Instructions In The Cauldron

“Let’s go home now, Anne, we’ll have a good tea all together and then we’ll tell you the news.”

“Are you pregnant?”

“No, Sarah, I’m not pregnant. You two are enough for me!”

Mum might have been pregnant actually, there would have been nothing wrong, but she had always been emphatic about the fact that her supply of energy and patience had come to an end after two twins.

When we got home and we were sitting all together around the table, as we had hardly ever  done, we discovered what the news was: we were going to move to Sonning Common.

“Where the hell is Sonning Common? And above all, why are we moving there? We’re at our last year at school. How can you think of taking us away?”, I burst out. I flew into a rage, I didn’t want to go anywhere. I liked Newbury, we were born there and we had all our school mates there. Moving away was something absurd!

“Sonning Common is north of Reading, near Henley-on-Thames, we’ll be just thirty minutes far from your granny’s house!”

“Yes, but why? We’re so well here in Newbury”, I went on astounded.

“Your mother and I are going to open a bio-veg café. It’s a great opportunity. Don’t worry about school, you are ending the year here and you’ re starting college there.”

“So everything is already fixed…”

“Yes, Anne, everything is fixed. Mum has got two more good news to give you.”

“Ok, fire away…it can’t be worse than that!”

“The good news is I spoke with Stella about our move, you see, I didn’t know how to face up to the question with you, so I asked her for advice too…Well, you see, she decided they are coming too! Isn’t that wonderful? She is still under medical supervision and she needs to be looked after at a good hospital, the one in Reading is surely one of the best in the whole Berkshire. What’s more, it’s just twenty minutes far from London by train and her parents live there…So, we’re going there all together. Are you excited, girls?”

The fact that Alison was coming too, was surely the best side of the situation. The three of us had been always very close; she was able to counterbalance my relationship with Sarah: she was balanced, methodical but at the same time sweet and sensitive.

Even if she had grown up according to hippie/new age ideals, she looked absolutely ordinary.

However, I wasn’t quite persuaded about moving house.

“And what is the other news, mum?”

“They’re coming to spend Christmas Eve with us at granny’s! Stella wants to meet her. Don’t you think that’s a great idea?”

“Luckily old Mal will be there, otherwise I would be the only man among wonderful, but absolutely crazy, women”, our dad claimed.

He wasn’t wrong at all, actually.

That was certainly one of the funniest Christmas in our life.

In the afternoon we helped Granny to make Christmas pudding, stirring and making wishes, according to our family’s tradition, while she told me how much fun she had had with Mal at the gym opening. She had even danced latin-american music and played bingo till midnight. Mum had laid the table with traditional red and golden colours, putting creakers on every dish. Dad and Mal were instead trying to make the fire brighter in the fireplace, using Yule’s log.

At exactly 6 pm Alison and Stella arrived with a Christmas poinsettia and a bottle of rosé.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Susan. I’ve heard so much about you”, Stella told her with a hug.

“The pleasure is mine, dear.”

“Sarah has told Alison about the candles…I was really moved, thanks a lot! You’re a wiccan, aren’t you?”

She had the bad habit of making people lots of questions. Alison said her mother had no philtre between her mouth and her brain. She was pleasant, always smiling and what’s more she could listen to people, just like granny.

“No, darling, I’m not. I know the Wicca religion very well, I’ve spent my first years in Glastonbury…”

“That’s where your strange accent comes from! That’s great. But can I ask you, why do you live here now?”

“My husband inherited this cottage and I agreed to leave the “Apples island”, I haven’t been there for so many years…”

“This house has got a certain energy in fact, it looks as if we are in a different reality…” Stella was looking around herself, like little girls before dolls houses.

“That’s strange, Anne said the same things some years ago!”

“I’ve been to Glastonbury too, soon after they had diagnosed my breast cancer…I needed to rediscover myself. A spent a whole afternoon sitting at Chalice Well, I stared at the well, the Tor, the water flowing: I was shuttered. I would never have expected such a difficult trial in my life. I do yoga, I’m master Reiki and crystal- therapist, I followed meditation courses in India when I was younger…I blame London air, it’s so polluted. I don’t know…Oh, I’m sorry, I’m talking freely about my problems…That’s because you make me feel really at ease, Susan.”

“I’m really pleased about that and you don’t have to apologize at all”, my granny comforted her. “You must be happy you’re here now. Everything has come to an end; enjoy every moment of your life with your wonderful daughter and with your friends’ fondness. Don’t blame London air, that’s true, it’s polluted, but unfortunately some illnesses happen also if you live on top of a mountain! One of my cousins was vegetarian, she didn’t smoke, she walked a lot and she lived in the South, near the sea; she fell ill all the same.”

“I’ve learnt a lot from this experience”, Stella went on. “It made me understand how frail we are. My stay in hospital was terrible! I hate places like that, the heavy energy, the deep pain, you lose your sense of time. At the start I didn’t want to undergo chemotherapy, I didn’t want to poison my body. I did all that for Alison. Keeping my mind focused on my target was so difficult.”

“But you managed at last. Your holistic training has surely helped you a lot!”, granny had always had this power, she could encourage people and help them see the positive side in everything.

“Yes, I’m sure of that. I devoted my time to the study of Tarots in hospital and during my period of convalescence, when I could read. One night I dreamt I was holding in my hands a small tin box with cards inside: they were “Maria Celia’s” tarots, those cards really exist!”. She took out of her huge bag a small tin box with cards inside. “I bought them online together with a book and I started this new course. I think you can read them…”

“I’m sorry to deceive you once more, but no, I don’t know any kind of divination. I’m just used to consulting an oracle when the seasons change. If you wish, you could explain us the meaning of Arcana after dinner. I haven’t heard about them for ages. My aunt Ruby, my mother’s sister, could read them; she made a lot of money with them, she was famous in Glastonbury. Unfortunately, I haven’t inherited her gift.”

“Oh, I don’t want to bore you.”

“Just relax, the ones who don’t want to listen to are free to leave the room. Let’s have dinner now. Children, wash your hands! It’s ready.”

The dinner was delicious, granny was a perfect cook. She made traditional dishes: turkey filled with blueberries sauce and pigs in blankets (which were absolutely my favourite). Of course, vegetarian dishes for Stella weren’t missing. Besides our pudding as a dessert, Mal brought a wonderful Yule log.

According to tradition, when dinner ended we exchanged presents. Sarah got a “Griffindor” hoodie and I got a “Ravencrow” one. After we had cleared the table, mum, dad and Mal started playing Scrubble, Alison and I sat on the sofa watching TV, with lazy Kiki next to us, while Sarah and granny were listening to Stella explaining Tarots.

She mixed the cards making her bracelets tinkle, she had a mysterious look, she moved them with skill and precision, as if they were an extension of her fingers.

“These cards can help us to understand the Divine project”, I heard her say. “They don’t foretell the future with certainty, but they tell us what could happen. It’s up to us to understand them and to live what life gives us as a continuous teaching somehow. Cards are a means of divination, they keep us in touch with the real source of All and they must be handled respectfully. Let’s start from Major Arcana, they are twenty-two. The first card is The Madman-0: it represents the start of a new journey. We sometimes throw ourselves into an adventure without thinking about it before, led by too much enthusiasm. Being able to take a risk using our hidden gifts is very important.”

She turned to Sarah and my granny that small card representing a young man on  journey with a stick, held back by a little dog.

“Then we have The Magician-I: the wizard, the one who focuses on something and turns it into reality. He knows he is the means the Divine Spirit appears through. We are the makers of our fortunes, just like the man in the card who works with his tools to get what he wants and to evolve.

We then find The High Priestess-II: she is the symbol of intuition and wisdom. We must be able to keep detached from the material world and listen to the voice of our guide spirits; only by knowing ourselves we will be able to understand the world surrounding us. Can you see the eyes of the woman in the drawing, lost in her thoughts and far away? It looks as if she could see beyond everything. I think she reminds me of an oak, strong and still.

The Empress- III: this card brings romanticism, love and sensuality. It’s the symbol of a happy moment, full of creativity and emotional fertility. She could be compared to spring, to rebirth. Soon after there is The Emperor- IV: it represents stability, respect of the rules and the ability to listen to our fellow men. It reminds us of a family father and tells us never to use other people. After the Emperor we have The Pope- V: it’s a sign connecting the material to the spiritual word, a Pontifex, that’s it. This card warns us to follow our heart and never to give up to temptation. That’s why it’s in opposition with the Arcane number XV, The Devil. But let’s follow the order; after The Pope there are The Lovers- VI: we are all made of two opposite sides, male and female, positive and negative. We must accept also our shadowy  sides and confide in other people, it’s the symbol of new relationships coming.

Moving further there’s The Cart-VII: it obviously refers to travelling. You see, the image is that of a coach drawn by two horses. The journey represented could be our soul’s journey on the Earth, so the Cart will represent our body, the means which we need  to live. The card can also foretell the choices we are going to take in a short time, we might afford some extremely uncertain moments. It’s no accident that two horses are represented, the  number “two” reminds us that we always have different choices. The next Major Arcana is Justice-VIII: this one always urges us to uphold our ideas and to act having a full faith in ourselves. We have to find peace and harmony. If we go on we find The Hermit-IX: it underlines how we sometimes need to be alone to find a light, which means wisdom. The card is usually represented by an elderly person holding a lantern in his hand, the symbol of intuition and knowledge, and in the other a stick, the means to overcome the troubles of life. It could be considered as the young man in the first card, The Crazy, having grown up and with a wider knowledge. If we move further we get to the Wheel of fortune-X: it’s the symbol of fate, of the wheel of our life turning in spite of our will. The condition of mankind is not unalterable, it’s continually changing. Our true lightness is often to have the ability to let ourselves be dragged by events. We find soon after The Force-XI: our adult side, the one which has to guide us. We must never hide our emotions, but follow them instead. We don’t have to tame the lion by cruelty, but by our will and wisdom; the lion represents our instincts. We can often find Force and Justice in the opposite order, that’s  Force at number VIII and Justice at number XI. In the following position there’s The Hangman-XII: someone who looks at the world from a different point of view. It could be considered as the moment of “reflection break” leading us to Illumination. Its roots, the feet, point upwards, to the sky, reminding us that we come from the Divine, from something above us. Going on we run into the card we fear the most, Death-XIII: it means the end of a period and the beginning of a new one. That’s part of our life, it’s not always something negative. We must be able to throw away what has become useless in our spiritual growth. In the next place there is Temperance-XIV: it foretells a period of quietness, full of harmony. Moderation leads to peace of mind. This means that the phases of peace and rest are necessary to recharge ourselves.

We then find The Devil-XV: this card reminds us that the souls descended into the material world and that we are always being tempted. In certain phases in our life, the force of our selfishness brings to light the hidden sides of our Ego, those sides we try to hide from everybody, including ourselves. What the Devil represents is just that: the tempting Ego, our material side which makes us heavier and prevents us from being uplifted. We have to know and to face evil if we want to gain awareness and become  better. Taking the decision of becoming incarnate on the Earth is not easy. Let’s go on to The Tower-XVI: the sudden collapse of a situation. Destruction was necessary to open doors to something different and new; this card will make us understand that unfortunately nothing is eternal.

The next Arcane are The Stars-XVII: a new phase of life starts with them, characterized by inspiration and creativity. Starlight makes our wishes brighter.

After the Stars, there’s  The Moon-XVIII: the interpretation of this card is that something mysterious and unknown can interfere with our intuition and deceive us. Nourishing our wishes in the shadow and acting  shrewdly is better, to avoid becoming the target of envy. After the Moon and the Stars, here’s The Sun-XIX: this card wants to tell us that obstacles have been overcome.

The Sun represents a moment in life characterized by a strong positive energy and by success. It is usually drawn as a child because, after a long journey to discover ourselves again, we have reached Knowledge and we feel like light-hearted children. We’re almost coming to the end. The next card is Judgment- XX: our soul has woken up, we’re wearing new clothes. We’ve learnt to look into ourselves to find the truth again and to get free from prejudices. Let’s finish with The world-XXI at last: a cycle is coming to an end, we’re going to be rewarded for our hard work. New opportunities are looming up on the horizon.