Before the 9/11 Commemoration, there were already people arguing that Zohran Mamdani should not attend.

Some claimed his presence would be disrespectful to the families. Others reached for the same tired accusations that have followed Muslim politicians for years—painting him as sympathetic to extremists, questioning his loyalties, and turning his faith into something sinister.

Fear has always been easy to manufacture when people are willing to believe the worst about someone they have already decided not to understand.

Mamdani went anyway.

Not to make the day about himself. Not to create a confrontation. Not to answer every person who had insulted him.

He said he was there to support the families who lost loved ones.

And then came one of the more interesting moments of the ceremony: Rudy Giuliani and Mamdani were seen shaking hands and speaking.

Giuliani has publicly criticized Mamdani before, so naturally people wanted to know what had been said.

When Mamdani was asked about it afterward, he gave a simple answer: their conversation was about making sure the day remained focused on the families of those who were lost.

So I pulled cards—not to claim I can reproduce a private conversation word for word, but to look at the energy surrounding that interaction.

And what came through was remarkably consistent.

# Giuliani’s Energy: Ten of Wands + Four of Swords

Giuliani did not come through as confrontational.

He came through as heavy.

The Ten of Wands is burden, history, responsibility and weight. The Four of Swords is restraint, silence and choosing not to fight.

For someone whose public identity is so permanently intertwined with September 11, that combination felt significant.

Whatever Giuliani may think of Mamdani politically, the cards suggest that in this moment he understood this was not the place for a political battle.

It reads almost like:

**Not here. Not today.**

# Mamdani’s Energy: The Star

Mamdani came through as The Star.

Open. Calm. Hopeful. Unthreatened.

There is very little defensiveness in this card.

After all the accusations thrown at him before the ceremony, I might have expected guarded energy. Instead, The Star suggests that he approached Giuliani without carrying those attacks into the moment with him.

He simply showed up as himself.

That matters because sometimes the easiest way to destroy a caricature is to stand in front of the person who created it and behave nothing like the monster they were told you were.

# What Giuliani Wanted to Communicate: The Sun + The Star

This was one of the biggest surprises.

The Sun is openness, clarity and acknowledgment.

And beside it appears The Star—the same card representing Mamdani’s energy.

That can suggest Giuliani was responding to the person actually standing in front of him rather than the political image of Mamdani that exists in public discourse.

It does not mean Giuliani suddenly changed his politics.

But it may mean that, for a moment, he saw something different.

A man behaving graciously.

A man showing respect.

A man who showed up to honor grieving families after being told by some of his critics that he should stay away.

The cards give this exchange an almost mutual understanding:

**We know what today is about.**

# What Mamdani Wanted Giuliani to Understand: Ten of Wands + Six of Cups

These cards could hardly be more appropriate for a memorial.

The Ten of Wands is the burden people continue to carry.

The Six of Cups is memory, the past, people we remember and emotional ties that survive time.

Mamdani’s message seems very simple:

**This day belongs to the people carrying those memories.**

Whatever existed politically between the two men was not more important than that.

# What Was Actually Discussed: Eight of Wands + Ace of Swords

Quick.

Direct.

Clear.

This does not look like a long political discussion or a secret negotiation.

It looks like a brief exchange in which both men understood exactly what was being said.

That makes Mamdani’s public explanation particularly interesting.

Something along the lines of:

**Today should remain about the families.**

And the other person understanding immediately.

There may genuinely not have been much more to it than that.

# What Giuliani Wasn’t Saying: Seven of Swords, Two of Swords, Six of Pentacles, Two of Wands + World Reversed

Here is where the complicated part of the reading lives.

Giuliani’s spoken interaction may have been simple.

His internal reaction was not.

The Seven of Swords and Two of Swords suggest thoughts being deliberately kept private.

The Six of Pentacles introduces fairness—giving someone their due.

The Two of Wands can represent looking at something from another perspective.

And the World reversed says the larger disagreement is certainly not resolved.

I do not read this as Giuliani suddenly becoming a Mamdani supporter.

I read it more as the uncomfortable possibility that the man standing in front of him did not completely match the man described in political attacks.

Perhaps there was some acknowledgment he was unwilling to say aloud:

**I may disagree with you, but I see how you are conducting yourself here.**

Sometimes meeting the person is harder than attacking the idea of them.

# What Mamdani Wasn’t Saying: Ace of Cups + Two of Cups

And here the contrast becomes almost funny.

Giuliani needed five cards to describe everything he was keeping inside.

Mamdani got two.

Ace of Cups.

Two of Cups.

Goodwill. Emotional maturity. Human connection.

His unspoken energy does not look like resentment.

It looks like:

**We do not have to be enemies in this moment.**

He could have confronted Giuliani about what had been said about him.

He didn't.

He could have turned the handshake into a political performance.

He didn't.

He treated him like another human being standing at a memorial.

# What Giuliani Feared: Ten of Wands + The Hierophant

Again, the Ten of Wands.

This card appeared three separate times in the reading.

Giuliani was carrying something.

The Hierophant represents institutions, ceremony, tradition and the responsibilities attached to one's public role.

His fear appears connected to the weight of the day itself.

Do not disrespect the ceremony.

Do not turn remembrance into spectacle.

And perhaps, on another level, there is something here about legacy.

September 11 is inseparable from Giuliani's own public story.

Standing there all these years later, that history is still sitting on his shoulders.

# What Mamdani Feared: The High Priestess

Mamdani's concern was completely different.

The High Priestess says:

**Do not say too much.**

Some things do not need to become content.

Some conversations do not belong to reporters.

Some moments should remain private.

That makes his short answer afterward even more fitting.

He could have repeated every word Giuliani said.

He could have used the encounter to score political points.

Instead, he reduced the whole interaction to its most important truth:

They were there for the families.

# Bottom of the Deck: Ace of Pentacles

A small beginning.

Not friendship.

Not political agreement.

Not reconciliation.

Just something real.

Two people with enormous political differences shared a respectful moment on ground where something was more important than either of them.

And perhaps that is the part worth remembering.

Before Mamdani arrived, some people were already telling the public who he was.

Dangerous.

Disrespectful.

Un-American.

Someone whose very presence would somehow dishonor September 11.

Then he showed up.

He honored the families.

He conducted himself with dignity.

And when he came face-to-face with a man who had spoken against him, he offered a handshake instead of a fight.

The cards suggest Giuliani may have noticed.

Because propaganda works best from a distance.

Sometimes all it takes to complicate the story is meeting the human being you were taught to fear.



They Said Mamdani Should Stay Away. Then He Shook Giuliani’s Hand at the 9/11 Commemoration. | A Tarot Reading