![]() Today, my guest is friend and fellow author, Rayne Hall. Rayne has bought along her talented Tarot reading and adorable black cat, Sulu, for a unique reading. Enjoy! My cat's ability to read the tarot is uncanny. Sulu is an unusually clever, sweet-natured cat with a silky black coat and yellow eyes. I adopted him from a cat shelter. Nobody else wanted him, simply because he was black. ![]() Just for fun I spread out my tarot cards to see what he would do. This was a few weeks after I had adopted him. After sniffing at the cards, he ignored them. Then suddenly he grabbed the Ten of Cups and refused to let it go. However much I coaxed, he held on to this one card. Sulus first ever tarot reading: the kitten pushed aside the cards he didn't like and picked the Ten of Cups. The Ten of Cups is the card of happy homes and families, of love and security and happy endings. It represented everything Sulu had found for the first time in his young life. Abandoned as a kitten and rejected by everyone, he was in the shelter for five months, waiting for someone to give him a home and love. But adopters passed him by in favour of tabbies, gingers and whites. Nobody wanted a black cat. Although fed and cared for by shelter staff, Sulu had a lonely life in his kennel-cage. And suddenly he had a real home with a garden to roam in, and a human all to himself. For the first time in his life, Sulu was loved. He radiated such happiness! It was as if he knew that out of all the 78 cards in the deck, the Ten of Cups represented his good fortune. And he refused to give it up. ![]() To test Sulu's psychic abilities, I invited some of my Twitter followers to submit questions, and I emphasised that this was 'for entertainment purposes only' because I didn't want to make any claims. Since I didn't know their personal circumstances and the context of the queries, I was not biased. I simply passed the question to Sulu. Lacking opposable thumbs, Sulu couldn't shuffle and cut the deck, so I did this for him. Cats don't have opposable thumbs, so shuffling the cards is a challenge that needs human assistance. He always stayed motionless for a while, studying the cards as if bewildered by the choice - and then suddenly he grabbed one or two cards, sometimes three, and was always very certain about his choice. I helped with the interpretation and relayed the answers online. Every time, the recipients were flabbergasted at the uncanny accuracy. They felt that Sulu had someone sensed the nature of their situation and provided the answers and inspiration they needed. Does Sulu have psychic skills, or are his results coincidence? Tarot reading is tiring work, it seems. Sulu often concludes his readings by going to sleep on the cards? What do you think? Are the recipients subconsciously interpreting the answers in a way that matches their thoughts? Is Sulu psychic? Or is it all coincidence? ![]() Bio Rayne Hall writes fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Her black cat Sulu, adopted from the rescue shelter - likes to snuggle between her arms while she writes, purring happily. She has worked as a museum guide, belly dancer, bilingual secretary, apple picker, development aid worker adult education teacher, magazine editor, literary agent, publishing consultant and tarot reader, often in several roles at the same time. Now she writes full-time. She is the author of over sixty books, mostly dark fantasy and creepy horror, as well as editor of the Ten Tales fantasy and horror anthologies. Her acclaimed Writer's Craft series has 22 titles so far: Writing About Magic, Writing Scary Scenes, Writing Dark Stories, Writing About Villains, Writing Fight Scenes, Writing Deep Point Of View, Writing Vivid Plots, Writing Vivid Settings, Writing Vivid Characters, Writing Book Blurbs And Synopses, Write Your Way Out Of Depression, and more. These are guides for writers who have progressed beyond the basics and want to take their skills to the next level. After living in Germany, China, Mongolia and Nepal, Rayne has settled in a seaside town in England. She enjoys reading, gardening and long walks along the seashore, braving ferocious seagulls and British rain. Visit her website raynehall.com, or follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/RayneHall for writing tips and photos of her cute clever cat.
31 Comments
Terri-Lynne DeFino
10/18/2016 06:46:56 am
I love Sulu! What a fabulous thing. Thanks for sharing.
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10/20/2016 10:25:25 am
Sulu isn't sure if he wants to be called a thing. But he'll forgive you if you stroke his nose. :-) 10/20/2016 10:24:27 am
Sulu is pleased to hear that you love him. He asks if you will stroke his nose, please? :-)
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Aimee
10/18/2016 08:49:50 am
Hey, that's not a fair question! We can't judge unless you describe the readings to us. :D
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10/20/2016 10:28:40 am
Ah well, that's true. I just don't want to give away what people told me (and Sulu) in confidence.
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Liv Rancourt
10/18/2016 11:21:32 am
My rational mind argues that the recipient of Sulu's "prediction" is able to frame the information on the card in terms of their current situation. In my heart, though, I want Sulu to tell my fortune. Either way he's a special kitty...
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10/20/2016 10:33:43 am
Hi Liv,
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Umar Razi
10/19/2016 12:51:48 am
Rayne, how do you make your horror stories so convincing? Tell me your secret.
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10/20/2016 10:34:55 am
Hi Umar,
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Deborah Blake
10/19/2016 05:36:03 pm
My black cat Magic often comes up onto the table when I do my readings for people, and insists on sitting across all the cards. I don't know if she'd picking them or just enjoying the psychic energy. Maybe it is a black cat thing :-)
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10/20/2016 10:36:29 am
Fascinating, Deborah. How do your clients react when the cat appears and wants to be part of the action? Do they go all 'aawwww' or do they resent the intrusion?
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10/25/2016 08:03:52 am
Beautiful cat! My mum does tarot and other witchy type things, I've always found it reminds me of happy childhood memories
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10/25/2016 12:07:56 pm
Hi Madeleine,
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Lilit Galatea
10/28/2016 03:08:10 pm
Sulu is beautiful. I love black cats so much. They are something else. And so mysterious.
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10/29/2016 10:16:35 am
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Shenae Richards
10/29/2016 08:12:22 pm
Awww it's so great that Rayne has so much fun with Sulu. You can tell he loves all the attention and all the fun stuff she does with him. I think that adoption was the perfect match; they really do make an iconic duo. I feel like he would have been bored with any other owner. Great job Sulu on the Tarot card reading :-)
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10/30/2016 04:45:43 pm
Having met Sulu personally, I would say he has a gift.
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Christine Antosca
11/4/2016 01:54:43 pm
As someone who loves the supernatural and anything dark, I really enjoyed this article. And Sulu is really just the cutest!
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11/5/2016 09:57:01 am
Testing - testing - testing
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11/6/2016 02:01:38 pm
Hi Carole, Ashlee, and Christine - I'm sorry, I way away for a long weekend and I didn't bring my computer!
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Lucinda
2/27/2017 10:39:45 am
Thank you for sharing this with everyone again! I enjoy Sulu as much as both of your websites. I hope to see this featured again, or maybe Sulu might be inclined to become a regular reader of destiny?
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