links)

• Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo DuQuette, Weiser Books US | UK
• The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley, Weiser Books US | UK
• Book T – The Tarot by Samuel L MacGregor Mathers, GD Free online access
• The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang, Marcus Aurelius Press US | UK
• The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order, Llewellyn US | UK
• Tarot Beyond the Basics by Anthony Louis, Llewellyn US | UK
• Tarot Plain & Simple by Anthony Louis, Llewellyn US | UK
• The Compass by Joseph Ernest Martin, Llewellyn (The Quest Tarot) US only
• The Medieval Scapini Tarot by Luigi Scapini and Ronald Decker, US Games US only
• Paul Hughes Barlow – Camden Tarot & Supertarot websites
• Star School by Theresa Reed – The Tarot Lady website

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TIMING EVENTS USING TAROT & ASTROLOGY eBOOK

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Supporting Posts for Tarot Timing

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