Mickey Querent

Some of you might remember Mickey Querent.

Mickey is a legend in the Tarot world. He goes for as many Tarot readings as he possibly can and he’s become so skilled that he can actually adapt his approach according to the astrology of the Tarot reader. He knows quite a bit about astrology you see.

Anyway, I hadn’t heard from him for quite a few months. I was sitting at home the other evening, reading a book by Rupert Sheldrake, when all of a sudden I found that I couldn’t stop thinking about Mickey Querent.

The thought formed in my mind, "I wonder if I’ll hear from Mickey Querent again?"

At that moment, the phone rang!

It was my cousin Melvyn.

We spoke for about 5 minutes although I was only really half-listening to his views on the recent changes to VAT legislation. I couldn’t stop thinking about Mickey Querent.

* * *

So I got on the phone to Mickey. He sounded delighted to hear from me and not at all surprised.

"Hello mate! Good to hear from you. Listen, how d’you fancy meeting up tomorrow? I’d like to talk about some of the ideas I briefly mentioned to you a while back."

"Sure" I said, "How about that pub we went to last time? What time’s best for you?"

He thought for a second. I could hear him turning some pages in his diary. "I’m going for a reading in North London at 11:30 and then another one in the West End at 3 in the afternoon. How about 12:45?"

"Sounds good to me. See you tomorrow."

* * *

I arrived at the pub at about 12:30 and I was surprised to find Mickey already there sitting at a table in the very far corner with his back to the wall.

I asked him, "How come you’re here so early? I thought you had a reading at 11:30?"

He looked at me knowingly, "Pisces. The reader was Pisces all the way so I decided to make an early exit otherwise our 1-hour reading would have turned into a 3-hour marathon!"

We both laughed and I got the drinks in. Orange juice for me, grapefruit juice and lemonade for Mickey. "So," I asked, getting my notebook out, "Which ideas did you want to talk about? Is it that Mercury business?"

"Now how did you guess?" Mickey had a big cheesy grin on his face.

A few months back, he was very excited about the idea that you could classify people not just by the 12 Sun-signs but also by 36 Sun/Mercury combinations.

He explained to me that, because it’s so close to the Sun, Mercury could never be more than one sign away from the Sun in your birth chart or your "natal horoscope" as he calls it.

So, for example, if you’ve got the Sun in Taurus, you could have Mercury in Aries or Mercury in Taurus or Mercury in Gemini but that’s it. Your Mercury can only be in the sign before your Sun-sign or in the same sign as your Sun or in the sign after your Sun-sign.

Mickey says that there are three different versions of the Taurean type of person according to where their Mercury is placed.

He took a sip of his drink and began to explain his ideas to me.

"Cheers for that. Let’s take an example. Supposing someone’s birthday is late November/early December time. Sagittarius OK?"

I said, "OK. I know a few of them."

He looked at me and slightly raised one eyebrow. "Nutters right?"

We laughed.

He carried on and his tone became a bit more serious. I knew from experience that he was going to ask me a question, "So what are the possible Mercury placements for the Sagittarian then?"

I’d already worked this one out but I pretended to think carefully. I wanted to keep the conversation at a nice manageable pace.

"Er… Well Mercury in Sagittarius – that’s the easy one. Then there’s either Mercury in Scorpio…"

"Excellent."

"… Or Mercury in Capricorn?"

"That’s the one. You’ve picked things up pretty well!"

I could tell that Mickey was delighted. He loves it when I show that I now understand a bit about astrology.

"Anyway, think about the difference between the Sag-Sag and the Sag-Scorp…"

He was starting to talk a bit too fast for my liking. I could tell that I was going to get lost pretty quickly so I interrupted him.

"Hang on a sec. Sag-Sag what’s going on? We’re not in an Indian restaurant mate. Are you hallucinating?"

He laughed and apologised.

"Sorry. Sag is short for Sagittarius. The first Sag is the Sun-sign, the second Sag is the Mercury placement. Sag-Sag has both Sun and Mercury in Sagittarius."

"Oh I get it!" I said, "When you say Sag-Scorp you mean Sun Sagittarius, Mercury Scorpio. What’s the other one then, Sag-Cap?"

"Could be, but I prefer Sag-Cappie. Sweet as."

We were both laughing steadily now and getting a bit loud. Two smartly-dressed women at the table next to us gave us an old-fashioned look and took their drinks over to the other side of the bar.

"So", he continued, "Although Sagittarius is basically a free-wheeling, fun-loving, Fozzie Bear type, there’s a big old difference between Sag-Sag and Sag-Scorp."

"Hmmm." I asked him, "Do you think they’d look different? Could you spot ’em?"

"Nah. They’d possibly both have a big horsey smile. Maybe they might have a touch of – how can I put it – ‘Thunder Thighs’going on."

I laughed and, for some reason, pictured a thoroughbred racehorse. Slightly worrying that.

Mickey picked up the thread, "The big difference would be how they talk. Or should I say how they listen."

"Sag-Sag would have real trouble listening to anything anyone else was saying. As soon as anyone said anything, it would trigger something off for them and their mind would start buzzing. They’d be bursting to tell you a story which would probably be really funny and entertaining."

I scribbled down some notes. "So not a natural listener then?"

"Pardon?"

By this stage we were both crying with laughter. It was getting out of hand.

* * *

I could understand what Mickey was getting at but it was still a bit too theoretical really. I needed a practical example.

I wanted to pin him down a little so I said, "Alright this all sounds good in theory, but how about a practical example. Show me how all this Mercury business plays out in real life."

Mickey smiled, "Excellent! Theories are useless if they don’t have a practical application."

He took a sip of his drink and thought for quite a while. He was looking up at the ceiling and he seemed to be in a bit of a trance.

"OK" he said. Suddenly snapping out of his reverie. "Tommy Cooper!"

I burst out laughing. Just the mention of the name Tommy Cooper makes me laugh. Apparently sometimes he’d just walk on stage and people would become hysterical.

I’ve even heard that he sometimes just poked his feet out from under the curtain and people would be crying with laughter!

"Tommy Cooper!" I just about managed to say his name. It was contagious. Mickey started laughing as well and suddenly we were both doubled over. We must have been making a bit of a racket because I could see the smartly-dressed women looking over at us disapprovingly from the other side of the bar.

"Tommy Cooper! What star sign was he then? Loonies? Sag-hilarious?"

We tried to calm down. Mickey took a deep breath and said, "Pisces. And apparently he drank like a fish."

We’d stopped laughing now. Mickey said, "Whatever else you say about Pisces, it is a genius sign. Pisces does know about boundaries – hence their reputation for poor time-keeping. But, I tell you, that lack of boundaries means that Pisces can break new territory. Mainly because they never knew the old territory was there in the first place!"

I thought about that one. "Yes. Tommy Cooper was definitely a genius. Comedy genius. I mean, who else could get a laugh with their own death!"

We both started laughing again but we managed to keep the noise down this time.

Then I remembered the theme of the conversation. I said, "What about his Mercury then? What sign was Tommy’s Mercury in?"

Mickey said, "Well think about his humour and how he communicated. Completely off-the-map."

"So Pisces then?" I said tentatively.

"Good man!" Mickey was delighted. "Yes. Tommy Cooper was Sun/Pisces, Mercury/Pisces. Now think about another genius – Albert Einstein."

I had to laugh again. "From Tommy Cooper to Albert Einstein. Well I suppose they’re both geniuses in their own way."

"Absolutely" said Mickey emphatically. "Einstein also knew no boundaries. He was a complicated character but I think it’s fair to say that his mind was more structured than Tommy’s."

I held out my left hand, "Einstein." Then I held out my right hand and said in a slow heavy voice, "Tom-my Coop-er".

Mickey smiled.

I said, "Yeah I can see how their minds are different. Where was Einstein’s Mercury then?"

"Aries" said Mickey triumphantly. "Head down. Charging ahead with his theories, not caring what anyone else thought."

"But most importantly, he was a clear and direct communicator. Apparently he was a good speaker – unlike a lot of scientists. Did you know that he was offered the job of being the President of Israel?"

"I didn’t know that" I said, "So, Albert Einstein was Sun/Pisces, Mercury/Aries whereas Tommy was Sun/Pisces, Mercury/Pisces."

"That’s the one. Now I’m not saying that Pisces/Pisces means that you’re a complete head-the-ball and Pisces/Aries means that you’re a total genius but d’you get my point?"

"Sort of. Let me think about it and check out my own chart."

"Excellent. That’s the best way. Listen I’d better make a move, I’ve got a reading to go to."

"OK Mickey. Thanks for meeting up. Hope the reading goes well."

"Should be a good ’un. The reader’s endorsed by TABI."