Luck? Money? Romance? Fling tarot readers tell all

It was all in the cards. Or at least in the tarot cards. In the midst of sunshine, blaring music and Spring Fling bedlam, about 30 Flingers waited to have their cards read by the three professional soothsayers stationed in the Upper Quadrangle. As each person wandered away from the fortune tellers, they rushed to friends and gushed out their predicted futures. But why did they do it? "I'm pretty willing to believe anything now for the future," said College freshman Jay Weintraub, summing up the crowd's general feeling. And according to one of the soothsayers, who only identified herself as "Rande," a little belief is all that is required to receive guidance from psychic sources. Looking fairly ordinary in her blue jeans and jean jacket, Rande said she learned how to read cards through books and colleagues. But she attributes her true ability to an intangible feeling, the "X-factor." "Well the [intuitive] factor is the X-factor," she said. "What there's no words for but there is a knowing you don't have to know but you know." But that inexplicable feeling is not unique to fortune tellers. Everyone has the ability to draw from psychic sources, but like a muscle, if the ability is not used, it is weak, Rande said. So, between her job with the Psychic Entertainment company, and her three others as an actress, a make-up artist and a bartender and waitress at the Catfish Cafe at 40th Street and Ridge Avenue, she exercises her "X-factor" through tarot cards, astrology and I-Ching -- an ancient Chinese book of changes. The fortune teller described her business as a puzzle. Each card means something and each series of cards creates a different story. College freshman David Slarskey said the future Rande predicted was applicable to his life. Nevertheless, as all readers are humans and have human faults, Rande said the truth in the cards is sometimes beyond human comprehension. "You just have to take everything with a grain of salt," she said. "And if it works for you, you take it, and if it doesn't, let it go." Although she does use occult tools, Rande depends on them as much as she relies on more common influences like common sense, intelligence and knowledge. And what did her common sense tell her about Fling? "I think it's too commercial," she said. "I felt like I was bombarded by commercials. It was like being in a television set. "But it's a great idea," she added. While Rande felt like she was in a television set, Wharton junior Dan So said he felt like he was the viewer. "Not being a drinker that makes it kind of like watching TV," he said. "Locust Walk was kind of like Woodstock without the mud -- just a bunch of people running around." College freshman Sudha Jayaraman said the concerts really brought her into the Fling spirit. "I like the Lidds because people were all standing there in the rain just dancing," she said. "It was just pure excitement and just fun. Fling is, like, the best." But Wharton freshman Seth Charnow had a different opinion. "A guy pissed on my door," he said. "I walk down the hallway and I turn the door and there was a guy pissing on my door. And I was like, 'What are you doing?' and he said, 'It's all cool.' And there was a big puddle of urine around my door which didn't make my roommate too happy."

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