Psychic Experiences
Local expert claims tarot cards can predict future most accurately
Storv by Ann Marchand
Since time immemorial, people have wondered what the future will hold.
Ancient cultures relied on the practice of runes, or small stones, to predict the lives and fortunes of citizens.
As science evolved, so did the practice of telling fortunes. Astrology, or using the stars' movements to predict human action, became prominent not long after Galileo's telescope allowed constellations to be seen more clearly.
Anima Mundi, Lawrence resident, looks over tarrot cards during a reading. Mundi has been doing tarrot card readings for close to four years.
Tarot cards were used in medieval
Europe to foresee what the future held.
Geoff Krieger / KANSAN
But now that technology has improved and expanded into every aspect of today's society, it's only natural fortune telling and psychic phenomena would be taken over by technology as well.
APRIL 15,1997
But some feel that the only real way to find answers is in person rather than over the phone or by computer.
Anima Mundi is a tarot reader in Lawrence. She graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in communications — a degree she says through tarot, she is putting to good use.
"I guess everybody looks for answers to their lives and where they're headed, and that was one of the places I chose to look," Mundi said.
Mundi cautioned against believing astrology and tarot held all the answers a person might seek.
"It can't, of course, answer all questions. But it can point you in the right direction to look within yourself to find those answers," she said.
She said that it was personally sat isfving as well.
Mundi has been reading tarot cards and astrological charts for about four years, and it is currently her sole source of income.
But now, the explosion of other psychic venues threatens to cripple her market.
Phone psychics are omnipresent now, advertising on the Prevue channel, the main networks and infomercials late at night. But how much do they really know?
Phone calls to boastful psychic networks proved as much. Although no conversations with psychics actually occurred, all promised to uncover the mysteries of life, love, wealth, fame and happiness.
minute, and you talk to someone whose only interest is keeping you on the phone," she said.
Slipped into the introductory speech is always the obligatory "for entertainment purposes only." But that's merely a legal disclaimer. And the 1-900 prefix serves as a veil, hid
Mundi savs not much.
ing the location, names and true intent of the phone psychics.
ing the loca-
"You can nav as much as $3.99 a
and the right of the phone psychics.
Finding what the future holds does not come cheap, however.
Dionne Warwick and K en n y Kingston know that.
One service stated clearly at the end of the introduction that a caller would be charged $2.99 per minute. But at the beginning, only a savvy and attentive listener would note that the
average call was 25 minutes—meaning that a caller could expect to spend on average $74.75 for less than a half an hour of entertainment. That results in the cost of $179.40 for an hour of 'entertainment.'
But if 'entertainment' is the only goal, horoscopes in the daily paper are free.
And there are free astrological and tarot services on the Internet, although a net-surfer likely will encounter many costly providers before finding a free site.
One such complementary site is
Matrix*Space
at
http://205.186.189.2/ms/ms_root.htm
Fortunetelling sites
in-person palm reading.
This site includes astrological forecasts, tarot reading, runes, 1-ching, numerology, and oracle questions. All of the services are free.
To proceed, curious people look at models of a hand on the screen, and click on the lines that best represent their own hands.
Another site that offers free access to futuristic knowledge is Mind-BodySoul at
Ultimately) Mundi agreed that nothing took the place of fortune telling in person.
"Reading tarot on the Internet is something like a facade. You're clicking a mouse, but you’re not there," she said. "I don’t think it
could be described as a true tarot reading because the forces are in the cards."
www.mindbodysoul.com
Anna Woodworth, Arkansas City sophomore, agreed. She reads tarot and astrological charts for entertainment. She said that because results were highly interpretive, it was important that the reader and the questioner have established a relationship.
would want it to be somebody I know, somebody who knows my personality and can better interpret the cards for me," she said. "I don't think a stranger would have anything to say to me."
Matrix*Space:
http://205.186.189.2/ms/js_root.
html
"If somebody did a reading for me, I
This site offers a free membership. Members then can use any of the services offered at no cost.
This is the only site that provides free palm reading on the Internet. And although skeptics will laugh, the site provides a disclaimer that states that nothing can take the place of an
MindBodySoul
http://www.mindbodysoul.com
Mundi agreed.
"As far as the true psychic vibe, you really need to be present. Sometimes you can hear something over the phone, but they will say things to you that are clichés but that fit you."
Ruprecht the Psychic Chicken
http://www.ruprecht.com
http://www.ruprecht.com
BUTTERY CHUNKS MUSIC REVIEW
4
Supersuckers—Must've Been High, (Sub Pop)
What is the deal with punk and/or rock groups
turning country? Well, whatever it is, the Super-
sucker hog.
found a way to make it sound good.
Must I've Been High is a surprisingly well-written and s i p l e album, a far cry from albums like La Mando Cornuda and Sacrificious.
The Super-
suckers have produced an album that sounds like it was made with a beat-up acoustic guitar and three-chord songs.
But the band has kept its originality while sending props to its country heroes like Willie Nelson.
Songs like Non-Addictive Marijuana, Must've Been High and Hung over Together are not your typical topics for country songs, but the Super-suckers are such good musicians that they make it work.
Recently, bands such as Ween also have taken the country path with their album 12 Golden Country Hits. But while Ween takes pride in being silly, the Supersuckers show that they are just some talented musicians having a good time.
In fact, the Supersuckers even performed at Nelson's Farm Aid benefit one year.
But as the title suggests, the majority of the songs are about the band's open relationship with marijuana.
Although I doubt they will be appearing on the Grand Ole Opry an y t i m e soon, they deserve credit for making a fine album.
And it shows.
B l u r —
Blur, (Virgin)
)
The nhrase
bandwagon comes to mind on the subject of Blur's new self-titled album. A faded Mickey Mouse ringer T-shirt and tough sounding guitars do not an alternative album make, although record companies don't seem to realize that.
Blur's last album The Great Escape was a good, straight-ahead pop album full of English-sounding lyrics and synthesizers reminiscent of another young English band, Duran Duran.
But with the whole Oasis/Blur competition currently tearing the UK apart, Blur has abandoned its silky-smooth sound in lieu of the more profitable "alternative" sound. Songs off of Blur, like Song 2 and Moving On, are toe-tapping musical entertainment.
But do not expect Blur to resemble The Great Escape even a little bit. Just when a band shows signs of originality, it bites the dust.
Tuatara—Breaking the Ethers, (Epic)
This all-instrumental band's lineup reads like
who's who of modern music.
Tuatara features Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees; Justin Harwood, a founding member of the group Luna; Skerik, who has played
with various rock, funk and jazz bands; and finally Peter Buck, founding member of that little Athens, Ga., band, R.E.M.
Along with it's pedigree members, Breaking the Ethers features Pearl Jaml's Mike McCready and
Los Lobos' Steve Berlin.
The members of this new group have come together to make a wonderful album that borders somewhere along the jazz/new age/eastern influence.
The marriage of super talents has lead to the birth of a super band.
The Chemical Brothers—Dig Your Own Hole,
(Astralwerks)
Welcome to the techno age.
Don't forget to wear your funky fingernail polish and show off your piercing du jour.
Currently, popular music has hit a slump the size of the Grand Canyon, and it might just be the likes of techno groups such as the Chemical
Brothers that save us from drowning in No Doubt.
Dig Your Own Hole is a techno album, not much different from the rest, but if you are a fan of this burgeoning music, you'll love it.
It has all the
criteria of a good techno album, fast heartthumping base and cool samples that have been worked and reworked until they belong entirely to the new owner.
By Ashlee Roll