Charlie Brown reads for Stronglove

[Charlie Brown]

What can I do for you?

[stronglove]

hi charlie brown
i am thinking of leaving facebook. i would like to hear what the cards can tell me about that idea. shoud i or shouldn’t i? and what do i need to consider when making my final decision?

[Charlie Brown]

The pictures are appearing sideways when I look at the post. When I click on them, they appear upright.

So I decided to ask the question like this: What effect does facebook have on Stronglove's life.

I used Oswald Wirth's version of the cross. The deck is the Soprafino Menghello.

1) Pro
2) Con
3) What factor will ultimately decide between the pro and con
4) The answer to the question
5) Quintessence, read first and is a general guide/overview to the interpretation

Pro: The Sun
Con: The Papess
Determining Factor: Judgement
Answer: Justice
Quntessence: Death

Starting with Death is both interesting and appropriate. You are, after all, trying to decide whether to cut facebook out of your life and this card definitely reflects that. Death also is associated with transformation. Let's see if the idea of a transformative effect comes back at all during the reading.

The Sun. This version of The Sun places particular emphasis on the card's relationship aspect. The pro of facebook is that it allows for certain relationships and connections. It can also shine a light on what's going on with the people that you know (birthdays, births, parties, etc. etc.)

On the other hand, The Papess shows that these connections are often detached, disembodied, and abstracted like that pages in her book rather than connected, vivid experience promised by The Sun. Sitting alone reading about your friends (like the Papess is doing) can be ironically isolating.

The top and bottom cards are an interesting pairing. Justice and Judgement are so similar in this context. How do you decide whether or not to stay on facebook? Make a just judgement! There are two aspects to Judgement I'm considering at the moment: The idea of judging and the idea of the trumpet blast. In this version of the cross, the top card (often called the judge card) indicates what will determine the 'winner' in the war between pro and con. Therefore, it seems like an excellent place to look for an answer about whether or not you should leave facebook. Do the cons outweigh the pros? Let's come back to this.

As the answer to the question "What effect does facebook have on your life," Justice says that there are good and bad parts of it that are, more or less, in balace. Per the Judgement card, you're going to have to make a choice about whether or not to transition away (death) from it.

Part II

Reading with the trumps clearly portrayed the issues that are at play here, but didn't necessarily tell us what to do in clear, actionable terms. Therefore, I overlaid each trump with a companion pip card.

Four of cups: Fours are still, solid, stable containers. Water likes to flow. This poor match reflects the stagnancy of good feeling that you must be experiencing on facebook if you're asking about leaving it behind. You're thinking about cutting facebook out of your life (death) because you aren't getting a good emotional flow from it (4 of cups)

Four of wands: Another four doesn't strike me as all that great after the Death + 4C combination. 2 wands is another fiery card like The Sun. Thinking of it as "structured will," this card illuminates something that we know about facebook. The light that it shines on our friends' lives (Sun) isn't necessarily true or authentic, but is structured according to the will of the person who posts. It's an edited view that serves that person's needs.

The final three pips strongly suggest, I think, that you should leave facebook behind. Earlier, we saw that the Judgement card would suggest how to choose between the pros and cons of facebook. Thinking about the trumpet, the moment that it blows is a clear dividing line between the old life and the new. The Ace of Cups reinforces the idea of a new start. Something fresh in stark contrast to the four of cups that paired with death.

I don't think the specific values of the 7 of Coins and 9 of Coins are very important. I think their importance is that they're both coins. By drawing a direct connection between Justice and the Papess, they show that the cons outweigh the pros and that the just decision is to leave.

A few added observations for whatever they're worth:

1)In this deck, death faces to the left, cutting away at the pro-facebook argument. This suggests you should leave facebook.
2) If you figure out the quintessence with the alternative method, you get The Pope, who will naturally side with the Papess. This again suggests leaving facebook.

[BreathingSince72]

Nicely done, Charlie Brown. I enjoy watching your process.