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  Sally flipped the first card. “This is his Earth card. It represents the here and now. He has pulled an inverted 8 of Cups card. Someone close to him will abandon Leif in a time of great urgency. He will feel betrayed at the moment, but perhaps realize that this person’s personal quest was necessary for their own growth, and his.”

  I frowned.

  The second card was the 9 of Cups, also inverted. “This is the Moon card, relating to those things immediately surrounding or affecting the subject. Leif will find he is either seen as someone who is a false prophet, exuding a false display of power or promise to those that surround him, or he will recognize another as such.”

  “Ha!” she exclaimed as she turned the next card. “This is the Mars card, representing those issues in adversity to Leif, opposing his position. You see he’s pulled the 7 of Wands card, courage. Courage, to seize the day. To act decisively in the face of opposition. He will find himself standing up against injustice, taking an aggressive posture against his foe.”

  “That sounds like our Leif,” called Bethany from the couch. I smiled at her.

  “The next card is his Jupiter card, representing achievement, gain and expansion.” She carefully turned the card to reveal a frightening sight. The Devil! Sally looked up at me sensing my disappointment.

  “This is not a bad card, Sara. It may look intimidating, but it has many meanings. And look at that. It too is inverted.”

  “Okay, so what does this represent?”

  “The inverted devil card represents an exercise in self-control. An act of selflessness, to avoid distraction and maintain one's sights on their path ahead. Leif will likely and selflessly throw himself onto the proverbial fire at some stage in his adult life, as he works towards what end he has in sight. This act will propel him into the leadership role he is destined to achieve.”

  She moved on to the fifth card in the pattern. “The ringed planet Saturn represents judgment and an overall assessment of Leif’s position.” She flipped it quickly. “Ah!” She looked back at her friends seated on their couch. “An inverted 7 of Cups.”

  “This is a good card?”

  “This represents a desire reborn. A job completed. An overriding will to fulfill what was started. Essentially, hard work bears great fruits.” Her smile faded as she continued reading the card. “Leif will have realized his efforts but lose someone very close to him. You see in the card the undetermined figure walking off with a cup? This person means very much to Leif, but they will have abandoned him, either for their own selfish pursuits or for reasons of a spiritual nature. Regardless, Leif will feel very alone in his victory.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “Yes, but it’s the bigger picture that matters and your son knows this.”

  She turned the sixth card. “Mercury traditionally gives insight into business and professional matters, business associates or acquaintances. He has pulled the 4 of Cups. This card offers clarity of thought in its inverted manifestation. Leif will see a clear path ahead, knowing what he wants for himself and humanity. His ability to meditate will have reached its summit.”

  The seventh card was turned. “Venus,” she said. “You know what Venus is all about. Love, relationships. It is right side up.” She smiled from ear to ear. “Our Leif will find his bliss in a relationship. He will also find he is surrounded by positive energies and an abundance of generosity. Good friendships and a sharing of good times evolve from his efforts. He is happy, happier than he has ever been.”

  Tears welled up and I wiped them away. “Sorry,” I said, sniffling. “I’m just so happy to hear he’ll be alright, that he’ll fall in love.”

  “It could also act as a card of memories - items that have been in a person's life but have vanished. Leif may look to the elements in his childhood to solve problems in later life situations. Perhaps a return to innocence is his bliss. A relationship can be a physical thing, but it can also be spiritual.”

  “The Sun.” The last card pulled, in the center of the circle, represented aspirations, fame and accomplishments. “Leif has pulled the Justice card.” Sally let out a great sigh of relief. “And it is right side up.” She turned again to her friends at the wall and gave a nod. They nodded back at us.

  “This is good also?”

  “Look at the illustration on the card, Sara. The scales represent perfect equilibrium. The sword represents being able to cut to the heart of a matter quickly and keenly. The scales are also the balance of present and future. This tells us Leif has taken responsibility for his actions, realizing that everything he’d done in the past had shaped him, and everything that he’ll do in the future would continue to do so. Leif will have reaped what he had sown. Much of the future depends upon what he’s done in the past. Leif will have reached a perfect balance.”

  I was overwhelmed by all of this information. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. That the reading had been mostly positive made me happy. I was beginning to really trust these women and their feelings. But just as with the angel Joel and some of the others claimed to have seen, part of me would always be skeptical.

  “This is a good reading.” Carol stood and moved through the room towards where Leif lay nestled on my lap, oblivious to all of the energy being generated in determining his future. “I would like to perform a séance with the boy. There is a great deal of spiritual energy surrounding him. The others are busy.”

  “What would a séance do?” I was nervous about this next step into the unknown. A séance was like the Ouija board to me, a dark, misunderstood magic of sorts, talking to the dead and all that.

  “I will be better able to speak with the boy’s guides, to know what they know.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “It’s up to you of course, Sara, but it is in the boy’s best interest that I perform a séance. The more we know, the more guidance we can offer you.”

  “Okay, if you truly believe it’s in Leif’s best interest, I’ll consider it.”

  “Enough for tonight,” Beth interrupted. “We have enough now to meditate on. Give the girl time to decide.” With that the women retreated to their cots.

  *****

  The two days following Leif’s Tarot reading gave me plenty to think about. Leif’s life plan was beginning to take shape and with it, mine. As I rummaged through the cold room, another fifteen steps below the bunker, Carol approached me.

  “Have you made a decision as to whether you’d like for me to speak to Leif’s guide?”

  “I think so.”

  “Good, Sara. Good. I have a strong feeling this guide can help you.”

  “How can you know that?”

  “My own guide has warned me against channeling this spirit.”

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t, Carol.”

  “Perhaps.” She tilted her head to the left and looked down timidly. “But it is because of my guide’s warning that I feel I must try.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  She smiled and nodded. “I’ll prepare for the séance. After dinner, we’ll begin.”

  Chapter Twenty Six

  The bunker was usually quite dark, but the night of the séance only candle light was permitted, making the intimate space feel slightly more claustrophobic. We huddled around the circular kitchen table, hands joined. Leif had been put to bed and could be heard soundly snoring from his bassinette. Of course the women had furnished a portion of the bunker with baby furniture in anticipation of Leif’s arrival.

  I sat between Carol and Jenny. Their hands were vastly different: Jenny’s pudgy and soft, while Carol’s were bony and strong, but both were ice cold.

  “We will begin by clearing our minds. Then focus on me. I will require your energies if I am to pull this off.” Sally took a deep breath, held it for what seemed like ten seconds and slowly released it over another ten seconds. The others followed suit and I too took a deep breath, held it and released.

  “Good, I can feel your energies entering my space,” she whispered
. “Now focus on Leif, focus on his spirit.”

  I thought of my son and smiled; he was snoring so loudly. My chest filled up with love and I almost laughed out loud. Carol’s grip tightened and I squeezed back. Suddenly, Carol’s head tilted back and her eye lids fluttered violently. I turned to Bethany and mouthed: “Is she alright?”

  Beth nodded back.

  “Concentrate.” Carol pronounced each syllable. “I see him. It’s a him.” Her brow furrowed. “He is…. dark.”

  That gave me goose bumps. He is dark? I didn’t like the sound of that.

  “He’s here now,” she whispered. Her eyes shot open. “He’s with Leif.”

  My head swung around to watch the crib. Nothing.

  “I will try to make contact.” The room fell silent. Everyone closed their eyes but me. I kept both on Leif.

  “He’s very powerful,” Carol said through clenched teeth. “He’s showing me he is in control. Our light does not attract him.” She became suddenly rigid. “Speak to me,” she pleaded. “Speak to me. Why do you attach yourself to this child?”

  Silence.

  “Tell me what you know of Leif’s path so that we might help guide him.” More silence.

  “Yes… yes, I am listening…” Without opening her eyes, she began to relate the spirit’s message.

  “He says everything is as it should be.” Her eyebrows met in the middle and her head shook back and forth. “He feels guilt over something. He is sad. He carries a deep emotional burden. He won’t share what it is with me. He assures me his is a special task and that everything is as it should be.”

  She broke the circle by freeing hands, and looked at me. “He’s a shadow, this spirit. He’s like a silhouette. I can’t really see him; he’s blocking me. I can do no more.” She took a deep breath. “I wish I could have helped him. He suffers a terrible guilt.”

  “You did well, Carol.” Sally smiled at her.

  “You can only help those that want to be helped, Carol,” said Jenny. “You know that.”

  “I know.” Carol wiped away a tear.

  “So Leif is in good company with this spirit?” My concern was for my son and not the spirit that was apparently haunting him.

  “He is a good spirit, Sara, rest easy in knowing that. And powerful. Leif is in good company. The spirit’s sadness should not affect his goal.”

  “And this spirit’s goal is what? To guide Leif’s life toward some future purpose?”

  “Exactly. He is your son’s spirit guide.”

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  My time at the bunker with these witches was one of the most educational and spiritual experiences of my short life. Some days we sat to sip tea, play board games, or read one of the hundreds of magazines and books Beth had collected in preparation for this period. But on other occasions, one of them would take me aside to teach me some sort of lesson. In one such case, it was Beth herself.

  “Take this pendulum.” She handed me a delicate chain necklace with a ring threaded through it. “Hold it like this.” Taking my hand, she raised my arm up. When my hand was at eye level, she pulled the chain out of my fist slowly until the ring hung six inches from my fingers. “I’ll show you what we’re all capable of, not just me. What you see is not all that makes up the world we live in. Energy is all around us. We are energy and we emit energy. When you feel the body heat of another, do you not believe it comes from them?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you cannot see it, can you?”

  “No.”

  “You cannot see radio waves, or microwaves, but you know they exist because science can measure them. Science cannot measure what a psychic sees or how a healer heals. The only way to believe is to experience.”

  “Okay. Help me understand.”

  “We lost many of our abilities to technology. Our gifts were left unexplored. Now, in this new world, we must rely upon our natural gifts, our abilities to see and to heal.”

  “Teach me.”

  “Quiet your hand, child.” She wrapped her wrinkled hands around my clenched fist. I stopped shaking. The pendulum went still. “Now with a thought make the pendulum swing.”

  “With a thought?”

  “Yes. Concentrate on the ring and make it move. It is a powerful practice, a first step in your own realization that within you is a power far greater than anything you might have imagined.”

  I studied the ring and silently asked it to move. I thought about creating a whirlwind beneath it, twirling it counter-clockwise. It didn’t take any time at all for the pendulum to actually move and then quicken. It was spinning around and around and I could barely believe it. Then it slowed to a stop. The smile that had grown on my face out of awe gave away my fascination with what had just occurred.

  “Exciting, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. “But it stopped.”

  “Because you willed it to stop.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “You did, by not quite believing what you were doing. You might have thought your fingers or your wrist were twitching just enough to make the pendulum swing, or you simply couldn’t accept that what was happening was in fact happening. You lost faith.”

  “I was really doing that with my mind, with a thought?” My hand lowered and I rubbed my shoulder.

  “You were. There is more I can show you. Lift your arm again and make the pendulum move back and forth in a straight line rather than in a circle.”

  I did as she asked. I concentrated again, and mentally saw the ring moving back and forth. Seconds later it actually did. The smile returned to my face.

  “Good, good, Sara, you’re doing very well. Now imagine the circular motion means no, and the back and forth yes.”

  “Okay.” I focused on the ring.

  “Now ask a question.”

  “And this will give me my answer?”

  “If it is a yes or no question, you will have your answer.”

  Why not? I was intrigued. “Will my son be blond?”

  The pendulum slowed and changed direction. It was whipping around in a circle.

  “I guess not!” I grinned at Bethany.

  I felt empowered. I kept asking questions and it kept answering. Right or wrong I couldn’t say, but I hoped the future would confirm my hope that what I was learning wasn’t all a hoax, and there really was something to what these women were teaching me.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  The following day it began to rain violently. Thunder could be heard rumbling and crashing overhead. This made a trip around the perimeter out of the question, so I relaxed on the comfortable couch with a book. Leif was sleeping soundly in his crib. Suddenly, Jenny approached with an excited smile on her face. “I’ve finished it.”

  “What, Jenny?”

  “Leif’s horoscope.”

  I had completely forgotten Jenny was working on an elaborate explanation of Leif’s existence via her star charts.

  I sat up, placing the book on the coffee table. “That’s great!” I motioned for her to sit next to me. As she sat, the couch groaned in protest beneath her weight.

  “I think this will give you a good understanding of who your son is.”

  “I’m very interested. You know, I used to always read my horoscope.” I don’t know if I always believed it, but some days it seemed pretty dead-on. Weird.

  “Good, then you’re familiar with the idea behind the art.”

  “I think I get it,” I nodded, anxious to get started. Truth be told, I knew that people born of the same astrological signs were said to share similar personality traits and even physical traits. But my knowledge of this art was weak at best.

  Jenny laid out several pieces of paper in front of me on the table and began.

  “So, your son was born June 20th of this year. This puts him under the sign of Gemini in the Zodiac.”

  “Yep, he’s a Gemini.”

  She nodded. “I mentioned he was ruled by Mercury, the messenger god of Roman mythology. I think it fitting
he should be ruled by Mercury. Perhaps his is a message of hope.” Jenny was so confident in her proclamations, it almost made me smile. But I contained my amusement. I knew these readings were her life’s work.

  “Gemini is the third sign of the Zodiac. Gemini, the twins, are a mix of the yin and yang and are never boring!” She smiled.

  “According to my charts, I can tell you where Leif will fall into the very best and the very worst of the Gemini traits.” She placed a chubby finger on top of a pile she stacked in front of me.

  “Leif will be very capable of seeing both sides of every story. This will help him as a leader to understand conflict and make educated decisions as to a solution. He will make a very good politician, and I mean good in the sense that he would actually be fair, honorable, well-loved by those who know him.” I glanced at my sleeping baby, trying to picture him in this light. He sighed heavily and raised an arm across his face, as if this were all too much for him.