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LIFE
Future Vision
Trip to fortune teller
reveals palm readers
don’t all fit stereotype
By Chuck Lovejoy
entertainment writer
r3!
A trip to the fortune teller was not
everything 1 predicted it would be.
As many people probably do,
when I think of a fortune teller I
think of a little old woman with a rai
sin-wrinkled face who speaks in a
heavy accent, wears lace-adorned
clothing, scarves on her head and
gaudy jewelry and smells of heavy,
flowery perfume.
But that image does not fit Linda
Nicole in any way.
Ms. Nicole, as she calls herself, is a
psychic and spiritualist who tells for
tunes in her home in Houston. On a
recent trip to the city, I stopped at
her house to have my fortune told.
Despite the fact Nicole herself
nay not fit the popular description
rf a fortune teller — the one por-
xayed in American movies, (itera
nce and folklore — her home does,
n part.
Located in the Galleria area on
iVestheimer, the exterior of Nicole’s
rouse is a perfect example of the
ombination of capitalism and mysti-
ism.
Outside the white structure are
arge signs bearing painted pictures
if palms and crystal balls and words
uch as “psychic and reader” and
palm and card readings.”
I I expected the building’s interior
fbejust like all those psychic shops
ortrayed in the movies: old Victo-
ian furniture covered with lace ta-
ledoths and knickknacks, moth-
tten drapes in the windows, tat-
fred rugs on the floor and beads
ke those caught at Mardi Gras
langing in the doorway.
Instead, the front door opened
into a simple American-style room
ith light colored wood furniture
jnd carpet. No plastic beads closed
|ffthe passageway to the next room,
st a plain old door.
At first I was somewhat disap-
ointed, but I realized it was not a
|>tal disaster. I had come to learn
hat I could about Nicole’s hobby,
nd ridding myself of a few myths
r as the first step.
As a reader, psychic and spiritual-
st, Nicole posesses three distinctly
fifferent gifts.
Nicole says a reader is someone
"ho can tell fortunes from cards,
alms and crystal balls. A psychic
[an read people — their auras, emo-
ionsand minds. Spiritualists contact
pints of the dead.
but despite the fact that anyone
•an have these gifts, she said, the
test readings, or fortunes, are told
>vpeople who have all three.
Anyone can read palms and
— you can learn that from a
teok, she said. “But those fortunes
ont be the same (as if someone
ith psychic abilities) does it. You
>ave to take into consicieration the
terson’s aura and mood and the vi-
lr ations in their voice, like I do.
Someone who only knows how to
wd what the cards or palms say will
n ake a mistake; the reading won’t
n ake sense. You have to interpret
mat the cards say from the person
°u are reading.”
Nicole, a Cherokee Indian , says
2
/
ji
she first noticed her gifts as a child.
As she grew older, her gifts became
increasingly apparent.
“I knew I could do it,” she said.
‘My mother and grandmother were
also psychic, and they helped me to
realize and use my gifts.”
Nicole says the only requirement
for telling fortunes is psychic ability.
“You have to know how to tell
people what they want to know,” she
said. “You have to be able to read
people to help them.”
She says it is sometimes hard to
tell a person’s future, but usually,
the task is simple.
“Sometimes people have a block
in their openness, and that makes it
difficult,” she said. “But usually it is
easy — people come to me to be re
ad.”
Any time is a good time for a
reading, but the method people use
to have their futures told may make
a difference, Nicole said.
"It depends on the person and his
or her mood at the time of the read
ing,” she said. “It also depends on
the mood of the reader — that’s why
you should have more than one
reading if you want to be sure about
your future. You should also try the
different methods.”
Nicole said she realizes that not all
fortune tellers are genuine, but she
wishes that the public would not
judge all psychics by the actions of
fraudulent ones.
“Not all are true,” she said. “But
you just have to keep trying to find a
real one, just like you do in anything
else.”
Throughout our interview, the
phone kept ringing. Nicole would
answer, finding only a dead line.
“It’s probably kids,” she said.
“This always happens when we pass
out a batch of flyers. But it slacks off
after the first few days.”
Nicole says she isn’t particularly
annoyed by such juvenile pranks.
“It’s only kids,” she said. “I don’t
let it bother me. I just hang up and
go on.”
Once our interview was over, we
moved to the more interesting part
— my fortune.
Nicole told me to close $20 (her
fee) in my hand and make a wish.
After I complied, she told me to
open my hand, removed the $20,
and began the palm reading.
She studied the lines on my hand
for a few minutes, then began to
speak.
“I don’t want to hurt or offend
you in any way,” she said. “I will
merely tell you what I see. Do you
understand?”
“Yes,” I said nervously. Until
then, the day had been enjoyable.
But when Ms. Nicole began her
reading with that statement, I began
to get scared.
I wondered what she had seen
when she peered into my hand. Vi
sions of fiery plane crashes and the
like flashed across my mind. I won
dered what she would say next.
She started by analyzing my pre
sent situation, and her analysis was
pretty close. Of course, she gave only
general descriptions, so her
statements could have been guesses.
As for my future, she said I would
Photo illustration byJayJanner
For millenia, people have tried to see the future,
to know what harm or good will become them, their
friends or their enemies. Using everything from tea
leaves to animal entrails, crystal balls to numbers,
future-seekers have manipulated the physical
world in their quest to reach spiritual realms.
Today, many people discredit fortune tellers and
their link to the “otherworld.” Yet many others re
main faithful to their beliefs in the psychic, and
some dabble in the occult as a hobby. Here, we ex
amine three common methods of telling the future:
palm reading, Ouija board channeling and tarot
card reading.
Do they work? The decision is best left up to the in
dividual.
receive a promotion in two months
and that the things in my life that
were bad before would get better.
She predicted a long life for me,
which made me feel better after my
plane vision, and said I would travel
extensively during my lifetime.
She also said I would marry some
one in my general field, and to
gether we will have three children —
Taro/ cards, long used in fortune telling,
nterpretfuture of man, world, universe
By Shane Hall
REVIEWER
Cards long have been used in divi
nation and still are used today by
many fortune tellers.
The origins of items used in divi
nation, such as tea leaves, generally
have been obscured by history. I he
origin of the tarot cards, known for
their colorful illustrations, is no less
obscure.
Some believe the cards originated
around the 13th or 14th century.
According to the book, Man, Myth
and Magic,” Gypsies had the first set
of the cards and were the only ones
who knew their meaning.
The tarot can be used to tell a per
son’s fortune, but many occultists
consider that their lowest use. The
cards’ chief use is in foretelling fu
ture events.
Tarot cards come in a deck of /o.
A deck contains four suits much like
a deck of playing cards of 14 cards
and 22 “trumps” that make up what
is called “the Major Arcana.”
The four suits are swords, cups,
coins and batons. However, the suits
tend to vary from one pack of cards
to the other.
Some decks, for example, may
have wands, cups, swords and penta-
cles.
Like playing cards, tarot decks
contain court cards. Playing cards
have kings, queens and jacks for
each of the four suits.
A tarot deck, however, has four
court cards — king, queen, knight
and page — for each suit. The other
10 cards in each suit are numbered
ace through 10.
The trumps each have a colorful
illustration of a character or symbol.
The symbols and characters include
the Fool, the Empress, the Lovers,
the Hanged Man, the Star, the Devil,
and Death.
The characters and symbols, like
the four suits, tend to vary from
pack to pack.
The trumps of the Major Arcana
numbered zero (The Fool)
through 21 (The World) and each
card, according to “the Encyclopedia
of Occultism and Parapsychology,”
is said to have a general meaning.
For example, the Lovers card is
said to represent man’s duality as
well as the most powerful of all emo
tions. The Star card is associated
with hope and the glory of the
adept; the Devil card, with tempta
tion.
The meaning of each trump vary
with interpretation, and there are
said to be as many different inter
pretations of the cards as there are
interpreters.
However, for fortune telling, a
deck of tarot cards is not essential. A
deck of ordinary playing cards will
work as well.
In divination, each of the four
suits is said to be associated with cer
tain qualities.
Hearts are associated with people
of fair complexion and stainless
character. The spade is considered
the sign of born leaders and people
O-U-I-J-A B-O-A-R-D-S
still hold amazing power,
influence after J00 years
By S. Hoechstetter
REVIEWER
two boys and a girl or two girls and a
boy, she couldn’t tell which.
This marriage also will be the only
one in my life, she said, although she
didn’t say if it would last my entire
life.
Was she correct? I guess we’ll just
have to wait and see.
I’ll let you know in about 20 years.
It sounds so simple — comprising
just a piece of polished wood and a
triangle on three legs — yet it has
had amazing power and influence
on people’s lives. The wood has the
alphabet, numbers zero through
nine and the words “yes” and “no”
printed on it. But these seemingly
normal configurations that can be
seen on any Ouija board have been
blamed for some bizarre events.
The Ouija board was invented in
1890 by William Fuld of Baltimore.
Its name is the combination of the
French and German words for “yes”
— “oui” and “ja” respectively.
It was a popular pasttime during
the turn of the century as people
tried to contact the spirit world.
T he messages from the spirits are
supposedly decoded by the Ouija
board. Two people sit with the Ouija
board on their knees and their fin
gertips pressed lightly on the trian
gular message indicator. One person
asks questions and the board answers
by guiding the indicator over the let
ters to form words and sometimes
sentences.
Some people say spirits move the
indicator, but those who are not be
lievers in the board attribute the
movement to pressure f rom the fin
gers or shaky knees.
The Ouija board has been most
jxjpular just before and during wars
in the 20th century. The board
gained popularity during World
War I and continued to be popular
throughout the 1920s.
But as with many diversions, some
people took the board a bit too se
riously. Such was the case with a man
in 1920 in New York who consulted
his Ouija board a omit the location of
his wife’s missing ring.
When the Ouija board answered
that the man’s friend had stolen the
ring he assaulted his friend. Later,
when the man testified the facts in
court, the judge informed him that a
Ouija board is not a reliable witness.
When this case was publicized, the
New York Times wrote, “It is the
duty of all who know facts as to
Ouija boards to make them known
to others and to denounce the mis
use of the thing as a crime against in
telligence.”
An American Heritage article by
historian James P. Johnson describes
an even more bizarre case that oc
curred in Arizona in 1933.
Dorothea Irene Turley was hav
ing an affair with “a young cowboy.”
Her Ouija board instructed her to
send her husband, Ernest, digging
for buried treasure near their home
so she could spend time with her
lover.
One day, Dorothea and her 15-
year-old daughter, Mattie, were con
sulting the board. As Mattie later
said, “Mother asked the board to de
cide between father and her cowboy
friend. As usual, the board moved
around at first without meaning but
suddenly it spelled out that I was to
kill father. It was terrible. I shook all
over.
“Mother asked the Opija board if
the shooting would be successful,
and it said it would,” Mattie said.
“She asked if he would die outright,
and it said no. We asked what should
be used in the shooting, and it said a
shotgun. We asked if we would have
the ranch, and it said yes. We asked
about the law, and it said not to fear
the law, that everything would turn
out all right. We asked how much
the insurance would be and it said
$5,000.
“I tried to kill father the next day
but I couldn’t,” she said. “I lost my
nerve. A few days later, though, I
followed him to the corral. I raised
A man asked a Ouija
board about the location of
his wife’s missing ring.
When the Ouija board
answered that the man’s
friend had stolen the ring
he assaulted his friend.
Later, when the man
testified the facts in court,
the judge informed him
that a Ouija board is not a
reliable witness.
the gun and took careful aim be
tween the shoulders, but then I lost
my nerve again. But I thought of
dear mother and what all this would
mean to her. I couldn’t fail. My hand
was trembling awfully, but I raised
the gun and fired.”
The Furley women seemed to
think all the proper questions one
would ask a Ouija board when plot
ting a murder but they forgot one
important fact: Ouija boards are
sometimes wrong.
This little miscalculation caused
Mattie to spend six years in the Ari
zona State Industrial School. Her
mother was sentenced to 10 to 25
years in prison but was released after
three years.
Historically, the Ouija board has
been more popular during times of
war. Sales of Ouija boards increased
noticeably after the Japanese at
tacked Pearl Harbor and again in
the 1960s when the United States be
gan to get involved in Vietnam and
while Americans showed a growing
interest in the occult. The “magical”
wooden boards outsold Monopoly in
1967.
Gretchen Ayres, a cashier at Kay-
Bee Toy and Hobby Shop, said she
sells many Ouija boards to college
students.
She said she thinks the board is
just a game but knows that many
people believe in the power of the
board and its ability to communicate
with spirits.
Photo by Jay Janner
The Ouija board’s history extends back only a century, but tarot
cards have been used for divination since the 13th century.
of somber appearance.
Clubs represent people of frank
dispositions, and diamonds are asso
ciated with the thrifty and the de
pendable.
Each of the 52 cards has a mean
ing which must be deciphered by the
interpreter.
The most common method of for
tune telling with playing cards is
known as the wheel of fortune,
which uses all 52 cards.
The fortune teller chooses the
court card that most resembles the
client. For a married woman of fair
complexion, for example, the for
tune teller might choose the queen
of hearts.
This card is placed face-up in the
center of the table and the remain
der of the deck is shuffled.
The fortune teller then deals nine
stacks of three cards each. These
nine stacks surround the center
court card.
When this is done, the fortune
teller reads the meaning by the way
the cards are arranged.