Tarot and destiny.

First fortune revealed? 

I was very excited to be going with my mother to have my Tarot cards read. I was merely 14 and my mother warned me that it would no doubt be a very short reading since I didn't as such have what qualified as a life. 

I recall my mothers took about fifteen minutes or so when it was given and the lady reader, Jenny, was as I'd imagined her. Jenny was an affable, talkative lady who smoked and had just a glimmer of the crazy about her. We sat in her home as her husband watched tv in the other room completely uninterested. 

Finally, as we were getting to the end of our visit and I worried that I wouldn't 'get a go', Jenny sat me in front of her and asked me to shuffle the cards. I shuffled them adequately so that she wouldn't be able to rig the ones I'd chosen. You see, I was very much on guard even then. I loved the paranormal but was just as easily ready to discover it was all tosh. The fact that money was changing hands made me a step more unbelieving. My view was that if I had the gift of fortune telling, then I wouldn't charge since my gift came free. 

Jenny gave me a reading and became ever more involved in what she saw. I can't remember the specifics of the details and in the passing years I've lost the notes she made sadly. I wasn't convinced by any of it though. There was talk of family members watching over me and nothing tied to upcoming events in my life, which I thought was convenient. It was all about my character. Jenny told me that in fifteen years, I would be dong what she did. I took that to mean Tarot reading. In a way she was right, but it was more that moment that made me push down this avenue. 

Jenny said I had healing hands too. She said I had a gift of sorts already and she could sense it. Jenny held out her hand palm up and said "put out your hand over mine, Palm down but leave a gap of about an inch". As my hand went over hers I blushed a little, from the stupidity of it. "Can you feel that" she said. I said "Well, it feels a bit warm but then the heat is rising from your hand to mine". Jesus, I was a smart arse spoilsport even then. 

"But feel my hand" she said, smiling. I did and it was very cold. Weird. 

My session lasted nearly an hour to my mothers surprise and I went home feeling more than inspired. I didn't feel convinced in Jenny herself but I think my toe in the water of what I'd read about had a significant power to it. 

I read up on the tarot cards more fervently and gave readings to as many people as I could. 

It was five years later that I even sat in the corner of a local pub giving readings for free one evening. It struck me that people just enjoyed the possibility of hearing their future. I could see the get out clause clearly for the reader. 

"The thing with the cards is that they are merely a warning. If you don't change things then this is where things are heading. But the cards let you know what to change". 

This covered anything from coming back to the reader. If none of it came true then it was the subject who had altered the future. Plus the time scale was open ended. These predictions were not pinned down to a particular timeframe. 

I continued to read for girlfriends and their friends for many years until I met my wife and settled down whereupon I even them them out when I sold up my house to move on with her. I simply had too much junk (in her eyes). 

But the paranormal had more in store for me in my twenties. More than I could understand.