Julian Assange: A Psycard Reading

When I heard that Julian Assange had been forcibly removed from the Ecuadoran embassy in London, I decided to do a reading to see what fate might await him. I have two decks with a literal “Prison” card in them – the Psycards and the Kipperkarten – and chose one of them for this reading since prison time seems like a very real risk for him. The Psycards are more emotionally charged and often angst-ridden so I picked that one. I used the nine-card square spread. I don’t have the Psycards companion book, so I just winged it using an intuitive take on the images.

Everything about this spread seems to tie in perfectly with the situation except the “Friendship” card, which appears to be completely at odds with the rest (although I’ve tried my best to pull it into the picture). Using a technique I learned from Caitlin Matthews, I decided to pull another card to further explain it, and the Prison card turned up. This suggests that he may have powerful friends who will keep him out of jail, or that he could receive a lighter sentence than expected due to favorable treatment from the legal system.

The top row tells me that Assange, the “social justice warrior” (Warrior) was extracted from his embassy sanctuary (Cave) to face justice (Scales).

The left column indicates that he has been physically (Body) incarcerated (Tower) after leaving the embassy (Cave).

The middle row looks like a network (Tree) of governments (Tower) placed him in the hands of the authorities (Father).

I’m thinking that the middle column is saying that Assange could very well be “pilloried” (Tree) in a mockery (Fool) of justice (Scales).

The right column could mean that he (Warrior) will cut a deal with authorities (Father) to gain more favorable treatment (Friendship).

The bottom row, with the addition of the Prison card, shows that he (Body) will indeed wind up in prison (Prison) after a “sham” trial (Fool), but that the judge and jury may listen to his lawyers and go easy on him (Friendship).

Friendship + Prison implies that either he has powerful friends (probably sympathetic lawyers) on his side in dealing with prosecutors, or that he will receive a lighter sentence than might otherwise be the case. My understanding is that the Swedish sexual assault probe he was facing has been dropped, so the case would move to US courts as a politically-driven media circus.