To read Part One – click HERE about how I became a Tarot Reader. I was shaking and terrified. Here I was in a massive stadium in Dublin on a Friday morning at 830 am. In half an hour the doors would open and thousands of people would stream in to experience Ireland’s once a year famous Body Mind Spirit show.
I apparently was going to be a Tarot reader for the day, thanks to the cunning of my friend and mentor Joe! It was one thing to read tea leaves to the neighbor or playing cards in the pub while slightly inebriated, but Tarot cards to strangers!! I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know the difference between Major and Minor Arcana cards. What the hell was a Court card and what did all those damn pictures mean! Due to these facts I was shaking in the bathroom.
I did some deep breathing in the toilet cubicle and returned to the stand to confront Joe and tell him I was leaving! Joe was talking to an incredibly handsome young man who was super cute. Perhaps …I did not need to leave straight away…
‘Ah Sinead, Brian here wants a reading. Can you do it now before the doors open?’, Joe asked.
Time stood still.
You know those moments where you have a million thoughts, decisions and a final conclusion in the bat of an eyelid. Well that happened. Brian looked at me earnestly as if his life depended on seeing a Tarot Reader. Big blue eyes.
God dammit!
I looked at Brian, gave him my warmest smile and said, ‘Sure’. Brian’s face broke into a grin which made him even more sexy and sat down at the little round Tarot table in anticipation. Joe continued to explain, ‘Brian here is a professional Tarot reader like you, and he is looking for some advice before the day starts. You know how it is, sometimes we need an extra pair of eyes to understand what is happening in our lives’.
I stared at Joe. ‘Professional….?; I muttered.
‘Yep’, said Joe, bouncing on his feet a little. I looked at Joe with daggers in my eyes and the unsaid words on my lips of, ‘I’m going to kill you after this because I’m NOT a Tarot Reader. I will spread your entrails all over the floor’. Joe stared back at me defiantly and then giggled turning away to organize items on his desk. I gave his back another dagger look and then switched into ‘nice lady’ mode and sat down opposite Brian. Suddenly my feigned confidence faltered and I looked Brian directly in the eyes.
‘Brian,’ I said, ‘I want to be honest. I have never done this before. I read Tea Leaves and Playing cards but I honestly don’t have a clue about Tarot. So how about I don’t charge you and we just see what happens?’
‘Honey, said Brian, ‘I trust you…and anyway ….I already paid Joe’.
I gritted my teeth and looked again over at Joe who was staring at us. Joe immediately looked away as if he had not been looking in our direction, giggled again and did a little dance. At that moment the rage of Kali was inside me. Joe was a dead man! I would show Joe how terrible I was as a Tarot reader and then he could take down that bloody Tarot sign.
So I asked Brian to shuffle the cards and waited. Brian shuffled expertly (being the expert that he was) and described to me some issues he was having with his boyfriend. Boyfriend?!!! Oy dismay! Brian was into men. Ah – bad luck for me. Damn!
So for the next half an hour I somehow managed to read Brian’s cards. I basically described what I saw in the pictures and answered his questions one by one. I’ll never forget Brian’s eyes – they were piercing blue, the kind that goes right into your soul. He drank in what I said and at the end of the reading, leaned back in his chair. ‘Whew! Spot on” he said and nodded his head, ‘Now I feel I can start the day’. He stood up and I followed suit. He reached over and gave me a hug, ‘You did just grand’, he said, winked and walked away. Back to his professional Tarot stand.
I ran back to the bathroom, possibly to vomit again.
Three full days were ahead of me – could I do it. Perhaps I should give up now? If you want to hear how I did over that weekend, click HERE.
(And Brian? Later in the day he arrived at my little Tarot table with a bunch of flowers, handed them to me with a huge smile and whispered in my ears, ‘I’m glad I took your virginity’. My eyes went huge – I gulped – and off he went back to his professional Tarot stand.)
