Day 1 - Saturday, ruled by Saturn: Obstacles and Blockades
Card: The Emperor IV The Mogul
I mentioned Howard Hughes yesterday, who features on this card, how he was the nail in the coffin of RKO Pictures. He was an insane anti-Semite who made a fortune off of war profiteering and whose wealth made him untouchable. He is certainly representative of the worst aspects of The Mogul card - power and wealth used with impunity, authoritarianism, male hubris, philistinism. Also represented on the card is David O. Selznick, whose great moment was producing
Gone With The Wind, seen last Tuesday on the Ace of Coin. He had married into Hollywood royalty by becoming the son-in-law of Louis B. Mayer, but he left his wife for actress Jennifer Jones and spent the remainder of his career producing films to showcase her second-rate talents. An amphetamine user, Selnick led a scattered life and died of a heart attack. Irving Thalberg is also represented, in the form of the lifetime achievement award which bears his image. Thalberg, known as The Boy Wonder and the artistic talent behind Louis B. Mayer, died at the age of 37.
The Emperor, even as I recognize its role and importance, is one of my least favourite cards. With today's allocation of
Obstacles &
Blockades, I read this as a verification of a lurking realization which has been pestering me for some time, namely: my own growing preoccupation with order, correctness, budgets, work-load, and timetables. Gradually, like a lobster in a pot, I have taken on the mantle of responsibility, over-seeing everything which goes on around me. While it facilitates things getting done, it also results in tension, resentment, a short-temper, and worst of all: an inability to enjoy the things I do, to find pleasure in little things, or to relate to other people in ways other than the question - do they lessen or increase my stress?
Last night I dreamt that a friend of mine, who recently died, had come to see me one last time. The dream consisted of me waking up from a short nap to realize my friend had been and gone. When I tried to remember what had happened before I fell asleep, everything about my friend's visit was hazy, as I had been pre-occupied with gardening tasks, mending a fence, and other menial chores. Looking around me, all that remained of my friend were bits of paper and the bindings of books with their innards ripped out. What this dream and this card today compels me to do is jettison the position of supervision and obligation I have lately assumed and open myself to the value of each moment, waken to what it is my soul needs not what the ego &/or super-ego demands, and reconnect with what others call on us to engender - the better angels of our nature.
Day 2 - Sunday, ruled by the Sun: Inspiration and Goals
Card: The Star XVII Method Acting
This is a wonderful card for today's allocation. It, along with Strength, is my so-called birth card. The Stanislavski method of acting was a revolutionary Russian innovation to both ideas of characterization and theatrical content. With its emphasis on ensemble acting and social realism, its innovations were embraced by progressive actors in New York who incorporated and enriched this method in their newly-formed troupe, The Group Theatre. From this small spark grew what would become the pre-eminent acting style in America in the latter half of the 20th Century, known as Method Acting or simply The Method. Rather than utilizing outward devices to convey emotion and intent, The Method sees actors turn inward and tap into their own personal experience to find empathy with their characters and thereby inhabit them from within. The result is a heightened naturalism on the one hand, and an increased capacity for nuance and complexity of character on the other.
As a symbol, the Star card is a gift - one from afar (the heavens or, here, Russia) which takes root inside one's self, in the soil of one's own experiences, light and dark, like the gift of grace or (in Christian terms) the bestowing of the Holy Spirit to the soul. On a personal level, I'm sensing it signifies the dropping away of some spent paradigms and calcified scaffolding which have been impeding my growth, expression, and intimacy with others. Fear causes one to shut down and hide inside, reducing us to a mollusk's existence. The Star shows us what we are made of, what is always there but can only be seen when the bright lights dim. It is a present, here & now, giving us the strength to fully experience life and love.
"Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven...Do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say, for at that time the Holy Spirit will teach you what you should say.”
Day 3 - Monday, ruled by the Moon: Dreams and Fears
Card: Knight of Cups - James Stewart
As a boy, Jimmy Stewart was my favourite actor. His sincerity made him instantly relatable; that he was naive and often in over his head made him relevant to me as a kid. His struggles in the world and against it, in such films as
It's A Wonderful Life and
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, made him a kind of underdog hero.
Stewart's later work, with Hitchcock and in westerns, saw his character become more complex, often conflicted or obsessive. The best example of this is
Vertigo, where Stewart doesn't so much play
against type as he plays his type
in absurdum - the exaggerated endpoint of a character who can't see people - notably women and himself - for who they are, so clouded is he by his own psychologically tortured ideals. In real life, he reached the highest military ranking of any Hollywood actor and settled comfortably into the role of staunch Republican, actively supporting Nixon, Reagan, and the war in Vietnam.
Here, on the Knight of Cups card, the central image is taken from the film
Harvey, where Stewart holds the hat and coat of an invisible 6-foot 8-inch tall rabbit. Further suggesting his slip into mental infirmity, we see the face of the older Stewart looking inward, reflected and reflected again as in mirrors. The leafless and perhaps dead trees suggest a cracked mirror, with Stewart's troubled faces boxing him in. The Knight of Cups, who began so valiantly with emotional authenticity and naturalistic fervor, sinks into a night of cups where convention and ideology rule the unruly both within and as represented by the Other, in the end becoming a sad parody of itself, reading aloud on the Johnny Carson Show a whimsical poem about his dog "Blue". This obviously reflects the
fear aspect for me in today's allocation - to somehow maintain the genuine spark represented by Stewart as a young man, through the restrictions and conservatisms concomitant with growing older, without betraying the boyish
dream by becoming an irrelevant bit of fossilized driftwood. How? well, if straight stewardship fails, I guess I'll have to jimmy it.
Day 4 - Tuesday, ruled by Mars: Conflicts and Challenges
Card: 6 of Spades - Casablanca
Almost everyone knows
Casablanca, even those who don't care for old films. Many lines from its dialogue are classics, its song "You Must Remember This" memorable, its stars immortal, and it remains one of the most popular films of all time. It has entered the psyche of the culture, being referred to, copied, and parodied countless times. In some ways, it is a towering cliché, made up of a hundred clichés, yet it transcends the boundaries of banality and commonplace.
Central to the GAHT's 6 of Spades card is Ilsa, played by Ingrid Bergman. Her lovely face, red with passion or shame, perhaps fighting back tears, looks upwards with hope and backwards to the past she is leaving. At the end of
Casablanca, Bergman flies away with her husband Laszlo, echoing the RWS card which sees a woman departing from us in a small boat. Unhappily married in real-life, Bergman began an affair with director Roberto Rossellini. This caused an incredible scandal in the United States, effectively destroying her career in Hollywood, so Bergman left her husband and daughter in America to go live with Rossellini in Italy.
For 11 years, I have lived half the time in a different city from my romantic partner, commuting back and forth twice a year. Because of past relationships and incomprehension regarding our unconventional relationship, my spouse has endured calumny, censure, and division among her circle of friends. At the moment she is visiting me over Christmas, and in the Spring she is leaving that city and circle to relocate here permanently. In this way, she and I are extricating ourselves from that
conflict. The move itself is a
challenge, as is settling into a new city, missing old friends while making new ones, and adjusting to the new dynamic.
That said, stepping back to look at the bigger picture, as meaningful as these changes are to her, me, and those in our circle, they don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
Day 5 - Wednesday, ruled by Mercury: Interactions and Change
Card: Queen of Batons - Barbara Stanwyck
The red on this Queen of Batons (Fire) card mirrors the red on Ingrid Bergman's face yesterday, only in reverse, as everything except Stanwyck's face is red. This queen can be both glamorous and a deadly shot. Stanwyck's real name was Ruby, accounting in part for the red, but perhaps also suggesting the poor little waif of a girl - the
rube - she left behind by becoming Barbara Stanwyck. The
wyck aspect of her name implies the wick of a candle - or the fuse to a stick of dynamite - while the
Barb aspect alludes to her tenacity, her tendency at times to be rebarbative. Her role here as Annie Oakley underscores that tough as nails aspect of Stanwyck, a symbol of the modern woman theatre-goers of the 30s embraced. This stands in contradistinction to more blatant gender-bending offenders of the time, such as Marlene Dietrich or Katharine Hepburn, actors the public received with some suspicion.
Stanwyck's sexuality was something she kept extremely secret - even to the point of keeping it secret from herself. Her marriage to the closeted Robert Taylor, for instance, was either a conscious ruse or a highly subconscious one. Like many people who live in denial, she became not only a staunch and outspoken conservative but an Ayn Randian social-Darwinist masquerading as a patriot. Having lived through poverty, endured abuse, and made sacrifices, Stanwyck convinced herself if she could make it anyone and everyone could. As she aged, her vibrancy ossified into a smoldering resentment.
These are the dark aspects of this card, where a female energy burns out making itself queen. With today's allocation of
interactions and
change, the message here - like the 2 Stanwycks - appears to be twofold. The young Ruby Stevens fought her way up in showbiz, changing herself into a success with her audience as she went. In the end, it could be said she changed too much from the vulnerable little girl she once was. Marrying an actor more famous than her at the time, she carried on having numerous relationships with actors in Hollywood with one eye on how they might help advance her career. In the end, it could be said, she made too many sacrifices and her interactions were impeded by an emotionally distant, Machiavellian quality. On a personal level, I read this card as an admonition to be moderate and mindful of what changes I make, sure to keep the heart in even the most pragmatic decision. The same holds true for interactions, being sure the passion and compassion is alive in me and connecting with the hearts of those I love.
Day 6 - Thursday, ruled by Jupiter: Power and Influences
Card: The Magician I The Director
I realized fairly young that one of the primary things that makes a good film better than most has a lot to do with its director. In fact, in my 20s, I made a number of short films and wanted to be a director - not a Hollywood director with a bullhorn, monocle, riding pants and whip, but an independent director like the European auteurs, involved in every aspect of film-making. After a while, however, I realized there were far too many impediments to that dream, from prohibitive production costs to assembling a credible cast. And anyway, while I am opinionated in aesthetic matters and persnickety at times to a fault, it is contrary to my nature to order other people around.
The figure on the GAHT's Magician card, representing all Hollywood directors, is Orson Welles. Although he was initially embraced by Hollywood and then rejected by it - in fact, for this very reason - Welles has come to symbolize the young maverick director. The movie industry's power players resented him, and in examining the corruptive power of wealth in the veiled personage of media magnate William Randolph Hearst, Welles punched too high above his weight. It could be said, upon its release,
Kane was slain by its own ability. Over time, it grew in stature to represent not only a benchmark in film craft, but in auteurship. Exiled to Europe, Welles went on to make some great films (
The Trial, Chimes at Midnight) and was also prevented from making some great films (
The Merchant of Venice, The Dreamers). He also made the odd stinker (
Mr. Arkadin).
Like the acolyte alchemist or sorcerer's apprentice the Magician represents, if he goes too far too fast and drops the many balls he has in the air, the magic turns tragic. For me personally, this card today suggests the line that needs to be walked when it comes to authority, agency, authorship, and direction. One needn't be reckless to be daring, and one doesn't sacrifice independence by being inclusive.
Day 7 - Friday, ruled by Venus: Love and Attraction
Card: Knight of Coin - William Powell
William Powell is an actor I didn't really notice much, watching movies as a kid growing up. He cut his teeth as a dramatic actor late in the silent era and early in the sound, but his real gift was as a comedic actor. His debonair charm and resonant voice were the perfect foils for putting him in compromising situations uttering pithy remarks. I first noticed him as Nick Charles in the delightful
Thin Man movies, solving murder cases and drinking his way through the Depression.
Powell often came across as a silk stocking lothario, which many actors tried to emulate [i.e. - Melvyn Douglas]. Contrary to this persona, his penchant was to play comedy very broadly, to the point of farce, which is not my cup of tea at the best of times. He was always best being droll, the best example of this - and his ideal role in my opinion - was as the indomitable Godfrey in
My Man Godfrey [
cf. 3 of Batons]. In real life, he had a predilection for charismatic women - his 2nd wife was the much younger Carole Lombard and he was Jean Harlowe's fiancé just before her untimely death. Powell himself was a private, urbane, retiring man, who quit Hollywood and lived the last 30 years of his life quietly with his 3rd wife in relative anonymity.
While Powell's on-screen persona was winning, and his Hollywood love-life high-profile, his actual personality was the opposite of a playboy. With today's allocation of
Love &
Attraction, the emphasis may be on how one is perceived rather than how one feels themselves. The younger Powell - his knight aspect - found himself inveigled with vivacious women, but he was in more or less over his head. He remained loyal and loving to his past partners, but he continued to make missteps in matters of the heart while in the limelight. The lesson, in short, may be how a person appears to others can be misleading, and how those others then behave can, in turn, mislead that person. Having kept his head - and heart - through hardships, Powell matured and, in the end, found contentment and lasting love.
.
And what about those who just want to have a Deck of the Week, Card of the Day reading? They can just jump in and leave the planetary lore away. 
But now I know which are the decks I'll use in 2019. I also put up pictures of my complete week on 
but I know time is running out. 
