well well well if it isn’t the toppling amount of books in my room i’ve been trying to ignore because i bought them two years ago and haven’t read them yet
In January 2020, the House impeached Donald Trump.
In January 2020, the Senate failed to impeach Donald Trump.
In January 2021, the House impeaches Donald Trump. We are in the same place–and yet, the world has changed immeasurably.
In January 2020, we thought the impeachment would be the biggest news of the year until the election.
In March 2020, we knew how wrong we were.
And now, in January 2021, in the midst of a mishandled pandemic, in the aftermath of a president-supported coup on the White House, we have come to the same place we were one year ago. Except different. Except worse. Except with hundreds of thousands of Americans dead.
Let’s see if the Senate learned from its mistakes.
In flagrant defiance of Tumblr social code and with malice aforethought, I decided this weekend to do a Tarot reading to see what 2022 would hold for us. Last year I did one for myself and people wanted to know if it could predict the year, but it wasn’t very good at it, perhaps because I hadn’t really done it with all of existence in mind.
ANYWAY this time I gave 2022 its very own reading of The Four Royal Advisors, the 78-card spread I designed a few years back. Here are my predictions.
The word for 2022 is “Justice” – balance, the righting of wrongs, restoration, and of course the legal system. The theme that dominated the year’s reading was the revelation of mysteries and uncovering of secrets, through legal or political processes.
At some point in the spring there will be a major political shift; a politician dying or a very significant one retiring, some political player leaving the game. This will lead to surprise revelations and the uncovering of a Watergate-scale scandal, but not necessarily a political one. A whistleblower will reveal something huge, potentially a financial scandal like Enron or Madoff. The story will unfold over most of the summer until it escalates to actual legal action (arrests, a trial, etc) in the early fall.
In the fall, there will also be some kind of big tech event, some new innovation or significant advancement (possibly also something like the breakup of a tech giant or death of one of the Big Tech Guys – my guess is Larry Ellison). This could also be the functional social end of the pandemic.
During all of this, the economy absolutely bottoms out for a few terrifying days or weeks in July, then rebounds rapidly and erratically. The rebound will kick off the real “Roaring Twenties” of the century: a time of excess, extravagance, and celebration, all to hide how terrifying everything is. There’s a duality in the cards warning that this is not going to lead anywhere good, but also strongly urging flexibility to cope, and suggesting that going with the flow is the best plan.
SPECIFIC PREDICTIONS:
There will be a new meme or viral story involving teachers or education
The MeToo movement will cause a massive scandal in the military
Everyone’s going to have just A Lot Of Feelings (yeah thanks Tarot this one seems like a safe bet)
The big new hit fandom of the year will be a dark gothic fantasy or historical drama of some kind, not a movie, possibly a video game; may involve werewolves or anthropomorphic animals. Potentially a reboot or new season of something.
There will be a massive fandom scandal to do with religion or blasphemy (possibly the big new hit fandom will get targeted by the evangelicals!)
A hot new format for fanfic (ala “5 things” fics) will become super fashionable when a fic using the format goes viral
Let’s check back in somewhere around April, if the internet and society as we know it still exists then. Otherwise, I guess I’ll be pulling my shift as border patrol for the Glorious Republic of United Chicago, keeping out invaders from the Post-American Midwestern Political Association LLC.
