Tirage-en-ligne: Merrick reads for dodalisque

[Merrick]

Well here we are again! What mystery of the universe can I elucidate for you?

Also let me know if there’s a specific deck you’d like me to use! The list in my profile is up to date.

[dodalisque]

I would like to see you read with your new Millenium TdM, especially if you can work in a handful of Minors to supplement the Major 5 card line in some way. But just see where the reading leads you. A basic 5 card answer would be fine.

I have lived in Canada for many years but my parents, who are now quite old and infirm, are still living in England. When I went to visit them last year a local women, a single mom, had become established as their indispensable helper and they had virtually adopted her as their own. This woman and I fell into a passionate affair that rocked my world. I felt sure that it had rocked both our worlds. But about 6 months later certain business matters forced me to return to Canada. Letters from England suggest that my parents are now considering altering their will to include this woman. Was I being manipulated? Are my parents being manipulated? I am not sure if this falls under the category of a third-person reading, but I would like to have some insight into what is going on across the Atlantic. I feel that my inheritance and my heart may be at risk.

[Merrick]

That is quite a heavy question. I will give this the reading it deserves.

[Merrick]

I would like to see you read with your new Millenium TdM, especially if you can work in a handful of Minors to supplement the Major 5 card line in some way. But just see where the reading leads you. A basic 5 card answer would be fine.

I have lived in Canada for many years but my parents, who are now quite old and infirm, are still living in England. When I went to visit them last year a local women, a single mom, had become established as their indispensable helper and they had virtually adopted her as their own. This woman and I fell into a passionate affair that rocked my world. I felt sure that it had rocked both our worlds. But about 6 months later certain business matters forced me to return to Canada. Letters from England suggest that my parents are now considering altering their will to include this woman. Was I being manipulated? Are my parents being manipulated? I am not sure if this falls under the category of a third-person reading, but I would like to have some insight into what is going on across the Atlantic. I feel that my inheritance and my heart may be at risk.

I’ve drawn your cards, just need time to do the write up.

[Merrick]

I would like to see you read with your new Millenium TdM, especially if you can work in a handful of Minors to supplement the Major 5 card line in some way. But just see where the reading leads you. A basic 5 card answer would be fine.

I have lived in Canada for many years but my parents, who are now quite old and infirm, are still living in England. When I went to visit them last year a local women, a single mom, had become established as their indispensable helper and they had virtually adopted her as their own. This woman and I fell into a passionate affair that rocked my world. I felt sure that it had rocked both our worlds. But about 6 months later certain business matters forced me to return to Canada. Letters from England suggest that my parents are now considering altering their will to include this woman. Was I being manipulated? Are my parents being manipulated? I am not sure if this falls under the category of a third-person reading, but I would like to have some insight into what is going on across the Atlantic. I feel that my inheritance and my heart may be at risk.

It took me some time to work up a question that didn’t feel like a third party reading. I finally landed on “What does dodalisque need to know about what is happening to and with his family in England?” Here are the cards I drew:



Now I shuffle to avoid reversals. However, during this shuffle two cards fell and when I picked them up I thought I had them in the upright orientation but apparently I hadn’t. Since I never intentionally introduce reversals, I always leave them if they’re able to make it onto the table reversed. And I think it’s especially noteworthy that it’s the center card, and that the center card is Le Maison Dieu. I’m immediately struck by the sense of free fall that this card exhibits when reversed. The figures, instead of being drawn to the surety of the ground, are caught in a moment before they are flung into the very fires that are toppling the tower in the first place. Reversed, Le Maison Dieu is even more chaotic than upright. And your parents are caught in it.

Jumping for a moment to the outermost cards, we have Arcanum XIII and La Rove de Fortune. You said this woman was trying to get your parents to include her in their will. A will is only relevant when the person whose will it is passes away. The wheel of fortune paired with the thirteenth suggests a change of fortunes due to a death in the family. Whether that fortune goes to you or to this woman is, I believe, entirely in your hands.

This leads me to the two cards flanking the center, Lermite and Le Judgement. I can only see you as the Hermit, cloistered away from the unfolding events as you are on a different continent. However, the Hermit shines his light on the situation, illuminating the plight of the figures in La Maison Dieu. You may be far away, but distance can also provide clarity. Judgement is a card of reawakening. The blast of the angel’s horn renews those who hear it. It’s not subtle, it is pure power. You need to make the clarion call that wakes your parents up to the predicament they’re in. Don’t be subtle, be clear and stand up for the judgement you wish to see.

I’m seeing no sign of the woman at the center of it all. Her presence is felt throughout the spread but she’s like a hidden figure. I decided to pull a clarifying card from the pips to ascertain her role in the situation. Because Le Maison Dieu is both the center card of the spread and because it is the focal point of the entire situation, I counted out the top sixteen cards and placed the sixteenth underneath Le Maison Dieu to get a clearer picture. Here is what that looks like:



The nine of cups. This speaks to me of emotional manipulation. Cups can contain life giving water, but they can also contain hidden poison. The foliage appears to be trapping several of the cups in its grasp, and if left unchecked, it could trap every last cup. Additionally with the reversed card above, it looks like the figures will fall into the cups, drowning on the emotional upheaval. It pains me to say, but it appears that you and your parents have been deceived and manipulated.

Still, I see the way out. Lermite and Le Judgement tell us that this isn’t a done deal already, and you can still help your parents find their way out of free fall.

I wish I had a sunnier reading to offer, but that is what the cards are showing me. I hope this was useful if nothing else. Good luck, my friend.

Edit: After finishing the reading I happened to check the bottom of the majors portion of the deck as saw La Force. This could speak to specific manipulation of you by this woman through your affair (the woman has control over the beast of passion), but I also think it’s a recommendation for you: Control your passions in this affair to allow the strength of your argument shine through. Be strong but keep control because that levelheaded nature will help convince your parents.

I also sought out the other card that fell out during the shuffle to see if it was also reversed, and indeed it had been placed back into the deck upside down. The card was Lestoille which in reverse I took as a direct reference to this woman and her unpure motives. Turning it back upright I saw it as your family being able to wash yourselves clean of the sticky situation.

[dodalisque]

Yet another wonderfully accurate and poetic reading. This was a tough question because the emotions involved were so heavy. But you showed a lot of bravery in giving very firm and definite advice, which I think a client deserves and secretly wants, whether or not they act on what you recommend. I much prefer that to wishy-washy stuff about balance and being aware of options.

I gave up reading reversals about 10 years ago but the way you interpret the upside-down Tower makes me want to start experimenting with them again. Terrific. The reversed Tower does indeed look like a handbag being emptied out onto a table. Your interpretation of the two mirrored pairs is completely convincing, and I loved the addition of the 9 of Cups to represent the woman involved, and those two extra cards, Strength and the Star. Incredibly strange that the 9 of Cups card should have shown up at the climax of the reading exactly as it did for me in the TdM reading I did last month for kare! Very odd the way certain cards will keep recurring over a period of time.

To make the reading more dramatic I claimed the incident was very recent, but actually it was something that happened to me about 15 years ago. I just about had a nervous breakdown during the whole thing. But I was able to do precisely what you recommend and take firm control, keeping in contact with my mother from Canada and warning her that I thought she was being manipulated. I didn't want to believe it myself since I was so passionately in love with the woman. My ego didn't want to believe that she had been acting the whole time - the relationship went on at high pitch for a year and a half - and controlling me just like the woman on Strength controls the lion.

After my father and mother died and it turned out they hadn't included the woman in their will after all, the two of us still continued to spend time together. It was quite Shakespearean, like something from the sonnets. She openly admitted she had been trying to take advantage of the situation and apologised. She was a single mother with two children and no money, and her maternal instincts overwhelmed all romantic and moral considerations. Funny, the sexual chemistry was so strong between us that we were still sleeping together even after these revelations. She wasn't a bad woman at all, in fact I still love her and miss her terribly, so the beautiful Star card is perfect, but she just did, from my point of view at least, a very bad thing. My favorite poet Robert Graves sums it up perfectly:

THOUGH ONCE TRUE LOVERS

Though once true lovers
We are less than friends.
What woman ever
So ill-used her man?
That I played her false
Not even she pretends:
May God forgive her,
For, alas, I can.

The heaviest reading I ever had to do was for a lady, a well-dressed middle-aged American tourist, who wandered into the bookstore where I work. After she had selected 10 cards I asked casually, "OK, so what do you want to ask the tarot about today?" It turned out she was on holiday with friends on doctor's orders because she was feeling suicidal at home. Her husband of 20 years had shot himself in the head and then two days later her teenage son died of a drug overdose. So, no pressure right? The cards mercifully took over and wanted to talk only about the husband and son - his alcoholism inherited from his own family and the odd relationship between father and son. It became clear that the woman I was reading for had wandered into a sort of emotional trap. She had been suffering from tremendous guilt over the two deaths but the reading convinced her that it had not been her fault at all. The story in the cards, right there in front of her eyes, confirmed it. She hadn't been allowing herself to consider that as a possibility. Tears all round, and the two friends who were hovering nearby came back the next to thank me for the reading and tell me how it had raised her spirits. Most dramatic reading I ever did for sure. She went from despair to tearful elation in about 5 minutes. I wish they were all like that! I won't mention all the readings I've done that were nothing but empty waffle.

[Merrick]

Thank you for such generous feedback. I will be honest and tell you I could not determine if that was a query from your life or from a novel. You mentioned how your relationship with this woman was almost Shakespearean, and that’s how it felt reading your summation. I decided I’d rather take it completely seriously and be proven wrong than take it as a fanciful reading and letting that mindset affect the reading. I’m glad my instincts proved right on that score, and I’m glad that things resolved as they did.

I actually did two readings before this one on a night when I was in the wrong headspace and the reading was both unclear and I now know also wrong in what I could parse out of it. I tried it again a few nights later and ensured I had the right ritual space to work in and the result was this reading, which was extremely clear to me and flowed out easily. The only thing I’d change now knowing the result of the situation is I would say the upright Star still represented the woman, but after she had unburdened herself and apologized.

Thank you for the opportunity to read for you!