MuckFlash

Los Angeles -7 March 2009- Staff. For those not satisfied with the vagaries of Tarot or the dubious authenticity of phone based “psychics,” there’s a new option: South Asian foot fortune-tellers. For a modest fee, specially trained Gaia-Tai, or “sole readers” can examine your feet and tell you not only where they’ve been, but where they’ll soon trod.

A long-standing street attraction across much of South and South East Asia, Gaia-Tai parlors are now making a splash in the U.S. Though only open two weeks, Amit Sumraprith’s new foot fortune telling parlor, Vasantha Fortune, has generated lines around the block as interested Angelinos have flocked to the newest in podiatric prognostication. “I should think anyone would find the experience of touching inner truth to be of interest,” said Sumraprith.

The practice of reading one’s fortune through the feet dates back thousands of years and was first described in ancient Hindu documents, only recently translated from Sanskrit. Similar to palm readers, Gaia-Tai believe that by examining the feet, they can delve into a person’s most intimate history and the patterns of cosmic energy and chance which have, and, more importantly, which will continue to shape the course of major life events. Only the practitioners themselves vigorously insist that reading feet is invariably more accurate than any palm.

“Your hands touch and your eyes see, but only your feet mesh the earth’s energy no matter where you,” said Chahiatry Bouryhash, one of Vasantha’s leading Gaia-Tai. “You cannot hide the world from your feet, and your feet cannot hide the world from a Gaia-Tai.”