Seraphine, the Fortune Teller. (1855-1906)

At the age of 17, Seraphine was struck by lightning while gathering plums in her father's orchard. Although this unfortunate event resulted in complete deafness, it also brought her a gift. She was able to clearly ‘hear' others' hopes and fears simply by touching their hands.

Seraphine moved to Madrid to become a fortune teller, specializing in reading the cards and palms of the heartbroken. Despite the sign on her shop, Seraphine was not able to read the future. She hid this well however, by employing tarot cards and other props she addressed her clients' desires and anxieties. It was always more enough to have them return. Even with her gaining reputation, Seraphine never felt at ease. The heart ache that arrived the day she was hit by lightening had grown, and with it, her sense of clairvoyance. At times, she was aware of others' thoughts simply by touching an object they had held.

The ache in Seraphine's chest was considered by those close to her to be the symptom of a broken heart. Knowing no other answer, she sought respite during the twilight hours when she would drink absinthe in the back of her small shop. Even at this time, absinthe, often called the ‘green fairy', was considered a controversial drink prone to fostering madness and creativity. When Seraphine drank it she felt as though her heart was being held by angels, and many times, believed she could again hear audible voices.

Many years after Seraphine died from absinthism, her nephew, Leonidas, found her journals amongst her possessions. Seraphine had long connected the pain in her chest to the vividness of her visions. She had begun to suspect the lightening had passed through her heart and exited her body through her chest, and this physical path had transformed her psychically. When the opportunity arose, Leonidas had her body exhumed, and upon superficial inspection of her skeleton, it became immediately apparent that her sternum had been cracked in two. Inspired by his eccentric family history, Leonidas spend several years following, researching and writing several papers associating hairline fractures found on the sternums of psychics and mediums and the consistency and intensity of their abilities. Although this theory has never been scientifically proven, it remains to some to be the only physical mark of clairvoyance.

Artwork on left side panels inspired by traditional tarot cards, on right side panel, Bosch