Here it is.

This is the obsession that kept me awake ’til the wee hours of the morning in the past 10 years. The main (and probably the only) reason why i got invited to “hip” parties during my early 20s.

My officemates would demand that I bring my tarot deck to Puerto Galera in our outings, and I got the feeling they won’t let me sleep or get drunk too much so I could do a reading for all of them. My friends would text me to set up appointments, will call me in the middle of the night for clarification and will basically just tell people about “having a friend who knows tarot and palmistry…she does it for free!”. And the cycle continues… their friends become my friends, and these in turn introduce me to people who want their “fortunes told”.

I used to practice tarot reading and palmistry. Moreover, I used to live it. Past tense, because I don’t anymore. I’ll tell you why in a few posts or so…. so stick around.

My History in The Art

It was a warm day in the League of Filipino Students hang out in UP Manila, Philippines when this org-mate brought a palmistry book. She was dozing off in one of the benches and I asked if I could read her book. Little did I know that opening the first few pages will hook me to the art of palmistry for the next years to come.

I hit the bookstores and browsed through other palmistry books. As a speed-reading enthusiast, I was able to read a whole collection in National Bookstore shelves by just browsing (I had limited allowance money so I couldn’t buy them). I’d save up enough to rent a PC and read about palmistry online. I practiced on my dorm mates, and soon dorm-girls were seeking me out for “readings” in the hallways or in public study areas. I had a bound, photocopied version of my org-mate’s palmistry book, and I’d bring it along everywhere I went.

A classmate in UP Diliman (I cross-registered for one semester) was impressed with my knowledge of the art and asked me to join their sorority’s fund raiser at the Open Up party of Nescafe at The Fort. I read for more than 40 people (i had to keep a tally so I can report the earnings to my “bosses”, the Sigma Delta Phi girls). By the end of that night my energy was so low that I could barely keep awake to dance as the concert was closing.

I got into Tarot, when I realized the limits of palm reading in terms of advising a solution for my querent’s (the one asking to be read) specific problems. Palm reading gives an overview of the dilemma but won’t show the details. Just as a person sees the earth from outer space, he will see the ozone layer depleting in this or that areas, but he can’t see the underlying effect of the ozone layer depletion on the general populace.

Tarot and Palmistry must be used in tandem to give an effective and constructive reading.

This realization was further emphasized when I met a tarot reader in a “family gathering” of Filipino Indians. That bit was in quotations, because the family that they were talking about turned out to be hundreds of Indians gathering in one place for a celebration or a ritual. My Indian friend who invited me there to do a reading for her “family” looked at me quizically as I looked so shocked. She smiled and said, “meet my family”.

The tarot reader I met is an old man. I went to his spot in the celebration grounds while the Indians were in their event and asked if I could get a reading for free since we’re both, you know, kindred spirits there (we were both non-Indians and were just invited as sideshows). He said, yes, he’s willing to give me a reading if I’ll give him one too. He brought out his tarot deck, wrapped in a silk handkerchief, and I saw that it was very old.

During my reading he asked me to touch the cards lightly before I cut them. He was looking directly into my eyes and I could tell he was sizing me up. He smiled kindly and told me that I’m an old, old soul. That made me smile, too. The tarot reading I received opened up my mind. It provided a potential for growth for me, as a palm reader and as a practitioner of the art.

I went through the same process with Tarot: reading books, searching for online manuals, browsing through tarot decks in online selling places. However, learning tarot was more complex than I initially anticipated. Meditation was just a word to me before I discovered that it is a mandatory requirement for understanding the principles of Tarot. They taught us meditation techniques in the Pranic Healing seminars that my mom sent me to when I was just 14, but I never really tried it (probably because I never found the opportunity to be really alone in our busy household that time).

A sad discovery I made was that tarot cards are collectibles that are mostly only available online. I found my first ever tarot deck in a place where I never thought to look: in a bookstore. And, it was cheap, too (200 pHp in year 2000 or so). However, it didn’t measure up to that of the tarot deck of the reader I met in the Indian affair, in terms of aesthetics and uhm, aura of power.

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That’s it my first post in this category. My real niche, since I’ve been at it for quite a while in the past.

There’s more to come. I’ll dish out the main entrees of my series on Tarot and Palmistry after a while.

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