Monday, 17 April 2023

The Fortune Teller - A Story

Since ancient times, divination has been a treasured tradition in all cultures across the globe, and in today’s world, we have a huge selection to choose from. Anything can be used to make predictions! The flight of birds, the fall of dice, the shape of clouds – the list is endless!

Firstly, and most importantly, you need to think of a question which you would like to have answered and secondly, you need to be very discerning when receiving your answer.

Some people have lost their life’s savings after visiting a phony fortune teller who convinced them to invest their money in a bogus scheme, so beware, for this reason foretelling the future is no longer fashionable – and no longer legal! Especially seeking medical and legal advice is highly foolish! Many forms of divination offer something that is no more than chance average and no more relevant than the person performing the reading.



Free will is a hot potato! Do we have free will or not? Is the future carved in stone? I suggest that we, in the affluent West, have a vast array of options, choices and possibilities, and we are at liberty to take a number of courses of action. We can seek advice, but any decisions are ours alone. Always be wary of those who advise on a course of action, especially if they do not have to deal with the consequences of their own advice.

Free will involves knowing ourselves, other people and society, and making the wisest decision in the light of what we already know. Those who seek a future prediction need to bear in mind that any prediction can come true by way of the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ principle. This is a very powerful principle that should not be underestimated. We all like to prove ourselves right and, if we pay a great deal of money, we like to get out money’s worth!



One of the simplest methods is to take a book, such as the Bible or a book of pithy quotations. Ask your spirit guide or other trusted spirit communicator to guide your hand. Leaf through the book until you feel the time is right to stop. Open and stab a page with your forefinger and read the next few sentences. This should offer some form of guidance related to your question. However, people tend to believe what they want to believe and they follow the advice that suggests a path of action that they would like to take. Maybe discussing the matter in question with a stranger or a good friend would highlight particular aspects of your problem that lead to some kind of awareness or enlightenment equal to what can be found elsewhere.   

Crystal balls, sometimes called ‘show stones’ are most frequently associated with the gypsy peoples. I enjoy working with them and prefer clear glass to the quartz because they avoid damage to the Earth and its creatures that the mining of quartz causes. Some suggest sitting with the ball on your lap with the light behind you, so that your body casts a shadow over the ball. It is suggested you will see smoky clouds which part to reveal a setting wherein the answer to your question is revealed, but don’t hold your breath! I like to sit with the ball on my lap and meditation on my problem. This process seems to clear my mind, allowing me to make a good decision. I see nothing for other people, but I am able to imbibe something that is quite inexplicable. Worth trying this, I think. 


Coffee and Tea Cup readings make a party game. Coffee grounds and tea leaves are required for this, so no dissolvable coffee or tea bags! The method is to drink the coffee or tea from a shallow cup, leaving a little of the dregs in the bottom of the cup. Then, swirl the grouty remains around the cup three times and empty a little into the saucer. Then search the grouts and interpret any symbols, letters and numbers in the cup and from the saucer. Usually the reader starts near the cup handle and works clockwise from top to bottom before looking into the saucer. I’ve rarely found a satisfactory answer to my question but my Turkish friend is convinced she has been given great insight through this method. Recently, I met a friend, not seen for many years, who read my coffee grounds outside a French café. She kept telling me what sort of a person I was now, and I kept telling her she was describing herself, not me. I found it very confusing and almost forgot who I was under a barrage of personal analysis. This method is not for me!  
Runes (the word means secret or mystery) are linear markings which have different meanings. Originally created by the peoples of Northern Europe, they were one of the first types of writing and developed in to magical symbols that were carved into personal items. They were made popular by JRR Tolkein in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings sagas. It is said that the runes were used by the Vikings to steer their ships across great oceans and through thousands of miles of rivers and waterways. They were also used as a form of fortune telling. Ogham is a similar alphabet used by the Celts and these also are used to tell fortunes. I have negative associations with these ancient alphabets. I saw a number of ‘Hammer House of Horrors’ films where cinema goers thought a great curse was cast when the runes were blown by the wind in the direction of a vulnerable and pretty young lady who was soon to be rescued by Christopher Lee as a dazzling master magician.
Perhaps the oldest method to gain an answer to a question is called the I Ching (pronounced eee-ching). It is a divination method from China which is more than 2,000 years old. Bones, coins or yarrow sticks are thrown and the result creates a 6 line pattern which is described in a book called The Book of Changes. There are some good modern commentaries on the way in which the patterns can be interpreted and some highlight the interesting philosophy of Confucius and Taoism which existed long ago in the Far East. I use 3 pound coins. The head is worth 3 points and the tail 2 points. I add these together. An odd number is a broken line and an even number is a straight line, 3 heads carries a O and 3 tails carries a X. These lines are placed on the pattern (called a hexagram) from the bottom up. The coins are thrown 6 times, showing a 6 line pattern which is looked up in the book. It’s fiddly and you need a good cook book to get a good enough answer.
Oracle cards are enjoyably pictorial and there are a large number of decks on the market so there is one to suit every personality. Unfortunately, their advice is fairly banal. Tarot offers more complexity as each card has multiple symbols and there are many spreads to choose from. Your reading will only be as wise as the person providing the reading, so always get a personal recommendation.

Wendy Stokes is an intuitive counsellor, healer and channeller. Visit: www.wendystokes.co.uk

No comments:

Post a Comment

Search