Instructions In The Cauldron

There are still twenty degrees down there in November, can you fancy that? That’s wonderful.”

“And what about granny?”, I asked agitated.

“She is ok as well, my dear, don’t worry. Nothing serious has happened.”

“So why did you come and see us to talk?”

“Let’s go home now, Anne, we’ll have a good tea all together and then we’ll tell you the news.”

“Are you pregnant?”

“No, Sarah, I’m not pregnant. You two are enough for me!”

Mum might have been pregnant actually, there would have been nothing wrong, but she had always been emphatic about the fact that her supply of energy and patience had come to an end after two twins.

When we got home and we were sitting all together around the table, as we had hardly ever  done, we discovered what the news was: we were going to move to Sonning Common.

“Where the hell is Sonning Common? And above all, why are we moving there? We’re at our last year at school. How can you think of taking us away?”, I burst out. I flew into a rage, I didn’t want to go anywhere. I liked Newbury, we were born there and we had all our school mates there. Moving away was something absurd!

“Sonning Common is north of Reading, near Henley-on-Thames, we’ll be just thirty minutes far from your granny’s house!”

“Yes, but why? We’re so well here in Newbury”, I went on astounded.

“Your mother and I are going to open a bio-veg café. It’s a great opportunity. Don’t worry about school, you are ending the year here and you’ re starting college there.”

“So everything is already fixed…”

“Yes, Anne, everything is fixed. Mum has got two more good news to give you.”

“Ok, fire away…it can’t be worse than that!”

“The good news is I spoke with Stella about our move, you see, I didn’t know how to face up to the question with you, so I asked her for advice too…Well, you see, she decided they are coming too! Isn’t that wonderful? She is still under medical supervision and she needs to be looked after at a good hospital, the one in Reading is surely one of the best in the whole Berkshire. What’s more, it’s just twenty minutes far from London by train and her parents live there…So, we’re going there all together. Are you excited, girls?”

The fact that Alison was coming too, was surely the best side of the situation. The three of us had been always very close; she was able to counterbalance my relationship with Sarah: she was balanced, methodical but at the same time sweet and sensitive.

Even if she had grown up according to hippie/new age ideals, she looked absolutely ordinary.

However, I wasn’t quite persuaded about moving house.

“And what is the other news, mum?”

“They’re coming to spend Christmas Eve with us at granny’s! Stella wants to meet her. Don’t you think that’s a great idea?”

“Luckily old Mal will be there, otherwise I would be the only man among wonderful, but absolutely crazy, women”, our dad claimed.

He wasn’t wrong at all, actually.

That was certainly one of the funniest Christmas in our life.

In the afternoon we helped Granny to make Christmas pudding, stirring and making wishes, according to our family’s tradition, while she told me how much fun she had had with Mal at the gym opening. She had even danced latin-american music and played bingo till midnight. Mum had laid the table with traditional red and golden colours, putting creakers on every dish. Dad and Mal were instead trying to make the fire brighter in the fireplace, using Yule’s log.

At exactly 6 pm Alison and Stella arrived with a Christmas poinsettia and a bottle of rosé.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Susan. I’ve heard so much about you”, Stella told her with a hug.

“The pleasure is mine, dear.”

“Sarah has told Alison about the candles…I was really moved, thanks a lot! You’re a wiccan, aren’t you?”

She had the bad habit of making people lots of questions. Alison said her mother had no philtre between her mouth and her brain. She was pleasant, always smiling and what’s more she could listen to people, just like granny.

“No, darling, I’m not. I know the Wicca religion very well, I’ve spent my first years in Glastonbury…”

“That’s where your strange accent comes from! That’s great. But can I ask you, why do you live here now?”

“My husband inherited this cottage and I agreed to leave the “Apples island”, I haven’t been there for so many years…”

“This house has got a certain energy in fact, it looks as if we are in a different reality…” Stella was looking around herself, like little girls before dolls houses.

“That’s strange, Anne said the same things some years ago!”

“I’ve been to Glastonbury too, soon after they had diagnosed my breast cancer…I needed to rediscover myself. A spent a whole afternoon sitting at Chalice Well, I stared at the well, the Tor, the water flowing: I was shuttered. I would never have expected such a difficult trial in my life. I do yoga, I’m master Reiki and crystal- therapist, I followed meditation courses in India when I was younger…I blame London air, it’s so polluted. I don’t know…Oh, I’m sorry, I’m talking freely about my problems…That’s because you make me feel really at ease, Susan.”

“I’m really pleased about that and you don’t have to apologize at all”, my granny comforted her. “You must be happy you’re here now. Everything has come to an end; enjoy every moment of your life with your wonderful daughter and with your friends’ fondness. Don’t blame London air, that’s true, it’s polluted, but unfortunately some illnesses happen also if you live on top of a mountain! One of my cousins was vegetarian, she didn’t smoke, she walked a lot and she lived in the South, near the sea; she fell ill all the same.”

“I’ve learnt a lot from this experience”, Stella went on. “It made me understand how frail we are. My stay in hospital was terrible! I hate places like that, the heavy energy, the deep pain, you lose your sense of time. At the start I didn’t want to undergo chemotherapy, I didn’t want to poison my body. I did all that for Alison. Keeping my mind focused on my target was so difficult.”

“But you managed at last. Your holistic training has surely helped you a lot!”, granny had always had this power, she could encourage people and help them see the positive side in everything.

“Yes, I’m sure of that. I devoted my time to the study of Tarots in hospital and during my period of convalescence, when I could read. One night I dreamt I was holding in my hands a small tin box with cards inside: they were “Maria Celia’s” tarots, those cards really exist!”. She took out of her huge bag a small tin box with cards inside. “I bought them online together with a book and I started this new course. I think you can read them…”

“I’m sorry to deceive you once more, but no, I don’t know any kind of divination. I’m just used to consulting an oracle when the seasons change. If you wish, you could explain us the meaning of Arcana after dinner. I haven’t heard about them for ages. My aunt Ruby, my mother’s sister, could read them; she made a lot of money with them, she was famous in Glastonbury. Unfortunately, I haven’t inherited her gift.”

“Oh, I don’t want to bore you.”

“Just relax, the ones who don’t want to listen to are free to leave the room. Let’s have dinner now. Children, wash your hands! It’s ready.”

The dinner was delicious, granny was a perfect cook. She made traditional dishes: turkey filled with blueberries sauce and pigs in blankets (which were absolutely my favourite). Of course, vegetarian dishes for Stella weren’t missing. Besides our pudding as a dessert, Mal brought a wonderful Yule log.

According to tradition, when dinner ended we exchanged presents. Sarah got a “Griffindor” hoodie and I got a “Ravencrow” one. After we had cleared the table, mum, dad and Mal started playing Scrubble, Alison and I sat on the sofa watching TV, with lazy Kiki next to us, while Sarah and granny were listening to Stella explaining Tarots.

She mixed the cards making her bracelets tinkle, she had a mysterious look, she moved them with skill and precision, as if they were an extension of her fingers.

“These cards can help us to understand the Divine project”, I heard her say. “They don’t foretell the future with certainty, but they tell us what could happen. It’s up to us to understand them and to live what life gives us as a continuous teaching somehow. Cards are a means of divination, they keep us in touch with the real source of All and they must be handled respectfully. Let’s start from Major Arcana, they are twenty-two. The first card is The Madman-0: it represents the start of a new journey. We sometimes throw ourselves into an adventure without thinking about it before, led by too much enthusiasm. Being able to take a risk using our hidden gifts is very important.”

She turned to Sarah and my granny that small card representing a young man on  journey with a stick, held back by a little dog.

“Then we have The Magician-I: the wizard, the one who focuses on something and turns it into reality. He knows he is the means the Divine Spirit appears through. We are the makers of our fortunes, just like the man in the card who works with his tools to get what he wants and to evolve.