Kipper Keeps It Relative

I recently turned to the Fin de Siècle Kipper about seeing a movie with my brother.

Recently, I shared my “progress report” reading with the Kipper. Since then, I’ve been more active with it, finding situations to pose to the cards, both as a form of regular practice and for the guidance Kipper would like to impart.

One of these situations involved my brother. He called one day last week to check-in, and suggested taking in a movie together. A couple of weeks ago, we’d seen “Doctor Strange,” and hadn’t shared what upcoming movies we were each interested in seeing.

For myself, I wanted to see “Fantastic Beasts—and Where to Find Them,” but hadn’t found the time to go yet. So when he asked what I’d like to see, I mentioned it. I also considered that the choice might not appeal to him, because we’d never seen any of the “Harry Potter” movies together.

To my surprise, he agreed, and I checked the movie times at the theater he wanted to go to, and we decided to go that coming Saturday.

So, the night before I took out my (monogrammed!) copy of the Fin de Siècle Kipper Cards by Ciro Marchetti, asking the question, “Will I enjoy seeing ‘Fantastic Beasts’ with my brother tomorrow?” and pulled three cards.

The Kipper’s Answer to My Question

The cards I drew were Lovers, Wealthy Man, and Thoughts.

I love when this happens as a card reader: The card in the middle of the line, which I go to first as the central issue or focus of the question, is Wealthy Man.

This card can refer to a person younger than me, and this fits, as my brother is two years younger than me. So Wealthy Man is representing him.

And I drew this card at “random.”

I also read Wealthy Man as having to do with finances (wealthy), and this card can represent an investment—and a return on the investment. Again, this fits with the context of the question, because I’m investing time and money into seeing this movie with my brother.

Certain cards in the Kipper are said to be read with direction in mind, and Wealthy Man is one of them. In the image, the man is leaning to one side, and in the line, that is toward Lovers.

Lovers is also known as Success in Love, so I read this as the cards leaning toward the idea that this will be a successful outing, that I’ll get that return on my investment (Wealthy Man).

And that word “idea” brings in Thoughts, which is known as His Thoughts, representing my thoughts about whether my brother would actually want to see a movie like “Fantastic Beasts,” as well as my thoughts on the outing being successful (Lovers + Thoughts).

The Essence Card

I then decided to add up the numbers on the cards for the Essence card. 15 + 13 + 16 = 44; there are 39 cards in this deck (traditionally it has 36), so I add 4 + 4, for a total of 8.

The 8^th card in the deck is False Person.

Uh-oh.

False Person, on one hand, can represent a person, like Wealthy Man, suggesting someone dishonest and insincere, someone putting up a “front.” Could it be that my brother wouldn’t be honest if he didn’t like the movie?

When not about a person directly, False Person can represent a mistake, so I began to think (Thoughts) about the possibility of the movie outing being a mistake.

The Outcome

The next day, I go through my morning routine, getting ready to see the movie in the afternoon. I check my phone and see my brother sent a text that read “Love.” I didn’t open the text to read it in its entirety, thinking it was simply his way of confirming we were meeting up for the movie later.

Seeing the word “Love” did make me think of the Lovers card, and about the outing being successful.

I arrive at the theater and buy the tickets. I go into the lobby, and I text my brother, letting him know to meet me inside, that I’ve got things covered.

He calls. I pick up. He says, “Did you get the text I sent you?”  I tell him I did, but I didn’t open it. He says, “I sent you the text to say I decided to take a rain check on the movie. Now I feel bad that you’re there and paid for the tickets.”

It was at this moment I remembered False Person and the possibility of a mistake being made. I said, “Don’t feel bad. You did your part and sent the text. I made the mistake of seeing it and not opening it. I’ll just go ahead and get a refund for your ticket, and since I’m here, I’ll go ahead and still see the movie.”

And, then I had the presence of mind to ask, “Are you okay? Is everything all right?” I asked because he had been under the weather recently, and I thought he might be having a recurrence.

He said, “No, I’m okay. I’m really feeling like I need to paint today.”

And then I saw the image of Thoughts in my mind: The man on the card is an artist—a painter—looking at a piece of work on his easel.

The pairing of Wealthy Man + Thoughts went one step further in describing my brother as an artist, and he was going to “invest” his time and energy (resources) into his painting.

So, the outcome was a success: I got to see a movie I wanted to see, and the concern about my brother enjoying it was also alleviated. It just wasn’t how I “thought” it would turn out.

And I learned two things that day:

1. Be sure to open any and all texts from my brother and read them.
2. The Thoughts card in the Fin de Siècle Kipper can actually represent an artist.