Fortune-telling: Crystal-gazing into the present


Interview Astrology fortune teller. RAYMOND OOI/ The Star

The heavy scent of incense, thick and sharply sweet, hangs in the air. On the walls, pictures of Hindu deities gaze benignly down on the room. A shrine is set up on a chest of drawers, with offerings of mangoes, crackers, and bread. Rising up on the wall behind, like a pyramid, is a formation of framed pictures – deities and spiritual symbols – that glow a pale yellow from string lights.

“It’s a cosmic tree,” Marvel Samson, 59, explains, gesturing at the shrine. Tall and robustly built, Samson wears a traditional Mandarin shirt. He has a face like the laughing Buddha; solicitous and ever-smiling, he sits behind his consultation desk and predicts fortunes.

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