I am a body painter. I would body paint and face paint at music festivals and one of my vendor friends used to own an esoteric store. One night we sat in my face paint booth, knocking back frosty cold beverages and enjoying the music and we really bonded that night and became friends. In the morning when it was packing up time, he helped me load up my truck with my tent and equipment and he gave me the Aquarian Tarot. I told him, oh—thank you! Yet, I don’t know how to read tarot cards! Jamie said, well maybe you’ll learn one day. If not that’s ok too! The deck hung around me for years in my bookcase, I opened them, thumbed through them, and admired the artwork but decided it was too foreign for me to learn and I wasn’t psychic. I thought I had to be a psychic to read tarot.
Fast forward to a body paint gig I was on in San Francisco. I got hired to camouflage a model into the booth of an internet security company at the Black Hat Convention. On my day off, I decided to seek out an authentic tarot reader, someone on the main street, with an electric neon sign that had a crystal ball on it. Someone, reputable. I went up to the door and rang the doorbell and there was a woman who was feeding her family. Chinese takeout in the psychic shop. I asked if she was open she said, “Yes I’m open but let me put my family away.” I watched the family go through what looked to be a bookcase-style door and all of a sudden she was open for business and I stepped into her parlor. Once inside she took an incredibly dirty-looking deck down off of a shelf when I say dirty I mean it was filthy and it was not the original rider Waite tarot it was pictures of other things I remember a snake—it was not a traditional deck. She shuffled the cards she asked me to focus then she laid out approximately 20 cards. She looked surprised and told me that I was a very confused person who had not figured out what they wanted to do in life, someone who was unlucky in love and didn’t know what the meaning of their life was, someone who felt utterly lost. Most of that was just not true so I just shut up. I have always known that I wanted to be an accomplished and famous artist. I have always been an artist, I have always made money as an artist, and I have always known my path is as an artist. I even went on television and have some celebrity as a finalist in what is basically the Olympics of body painting. 35 million people across the globe have seen me paint on television on 10 episodes of Skin Wars.
I asked her, “Which of these cards said that? What does this specific card mean, and what does that specific card mean?” She only told me if she looked at me frustrated that it would take her too long to explain it to me and that was not her job. I said okay. Then she told me that she wanted to see my palm and while looking at my palm, she said that she was not shocked to see these lines that clearly showed her that I was born under a certain star constellation which dooms and curses me and my future for love health and happiness. And she told me that the only thing that would save me would be if I paid her and her mom $125 each per day for seven days and that in exchange they would pray for me every morning and night and do a ceremony to break this curse. That was the end of the reading. I did not want her to curse me, so I told her I did not have that kind of money but I appreciate it and thank her for her time I gave her $75 for the reading and she warned me not to leave and that it would be a huge mistake. I just was extremely polite and I thanked her again and I left flabbergasted that I had gotten taken for a ride and possibly cursed. I thought to myself I can’t believe she’s got such a prominent space and she’s running such a racket tricking people with her readings of fear. I thought I never want to do that to people I believe in karma and I only want to help people and give them messages for their highest and best. I kept thinking about that reading and got triggered to start learning the tarot.
I did a deep dive on YouTube, watching astrology and tarot readings trying to figure out what signs were most compatible with my fiery Aries sun. Curious as to what signs make the best couples and trying without a shadow of a doubt to mystically tap into the brain of the universe and figure out the deepest mysteries of the universe, including what my crush’s feelings for me were.
I skipped right over the relationship advice videos, and went straight to the general tarot readings for the collective because my impatient heart needed to know pronto if my crush I met on the internet was my destiny! The short answer, no he was not. Many readings said, “Nope girl he’s toxic and not willing to change.” Other readings would say, “You should focus on loving yourself.” Others would say, “Yes he is your destiny, but the timing is off this time around.” You’ll have to try again in another plane of existence.” Really? 😩
I didn’t want to accept any of that advice! So I would look up more “general” readings for the collective and try and lean into readings with a positive title and outcome for me and my crush, because I knew he must be my destiny! (LOL)
Well even though these general readings for the collective told me this man was my soulmate, twin flame, Hotty McHotterson, I got so pissed when I found out truly he was, just on a completely different path than me!
I’m an Aries and I knew that I could enter my birth time and date and calculate my entire astrological chart (for free here).
Then I was looking up videos for my sign the sign of Aries and I found a channel called Veroosh Tarot. She is the originator of the Pick a Card reading and the All Signs reading which have become the centerpiece and backbone of what is tarot on YouTube today.
I reached out to her and shared some of my paintings with her and we became friends. It was a lot of fun she would do a reading for me, in exchange I used a deck that a friend gave me at a music festival and would pull cards for her and kind of fumble through guessing what everything meant. I was inspired to test myself and see if somehow I could be a great reader and so I started to study more deeply, listening to several interpretations from several readers and taking what resonates and leaving the rest as they say. Discovering the many spreads and symbolisms of each of the cards and different meanings for different decks, and even more different meanings depending on what position they’re in and if they are upright or reversed. It became like learning a foreign language—it was intriguing to me. And it only made my curiosity stronger. I resonated with what was going on in my life with my readings at the time. It was a welcome distraction to heartbreak and other issues that I was feeling my way through blinded by love. When things started lining up in my life as I read the cards for myself, I realized there was something more to it, there is a new side of God that I had not seen. Before yet recognized in my readings, this was not just for fun and entertainment. This felt like the hand of god coming to hold me in the palm of his hand.
There’s something beyond the scope of what I am creating dictating these messages through me—benevolent, and familiar. I can only describe it as my higher self, source energy, and possibly messages from my Spirit guardians. But yet I am a skeptic. I’m not entirely sure and still, I’m not sure how it all works. The only thing I am sure of is that it is not evil and does not come from dark energy and although it’s not promoted in the Christian religion, I feel that I have a gift that only God can give which helps me read accurately. I also feel that it could leave me at any time. It is not ingrained in me, like painting. What I paint just flows out, it’s not something I have to “try” and do. Tarot is similar but I have to “get there” first for it to flow. I do this by meditating while I shuffle, focusing on a card or crystal, and allowing. But the things that I end up saying, especially the additional messages I get that come in alongside of the story the cards tell, are nothing less than mystical and mysterious.
I do feel like it’s a spiritual gift. Based on how I feel when I can help people with their problems or the way that they think or be able to warn them if something crazy is coming down the pike. Fast-forward seven years. I am now reading tarot professionally and humbly and I love it. It’s incredibly fun for me too and it feels really good to be able to help people, uncover what is unseen, know for sure what is secret, and see into the future based on a present choice. I feel privileged and excited to be able to offer you The Info—411 Tarot.