Where to get your fortune told in Singapore

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Besides excellent vegetarian food, Fortune Centre is also known for this prominent store on the first floor. The signboards at the storefront are thorough about its services – the menu includes picking auspicious dates, naming babies, feng shui, geomancy, astrology, tarot card reading, crystal stone aura reading and more. For $10, I booked a short crystal stone aura reading session which lasted 30 minutes. Though walk-ins are allowed, it's always better to book your slot in advance. 

Getting my aura read: 

The private session starts very formally – I am ushered into a room where the reader makes me pick crystal stones from a bag and place them on chakra points on a piece of cloth. "Let the stones speak to you," she says as I rummage the bag. After laying out the stones, she proceeds to do a 'big picture' reading. Because of my lack of pink stones (which represents love and relationships), she says that love is not my priority and that career seems to be the thing on my mind – she is correct. She then zones in to the bad news first, showing me the chakra points (the head and stomach) where I've picked a black crystal and explains what I have to improve on. Basically, she called me out on my lack of self-confidence and habit of hydrating only with iced coffee. Her exact words were: "Drink more room temperature water."

The session then got really weird when she told me that I'm very 'sensitive' to the spirit world and continued to say that it is them who have helped me with inspiration and ideas in my job – again she correctly guessed that I was 'creative' and a writer. She went on to say that I should give them thanks once in a while. I guess all those years honing my skills in university is wasted, eh? Still, it was a very entertaining session, and a great way to wind down during lunch. By the time it ended, I didn't even know what to start asking – you're allowed to ask your burning questions – and could only muster a "Um are the spirits bad?". 

Kang Li Mineral Kingdom

As with crystal healing, chakra and astrology, aura readings deal with the things you cannot see. Essentially, auras are defined by the electromagnetic energy fields radiating from all forms of matter so with living, breathing human beings like us, you'll get layers of it. Readers believe that these layers of colour reveal someone’s physical and mental health, life purpose, thoughts, and feelings. 

Since 1989, Kang Li Mineral Kingdom has been providing their services for geomancy, feng shui, crystal healing and especially, aura reading. Located at Fu Lu Shou Complex in Bugis (which is also full of other spiritual readers and healers), it has quite a loyal following and continues to intrigue many to try out their services.   

Though I booked a 30-minute one-on-one appointment ($33), the session took over an hour. In a way, it is comforting to know that they really take the time to sit down with you to explain things and also answer any burning questions you have about life, love, career, your future and more. 

Getting my aura read: 

The session begins with the aura photograph where you have to sit on a contraption and look into an old-timey camera. Afterwards, a report is printed out, explaining the colours in your aura before your reader leads you into a booth to explain the photo and what she interprets from this. Being open to anything (trust the universe, man), I was pleasantly surprised about what my aura said about me – it even made my day. She said that I was surrounded by love, passion and creativity and unlike most other auras, the love sector was also prominent in my future.

The second half of the session was a Q&A where you're allowed to ask her anything – but this is where you should take it with a pinch of salt. At the end of it all, you get to choose five crystals that resonate with you the most from a giant bowl. The crystals you choose also mean something to your current situation. What I got from my crystals: that my quest for knowledge and clarity often left me lonely but apparently open for love and to be loved. Vague and surreal, but I'll take it. Book a session in advance to get a reading.

Master Khor Tong Nee, 63

Because reading palms isn’t quite enough, why not bring in some astrology, too? Master Khor has been studying the lines, mounts and callouses on palms for more than 15 years. But unlike traditional Chinese palmists, Khor uses Zodiac signs and the heavenly bodies to guide his craft.

To him, palmistry is the analysis of the lines on your palm, aided by intuition. A good palmist will be able to tell your current state of mind. But don't be surprised if you have to wait between six months to two years for predictions to come true. He likened palmistry to a traffic forecast – it may tell you that there’s a jam on the CTE, but a lot of us are stubborn and will still take that route. This is especially so for those seeking relationship advice: Khor noted that people in love tend not to listen to what he has to say.

Getting my palm read:

Khor is an exuberant person, full of interesting quotes who’ll put you at ease when predicting your future. When he read my palms, he claimed that my partner would be an ‘exotic man’ and said that the two of us would be like ‘Tom and Jerry, chicken and duck. North and south, east and west.’ That was point number one. Three more to go. 

As for my career, apparently I’m ‘very suitable’ for business and finance jobs because of my attention to detail. He ended the session with a warning that I shouldn’t be a ‘sucker for details’, or else my life will crumble. Is that a warning for being micro-managing?

Way Fengshui Consultancy

Bazi is a traditional Chinese practice, related to feng shui, that purports to derive your fate from the year, month, day and hour of your birth – otherwise known as the ‘Four Pillars of Destiny’. Practitioners don’t so much as scry your future as they dish out advice on your personal life, career and even the layout of your home, based on those four, seemingly arbitrary, pillars. So if you’re looking for an auspicious date to get hitched, you might want to hit up a bazi expert.

Founded in 1984, Way Fengshui Consultancy currently has four geomancers on staff. I met the 50-year-old Master Goh Guan Leong for a ‘personal life bazi analysis’.

Getting a bazi consultation:

Goh started off by mapping out the five elements of my bazi chart. I say ‘mapping’, but I really mean scribbling words like ‘metal’, ‘fire’, ‘mind’, ‘yoga’ and ‘liver’ on a piece of paper and circling them. He slowly explained each term, what they symbolise – my personality, health and behaviours, among others – and related life advice, all in an affable manner. A sample line: ‘2017 is the year of the Rooster, which is also the year of metal. Metal will chop wood and so it'll be a challenging year for you. Do you find that your workload has increased?’ It all felt as though I was getting a check-up at the General(isations) Hospital of Metaphysics.

At the end of the session, Goh presented me a folder containing my bazi calculations and a personal life analysis report. The latter, which admittedly looked extremely scientific, described: the aspects of my health to keep a close eye on (digestive system and circulation); recommended suitable professions (trading and finance); and gave me a big-picture look at the next five decades of existence (seems like 35 is the age for relationships). And his parting words? ‘Too much focus on details will leave you inefficient.’ Which is like an ‘inspirational poster’ version of what Master Khor the palmist told me.

Mamatha Ramachandra, TARA - Light within

We’ve all seen countless examples of Tarot cards in the movies, so we’ll skip straight to the main gist of this divination method. Tarot card readings are for those who have specific questions in mind or for those who crave clarity in problematic situations they may be in. Kinda like a life coach crossed with a magician. The more focused your questions, the better the Tarot reader can interpret the cards. But don’t expect 4D numbers from your reading, either. Clearly the Divine Wisdom/Spiritus Mundi/Collective Unconscious that’s channelled through the cards would rather you put in effort for your money. Tough luck.

Anyway, Mamatha Ramachandra has been reading Tarot cards at Tara Light Within for more than 12 years. Booked sessions last between 30 minutes and an hour.

Getting a Tarot reading:

Mamatha came across as patient and personable. After reading the cards, she would prompt me with questions that made me reflect on my choices. Did something happen in a past relationship? Have I been networking? No fast solutions here.

And if retrieving a 4D number from the ether isn’t fair play, what about the age at which yours truly will get married? Funnily enough, that wasn’t a problem. Mamatha hinted that not only will I have a significant other if I’m more ‘proactive’ – you don’t say – 33 years of age is a ‘good time’ to tie the knot. A quick check with the Singapore Department of Statistics revealed that of the 22,544 marriages under the Women’s Charter in 2015, 26% of the brides were aged 30 to 34. Sure, about 46% of the brides in 2015 fell within the 25-to-29 age bracket – but given that I’m 28 and single, Mamatha was pretty much giving me a statistically probable deduction. Is it a coincidence that my bazi and astrology readings also gave me similar timeframes for getting married?

Regulus, 40

Mention ‘horoscopes’ and people generally think of their sun sign, like Taurus and Virgo. But what about the placement of your moon, planets in the houses and your rising sign? Yeah, those are apparently things that, like the tea leaves in your cup, can determine your future. And you'll need a natal chart – read: circular graph with symbols, numbers and lines that represent the ‘star signs’ under which you were born – to interpret all of that. 

My eyes are already glazing over so I won’t go into the details of astrology here. But Regulus will tell you about the practice as well as analyse your natal chart and explain how astrological cycles affect it. He claims astrology is really all about statistics and involves more number- and pattern-crunching than actual fortune-telling. Short reports on five topics, horoscope compatibility reports, picking of auspicious dates and even interior design consultations are also available.

Getting a natal chart reading:

Regulus takes a holistic approach, predicting both the good and the bad by focusing on the placement of two planets in your chart: Jupiter and Saturn. Still with me? Okay, so Jupiter is the planet of good luck, and Saturn can be interpreted as a ‘discipline master’ of sorts. The years just before and after Saturn completes its 29-year cycle in your chart is known as a ‘Saturn return’. Regulus claims he has never seen people happy during this period of their lives – think scenarios like divorce, bankruptcy and the death of loved ones – and so they’re more likely to seek advice from him at that point.

As I’m currently 28, Regulus informed me that a personal storm was coming – although that’s also when I’d meet my future partner. If I’m looking to settle down, I should wait until I turn 33. Again, as with my Tarot reading, is it the mystical wonders of the heavenly bodies or just down to probability?