RIDER-WAITE A MINUTE
A Scully Among Spirits – The Finale (Part Six)
With a birthday gift card from my friend Tia, I got myself the set that everyone more or less thinks of when it comes to tarot reading.
The Rider-Waite Tarot has been around for decades and has a distinct look that I enjoy. It’s been a lot of fun to read up on the history of the set as well as how to interpret the cards, etc.
After vehemently telling me that I’m Italian (I’m not), Casey finally started to shuffle her card deck.
Casey didn’t always tell me what the cards she drew were. She’d interpret what she felt they meant as most readers do, but rarely faced the cards she drew toward her web camera. Because her set is not the Rider-Waite Tarot and the video connection was fuzzy, it was up to her explanations to make sense of the cards.
“The first card is about a man who's strong. He’s a good, strong man. He's a good husband. He's just a good man. Right?”
I mean… Yeah, that’s my partner for sure. Stephen is the best person I know and I feel lucky every day that I get to spend my life with him.
Casey draws another card and shows me this time. I do not know what I’m seeing and she doesn’t tell me what it is.
“What does your husband do for a living?”
After telling Casey that my husband is a producer working in video games, she went off on a tangent about how he should teach a relative of hers how to code. Pretty sure this was a joke, but my face probably read “Move the hell on.” I just was waiting for something more about myself to pop up in my tarot reading.
“Is your husband a little full of himself? Is he excited about something?”
I said “No” to the first question and “Yes” to the second. Much like her stressing that she believes I’m Italian (again, I’m not), Casey wouldn’t let the “full of himself” part of her assessment go. She went on to say that Stephen is cocky about something coming up, which I shook my head at.
“Well, this card is about being self-assured about what you're doing and being really kind of proud of yourself in the moment. That kind of thing.”
I’m not certain if “self-assured” is the same thing as “cocky” or “full of himself.” This is where it would have been nice to know what the card was.
Casey draws a third card. She tells me that it is “The Emperor.”
“This is more of a male card. It's about someone who owns their own business. Does he own that business…? Does he want to start his own business…? Because this card indicates that he could start his own… because this is about owning your own business. Well… it may be coming. Just know that it may be coming.”
… Call me crazy, but I think that card means business.
Obviously, I didn’t really connect with this. My husband, who had begun to text me at the same time because he’s within hearing distance of my office, kept expressing his confusion as to why Casey can’t let go of what’s clearly not connecting.
I was then given some advice for acting. I’ve been acting since I was 14 and I’m never done learning, so I was curious what Casey had to say.
“Do you know what an essential oil is?”
Oh, no. Damn you, curiosity!
“Okay, you take the essential oil and take orange… And you just kind of put it on your fingertips. Pat it on your face—put your makeup on first— then pat it on. Orange makes you grow energetically. It grows your energy out, right? It's more subconscious. It's not like they can really see you glowing, but… subconsciously, energetically they can see it.”
I’ve tried weirder things in my 25 years as an actor. But that’s a billion stories for various other times, trust me.
Casey has a client that does this for her son before every audition. She hinted that the son is really huge right now… Who could it be?!
She draws another card. I was not shown it.
“This says you're a little confused about things.”
Okay, real talk… I left a very well-paying job toward the end of last year and, while I am grateful that I was able to jump back into freelance, I do feel like I’m at something of a crossroads.
“Spirit says that this is the problem. Spirit says you give yourself less credit.”
This is just… not even a keen observation. I think that’s kind of been made clear in the hour that we’d been talking at this point.
I’m not sure if Casey drew another card here or if what she said next was in reference to the same one.
“This says you’re kind of really in a funk… I'm not gonna say you're in a dark place because I don't think you're there yet. But you're on the way, right?”
I didn’t really agree with this.
She then showed me a card with the sun and a rainbow. It could have been referring to a few cards off the top of my head. I did not know what the card was.
“You've got to get back in that creative mode. One way to do it is— maybe you need some energy work.”
While I can’t say I haven’t thought about doing something like that, my inner-Scully itched and clawed at this suggestion.
“I think that your whole… hang on.”
Spirit cuts Casey off. After several seconds of quiet, she starts over.
“Yeah, I think that's true… They're shifting you and this is the problem. You're very curious about healing and metaphysics. This has been new. In the last five years.”
Only in the last five years? You’d think a psychic medium would know about my frequent visits to the local witch shops over the past thirty years. And I didn’t obsessively rewatch The Craft for nothing.
Honestly, I felt like complete crap. We’d gone over the hour by now, but we didn’t seem anywhere near done.
“They're telling me, ‘No, no. She don't need classes—’Well, you probably do need to go have energy work done. But they're making me feel like you need to learn to do it.. Have you thought about learning Reiki or anything?”
There wasn’t a whole lot of “tarot” in the tarot reading. I know each reader is different, but this felt more like the first half of our session.
“I really feel that you're ready for this shift or the turn of things. A lot of people have been going through this for years where they're shifting and moving. I feel like this is coming for you, but you can't decide what you want to do. You feel like if you don't know what you want to do then why do anything because then you've wasted your time. And that's not true.”
After some more chatting, Casey drew another card— thank Frankenstein.
“This says something's been hidden from you. Someone's not being honest. They're not telling the truth and there's some secret that's being hidden away. I don't know… I didn't feel it. I don't feel this. I don't know what this is. But it says there's something beyond that, so I'm going to say it. If you find the secret thing, you’ll know I'm great.”
Nope. I was not touching that, Casey.
“You might be needing some Parts Therapy to figure out why you’re procrastinating. I’m also a hypnotist.”
Son of a loving mother. I just want this over with.
As someone who has been on live television with a hypnotist, let me tell you… he did nothing but fill a morning time slot. Even then, he was overshadowed by a local bakery that brought cupcakes for everyone.
Needless to say, I am not a fan of hypnotherapy.
“I feel like you’re always procrastinating because you've always got your hopes up and then it bombs. You're scared to get your hopes up again.”
Spirit then encouraged Casey to talk about my issues with insulin and being a diabetic.
Casey’s observation here was likely that I’m a thick woman therefore I probably have diabetes. That’s the way it seemed to me. Just did my annual check-up— not diabetic nor have I ever taken insulin.
I did not respond at all to this.
“Anyway, you’ve got to get your butt in gear. You have the knowledge, and you have the talent. I do think you'll turn more metaphysical. That could be a lot of it. When people don't open up to their sensitivity or their gifts, it's depressing sometimes. It makes them depressed.”
I couldn’t recall ever mentioning that I was depressed.
Casey drew another card. It was the Death card.
“This says something's fixing to end and something's fixing to begin. The death card is actually the best card in the whole deck, but people quit breathing when they see it. This is really about new beginnings, new opportunities, new things. You just have to let go. I think you have to let go of your fears and insecurities and not give a shit.”
I don’t think that was the gift talking, but it’s still good advice.
Another card was drawn, but Casey didn’t tell me what it was.
“This says you’re highly psychic. You’re very intuitive and you don’t listen.”
Spirit continued to stress to Casey that I will be shifting to more metaphysical.
As we began to wind down, Casey asked if I had questions, I simply said “You’ve given me a lot to digest.”
She laughed at that and jokingly said that means “I’m full of shit.”
We both laughed at that. She was very encouraging and had a lot of positive things to say. It was very nice towards the end.
Here’s the thing… Casey was really nice pretty much throughout the entire experience. Even when she said things that upset me, I didn’t take it personally or think she was a bad person.
Do I think she is indeed a psychic medium?
No.
Did I have fun?
Meh. Not being sick would have helped. I wanted an experience for my birthday and Casey’s hour+ session was definitely that.
Here’s to getting older, wiser, and listening to your inner Scully.