My Life and Background

Early life

I was born and raised Cajun.  From the time I was a small child, I have found Magick to be something that my family accepted and believed.  We just didn't call it that.

Like most Cajuns of my generation, we lived near my dad's family and visited my mother's family every summer.  My grandma had a big garden and from time to time had animals like pigs, cows, geese, and chickens.

My dad entered the ministry when I was about 5.  That led to moving to different towns where the churches he pastored were. He was what was called a "home missionary" in the sense that he would go to a church of his faith but that had not yet been affiliated (registered) with his organization and bring them into the  religious organization that had licensed him.

This in turn led to us being where there were no other Cajuns and getting exposed to the outside world.   When he would leave a church, we would move back home to be near his family again.

I had a lot of cousins as well as two sisters and two brothers.  Like most Cajuns, family was everything.  We were very closely knit.  The only one missing was an uncle who was in the air force and who lived a distance away from us.  We saw him and his family occasionally.

Healing Traditions

My Mawmaw (dad's mom) was a reader.  Her grandmother was a voodoo priestess and she had learned a lot from her.  However, my Mawmaw did not practice voodoo.  She considered herself a Christian and prayed a lot.  She used some traiteur practices however.

A traiteur is a person who has special gifts for healing and who focuses on the practice of healing people.  There were a number of things I saw both of my grandmothers and my dad do that was in line with this tradition.  Cajun traditions work in conjunction with your beliefs and faith.

It is never  called magick.  In fact the only time we ever heard anything named was when they were talking about spells other people made and put on people.  That was called Hoodoo.

Some of the practices I saw were even connected to the Bible.  It was used for a lot of things, like quotes used as prayers for stopping blood and for healing.   Other quotes used for manipulation, something I later came to view as wrong because it interfered with another person's free will.

My Mawmaw could get rid of warts with a string and a prayer.  When my cousin was born with some problems with his colon, my Mawmaw and his other grandma - who was my grandma's friend - both prayed night and day for him.  He had an inverted colon, but he came through the surgery and lived a full life after that.

My dad used a verse from the Bible to stop blood.  Ezekiel 16:6 (KJV) was used by most Cajuns to stop people from bleeding.  I saw some real miracles done with it.

Cajuns never call a traiteur instead of a doctor.  They do their work along with a doctor.  Doctors are called first.  Then if needed, they go to a traiteur, who usually works on cases where doctors can't find a reason for the problem or simply can't solve it.

My mother's mom, who I saw every summer and often spent weeks with, was very much into herbal healing.  Once when there was a swine flu epidemic going around, she was taking care of two elderly people.  She was worried because they both had the flu.  Because of their age, the doctor didn't think they would get better.  People, especially young children and elderly people, were dying daily because of this flu.

My grandma brought a tea made from some branches of a tree to the people and gave it to them to drink.  She made the drink daily.  She also gave me a small limb from the tree to chew.  She had sliced it in half and had me eat the pulp.  It was bitter, but she said it would protect me.  I never got the flu that year and the people she was taking care of recovered.  The little bush was well known to older Cajuns.  She had one in her back yard.  I saw the bush often, and she called it the Manglier, which I later found out meant ground sorrel.

Every spring, my mom would gather roots of sassafras trees to make a strong tasty tea for us to drink.  Not only would this be drank as a tonic, but also anytime we felt the urge for a nice hot drink, we drank this tea.  Sassafras is very important for Cajuns.  The leaves are dried and ground to make a spice called file´.  This is used in our gumbo, but is also used for things like spider bites and snake bites and other bites that may contain poison. It is said to be able to draw the poison out.

Readings

My Mawmaw was a reader.  She seemed quite popular and read regular playing cards, coffee cups and late at night, she read an oil lamp.  I was told that before my dad became a minister he could read dice and coffee cups.  Other members of my family also read.

My Mawmaw would teach my cousins.  My dad wouldn't let me learn directly from her, so when we would go over to her house, my cousins would gather in the back room with me and teach me how to read.

However the most impressive readings I ever heard came from my dad.  He didn't call them readings.  He called them direct prophecies from God.

Once when I was about 12, the older teens in our church went to neighboring town for a game.  While there, they had a big fight with teens from the other team.  They caused a lot of trouble in the town.  Then they came to church on Sunday like nothing happened.

My dad, after the opening part of the service, addressed them directly.  He told them exactly what they had done the night before.  He preached at them for over half an hour addressing every thing they had done and how they owed the other town a huge apology.  He told them they couldn't do a bunch of wrong things on Saturday and think everything was fine to come to church on Sunday like nothing happened.

  There was no way he could have known.  This was before we ever had a phone.  In fact, when the church people got together and got us a phone, we had the first residential phone among our church members.

Another time, there was a young man who came to visit his fiance who was a member of our church.  From the pulpit, my dad made a prediction. He said that when the young man got on the plane to return to base, something would be wrong.  He would hear the engines and they would seem to say "come home".  He also said that he would get a call to come because an accident would happen.  He asked that they both be very careful  when they left to go to the airport- which was in a town about 100 miles away.

Later that night my dad got a call.  The fiance was in the hospital.  There had been a huge wreck on the way home.  The young woman was in surgery.  The doctors said they couldn't stop the bleeding from her spleen although they had packed it several times.  My dad gathered the family to pray.  He used Ezekiel 16: 6 repeatedly in his prayer.  A few minutes later a nurse came to tell them the bleeding had stopped quite suddenly.

The next day my dad got a call from the young man.  He said that something had gone wrong with the engines of the plane he was on and all he could hear from the drone of the engines was "come home".  Calling his fiance's family he had learned of the wreck that happened about the same time that he saw the smoke from the engine and heard the words.

My dad was well known for his visions and prophesies.  The only books he read were the Bible and books about the Bible. He had a lot of reference books concerning it.  However, some of the predictions he made stuck with me.  A few have already come true.  There was a prophecy he made that I have since heard other people make the same predictions of.


My dad told us when I was about 12 years old about a planetary shift and that water would begin to cover much of the United States.  He said most of it would be gradual, but that something would happen where the earth would begin to collapse and big holes would happen in a lot of places.  He also said that the climate would change dramatically.

Much later, when I was grown, I began to hear other people make the exact same prophecies.  My dad had drawn us a map.  Some of the maps I have seen since that time were pretty much the same.  Back in the 50's we didn't have access to such books and shows.  TV was forbidden in our strict religious household.  And most of the prophecy books about the coming changes had not yet been published.

When an impression is given that involves coming changes to the earth, most intuitive people pick up on the same impression.  If it is real, a number of people will receive the same visions and will give similar prophecies.  That is what began to happen when I was in my 20's.  Most of the people said they had those visions years before.  Like my dad, they told people around them.  However, I could never talk my dad into writing it all in a book.

Until Alzheimer's clouded his memories, we would have long talks about his visions.  He even had me get the geological maps of our area and pointed out to me the salt caverns and the fault line running through the area.  He said it wouldn't happen in his lifetime, but that it would happen eventually.  He told me that he didn't know what substances were being put into the caverns and under the ground, but that people would later regret the actions of companies in the region as the ground began to cave in.

He also mentioned an earthquake that he said would hit near us and affect the entire region.  I have felt tremors from time to time, but no earth quake yet, thank goodness.

He warned me of climate change long before people began to talk about it on TV and talk shows.  He said that the earth goes through changes in its natural course through time, but that the effects on us would be hard to work with.  He said that there would be more natural disasters and many people would die. He predicted that we would get hotter and wetter in the South and that a lot of flooding would ensue.  He also predicted huge tidal waves and worse hurricanes.

People began to find out that my dad could answer their questions and tell them what was about to happen.  They would come talk to him and soon he would be describing their life history, telling them all about themselves and pointing out their good points and bad points.

He didn't even know them, but they all said later he was right on the mark.  If they had a problem, he offered solutions and could tell them what they were thinking of doing and whether it would be the right choice. He could see the outcome.

However, my dad had his own outlook on life and on the Bible.  He loved sharing his beliefs with people.  Certain churches in our area that went around witnessing to people warned their people not to come to our house.  My dad would welcome anyone who came and invite them in.  He would then tell them that he would listen to them completely but only if they agreed to listen to him completely afterwards.  I guess the other churches were losing their people to my dad's teachings.

Ghosts and scary things

Cajuns believe strongly in ghosts.  My Mawmaw often talked to them. When I would get to stay overnight at her house, all of us girls would get to sleep with her in her big bed.  This was a rare treat and we loved it.  There were plenty of times I would wake up to hear her carrying on a conversation with someone.  I could only hear her side, but I could see a shadowy figure at the end of the bed.  Often when I asked who that was she would tell me the name of the person and then tell me to go back to sleep.

My grandmother's house was built by her and her best friend- just those two women during a time when they were both trying to raise their children and needed a home to do that in.  With the help of their children, who were quite young at the time, they built a house for them to live in.  Later, when the children were grown, my grandmother's friend passed away.

For years, lots of people who stayed overnight had a special visitor that they later talked about.  Anyone who was intuitive got the visitor, including my dad and also, later, my cousin and me.  We were asleep when I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me.  I tried to brush them away but they seemed urgent.  So I sat up and turned to see who was waking me.  A woman in a long white gown stood there.  Her hair was long and I could see all of her face.  She was quite beautiful.  She seemed almost solid, but I knew instantly who she was.  The ghost in my Mawmaw's house was well known to us.

She didn't say anything, but motioned with her had for me to follow.  I followed her out of the room and into the bathroom, where she promptly disappeared.  I never quite understood her message.  Everyone I asked about it afterwards said she always did the same thing and disappeared in the exact same spot.  

My cousins decided to find out what was there.  They thought maybe a treasure was hidden beneath the house.  However, they never found anything and my dad made them cover the holes they had dug.

Later it was revealed that the house had been built on land used as a massive grave after a historical flood in the area.  There were too many bodies so they were buried right there on the property, but it was never marked as a grave site.  We didn't find out about that until my dad went and researched the property history in hopes of figuring out who the woman was.

There were other ghosts in my grandma's house. One in particular made her presence felt strongly.  She would slam doors, turn lights on and off, and even turn on water.  If you tried to read a book or pray, she would stand over you and you could feel her presence.  How they knew it was a woman I am not sure.  I only felt a presence and would not have known enough to call it a woman.

One night, a minister from the church my grandma went to decided to hold a prayer meeting in my grandma's house. He said they were going to "pray her out" and get rid of the ghost.  The ghost heard that and got really mad.  They prayed, but she didn't want to go. She began to fling stuff around- not breaking anything but throwing unbreakable stuff.  She slammed the doors.  The door between the living room and the kitchen was a swinging door- one that opened both ways.  She had fun swinging it that night.  

Then it got quiet so the minister decided she was gone and everyone left.  She wasn't gone, she just wanted them to leave.  For days after she would throw things and slam doors and make her presence known stronger than ever before.  So my grandma took things into her own hands.  She simply asked the ghost why she was there and what did she want. 

The answer was simple. "I have always lived here but now I just want company. I want you to talk with me.  But right now I am mad because you tried to make me leave."

My grandma was not surprised.  I guess she had never really thought about the fact that the ghost might want her to chat with her the way she did when her friends came to visit her.  So she apologized to the ghost and promised to talk with her if she would stop scaring people and making them uncomfortable.

Legacies

In our family, we were taught that each person had a legacy to pass down to future generations.  This was more than just knowledge.  It contained all of the special gifts that person had.

My grandma said that everyone, before they died, was shown who to pass this to.  Usually you were called to the person's side before they died and asked to pray with them.  Sometimes, if you couldn't get to the person, you would see them in a dream or would know in some other way that you had gotten their gifts.  

Some gifts were inherited. For instance intuition, cognizance, and the ability to have meaningful dreams and visions were often inherited.  Sometimes only one child gets it, and sometimes the entire family has it.

One example of something that is passed however was made clear to me after I was almost grown.  

Back when my mother was a child, her family moved to Oregon to be near her dad while he served in the military.  During the war he, like a lot of other Cajun men, was drafted as an interpreter because of his ability to speak french.  

My grandmother was in her bedroom, in front of her dresser that had a big mirror, combing her hair.  It was early morning.  Suddenly in the mirror behind her, she saw her mother standing there.  She turned quickly to ask how her mother got there, but no one was there.  She looked back into the mirror and saw her mother standing there again.  She quickly realized that her mom was trying to contact her.  She sent a letter home and got an answer back that everything was ok.  Her mom was just missing her.

When my great grandmother was sick and dying, my mother took me to meet her.  I remember both of my great grandmothers on my mother's side dying within days of each other. I got to see them both, but sadly they were both very ill at the time.

It seems my great grandmother's gift skipped the next two generations.  However, when I was grown, it manifested itself in me.  

People who were in my house overnight would often tell me they had seen me in the kitchen or standing by their bed at night.  One saw me walk from the kitchen and then disappear as I entered the living room.  They all asked if I was up, but we knew I was in my bedroom at the time.

Another time I was sitting on a porch in the old downtown area of Beaumont.  I had a little room there where I did readings. Someone came out on the porch. She stopped and stared at me and then asked, "How did you get out here so fast?"  

I asked what she meant and she replied, "I just saw you in your room at your table and I didn't see you pass me in the hall."

I was on the porch the entire time.

Another time I was visiting a friend because another friend of ours had come from Canada with his new wife for a visit.  Her son came in from school.  I had a vague feeling and as I sat there, I seemed to see the child riding his bike into the yard.  He came into the house yelling, "Mom, Penni is here!"

He stopped when he saw me.  The other visitors were forgotten.  What he wanted to know was, "How did you get here?  I just saw you at your truck."

"No," his mom replied.  "She has been right here the entire time".  

There were other things that manifested after the deaths of loved ones. Like I seem to have an ability to hide in plain sight.  Several times in public places,  I have witnessed when people walk over and begin to talk to the person I am with without ever noticing me.  It has even happened at psychic fairs where people come and begin a conversation with someone I am reading.  At psychic fairs, people have only 15 minutes with a reader.  There is usually a line of people waiting to speak to that one reader.

I always speak up and tell them, "Hello, I apologize but we have a reading in progress.  Can you please wait a few minutes for your conversation?"  

At which point the person usually about jumps out of their skin.  Without exception, each person always explains to me, "Oh I am so sorry.  I didn't even see you there.  Have you been here the whole time?"

It is usually funny to me and those I am with.  It can be handy too.  However, such gifts have been spontaneous with me and I seldom can control them.  I know there are ways to control them, and at times it seems that I have been on the verge of discovering how, but for some reason I haven't mastered them.  Perhaps the reason is because my focus is usually elsewhere and I haven't really spent much time trying.

My own life

Once when I was young, I had overheard a conversation between my dad and my grandma.  He was accusing her, rightly so, of teaching me her ways behind his back.  He told her he didn't want me to learn her "witchcraft".

She told him, "You can keep her away from me.  You can keep me from teaching her.  But mark my words, you will not be able to stop her from learning.  She is special and will come into her own destiny and power.  There is nothing you can do to stop her.  You can also deny what you are all you want, but your own gifts have passed to your daughter and you won't be able to keep her from using them.  "

So after that, we only visited MawMaw, but I was not allowed to spend the night.  What he didn't know was how we gathered in the back room and my cousins taught me the things he had forbidden my grandma to teach me.

Then as a teenager, I met another teen who was as interested as I was.  I spent a lot of time at her home and with her.  We were quite inseparable.  I read cards and her mom would listen in and give pointers.  Her dad told me he remembered when my dad was young and could read dice.  We experimented with making spells, making tables move, and even received a message once on a piece of paper we had left with a pen by the bed before going to sleep.

In the morning we read a name on the paper which was the nickname her uncle had given her.  He had died in a battle.  He was in the army and had been sent to Vietnam.

We also could see visions together through a special link we found that we could create.  Experimenting was fun and her mom encouraged us.  We met other people who were doing seances and told us of weird experiences we had.  However when I asked my grandma about those, she advised us not to do them.

"The dead don't want to be disturbed.  What you will get are some spirits from the spirit world coming through.  Not all of those have lived.  Some may be bad.  If a dead person wants to come talk to you, they will choose to do it.  You don't have to call them.  But make sure you don't try to disturb them or the spirits that live around you."

Another old woman I had met (I loved meeting and talking with elderly people) explained to me. "The spirits around you are there to protect you.  Sometimes they will talk to you in different ways and can teach you.  You have to be open to them.  Still your mind for long periods. Think of nothing, just sit and wait.  They will begin to guide you."

From early childhood I had always seen people.  I thought everyone saw them.  There was one in particular who came around.  She was a nice looking older woman with long hair.  She would visit me especially when I was afraid.  She would also come and show me things and tell me stories.  

My mom was the one who told me she was invisible to all but me.  I was very upset because I couldn't make friends in grade school.  She told me it was because everyone was afraid of me.  Even the kids at church were afraid.  "But why?" I asked.

"Because you always are talking to people they can't see.  Only you can see them.  You need to wait until you are alone to talk to them."

That was how I learned some of my friends were invisible.  A lot of people tell kids their friends are imaginary.  They hope the children will grow out of seeing them.  However, in my family, it was simply taken for granted that I was seeing people no one else could see.  My only problem was thinking everyone else saw what I saw.  

For years I didn't tell my dad I was doing readings.  He knew though. He often told me he knew I was doing spells and reading.  He said his dreams told him.  We would discuss his dreams and how my visions and dreams were similar to his.  I would tell him a dream and he would tell me that he had recently dreamed the exact same thing.  We were so much alike, but he didn't approve of my readings.  To him, his readings came from God.  Mine didn't.  But he wouldn't say where mine came from.  However, since my dreams were the same as his, he approved of those.

However, when I finally told him, he wasn't surprised at all.  One time, my niece asked him if readings were real and if they could be trusted.  He told her it depended on the person. So she asked about me.  He told her yes, that my readings were real and they could be trusted.  He then showed her how the readings worked by reading his coffee cup.  He read it in a little rhyme.

"There is my pillow, and there is my head

In three days, I will take to my bed"

It turned out to be true.  He was sick and we didn't know it.  He was in bed for three weeks.  My niece told me about the entire conversation and what happened.  So after all those years, my dad still knew how to read coffee cups.

As my abilities grew, I made friends from everywhere and was enjoying popularity as a reader.  I charged only a small amount so people could afford me, because we lived in a rural area and most of my clients were housewives or people who could barely afford to live on their low salaries.  What I gave most was my time.  I never set a timer and never timed my readings.  I set each reading far enough apart to have plenty of time for each person.

My Job in the Occult Shoppe

I went to visit a friend from Houston for awhile.  I really wanted to move there and read but my husband had a job in our area,  However he was very supportive of the things I wanted to do so he encouraged me to go to Houston during the week and either commute or come home on weekends.

I found a little shop there that the owner welcomed me to come read.  I also helped her in the shop - which was so much fun.  I would read for the same price I had read at home and would give her a small amount of each reading. And I would help run the shop.  In return I got a steady stream of clients.  Any tips I got were mine.  

Through the shop, I got some very influential clients who were at several levels of government.  And a lot of lawyers and ministers.  They tipped quite well.  I was surprised at the number of ministers coming to me for readings.

I also learned more about my own path and about candle work and other types of spells and works.  I had studied Wicca from a very young age and had always accepted that it was very similar to my own beliefs and that the spells and other things I learned from the books I could get my hands on were much like the ones I had learned when my friends and I had experimented with spell creating. 

The woman who owned the shop taught Wicca classes.  She invited me, at no charge because I was working in the shop, to come to the classes and then to the circles.  So I was brought into the world of Wicca.  My beliefs now had a label.  The classes were fascinating and I fit right in.  Most of it I already knew.  She named her belief system for the man who taught her.  He had not been one who had learned from books.  He had learned from his parents and they from theirs.  She told us that when he started out, there was no name for the path. It was simply called "the old religion".

It didn't surprise me later to learn that much of what she taught was not in books.  He had only left behind a copy of his book of shadows.  And the teachings he had shared with her before his death.  Her brother was also taught by him.  Her brother, however, moved in circles I had never seen before.  He had a lot of friends and was a leader in the gay community.  His circle was all male.  However, he knew a lot of people and wasn't shy about introducing me to some. 

I really admired him.  When he died of AIDS, I was crushed.  So was my friend, the owner of the shop.  

While in Houston, I began to attend psychic fairs.  I met a lot of other readers that way and they often taught me ways to improve my readings.  I got introduced to the Tarot and a few other types of cards.  I was invited to workshops and classes- all for free.  I stayed with my friend and sometimes with my husband's aunt to be able to learn more to help my own growth.

If something was happening on weekends, often my husband would come join me in Houston for a bit each day.  Besides his work for the railroad, he also was a musician so he usually played in clubs on weekends.  He would have to leave in time for his gig, then would return the next morning after a good night's sleep.  We stayed in constant touch and it seemed we were on pretty solid ground.

Then one day I had a small wreck.  It wasn't bad, really, but as I went back to my car and leaned across the seat to get my information for the other driver, he backed up and hit me again, ramming my car - not hard, but hard enough to throw me into the dash board.  I asked him why he did that and he said to show others around me he had not hurt my car.

"It isn't my car you hurt, it was me" I told him.  I asked someone nearby to call the police.  When he heard that, he backed up and drove over the curve to be able to flee the scene.

As a result of the car wreck, my back was hurt.  I couldn't walk.  I couldn't stand up straight.  The doctors said I needed surgery.  After the surgery I could no longer work in Houston so I came home.

How the Fairs began

Once again I found myself trying to build a clientele close to home. We moved to another town near the city where my husband worked.  I began to meet some really interesting new people.  They were into Wicca.  They, like me, had also been into spiritual teachings since they were children.  Some were even Cajun, like me.  This fulfilled something I had been feeling was missing from my life for years.  Houston had only partially filled the gap.

What I was missing was the similar culture and background.  The ability to experiment and grow without labeling my beliefs.  Although my new friends embraced Wicca, they were more into the same things I had practiced since childhood.  They called themselves eclectic. We began to gather at my house for classes, sharing knowledge, and crafting.  

I talked to them about the psychic fairs I had visited in Houston- all small affairs in hotel conference rooms.  I told them that I wanted to bring such fairs to our area.  Three of us formed a business together.  We called it Grandma's Magick - after our grandmothers who had all been into the same path we were now on.

We even had a slogan for our business: 

She lit a candle

She made a charm

She said a prayer

And it worked.

Grandma's Magick always worked.

Then we began to hold small parties in the conference room of a hotel in our area.  We made jewelry to sell at the parties and and told everyone who came that we were working towards holding our very first fair.  We called them "psychic parties".  

This got the attention of the local paper.  One of the reporters had seen our small ad and came for a reading.  The she wrote an article on us and published it along with pictures.  We were amazed at how that happened and how everything was falling into place.

I had registered the business under my name.  The agreement was that they could do readings, hold parties, and anything they wanted under the name to build up recognition.  Anything we did alone was ours to keep other than the percentage we all agreed to put into the business for the upcoming fair.  Anything we did together was pooled and split.    Anything we made from our parties was totally put toward the fair.

Finally we had most of the money we needed.  I had already checked with the local civic center about the fair.  I had checked the cost of advertising and we had a pretty firm estimate on how much it would cost.  

My husband asked how much we still needed and I told him.  He offered to put in the money for it. We agreed and began to prepare for our very first fair.  We contacted the civic center, the local newspapers and even the local television stations.  We set a date, paid for our room and put ads into the papers.  We would host a two day event.  We contacted every reader we knew including my friends from Houston.  

The local television station offered to do an interview on the noon news with us.  We accepted.  The local paper wrote an article on the upcoming fair.  There was a radio talk show that picked up the news and held one talk session about the fair.  

At the time there was a local reader who did readings on a local radio station.  We used to listen to her a lot.  She heard of our fairs.  We had not invited her because we had heard bad things about her readings.  We wanted the fair to have the highest standards for our readings. Because of the standards we wanted to keep, some readers didn't qualify for it.

We even put out a paper on how to find a good reader and what qualities we expected in one.  We felt it was our duty, as hosts, to be very protective of the public and only get the best readers we could find. Each reader had to read for us and some of the best known readers in our area had already been invited.

The woman on the radio opened with a warning not to attend our fair.  She put us down as charlatans and said we were evil.  I made a phone call to the station the moment I heard it. I was glad I had always listened to her show.  I explained to the station manager that the person in question had never met us.  She didn't know any of us.  She hadn't applied for a seat at the fair and wasn't invited.  

I explained to him that her show was trying to harm our business before we could even get started and that the things she was saying were a form of libel. I threatened to sue if she didn't stop putting us down.

The very next day she came on the air and made a public apology.  She admitted she didn't know any of us or the readers at the fair and that she had not been fair in her assessment of us.  I knew she was being forced to say those things.  The radio station began to advertise our coming fair- I guess because they were trying to make it up to us.  

Our first fair was a huge success.  People came from everywhere.  They put their names on a mailing list so they would know about the next fair.  We had invited any local churches that wanted to come out. We offered free tables to them and for their literature.  We also had a lot of vendors from other towns as well as locally.

The only church that came out was the Unitarian Church.  We welcomed them.  It was the first time I had heard of them.  I began attending their church and found it very welcoming.  Most of my friends also began to attend.

We began to do fairs every 3 months.  We got a lot of attention and free publicity from the local press.  We  made appearances on TV and on talk shows.  We got written up repeatedly in the local newspaper.  They even came out and watched a reading and interviewed me.  

At one fair we had the most unusual experience.  I had been preparing for months ahead of time.  We were getting calls from all over the United States.  The night before the fair I got a strange call. The young man said he was from Florida.  He explained that he was with a Pagan group there but that he was planning to come to our area for the fair.

However, he had a favor to ask me first.  He needed my help and asked how big of a group I had.  I told him that I never revealed such information to people I didn't know.  Circles require perfect love and perfect trust. That doesn't end when you walk out of the Circle.

He then asked for help in shutting down the christian churches in our area and all over the united states. He said he and his group wanted to hex them and shut them down. 

I  asked, "Why?"

He said, "Christian churches are enemies of our faith.  We need to attack quickly."

I asked, "What faith is that?"

He said,  "Pagan.  We are anti-Christian"

I told him,  "No, pagans are not against Christianity. They are about enjoying their path and not against any other path. Each person will be drawn to the path they need to evolve. If someone is Christian, that is what they need in this lifetime.  If they are pagan,  then that is what they need now."

I also told him no one has the right to question another person's path to home, and that I didn't believe in doing anything negative that might return three-fold to harm me.

He insisted that these people were our enemies and this was war. I told him that with such an attitude he was sure to attract people who wanted to burn him at the stake but I would not be involved.

That weekend, some of his attitude seemed to rub off on our fair. I don't know if he made an appearance or not. 

On Saturday, the news crews were there. A group showed up to protest us. Someone came running in to tell me I needed to get outside because the people answering them were not exactly answering them in a way that represented the beliefs of our group.

I went outside to find a rather large church group with a television crew of their own.  After talking them and quoting scripture about prophecy and visions coming in the end times, I invited them into the fair to see for themselves what it was about

They came in. Their own cameras were on as well as three local news stations. That evening their tour of our fair was publicized. On all four stations- theirs as well as all local stations. and in the Sunday paper it made the front page. What great publicity.

The next day was the biggest turnout I had ever had. Of course I sent them an invitation to protest the next fair.

However, I always wondered about the young man who had called me. Had it just been a test from the people who protested us?  What would have happened had I fallen for it?  If I had not held to my standards of positive thinking, if I had slipped into that dark side of negativity, would my fair have turned out as well?

Probably not.  After all, whatever we send out, we get back.

Community Outreach

This was a fun time. It was my time in the spotlight.  But we did other things besides fairs.  We would gather and do circles and spells.  We would do special circles when someone was sick or needed us.  We did benefits where we used our readings for such things as the Aids network.  When our fairs came we put a table out in front of the door, in the hall, and encouraged people to give money and bring food for our local food bank.

We made sure we contributed back to our community in every way we could.  We felt it was our duty, as the leadership we were assuming, to be involved locally in helping others.  

There were also parties.  When someone had a birthday, or a graduation party, they often asked us to attend and bring psychics.  Depending on the size of the party, either one or all of us would come out. We were paid for our readings.

On holidays, especially Halloween, we would go to the local hotels where parties were being held and offer to set up a reading booth.  We were always welcome and it was an easy way to get our name out there while also earning some money.

We also sometimes did something just for fun.  The outcome was a real treat for those we did this for. 

One of those times was when we wanted to be able to go to the local Holiday Inn for their special early evening happy hour.  Every evening they would hold a "happy hour" but theirs was different from other places.  They served a free buffet.  People would gather to talk and engage with each other- not sitting alone drinking.  The music was soft and often dj'd by the local radio stations. 

We had been to some, but didn't feel comfortable reading without permission so we called the manager and asked for a meeting.  When we told him who we were he replied, "Oh, I've heard of you.  You are that group of women who hold fairs and parties and read at the bars sometimes"

"Yep that's us.  Can we come in and talk with you?"

"Sure, come on over."

When he had the chance to come sit down with us, the first question was "You want to start reading here, right?"

"Well, not every night- just your busiest nights of the week- about three of them"

"And you would all come in at the same time and read people with each of you at a different table?  That would be three tables I would need to set aside for you, right?"

"No.  Your crowds are not big enough for all three of us to be needed.  Most of the time there will be two, and sometimes only one depending on the crowd and if we have other things going on.  However, we can promise you that at least one of us will show up and do readings.  If you have something big like a special event, we would all be there."

"So that means I have dibs for Halloween, right?"

We all smiled, seeing exactly where he was going.  This was the one place we hadn't yet come to for Halloween .  "Yes of course.  As our preferred place to read, yours would be the one we would do Halloween.  And in full costume too."

He was smiling now.  This would all cost him nothing and would be a huge draw for his bar.

"But first, before you agree to let us come out, we want to show you what we can do.  This is not something we do for everyone.  It is something we do for special people at special times.  No one can ask for this because it is not something we regularly offer.  We are wanting to show you something special that we can do."

We proceeded to give him a very special reading that we reserved for ourselves and for special people.  We never sold this type of reading.  It was never given as a big show.  It was something that not many people can do.  Because of our connection to each other, because we had worked together and meditated together and joined in circle so often, we had an ability that few people had.

I began to read him, not with cards or any other props, but just what came to me as I looked at him.  Then when she got inspired, Sheri pitched in with her impressions, and then Jan pitched in with hers.  This went back and forth for several minutes as the impressions poured out.  When we finished, he had a look of awe on his face.

"Wow, you were all right on the money.  I have never seen anything like that.  Are you sure you wouldn't do that for my customers?"

"No, because this takes some special work and planning ahead of time. We have to all be in agreement, have all meditated beforehand, and all be together.  That is not something we always have time for.  This was something we wanted to do just for you.  We wanted you to know that we can deliver as promised and will accurately read your people".

On the spot, he agreed to let us come out on any nights we chose.  He also told us he would give us a schedule of special events.  Then he asked us to come to his wife's birthday party coming up the next weekend.

Moving On

A few years after it began, we all got together and decided it was time for each of us to move on.  The business would stay with me.  Each member would have the right to give a party or an event in the name of the business. But we would no longer be partners.  It was simply time. There was no falling out, and no disagreement on how assets were divided.  We simply tried our best to be fair to each other.  We also agreed to remain close friends.

Time moves on.  The wheel continually turns.  We may not understand the developments or what they mean for our future, but everything that happens contributes to our path forward.

Many things happened in the following years.  I got divorced and then after a year of being alone, I met someone new.  We put on more fairs for awhile, but then we decided, after trying to build up his business as a tree service, we would go on the road in an 18-wheeler.  He had a heart attack and we had to come home.  

Soon after he had a triple bypass, I had to have a quadruple one. We got divorced after that. I was alone again. After a few more years had passed, I realized that my path had changed.  Although I still read for friends, I was not in a position to actively pursue it.  I lived way out in the country with my sister for a long time.  Then I lived with my mother.  Now I have finally moved into a place of my own, but near my mother.

However, with all the changes, one thread ran true and constant.  My love for Magick and my spiritual connection to the Universe, the Earth, the spirit world.  Also my desire to share my passion with the world.

I even began to play a game with wizards and druids, with spells and magick.  What drew me to the game was my sister giving me a copy.  What held me to it was the lore.  This particular game was well thought out.  Someone had taken their time to do research on druids, shaman and wizards.  When I did the epic quest for each class, I saw in the dialog some of the teachings I had studied over the years.  I felt that someone who created that game actually understood the basics of Magick.  That game was Everquest.  

Later I would go on to play other games in the same genre including Everquest II.  However, I have never found in any other game, not even EQ2, the same feeling that I had when I first read the words spoken by the NPC's when I did the Shaman Epic.

So now, here we are.  I am 65.  My entire world has changed again.  However, in this world of internet and blogs, I finally have found a way to share the things I have longed to share.  I have no children of my own - my step children have moved on and I never see them anymore.  So I have no one to pass the knowledge on to.

Except you.  The reader.  Whomever you may be.  These pages and this blog is where I will share the knowledge I have gained over the years.