Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2013
As a regular feature, Metropolis‘ resident tarot expert offers an overview analysis of a current news item or celebrity profile. This week we ask about…
Caroline Kennedy: US Ambassador?
The daughter of former President John F. Kennedy is reportedly being vetted to be America’s ambassador to Japan.
Using the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) business-analysis model, Tokyo Tarot looks at the possible appointment.
Strengths: queen of swords
The queen of swords represents a woman highly intelligent who lives to create an environment of clear thought. She might be a maths professor, a senior analyst or a lawyer. She is characterized as one who has suffered loss in her life, and as such is “wounded.” She might appear to be cold and hard, on account of her high intelligence and emotional scars. But she is ultimately trustworthy, lives to serve and has the greater good at heart. Kennedy’s inner strength is her fine, analytical mind and ruthless determination to let the truth triumph. As a woman who has lost all her immediate family, she may appear cold and unapproachable from the outside, but her mission is to serve.
Weaknesses: 10 of wands
Aleister Crowley, the notorious creator of this tarot deck, subtitled this card “Oppression,” as the hard task-master Saturn is attempting to subdue and control fiery, expansive Sagittarius. It’s hard to know who to feel more sorry for in this clash, but the outcome is a conflict, and the traditional interpretation of this card is “too much work,” where the subject feels that load upon load has been heaped on their shoulders, without any way to put them down. This card indicates Kennedy might not in fact welcome the appointment as US ambassador, but that she might feel pressurised into taking the role. As stated by a BBC report, “Caroline Kennedy was a key Obama supporter in 2008 and 2012, but has largely shunned political life. She considered running for a New York senate seat when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, but declined citing personal reasons.”
Opportunities: the Aeon
This card describes a new era, a time of rebirth. Here, the subject is being asked to heed the call to dedicate their actions and success to the good of the universe. The Aeon is the card before last in the sequence of twenty-two Major Arcana or Trump cards of the tarot. These cards represent’s the soul’s successive stages as it moves further towards a harmonious realization. As the penultimate card, this card represents the near-perfection of the subject’s situation, all they need do is make the choice to sublimate their will to the greater good to achieve the success of their goal. This card is often seen on the table when a critical life choice is being made by the subject. What do you need to sacrifice in order to move yourself forward as a human being? Is it your ego, your time, your attachments? This is Kennedy’s great opportunity. She has already raised many tens of millions of dollars for charitable causes, and now she is being asked to step up and represent her country in a foreign land.
Threats: the chariot
Cooperation and balanced choices are the main themes of this card. This is a water element card; the subject is being asked to analyze the flow and course of their life’s direction, and to regulate the different factors that move him or her, or that he or she controls themselves. We often see this card when there is an imbalance in the subjects’s affairs, perhaps their career is taking too much energy away from their family life, or a business or social partnership has become a little one-sided. As we can see from looking at the card, some of the creatures pulling the chariot are dark, some are light-coloured, indicating that a balance of light and dark must be achieved to maintain the momentum in our life, symbolised by the wheel seen spinning in the central figure’s lap. For Kennedy, this could represent a lack of work-life balance, or it could be telling her that, as an ambassador, she will need to cooperate with agents with whom she doesn’t feel comfortable. It’s also possible Kennedy may be feeling that the responsibility might be too much for her, which would tie in with the 10 of wands card above, and the responsibility inherent in the Aeon card.
This is a nicely-balanced spread of cards, indicating Kennedy is taking her personal and professional choices very seriously. Because the lower two cards are Major Arcana, this shows us she feels the ultimate decision is outside her control, that she is, in a certain sense, being directed by higher powers. Her superior mind and sense of responsibility and patriotism show us she would be an excellent choice as US Ambassador to Japan.
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