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Welcome to another of my guide Melinda’s Friday messages about how to live life. If you’d like to know more about her and what she has to say you can find more in the first post in this series.

Melinda’s Life

Andrew has been getting questions from some of you about who I am. Let me say again that it is not really that important. However, I am going to tell you so you can put that question aside and listen to the messages.

You can call me Melinda as I said. This is the name I want to be known by. It is not the name I was born with and used in my lifetime. My birth name and family name are personal and I will not share them. In some ways they are all I have left of my life.

I was born on February 13th 1696 in France. I was born where my family was camped. I have no hometown. The towns that were nearby are so small and forgotten now that they no longer exist. If you wanted to say I was born a few days ride from Marseille that would be the most accurate.

My family, according to my mother, had its roots in the Middle East. She used to like to say we were Persian though I have no real sense of the validity of her story. My mother worked as a fortune teller as did her mother, and (so I was told) her mother before her. I learned to read the cards from my mother and the deck I had was given to me by her. It was a Marseille deck in the style of what Andrew refers to as the Noblet Marseille deck.

My Grandmother did not read the cards so how Mother came to I am not sure. My Grandmother read palms, coffee, and knew a lot about reading the stars. I learned these things from her too. My mother never spoke of how she came to have the cards or how she learned to read them and no one else in my family did either. That is her story to tell should she ever want to.

My family lived as I lived as an adult. Travelling from place to place. Telling fortunes. Offering healing and advice on the spiritual matters that the Church chose not to acknowledge. I want to be clear that although people often referred to us as being like the Romany we were not related to them in any way.

I lived a long life and travelled throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and even to the Middle East. I spoke many languages – at least enough to work my trade. I loved, had a family of my own, grew old and the rest you know. That is enough of me for this week.

However, I also hear comments about my bluntness and challenging nature. I wish to speak to that before I go. I am not challenging or abrupt – life is. When you are no longer alive you will have a clear view of the cut and dry nature of life. I speak life as it is, not wrapped in fancy words or ideas meant to take your money from you and give you false hope. I speak now so you may know the things that are most important about how to live so you do not waste your years, get fooled by charlatans, or live behind your own lies. I share my words so you may enjoy being alive as it is a great treasure and incredibly fleeting.

Thank you for listening
Melinda

I have been asked not to answer questions for Melinda but if you leave a comment she will get back to you.

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The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also listen to the Hermit’s Lamp podcast here.