Serendipity

Hi! Do you believe in destiny? A lot of Londoners do, and that is why fortune telling is so popular here.

Remember that film 'Serendipity?' A couple meet up accidentally one night Christmas shopping, fall in love, and then decide to split up and test fate by seeing if destiny will bring them back together again. Perhaps, deep down, we want to believe that something good will happen to us without having to do too much about it. And some people just can't wait to find out.

Astrology

Astrology is probably the most well known fortune telling method that has a scientific basis. The London Astrology Shop stocks over 1500 books on the subject - www.astrology.co.uk If you visit the shop, the manager can make up a personal astrology chart for you. Personally, this has never appealed to me - it has too much rationale and not enough mystery!

A few weeks ago in Istanbul I had my coffee cup read. The fortune teller turns the cup upside side and predicts the future by reading the heavy Turkish coffee grounds. I couldn't understand much of what she was saying, but I enjoyed the coffee!

Tarot

I prefer a bit of mystic which is why I choose to have my fortune told by tarot cards. There are 78 cards in a Tarot card set. Each card features a picture that the fortune teller will use to interpret your future. I like to make it difficult for the fortune teller as I am a sceptic. Every 18 months I have a tarot reading by phone with a lady called Donna (she only has my photo and name) who lives in Dorset, Southern England. She chain smokes and I can hear her dragging on her cigarette and the rustle of the cards as she tries to predict my future. I note down the important points she mentions and usually, one by one they happen.

Some fortune tellers are good for certain people, and some are not. I once spent 60 minutes in the company of an old Chinese man on a mountain in Hong Kong. He kept rolling around some coins in an old turtle shell and could only tell me that I had come a long way!

To believe or not to believe

In London, a famous destination for tarot reading (if not the whole of the UK) is mysteries www.mysteries.co.uk at the top of Neal Street near Covent Garden. A 30 minute session with one of the readers starts at L30. They also have palm readers too. Scotland Yard have been known (even the police are into fortune telling!) to use Mysteries when they have a particularly difficult case.

My mantra has always been 'only he who risks is free' (Nelson Mandela) and (for added measure) to believe nothing until it happens. But is opening a window on your future such a good idea? If you will be faced with important decisions then it can help you. The downside is that some people wait for the predictions to happen and consequently alter their destiny path.

You might well be thinking this is all a load of crystal balls! So, if you like, we can do a test. Is there anyone brave enough to volunteer visiting a fortune teller, share the reading with us, and monitor the results? Please send me an email and we can pick this up again in a few weeks.