Alexis Murphy

Alexis Murphy disappeared from Northern Virginia last month. She is seventeen years old, and while her cell phone has been located, she has not. There is also a suspect in custody, in connection to her disappearance, who has been denied bond. Alexis was last seen at a gas station in Lovingston, Virginia, and after that, seems to have vanished completely. So where is she, and what happened?

We begin with the three of wands crossed by the High Priestess. The three of wands represents the gas station and the business, customers, and community. The High Priestess is mystery, and hidden matters, with a touch of feminine influence. The subconscious mind is also represented by this card, and I am convinced that a customer or patron saw Alexis there, and also saw either a person in her acquaintance, or a vehicle that is part of the scenario; yet does not realize that it was Alexis, or realize the importance of what was seen. The matter of things that are hidden appears as an obstacle, so the advice to counter that problem is obviously to keep information and contact numbers for law enforcement in prominent places at the gas station, and keep asking everyone who was in the vicinity to come forward with any detail, no matter how unimportant it might seem. There is either a reluctant witness, or a witness who does not realize that he or she is a witness, and the gas station can somehow yield more clues.

Beneath this, we have the three of pentacles. Note that we have another "three"! This is the card of the craftsman, and speaks of a man who is very good at his job. It is followed by the King of Wands, and he falls upright, so I am going to assume, for now, that he is favorably disposed toward Alexis, and trying to find her.  The card representing his best chance of doing that is the nine of pentacles, which is solitude and waiting for counsel before acting. Security, and protecting one's assets is an obstacle in effort to find Alexis.  This card could also represent a woman, who does not want to step away from her secure "comfort zone" in order to come forward with something she has seen. What follows, as something that will happen soon, is the seven of cups. This represents scattered forces as a result of invalid choices and offerings, and energies wasted on things that do not pan out. So far, a large amount of this King's energy has been wasted.

The five of pentacles, reversed, is the first card on the staff. This is someone's fear, and it is a fear of something, or someone, being returned. Next, we have the influence of a person as the environment of this matter: the Knight of Pentacles, reversed. When reversed, this knight is lazy, dishonest about financial matters, and careless and sloppy. He, too, has a connection to the three of pentacles, only he is not very good at his job. He is also a bit of a fraud. The card describing this Knight's hopes and favorite passion is Strength, reversed, which is abuse of power, and sometimes physical abuse. The last card is the Chariot, reversed, which tells us that the wills of two individuals are at odds right now about which direction to take evidence. The opposite opinions and energy forces cannot work together to move the chariot, so it stands still. On mundane levels, this card sometimes refers to vehicles which have broken down. Another possibility connected to this card is message that no one traveled very far. This is one more thing that takes us back to the gas station for clues.

The presence of two cards with values of three lead me to believe that Alexis is not far from the last place she was known to have been seen........about three miles. The pentacles point north, but the cups point west. The High Priestess also has a connection to water, as does the seven of cups. Water somehow aided the hiding of evidence, and is still obscuring the Truth. I hate to see cards like Strength, reversed, in connection to persons directly involved.....in this case, the reversed Knight of Pentacles. This tells me that Alexis somehow ended up in the company of someone who either abuses his own strength, or some type of power he either has over others, or just had over her.

Hopefully, Alexis will be found soon.


 

Lorrin Whitehead

Lorrin Whitehead, forty-three, pictured to the left, was last seen in February of this year, in Bannockburn, Victoria. She had been grocery shopping for her family. There has been no activity in her bank account, which is always a reason for concern, and she is also diabetic. 

The basis is Temperance crossed by the four of pentacles. Temperance is good management with time and resources, but the four of pentacles crossing it shows a challenge in that area, but what could that possibly have to do with Lorrin Whitehead's disappearance? Below this, we have the ten of swords, which is not a good card in a reading such as this. It is a card of violence and ruin. Behind the basis is the three of wands, which looks like help planning........someone may have asked her for assistance with something. The wands would point south. Following this, we have the nine of cups, reversed. When this card falls reversed, it tells of mistakes, and I think the mistake here had to do with trust: Lorrin somehow placed her trust in the wrong person. The next card is the Empress. This is likely the reason Lorrin was in the position to trust the wrong person; a desire to help someone, from a nurturing standpoint.

The card at the base of the staff, in the place of self image, is the three of cups, reversed. This indicates someone with self indulgent tendencies and it sometimes indicates endings. Cups are water and emotions, and so far, there have been two reversed cups in this reading. Somehow, misplaced trust with someone who should have been congenial rather than violent is key in this situation. The next card, describing the general environment surrounding the disappearance, is the Chariot. This is conquest, and playing two extremes, successfully, against each other. On purely mundane levels, this could also be transportation by vehicle. So we see Lorrin transported in a vehicle that is not her own. Next we have the eight of cups, which is dissatisfaction with the very thing from which the subject expected satisfaction. The final outcome is the ace of wands, reversed. This is a disappointment. Whoever is indicated in the three of wands.......and that card DOES speak of involvement of at least one other person, has not reaped the benefits expected from his or her actions. I do not like to see the ten of swords in any reading about a missing person, but I always hope, until the case is closed, that the person is found safe. Here, I would expect the perpetrator to have had several changes of heart concerning the concealment of evidence, possibly trying water first, then burning evidence. West was considered, but south was somehow more convenient, and there could be multiple places containing or related to evidence. I would expect three miles south and three miles west of the last place Lorrin was seen to be important.