Soraya's Book of Tarot

Extract from Soraya's Book of Tarot

Chapter One   
Introduction
When I first began to write this book I deliberated, for a long time, over how I should begin, I suppose every writer does. Nevertheless, I was not concerned with every writer. I wanted to give a little of my background and that is where my dilemma began. The reason for this is that my background is so bizarre that I was concerned that readers might begin to think that they were reading a fantasy novel. But then, all my life, no matter how much I tried to keep it a secret, other people were so taken with where and when I was born, that they were only too happy to inform others, often much to my displeasure. Since I have grown up with it, to me it’s just the norm no that’s not true. It was never the norm. I just learned to live with it. To others, it was probably fantasy.
I was born on Christmas day. Nothing unusual about that, you are right. What is different about it is that I was born in Bethlehem.  To take things further, I was christened on a leap year day, the 29th February 1948. My Fathers initials are J. C., and I am named after both grandmothers and both these names are the names of queens, Elizabeth, after my Scottish Grandmother and Soraya after my Arabian Grandmother. It does not stop there either. The meaning of Soraya is The Brightest Star in the Galaxy of Seven Stars and the seventeenth card in the Major Arcana of the Tarot is The Star. In most decks The Star is an illustration is of a woman, sitting below a huge star surrounded by seven smaller ones. Therefore, it appears that my name comes directly from the Tarot.
During the forties, my father, who is Scottish, was based in the Middle East. While he was there he saw, and fell in love with my Arabian mother. He pursued her relentlessly, so determined was he to win her love. This caused all sorts of problems for my mother. She tried to tell him, many times that she could not even speak to him without a chaperone, but he would not listen.
Eventually, after following her, he found out where she lived. Much to my mother’s horror, he boldly went to the door and when my Grandmother answered, he asked her for permission to speak to my Grandfather. Understandably, my Grandfather was furious that this young soldier had the audacity to come to his door asking after his daughter. This was just not acceptable. He chased him off in no uncertain terms and then, unfortunately for my mother, demanded an explanation from her. She could give none. She was locked in her bedroom for days and no one was allowed to speak to her.
My Grandfather was very, very, angry with my Mother who was innocent of any indiscretion. He refused to believe that she had not encouraged him in any way and nothing that she could say or do would convince him otherwise.   My Father continued to call on my Grandfather refusing to let anyone stand in his way. He and managed to convince my Grandfather that my Mother was totally innocent of any indiscretion. Not only that but he managed to win my Grandfather’s approval and after some time, with supervision, my Father was allowed to court my Mother.
It was not hard for my Mother to fall in love with my Father, a handsome British soldier. My Mother says that the first time she saw my Father, he winked at her and that’s when she fell in love with him. Although my Mother came from a Christian background, it would still have been totally unacceptable of her to indulge in any kind of flirtation with my Father. Once they began the formal courtship though, it was a different matter. They were allowed to take a walk in the afternoons with a chaperone and sometimes they would manage to hold each other's hands. It was not long before they became engaged and soon after, in March 1947 they were married.
Three months after I was born, they travelled to Scotland and although they had planned to go back, circumstances prevented this. My father first joined The Fire Service then later; The Police Force and they settled here in Scotland and have been here ever since.
I can remember when I was small, my Mothers friends used to come in to chat and have a cup of tea or coffee with her and when they were finished, my mother used to read their cups. I thought everyone did that. I used to sit on her knee and read things along with her, asking questions about what different symbols meant. I suppose that was all part of my early training.
My Father, who is now retired, often had to work night shifts and my Mother, who had had a very sheltered upbringing, was always terrified of the prospect of being alone overnight. Often I would be allowed into the big double bed and Mum and I would play cards until we were both too tired to play any more. Daddy would have been furious if he had known that we often played until very late in the night. He was very strict and, to him, bedtime meant sleep time, but this was our secret, even more enjoyable because it was a secret.
People often ask "Have you always been different?" or "How long have you known that you were different?" sometimes they will ask if others in my family are psychic. On several occasions, during the war, my Father had prophetic dreams, which saved his life. He has told me often to pay attention to my dreams because they are telling me something. As far as anyone else in my family being psychic, my answer to that is simple. Each and everyone one of us is born psychic. When we are very young our intuition is very strong and if it were encouraged it would become stronger but most people don’t understand this so they shy away from it and gradually it begins to fade. It can be rekindled and nourished again though and with time and understanding and study we can all understand the signs that are shown to us in our everyday life. 
I honestly can’t remember if it was my mother, who told me that each suit of cards had it’s own significance in relation to life, and that each card meant something in it’s own right. I do remember that I always knew with certainty what was coming because of what I saw in the cards. To be honest, I really thought that everyone saw exactly the same things that I saw, when they looked at a deck of cards.
Numbers and the significance that they held always fascinated me. At school arithmetic homework was good news to me. I loved it, I used to make what I called magic boxes. Little squares of white paper that were repeatedly folded so that you could put your fingers and thumbs into them and, opening and closing them could ask your friends to pick a number. Whatever number they picked decided the solution or answer to their question. It was all very innocent at that time and to this day, some old school friends insist that they thought it was a game.
I remember too the old red book I used for answering yes or no questions though I have no idea of where I got it, how I knew how to make it, or even where it went. I do remember though that I was using that book when I was still in primary school. It was a hardback book measuring about seven inches by five inches and about an inch thick. An old key was placed in between the centre pages with the top part of the key exposed. String was then tied tightly round the whole thing holding the key in place.
I only ever used this book for my own questions or for those of my special friends. We would sit quietly and I would balance the key between my two index fingers whilst my friend would concentrate on her question. If the book turned and fell to my lap, then the answer was yes. If nothing happened then the answer was no.
I remember too wishing that I could make people better when they were sick and like everyone else around me I would remember them in my prayers but, I took that further too. I would close my eyes and think of the part of their body that was causing the sickness or pain and I would try to think of them as being well again. Distant healing I suppose. I began to realise very early that if people were meant to get well, all efforts helped, but if it was there time to go, they would.  
Because of where and when I was born, I was already different and this additional skill or interest made me even more different. I was very uncomfortable about the whole thing and just wanted to be the same as everyone else. When you are growing up and this happens to you, it can make you feel very self-conscious and isolated. Eventually you learn to keep it to yourself and you spend the rest of your life trying to fit in, trying to be the same as everyone else. That just does not work.  
We each are put on this earth for a specific purpose. The longer we avoid our true path, the more difficult our life becomes. We get to make the same mistakes repeatedly. Unfortunately, when we come to this beautiful planet we are not allowed to bring anything with us. That includes the instruction manual, so we blindly fumble about, making the same mistakes, trying to find our direction.
Like everyone else, my prime concerns were to raise my children Ian, Claire and Victoria, to the best of my ability, and get on with whatever it was that I had to do at the time just to survive. For a long time, I did not look at a deck of cards and when I did, I was terrified because I could see things so clearly in them. If I was right, there were things in my future that I was just to immature and inexperienced to deal with. I did not understand that I had a choice in all of this. I thought that when I saw a situation in the cards, it was going to happen and that was that. I did not realise that choice comes into it. How you act or react plays a big part in all of this. That was really the missing key and it took me a long time to realise that.
This single factor is probably the main reason for writing this book. I suppose you could say that I am trying to provide the key to unlock the mysteries. To help each individual understand that when you do unlock these mysteries you really do have a choice in what you do with your future.