Reading: "Altar of Incantation" from COVEAL OF THE HEDONIC (A.Glass 2025)
1983Chelsea, New York“Atrium of Tarot and
Books”
“Come in
Pam,” Isla Br’ala says, smiling, whilst
standing at the entrance of her book shop, as a woman, neatly dressed
wearing a mid length pinstripe skirt, light blue blouse, her dyed
blonde hair tired back into a ponytail, smiles and enters the
bookstore. To which Br’ala closes the door behind her, locking it.
“Thank you Isla,”
Pamela
Knightly replies, looking around the store admiring
its eclectic ambiance.
“How’s
your new job?” Br’ala asks, noticing
the beige colored handbag slung over the woman’s shoulder, as
she
lights an incense. Knightly
looks up at
painting
of a Three faced woman, as Br’ala, holding the incense
in her right hand, walks in a counterclockwise motion around her
shop. Ensuing that the smoke from
the aroma
is dispersed, she then snubs
it
out onto
copper ornamented dish, with a cloaked
figure of a
man, made
in bronze, his
arms out stretched
out, she
balances the incense across its open palms.
“Well, I
started last week, so I’ve somehow settled in. I like being
a Trading
assistant,
not may of us women work
in that
industry...” She replies smiling, looking over the various
crystals, Knightly leans closer studying an orb like stone, balanced
on a
small ring. “...What is this stone?”
“The
Stone of Hidden Fire.
It is Pyrite fused into Agate. Lift it up...” Br’ala says, as
Knightly lifts the smooth egg shaped stone, looking over its details.
“...Hold
it in your left open palm, in
an observant manner she obeys
Br’ala’s
instructions.
“...Now squeeze with
the same hand, to which Knightly complies. “...The most intense of
sexual pleasure, a fleeting moment of oblivion. Now release.”
Knightly does, while
exhaling. “Dear me,” she says still holding the stone.
“It is yours…”
walking towards the far end of the shop, where a curtain divides into
another room. “...When you have a lover, place the
stone under
your
mattress…” Following
Br’ala,
she
slightly
turns around whilst
parting the
curtain allowing her
to walk into the room first,
looking at Knightly with
a cheeky
grin. “...It will be the
fuck to end all fucks.”
“Good enough for me,”
Knightly replies, although
slightly taken back by Br’ala’s
comment,
they both enter an intimate and
dimly lit space,
with two
large paisley patterned pillows, which
face each
other.
“Please,
sit,” Br’ala says, pointing to the cushion further from the
entrance of the room, as Knightly sits down, removing her shoes,
Br’ala does the same, sitting
opposite of the woman in front of her. To
her left side is a deck of Tarot cards, with
her left hand and open palm in a circular motion she clears the cards
of previous
incantations,
to be used as anew. Br’ala lifts up
the cards,
and with both hands, she
cuts the
pack
into three piles, lifting each
one up in a
seemingly random combination,
then
placing
them atop of each other, changing the configuration until
she is left with Three even piles again.
“Your new job as a
Trading Assistant. Do
you assist in calculations?” Br’ala
asks.
“Some
basic stuff, I check over placed orders. See if there has
been any calculation errors,”
Knightly
replies, as
she shifts her position slightly, thinking about the vigorous sex she
had last night.
“And
there are
many errors, at times. Correct?...”
Knightly nods, as her
arousal begins to build and she feels a sensitivity in and around her
clitoris.
“...Men, seem to be
always
rushing
things. Constantly
in a hurry. Do they learn from their mistakes? The masculine may
indeed have
that innate
ability to
explore, to
challenge,
but it is
the
feminine, who
understands
the complexity of
things, and
its
details. Yet, we all can easily be distracted. We
all
miss the obvious, even
when it can be in front
of us. Do
you have a calculator in your handbag?” Br’ala
with her
open palm, of her right hand, moves it over the Three stacks of
cards, from from left to right.
“I do…”
“Could
you
please
take it
out. We’ll
be needing it for this card
reading.”
In a
curious
manner,
Knightly
reaches
into her handbag. “...The new Texas Instruments calculator, its
got these solar cells along top, no batteries. The firm bought
these for all
the staff.
A Tarot reading with
a calculation,
now I am very curious.”
“Good...”
Holding the calculator in
her right hand, she leans forward,
offering it
to Br’ala.
“...No,
it will
be
you
doing
the
calculation
for the card, I will simply guide you for the reading. Shall
we begin?”
Br’ala asks.
“Yes,”
Knightly
replies.
“Since
you know
the
importance
of equaling each equation, so please follow my instructions carefully
and the numbers I offer. They are mostly of the sacred numbers Three
and Six…” Br’ala
closes her
eyes, with her hands outstretched, left palm facing down, and right
facing up. “...For the card will materialize between these worlds,
but of one world, the only world.
Which is yours...” She opens her eyes.
“...Do
not tell me. Enter
the date you began your new job…”
Knightly enters Twenty Five
into the calculator.
“...Double the number.
How many phases in the Moon cycle?”
Br’ala
asks,
as Knightly
looks down
at the number Fifty on her calculator, she
then look briefly up at the ceiling of the darkened room.
“Seven?”
“Correct,
please enter that number, and
equal.
Then times
by
Three…”
Knightly times
Three from the
equaled
number.
“...Plus Thirty Three,
and now you must divide the number by Six. The prefect number, equal
to the sum of itself...”
Knightly divides
the number on her calculator by Six.
“...And with the number
remaining, do not tell me, but subtract the start date of your new
job. As we have returned to the beginning and end of the equation.”
Knightly follows
Br’ala
instructions
looking at the number now remaining.
Br’ala closes
her eyes again.
“The number. Is it
Nine?”
Knightly smiles,
looking at her calculators with the number Nine remaining from the
string of numbers. “Yes, it is. That is
very
impressive.”
Br’ala opens
her eyes once again.
“Now, you must pick a
single card from these three piles...”
Knightly immediately
reaches for the right side pile, and lifts up a single card.
Flipping it around, she eyes the card, and its number. Her heart
rates increases, as does the feeling of sexual excitement that she
had felt earlier, although this time it is tinged with a slight
anxiousness.
“...And the card
number and
name?”
“It is the number Nine,
Gain.” Knightly,
turns the
card around so that Br’ala
can view
it, revealing
what look like an inverted pentagram with Nine orbs like disks
surrounding the image.
___
Reading: "Altar of Incantation" from COVEAL OF THE HEDONIC (A.Glass 2025)
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