Fortunate Loss

Everyone needs a little luck when talent and hard work are just not enough. However when that elusive lady refuses to grace us with her presence when we really need her, what is our backup option?

Iranians are turning in droves to fortune tellers in the hope of finding an answer to all their insecurities (see page 23) and in the hope that fortune will smile on them soon.

Well, the telling of the future is an art/science that is as old as the Earth itself and while every ancient civilisation had it as part of its culture it has become etched in the collective unconscious of us all.

The Greeks called it ‘Manteia’ and therefore almost every English language method of divination or fortune telling ends in ‘mancy’.

The Chinese, Persians, Africans, Indians and the Greeks used more that a hundred ways to tell the future…. testing the air and water, using bones and cowry shells, joss sticks and parrots picking cards out of a pack… the list is endless and if you are really interested in gathering that information go to http://skepdic.com/divinati.html which will give you the full low-down.

My own experience with fortune tellers has always left me a little stumped.

Why? Simply because every time my fortune was being read and a prediction of a tall, dark, handsome man coming into my life was made by the reading of my palms, I knew that the man is actually blond because I am married to him.

When another predicted I would always have money after reading the shape of my face, it occurred to me that I could never be penniless simply because I’ve worked all my life and will continue to do so.

What really took the cake however was the suave whacko who told me clearly that he could accurately predict my future by the pattern of all the moles on my body.

Naturally, I laughed at him. He did not predict that I was not born yesterday.

P.S. Such a thing does exist. It is called Moleoscopy. My loss – I will never know.