Story in the Cards

by **Tanell** on November 28th, 2014, 7:20 pm

20th day of Fall, 514 AV

Fortunetelling especially with Tarot isn't a precise art, often it depends more on relationships than on a specific meaning of card or card position. Developing that relationship was important, and so Tanell often took a day to lay the cards for herself, not only to answer questions of her own but to get to know the cards again and build the relationship.

The more often you handle the cards, and the more familiar you become with the cards, the better sense you can derive from the cards, this is most true of cards with less than usual drawings. More complex drawings, or the hand of a different artist can often change the feel of a card far enough to change the more subtle nuances of the readings. Coming to recognize the feel of the cards was just as important as knowing the common meaning of a card.

So when business was slow Tanell took the opportunity to do her own reading, but first she sought to find a place of contemplation, somewhere comfortable and familiar. Today she did not need to go far, finding she was content enough to sit on the floor, in the light of the window and lay a spread of cards.

Cards had to be read in certain forms, certain shapes formed when they were laid down. Forms could be simple or complex, and some decks had special spreads of the cards that held meaning relevant to the designs of the cards. The Konti style deck Tanell had brought with her from home was familiar enough, the forms, conch, sea star, and suvai, common and as familiar as her reflection in water.

Laying the conch shell form was a simple spread, three cards in a line to mark the whorls of the shell, three more, a curve from the first three to represent the opening flare of the shell. This reading was good for finding a path, the layers of the shell and the flare showing obstacles, interactions, and the personal card.

The suvai for understanding the past, the handle for the personal card and interacting factors, the blade for steps to take and steps to avoid going forward, and understanding.

The sea star is a spread for a person, the center card the personal card, and the five arms the traits that define the person, and the paths that lay before them both positive and negative. It is a simple enough spread, and often one done for a stranger, to gain insight, or understanding.

This was the form she planned to lay for herself today. Just a simple six card form, and one she could grow from easily enough. There were other spreads, ones that could be done in only a few minutes. Three cards to show the outcome of an action. Five to tell the same with greater detail. But these were Konti cards, and she was Konti as well, so she would stick to her favorites. She had plenty of time to do so.

by **Tanell** on June 30th, 2015, 9:42 pm

Warmth from the hearth radiated against her back, fighting back the chill of autumn that crept into her home. She shuffled her cards, her eyes closed and body still but for her breath and her shuffling. She attempted to clear her mind, focusing only on the shifting of the cards and the question of herself, her position in time and space that she asked the cards and the goddess Avalis to give insight to.

Mind as clear as she could manage, she lay the cards before her, one at a time. First the personal card, one that represented her as she currently was. Second the top most point of her star, her goals and aspirations. Next followed the two arms out beside her, a choice of two paths she walked, how they would shape her. Two more, falling down behind her, the recent events that brought her here.

The cards laid, she focused upon their backs, waiting to begin until she was focused once more, for her mind had wandered in the process. She flipped the first card.

The Wanderer. Freedom, beginnings, a turning point, embracing the future.

This was unquestionably her, arriving in a new city, alone, seeking the future, a goal that seemed so far from reach. A new home, a fresh start.

Before she could turn another card, a knock at her door disturbed her, and she rose from the ground without putting away the cards. Perhaps she could return to them without question.

She opened the door to an unfamiliar face, a woman, elderly, but beautiful in her age.

"Hello, may I help you with something?" The question was automatic, a stranger surely sought something, if not just directions to where she meant to be, and Tanell would do her best to be of service.

"I am looking for a woman, Tanell, if memory serves. My daughter said she had her fortune told by such a girl?" She spoke with a voice of authority, she was not frail, nor needing of help, her tone said, she was strong.

Tanell nodded, stepping aside to welcome the woman in. "Please, come in, I can start some tea, if you'd like." This response was more true, welcoming, in a way her first had not been. The first question one of a stranger, but her welcome one to a guest. "I am Tanell," She went on to explain, "It is a pleasure to meet you..?" She let the words trail off in question, and the woman did her the kindness of responding.

"I am Leanne, my daughter, if you remember, is Rina." Tanell nodded, she was still new here, and so the assortment of people she had met was small, and she could recall most of them. Before she could do more than nod, though, the woman continued speaking. "She was quite pleased by the reading you did for her. I am here to see that you did not tell her some lie to earn your coin. You are a Konti? Marked by Avalis, I can see it on your wrist, but only one, you could not have read my daughter's future. So how did you do it, a flare of hands and a roll of a die?" She was angry, and Tanell was unprepared, she had not expected such from a guest in her home. Perhaps, though, she could not consider it such if she would work a business from home as well as live inside.

"Please, ma'am, I do not tell tales without founding. I read cards, with Avalis to guide me, I speak what I can from the divining of the cards." Earnest in answer, Tanell could only hope her words could carry the weight of her honesty to the woman.

"Show me then, read these cards for me, and I will see that you are not hoax, no crooked thief."

by **Tanell** on June 30th, 2015, 11:30 pm

This woman, Leanne, did not want a fortune told. Sought no answers from the cards. She sought answers only from the the Konti woman she thought a thief, telling lies to others to earn her keep. Tanell could divine nothing for a woman who did not want it. She was locked in a corner, trapped by her guest, her customer.

She had only the chance to try, and she would, perhaps the energy of the stranger's anger would be enough to fuel her reading. She prayed to Avalis, the words in her native language given no more breath than needed to be produced, the goddess would hear and the woman would not.

"I search for you, Mother, seek your hand to guide my own as I peer into your domain, help me, please, Mother, may we always find what we seek." She could only pray, and act, the choice a simple one, and so she moved onward.

From the floor she gathered her cards, mourning the loss of the spread she had placed, for it was a great loss to lay cards and not hear what they might say. She moved to the table, gesturing for Leanne to follow, and began to shuffle, the cards, removing the thoughts and lines of before, to rearrange the energy to match the woman who took a seat across from her.

She focused on the angry energy that was nearly suffocating, radiating stronger than the heat of the fire. Leanne. The cards must feel it, find it, and seek the woman who was its source.

She lay the first card, centered between them, the second to the left, the third to the right. Past, present, future, context, focus and outcome.

The middle card, the first she laid, was the first to flip, the personal card. Only this time it was not Tanell the card represented, it was Leanne.

"This card is the personal card, the person for who the reading is done. It is the four of stones, it is protection. Both for oneself and for those who you consider vulnerable, in this case I imagine it speaks to you protecting your daughter."

"The card tells you that? I'm sure it was not my visit that informed you such."The woman scoffed, her anger not at all abated. Tanell could only continue and hope that her reading offered more.

"This next card is the past, it is context, something that has happened before." Tanell flipped the card, the suit of stones again, the six, a barren field, broken bee hives, and a ragged man and woman, "This card tells me of exploitation, someone has taken advantage of you in the past. In context to our other card, it explains your need to protect, perhaps you have been lied to before, in a situation such as this. You would not see the same happen to your daughter, you want to be sure she will not face a similar fate as yours."

The woman seemed to loose steam, although there was still obvious skepticism in her gaze, she seemed to be more surprised than she had been with the first card.

"My Rina could have told you that in her visit, she could have mentioned it and now you use it against me. You still tell me nothing you couldn't have guessed from my appearance and the stories from my daughter." Tanell shook her head softly, she had been told nothing of Leanne when Rina had come to visit, and her reading had told only of change and excitement in the future, no mention of the past, not really. All the same, she could do nothing to convince the woman. She would have to just keep reading the cards and hope that she believed.

by **Tanell** on July 1st, 2015, 12:17 am

"This last card is the future the outcome of your current state."Tanell flipped the card to a surprise, it was a major arcana, the moon reversed, "This card, usually it means there is a need to see ones self more clearly, the subconscious mind and the conscious mind are in conflict, but here, reversed, it is different. Self deception, anxiety and fear have held you in their grasp, but they are beginning to change to be let go. There is a working through of inner emotions that will lighten your spirit if you allow yourself to see. It means, for you, that you will come to see that something that has caused you fear and concern was unfounded. If you look to your self, you will find the root of your trouble." As she finished speaking the woman had shut up completely, her posture rigid, her eyes stony as before.

Her anger had changed, although it had not left, and she remained tacit even after Tanell finished speaking.

They sat in silence for a long while, the woman showing no sign of abating anger. Eventually, she rose from her seat at the table. Pulling a few Kina from her pocket and placing then gently on the table.

"Thank you." She said, the heat of anger no longer the force behind her speech. She turned and left, the door closing soundly behind her.

Tanell was left with a spread of cards on the table that spoke great volumes about the woman and the situation she had found herself in, perhaps more than the other, Leanne, had wanted to hear.

Maybe if Tanell had waved her hands, and danced around and lied through her teeth, the woman would have felt differently, been more satisfied to find her accusations had been correct. It was not in Tanell to lie, to make up the future and mock Avalis with her actions.

She sought the guidance of the goddess, and did her work for others. Read the cards as they spoke to her, not as the customer wanted to hear.

Sometimes it would have been kinder to lie.