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Sunday, May 17, 2026

Trump's presidency is making America 'weird': NYT

May 17, 2026

ALTERNET

President Donald Trump’s presidency is so weird, it is causing ripple effects that is making America as a whole much more weird.

Beginning with an anecdote about right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson claiming to have been physically attacked in his bed by a demon and FEMA Office of Response and Recovery head Gregg Phillips, The New York Times went on to describe how Trump has created a culture that brings out the downright weirdness in American life.

“The backdrop of all this is the peculiar atmosphere of contemporary public life — claustrophobic, faintly hallucinatory, where what we know as real feels like sand shifting under our feet,” wrote The New York Times’ Katya Ungerman on Sunday. “The first lady, Melania Trump, walks a humanoid robot down a White House red carpet and later tells the audience to imagine a future humanoid educator named ‘Plato.’ A former intelligence official testifies under oath that the United States has been secretly retrieving and reverse-engineering crashed U.F.O.s for decades, and that nonhuman ‘biologics’ have been recovered.”

Ungerman added, “Demonic vexation, teleportation, increased interest in religious practice — those phenomena are all signs that life feels, to many, increasingly charged with unseen forces. You might say it has been re-enchanted. There’s a widespread feeling that the material explanation is no longer sufficient; that something uncanny, maybe even numinous, is diffused into the texture of ordinary American life.”

A recent survey by Pew discovered that three out of ten Americans in 2024 consulted astrology, tarot cards or fortune tellers at least once a year. More Americans than ever use alternative medicinal practices like energy healing during pregnancy.

“In 1917, the sociologist Max Weber argued that a long process of rationalization, culminating in modernity, was eliminating ‘mysterious incalculable forces’ from the world,” Ungerman explained. “Science would explain; technology would master; and magic would disappear. For a brief stretch of modern history, he seemed right: The enduring human instinct to believe in the otherworldly declined as empiricism, common evidentiary standards and, for the shortest period of all, mass media produced a rough consensus about what was real. Now we seem to be sliding back.”

Ungerman attributed this change to people being overwhelmed by the information available to them in the era of digital technology, AI making it easier for people to doctor evidence and people losing faith in institutions like governments, churches, businesses and established scientists.

“In a Rolling Stone article about A.I.-induced spiritual crises, the writer Miles Klee spoke to an unnamed source whose partner had messaged extensively with ChatGPT,” Ungerman wrote, describing a piece about a serial stalker and supporter of the so-called “manosphere” who ultimately pleaded guilty to 11 counts of various stalking-related charges. “Eventually, the partner came [to] believe he was God. He had an ecstatic experience with a product that has a stake in keeping him engaged; his story might have ended differently inside a spiritual community, where someone could have told him to slow down.”

He added, “The world we’re moving into will look more like the one before the modern era than like the one we grew up in. It will be saturated with the supernatural. Everyone will believe in something. The question is in what.”

There are signs, though, that Americans are rejecting the “weird” fixations of Trump and his movement. Earlier this month Semafor journalists Shelby Talcott and Burgess Everett reported that "Trump is still facing questions from within the GOP about how determined he is to keep control of Congress, as he seeks longer-term, legacy-defining foreign policy achievements amid declining approval ratings."

Even though most Americans are opposed to Trump’s primary focuses, including building a White House ballroom and promoting AI, a Republican insider told Semafor that Trump is “clearly not” motivated about winning the midterms and said “his mission goes so far beyond one election cycle or one midterm.”

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

That's so Gen Z: One third of younger people believe they're psychic, according to survey

By Amber Louise Bryce

Published on 29/04/2026 - EURONEWS

Can you see into the future? If not, maybe you're just too old...

In a world of constant uncertainty, psychic abilities have never seemed so appealing.

Fortunately, if you were born between 1997 and 2012, you might already possess such powers - or at least believe yourself to.

One third of Gen Z Americans claim to have had twice as many psychic moments as Boomers, according to a survey by Talker Research. This means their sixth senses only tingle about once or twice a month - but you can't always be on the crystal ball.

While psychic abilities can include anything from communicating with the dead (mediums) to gleaming visions from objects and places (clairvoyance), the Gen Z respondents claimed theirs refer to a strong intuition for knowing how situations will unfold.

In the survey, 33 per cent said they knew when something was "off", 28 per cent cited being able to sense dishonesty, and 26 per cent reported a gut feeling about when to walk away from a situation.

For those over the age of 29 and feeling left out, rest assured that some psychic intuitions also crossed generations. Both Boomers and Gen Z shared a sixth sense for finances, while Millennials tied on dating.

Gen X were also the likeliest generation to correctly predict outcomes, according to the survey.

Although some of you might be shaking your head and muttering, "that's not psychic ability, that's just common sense", these New Age beliefs have become increasingly prevalent since the rise of social media.

Interest has spiked in tarot cards, crystals and astrology, while buzzy theories like manifestation and ‘delulu’ have also gone viral - both centred around the idea that believing something enough will make it happen.

A 2025 study by Pew Research Center found that 30 percent of Americans consulted astrology, tarot cards or fortune tellers at least once a year, with most claiming to do this just for fun.

It coincides with growing anxieties about the state of the world. Socioeconomic instability, geopolitical turmoil, climate anxieties and a lack of mental health support mean some younger people are searching for a sense of control elsewhere.

But while psychic intuitions might provide illusions of guidance, the majority of young people still remain sceptical - or at least unsure about their validity.

Of all the survey's respondents, 35 per cent said they did not feel confident in differentiating between their instincts and anxiety.

And maybe that uncertainty isn't such a bad thing. It means anything is still possible and endless riches and world peace could be just around the corner.

But hold on, we'd better consult our crystal ball to be sure.

From Italian courts to TikTok: How tarot became a tool for reflection and resistance

By Amber Louise Bryce

Published on 25/04/2025 - EURONEWS

What began as a set of playing cards evolved into tools of divination that continue to captivate modern generations, but our enduring fascination with tarot reveals more about the present than the future.

Melissa, a professional tarot reader in the UK, recalls attending an event at which a man drew the Justice card — often associated with balance, fairness, and truth. He began to cry. Then, quietly, he admitted he had been cheating on his wife.

“He probably hadn't spoken to anybody about this,” Melissa told Euronews Culture. “But because there was an opportunity to talk to somebody, that was the moment he needed to tell his secret.”

Moments like this have shaped Melissa’s practice, and reflect a society still drawn to mysticism as a form of release. From TikTok readings to subversive decks, tarot has re-emerged as a modern tool for introspection — its iconic imagery an echo through time that mirrors, rather than predicts.

“It’s using old system symbology to check in on what's going on in your life,” said Melissa. “To see if there are any blockages and create a plan or guidance.”

But long before it became a mainstay of spiritual wellness, tarot’s origins — much of which remain shrouded in mystery — were surprisingly secular. The earliest known decks appeared in 15th-century Italy, exquisitely hand-painted and used as playing cards among nobility.

“What we now know as the Major Arcana, which includes more symbolic cards like The Hanged Man, The Star and The World, [were] used as trump cards within different forms of play,” explained Phoebe Cripps, an associate curator at The Warburg Institute in London, which is displaying an exhibition on tarot’s ‘Origins & Afterlives’ until 30 April.

The Renaissance imagery of these early Milanese decks is core to tarot’s magic; a bridge between the past and present, religion and individualism. Within their ambiguity, different interpretations flourished: “The cards began to evolve, moving between places in Europe,” said Cripps. "After wars between Milan and France, soldiers brought them into France, particularly to Marseille, and developed their own form of them."

By the 18th-century, tarot had arrived in Paris — and caught the attention of two spiritually-inclined clergymen. The first, Antoine Court de Gébelin, was reportedly struck by a vision that the cards came from Ancient Egypt, encoded with the secrets of an Ancient text known as The Book of Thoth. This theory was then expanded on by occultist Jean-Baptiste Alliette, who published guides that redefined tarot as a tool for divination, laying the foundations for its mystical rebirth.

“Occultists attach themselves to tarot and tarot attaches itself to them,” said Cripps. “And [the cards] eventually take on this Victorian, kind of moralistic view, every time they get redrawn.”

It was the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, however, that reimagined tarot for the 20th-century — and cemented its power to evolve across generations. Illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith and commissioned by Arthur Edward Waite for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (a secret society specialising in occultist study), its rich allegorical imagery made tarot more visually engaging and accessible than ever before.

“Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith were the first people that decided the Minor Arcana should be illustrated,” said Melissa, whose favourite deck is the Rider–Waite. “So before, we had all the cups, pentacles, wands, and sword cards just as numbers with the objects. But now we have full scenes.”

From decks themed around feminism and queer identity, to the movie poster art of Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera, pop culture continues to reinterpret tarot’s iconography to tell new stories, and reflect the shifting values and anxieties of modern life.

Younger generations in particular are driving its rise, with more than 13 million posts under #tarot on TikTok, and a 2021 survey revealing that 51 per cent of 13–25-year-olds in the US have engaged in tarot or fortune telling. It reflects a broader cultural fascination with astrology, manifestation, and other spiritual ideologies — not just as therapeutic outlets, but as subtle forms of revolt against societal norms.

In a world overwhelmed by political turmoil, economic instability and all-encompassing uncertainty, there’s a sense of control to be found beyond traditional structures.

“Tarot highlights that people still want to leave space in society and in culture for a kind of magic. Something that is unknowable, that can't be neatly ordered,” said Cripps. “It's got a kind of rebellious underside to it, woven in, and I think that's what people gravitate towards.”

Yet its proliferation on social media has also sparked growing concerns about the exploitation of vulnerable people, some of whom can develop unhealthy dependencies on tarot as a source of false hope.

“Especially on TikTok, I've noticed the question I get asked most in my readings is: ‘Is my ex coming back? How can I get my ex back?’,” said Melissa. “And I won't answer that question. I'll reframe it, and we'll look at what's going on in the person's life and help them feel really empowered to move forward.”

Whether used as a source of aesthetic cool, artistic inspiration, political commentary or self-help, Melissa sees contemporary tarot as a playground for curiosity — the kind that utilises mysticism without relying on it.

"I would encourage anyone who's interested to pick up a tarot deck. It doesn't have to be one of the old school ones — it can be something that you relate to, like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer deck," she said. "It's just a way of exploring and connecting with yourself."

Throughout its centuries of evolution, one thing remains true: Tarot has always helped us make sense of the present. When the internal knots of life can’t be undone by logic, its cards give us space to dream, reflect and conjure meaning from what already exists. Perhaps this is where their real magic lies

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Dating app Tinder dabbles with AI matchmaking

By AFP
March 12, 2026

Tinder says AI lets the app 'get a better sense of your personality; your vibe, and what really matters to you' - Copyright AFP Martin BUREAU

Tinder said Thursday that it is testing a “Chemistry” option that uses artificial intelligence to help with matchmaking in the popular dating app.

The iconic system of users “swiping” to show interest in Tinder profiles remains at the core of the service created in 2012, but AI promises a more personalized quest for romance, according to Tinder.

“We’re using AI to surface more relevant connections, and continuing to raise the bar on safety so that people feel confident taking the next step,” Spencer Rascoff, chief executive of Tinder and its parent Match Group, said in a statement announcing a slew of changes to the platform.

Tinder said AI enabled the app to “get a better sense of your personality; your vibe, and what really matters to you.”

The tool will learn about users from information in their accounts, and Tinder plans to eventually let people augment that by answering questionnaires and providing access to photo archives, according to the company.

Chemistry is among new features designed to help Tinder users spend less time in the app and more time connecting in real life, according to senior vice president of product Hillary Paine.

“What you are going to see is more of an evolution that is mirroring what modern, young daters are looking for,” Paine told AFP.

A music mode lets people give greater weight to musical tastes while seeking promising profiles, while a new astrology mode makes star signs a factor in the mix.

Tinder is also testing in-person events where subscribers in its home city of Los Angeles can meet, along with virtual video speed dating sessions, according to Paine.

“We’re hearing and we’re seeing that Gen Z-plus wants to be social,” Paine said of those born in the Internet Age.

“We’re trying to get them off the couch, out of their apartments and into the real world.”

Tinder is also using AI to detect potentially inappropriate messages and to scan faces to check they are actual people.

A survey published by Forbes magazine last year found that 78 percent of users expressed feeling emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted from using online dating platforms.

“With more than half our users under 30, we’re building alongside a generation that wants dating to feel more authentic, lower-pressure, and worth their time,” Rascoff said.

Friday, March 13, 2026

FRIDAY THE XIII

Crowley/ THE BOOK OF THOTH

XIII. DEATH

This card is attributed to the letter Nun, which means a fish; the symbol of life beneath the waters; life travelling through the waters. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Scorpio, which is ruled by Mars, the planet of fiery energy in its lowest form, which is therefore necessary to provide the impulse. In alchemy, this card explains the idea of putrefaction, the technical name given by its adepts to the series of chemical changes which develops the final form of life from the original latent seed in the Orphic egg.

This sign is one of the two most powerful in the Zodiac, but it has not the simplicity and intensity of Leo. It is formally divided into three parts; the lowest is symbolized by the Scorpion, which was supposed by early observers of Nature to commit suicide when finding itself ringed with fire, or otherwise in a desperate situation. This represents putrefaction in its lowest form. The strain of environ ment has become intolerable, and the attacked element willingly subjects itself to change; thus, potassium thrown upon water becomes ignited, and accepts the embrace of the hydroxyl radicle. The middle interpretation of this sign is given by the serpent, who is, moreover, the main theme of the sign.1

The serpent is sacred, Lord of Life and Death, and its method of progression suggests the rhythmical undulation of those twin phases of life which we Call respectively life and death. The serpent is also, as previously explained, the principal symbol of male energy. From this it will be seen that this card is, in a very strict sense, the completion of the card called Lust, Atu XI, and Atu XII represents the solution or dissolution which links them.

The highest aspect of the card is the Eagle, which represents exaltation above solid matter. It was understood by the early chemists that, in certain experiments, the purest (i.e., most tenuous) elements present were given off as gas or vapour. There are thus represented in this card the three essential types of putrefaction. The card itself represents the dance of death; the figure is a skeleton bearing a scythe, and both the skeleton and the scythe are importantly Saturnian symbols. This appears strange, as Saturn has no overt connection with Scorpio; but Saturn represents the essential structure of existing things. He is that elemental nature of things which is not destroyed by the ordinary changes which occur in the operations of Nature.

Furthermore, he is crowned with the crown of Osiris; he represents Osiris in the waters of Amennti. Yet more, he is the original secret male creative God: see Atu XV. "Redeunt Saturnia regna." It was only the corruption of the Tradition, the confusion with Set, and the Cult of the Dying God, misunderstood, deformed and distorted by the Black Lodge, that turned him into a senile and fiendish symbol. With the sweep of his scythe he creates bubbles in which are 1The Qabalists embodied in the Book of Genesis, Caps I and II, this doctrine of regeneration. NChSh, the Serpent in Eden, has the value 358: 50 also MShICh, Messiah.

He is, accordingly, in the secret doctrine, the Redeemer. The thesis may be developed at great length. Later in the Legend, the doctrine reappears in slightly different symbolism as the story of the Flood, elsewhere in this Essay explained. Of course, the Fish is identical in essence with the Serpent; for Fish=NVN=Scorpio=Serpent. Also, Teth, the letter of Leo, means Serpent. But Fish is also the Vesica, or Womb, and Christ~and so on.

This symbol resumes the whole Secret Doctrine. beginning to take shape the new forms which he creates in his dance; and these forms dance also. In this card the symbol of the fish is paramount; the fish (Il pesce, as they call him in Naples and many other places) and the serpent are the two principal objects of worship in cults which taught the doctrines of resurrection or re incarnation. Thus we have Oannes and Dagon, fish gods, in western Asia; in many other parts of the world are similar cults. Even in Christianity, Christ was represented as a fish. The Greek work IXThUS, "which means fish And very aptly symbolizes Christ", as Browning reminds one, was supposed to be a notariqon, the initials of a sentence meaning "Jesus Christ Son of God, Saviour".

Nor is it an accident that St. Peter was a fisherman. The Gospels, too, are full of miracles involving fish, and the fish is sacred to Mercury, because of its cold bloodedness, its swiftness and its brilliance. There is moreover the sexual symbolism. This again recalls the function of Mercury as the guide of the dead, and as the continuing elastic element in nature. This card must then be considered as of greater importance and catholicity than would be expected from the plain Zodiacal attribution. It is even a compendium of universal energy in its most secret form.

Death (tarot card)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Death (XIII) is the 13th trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional tarot decks. It is used in tarot card games as well as in divination. The card typically depicts the Grim Reaper, and when used for divination is often interpreted as signifying major changes in a person's life.

Description

Some decks, such as the Tarot of Marseilles and the Visconti Sforza Tarot omit the name from the card, calling it "The Card with No Name", often with the implication of a broader meaning than literal death. There are other decks that title Death as "Rebirth" or "Death-Rebirth."

The Death card usually depicts the Grim Reaper, the personification of Death. In some decks, the Grim Reaper is riding a pale horse, and often he is wielding a sickle or scythe. Surrounding the Grim Reaper are dead and dying people from all classes, including kings, bishops and commoners. The Rider–Waite tarot deck depicts the skeleton carrying a black standard emblazoned with The White Rose of York.

In the background are two towers and a rising sun.

Examples

Charles VI (or Gringonneur) (15th century)
Cary-Yale Visconti (15th century)
Pierpont Morgan Bergamo (15th century)
Jean Dodal Marseilles (1701-1715)
Rauch Troccas (1831–1838)
Florence Minchiate (1860–1890)
Solesio Piedmontese (1865)
Lequart Marseilles (1890)
Grimaud Etteilla (1890)
Papus (1909)

Interpretation

According to Eden Gray and other authors on the subject, it is uncommon that this card actually represents a physical death, rather it typically implies an end, possibly of a relationship or interest, and therefore an increased sense of self-awareness.^[1]^[2]

In fact, Gray interprets this card as a change of thinking from an old way into a new way. The horse Death is riding is stepping over a prone king, which symbolizes that not even royalty can stop change.^[3]

The card, drawn in reverse, can be interpreted as stagnation and the inability to move or change, according to Gray.^[4]

According to A. E. Waite's 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the Death card carries several divinatory associations:^[5]

13. DEATH.—End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects. Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed.

In astrology, the Death card is associated with the fixed-water sign of Scorpio. ^[6]

References

Gray, Eden. The Complete Guide to the Tarot.
Bunning, Joan. Learning the Tarot.
Gray, Eden. Complete Guide to the Tarot (1970). New York: Crown Publishers.
Gray, Eden. The Tarot Revealed (1960). New York: Bell Publishing Company.
Waite, Arthur Edward (1979). The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. New York: Samuel Weiser. p. 285. ISBN 0-87728-218-8.
"The Death Tarot Card". askAstrology.

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