When I was younger my best friend would regularly take up new hobbies. One week she would be running cross country for Sale Harriers, the next she would be doing an axel jump at Altrincham ice rink.
A fan of constant reinvention, she would also create makeshift sets in her bedroom to help her adopt new personas. One time, she tried to recreate the inside of a commercial jet, which with a bit of imagination and good will felt like stepping inside of a Boeing 747 - she even stole a food tray complete with a mouldy bread roll for the schtick.
But, it was the time she played clairvoyant which has stuck for me. With her velvet robe, clutch of oversized rings and mystic ball she really did look the part. She claimed she could read my palms and delivered some pretty harsh home truths - we weren’t even 10 at the time.
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I credit her though with my ongoing interest with spiritual practices. From palm readings and tarot to astrology, my teenage years were spent cleansing crystals, placing a little too much faith in weekly horoscopes and throwing my Magic 8 Ball across the room as it lit up with snide comebacks.
My interest as I entered my 20s waned though, as I decided that major life choices - like moving back to Manchester or accepting job offers - couldn’t really be based on my horoscope app alone. Though the constant notifications reminding me to ‘treat yourself well today’ felt like permission to keep buying overpriced coffees.
However, as a milestone birthday crept ever closer, and I continued to grapple with some fairly big decisions, I decided to go for my first official tarot reading at indie shopping mecca Afflecks.
Established in 1982, this Northern Quarter staple continues to be a beacon for alternative culture. Spread over three floors, the maze-like emporium hosts every type of shop imaginable. Whether you’re after vintage garments and records or a memento in the form of a Manchester bee mug or even a tattoo, Afflecks is a must visit.
Traipsing up to the top floor, I found a small concession just across from Crystal Henge, Manchester’s go-to shop for all your crystal, jewellery and holistic needs. The ‘Reading Room’ was adorned with foliage and plant motifs, while a thin yellow curtain only slightly hid the poky room behind featuring two chairs and a table dressed with a green crochet cover and a lot of crystals.
No one appeared to be in, so I sat myself down outside and waited. I was on a lunch break so was feeling slightly tetchy at having to wait more than twenty minutes but then a man appeared. Dressed in a suit and tie and donning what appeared to be a type of spiritual ring, he ushered me inside.
Now there’s many types of psychic readings - the attempt to discern information through heightened perceptual skills or natural extensions of human senses - but my reader focused on palmistry, a dash of numerology and tarot cards.
After agreeing to a full reading I shuffled my deck of cards, which were taken from me and laid out, with a centre card and 12 cards in a circle around it, each one representing each month of the year, but also the astrological signs. I was told we always begin a reading in Aries because it’s the first sign of the Zodiac, and that the sixth card in Virgo and eighth card in Scorpio are important for my reading.
The palm reading
My head already felt a little fluffy but I pushed on and tried to concentrate. Luckily, he had to read my palms first. “How fabulous,” he beamed, and I suddenly felt very bashful.
Turns out I have what are known as ‘fire hands’, which can be identified by my long palms and short fingers. He told me my left hand is also larger than my right, and I tried not to develop a complex over the course of the reading.
The fleshy areas of the hands are called mounts and plains and are linked to different life themes. My Mount of Venus - the entire area below the root of the thumb is “enormous” apparently and both this and my fire hands make me very “passionate”.
“You care too much,” were the next words to fall from his mouth. “You're going to cry about life, not because it’s horrible, but because you feel things very intensely.”
I could feel myself shifting around the seat as I started to feel a little too seen. I could actually feel my eyes welling up slightly, but forced myself to stop as it felt a little too on the nose.
Thankfully, things then took a more comical turn.
I was told I would fulfil my dreams and in a rather curveball moment informed I could write stand-up or be a latter-day Ben Elton, so I decided I would hand in my resignation when I got back to the office and immediately start writing comedy scripts for the BBC.
Obviously, I took it with a pinch of salt, but his comments about my thumbs sticking out being a sign of my ability to push through difficult situations, and my long life lines indicating that I will live to a ripe old age, did make me smile. Though the fate line indicates that I’ll work past retirement - something told me I didn’t need my palms read to tell me that.
Tarot reading
Next it was on to the cards and an exploration of what my next year would look like. The topic of marriage quickly came up, and while he was fairly sure I would settle with my current partner due to having only one line of marriage, the number of children I may or may not have seemed to throw him - back in the day he thought I might have had six or seven. Let's just say, I’m glad to be living in the present day.
I wasn’t expecting concrete answers, nor advice for that matter, but his wavering on these topics did make me slightly sceptical. He quickly had me back on side when he said that despite being a Scorpio, he read me to be unusually honest, even despite being a journalist, which he referred to as the “dark arts”.
I can’t say there were any revelations, but for 25 minutes it was almost soothing to learn about some of the positive things that might be coming my way such as a home ownership, and to have him reiterate aspects of life that are important to me - from living with animals to being near nature - and how these were important to my wellbeing and future success.
On the topic of work, he floated the idea of writing a novel and working in politics but it felt more like a repeat of my Sixth Form career advice session at this point. Meanwhile, some comments felt untethered and unrelated, such as the need to immerse myself in languages and maybe live somewhere abroad, but overall then again he was spot on about the digestive issues.
His final summation? I would live a well-balanced and rounded life and would be fit and healthy well into old age.
This comment may read as vague, but in that moment I felt relief. There’s an odd sense of closure you feel when someone you don’t know says something like this - they don’t know you from Adam, but it's reassuring nonetheless, especially when you're heading into the next chapter of your life.
It may need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but, much like astrology and other forms of spiritual practices, it can provide a helpful tool through which to navigate life and upcoming milestones. Similarly, it can help focus the brain and illuminate issues.
As I paid up and closed the curtain behind me, the next person waiting quickly shuffled in. It wasn't until later when his comments had sunk in a bit did I really stop to think about what we had discussed.
Do I think everything he said will come true? Well, it was vague enough that there's plenty of room for manoeuvre and no observation was negative so I felt like I came out of it pretty well - much better than when my friend read my palms 20 years ago.
The warning that I was 'going to cry about life' did touch a nerve, but it also felt reassuring to know the reason behind it. In truth though, it reminded me of why I have an interest in the spiritual, because none of us really know what's coming next and how we're going to react, but it's always nice to feel like you're headed in some form of meaningful direction.
