by Julie D Andrews
“This is your year,” she said looking straight into me with dark brown eyes.
“The year of the jubilee. It’s the lucky number seven. Stay on the path. This is your path. A lot of positive changes will happen in the next two to four months”.
Who knew my palm had so much written in it?
It was a few weeks into a new year. I’d been busy making plans and forecasts when I recalled the night I first saw the signs. It had been mid-December, just days before I would leave town for the winter holidays. On my way to East 70th Street, I decided to take Lexington Avenue, instead of Park or Madison as I usually do.
The signs caught my eye, calling in neon from the second story of a building at 1113 Lexington Avenue: Psychic. Astrology. Another sign displayed a pyramid.
In an area known for its chi-chi boutiques, majestic churches, and historic synagogues the advertisement of services linked to the occult seemed out of place. Something told me I would be back.
There are quite a few options for one seeking psychic advising on the Upper East Side. On thinking one afternoon it might be an endeavor worth pursuing, I made a few calls to price psychic readings and the like. I dialed Samantha’s Tarot Card Readings and got an answering machine. While I was leaving a message, Donna picked up the phone. A reading lasting from five to ten minutes would cost $40. But, this was not a psychic reading, she said, but a Tarot card reading.
“Just five minutes?” I asked. “Forty dollars?”
“Yes,” she replied. “When did you want to come in?”
That price was too steep for me, so I decided it would be better to happen upon a place and maybe hit a walk-in special. Besides, I had seen those signs on Lexington. So, that’s where it made sense to go.
Ultimately, I had a Tarot card reading with Rose at 341 E. 78th St. and a palm reading at Sarah Michael’s (the place initially piquing my interest) at 1113 Lexington Avenue.
I walked down E. 78th St. and found Rose between First and Second Avenues. In swirling white letters a sign in the window read: Psychic. A small round table sat out front, along with two chairs.
When I knocked at the door, Rose answered. Her frame was tiny, near delicate. Her feathery hair, a whitish-grayish-blondish shade, was pulled back from her face in a bun.
I entered the parlor. It was stuffy and smoky. A fat, fluffy white cat sat on a chair. Rose picked up the cat, moved it to a separate room, and shut the door. She had a weathered face, dark eyes, and spoke with a light accent. Her style was classically elegant, her skirt falling to the knees. She directed me to sit in the chair where the cat had been lounging.
On a plate, a candle was surrounded at its base by crystal shards in pastel shades. Rose had two main offerings. There was the $10 special, a character reading. And, there was a Tarot card reading that showed past, present, and future … at a cost of $45.
“Forty-five?” I asked.
The extended time span did appeal.
I looked in my wallet.
Forty dollars even. No, I said to myself. That’s too much.
My face wore a look of contemplation.
“I’ll give you everything for twenty-five” said Rose. There was a calm about her. Her eyes were near expressionless making her look tired.
“Do you want to know the good … and the bad? Everything?” she asked.
“Yes, everything” I said.
I had heard that the person getting the reading should handle the cards and shuffle them. But, who was I to argue with Rose? She looked like she had been doing this for quite a few years. I divided the pile in two.
“Make two wishes. Tell me one. Keep one to yourself,” said Rose in a matter-of-fact tone.
As I searched my mind for two questions (not having planned this visit, there weren’t any direct questions looming overheard) while Rose got up and drew the blinds hanging from the door.
She started turning cards over and talking quickly. I was an honest person and liked to do good for others, she said.
That’s nice to hear, I thought. Sure, I mean to do well by others.
“You think a lot,” she said. “You worry a lot. How many times you get up in the middle of the night?” she asked
“I don’t sleep so much these days,” I confessed.
“You live around here?” she asked nonchalantly as she continued to flip cards over on the table, placing them in a rectangular formation.
“In the past two years, something has been missing in your life,” she said. “You seem happy. You smile a lot, but you are not truly fulfilled. In the past two years something has been missing in your life,” she said. She didn’t look up, but down at the cards instead.
She said I was creative, but that I was not yet able to do everything I wanted to with that creativity.
“You’ve had good things happen in your life. But, you’re not as happy as you could be. You make money, but not enough.”
I sat silent. She didn’t ask anything. I didn’t say anything.
“But, don’t worry,” said Rose. “Things will get better this year. Don’t worry, I see many good changes for you this year.”
She did not ask me if my last relationship ended, she asked me when it ended.
“What was his nationality?” she asked, with searching eyes. “Italian … or something?”
I found these questions odd. But, nonetheless I answered. I wasn’t there to seek romantic advice; but then again, I wasn’t entirely sure why I was there, so I listened. Might as well get my money’s worth.
“I see that he wanted to be witchu but that issues got in the way. His issues got in the way. He pushed you away. There was another woman. Did he ever mention another woman to you? There is another woman pulling him away from you.”
Whoa. Heavy, I thought.
She asked me about the recent men in my life.
I told her briefly about my past two relationships, not entirely sure why I doing so.
This was all beginning to sound a little vague. Aren’t “issues” what always end a relationship? My internal skeptic butted in. And, I’m not really one to want to dwell on all this relationship stuff. I wanted back to the living-oriented questions.
“I see some kind of blockage going on withchu,” she said.
Had she heard my internal skeptic, I wondered.
“Certain negativities come up and interrupt good things in your life.”
I sat listening.
“I could help you find out what they are,” she said. “But, I’d have to charge you more money,” she said. “Ninety dollars.”
I smiled politely. No thanks, I said, and prepared to leave.
“If you ever want to come back, we can light the candles and find out what the blockages are,” said Rose as she handed me her card.
She got up and opened the door. As I walked through it, “Don’t worry,” she said. “Good changes are going to happen this year.”
Walking up East 78th Street, my mind was abuzz. Rose had said a lot in a span of 20 minutes. Before I could accept or disregard any of it, I needed to remember it first.
She talked fast. I kept fighting urges to pull out a pad of paper and pen to scribble down what she was saying. I sat down at the coffee shop and jotted a couple of quick notes. Jealousy I jotted down. She had said there had seen jealousy in the past year or two of my life. What did she mean by that? I didn’t remember feeling jealous. And, I couldn’t imagine having anything over which others would be jealous (My tastes are simple: The old piano. The simple schoolboy desk I found on the curb. No enviable possessions of which to speak). Why hadn’t I asked her about that? I jotted down more notes: Think a lot. Worry a lot. Honest. Good changes coming … Blockage? Good changes coming.
Next, I would try a palm reading at Sarah Michael’s. I had stopped by earlier, ringing the buzzer for suite two and had been told she’d be back in an hour. Now, on my way home I stopped by and again pressed the buzzer. A younger voice answered. “She’ll be back in an hour.” Already it was after 7pm on a Friday. I decided to try another day.
Still curious about the palm reading, I went back. This time when I pressed the buzzer, I heard a man’s voice. “I’d like to get a reading,” I said, and was let in.
A woman with blond hair on the shorter side sat down with me in a small room and explained the types of readings available. There was the $10 palm reading, a psychic reading for $25, or Tarot card reading for $35 that showed past, present, and future. These things, she said, originated as party tricks but had developed into something that was more like getting advice.
“Just because one is the most expensive,” she said, “does not mean it’s the best reading for you.”
I chose the $10 palm reading.
“Which palm?” I asked.
“The left,” she said.
I later read that it’s believed that the left palm reveals one’s destiny and inherited disposition (that is, if your right hand is dominant).
I opened my hand, palm facing upward, and placed it in hers. She told me to close my eyes. She asked me no questions. She began to read the lines that she saw.
Straightforward. A strong-willed woman. Honest. That’s what I was, she said. Sure, I could agree to that. I liked hearing strong, instead of stubborn to a fault.
I liked to do good deeds and help others, she added. My creativity and talent lines were exceptionally strong, she said, but somehow mangled at each end.
My eyebrows furrowed.
My love line ran parallel to my life line which she meant that fulfillment in my life would be had if only I found a true soul mate. She saw minor, baby disappointment lines, a cluster of frustration lines, and even a few anger lines.
My head tilted slightly.
“You have come a long way,” she said. “But you have further to go. This is your year. Stay true to your path.”
When I asked about the mangled lines, she mentioned a few negativities she saw gathering around me. And, she saw a recurring pattern of things going exceedingly well, only to rapidly change and disintegrate.
But, if we wanted to uncover those negativities and figure out from where they originated, I’d have to schedule another reading, she said: a more in-depth Tarot card reading. The charge would be minimal for me -- just an added $10, and not the full $35, since I was now having the palm reading.
She gave me her card and I thanked her for the reading.
I doubt that I will be back for additional readings, although each woman made a compelling case for my doing so – untangling those mangled lines.
What I walked away with, were these messages: There’s a further distance to go; Keep working hard; Stay on to the path.
Sure, maybe it’s vague advice and true for many. But, I’ll take the reinforcement and the strong reminder.
Palmistry, otherwise known chiromancy (from the Greek cheir meaning hand and manteia meaning divination) is the act of describing a person’s character or future by reading the lines (there are said to be at least 16 including the heart line, life line, fate line, children line, marriage line, etc.) and mounds found on a person’s palm. It’s known as a worldwide occult practice -- dating back some 3,000 years. Typically, the lines in the palm are interpreted by their length, how they intersection, their thickness, and how many splinters branch off from them. Classical palmistry is said by some to stem from Greek mythology, while others believe that the practice originated in India. Many consider palmistry a source of lighthearted and amusing party entertainment -- a pseudoscience – though some may argue that it’s a young science.
The Cuba-born writer Italo Calvino once described Tarot as a "machine for telling stories." He even wrote the novel “The Castle of Crossed Destinies” with plots revolving around the Tarot. Originally used as playing cards as early as 1375 in Europe, it was only later in the 1840s that they were used for divination by occultists. Tarot cards gained popularity in the U.S. around 1910, with the publication of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot cards. In question readings, people ask about something specific. Many say that Tarot isn’t intended to answer yes or no questions or make a decision for a person, but rather the set of 78 allegory-displaying Tarot cards should be used as a guide to enlighten people about the choices available to them in order to help them make the best decisions.
One tip: If you’re going for the tarot card reading, have an earnest question ready!
View Uppereast.com's list of Upper East Side Psychics.