She had me pegged. “Absolutely not.” I looked back at the card. “I like the King of Cups for my identity.”
“Interesting. Okay, the second house represents your resources. Money and self-worth.” She turned over the card and laughed. “Ha, Nine of Pentacles. This is the same card I got for the ‘dreams’ house.”
“Card of being wealthy?”
“Yeah, basically. Let’s try the third house, your environment. This would include your brothers, your home and commute, and your communication.” She flipped it over. “Three of Cups. What do you see?”
“I mean, it looks nice. And Cups seems like a pleasant suit. Three women holding up cups in celebration. Various... plants around them. They seem happy. Does it mean... partying? No. It’s a bit muted for that. Cooperation?”
Ria looked delighted. “You’re getting better at this. All of those were good. Celebration, friendship, collaboration, cooperation... Mutual respect and joy. I’d say this is very close to your relationship with your brothers, no?”
It did give me a warm glow, I must admit. “You’re right. I don’t spend much time at my actual home, and most of my communication outside work is with my brothers.”
“They’re your environment. Nice. Okay, house four. A bit confusingly, this one is ‘home and family’. But it’s more about your parents and your roots. And we have... Three of Swords. Oh. That’s the same as what I got.”
The heart with three swords stabbed through it. Subtle. “You never did say what it meant. And it still looks like a bad card.”
“Well, yes. It’s not hard to decode. Heartbreak, hurt...”
“It looks like we have something in common.”
“Hah. Maybe. You don’t need to go in depth for this one. I didn’t, after all. But if you do have any thoughts, feel free to discuss.” She glanced at me, and I remained silent. “Okay, moving swiftly onto house five, creativity. You’ve got... Page of Cups. Reversed.”
“Okay. Can I swivel it around to look? Thanks. He’s holding a cup, obviously, with a fish in it. His turban thing looks kind of like a big fish, stylish. He’s on the beach. He’s a bit flamboyant, if we’re looking at creativity. I could see Sylvester wearing this tunic. If it’s reversed... the opposite of flamboyance? Not being creative at all?”
“Reversed cards aren’t exactly opposite. They’re just a bit... obscure. So if we think of it in terms of creativity, it could be that your creativity is... ‘repressed’.”
“Ah, I’m not going to live that down, am I?”
“You did say you were struggling with a solution to a problem. That can lead to a repression of creativity. Let’s check out house six. This is your daily routine, self-care, physical health. And we’ve got... Ten of Wands.”
The card pictured a man struggling to carry ten large wooden sticks. “Oh dear.”
Ria laughed. “I can see what you’re thinking. He’s carrying a heavy burden, for sure. But if you can see in the background, he’s almost reaching civilization after walking across what looks like a desert. So he’s worked hard, he’s very tired, but he’s almost there.”
“That sounds better. Thanks.”
“Have you been looking after yourself?”
Such a direct question. “My sleep routine hasn’t been the best. To be honest, I’m semi-living out of this office.”
Ria pointed in the direction of my makeshift wardrobe. “You did forget to close your clothes cupboard. I thought maybe a girlfriend had thrown you out.”
I was briefly embarrassed, but laughed at the idea I might have a girlfriend. “No. No girlfriend. I’ve thrown myself out, if anything.”
“I have to say, you’re dispelling some stereotypes about lazy billionaires with inherited wealth here. Is that why you work so hard? You need to feel like you’ve earned it?”
I blinked. She was getting quite close to a lot of things I’d never talked about aloud before. “Yes. In part. I suppose so.”
She nodded, and, sensing I wished to move on, flipped over the next card. “Eight of Cups. This represents your partnerships. You said you don’t have a girlfriend, and I’m presuming not a boyfriend, though correct me now before I make a fool of myself... Okay. So this would represent any close partnerships you have, colleagues, possibly your brothers again. Maybe even this partnership with me.”
I looked at the card. “A guy with a stick walking away from a stack of eight cups and towards the mountains. I’m getting a kind of hermit vibe here. There’s the sea again, because cups, I guess. And a lot of jagged rocks to his side. Those cups are stacked very neatly on the beach. I wonder why he’s leaving them behind? Is there one missing?”
“Hmm. It is odd that he’d leave them behind. But then, why did you ghost me last week?”
I looked at her to see if she was still annoyed. But something wicked glittered in her eyes, and I settled back into my seat. “Touché. So I’m avoidant in my partnerships? I prefer to work alone?”
“Possibly. Why did you get avoidance from the card?”