>Tarot cards is the fix for brains that have trouble figuring out the future. They are uncanny, whether you like it or not.
Take Lalitha Aiyar who disarms you with her candour. “I like Islam more than other religions because you have no one image of God – You can go anywhere and the God follows you – it’s this concept of universal God that makes it such a great religion,” says the cancerian. And what’s the definitive trait of her zodiac sign? “Most have a strong intuition and largely live by it.”
The 49-year-old tarot reader, astrologer and numerologist should know. Her first foray into a power greater than ourselves was 25 years ago. “It’s only in the last seven years that I have been charging for my services.
One look at her qualifications (M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed., diploma in yoga) and you will realise it’s taken her a long time to find her true calling. Eventually, she had to go back to what her father was good at: Astrology. Though her father MN Sundaresan is a well-known medical astrologer, she is more into the life of a mystic. The journey has been long and rewarding. “It’s also exhausting,” she says. “I need to meditate and recharge constantly.”
As a child, Aiyar found herself reading faces and palms of different people without knowing much about either. “Major events would just come rolling in front of my eyes,” she reminisces. “I got into healing people. I would place my hand on people’s heads and remove headaches or place my palm on somebody’s stomach to ease the pain in the area. Often, I would send a quiet prayer to people I would meet on the roads, airports and railway stations.”
On one of her walks around the Ganges, she ran into a cave-dwelling, 75-year-old Swami Tejananda who would become her teacher. She was 18 at the time. “He looked a lot like Hippocrates,” describes Aiyar. “His speech was often softened by his long, flowing beard.”
When she asked him to teach her all about meditation, he put her through a test. “I was given eight days to concentrate on my Ishtadevata (god of wishes),” explains Aiyar. “I did it only for four days. On the ninth day, I met the old man and was reprimanded for my carelessness.”
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. When she was adamant, he tested her again, this time lasting six months. “I was to meditate for fixed hours every day and write about my experiences,” she recalls. “After six months, I was subjected to a test on my visions. He gave me a further one year to meditate. In spite of my post-graduate studies, I managed to find time. It was indeed a challenge. Sports took a lot of my time. Guru subjected me to a total training period on the Indian version of tarot cards for 10 years. I was taught only in codes. I had to interpret and decode them. Later, I got the Indian themes painted. Each card had a particular interpretation, which had to be read to the client. The reading varies with the intuition and vibrations that emanate.”
You can reach Aiyar at 098840-28080 or lalithaiyer3@yahoo.co.in
WHO IS LALITHA AIYAR?
Tarot card reader, astrologer, palmist, numerologist, naturopath, water-dowser
Lives in Chennai; offers predictions for several magazines and web sites apart from individual predictions and counselling
Fortune-telling for the past 25 years; started when she was 21
Travels all over the country to help and predict for people
Was editor at sitagita.com where she ran a fortune-telling column
Founder of a yoga centre in Chennai