As I mentioned in Thirty…is the magic number! for my 29th year I’ve decided to put together a list of 30 things I’ve always wanted to do but either due to lack of opportunity or through sheer laziness, I haven’t gotten around to doing just yet.

The way completing the first item on my list came about was rather fortuitous. There’s a shop across the road from my flat which I visit quite frequently, as I often go in to buy incense. During the period I was putting my list together (it took longer than you’d probably think) one day I happened to be walking past the shop and for the very first time I noticed the below sign in the window.

In hindsight it’s actually kind of ridiculous I didn’t realise it was a spiritual shop before then. So I went in to enquire about a reading and it turned out that as well as palmistry they offered tarot readings. Something I’d always been interested in having done, thus this was added to the list.

Now before the cynics out there chime in, I am well aware that those that claim to be clairvoyant are questionable to say the least and there’s no doubt there are countless fraudsters in the world just looking for the next vulnerable person to exploit.

Having said all this I am nothing if not open minded and when it comes to my spiritual beliefs I think some would describe me as agnostic although I’m not entirely sure this title truly fits what I believe in. As agnostics think that the existence of God and the supernatural are unknown, essentially that we cannot know whether God exists or not.

I do believe there is some version of a higher power, whether that power be in the form of a deity or a deep connection to everything surrounding us, but I am not religious nor do I adhere to any one religion. I can’t quite find a word to sum up what my spiritual beliefs are but I think that Deist most closely fits, if we must label everything (which as humans apparently we must). A Deist does believe in the existence of a supreme being, but they do not believe in a Deity that intervenes in the affairs of people.

And when it comes to the supernatural, while I do possess a healthy dose of scepticism I am open to the idea that there are people who are in touch with the spiritual world. That being said, I wasn’t convinced that the person I happened to find to predict my future would be one of those people who truly do have a connection to “the other side”. So I tried to go into my reading with an open mind and a closed heart. Meaning, while I wasn’t going to completely scoff at everything my fortune teller predicted I also wouldn’t allow them to sweep me away either.

When I entered the spiritual shop for my reading I resolved to keep my reactions to a minimum so as not give anything away. I was directed to a curtain hanging in the corner of the shop which I hadn’t noticed on any of my previous visits. Before entering I was expecting the space behind the curtain to be draped with purple curtains, and gold moon and star shaped trinkets to adorn the ceiling, and several candles to be placed around the room and for the air to have a smoky, slightly ethereal quality. I expected and I’ll admit hoped that a large and shiny crystal ball would take centre stage atop a large circular round table covered by a deep purple table cloth.

I was extremely disappointed to find that all that was behind the curtain was a nondescript alcove with a small wooden table in the centre covered with a white table cloth, next to a bookcase lined with several books including one of my favourites A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. The deck of tarot cards was old and ratty and as for the psychic reader let’s just say she didn’t quite meet my expectations either, other than skin colour she bore absolutely no resemblance to Esmerelda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Swallowing my dismay I sat myself down across from her at the unremarkable table and allowed her to take my right hand….

Following my palm and tarot reading (in for a penny in for a pound as they say) I felt (the only word to adequately describe it is) strange. While I wasn’t 100% convinced her predictions would come true I was unexpectedly struck by how every topic she touched upon seemed to resonate with me as she picked up on all of the things that at that point were very present in my mind, mostly about my future and the way I would like it to turn out.

Maybe I’m just not as unique as I’d like to think I am and everything she happened to mention may just resonate with a lot of people. The sceptical me leans toward this theory. However the open-minded and tries to be optimistic me hopes that she really was able to predict my future as if she is correct the next 2 years are going to go amazingly well for me.

According to the reader my life is going to undergo a a great deal of change, and as well as getting a promotion my love and social life will be on the up…or maybe that’s just a little too convenient?!

However in addition to the predictions about what will occur in my near future she did also tell me about myself and my personality. Things which I am not sure necessarily come across about me when first meeting me. We all have those aspects of ourselves which are not immediately evident yet we would state it’s an integral feature of our character but until someone knows you better they wouldn’t necessarily pick these things up about you. Yet my psychic managed to pinpoint a few of those character features. Which I guess did go some way to convince me of her legitimacy.

Having a reading done was definitely an interesting experience for me and while I am still open to believing there is more out there than is evident to us. I can’t honestly say I was persuaded that the changes she mentioned will actually occur although it would be a nice surprise if they do. I guess the only thing that will tell is time and seeing whether any of her predictions do actually come true…

Have you ever had a tarot reading? Did it feel accurate? Have those predictions since come to pass? I’d be very intrigued to know.

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