The Future is all Hers

Complete with square-tipped acrylics, a silver line separating the red from the white paint, Sylvia answered the door for the first time in three weeks. Alas, she had finally predicted my arrival (if one doesn't count the call ahead). And where exactly do fortune-tellers venture to vacation? Miami. She and her family had been in Miami enjoying the torrential downpours that drowned every day of their excursion. Shouldn't she have known that? "I'm not a mind-reader," said Sylvia, who refused to give her last name, "for family reasons." Sylvia said she's hesitant for the public to know too much about her in fear that early conceptions will sway their interest, but she will admit she is a very religious person. "You don't have to be a certain religion to do this," she said. "Lots of people have a little sensual perception, they just don't have the ability to use it." Sylvia has lived in Bloomington for the last 15 years managing Sylvia's Palm and Tarot Card Readings from her home, the only public fortune-telling business in town. Her husband's job led the couple to this area, along with their four children, some of whom have the same gift she does. She admitted she's always had the psychic ability that had been passed on to her from her mother and grandmother. She remembers the first time she realized her gift, as a little girl, watching her mother do the same thing. "When I was a child I could feel people's vibrations and auras, and I just started reading them," she said. "I was born with it." Sylvia has fine-tuned her psychic abilities during her lifetime. "I can tell people about their past, the present, and their future -- and it's confidential and guaranteed," she explained. "I can read your aura … I can see it and feel it." Sylvia said she occasionally sees negative energy in people and can tell them how to change it, although she notices that there are some who tend to think their lives have merely one destined path.

Her crystal ball sits on the table in front of us. Seven beautifully clad white porcelain women sit delicately around the cream-colored bubble, braids dangling at their shoulders as the energy passes over their heads and into the air. Sylvia admits she can't remember where she obtained the mysterious object. "I think my mom gave it to me," she said. "There's a certain energy that goes through, that you feel." At this point the phone rang. One of her daughters was on the line. "Can you give me five minutes?" she asked, with a slight hint of "I told you so" in her voice. She returned from the kitchen -- a smile on her face, cordless in her hand. "That was my daughter calling long-distance," she said. "Mommy was right." Sylvia had advised her daughter of a problem and her intuitions had just panned out. "It happens all the time," she said. "One woman came in and I told her she had problems in her marriage. She came back a few weeks later and told me I was right." Sylvia said many students come in confused about their career decisions and lovers, wondering if they've found their soul mates. For relationship-type questions, Sylvia suggests bringing in photos of your loved one or letters with their handwriting for her to read and analyze. Her services include $40 card readings, $45 psychic readings, $40 love and marriage readings and $20 palm readings. Palmistry, the art of studying the lines of the hands to predict the future, is often associated with gypsies, although its roots are much more ancient. Palmistry was used by the Greeks for clinical purposes, and by Julius Caesar, who judged his men by their hands. The most notable book on the subject, written by William Benham at the turn of the 18th Century, takes a scientific approach to palm reading. "During most of this time the word 'palmistry' was so buried under a mass of public disapproval, that a self-respecting person dared not say that he was even interested in it. Fully persuaded that it had a scientific foundation, I set about to discover it," Benham stated in his book, "The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading." Sylvia explained that each line in the hand tells her something different, something unique about the person. The best way to get your palms read, she said, is to hold them in front of you, touching, side by side. This allows her to see the difference in each of the hands and look for significant letters and initials as the lines connect. As for Tarot, Sylvia uses a very old Rider Tarot deck, the most common type, recommended for learners. A Tarot deck is a set of 78 cards, each featuring different symbolic pictures. Each has 22 cards called the "major arcana," and four suits of 14 cards, the "minor arcana." Tarot was supposedly created in Italy in the late 14th Century, though its origin is still highly speculative. Sylvia explained that a card does not necessarily have a single meaning, but becomes meaningful based on where it lies and what it lies next to during the reading. "I use my intuition," she said. "When I do readings, I don't really read Tarot, but rather use it as a tool. I know the meanings of each card, and I have been using Tarot cards for more than 35 years now." A large goldfish swims in a plastic castle of colored rocks in the corner of the room. Sylvia divulged that the fish belonged to her grandson, but that all animals have sense perception. "I love animals -- I had animals," Sylvia said. "She loves dogs," chimed in one of Sylvia's daughters, who was perched on the floor beside her. After glancing down, the polish of her silver and red toenails glaring up at her, Sylvia clasped her hands together as her gold bracelets ran into one another down her wrist. "We used to have a dog," she said. "I knew something was going to happen to her, so I gave her to a nice family in the country. I knew she'd be run over."

Sylvia's Palm and Tarot Card Readings is located at 1305 South Walnut St., 10 feet from the road. Junior Ashley Cretella doesn't necessarily believe Sylvia is "psychic," but merely knows how to play her cards. "Life's full of generalities, and I think (psychics) squeeze just enough information out of you to find the right generalities and let your mind fill in the rest of the blanks," Cretella said. "I do think there is a spiritual realm, but it's nothing that humans should be messing with. I don't think it's 'nice' or 'good' or anything we should interfere with." Sylvia said she realizes not everyone thinks her family business is exactly legit, but swears if they would only come see her, she could change their mind. "The skeptics are everywhere," Sylvia said. "But if they come in, they come back. We're human, too. Everybody wants to know something in life."

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