Psychic mystifies intrepid reporter with insights
Tarot and tea leaves and palms - oh my!
Posted By Terrance Gavan
Posted 7 months ago
A popular Toronto-based psychic will be holding court, reading tarot cards, palms and tea leaves at the Heritage House Café in Haliburton for an extended four-day run from Feb. 11-14.
Madame Psychic Gigi (née Gigi Wilson) has been in the fortune-telling business for 45 years and she's the real deal – meaning that she is totally immersed and invested in her craft.
Now when a reporter is asked to do an objective piece on a widely speculative subject he better come clean from the outset, lest his Icelandic roots and intrinsic belief in forest faeries rise like some shimmering specter from his unencumbered psyche.
So I must then admit to a shaky, blatant bias in the matter of Madame Psychic Gigi, acquired in the course of my interview with her last Thursday. In the sudden, small space of my phone conversation with Gigi I was ushered quite unexpectedly into the realm of the true believer when, mid-sentence, Gigi stopped and said, "way down Bank Street."
The statement came from out of the blue, and I was immediately stunned to a stutter. I stopped and asked, "How did you know?"
Bank Street in this case refers to a very long thoroughfare in Ottawa. I was born in Nepean, but for seven years while attending university, I worked at the Brewers Retail (now Beer Store) located "way down Bank Street."
Madame Gigi was not surprised at all and took my non-plussed stammer in stride. "Oh, I don't know," laughs Gigi. "While you were talking, I could see Bank Street, although I don't remember it that well ... I lived in Ottawa long ago."
They say confession is good for the soul, and in this case, my desultory disclosure is offered as explanation for what some may consider a rampant slide into subjective journalism.
Kudos to Madame Gigi who simply accepted the inexplicable Bank Street revelation with what I assumed was a pleasantly dismissive wave of her palm.
"Sometimes I see these things, but don't tell me any more about yourself, because I want to give you a reading when I get there," smiles Gigi.
She adds that she loves coming to small town venues, something that she's been doing ever since she first started reading at the age of 12. She says she realized that she had a gift when she was nine, but explains that her mother knew there was something special about Gigi right from birth.
"I'm the youngest of seven daughters and I was born with a veil [known as a caul] upon my face." says Gigi. "It's like a spider web or a nylon stocking on the face of a newborn. It was handed to me by my mother when I turned 21. She kept it all that time, because it's a very special thing. When I opened it, it was just like dust in a cloth."
There is much folklore associated with caul births. In certain societies being born with a caul was seen as a good omen, a sign of luck and greatness, the mark of kings.
And while Gigi won't attribute all of her abilities to a one-in-a-million veil, she also cannot discount as coincidence her subsequent realization that, at age nine, she was imbued with psychic talents.
Asked what she expects to encounter during her four days in Haliburton, Gigi said, "I would usually see people who have also been to other psychics, and I would expect people coming for tarot card readings, psychic readings, palms, tea cup and crystal ball.
"For people who have never had it done before, first timers, they will get a lot of information. I tell past, present and future; I speak about love, business, and I give people a basic future forecaster of about two years."
And what about the skeptics?
"Skeptics are a great challenge," smiles Madame Gigi. "They're great, because I usually make a believer out of them by the end of the reading."
And for the people out there who may want to tread lightly on the wild psychic side, but are afraid of what might be revealed, Madame Gigi says there's no cause for alarm.
"I always ask before I start, 'do you want to know the good as well as the bad?'" says Gigi.
And one other thing to keep in mind.
Madame Gigi lost one of her seven sisters to cancer not so long ago, and she donates 10 per cent of all her earnings to cancer research.
If you'd like to reserve a spot with Madame Psychic Gigi you can get in touch and book in advance at: 416-737-4489. She'll be reading daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
