I am known by many as Eli Levi...Part 2

As I took a seat at the small dining table Alan poked his head into the room and, with a terse "Have fun," quickly exited the apartment.

Marcia pushed an ordinary deck of playing cards towards me and said, "Shuffle them good."

I rifled the deck as I surreptitiously stared at the strange woman, her Muumuu dress a swirl of purple Hibiscus. As Marcia lit the first of many cigarettes she would consume that evening, I was bursting to ask her why she was wearing sunglasses indoors. While I did not know it then, the dark lens of her cat-eye style glasses hid bulging, legally blind eyes, the result of a botched thyroid treatment.

When I'd finished mixing the cards to her satisfaction she instructed me, "Now cut the deck into three piles with your left hand."

Marcia scooped up the three stacks of cards and, with a theatrical sweep, she created a perfect arc on the table before me.

"Now pick seven cards."

Dry-mouthed, I did as I was told.

One-by-one she flipped the cards I'd selected until all seven lay before her in the shape of a cross.

As she silently contemplated the black and red cards I could feel my heart thumping in my chest. The only sound in the room was the quiet, crackly destruction of tobacco as she dragged deeply on her cigarette.

Tapping the black king that lay upside-down in the center of the cross with the manicured nail of her index finger, Marcia began, "Your father, you never knew him well. He lives far away from you, possibly in another country."

Goosebumps rose on the back of my neck as I slowly nodded my head up-and-down.

Then without so much as a question, Marcia proceeded to tell me things about my life that I'd never shared with Alan, or anyone else for that matter. Dumbfounded, I was at a total loss to explain how she could know about my deepest secrets; the domestic abuse I'd experienced as a child, insights about my innermost fears, a canny knowledge about my unspoken desires--all from a seemingly random selection of cards.

Many hours later when the reading was over Marcia said cryptically, "Your coming here tonight was no mistake. Trust yourself. Listen to your inner voice. It will always lead you exactly where you must go."

And then I sat mesmerized as she shared with me her life and her story.

That night I lay in bed unable to sleep. And while I did not understand how Marcia did what she did, I did know that--as she told me--I was destined to study that which can not be seen with the eyes and to learn about that which can not be heard with the ears. Over the last 40 plus years, the journey I began that night at Marcia's table brought me into direct contact with many teachers and many teachings. From Gematria to Sacred Geometry, from Sufi meditation to Christian contemplation, from Fibbonaci to Ficino, many disciplines inform the work I do now with cartomancy, also known as the Tarot.

And while it may seem incongruous to some, throughout all of my esoteric studies I have always also maintained a keen interest in the financial markets, an interest perhaps sparked by the Vedic astrologer who made a fortune charting the silver market.

Accordingly, in future posts I will present tarot card readings that pertain, among other subjects, to the emerging field of crypto-currencies.

I invite you to join me.

Eli Levi