Prediction #1
In my first draw using the Fox Flower Method, I predicted that the Democrats' weakening campaign, marked by internal division and a lack of a strong platform, will lead to a Republican victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, using reductive numerological techniques from the French school of cartomancy and making specific predictive inferences from the Wuxing seasonal and horary tables of correspondence.
For my first experiment with this spread, I decided to select an ongoing external situation to read for so that I could avoid personal bias and test the accuracy of the prediction within six months. The upcoming U.S. presidential election immediately came to mind. Since I will not be voting, I have no skin in this game, and public information about the candidates provides a breadth of context to draw on for analytical purposes. So, I asked Kitsune to show me how both sides are faring and pulled as follows:
The Democrat candidate: 2 Cups / 10 Swords
vs.
The Republican candidate: 3 Batons / 3 Cups
Interacting Cycles: Water rusts metal (D) vs. Water nourishes wood (R)
The spread shows a weakening cycle versus an inter-promoting cycle. It's not looking good for the Dems, most especially with 10 swords and 2 fish out of water defining their campaign. Paying attention to jumps from the value of the left card to that of the right, I can glean further as to how each side is evolving in the run up to Election Day. From 2-10 is a big jump, indicating a fast rate of acceleration to demise (perhaps stemming from the recent update to the two individuals on the party's ticket) through a pronounced SPLITTING action (in recent months, the party's base has splintered over the genocide in Palestine, with what's popularly referred to as "the radical left" refusing to support Kamala Harris after she declared allegiance to Israel), whereas there is no differential between 3-3, indicating the Reps are running a stable campaign that will not increase or decrease its odds of winning or losing. It seems their party has all the votes it needs in a dedicated base of supporters, CRUSHING (as wood does in combat) the opposing party.
Let’s borrow a trick from the French Cross, introducing number magic. I added the cards of each side: the Dems carry 3 energy (2+10=12/1+2=3), and the Reps carry 6 energy (3+3=6). We know that small versus big numbers don’t necessarily point to advantage, so we can reference our playing card associations. 3s indicate loss or gain, and, as we’ve established a weakening cycle (punctuated by the 10 of Swords), we can surmise (a devastating) defeat. The 6s indicate pathways, so we can infer a pathway to victory based on the stability established by a generative cycle. Batons and cups together are reminiscent of sporting trophies.
But swords and batons are weapons, and it does get nasty, even violent, running for president and being president, as we’ve seen. The Dems have pulled out all the stops (10 of Swords), campaigning on threats of disaster and death to America should their opponent live to be sworn in, rather than advocating policies. In fact, there is a timer on TikTok acknowledging the number of days Kamala Harris has failed to publish her list of priorities, highlighting the glaring absence of a substantive platform. Meanwhile, the Reps are campaigning on their candidate's popularity and don’t have to try as hard, treating this election more like a game than a dire conflict, and 3 batons reflect their sporting approach (Trump enthusiastically welcomes the drama and attention).
Campaign runners understand that candidates must play to emotion above all else, and, statistics demonstrate that those with charisma tend to win above all other factors. We can understand the presence of cups (emotions) on both sides confirming this truth, although it appears the Republican candidate gets more love (3 > 2 cups).
We can expand further by adapting the French cross method for synthesis. Traditionally, the numbers of the spread are added together to produce a synthesis card from the Major Arcana. If we illustrate this spread accordingly, including majors for each side, we get more information.
The Dems are represented by the Empress (3), and we know their party just instated a woman candidate who, despite de facto 'co-ruling' the country as Vice President, is very unpopular—so this tracks. The Reps are represented by Donald Trump, who was shot on stage and surrounded by secret service. The scene on The Lovers (6) card recreates this scenario to a T, with a man being grabbed at by two women (as it happened, two of the female agents surrounding Trump were especially noticed by the media) and a seemingly blind shooter from a high place (this killer Cupid missed multiple shots).
This moment kept the momentum of Trump's campaign going strong, following an uptick in his polling numbers after his felony conviction earlier in the year.
But wait, there's more! If we want to go deeper with prediction and apply additional correspondences of our reference tables, we can predict that the Democrats will notice their cycle of weakening peak in the fall (season of metal), which happens to be when Election Day occurs. Perhaps this major loss will pertain to activities in the western part of the country (direction of metal), such as sustaining heavy losses in those states, or, more bad press from Harris's time living there (as I type this, an Apple News alert appeared on my screen with a headline that read: "Inside Kamala Harris’s L.A. Life: SoulCycle, Hollywood Parties, Annoyed Neighbors"). Also, there may be big news on a Friday (the day of metal)...today happens to be Friday. The 10 also indicates a full stop, or death, and anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear understands that Biden, the current Democrat in office, has one foot into the next life.
Accordingly, the Republicans would have experienced their peak inter-promoting growth cycle in the spring (season of wood), pertaining to activities in the eastern area of the country (direction of wood), with a significant event happening on a Thursday (day of wood). As it happened, Trump was sentenced on 34 felony counts in New York in the springtime, on May 30th (a Thursday!), after which his poll numbers skyrocketed, breaking records.
For a final trick, we can add the sides together for an ultimate synthesis, à la French Cross. We get 9, corresponding with The Hermit, looking like an Illuminati extra on his way to a Stanley Kubrick-themed party. Perhaps Kitsune suggests the winner of this contest is selected by such folk, regardless. Rumor has it that Kubrick was offed for suggesting as much in his film Eyes Wide Shut (1993).
Let's not forget that Kitsune is acted upon by the elements, and acts upon them in return. As for the U.S. election, a Kistune transmission: Metal impoverishes earth, and earth bears metal, so I make a shield; Wood grasps earth, and earth rots wood, so I make a grave. The low waters cancel out, and earth destroys water, so I take these measures to distance myself from both sides without much feeling. I curse them all.
—Originally published on August 31, 2024 (nonreading2023.wordpress.com)
Prediction Postscript, November 6th
I must admit, it’s exhilarating to have my first draw with the FFM—a bold, ambitious one considering the 50/50 probability of predictions and the media’s (false) projection of a close and contentious contest—come to pass. The Republicans indeed “crushed” the Democrats in this election, as my read of the cards indicated, taking not only the presidency but both houses of Congress. If that isn’t a 10 of Swords final death suffered by the Democrats, I don’t know what is. Perhaps, in retrospect, Kistune’s grave-digging was intended to hold the remains of the losing party, and it’s shield-making forming a mirror to their crumbling facade of legitimacy. We can best think of Kitsune as being functional rather than emotional, anyway. Adding to the shock of this devastation, Trump broke records, becoming the oldest president elect ever, the first Republican elect in 20 years to win the popular vote, and the first president since Grover Cleveland (mid-1800s) to win non-consecutive terms. Not to mention his overcoming unprecedented indictments, prosecutions, multiple assassination attempts, and defeating a candidate who raised more money than any other in the history of U.S. elections ($1 billion).
While Harris managed to retain her party’s electoral hold on the West Coast, she suffered unexpected losses in the west and midwest states of Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan, which were allocated to Biden in 2020. This outcome validated the portion of my prediction about her losses in the country’s western quadrant.
Furthermore, while I referenced the Democrats’ “instatement” of their candidate, reading Kamala as Empress, the election outcome is a clear reminder that Americans do not favor monarch-like figures, and she was not selected by the people in a primary process, adding a layer of dissonance to her candidacy.
Reflecting on the role of The Hermit—representing the shadow government energy of cloaked elites in the wake of this populist upheaval—The Lovers card reduction of the Republican pair can also be read as signifying the people’s choice, fueled by a uniquely diverse coalition of intergenerational, multiracial, working-class voters, including former Democrats and Independents, who the media ignored. The inclusion of these groups in Trump’s campaign can be read as mirroring the pair of threes (gains) on the Republican side of the draw, and, while I favored reading the pair of threes as a stabilizing energy in my prediction, it turns out that he won more votes than his past two elections. It also appears the Democrats lost over 10 million voters from 2020. How mysterious. Does Trump’s victory threaten the hegemony of these cloaked elites and their empire of propaganda, offering a chance for further exposure and dismantling of a corrupted system? With the spread’s impact reduced to the Hermit’s number, only time will tell.