In this podcast episode, I get to discover how one psychic Tarot reader works with her clients in a face-to-face environment, from attracting her clients with her funky, flower-covered glitter bike, to meditating with her clients and sharing her wisdom from the Tarot cards.
This Tarot reader is affectionately known as Sarah the Psychic, a Sydney-based reader with a unique and grounded Tarot reading style and a love for Tarot tattoos.
In this podcast, you'll learn:
- Sarah's top 2 tips for reading Tarot face-to-face with confidence
- Why working with a supervisor can up your professional game tenfold
- How Sarah works with her clients, step-by-step
- How NOT to freak your clients out while you meditate at the start of a Tarot reading
- Why Sarah's got everyone smiling in her neighborhood
Let's dive in…
Additional Resources:
Podcast Transcript
Brigit: You’re listening to the Biddy Tarot podcast and this is episode 27: Face-to-Face Tarot Readings with Sarah the Psychic.
Voice-Over
Welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast, where you will learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition and live an empowered and enlightened life with the Tarot cards as your guide.
Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you read Tarot with confidence.
And now, here is your host Brigit Esselmont.
Introduction
Brigit: Hello and welcome back to the Biddy Tarot podcast. I love being able to take a sneak peek behind the curtains to find out how different Tarot readers do their readings. In this episode I get to discover how one psychic Tarot reader works with her clients in a face-to-face environment, from attracting her clients with her funky, flower-covered glitter bike to meditating with her clients and sharing her wisdom from the Tarot cards.
This Tarot reader is affectionately known as Sara the Psychic, A Sydney based reader with a unique and grounded Tarot reading style and, of course, a love for Tarot tattoos.
Brigit: Welcome Sarah Barry. It’s so good to have you here.
Sarah: Lovely to be here.
Brigit: Well to get us started I would love to hear about your journey with Tarot, but more so how did you find Tarot or sometimes it’s how did Tarot find you.
Sarah: Well, it’s interesting because I hear so many Tarot readers talk about how they felt basically drawn to the Tarot. Something kind of overwhelming happened. For me it was a very slow entry point, but I guess over a short period of time.
I had my first Tarot reading at a festival in Byron Bay in the late 90s. I was kind of, “Oh yeah, there’s a Tarot reading.” I had another Tarot reading not too long after that. I was like, “Oh yeah, another Tarot reading.”
I wasn’t overly drawn to them, but then in 2000 I started attending a meditation group and Tarot cards would invariably be drawn out at some point during the group sessions. I was introduced in a kind of not very direct kind of way.
Then just one day offhand I said to the woman who was running the meditation classes, “I’ll do your next Tarot workshop whenever that is.” I was just a bit bored and looking for something to do. Then not too long after that she said that there was one coming up and I said, “Look, I can’t afford it anymore. I’ll do the next one.” She just said, “Look, just come and pay me when you can because I’ve only got two other people in the group and I need at least one other person.”
I went along and paid when I could, which was some months later. Yeah, that’s when I got drawn in because the way that she taught was very intuitive and I had been struggling learning the Tarot up until then because I had been trying to understand the book and I couldn’t wrap my head around it at all. Just being able to sit with the cards and observe them and feel them in a very intuitive way, I found that I could finally get it. That’s when I just started going crazy and did Tarot readings for all friends and family that would let me to readings for them.
Brigit: Nice.
Sarah: Yeah.
Brigit: Can I ask you how old you were at that time?
Sarah: I was 24 when I started learning. I was 25 when I started doing readings professionally. Then I was 26 when I went full time.
Brigit: Okay, yeah. Fabulous. It’s good to see, I think it’s quite a short trajectory in terms of start with Tarot and then going to professional Tarot readings. Not that that’s not a good thing or a bad thing at all. I think often times people get scared that like, “Am I good enough,” before they can become professional.
Sarah: Totally.
Brigit: It’s nice that you just got straight in there.
Sarah: I think I was at a time in my life where, because I hadn’t had a career at that stage. I was finishing up at uni. I was working at video stores. I was used to living on a bit of a low income, so it wasn’t really this big leap of faith for me to go and do Tarot. I always saw Tarot as inherently very creative, so it felt like the very natural thing to do coming out of art school.
What I was surprised by was how quickly I got fascinated by it and how that’s all I wanted to do. I just started dropping all the video store days and hassling all the shops, the New Age shops, going, “Can I pick up another day here, what about this day, what about that day.”
Brigit: Yeah. That’s great. I think having spoken to a few people about their entry, particularly into professional Tarot reading, there certainly is that element of hustle and just being courageous and putting yourself out there and giving it a go. Wonderful.
These days how are you engaging with Tarot in your everyday life?
Sarah: Everyday life? Well I’m there with it at least four days a week in my Tarot office when I’m meeting with my clients.
It does inform me. I don’t always pull a daily card, but I usually have a Tarot deck beside my bed at night and sometimes I’ll pull a card before I go to bed just to see, I don’t know, whether it will influence my dreams or not.
That was actually one thing that I did do in the very early stages of Tarot, learning about the Tarot, is that it was suggested to me to sleep with different Tarot cards underneath my pillow at night, so I did that. That was actually really interesting because I remember the two incidents that I slept with the Devil card underneath my pillow.
Brigit: That’s the one to choose.
Sarah: I know, it’s like why not. I can’t remember doing like the Empress or Temperance or anything. I just remember doing the Devil. It was really interesting how both those dreams ended up in a similar kind of fashion. As I was awaking I was punching the pillow beside me, I was like punching someone off me in the dream. It was really interesting that that only happened when I had the Devil card underneath my pillow, but yeah.
Brigit: Wow. Wonderful. Now, obviously, you’re doing professional readings. The name you use for your professional readings is Sarah the Psychic. The question I have for you which may be somewhat of an obvious answer now is like what style of Tarot reader do you see yourself as.
Sarah: Okay, well yeah, psychic Tarot reader.
Brigit: Was it obvious.
Sarah: I mean that name was originally given to me many years ago when I had started doing Tarot readings. I made some new friends. Their household had many Sarah’s in their life at that stage. There was about 17 Sarah’s, so they had taken to giving all the Sarah’s different names to help them differentiate them and tall Sarah was already taken and when they realized I was a Tarot reader said, “Oh, Psychic Sarah.” It just kind of stuck because that is how I do Tarot.
I see my style as very grounding and approachable and the psychic stuff for me – I do my best to – the way I approach my life is to approach life without systematic belief systems I guess. I’m not religious in any form, but I’ve also been very aware just though being exposed to the New Age community that there can be a lot of belief systems, but we may not see it as that. I believe say in spirit guides, or totems, or past lives and stuff.
While I don’t disbelieve in any of that, I just choose not to work with that actively because the way that I like to work with my psychic energy is without any kinds of pictures. For me it’s more of a feeling thing and it’s without attaching it to any association that I have with a particular image or a color.
For example, I’m not sure if I made that very clear how I work. It’s kind of hard to talk about this.
Brigit: Yeah, yeah. I think it’s interesting because I think say with the word psychic in particular, there’s a certain maybe stigma or a shared understanding of it as maybe someone who can speak with spirits. Although, I guess that’s a medium. Or someone who can see into somebody’s future and know exactly when something will happen or even see a picture in their head of a scene or hear things or feel things as you do. I’m curious what’s kind of your understanding of psychic. What does psychic mean to you?
Sarah: For me, for the way that I work, it’s just having a sense of how the future is tracking forward for someone. I can often feel timeframes as well. To me it feels like if I say, “Oh, around this particular date or around this particular month,” there’s a sense of it feeling appropriate to say it.
The way that I see psychic energy as well is that we’re all masters of our own destiny anyway. The things that happen in our life are reflected by the choices that we’ve made up until that point even if we’re not aware of those choices. Something that’s seemingly quite small and insignificant could blow out into something bigger.
I see all of us having multiple pathways and then we have choices as to which pathways we choose to connect with at any moment. That’s when we really have to go with our own intuition so that in a reading I’ll be describing the pathways that I feel are strongest and therefore more likely to unfold in a particular way.
For me psychic is just tracking the future possibilities that have a strong likelihood of unfolding in a particular way.
Brigit: But it still enables the client to use their free will to say, “Nah, I don’t want to take that path.”
Sarah: Absolutely.
Brigit: “You might see it as a likelihood, but I’m going to take this other path. Thanks very much.” You see that as a possibility there.
Sarah: Yeah, totally. Totally. Just for myself situations in my own life where I’ve, sometimes I feel that, okay, so just an example, I remember one particular day. This has happened more than once, but the first time it happened I just remember at the very end of my work day suddenly wishing that I hadn’t ridden my bicycle in to work that day.
I really felt a lot of, “Oh, this is not a good idea to ride home.” But then I said, “Oh, public transport, nah, it sucks. And I don’t want to leave my bike at work. It’s just easy to ride home. It’s only ten minutes. I’ll just do it.”
I got on my bike. Then after about one minute, I got off my bike because I was feeling really ungrounded and I just kind of stood on the pavement with my bicycle and refused to get back on the bike until I felt really, really in my body and really just grounded and clear.
Then I got back on my bike and I rode for ten minutes home. In those ten minutes I had so many near accidents. It was ridiculous. Everyone was like flying out of, I mean my bike’s covered in flowers and glitter; I’m easy to see. I’m wearing bright clothing. I’m like this big kind of, but people can’t see me on this day, so it was really intense.
I realized later, I said, okay, so one of the pathways that day was for me to possibly have an accident of some kind. I chose by pulling myself up, by recognizing how ungrounded I was, I pulled myself off the road and reconnected and then another pathway revealed itself, which was when I could get home safely.
Brigit: Yeah. I think that’s a really good example. I mean I’m glad you got home safely. That’s the important thing.
Sarah: Yeah, I know.
Brigit: But it’s a great example of how we still have some level of control over our future. I think tapping into psychic awareness doesn’t necessarily mean that you are set to a predetermined destiny or future, but we’re just tuning into that and then can make more guided decisions which will keep us safe and protected and so on.
Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I like to offer in Tarot readings is that sense that people can handle whatever may occur and the more they trust their instincts, the more likely they’ll be able to choose pathways that will be beneficial. Even if they do seen a bit hard at the time that they’ll be able to see what they’re learning and being able to gravitate through it without losing their mind in the process.
Brigit: Yeah, yeah because I have often heard people who are very new to Tarot readings, more as the client versus someone who’s actually using Tarot for themselves, they often have this big fear around, well I don’t want to have a reading because what if it tells me something bad then something bad is going to happen. You think, “Oh, I feel so sad for you and having that belief because it’s not intended in that way.”
Sarah: No.
Brigit: Sounds like that’s what you’re also working with when you’re working with your clients. It’s more about the sort of empowering and helping to make more guided decisions about life.
Sarah: Yeah, yeah.
Brigit: I’m curious to hear how does a face-to-face reading with you play out. Could you walk us through step by step what a typical experience might look like with you?
Sarah: Yeah. Sure, okay. Well it starts in a predictable way where people press the buzzer and I buzz them up. Then I’m waiting for them at the door. Sometimes they get, the building that I’m in is a bit like a rabbit warren, so sometimes it takes them a little while to find me. Then they come.
I tell them where they can sit. Then I ask them if they want a cup of tea or some water. I’ve got like about 30 different teas they can choose from. It’s a bit overwhelming. Then I sit down. I ask them if they want me to record it or not. It’s all included in the price. Depending on what they decide I either record it or not.
Then I let them know a bit how I work. I guess what I invariably say pretty much word for word at the beginning of a reading is, “I’m just going to let you know a bit how I work because every reader works differently. I’ll just meditate for a couple of minutes and then I’ll begin. When I do begin I prefer to have no information from you for at least the first five minutes just to get a feel for the undercurrent of things and to get my head out of the way, but then I will check in at the five-minute mark to see if there are questions or areas that you want me to focus on. If not, I’m more than happy to just go with the flow. If at any point you want me to clarify anything or talk more or less about something or even not about something at all, please just jump in and interrupt me, so I can make best use of your time.”
Then I say I’m going to meditate for a couple of minutes and they can join me or just hang out. People either sit there and close their eyes or they just kind of look around the room or sit there nervously or drink on their tea or something, I don’t know.
Brigit: Yup. Waiting to see you start like levitating or something.
Sarah: Yeah.
Brigit: One eye open.
Sarah: I didn’t use to say that spiel. I always started with the meditation. I’d always just kind of sit there with my eyes shut for a few minutes. Then I’d begin. I had this thought people should just figure out what I’m doing and be okay with that, but then I realized I’ve got to make this easier for people. Of course, a lot of people this is very new for them. Some people just kind of figure out, “Oh, yeah, she’s meditating,” and join me, but they might be expecting that I’m going to start talking in tongues or something. There might be all kinds of fears that are arising for them.
With the help of my supervisor who’s a woman that I saw as a psychotherapist in my 20s then when I started doing Tarot full time, I asked her if she could be my supervisor. Every now and then, every few months or so, sometimes more often, sometimes less often, I just meet with her to discuss any aspects of just my business and about setting boundaries with clients, any tricky situations I’ve had, and she offers really great advice.
One of the advice was that I let people know what the hell I’m doing. That I give them a spiel at the beginning so that that just really helps put them at ease so that the reading can progress in a much more calm fashion.
Brigit: Yeah, yeah. I think setting the expectations up front is so important as well because as you said earlier, every Tarot reader works differently and I think every client has a different idea of what Tarot is. I suppose they can walk in there with their different preconceptions you just want to make sure that you’re on the same page before you get under way with the reading.
Sarah: Yeah, yeah.
Brigit: Did you find then that once you started being a little bit clearer about what you were doing, did you find sort of the energy changed in your readings.
Sarah: Oh, totally, yeah. I think people were less nervous. People usually once I begin anyway, once I start talking they calm right down anyway, but just to put them at ease a lot more quickly.
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I found that often people even if they have never meditated that they just kind of sit there quietly and people often say that that’s great because they just don’t have the time to sit quietly at all in their life, so it really changes the energy in that they’re feeling a lot calmer themselves.
Course a lot of the time people arrive rushing. They’ve just been trying to find a park or they’ve just been rushing off the bus or the train. It’s hot and they’re all sweaty or whatever. It’s just really nice for them to just sit before we kind of dive right into the juicy stuff.
Brigit: Yeah, yeah. I think that’s a really good idea.
Sarah: Yeah.
Brigit: Do you work with a question or you’re just working with whatever is coming to you through the cards and through sort of more your intuition.
Sarah: Initially, yeah, I prefer to have no question upfront, just for the first bit, but then I do check in because sometimes people do come to me because they like that go-with-the-flow kind of style, but sometimes people do have very specific questions. I’m happy to work with questions or go with the flow.
The go-with-the-flow style was kind of forced upon me in my early years just from being young and having people very sceptical and kind of giving me nothing. As I result I just kind of was forced to learn to just go with the flow and to work with no information.
Now that I’m older and people are less sceptical of me because I’ve come up with my website and they can get a feel for me anyway that, that they do offer information if they feel they need to. Yeah, I’m happy with questions, but they’re not necessary in order for the reading to go ahead.
Brigit: Yeah, yeah. Wonderful. When you’re in the reading, you’re laying the cards out, what’s sort of happening for you as you do that reading?
Sarah: Okay, well first I pretty much always start with a particular spread that I made up just before I went professional. I remember freaking out going, “I have to have my own spread before I can see anyone that I don’t know.” It’s kind of stayed the same, but I’ve just changed my understanding of it over the years.
It’s just three at the bottom, two in the middle and one at the top. It’s like a triangle. It just kind of gives me a sense of what people are moving away from where they’re at right now, what they’re moving towards. What’s influencing them and what’s kind of working with them part time right now and will probably work with them a fair deal more over the next few months.
That couldn’t go sometimes for most of the readings, sometimes it’s just for the first five minutes or so. But I place them down facing me. I just gaze at them just to kind of get a feel for how it all looks together and then I turn the cards around to face them so they can have a look. Then I start to talk. Once I’ve talked about all those cards that are present, then I do check in to see if there are questions. Then we go from there.
Brigit: Yeah, wonderful. Do you find that the majority of the reading is a delivery of information from you or are you having more of an exchange with your client? How does that work for you?
Sarah: It does vary. A lot of it I’d say, the majority of the time is delivery from me.
Sometimes, it doesn’t happen that often, but sometimes people just every time I check in they say, “No, I’m happy just to keep on going with the flow,” and they offer pretty much nothing the entire time. They’re very open with that. They’re just enjoying it and they just want to see what arises. Sometimes it is me just pretty much talking for the whole time.
Sometimes it does get into an engaging more of a dialogue. I guess it just depends on what people are wanting to work with. I’m happy to shift around with my style to adapt to where people need to be. Sometimes they just need to talk about something really big that’s going on in their life, so I let them talk more. But I would say for the vast majority I’m doing most of the talking.
Brigit: Yeah, okay. Cool. Have you ever had a situation, maybe someone’s booked in for 60 minutes and you look at the clock and it’s like, “Oh my goodness, it’s 40 minutes. We’ve covered everything,” and we’re like, “Have you got any more questions?” Has that ever happened to you?
Sarah: Yeah. Well you know what I do now is if it feels right I say, “Hey, look, we’re nearly, I know you booked in for 60 minutes, we’re coming up to 40 minutes now. I’m happy. I feel like we may have covered everything. I’m happy for us just to finish at 45 minutes if that feels right for you, but if there is something burning that you want me to look at then let’s go for it. I’m happy.”
Sometimes people do go, “Yeah, you know what, I think we’ve actually talked about everything. It feels really good to finish here,” or sometimes they remember something massive that they hadn’t talked about and we do keep on going.
I play it by ear. I don’t want people to stay if there’s nothing more to say for both of our benefits, I guess. I don’t believe in wasting time and energy, but that doesn’t happen that often. But there’s usually more to say I find. Once I check in with people they usually want to keep on going because there’s something bigger emerging all of the sudden.
Brigit: Yeah. Have you ever had clients where you feel like, “I’m not getting anything.” You know, you sort of get five ten minutes into the reading and maybe they’re not giving you much. I don’t mean just by words, but energetically or there’s just something getting in the way of you being able to share helpful information. Have you had that experience?
Sarah: Oh yeah.
Brigit: And what did you do? Instead of like freak out and run out of the room. I can’t do this anymore.
Sarah: Yeah. It’s funny. It’s interesting. It happened a lot more in my earlier days, I guess. When it does happen in this time, I mean right now, when I do feel confident about reading the Tarot, it’s often when people are going through something really, really intense and I mean really intense and really full on. In that moment I think they’re far better off seeing a psychotherapist or a psychologist, but they’ve come to see me.
I can just sense that there’s only so much that I can say because it’s not, the way that I see it is if I’m not really feeling anything, it’s because there’s something, there’s another kind of therapy that they’re meant to be seeking out this time and they’ve just chosen the wrong one in that moment because me talking about the future unravellings is no good unless they’re going to be looking at certain behavioural patterns that they aren’t participating in. Their experience has got to be a lot more self-reflected rather than just kind of a nice little soothing balm for me to encourage them and inspire them.
Brigit: Yeah. I’ve noticed that too. That sometimes I think clients might come to a Tarot reading expecting the answer, the one thing that’s going to make their life better and when you’ve started to get into that process with them you realize, “You know what, this is probably like a six – twelve month journey with full support and someone who’s probably much more capable of really helping someone to unravel and rebuild and so on versus a Tarot reading. It’s interesting to hear you’ve had that similar experience.
Sarah: Yeah. And because I see, the way that I like to work the Tarot, I say on my website, I ask people to wait for at least a couple of months before having another reading with me. That’s at least. It’s good to allow time to unfold.
The way that I work for my style of Tarot reading is that space has got to happen to let life happen, to trust the intuition, just to keep on going with the flow and letting things unravel in life because things do invariably unravel. Things are always changing.
Whereas a psychotherapist role is about that week to week or fortnight to fort night. It’s a much more regular intimate relationship so that will dive down a lot deeper. I think a lot of the time people that seem to be quite closed in a reading are usually in need to something that’s a lot more deep and intimate on a more regular basis.
Brigit: Yeah, that’s a good observation. When it comes to the end of the reading, do you do anything special to kind of wrap up that reading or how do you bring a reading to an end.
Sarah: Okay, well usually I, unless I’m truly lost in it or I haven’t been checking the time, but I usually check in with people prior ten minutes if I can, if not in the final five minutes and say we’re coming up to the last five minutes, is there any particular question that you really wanted to look at for this final bit or any clarity you wanted or do you just want to pull a wild card. Most people want for the wild card. A wild card is just we pull a card and we see what the hell happens.
Brigit: Go wild.
Sarah: Yeah, I know. I guess sometimes, my style of readings, it was just the wild reading. We have no idea what’s going to happen. Let’s just go with it.
But the wild card, I guess it’s like the best card for them to work with right now that can help them go out the door and go into the next stage of their life. That’s usually how I finish up.
Brigit: Wonderful. Then do you engage with your clients after the reading is completely finished, maybe in a month, two months, anything like that or is it kind of like reading, then reading finished and then come back if you need another reading.
Sarah: Yeah, yeah. The reading, reading finished and come back if you need another reading. They’ll be a small engagement if they had a recording for example. Then I’ll send them an email that night with the recording and just if there was anything in the reading that I said I’d forward on to them, like if there was kind of referrals or a link or a video that I wanted them to look at or something, then I’ll send all that in the email, but that’s just the day of the reading, the evening of it or the day after. Then that’s it.
Brigit: Yeah. I noticed you also do email readings and Skype readings. I’m particularly interested in how you find email readings versus these face-to-face readings. Do you have a preference or you’re just like, well they’re both different and I both enjoy them. Of course, that’s probably the most politically correct answer.
Sarah: I do like them both. I do. Interestingly I think, I love face-to face, the reason in this business is because I love sitting with people and meeting with different, there’s this huge cross section of society, so I really enjoy. Then I’m really touched that I get to sit with people that, and have these intimate conversations with them that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. That just wouldn’t happen. I’m touched by that.
There is something really intimate about the email readings because the way that I do them is I ask people just to send their questions, so I will answer their questions, and if they have no questions that’s fine as well, just to go-with-the-flow style.
I do that and I record it, so I speak the reading to them. I take a photo of the cards and send that with the recording of their reading. In some ways that feels more intimate because it’s just me and the microphone. I’m just talking into it and they’re listening to it later that day.
I find that really quite, I really enjoy that. I really enjoy kind of feeling into the cards like that and feeling into their energy and just enjoying how it’s still possible to have a connection with someone even though they’re not sitting in front of me.
With the Skype readings I also enjoy them. It’s interesting, I’m thinking that maybe the email readings sometimes feel more connected and I think that’s really the main reason for that is just technology stuff because Skype is fantastic, but every now and then the screen might freeze a little bit or there’s just a small distortion in sound and then it goes on through, but, or there might be a slight time-lapse between what we’re saying. I think it’s just the fact that it’s not this seamless scenario, but then of course I love that I can sit with people that are in other parts of Australia or in other parts of the world and that we can still have this intimate conversation despite the distance.
Brigit: Yeah. I think you’ve done a really smart thing offering readings across so many different mediums, excuse the pun. Then you can serve people in the way that probably best meets their needs as well. I always think email readings are so convenient because you don’t have to organize a time to be somewhere and you can meet with people around the world. Yeah, but I think there is something special about face-to-face readings to kind of, I know energy has no boundaries, but there’s something nice about being in the same space as the other person.
Sarah: Yeah, totally.
Brigit: I’ve been dying to ask you about your bike. You have this gorgeous flower bike. I’m going to try and get a picture of it and we’ll post it on the show notes on the blog which will be at BiddyTarot.com/27, so 2-7. You can see the photo of the bike there. Tell me how does this bike integrate into your Tarot practice?
Sarah: It gets me clients. It serves as a sign. People will see the photo. It’s covered in chunky silver glitter and rainbow flowers and it’s got signs on it saying Tarot Readings with Psychic Sarah, my phone number, my website. Also, in the back basket as well, it’s just a picture of the Ace of Cups and SarahThePsychic.com, so people driving behind me can see it as well.
It’s my most successful marketing tool really. I don’t really have to do anything except ride to work and there I go. Park it and kind of see it’s more popular than I am. It’s got more photos on the internet than me. Every now and then I’ll do like an Instagram search where I type search then, “Hey, there’s my bike.”
Brigit: Did you think it was going to be so popular or viral when you decided to do the bike or has it just kind of evolved that way?
Sarah: I didn’t think, I can’t actually remember what exactly I was thinking. I had always been into decorating my bicycle, but it used to be very subtle, just a couple of stickers and maybe a couple of flowers.
Me and a friend used to have this thing where we’d secretly attach flowers or stickers to each other’s bicycle if we were out and about and we saw their bike somewhere. It kind of happened with that. I thought that’s really, truly joyful just decorating the bicycle.
Sometimes people actually do put gifts in my bicycle as well. People say, “I see you bike everywhere. I love it so much.” I think I did do it just because I like flowers and also because I wanted to be more visible on the road, so there is a practical element to it as well. But now I do see it as quite a bit of community service as well.
When I went to Europe for six weeks in 2010 and when I got back the man who did I think the shoe repair guy on the corner a couple of doors down from where I used to do readings, and he kind of grabbed me on the shoulder and says, “Where has your bicycle been?”
Brigit: He’s missing you.
Sarah: I said, “Well you know, it’s raining today, so I didn’t ride, but I was away for six weeks.” He kind of said with this choke in his voice, “Bring it back.” I went, “Okay.”
Brigit: Oh, that’s lovely.
Sarah: I’d see him standing outside on his cigarette break, like guarding my bicycle and stopping people from touching it. I think it really inspires something in people. It’s a marketing tool as well as a joy giving tool or something like that.
Brigit: That’s perfect, absolutely perfect. Love it. Just to wrap things up, have you got a top two or three tips that you might give someone who’s considering starting to do face-to-face readings professionally. What would be kind of like your top two or three?
Sarah: Mine I guess are quite practical because I guess as you, people will see as they start to work with the public that they’ll be faced with a lot of energy and the need for self-care will be strong so that they can be the best readers that they want to be.
I would recommend having some kind of meditation practice. I meditate every day. If I didn’t meditate every day, I doubt I’d be able to work as a full time Tarot reader. There’s that.
I would recommend having a supervisor or just someone that you can speak to in a confidential manner, a professional that you can go and visit that you pay for. It’s fully tax-deductible, so you can talk about any aspects of your work in a very safe and confidential way to protect your client’s privacy of course, but then also just to make sure that you’re not sharing stuff with people that aren’t meant to hear it.
Brigit: Yeah, sorry. With the supervisor idea, this is something that I think will be so important for so many readers and yet it’s not something I hear many people doing, so I’m really glad that you’ve brought up today.
Sarah: Yeah, cool.
Brigit: Because I think a lot of people could get a lot of value out of having a supervisor. It goes beyond having a Tarot teacher and how do you read the cards. You’re actually having maybe a mentor or more formally a supervisor in place so that you can check that you’re doing things ethically and you’re on track and you’re taking care of yourself. I’m glad you brought that one up.
Sarah: Also, because I remember when I was going into Tarot reading professionally that I’d look around and I’d see, I couldn’t see any Tarot readers that were really great role models and that were looking after themselves like they seem to be might be having some kind of mental health issues or just kind of going into spaces, mental health, it doesn’t have to be difficult, I mean more mental health intensive, having a strange way of observing themselves and perhaps seeing themselves as some kind of god or just having an inflated sense of self.
I think having a supervisor keeps you humble because you’ve got someone that can say, “Hey, well, you know, maybe that wasn’t so ethical. Maybe do it this way instead,” because meeting with the public you will be meeting with people that have gone through, who have had really horrific things go down in their life. You’ll meet many people who are crying.
There’s just so many aspects and to be able to – people wanting to be your best friend, wanting to call you all the time. There will be people wanting to jump over your boundaries, so if you’ve got a supervisor in place, then you can have a way of learning how to deal with that so that your personal life doesn’t have to suffer because of the public work that you do.
Psychotherapists and counsellors, they all have to have supervisors, so I just see well, I know Tarot readers don’t really have to do anything because we’re not really recognized as anything formal anyway, but I take that seriously, so I’m just going to treat myself as if I am a psychotherapist even though I know I’m not, but I’m still dealing with people in a similar way, in an intimate professional way, so I’m going to do it for myself.
Brigit: Yeah. I think that’s a really great way of looking at things. You’re not obligated to, but you recognize the value boost to yourself and your clients of doing that. That’s great. Wonderful. It’s been so fun talking with you Sarah.
Sarah: Yeah, you too.
Brigit: I would love to be able to share where can people find out more about you if they want to learn more about your readings or even no matter where people are in the world they can find out how to get a Skype reading with you. Where they should go?
Sarah: SarahThePsychic.com.
Brigit: Too easy.
Sarah: Yeah.
Brigit: We’ll make sure that we have that link on the show notes as well, which you’ll find over at BiddyTarot.com/27. You can also leave comments for Sarah if there’s something you want to ask her or just your thoughts and observations from today’s podcast. Sarah, again I want to say big, big thank you for being a part of the Biddy Tarot podcast and sharing all of your experiences as a professional Tarot reader. I know it will have helped many, many people, so big thank you.
Sarah: Yeah, thank you for inviting me. It was really a lovely thing.
Wrap-Up
Brigit: Wonderful. All right. If you enjoyed this podcast then make sure that you head on over to iTunes and leave a review and you can also subscribe to get the latest podcasts.
Thank you so much for listening today and I look forward to connecting again soon. Thank you and good bye.
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