Connect with Chris

https://www.instagram.com/elementalcartomancy/

https://www.youtube.com/c/elementalcartomancy

Episode Summary:
In this episode of Confessions of a Tarot Reader, host Bex sits down with Chris from Elemental Cartomancy.  Chris is a tarot reader with 30 years of experience who got his first deck (a Rider-Waite) at age eight. Together they nerd out on reading "scary" cards like Death, The Tower, and the 10 of Swords without alarming clients, managing energy during back-to-back market readings, why general readings sometimes produce the most powerful results, and where they land on the AI-generated tarot deck debate. Chris also shares his signature reading style, including using Soul Cards as a Rorschach-style opener and reading for the LGBTQ+ community with the Queer Tarot deck.

Topics Covered:

• Chris's origin story: buying his first tarot deck at age eight
• Reading "difficult" cards (Death, The Tower, 10 of Swords) with compassion
• The Strength card and confidence blocks readers face themselves
• Reading at markets: the Celtic Cross, freestyle flow, and 15-minute readings
• Energy management and burnout after back-to-back client readings
• General readings vs. specific questions.  Does one produce better results?
• AI and tarot deck creation: an honest, nuanced conversation
• Where tarot "messages" come from spirit guides, psychology, or both
• Reading reversals, "jumper" cards, and timing with astrological decanates
• Chris's signature style: Soul Cards, deck selection rituals, and the Queer Tarot deck
• Getting into professional reading and finding your first market

Guest: Chris, Elemental Cartomancy
Host: Bex, Confessions of a Tarot Reader

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Connect with Brandi

https://www.charmedintuitive.com/about

https://www.instagram.com/charmed.mi/

In this episode

Brandi Gunn O'Leary — lash artist, tarot reader, and creator of Charmed Makeup, Lashes & Tarot — joins Bex for one of the most chaotic, warm, funny, and genuinely insightful episodes yet. They discover a shared family name within the first minute and spend the rest of the episode co-founding a brand, designing merch, and building what they're now calling the Cousins Coven.

But in between all of that: a real conversation about reading at events (the pre-reading nausea that never goes away, the portal that opens once you start, and why five-minute readings are simply not physically possible), Brandi's journey from lash studio to tarot table, how her incense business started with alcoholism, recovery, and a TikTok, and why she's currently pausing on the term "glamour magic" — and what that pause is actually about.

Plus: AI, art theft, the Great Lakes, Willy Wonka, charm readings, recorded vs. live readings, and a sand timer that neither of them ever remembers to flip.

Topics covered: Charmed Makeup Lashes and Tarot · beauty magic · glamour magic · spell incense · spell oils · tarot at events · reading health questions · AI and tarot · dark moon rituals · egg cleanse · crossroads magic · charm readings · Cousins Coven · Confessions of a Tarot Reader

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Connect with Dave:  https://davezilla.com/

Illustrator, author, and magic worker Dave Zilla joins Confessions of a Tarot Reader to talk about The Feral Path Tarot, a deck built as an homage to real-life esoteric creators like Rachel True and Mat Auryn, each mapped to their own archetype.

In this episode:

• The origin story of The Feral Path Tarot and choosing archetypes with real creators
•  Lucumí, and the Orisha tradition — Dave's spiritual lineage
• AI, ghosts, and why Claude instances keep talking about the soul
• Designing tarot for accessibility: braille decks, neurodivergent-friendly symbols
• Diversity and representation in modern tarot decks
• Where creativity really comes from — muses, brainstorming, and never having creative block

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Connect with Cassandra: https://www.instagram.com/mx.cassandra.snow/

Cassandra Snow, the author, performer, witch, and creator of Queering the Tarot.  Cassandra joins Bex this week to chat about performing at 40 and how doing it scared is still doing it.

They discuss reading tarot as a people skill not just a card skill, why spell substitutions are more personal than any internet substitution list can tell you, and what it practically means to build a rooted, literate witchcraft practice. 

Cassandra shares her three favourite journaling prompts, her hot take on generative AI (spoiler: she's not a fan), and why witchcraft and activism are, fundamentally inseparable.

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Connect with Carol!

https://www.carrottarot.com/

In this episode

Carol from Carrot Tarot joins Bex for a conversation full of warmth, laughs, and genuinely useful insight — from what it's like to quit corporate life and go all-in on tarot, to the art of reading for the collective vs. one-on-one clients.

They go deep on Air sign life, they compare notes on Zoom vs. in-person readings, the questions that give them the ick (twin flames, "is he going to call?"), why a tarot reading is not a wishing well, and what "proactive tarot" actually means in practice. Carol also shares the story of her very first deck — a 1985 Merlin Tarot with pip cards and no traditional suits — and why she'd now strongly recommend starting with Rider-Waite-Smith.

Plus: AI and tarot, platform pros and cons across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, the Scorpio stellium, and why Carol's husband might be developing psychic abilities.

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Connect with John: https://www.tarotbyjohn.com/

Need more Bex and Tarot by John? Listen to episodes 6 and 39!

Episode Overview

When Alex Reads Tarot — one of the biggest tarot creators online — announced she was leaving tarot given a change in heart and religious beliefs, the internet had opinions. Lots of them. 

Bex and return guest John from Tarot by John cut through the noise for a frank, funny, and thoughtful conversation about what this moment actually means.

They unpack the community's reactions (not all of them pretty), clout chasing, spiritual awakenings, they discuss burnout and the relentless pressure of content creation, explore whether tarot and Christianity are truly incompatible, and reflect on what the esoteric world has done to the craft of reading tarot.

This one's unscripted, unfiltered, and coming from a place of love.

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Connect with Beck!

https://www.instagram.com/the_stitching_witch

https://serpentskeyshoppe.com/

In today's episode

What happens when a 1861 law threatens a modern tarot reader with jail time? In this episode of Confessions of a Tarot Reader, host Bex sits down with Beck Ravenswood — known online as Hanover, Pennsylvania's most notorious fortune teller — to unpack one of the strangest astories this podcast has covered.

Shortly before her metaphysical store even opened, Beck was visited by the Hanover police chief, who cited an antiquated state law banning fortune telling, astrology, and necromancy, and threatened her with up to a year in jail or a $2,500 fine per offense. What followed was ultimately a 17-page lawsuit filed, essentially Beck v. the State of Pennsylvania.

The conversation widens into the deep history of laws against witchcraft — tracing back to the Code of Ur-Nammu, the earliest known legal code in human history — and Bex and Beck's beliefs that spirituality has always been political, whether we like it or not.

On a lighter note, Beck shares her origin story (Scooby-Doo's Hex Girls have a lot to answer for), her free monthly moon circles and seasonal rituals, the unconventional forms of divination she seeks out for herself, and her hopes for who plays her in the (inevitable) Netflix adaptation.

In this episode:

• The 1861 Pennsylvania law banning fortune telling, astrology, and necromancy
• The police visit, the denied right to record, and what happened next
• Filing a 17-page lawsuit: Beck v. the State of Pennsylvania
• The Code of Ur-Nammu and the ancient history of anti-witchcraft law
• Why spirituality has always been political
• Ethical tarot practice: disclosures, informed consent, and turning away repeat clients
• Beck's witchcraft origin story — yes, it starts with Scooby-Doo
• Making accessible, welcoming community spaces, including moon circles and seasonal rituals: building an accessible Pagan community
• Unconventional divination: seashell readings, oracle dice, tea leaves, and more
• How listeners can support the case and the broader fight for legal protection

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Connect with Markella: https://www.lettersofthezodiac.com/

This week on Confessions of a Tarot Reader, Bex sits down with Markella, founder of Letters of the Zodiac, a tarot-by-mail subscription that grew from zero to nearly a thousand subscribers in just four months. Markella shares the serendipitous story of how she got her first tarot deck, what it's really like reading tarot for close friends and family, and how she turned a personal season of caregiving and uncertainty into a thriving zodiac-based mail community.

The glasses coming flying off when Markella shares her unfiltered take on AI-generated tarot and astrology content, the pressure of delivering hard truths in readings, and the upcoming skydive she agreed to as a personal milestone (and is now having major second thoughts about).

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Connect with Lindsay: https://www.tarotforthewildsoul.com/

Connect with Chelsea Granger: https://www.chelseagranger.com/

This episode

She's one of the most respected voices in the tarot world, and this week she's on Confessions of a Tarot Reader. Lindsay Mack — creator of Soul Tarot, host of the Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast, and author of the newly released Tarot for the Wild Soul: A Trauma-Informed Approach to the Cards for Growth, Healing, and Grounding in the Present Moment — joins host Bex for a conversation that is as honest as it is wide-ranging.

Lindsay catches us mid-book tour, which she describes as equal parts exhilarating, nerve-wracking, and unexpectedly humbling. She talks about the three-year process of writing and releasing the book, what it feels like to let something you've gestated go out into the world, and the reality of self-marketing as a published author in 2026. 

The conversation goes deep into Soul Tarot itself: what it means to read in a trauma-sensitive, non-predictive way, why the old paradigms of tarot fall flat for so many newer readers, and how to make space for readers who diverge entirely from your own framework. Lindsay also shares her perspective on the collective energy of 2026 — the Wheel of Fortune year — and what it means to find the still centre when the outer wheel is spinning wildly.

In this episode:

• Lindsay's book tour: exhilaration, imposter syndrome, and the reality of publishing in 2026
• What it feels like to release a book — and why Lindsay compares it to early postpartum
• The origin story of Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast, and what Tara Brach had to do with it
• Soul Tarot: a trauma-informed, non-predictive, heart-led framework — and what that actually means
• Predictive tarot vs. inclusive tarot — why Lindsay says it doesn't have to be either/or
• The Empress, the Emperor, and why tarot frameworks need to expand beyond outdated defaults
• How Lindsay's practice has changed: she barely reads for herself anymore
• The Wheel of Fortune as 2026's collective card — and Courtney Alexander's insight about the Sun
• Protecting your energy as a sensitive practitioner in a turbulent political moment
• Teaching tarot and being taught by your students: the living Hierophant
• Chelsea Granger's art in the deck, and her book Many Ways to Draw a Ghost
• Murder, She Wrote, Little House on the Prairie, and finding nourishment in uncertain times

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Connect with Alice: https://www.alicegrist.co.uk/

Tarot author, spiritual teacher, and intuitive reader Alice Grist joins Bex for a deeply honest conversation about the enduring magic of the Rebel Heart tarot deck, her new book You Know, and why reclaiming your intuition is one of the most radical things you can do.

They explore how society conditions us to second-guess ourselves from childhood, what a "fallow period" with tarot actually looks like, and whether AI can ever replace a human reader (spoiler: they pull cards on it). Alice also shares her journey as an author of eight books, her advice for first-time writers, and why building real community matters more than ever.

Topics covered: Rebel Heart tarot deck · intuition & self-trust · tarot and AI · writing as healing · cosmic sisterhood

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