CONTACT INFO
Website: Shivaya Wellness
Email: raven@shivayawellness.com
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: Shivaya Wellness
Twitter: @shivayawellness
G+: Raven Mardirosian
BIO (Short Version)
Raven Mardirosian is a healer, writer and intuitive.
Her passion is empowering women and her specialty is healing the healer. She has read Tarot for thousands of clients worldwide for nearly a decade.
She is the author of the bestselling memoir, The Reluctant Tarot Reader: Adventures in the Gypsy Trade. Her latest book is 365 Ways to Keep It Real, Heal Yourself and Be Free. Her essay, “Christian LGBT Kids: You’re Part of the Plan” is included in the New York Times bestselling anthology It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying and Creating a Life Worth Living. She is also the author of Chrysalis: Poems of Release, Spirit, Flow: A Photographic Prayer, and Esprit, Vole: Prière photographique.
Raven created / hosted the highly popular BlogTalk radio show, “Tarot Talk“, in 2009. She has an M.A. in English and taught high school English in NYC and VT public schools for many years.
Want more? Check out the Q&A and Press page.
BIO (Longer Version)
I never wanted to be psychic.
I grew up believing that anything “witchy” or “occulty” was evil. Like most things I feared, I didn’t understand it. People involved in this work were The Other, enemies of Christianity who needed to “get saved” or keep on their fast track to hell.
God/dess certainly has a sense of humor.
I’ve always been sensitive. The favorite word adults liked to use around me was “moody”. Of course, this was long before I understood the meaning of empath and subconsciously believed that if I soaked up the emotions of others, I’d heal them.
No wonder I had serious headaches for 20 years.
Would you believe me if I told you that a nun introduced me to Tarot? It’s true. I took those cards from her hands, wanting relief from the wreck of my life.
The cards didn’t answer me. I simply played and returned them. Yet in that moment, something was planted. It was just waiting to unfold.
I continued the frustrating, elusive search for a “real” job that would support me financially, spiritually and emotionally. In my early 30s, one of my oldest friends casually said over lunch, “You’re a healer. You’re going to read cards someday.” She was clearly crazy. What in the hell was a healer? Did that mean that people would leap from wheelchairs when I touched them? It was a nice little ego boost before I dismissed it altogether.
But Tarot kept seeking me out — on cafe tables, bookstores and friends literally handing me decks. When I moved to VT in ’04 after a decade in NYC, people ‘mysteriously’ wandered into my life to teach me what I needed to know. Or they would simply say, “Good job. Keep going.”
My friend Karen introduced me to the The Faeries’ Oracle deck. She approached the tattered cards like they were old friends. We’d get together and “throw”. I purchased The Goddess Tarot. Over and over, I’d consult the tiny book. One card, then three. Eventually, I moved on to the 10 card Celtic cross spread, which is the foundation of all my Tarot spreads.
As I slowly opened up my heart, the work found me. One afternoon, my friend called. A woman at her cafe wanted a reading. I hesitated. I remember walking down the road and heard an inner voice say, this day is going to change your life. I was nervous and insecure; my armpits soaking wet. The well-dressed woman was gracious as I stumbled my way through her cards.
At the end, she looked me straight in the eye and said, “My dear, you have a gift.”
And so I began.
“Work” is a misnomer. I love being a healer. I’ve guided thousands of clients — teachers, doctors, celebrities, lawyers, CEOs, shamans, psychics, moms, students and millionaires — to their own inner healer.
As I walk this path, I will always see Tarot as my friend who helped open the door to a world that was simply waiting for me to explore it. No judgment, no shame. Just, here is your gift and away we go.
Read the even longer (!) version in my book, The Reluctant Tarot Reader: Adventures in the Gypsy Trade.
RAVE REVIEWS
Bravo for this interview! Raven is a very gifted and “right on” reader. With tarotist like her continuing to join the community, gone are the days of cigarette smoking gypsy readers set in small dark parlors with sticky seated waiting rooms. She is the future. — Susan Hansen
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Raven is a fantastic reader. She is visionary, compassionate & practical at the same time – a great combination. She gets to the root of the matter in no time and leaves you with a major cognitive and emotional shift at the end of the session. Thank you, Raven! – Carna Zacharias-Miller, Emotional Wellness Coach
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Raven excels at bringing metaphysical and esoteric concepts right down to earth so you can readily grasp and use them to your benefit. It’s her mission. She is a wonderful, accessible teacher! – Eva Yaa Asantewaa
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I know Raven as a Tarotist, author, artist, photographer, healer & student of life. She pulls no punches but she is always there when someone needs her. Every aspect of her work is healing. I don’t need to see it to know that it is good. I don’t need to see it to know that it has value – value in its own right & value to me as an individual. A truly amazing reader/Internet radio host/author/teacher, whose gift to her clients is the gift of self. Her work is amazing – I speak from personal experience, as she has done a reading for me that was, as they say, spot on! — Bonnie Cehovet
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I just re-listened to my reading with you. You are incredible in it. You are clear and strong — seamless. I am ready for more. — Kammie Kayl, Massage Therapist, Pyramid Wellness
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A lovely soul & VERY gifted intuitive; call her for a reading for your gift to yourself! If you ever want a spectacular intuitive Tarot reading, see Raven. – Lynne Shaner, EFTPraxis
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Simply put, Raven is amazing! Whether this is your first Tarot experience or a regular, Raven offers a caring, sensitive, positive approach to the practice of Tarot. I am extremely careful with whom I choose to do this work because there are lots of unhealthy people doing readings who don’t have the expertise and care for people that Raven has. There are also many people in this field who are just about taking your money & telling you what you want to hear. My experience with Raven has been completely different…her readings are personal and meaningful, powerfully helpful & fun. She helps you feel comfortable immediately because she is a modest, down-to-earth person. You feel safe telling her about your life & her guidance is insightful. In addition to my personal work with Raven, I regularly beg her to come & do readings for clients at our holistic wellness center. You should know that we have worked hard to build a solid reputation as a serious, professional center…if I did not believe wholeheartedly in her services & see every single person leaving their session with excitement, I would not ask her to come back…again & again! In short, Raven is incredible & I would highly recommend that everyone get a reading from her.Forget what you know about Tarot. Raven is the best! – Bill Kelley, owner of Pyramid Wellness Center
Need more raves? I’ve got plenty.
INTERVIEWS
2012 INTERVIEWS
♦ Teaching Redefined Conversations: Raven Mardirosian — a video chat with Dani Nelson of Teaching Redefined.
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2011
♦ ”A Chat with The Reluctant Tarot Reader” — on Transformation Talk Radio/WBLQ with Karen Hager.
♦ ”Talkin’ Tarot with Raven Mardirosian” — Theresa Reed and I sit down for a chat about Tarot.
♦ 1 Woman’s Wisdom & I chatted about the process of writing The Reluctant Tarot Reader, healing, intuition and planetary shifts. Great stuff!
♦ Karen Hager interviewed me on Tranformation Talk Radio on 9/11. The topic was transforming fear to love. We also delved into The Relucant Tarot Reader and my photo-essay,Spirit, Flow.
♦ Tarot Today asked wonderful, in-depth questions about The Reluctant Tarot Reader.
♦ Deb Frueh interviewed me on her show, GPS for Your Life.
♦ My essay, “Christian LGBT Kids: You’re Part of the Plan” is included in the New York Times best-selling anthology It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living, edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller.
♦ Elspeth Duncan interviewed me about my book, “Spirit, Flow” at her blog: Now is Wow Too.
For pre-2011 interviews, go here.
HEAD SHOTS
(right click to download picture)
