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.

 

Coming off the UNLV game, we have the 8 of Cups. Traditionally, this card represents emotional stagnation of your own creation. Perhaps the Michigan Collective has had enough of the unfortunate non-conference schedule? Maybe they are missing Harbaugh and are fed up with the NCAA struggle session over a hamburger? Or it could be the strange scheduling of one game disappearing to the Peacock, one game a CBS showplace, and the latest being a dramatic and puzzling showdown with Bowling Green under the lights? Luckily, we can lean into the image on the card and be the traveler that moves on beyond the mosquito infested swamp and simply put this portion of the schedule behind us.

 

 

Woe is me! This is shaping up to be a classic Same Ole Lions reading. Going into BGSU the present is being represented by the dreaded Tower Card. This is a sudden calamity or disaster that has been brewing on the periphery for a while. The classic example is the Tower of Babel. Too many people with conflicting languages and agendas causing a catastrophic disruption. Has head coach by committee gone off the rails and caused dysentery in the ranks? Could there be issues with recruiting? A devastating injury yet to be revealed? Is the NCAA flexing the last of its authority? Something going on with the Harbaughs? We know Mel (Thunder) Tugger made sure to do his Aaron the Moor impression by repenting of every good deed and spitting the last of his wrath and fury at Jim Harbaugh. Have his curses drawn unwanted attention? Traditionally, this card is a call to get out of your ivory tower and to humbly prepare for the death of the ego. This can ease the fall knowing it is time to address whatever issue it may be.

From a design perspective, this is my favorite card in the deck. The baby blue storm clouds and spacey monolith are like a half remembered dream of Picasso’s Blue Period. Sketches of the unhappy Michigan Collective can be found throughout the clouds. Even this visionscape has been torn away to reveal a shell and a pearl. Where have we seen that before? The falling figures are but a matter of perspective and could easily be flying or swimming. They show an opportunity to make a leap of faith. Just as the Tower of Babel was inverted by the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, maybe BGSU is a chance to dive in head first and see what this team can really accomplish under pressure and the lights of primetime. Regardless, we should be on guard and not look past Bowling Green until all 60 minutes have been played.

 

 

We last saw the Judgment Card as the outcome for Iowa 2022. That game was closer than it should have been, but had a brilliant ending with the 4 consecutive stops by Morris, Morris, Okie, and Okie. It represented a turning point as we saw the new defensive heroes emerge to secure victory. This will be a similar opportunity for the 2023 team to begin to really define itself. Those butterflies of transformation are dancing to the trumpet blaring 7 Nation Army. On the margins of the card we see the Michigan collective looking on, ready to make their own judgments. And what is that along the bottom? It is a shell with a pearl. Just as we saw behind the veil in the Tower Card. So hopefully it truly is an opportunity to seize the pearl and set this new team upon the road of their destiny. 

 

These are tough cards, but knowing that we are facing BGSU, I look at this as more of an opportunity. Hopefully I am wrong this week and everything goes smoothly.