Tarot: Welcome + Overview

Hello, Beloved! I’m so grateful that you decided to book a session with me. If you’re considering booking one and want to learn more about how my process works, you’ve come to the right spot! Over the next few minutes, I’ll share with you my spiritual process, information about the deck I use, as well as what to expect during your session.

My Ritual Process

I begin all of my client sessions the same way: with a ritual of invocation. For me, this is a prayer of gratitude to God, thanking Her for this gift and opportunity to do this work and asking for Her presence in making this a sacred space.

I then invoke, or invite, the presence of your ancestors. These are your BENEVOLENT ancestors, okay? Benevolent ancestors are those who did not do you harm or would not do you harm in shared lifetime. These are the ones who are invested in your best outcomes and recognize you as the bearer and guardian of their legacy. There is a time and place for raggedy ancestors but this ain’t it. I also invoke my own ancestors and give gratitude to them for allowing me to inherit the gifts I use to do this work and to also make my working space sacred and protected. 

Finally I invoke the presence of your spirit guides. These are folks who are not necessarily related to you, but are absolutely assigned to you and vested in your best outcomes too. These are folks who intercede on your behalf in the spiritual realm and guide you in the natural. You can think of this as the Holy Spirit or guardian angels, whatever makes you feel comfortable. I call them spirit guides, though, and I invoke their presence in this space for messages and protection. I then close out this ritual with its appropriate closing measures and begin the process of cleansing my deck.

The deck is cleansed by smoke, spoken intention, deck washing ritual, or some combination of these things. This is done to remove any residual energy from previous clients, myself, the spirits in my workspace, or anything that would cause interference with you getting the messages you need to hear. I then pick your layout, shuffle my deck, and lay the cards as I hear Spirit tell me to. Tarot spreads have assigned spots, but I lay them in the order I see your spiritual team tell me! 

All this to say that this work is done with the utmost integrity. So, at some point in this reading, when I’m in your business way more than our relationship to one another would allow, you’ll know as we say in the church that “flesh and blood did not reveal this unto me. So let’s talk about the deck.

About the Deck

I use the Dust II Onyx tarot deck for my clients unless otherwise stated in your session. The Dust II Onyx deck is created by a Black queer woman named Courtney Alexander. All of the imagery is Black and so it tends to resonate with me and my clients who look like me. But it’s certainly not limited to Black folks!

The deck is 78 cards, a standard deck. 22 of those cards are Major Arcana cards. We think of these as your trump cards, your soul journey and purpose cards. The remaining 56 are Minor Arcana cards divided into 4 different suites representing 4 different elements of our universe with broader philosophical symbolism: the gourds, staffs, blades, and coins OR as they’re traditionally called the cups, wands, swords, and pentacles. I’ll get into what those elements mean as we go through your reading.

When it comes to looking at a spread, I look for the composition of major vs. minor arcana. If the majority of your cars are minor, we can think of the situation related to your ask as situational. Minor Arcana tends to indicate short term but also that YOU have the tools you need to overcome the challenges presented, you just may need clarity on which ones. Major Arcana, however, tends to indicate overall behavior patterns in your life. They may show up in different forms, but they tend to be long term patterns. Also, Major Arcana cards indicate you may be able to do some things on your own but we will probably need God’s intervention to carry it to completion.

What to Expect in Session

So there are a couple of things to know about working with me. First, let’s talk about timing. My preparation for our session tends to run 45-60+ minutes, depending on the number of cards and how the messages are coming in. My divination happens in two parts: first when I lay out your spread and the basic meanings of each card, sometimes spirit will immediately give me messages that I’ll notate for you.

Truthfully, the majority of the divination comes live during our conversation. The tarot cards are a tool, but I am the medium. You’ll get prophetic messages, things you know I have no way of knowing! As you and I converse, I also am conversing with the ancestors, guides, and God to pull in the messages you need to hear.

I usually give an auditory cue so you know when I’m running from my notes and when I’m divining. I’ll often say “this is not in my notes” or some variant thereof. The thing about those live messages is I don’t remember what I say after I say it, so when you ask for clarity you’ll need to give me a bit of context so I can recall and give you the additional insights you need. 

I show up as my whole self in these readings. My goal is to make you feel as if we’re two friends conversing over drinks. Sometimes, these sessions are hard, especially with some of the messages that come up. But I will always do my best to guide you through with loving kindness.