Every journey starts somewhere, with some form of inspiration or desire, or some propelling force. Stones just don’t start rolling on their own, something pushes them and gets them started. Pretty much any big decision we make, or path we decide to walk is the result of feeling called or inspired (or forced in some cases) to do so. My path to becoming a tarot guide isn’t an exception. For as long as I can remember I’ve felt an affinity for the mysteries of the world, astrology, horoscopes, dream interpretation, and tarot. The older I got and with more life experience, the stronger I felt the calling to get tuned in with my intuitive and even psychic abilities. Sometimes people cringe when I say psychic; they imagine crystal balls and head scarves, they think of fortune tellers, and that’s not what I’m talking about here. Sure, fortune tellers may be psychic, and psychics may be fortune tellers, but they can be entirely exclusive of the other too. We can discuss more about what defines a psychic another time, right now we’re talking about how I came into the understanding that there was knowledge out there that I could tap into if I allowed myself to open up and trust my intuition. And then I did, and it was awesome, and that was the push to my proverbial stone, that’s what got me rolling. I got a taste of the divine knowledge that surrounds us, and I just knew I had to learn more.
I had two teachers who inspired and taught and guided me along this journey, their roles so instrumental in forming the reader I am today, and I don’t think either of them is aware of this at all. They’ve helped me grow, taught me magic in their own special way, and never once did we acknowledge that they were mentoring me, and I was their eager apprentice. The first of these women was my Grandmother, “Gramma Flora”. Gramma was Catholic, so she might balk at being called a “witch”, and she definitely didn’t consider herself a psychic, but she was the embodiment of magic to me. She would be what you would call a kitchen witch, maybe a hearth witch. Her magic happened in her kitchen though, and her instruments here her hands and her big marble rolling pin, and her grimoire was her black 3 ring binder cookbook, overflowing with handwritten recipes, adorned with splatters and notes to herself. I inherited that cookbook when she was nearing the end of her life and she knew she wasn’t making use of it anymore, and I’d dare say it’s my most treasured possession. I inherited her measuring spoons, and the little tin cup she used to measure flour, and they’re absolutely magic to me. The things she baked for her family brought delight and the memory of all those treats, all those family dinners, all those times standing on a chair at her kitchen counter “helping” her bake, they’re interwoven tightly with her memory, how is that anything less than magic? But Gramma also practiced divination, though she may not have even been aware of what it was. I remember when she took down the dowsing pendulum from the tray at the top of her fridge and told me all about it. This little tool, this tiny metal weight that resembled a bullet, on the end of a delicate chain, was used on the farm to determine if the eggs would develop hatch into hens, or roosters. She informed that they didn’t want an abundance of roosters running around, so this helped determine which eggs would be allowed to hatch. If the pendulum swung in circles, hen. If it swung back and forth, roosters. And this also worked on pregnant women. I was absolutely in awe of this. I’ve got my own dowsing pendulum now, and I’ve learned my own way of working with it to divine answers from the unknown. But it all started with Gramma Flora. The Universe may be the source, but Gramma was the catalyst in my connecting with the source and becoming the spiritual person I am today.
The second of my teachers, a tiny European woman named Eszter. A self declared seer. A woman who reads cards and runes and palms in the spare bedroom of her house. Eszter is a bit of a legend around here. She’s been reading for people in her home for decades, so far back that my Gramma went to see her when her kids were just young adults, and pretty much everyone in my family with a curiosity in divination has been to see her. Locals know of her. She’s got a reputation for being an accurate and reliable reader, how else would she be in business so long? But she’s best known for being an incredibly lovely woman. She can’t be 5 feet tall, she’s small and delicate in appearance, and she has a soft beautiful accent and a fantastic way of talking. The delivery of her readings is humorous and warm and familiar, she feels like family when you’re with her. She laughs, she shoots straight with her advice, and she’s genuine. She doesn’t sugar coat, she wont tell you what you want to hear, but you leave her home with your recorded reading (used to be cassette, now it’s an app on your phone), feeling like you just spent an hour getting advice from your wise old Grandmother, and it’s just, lovely. She has become the embodiment of the reader I want to be. I don’t do tarot the way she does. No two readers will be the same, nor should they be the same. It’s an art after all, and art is unique. But she has shaped the way I want to project to my clients; she has helped me refine how I’d like my delivery to be. I want clients to say thinks like “Katie is so warm and welcoming” and I want them to find comfort and humor in their readings and I want them to feel like I’m on their team, and invested in them, not just flipping some cards over for a quick buck. Eszter has always made me feel important and welcome when I’m sitting across from her in her home watching her read my cards (or my hands or my runes or my handwriting, she does it all). She set the standard for the way I want to run my business, and I’m so grateful to her.
My goal, above all else, in reading tarot for others, is to give guidance and support, via the cards, in a way that combines the charm and warmth and talent of my two magical mentors. Two great ladies who followed their own path and touched so many lives with their special magic and their loving way of delivering it. That’s what matters to me, that’s how I want to use tarot to touch peoples lives. I want to show my clients how they can use their readings to shape their futures, but also how tarot can help them to really grow their spiritual selves and tap into their own intuition.
Because deep down we’re all magic.
Katie
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