When I look at this for the HR community (mostly hrtwt), it honestly feels like the deck just went, “Okay, so you wanted the truth? Here you go, babe.”
''What's the current state of the fandom, and the short-term outcome and the domino effect.''
(Also this reading I did with one of my fave decks, themed after Diablo The Sanctuary videogame)
Page of Wands – the Hot Take Apprentice
The Page of Wands as the first card tells me the core vibe of the community right now is… restless, immature fire.
This is the “I just had a thought and immediately tweeted a 15-part thread about it” card. It’s the newbie with a megaphone energy: a lot of people discovering their voices, experimenting with speaking out, feeling bold and righteous – but still very Page-level in maturity. There’s enthusiasm, there’s passion, there’s creativity, but there’s also zero impulse control.
In the context of factions of their separate following, witch hunts, parasocial takes and fanfiction-in-your-head masquerading as “media analysis,” this Page reads like:
People chasing novelty of opinion (“I have a new take, it’s ✨correct✨”) rather than depth.
Folks using the fandom as a stage for self-expression, but not necessarily self-reflection.
A lot of “messages”: subtweets, screenshots, call-outs, reaction posts… everybody is announcing something or cancelling someone.
The Page of Wands is also very ego-excited by being seen. That’s the virtue signalling, the performative wokeness, the “I’ll say the correct thing because I like how it looks on me” vibe. There’s some genuine idealism in there, but it’s stuck at the surface. A lot of this drama is people trying on identities and values in public, without realizing they’re using real people as props.
So the baseline energy is: loud, experimental, immature fire. Curious, messy, not inherently evil – but absolutely the perfect seed for chaos if nobody grounds it.
4 of Pentacles – Gatekeeping, Clinging & Control
Then we slam right into the 4 of Pentacles, which is where that Page energy gets crystallized into something rigid and defensive.
This is the card of holding on – to opinions, narratives, status, grudges, clout, perceived moral high ground. It’s the “my take, my fave, my interpretation, my lane” card. People are gripping their coins to their chest, refusing to let go, refusing to be wrong.
In this context, the 4 of Pentacles is:
Gatekeeping: “Real fans don’t…” “If you truly understood X, you’d…” “People who think Y are the problem.”
Hoarding information or “receipts” as power. Collecting screenshots not to heal or clarify, but to control the narrative and to use against others.
Factions building walls: each subgroup has its own headcanon version of events and refuses to loosen its grip.
The fear behind this card is important. 4 of Pentacles is always scared: scared of losing status, scared of being irrelevant, scared of being on the “wrong side,” scared of confronting their own projections. It’s easier to cling to a rigid take than to sit in uncertainty.
So we go from Page of Wands “I have a hot take!!” to 4 of Pentacles “This hot take is my entire identity now and if you question it, you’re the enemy.” That’s where things start to calcify into factions.
8 of Swords – Trapped in Parasocial Headspace
The 8 of Swords here is brutally literal.
This is mental prisons, limiting beliefs, narratives that blind you, victim mindsets, projection loops. People are stuck in stories they’ve told themselves about:
Who is “good” and “bad.”
What their faves must be like behind the scenes.
What other fans must be thinking, even if no one has actually said it.
Their own role in the drama (“I’m just defending what’s right” while refusing to see their own harm).
It’s exactly the parasocial delusion and headcanon-as-reality. 8 of Swords is “I could walk out of this, but I’m so emotionally attached to my story that I keep the blindfold on.”
Here, I see:
People identifying so deeply with their interpretation that any challenge feels like an attack on their self-worth.
“Witch hunts” driven by imagined motives: assuming the worst, filling in gaps with invented backstory, then treating those inventions like evidence, taking everything too seriously and burning 'witches' because they don't fit on their narratives or they hurt their faves (in their imaginations) when they're not hurting anyone but your delusions.
Folks who could log off, distance themselves, or hold complexity… but feel compelled to stay in the loop, doomscrolling and obsessively checking what “the other side” is saying.
This is also where the community gets stuck in constant anxiety and reactivity. 8 of Swords is not just aggression; it’s fear. People are scared of being cancelled, scared of being misunderstood, scared of having missed something, scared of being the villain. That fear turns into overthinking, spirals, and more aggression.
So we have: Page of Wands – impulsive expression. 4 of Pentacles – defensive clinging. 8 of Swords – trapped in the narrative.
You can see how this is building.
5 of Swords – No Winners, Just Fallout
The 5 of Swords is the culmination of the current vibe, and it’s not soft.
This is:
Conflict where the goal isn’t truth, it’s winning.
Public takedowns, humiliation, point-scoring, “checkmate” replies.
People walking away bitter, humiliated – nobody actually feeling satisfied.
In the way it sits after the 8 of Swords, it looks like people acting out of their mental prison. When you’re convinced you’re right and everyone else is malicious or stupid, 5 of Swords is what happens: you’ll burn bridges to prove your point, even if you feel sick about it later.
This card also speaks to:
Witch hunts that leave a trail of people who just quietly disappear from the community, or are left humilliated after being dog piled unjustly.
People who “win” an argument but lose trust and respect. The bullies that are now see for their true colors.
Factions doubling down, not because they’re still convinced, but because they feel too prideful to backtrack.
Also people crucifying scapegoats? That’s very 5 of Swords. Someone gets singled out, made the symbol of “what’s wrong with the fandom,” and then everyone projects their unresolved stuff onto them. After that, even when the drama “ends,” there’s lingering bad taste, and people don’t forget how vicious these bullies were.
5 of Swords is the card where, five months from now, some people are going to look back and feel legit shame at how they behaved. They might not admit it publicly, but the self-awareness will sting.
And with the next card, this is when karma arrives.
Wheel of Fortune (bottom of the deck) – The Bigger Cycle Shifting
Now, the Wheel of Fortune sitting under all of this is really important, because it tells me this isn’t just “random mess.”
It’s part of a cycle, a turning point moment for this community.
First, the Wheel says: this was always going to happen in some form. When a space grows, when more voices join, when the stakes (emotional, social, parasocial) increase, the energy has to shake itself out. Old dynamics can’t hold forever; hidden things surface; fault lines crack open.
This is that “destabilization chapter” in the bigger story.
Linked with the other readings I’ve been getting around March and the collective (remember that 10 of Swords → 3 of Cups narrative), this feels like a zoomed-in snapshot of the “death throes” of an old version of the fandom.
That 10 of Swords energy we saw for the collective? Here it’s more micro: endings of old dynamics, old hierarchies, old illusions. It’s ugly, but it’s also clearing.
With the Wheel here, I do see:
People leaving for real – and that not necessarily being a tragedy. Some are meant to move on.
A reshuffling of who has influence. Certain loud self-righteous voices might lose steam or relevance; the more grounded and neutral ones gain visibility later.
A future turning of the narrative: the current “main storyline” of the fandom will not be the same one dominating, say, in a few months. The center of gravity will shift.
The Wheel of Fortune also brings a low-key karmic mode. It’s basically: “What you’re putting out energetically, you will meet again.”
The ones who are acting from cruelty, glee at others’ pain, or willful ignorance of context – the Wheel has a way of circling them back to similar lessons later.
At the same time, it’s not all doom. The Wheel says this chaos is temporary. This intensity will move.
Everything that’s feeling stuck (4 of Pentacles, 8 of Swords) doesn’t stay stuck forever. The narrative will spin; the focus will move elsewhere; some people will wake up and step out of the loop.
So what’s the real trajectory here?
If I read this as a story:
Now / recent past – Page of Wands: the hot takes, the bold new voices, the rush of “content.”
Current emotional climate – 4 of Pentacles & 8 of Swords: everyone gripping their version of the truth, trapped in fear, bias, and projection.
Immediate fallout – 5 of Swords: arguments, call-outs, ugly exchanges, people walking away from the community or from each other.
Underlying arc – Wheel of Fortune: this is a fated shake-up chapter; the structure of the community is being re-arranged, and over time, the vibes will not stay like this.
I don’t see this particular wave of drama magically evaporating overnight. With these cards, it feels like:
The next stretch is still conflictual – more people speaking out, more “I’m done with this place” posts, more public fractures.
But as the Wheel turns, exhaustion sets in. The same people who are constantly pointing fingers will either burn out or lose audience engagement. The collective appetite for perpetual outrage decreases.
The community doesn’t die, but it reorganizes. New “rooms” form – smaller, more curated spaces where people choose their level of exposure. Some of the healthiest energy will be in those circles, not in the main hashtag/timeline/public square.
The 'faves' speaking out more against parasocial, centered only on one of them groups. Expect this happening from now on.
A little brutal honesty: Some people are not coming back from this in the same way. Certain bridges are genuinely burned. Not because of one mistake, but because of repeated 5 of Swords behavior that people clocked.
On the flip side, some people who step back now, or who quietly refuse to participate in the cruelty, will be the ones others subconsciously trust more later. The Wheel has a long memory.
But yes, in the short term? It’s accurately reflecting the ugliness, the mental traps, the tendency to fight dirty. And it’s saying: this is the end of a cycle of pretending everything was fine. The fracture lines are visible now.
What survives after the Wheel turns will be very telling.
