“Please, make yourself comfortable.” Martine smiles, pulling Wren’s chair out for her as she settles in across the table. “Shall I record the audio of this reading for you to take with you when we are done?”
“Thank you, that would be great.”
Wren sits, pulling her chair into the table and taking in the light spa-like music playing softly in the background. She leans forward to admire the intricate designs on the back of the top card in the stack. Martine smiles softly to herself, reaching for them gently.
“Beautiful, aren’t they? They are very old. Passed down to me by my grandmother. These cards hold a lot of history.”
Martine pauses a moment before looking back up into Wren’s eyes. They lock together before she pushes the cards to the side. “Would you be open to a brief palm reading before we look at the cards?”
She seems compelled into the suggestion, and Wren nods wordlessly. As skeptical as she is about the lines of her hand telling a story, she is too curious to refuse.
Martine takes her hand in her own and turns it over, studying her palm and using her fingers to stretch the lines out for better viewing.
“You see this? Like a natural ring?” she asks, tracing her own finger over the small, arched line under Wren’s index finger. She strains her eyes to see it, but it’s there.
“Yes. It does look a little bit like a ring.”
“It’s called the Ring of Solomon. It tells me that you are a leader. You are strong, independent, and highly intelligent. It also tells me that sometimes these traits can run your life. Your work and success stifle your more creative impulses,” Martine offers. Wren can’t help but feel exposed.
How can a line under her finger tell this woman all of that?
Martine grins, twisting Wren’s hand another way.
“This line,” she continues, pointing to a very faint line extending across the middle of her palm from the bottom of her pinky to the space between her index finger and thumb. “This line is unique. It’s the Simian Line.”
Wren sees it faintly but makes sure she looks at Martine’s face to study her expression. Martine furrows her brows together before clasping her other hand on top of Wren’s, almost in a show of comfort.
“This line tells me that you have a hard time viewing life in abstract ways. You see black and white. But not gray. Your analytical nature is your greatest asset, but also I have a strong feeling that this is something detrimental to your current situation.”
Wren can feel her mouth open of its own accord.
“And what situation is that?” She can’t believe she is indulging Martine.
“Let’s see if the cards will tell me,” Martine responds calmly, handing the stack to Wren. “Use your left hand and cut this stack into two piles. Cut the stack where you feel the strongest urge to do so.”
Wren does as she is told but doesn’t feel anything, so she cuts it at random, placing the cards facedown on the table. Martine pulls a card from the top of each stack, turning them over and placing them on the table in front of them.
Both cards face Martine. The Moon and the High Priestess. She lightly places her hands over both the cards, looking into Wren’s face.
“These cards face me, or, more importantly, they face away from you, which changes their meaning,” Martine begins and breaks her gaze, bringing her eyes to the cards. “The Moon is telling you to listen to your inner voice. You are receiving messages, but you are blocking them. I would imagine, from what your hands told me, that it is your analytical nature that makes you less open to these answers.”
Wren isn’t sure what to think about this reading so far.
“The High Priestess card,” Martine continues. “This is interesting. It’s another about trusting one’s intuition, but for you this card also is telling me that secrets surround you. Someone in your life now or in the past embroiled you in a secret that you may not fully understand.”