Tarot Readings
Liberation- focused, through an animistic lens. Tarot readings with Bri: queer animist witch.
4 Cards for $30 or 7 Cards for $50
In-person in Louisville, KY by appointment. Virtually anywhere in the world. Contact bri@mugwortmedia.com
Virtual readings are not live: they include a photo of the cards pulled in their spread, and either an audio or video recording of the reading.
Expect a 4- card reading to range from 20-30 minutes and a 7- card reading to run from 25-40 minutes.
These times are estimated and not hard or fixed.
My Method
(-: This page is full of information; read this section first and stop here if you’re seeking a reading with me, but you prefer the abridged version of my introduction :-)
I have been collaborating with tarot for ten years. In that time I have come to know this oracular system as a way-finding tool. The cards work well to trigger subconscious human knowing toward the surface of the mind.
With right knowing, we may take right action. This is the basis for potent magic.
Some folks that use the Tarot say it is a psychological mirror; others use the cards as a doorway into psychic knowing. Some use the cards for fortune telling, to divine what might be. Other folks use tarot secularly; no witchcraft, no energy work, no psychic dealings.
But tarot is certainly not a science. I am an art-witch, and reading tarot is one of my mediums.
My own approach is as a channel, using the images on the cards to weave the web of story. It is in story human beings have cultivated meaning- making since our collective forever.
I love sitting with a querant and parsing through the shadows and the meadows of their human lives, as we go deeper, with lantern and key. I watch their spirit light through their being as we let the cards speak their own story to them. New patterns emerge. Unexpected perspectives begin to peek through.
And a lot of folks find
( like I have myself, when I have sat with a gifted reader with burning questions of my own )
that there is often unseen support in the material and spiritual realms toward seeing themself thrive.
There are other people, and non-human beings that want to collaborate with us. There are paths not yet taken that hold a lot of promise. There is sweetness even in a troubled time. The underworld is not so drab and terrifying a place to be, when we learn that we are building foundations to take up all the space in our unique life, to live it fully.
Grief, rage, joy, laughter, storms and squalls, sunshine, rain, nourishment, wisdom and folly… Tarot mirrors all of this.
and Tarot can provide a map to navigate all this complexity.
My Technical Practice
When I read I ask my guides to connect with the energy and guides of the querant- the person I am reading for and with.
I am am animist witch, and I recognize my reading tarot as a collaboration between my ancestors, the land I live on, deities I work with, other spiritual allies, and the spiritual makeup of the person being read for.
I also acknowledge that I am working with the cosmic weather- the seasons that we are in by way of the wheel of the year, and also by way of collective energy at play.
I always say I ground my intuition into the land. I hail from land that originally belongs to and has been stewarded by the Cherokee Indian Nation for thousands of years-commonly known now as the Blue Ridge Mountains (and her foothills). This land raised me, taught me, and bid me farewell when it was time for me to move on from my “nest” and learn elsewhere.
Now I live in Osage territory, among several other historic nations of peoples. I am new and tender and learning. I am descended from ancestors that were colonizers and I recognize my niche viewpoint is a small one amongst vast realities and truths that I may never fully grasp.
So when I read I am rooting down my own energy, and calling in that which protects my energy, and contextualizes my existence in time, place, space. All this, yes, in a reading. And I haven’t pulled a card yet!
If you read with me, we’ll do a bit of grounding. This is the only time I’ll ask you directly to put your feet on the ground and feel that connection between body and earth. And I will set up a sacred container by drawing a soft circle acknowledging North, East, South, West. I call in my guides to connect with yours, and I will ask your express consent for psychically reading you. This is sacred exchange and I don’t take it lightly.
Which brings me to:
My Ethics and Boundaries
When you read with me, expect compassionate honesty. I will never bullshit you. I have a deep relationship with my primary tarot deck (more on her later) that reads like an honest best friend that won’t let you cheat yourself. So my readings likely follow suit, even when reading with other decks. I will never paint a pretty picture over a festering wound. If something needs tending to, we will do so with intention and care.
You have 100% confidentiality with my readings. I believe it does bear stating that I would never discuss your reading with another human in the living material realm. What is covered in the sacred container of our reading is between me, my guides, you, and yours.
I practice impeccable psychic hygiene. I cleanse my decks, I cleanse my body, I cleanse my energy- body. I ground myself, I center my own energy in myself, I cleanse, I shield as needed. I can share my protocols with these techniques if desired. I share this here so you know that, just as I don’t disclose anything about your reading with others, I also will not carry energy that doesn’t belong to me, and I do not allow others to carry my energy with them. When your reading is over for you, it is over for me, with respect, love and toward our mutual thriving!
I read for folks 18 years of age or older. That’s all.
I encourage you to show up as you are. Please be yourself. Tell me your pronouns. Emote how you do. If you cry during a reading, it’s really normal and okay. (I nearly always tear up when I get a reading from someone else.) If you feel anxious, if you need to move your body in a specific way, if you need to take a break or stop for any reason, I respect that. We all process differently. I especially want my readings to feel accessible to folks that experience social marginalization; come as you are. Trust that I will be myself; I’ll sing some of the things I say; as I channel, I can get weird because sometimes my body gets tingly. As long as we are respectful, we can be fully honest in ourselves.
My reading style emphasizes personal sovereignty. In my spiritual practice I work closely with Blackthorn Spirit(s), Crows, the Black Honey Locust and a specific goddess that has an expectation of devotional integrity. Aligning action with values, and radical self-honesty are minimum requirements. This sounds intense, but I promise I deliver this in a forthright yet gentle package. For example, if you come to me for a love reading, great! I love facilitating those, and so does my primary tarot deck. But your reading will focus on you, your desires, what your part of a relationship entails, and your own autonomy. It will be less about what another person could be thinking or feeling, though, inevitably those things come up. I trust my deck and my guides, so I will share what comes through. And, as stated, the focus will be on “your side of the street” so to speak.
I am not a therapist, or doctor, or any kind of advice-giver. Because I am a survivor of trauma, because I have been a care-worker, and a teacher, and a facilitator at different turns in my life, and because I center my spiritual practice in my life:
I am good at holding space, facilitating reflection with others, and being with folks. I am a good listener. So I am a good tarot reader. And! I will always refer clients to specific specialists when what they are seeking is out of my scope of ability. I recognize my limits! And I do so happily.
The Decks I Use
When you read with me, I’ll give you the option to choose from two decks. But I can also choose for you, if that’s preferred. As a compliment to your tarot cards I will always have you pull from a second oracle deck, which I will introduce later.
Because the tools inform the medium, here is a bit about the Tarot decks I use for readings:
The Slutist Tarot by Morgan Claire Sirene
This deck is what I currently use as my primary deck. She is femme-centered, sex - positive, queer, and features several types of human bodies and relationships. The deck is sex-positive and leans into the reclaiming of certain words by feminists, and the TLGBQ2+ communities. It is not a deck for everyone, but she is a liberating deck for those of us that do appreciate and need her medicine. As I mentioned before, she reads like a best friend who will compassionately call you out when you need support setting boundaries, practicing self-care, taking up space, or ditching that toxic relationship. She’ll give you permission for pleasure, every time. Eat that slice of chocolate cake, buy yourself some flowers, and soak in a saltwater bath. It’s all gold! This deck especially enjoys readings about personal power, relationships, desire and ambition.
The imagery is illustrated, erotic, and brightly- colored. I have used this deck mostly for myself since I invested in its kickstarter funding in 2017. Since then I’ve only grown as a reader and this deck has enjoyed reading for others too. The caveat is that this deck is erotically explicit. I don’t read for folks under 18 anyway, but I will always point out this feature of the deck and ask for express consent to dive into her magic together.
The Mountain Dream Tarot by Bea Nettles
This is a photographic art deck made by Bea Nettles in the 1975. The photographs were all shot in Italy, but Bea Nettles is an alumni of Penland School of Craft, a staple creative hub in the Western North Carolina community. The deck is truly made of mountain dreamscapes. The deck’s context is that is was made by a white woman artist in the 1970s, so its primary limit is that is does not encompass the rich diversity of human experience that our modern world is working to recognize. It is very traditional in that it reflects the imagery as illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith in the oldest tarot deck ever made as we have come to know it.
Folks that choose to have me read from this deck however, will be warmed by the intimacy of the photographs. Reading from this deck feels like stepping out the back door to help my grandmother hang the laundry to dry. It reads like splashing in the spring branch with my cousins when we were kids in the Summer, running fingers through the beached shells of fresh water mussels, and avoiding the Cottonmouth Snake when she passed through. This deck especially likes readings about creative projects and working through personal emotional + ancestral journeys. Country living through the Major Arcana. That’s the Mountain Dream Tarot.
The Textured Tarot by Lisa McLoughlin
I adopted this deck because I am a watercolor painter and a mixed media and fiber artist. This deck is beautifully illustrated by an English artist. It is my most recent acquisition; we are still getting to know each other. However, I already know this deck has an affinity for creative work, generosity of spirit, and emphasizing the exquisite beauty of everyday life, through a lens of radiant compassion. The energy of the Textured Tarot feels like spending time rambling in the woods, with no agenda, and/or lying on a warm-sand wild beach, watching ghost crabs side-wind about, and listening to the sound of crash-foam-bird-wind. It is a gentle deck, and I look forward to collaborating with it on behalf of my community.
The Illustrated Herbiary by Maia Toll
This deck is my companion to every tarot reading I offer. This is a plant-spirit-medicine deck, and it arrived as a companion of the book by the same name. At the end of our discourse surrounding your tarot cards, I offer this as a balm. They highlight sacred shapes in nature, and offer myriad symbolic aspects of plants-as-people.
Pulling one card from this deck will offer the wisdom of a plant ally that would like to work with you on whatever came up in your reading. I’ll share a bit about the plant’s physical medicine, its myth and lore and story, and why it may be looking to collaborate with you now. I’ll also offer simple ways for you to do so, which may or may not include encountering that plant medicine in person, or taking it into your body.
