On May 25, 1979, six year old Etan Kalil Patz disappeared while walking to the bus stop to go to school in Manhattan, New York. After reluctantly allowing Etan to walk to the bus stop by himself, his mother, Julie Patz, was unaware that Etan never made it to school until that afternoon, when he was not on the bus to come home. This resulted in one of the biggest missing child searches of all time, and Etan was the first child whose picture graced a milk carton. Etan was declared dead in 2001, and despite the presence of a possible suspect, was never found. The case became active again about two years ago, and new searches are in progress now.We start with the two of wands, reversed, crossed by the six of wands. The two of wands is a card that tells of partners and joint efforts, so I am going to assume that there are two accomplices here, rather than just one. It is crossed by the six of wands, and as the six of wands is affirmative news, I think the message is clear: someone, during all these years, has deliberately kept the secret of what happened to this boy, and still does not want the location known. As a cause for the situation, we have Death, and I think this is one of the rare cases wherein the Tarot speaks literally of physical death. Usually, the Death card in a reading refers to a life-changing and often beneficial change, but this time, I think the face value of the card is the message. The next card, describing circumstances past, is the Emporer, reversed. This is a man, in an authority, or "fatherly" relationship or position to Etan, and as he is reversed, he is not kindly disposed toward Etan. He is also the perpetrator. The very best that can come of this today is the ten of cups. Usually, this card refers to a happy family situation, but here it tells us that Etan's family would like to simply know what happened, and have closure. Ten is the number of completion.The Sun follows this as something that will happen, so I think the Patz's will eventually get their answers.
The accomplice, or accomplice after the fact, may be a woman, but the reading is not very clear about the person's gender. The concerns that were running through the perpetrator's mind are represented by the two of cups, which indicates a relationship or liason that the perpetrator wanted to keep hidden. This could either be a business or a romantic relationship. Etan and his innocence is represented by the six of cups; could he have seen something that someone else did not want publicly known? Six.....that was his age when he went missing. It is how the world sees him...as a six year old. The card representing the perp(s) is followed by the card representing Etan and what Etan saw or thought.
A fear the perpetrator has concerning this is balence of different aspects of his life. Somehow, there has always been a possibility that his secret was not safe, and he still worries. This is the two of pentacles, yet another "two". It also shows worries about communications between two people, and the duty of "putting on airs", or "pretending": lying and covering up something. The final outcome is the seven of pentacles. This does not tell me if Etan will be found where investigators are currently digging, although digging is, indeed, an activity related to this card. It does tell me that their hard work is very likely to pay off. The seven of pentacles is a card of successful harvest.
An interesting pattern in this reading is the presence of two "two's" followed by two "six's". Two and six are somehow key numbers here.
