I met Susan last winter when I jammed a business card in the door of her FL gallery, figuring I’d never hear from her (Tarot readers can be a quirky, private bunch). She called a few weeks later and I immediately cracked up after hearing her heavy Staten Island accent. She has since become one of my trusted advisors, good friend and “personal psychic”.
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1. You are not only a well-known psychic but a practicing witch. How do the two complement each other – and on the flip side, why do you think so many people are afraid of both?
I was born and baptized a Roman Catholic and I haven’t been excommunicated as of yet. Not like my cousin, who was recently banned from her parish for verbalizing her negative opinions. To tell you the truth, if I had to attend a mass with a ceremony/ritual, it would be a high mass on Easter or Christmas in a cathedral where there are monks, incense and Gregorian chants! You see, the original “witches” (in my opinion) were really Catholic nuns that were forced out of society because of the Protestants who were taking over Europe. They fled into the countryside becoming recluses. Because of the great knowledge they received through the church, they were highly educated. People would come to their thatched cottages in the woods seeking herbal remedies of all kinds that ranged from a cure for a sore throat to an abortion. Historic fairy tales show the “evil witch” in this form, not for the proper healers they really were.
As far as witches go … yes, I would call myself a witch BUT I do not believe in the Wiccan religion as I see it today. I recently moved from southern FL and one of the reasons I did was because of these lazy, uneducated, so-called Wiccans who were casting spells on one another, doing unethical Tarot reads and basically calling themselves “witches” because they didn’t want to take responsibility for their own lives. I can understand completely why society laughs when someone calls themselves a Wiccan. And I see why people like me get a bad reputation.
Being initiated into a well established coven is a whole different ballgame, which I was in the late 70’s. During this time, I read Tarot in NYC in places such as Magical Childe and later on at Enchantments. I was lucky to participate in magickal ceremonies with people like Rolla Nordic, Herman Slater, Z.Budapest, Starhawk and my good friend Lady Rhea, who is still going strong running her shoppe, Magickal Realms in the Bronx. If I still lived in NYC, I would be more involved in a coven and become a practicing witch again. But I’m not. I read Tarot. Sometimes I’ll make a “special” candle, bath or both for a client. Or I’ll give them a special crystal charm to have or wear. If doing that and reading cards denotes being a witch, so be it.
Knowing someone’s future is a great responsibility – not an ego trip or form of gossip. More »
