So, I found myself in Chicago a while back, just kinda wandering, you know? Wasn’t looking for anything specific, just killing time. Then I stumbled upon this little sign, tucked away, almost missed it: “Tarot Card Reader.” I’m not usually one for that stuff, always figured it was a bit of a laugh, but something just pulled me in that day. Maybe it was the Chicago wind, or maybe I was just bored.
Stepping Inside
I pushed open this creaky door, and bam, it was like stepping into a different world. Dark, you know, with all those shawls and beads hanging everywhere. The air was thick with incense – patchouli, I think. Gave me a bit of a headache, to be honest. The reader herself, she was an older lady, wrinkles like a roadmap, and eyes that seemed to look right through you. She didn’t say much at first, just gestured for me to sit down at this small, cluttered table. I remember thinking, “Okay, here we go, this is the real deal, or a really good act.”
She had me shuffle this deck of cards. They felt old, worn, like they’d been handled by a thousand nervous hands before mine. I did my best, trying not to drop them all over her dusty carpet. Then she took them, cut the deck a few times, and started laying them out. Real slow and deliberate, like each card was a major secret.
The Reading Itself
Now, I was expecting all the usual stuff: “You’ll meet a tall, dark stranger,” or “Money is coming your way.” And yeah, there was a bit of that vague stuff. But then she hit on something. She started talking about this situation I was dealing with, something really specific about my work at the time. Stuff I hadn’t really talked about with anyone, not in detail anyway. It wasn’t magic, I don’t think, but it was uncanny.
She laid out a few more cards, pointing at pictures of cups and swords, and told me about a choice I was avoiding. And damn, she was right. I was avoiding it. She didn’t give me answers, not really. It was more like she just laid out what was already buzzing around in my own head but I hadn’t pieced together. It was weirdly… clarifying?
- Felt a bit exposed, like she’d read my mind.
- Also felt a strange sense of relief, like, “Okay, someone else sees this mess.”
- Still skeptical, but definitely intrigued.
I walked out of there about thirty minutes later, blinking in the daylight. My head was spinning a little, not from the incense anymore, but from the conversation. Did she have some kind_of_gift? Or was she just really good at reading people, picking up on tiny cues? I still don’t know. Probably a bit of both.
What I do know is this: I paid my twenty bucks, or whatever it was, and left feeling… different. Not like my future was all mapped out, but like I had a clearer view of the road I was already on. It didn’t solve my problems, not by a long shot. But it made me think. And sometimes, that’s all you really need, right? Just a little nudge to look at things from a new angle. So yeah, my Chicago tarot card reader experience. It wasn’t what I expected, that’s for sure. I didn’t become a believer overnight, but I definitely walked away with something to chew on. And I haven’t looked at a deck of cards quite the same way since.