Taking a really heavy hint

A fun maths question

Imagine that you deal seven cards from a deck of 156, one at a time, putting each one back after making a note of it (and shuffling in between each deal).

Then imagine that you shuffle the pack again, and deal ten cards off the top.

What are the chances that three of the first seven randomly chosen cards reappear in the second randomly chosen set of ten?

I don't know, and I can't be bothered working it out. Maybe I'll offer the question to my quant colleagues as enrichment for their enclosure. But I know it's hella low.

Crack house of cards

I got my own tarot deck recently. I did a daily draw each day for seven days, shuffling before each draw and putting the card back afterwards. Then on day eight, after another good shuffle, I did a 10-card Celtic cross spread.

As if the deck was worried I might have missed the memo (fair), three of the cards I'd drawn in my daily draw that week were in the 10-card spread. In the same orientation. With congruent contextual meanings.

One was the same card in the same orientation answering the same question about the same person.

My relationship with this deck is in its early stages but safe to say we vibe hard.

In keeping with that theme

Yesterday morning, for reasons, I held the deck to my pelvis for a bit and focused on imbuing it with what I like to call my cunt energy (partly because it's a good strong word but mainly because it makes people slightly uncomfortable). And then I asked:

You may not have anything to say about this, and that's fine, but do you have any advice on how I should be thinking about my sexual energy at the moment?

The first part of this sentence was to recognise that the deck could deliver me one of the hundred or so cards which wouldn't have much to say about the specific question I was asking, and I'd take that as "Nope, nothing to tell you".

The card I in fact drew was the Knight of Cups, upright. Hahahaha oh. This is, like, THE card of idealistic romance. It classically depicts a handsome young knight sitting tall on a stately horse, bearing a golden cup before him. His horse is white, to symbolise spiritual purity. The Knight is a messenger of emotionality, intuition and sensitivity (all that Cups stuff). The card signifies offering romantic love with imagination, creativity, and charm.

It can have a bit of an edge to it – when does idealism ever not? And obviously in the context of a career/work reading the "creativity" bit comes to the fore, rather than the "romantic love" bit. But in answer to my question about the right application of my sexual energy? It's as subtle as a freight train. The cards think I should carry my (emotional, imaginative, creative, intuitive) sexual energy in a state of spiritual purity, and offer it in the context of romantic love.

Friends with benefits. But not like that.

In a way, this wasn't the hugest surprise. The reason I was asking the question in the first place is that I'd got what felt like a lil nudge from the universe away from, shall we say, frivolous use of this particular energy.

But I still didn't expect the answer to be quite that forthright.

Meeting this deck has been like making a new friend who is gloriously willing to tell me what they think and doesn't pull their punches. I don't always take the advice of my friends, but I'm always glad to have it; it's one of the benefits of friendship that I can continue to safely enjoy.