Weird Shit: Tarot and Jacob Zuma's Lavatory

Normally I am unable to make that much of a connection between my periodic Weird Shit-themed posts, and the urban hedge witchcraft which is the main subject of this blog, in fact I have sometimes wondered whether my motivation in writing those posts is just to prove to myself that there are still weirder people than myself out there, but this one is a gift. In fact it's mainly a gift to demonstrate my own rather idiosyncratic way of reading the tarot.

I was astonished at the reaction the picture of Jacob Zuma's lavatory at his official (and hugely controversial) residence at Nkandla, had on me. This is actually the first time that some visual thing has caused immediate tarot references for me, which is an effect I have only read about. Leaving aside the most obvious impression from his 'throne', that the man has absolutely no taste, it is interesting to wonder whether tarot cards could conceivably be in the either his mind or the mind of the person who designed it. Wouldn't it be good if he read this and discovered the tarot energies he has accessed through his lavatory?

It most reminds me of the Emperor, King of Pentacles, and King of Cups. Naturally what they have in common is power and authority. Zuma's reputation would probably place him closest either to the energies of the Emperor or King of Pentacles, in terms of sheer worldly opulence and his 'foursquare' insistence on his own way. Yet his regime – notorious for corruption and cronyism - is so wrong for these cards, that I am reluctantly obliged to think of them as reversed. Opulence becomes grasping, and solidity becomes pig-headedness.

In appearance, his throne actually makes me think of the element of water, unsurprisingly, because of the tiles of which it is made. Yet the animals on his arm rests, which appear to me to be lions, I suppose would normally be associated with the element of fire, which would suggest that not only is the power symbology of the throne destroyed by the fact that he uses it to defecate, but also in referencing the contrary elements of fire and water he effectively cancels out the power of either. I think I can diagnose a very bad case of flatulence in Nkandla and the ANC!