Rider-Waite versus Marseille on the birdemic

I recently posted on how the Rider-Waite Tarot deck predicts both the birdemic and the results of every U.S. presidential election from 2000 to 2020. Curious about the extent to which it is specifically the 1909 Rider-Waite deck (not "the Tarot" in general) that makes these predictions, I will be comparing that deck's trumps with those of the Tarot de Marseille (Pierre Madenié deck). I will cover the birdemic in this post and the elections in a future post.

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The birdemic, the official name of which features the number 19, is predicted by the 19th trump, the Sun.

Here are the points the two cards share:

• The shape of the virus: The sun is shown as a circle with two different types of protrusions, somewhat similar to the shape of the birdemic virus.

The birdemic virus

• Solar corona: The term corona refers to the outer atmosphere of the sun.
• Stay home, stay safe: Both cards feature a brick wall, alluding to the global lockdowns and other totalitarian restrictions.
• Big Brother is watching you: The sun has a face and is looking down on us all, symbolizing government surveillance. The human figures are naked or nearly so, meaning they have no privacy.

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Points specific to the Tarot de Marseille:

• Spike glycoprotein and Trump hair: While Pierre Madenié does not show this, his son Jean-Baptiste (followed by a minority of other cardmakers, including Rochus Schär, Claude and Jacques Burdel, and François Gassmann) puts some of the sun's protrusions in clusters of three, resembling spike glycoprotein, and also gives the sun a head of distinctly Trumpian hair.

François Gassmann

• Droplets of contagion: The (strangely inverted) raindrop figures on the card could represent the spreading of the virus. Back in April, one of my young students spontaneously made the same connection, modifying and labeling this illustration from Aesop's fable The North Wind and the Sun:

• Don't touch anyone: The two figures are touching, which is what we're not supposed to do. (I don't think I can really count this as a hit, though; after all, if they were standing apart and not touching, I'd say it showed social distancing!)

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Points specific to the Rider-Waite

• The flag of China: The child on the horse bears a red flag. The five yellow stars on the Chinese flag -- one large and four small -- are alluded to by the sun itself and the four sunflowers.
• Viruses multiply: The sunflowers, as mini-suns, represent the replication of the virus and the ineffectiveness of walls at preventing its spread.
• Another corona: The child wears a crown (corona) of flowers/viruses.
• Birdemic: The child also has a large feather in its hair.
• White Horse: The first horseman of the Apocalypse goes forth on a white horse, "conquering, and to conquer" -- just as the birdemic has ushered in a worldwide totalitarian takeover. Mormon readers will also have heard of the apocryphal "White Horse Prophecy" attributed to Joseph Smith. It refers to "the White Horse of peace and safety" (mostly peaceful! safety first!) and predicts, "You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed. It will hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber. . . . A terrible revolution will take place in the land of America, such as has never been seen before . . . and every species of wickedness will be practiced rampantly in the land."