When I saw the sign for the Old Windsor Psychic Fayre, on December 29th, I was excited to go. Some years ago, I developed an obsession with psychics. I called them at all hours, asking them to tell me whether I would ever gain the love I desired. They fell into two camps: those who told me what I wanted and those who did not. I would continue spending until I found one of the former. And sometimes after I did, I would keep calling to get a second opinion. Until I accepted what I had known all along: there are no answers, and it doesn’t matter anyway.
At the Old Windsor Psychic Fayre, Tina of The Angelic Realm, told me that I could find all the answers I wanted by asking a pendulum. Actually she said, “It’s just a pendulum. Don’t live your life by it.”
But first she showed me how a pendulum reacts, or sometimes doesn’t.
“This is celestial quartz,” she said. “Cup the energy. Then ask it something simple first.”
She held an aqua colored crystal on a chain above her open palm.
“Are you willing to work with me?” she asked.
The crystal swayed back and forth. I looked at the hand that was holding the chain and couldn’t tell whether Tina was moving it or not.
“Is my name Mickey Mouse?” she asked.
The pendulum started making circles.
“Is my name Tina?”
It swayed back and forth again.
I picked up a clear crystal at the front of Tina's table and asked if it was willing to work with me. It nodded over my palm. I asked if my name was Tina. It started shuddering. I looked at my hand and suspected that I was somehow giving myself the answers. But that could be useful too.
“I have the meanings of the crystals written down back here,” said Tina. “They’re quite different from what’s in the wibbly wobbly web. “
“People have different ideas about pendulum work. Some people think there’s a blueprint for life: that it is all within. Some think we are tapping into our core energy.”
“My motto is that if it sits well with you, it’s right," said Tina. "If it doesn’t, it’s not.”
As well as crystals, precious stones, jewellery, books and tarot decks, the Stardust Psychic Fayre offered demonstrations and readings by psychics and mediums. They were all occupied when I signed up for a reading. Merlin's Diary said this is "one of their most well attended fayres," and some customers waited for their turn to get a reading for £35. But since I already knew there were no answers and it didn’t matter anyway, I decided to leave without the reading, but with a pendulum just in case.