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 |   The time was near, the place was here |
Madam Hecate poured water into a small old oak beer keg and peered intensely at its surface. After a few minutes, she sneaked a peek at the woman sitting across from her and intoned, “A picture emerges.” With any luck, the old biddy would fall for her line. “Yes,” she paused a few seconds, adjusting her long dark hair, “there it is. I can see something.” The woman in front of her broke down in tears. Her face grimaced, wet and pained. Sobbing, she asked while grabbing the table with both hands: “Tell me, tell me, is it him? Do you see my husband?” "Oh My God", Hecate thought with disdain, "just another sucker to play with. What was it with all those silly people? Couldn’t they tell she was only toying with them?" “It’s a very faint image. There must be a blockage in the atmosphere of some sort. Do you want me to go over my crystal ball to watch more in detail? That’ll be a hundred and twenty-five dollars extra?” Hecate smiled her most friendly smile. “Oh, yes, please. You’ve helped me so far with the cards but if you have a vision of my late Bert, I want to know.” The woman took out her wallet from the shopping bag and handed over the money immediately. Madam Hecate folded the paper notes carefully and put them in the pocket of her beautifully stitched pale blue gown. She walked over to the desk in the middle of the tent, took the transparent crystal sphere, and placed it in front of the woman. She then pressed play on the little DVD player and waited for the soft and brilliant tones of Indian flutes to fill the inside of the canvased room. The time was near, the place was here. “I can see the contours of a man… is he bald? I don’t see any hair.” With one eye she glanced at the woman who was staring into the ball as well. “My Bert? No, he had hair, he was blond and wore a baseball cap all the time.” The woman looked confused. “Ah, that must be it, the shape of a baseball cap. “Hecate immediately changed the subject. “He is waving, he is motioning me to come closer. Does he want to say something? Something important?” “He had a will, but I can’t find it. Where is the will, Bert?” The woman shouted at the crystal ball. Hecate summed up some possibilities, waiting for the woman to react. “In the study…, the living room…under the stairs….” That last one struck a chord. “In the cupboard under the stairs perhaps, Bert…is that what you want to tell me?” The woman sighed with relief. Her tears were forgotten. “It must be, I looked everywhere else. “ Within 10 minutes the session was over. The woman left content with a smile and Hecate put away her fee inside her purse. "Two fifty for 45 minutes. Not bad at all. I must be good!" She then took a copious lunch in one of the fair’s little restaurants before handling four more clients that afternoon. Madam Hecate’s fortune teller’s little shop was a hit! BECAUSE THE BUSINESS WAS booming in the months ahead she decided to do some group sessions as well. First, she did her research and read Henry Cornelius Agrippa and his 16th-century three-volume book Three Books of Occult Philosophy. She was genuinely surprised there was so much information on the subject. She made flyers and handed them out in shops in her hometown. Soon she had an audience of five people willing to pay the money to see her perform her rituals. That Saturday, Madam Hecate started her workshop early in the morning and welcomed the small group in front of her. A woman with her adult daughter, a teenage boy, and three elderly locals were facing her with great anticipation. With care, she performed the blessing rite of the magic tools, dagger, rod, goblet, pentacle, and crystal ball. She put burning incense and a glass of holy water on an altar placing the objects on its corners: the four elements. "Shit, there are five objects, what do I do? "On a whim, she put the pentacle in the middle. "There, problem solved. " Hecate continued. Salt on a piece of bread signified earth in the North; a candle signified fire in the South; East: a rose as a symbol of air; West: red wine for water. She then drew a cross over her body. Index finger and middle finger upright, other fingers in the palm of the hand covered with the thumb. She faced east and imagined white light above herself. Pulling the white light down to her forehead she spoke the words: “Ateh, Tao, Malkuth, Ve Geburah, Ve Gedulah, Le olahm amen.” Her audience didn’t utter a word looking at her from a distance. Mesmerized. Hecate opened her arms wide in the form of a cross and said: “In front of me Rafael, behind me Gabriel, at my right side Michael, at my left side Uriël. Around me the fire of the pentagram, above me the father, behind me the mother, in me the eternal flame. “ She took the glass with holy water and splashed it in the four corners while walking clockwise. Repeating the circle again with incense, another three times. Taking a break every time in the east she stopped while chanting: “Holy, holy, holy, Creator of the Universe, holy, holy, holy. God of life without form. Holy, holy, holy. The Almighty. Master of contrast, God of thunder and light…” Then suddenly, in the midst of her performance, she heard a disturbing noise from the crowd. Four people were standing in a circle around one of the elderly men. Hecate joined the others. The man was lying on the ground, sweating, gasping for air. He was clearly in pain, his arm clenched to his chest. Then he stopped moving at all. "His heart, he's having a heart attack." The boy immediately performed CPR. Hecate called an ambulance. Then she reassured the rest. "Help is on its way, let the boy work. It'll be alright." But it clearly was not alright. Within minutes the boy raised his head and shook it. "No, he is gone...what do we do now?" "Are you sure?", Hecate panicked a little. Somebody dying on her watch? "Do it again, please." The boy tried a few times but gave up eventually. The others were all in shock, some were crying, and others just sat motionless near the alter. Hecate knelt down on the floor and took the man’s hand. It felt cold, with no pulse. Death felt weird and unfamiliar. She thought about this sudden death. Why, was this happening now? She looked at the body and suddenly became aware there was a blue aura surrounding the man. She needed the help of angels so she started chanting. “Hagiël, angel, oh, come to me.“ And she made the sign of the six-pointed starred pentacle on the man’s chest. The four others realized that Hecate was sitting there, singing and they sat around her joining in singing and prayer. Suddenly the boy stopped singing and looked at Hecate with big eyes, frightened. The others stopped too. What was wrong? What was happening? The man on the floor had opened his eyes. He was breathing again! And Hecate’s long dark hair had turned white. The time was near, the place was here. When the ambulance arrived they found six joyous people chanting. WC: 1257 Note ▼ |
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