Inspired by Audrey’s story? Audrey will visit the Centre on 9th June for a Day of Tarot Readings. Book a slot here
One night, some years ago, I woke at 2.20 am. It is my delivery time for any Messages from Spirit. I was told that I should go to Penzance and when I thought ” I haven’t got the money” the Voice said “When did that ever stop you?” So I booked a seat on one of the longest train journeys we can take, taking up a timely Virgin Rail offer. At the time I was reading Tarot Cards at the late and lamented Crystal Shop on the Royal Mile. There, in a brief pause, I borrowed a Dowsing Pendulum to do its work over a previously selected list of Guest Houses and when I got home I booked a three night stay. I’ve used the word ‘time’ quite a lot already but (when we think about Things) the important ones are, mostly, down to just that; and seizing the Moment.For the most part I use the Rider-Waite deck. This deck was designed in 1910 by Pamela Colman-Smith for the measly fee of £50 for three months work while sitting in the British Museum. I have been using her deck ever since I was drawn to her Life Story. I knew Pamela had lived in Penzance close by the Lizard Peninsula for quite a while. She ended up in Bude, after moving when the attacks from the German Luftwaffe in the Second World War became too frequent.Penzance is where I began my search for even more information, funding my journey with impromptu Tarot Readings and coincidentally having a jolly good time! But it was when I took myself to Bude a month later that Things got very coincidental as I approached my lodgings on a very wet afternoon. Being the only passenger on the bus I’d told the Driver where I was heading and now he was stopping the bus at the side of the road to say if I alighted there. I’d only have a short walk past the Bencoolin Inn to where I was staying. When I was passing by I had the very strange feeling that I was beingobserved from one of its windows.
Later, having settled in my room, I’d walked into town passing by a Notice Board. It was advertising a Talk on that very evening under the auspices of the local History Society, about a memorable Bishop: and which had appealed to me. I also thought there might be someone who remembered Pamela which I could follow up. Oh Boy! And What a Lot that was to be!That was the evening I met a gentleman who had said: “Oh No! Not her again”. That American chap had me wandering around the graves, looking for where she might have been buried as a Pauper although we never did. And he had me looking out for anyone who might have bought her belongings afterwards. Tell you what, if you meet me tomorrow where the road forks, I’ll take you to the Newspaper Office where his visit had been written up. His name was Stuart Kaplan and he publishes a lot of Tarot Cards in America.The Nice Lady at the Newspaper Office was to give me the telephone number of another gentleman who had actually been working as an Errand Boy. He was delivering groceries to Pamela and now wishing he’d accepted her offer of one of her paintings when she’d been a bit short of cash because they’d be worth ‘a mint,’ nowadays. We’d met in a local Pub and along the way had begun to talk about the Korean War, in which so many of the Gloucester Regiment in which he’d served had been killed. And I sat in silence as he wept for their memory. And this is where Things get VERY strange because (being so intrigued at how I’d been led) I emailed him. I have received an invitation to travel to America and stay with him so I could look at all of what he had found of Pamela’s possessions, including her Visitor’s Book. No, I didn’t have the money but I’d paid for my fare from my Debit Card hoping for the best. Eventually, I was making my way to Stamford (via the amazing Grand Central Station) where a room had been booked for me at one of the Super 8 Motels for four nights to meet Stuart Kaplan. Not only a Publisher of Cards but the Author and Compiler of three enormous volumes on the History of The Tarot, brimming with illustrations. Later, when I was checking my bank statements I noted that the cost of my four night stay hadn’t been deducted. I phoned the Super 8’s Manager. He told me that Mr Kaplan had paid for my stay! And which is why I have a profound sense of Gratitude for the Voice that guides me.
P.S. I was to discover, quite soon, that the Bencoolin Inn had been Pamela’s last home when it was divided into apartments and it is where the Errand Boy had delivered her groceries. How weird that I’d booked my stay in such a close-by Guest House without knowing this!
