MGoTarot is a fun predictive tool that I started after the Covid season to see if the cards were more interesting than the football. Thus began one of the great runs of Michigan football. The tarot card readings turned out to be amazingly accurate and insightful in revealing the outcomes and energies of each game.

 

The approach is a standard 3 card spread showing elements of the past, the present, and the future outcome. I do the reading within 24 hours of the game for accuracy. The method is to shuffle the cards while singing the Victors. I then lay out all the cards face down in a line and select 3 with my eyes closed using my off hand. This process helps to double randomize the deck so I am not selecting the same cards repeatedly like a poorly shuffled deck of Uno. I like to use the Salvador Dali Deck because it puts a chaotic modernist/art history twist on the traditional 78 card Rider-Waite Deck. Plus the cards have an oil-paint smell that is totally groovy.

 

Last week was rough having our Tower moment against Bowling Green. The cards reflect that and are moving on with the 6 of Swords. This card represents pushing off from shore and away from an emotionally charged situation. Everyone is grateful for the win, but questions and doubts remain. Dali has sliced a portion of The Boat of Dante by Eugene Delacroix and has set it in a larger cartoonish rowboat with our old friends, the butterflies of transformation. The card is splashed with rough water and nymphs representing the emotional turbulence of the moment. However, since swords represent our mental forces, we see the boat rising above and moving forward across the emotional seas. Forget about Dante’s harrowing journey across the river Styx with Virgil in the Inferno. Our Dante is much calmer than in the original painting because Dali has added a ferryman’s pole that takes his fear and transmutes it to steady guidance. Dante has touched bottom and is moving us along to better shores.

 

 

But like the damned soul pulling at Dante, it seems we may not quite be in calm waters. This may be a general angst in the Michigan Collective. Going into the Rutgers game we are suspended upside down as the Hanged Man. You may remember him from the past position for the TCU game. Dali’s Hanged Man even appears to be below water. For Rutgers it represents a paralysis of anxiety brought on by last week. This card is a call to spiritual renaissance. Like prayer, meditation, or even the teachings of St Francis we are called to turn around and change. When pain is weakness leaving the body, the best way out of the hanged Man situation is to become comfortable with the discomfort and grow stronger in our body, mind, soul, and fandom. Luckily just in time, Michigan’s Hierophant, Jim Harbaugh has returned to light spiritual fires. We need to dust off our old proverbs about THE TEAM and THOSE THAT STAY. Even the collective needs to ramp up their faith, put all their fucks in a sack, and simply cheer louder this Saturday and have belief that Blue will carry the day. 

 

 

We are still teetering on that moment of transformation where the pain is transmuted into strength and experience. But looking ahead to the outcome, the Page of Coins is a child reaching, ready to come of age with talent. This is a back to basics game for Michigan to rediscover and reevaluate who they are in a classic Bo/Carr grind with Michigan lining up and out-talenting Rutgers at every position. The Page of Coins puts the fun in fundamentals and is going to learn lessons about itself, talent, and worth. The dragonfly across the bottom of the card is a symbol of flexibility and being able to take on new perspectives. Be patient if progress seems slow. This is where the fanbase must cheer harder. As the Page of Coins represents a fresh perspective while Harbaugh tinkers and uses the trials of these recent games as an opportunity to improve for the tests yet to come.