Is J.K. Rowling Teasing Twitter Again?
J.K. Rowling is known for a great many things. The fact that she is so clever and careful with her clues are a couple of those great many things. But some of her more complex and riddling clue drops are from her Twitter page. There are a few more notable ones from over the years.
In 2014, she hinted at the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In 2017, she posted an image of a painting by Harmen Steenwyck. This hint, which also featured a skull, made us wonder if she had new work under her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. In 2018, the image on her header was, as she put it, “Rio [de] Janeiro in the 1930s.” We were left wondering, again, if Fantastic Beasts was involved with this in any way or if this was a political opinion Rowling had as a result of the 2018 elections in Brazil.
In all three instances, J.K. Rowling left her fans wanting more than just bread crumbs. But it doesn’t seem like she is ending her teasing trend anytime soon. Just a few days ago, Rowling changed her Twitter header photo, and it’s leaving some of us with more questions than answers.
This is where those Hermione-level research skills come in handy. After a Google image search, going deep in the Googleverse, and after the never-ending “open link in new tab” tabbing, here is what we found.
It’s a tarot card set. Well, it’s a set of three tarot cards, to be exact. We are going to have to assume that, in this case, J.K. Rowling fell victim to the unfair cropping of the Twitter image header like the rest of Twitter’s users, which is why not everything can be seen in this particular photo. Nevertheless, it’s pretty clear this is a specific combination of tarot cards.
The middle of the image is a limber, black skeleton. In the world of tarot, a skeleton or skull is a pretty big symbol for death. On the flip side, death doesn’t always have to mean a person literally dying. Rather, it could symbolize the end of something like a relationship, journey, or plan.
The image to the left of the death card is a sword, or in this case, the ace of swords. One key feature in the photo from J.K. Rowling’s Twitter page is that the card is represented upside down. An upside-down card is read as the influence of that card moving away from the reader, or moving outwardly. In this case, it seems the reverse position of the ace of swords means the reader is not allowing something that matters most to be seen by them.
Finally, the image to the right of the death card is love. Why this particular set depicts love in the form of fish and a fountain is unknown. Usually, the love card, also known as the lovers, might depict two people. But other than that, the love card seems pretty self-explanatory.
Now that the photo is revealed, one should delve into the meaning behind this choice of images. We have to wonder if this also has to do with the next adaptation of Fantastic Beasts. Love, death, and overlooking something of significant meaning could, in fact, all have to do with a new Fantastic Beasts movie. But the world will never really know what is going on in the mind of J.K. Rowling.
Do you read tarot? Can you decipher the meaning of these cards? What do you think J.K. Rowling is trying to tell us? Leave us a comment!