Egipcios Kier - 40 Premonition

The title line of the card includes an astrological symbol, the Roman letter L, and the number 4 which represents stability. In the top half of the cartouche we find a geometrical symbol, the Hebrew letter, Tav, and a green circle containing two cobra heads and surmounted by a something that may be either spark of flame or a golden raindrop. At the bottom of the cartouche is a an oval shape containing the symbols that resemble a sieve and mouth.

The central image is of a man attempting to prevent a woman from proceeding in the direction she has chosen. He reaches out to stop her, just as her hands go up an alarm, indicating he may have had a premonition of danger. The man is dressed in a short kilt, a shirt, an elaborate wig. He holds a mysterious item that shares similarities with the Egyptian ankh, a symbol of life. The woman is bare breasted, wearing an elaborate wig, a long skirt, and ankle bracelets. If the circle at the bottom of the card is indeed a sieve, and the other symbol is a mouth, it suggests that the man may have initially hesitated to warn her, censoring himself before speaking.

Stuart Kaplan identifies the astrological symbol as Uranus, which was not visible to humans until the invention of the telescope. He suggests that the couple depicted in the card is approaching a temple to seek insight into their future and have their fortunes told. The woman’s raised arms indicate she is pleading for divine guidance. Kaplan explains that Egyptians relied on temple oracles and on dreams to divine the future, as the biblical pharaoh relied on Josef for the interpretation of his dreams. Divination practices have been employed throughout history; one modern and skeptical assessment points out that divination created a certain randomness so, for example, hunters wouldn’t habitually hunt in the same place.

Kaplan assigns the following upright meanings to the card, premonition, foresight, prophetic, dreams, extrasensory, perception, oracular, speech, divination, using the tarot or other methods of fortunetelling, revelation in the form of visions. The reversed meanings involve delusions, tendency to let chance govern one’s life, an inability to make independent decisions, misinterpretation of dreams or omens, and being a false prophet.

Kaplan also states that object carried by the man represents the sun's orbit and eternity. The hieroglyph at the bottom of the cartouche signifies "to be wise." How can we transform our premonitions into wise action?

In Judaism, prophecy pertains to significant matters and messages from God intended to guide Jewish society or society at large, rather than individual guidance, unless an individual’s influence extends to the entire nation. Josef possessed a gift for interpreting dreams and also the ability to implement them, using them as early warnings to solve impending problems. After foretelling a seven-year famine, he swiftly provided a solution. (One cannot ignore some of the ramifications of his advice to Pharaoh. The people of Egypt had to sell themselves to Pharaoh to obtain food for survival. And when a new dynasty rose, Josef’s family was also enslaved.)

An intuition is only as useful as the ability to navigate the issue at hand. We all experience intuitions or premonitions that we wish we had heeded. However, it is equally important to consciously take practical action based on that knowledge.

At times, intuition may seem like unconscious awareness, such as a woman, jumping out of a vehicle just before it’s hijacked because she unconsciously noticed someone approaching in the mirror, or consciously refusing to understand the evident signs of a friend’s antisemitism. In one case, your body’s wisdom urges you to act on your intuition, while in the other case, your heart and mind hold you back from accepting your knowledge.