I’ve never been interested in predictions about the future, although I will admit to being smitten with the idea that a whole life can be written in the lines of a hand, or that a spot of tea in the afternoon might begin with a spoon of sugar and end in a shadowy prophecy at the bottom of a mug.

But there’s a lot of romance in the art of fortune telling -- much that’s appealing in the notion that all of the events of your existence are somehow contained, from the very beginning, within you or about your person. All of your successes and failures swirling around you like mists, waiting to be divined by the nearest interpreter.

Or maybe it's really the nearest storyteller. And after all, which one of us could say that she doesn’t enjoy hearing stories about herself?

Still, if you don’t believe in psychic forces there’s not much to be said for having your palm read, or your tea leaves, or your Tarot cards. If you don’t believe in psychic forces, it’s just you and a woman in scarves making up stories about you, really, and taking your money into the bargain. Isn’t it?

Well, usually it is. But not if you have someone like Anya Weber sitting opposite you at the table.

Anya is a petite, no-nonsense editor who works for a school publisher by day and writes plays and screenplays by night. She wears serious wire-rimmed glasses, behind which sit a pair of unusually thoughtful eyes. Her back is straight, her conversation sharp, and she impresses new acquaintances with her grave intelligence and sly sense of humor.

She also happens to be a Tarot reader, and has been for the past 13 years – ever since a college roommate with less persistent inclinations bought and abandoned a deck. Anya insists, though, that she doesn’t use the cards to tell the future. Instead, she’s part of a psychological tradition in the world of Tarot. During readings, she explains to her clients what she believes the cards they’ve chosen can mean, and invites them to form personal interpretations based on their own understandings of what’s important in their lives.

In effect, rather than trying to tell their stories for them, Anya gives people the tools to become their own storytellers.

At least, that’s how I see it. But since I want to observe this process for myself, we arrange for her to conduct a reading where I can be in attendance.