Ariana Lightningstorm points to the reverse Cupid's bow on Christel Libiot's bottom lip, which means Libiot is tough and strong. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
Christel Libiot carefully outlines her lips with a coating of fuchsia with blue pearl lipstick. Ariana Lightningstorm says, "I use all shades but this is one of my favorite colors. It is dark and strong so it will print well." Dressed in her black blouse imprinted with tiny red lips, Lightningstorm sits in the classroom at Sacred Circle ready to begin her session.
Lightningstorm is a certified lipsologist, one of eight in the world and the only one located on the East Coast. She has been to New York, Canada, and Mexico entertaining groups with her analyses. She explains lipsology is the art and the science of discovering personality traits by reading lips. It was discovered by Jilly Eddy who spent 20 years and 10,000 lips perfecting a system that is said to be 80-90 percent accurate. Lightningstorm was certified 8 years ago and says it takes about a year to master the 25 categories and 100 subcategories.
Libiot says she has never had a session with Lightningstorm. They run into each other at Sacred Circle on King Street where they both offer different kinds of sessions but their schedules don't often coincide. Libiot is an energy healer in craniosacral therapy and chakra balancing. "I don't really know what to expect. I'm open to what she can tell me, to give me information about the past, present, future."
Lightningstorm hands Libiot a medium-size piece of heavy paper and tells her to kiss the paper three times. "Number the kisses in the order you made them and put your name on the paper." She says, "the lips are about expression and you can tell a lot about someone by how they kiss."
Lightningstorm points to "these chop marks on the top lip that look like a wedge. This means you have a guardian angel or spirit guide looking over you." Lightningstorm says that because she often does short five-minute readings at parties, birthdays and wedding events, she focuses first on what catches her eye. She says her clients include a lot of men, but some of them are wary of the lipstick. But once they've had a beer or two at a party…”
She gazes at the paper and points to two sets of prints. "You have a gale mark, you know like gale winds, on both one and two prints. It means you are going through some big changes right now." But she says she often quotes a 13th century saint, "all shall be well." As a matter of fact she has a stamp she uses for her events containing the quote.
Lightningstorm's pencil points to a gap between the lip ridges. "This zinger means you have a sharp tongue or a caustic sense of humor. See, all three have it." And "see this thing here is a hug pucker. Got to be careful how I say that. It indicates below the natural line of the lip print that you could use a hug." She continues, "from the width you can tell people love to hug you but the small upper lip you are careful about who you hug and how you utilize your energy."
Libiot interjects, "yeah I'm more conservative on that."
Lightningstorm adds, "but it indicates you are privately passionate."
Libiot responds, "sure does." As the session goes on, she says, "yah, yah, yah."
Lightningstorm says she has always been interested in the spiritual and the mystical. "I got my first set of Tarot cards when I was 10." Then when she was 16 she got hit by a car. "That changed things for me. I realized I had made a choice to stay here so I needed to make a decision." By the time she was 19 she had been a palmist for six years and realized she was better than the palmist hired at the local Renaissance Fair. So the next year she set up on the steps by the booth and charged $3."I had a line around the block."
Libiot records Lightningstorm's observations in a small notebook.
"You've got a cupid's bow. That means you like to make people happy." Libiot studies the lip marks as Lightningstorm explains that you can see completely different things on the face than on the paper. It is something about the way the muscles work, something about how the color gets on the paper.
Lightningstorm says when people start a session, sometimes they say, "I'm skeptical." But she says, "I tell them bring it on. I've only had a couple of people in all this time tell me 'it's not me'."